Category Archives: TVD New Orleans

PHOTOS: MOLLY MALDOVAN | With a new executive director on board, new stages, and numerous musical debuts, the French Quarter Festival entered a new era this past weekend under gorgeous blue skies. An estimated 700,000 people experienced the event, which is slightly less than last year’s record setting attendance.

Aaron Neville was the biggest name to make his first appearance at the festival, but the big acts are only part of the attraction. The styles of music presented at the French Quarter Festival represent the length and breadth of Louisiana talent encompassing virtually every genre with musicians across the age spectrum.

Latasha Covington (pictured at top) is a relative newcomer on the scene. She tore it up on the washboard with veteran Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes (pictured above) and his band, the Sunspots. Later in the day she taught her style to another generation on the Kids stage.

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As of Saturday morning, the number of stages at the French Quarter Festival more than triples compared to Thursday. Intimate venues open up all over the historic district. Picking and choosing which bands to hear also becomes a matter of working through the massive crowds. Here’s a look at some of the acts off the beaten track that I think are worth checking out. The full Saturday schedule is here.

The bands scheduled to play all day on the Morris Bart stage in the 400 of Royal Street are all worth seeing. Check out Patrice Fisher and Arpa first thing in the morning. Fisher is a harpist and always has great musicians with her including guests from overseas. She’s a mainstay at Jazz Fest too and often explores the connections between classical music, Latin American music, and jazz.

New Orleans is crawling with septuagenarian and octogenarian musicians, but there are only a few musicians still performing into their nineties. Check out the Lawrence Cotton Legendary Experience to see one of the oldest musicians in town. The pianist is still on the top of his game and his band features Kerry Brown on drums and Jane Harvey Brown on vocals. They are at noon on the Omni Royal Orleans stage.

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PHOTO: MOLLY MALDOVAN | Friday’s schedule more than doubles the number of stages at the French Quarter Festival, but it’s still light compared to the full complement on the weekend. Here are our picks for Friday. The full lineup is here.

One of the reasons Tuba Skinny is one of my favorite trad jazz bands is because they don’t play the same old songs that are popular among many of the groups that populate Frenchmen Street. The group is big; featuring three string players, trumpet, trombone, drums, washboard, and of course the namesake tuba—the classic instrument not the sousaphone most usually seen on New Orleans stages.

They mine old-time jazz and blues for little heard gems and play with authority. They hit at 11:15 AM in Jackson Square—a prestigious stage for some serious up and coming talent.

Debbie Davis performs and sings like a bawdy saloon singer in days of old. She also surrounds herself with an ace cast of musicians in her band, the Mesmerizers. They will be doing an intimate 45-minute set at the Palm Court Café at 1 PM. Look for her husband, Matt Perrine, on string bass and sousaphone and Alex McMurray on guitar.

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The Vinyl District is proud to be a sponsor of the French Quarter Festival for the sixth year in a row! We will be bringing you picks for all four days as well as a recap when it’s all said and done. Thursday’s schedule is the lightest one of the long weekend, but has some highlights including a really big first. The full schedule is here.

The big news is Aaron Neville (pictured at top) is returning to his hometown and playing for the first time at French Quarter Fest. He is scheduled for 3:45 PM on the Abita Beer stage in Woldenberg Park. It’s only an hour and fifteen minute set, so get there early.

Neville decamped to New York following Hurricane Katrina. He also retired from his family band, the Neville Brothers, effectively ending an era in New Orleans music. But he has stayed busy and this year released a new album, Apache, which may have surprised some fans, but made this one particularly happy.

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Sam Price is best known around town and across the country as the irrepressible pogoing bass player of the Honey Island Swamp Band. But he has always harbored a dream of playing and recording his own music. Over the last year or so, he has put together a band, performed multiple shows, and on Saturday will celebrate the release of his first solo recording with his band at Chickie Wah Wah.

The album showcases Price’s songwriting and vocals. It also features four special guests. Guitarist John Fohl, a former long time member of Dr. John’s band, and saxophonist Tom Fitzpatrick, known for his decades with Walter “Wolfman” Washington, are on the first song, “Right Where I Want To Be, “ which is arguably a mission statement for Price.

Trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom of Lettuce plays a blistering solo on “Down To You” and raises the energy of the band leading into a searing solo from guitarist Matt Galloway. Bloom rips another solo to bring the song home. On this cut as throughout the album, backing vocalist Whitney Alouisious provides deep soul wailing suggesting she’s a breakout star in the making.

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With Jazz Fest releasing the eagerly awaited cubes on Tuesday and French Quarter Festival kicking off next Thursday, festival season is in full swing with lots of free offerings all around town this weekend.

Start off with Jazz in the Park tonight (3/30), the wonderfully intimate festival in Armstrong Park in the heart of Tremé. Spodie and the Big Shots will open for the Soul Rebels. Spodie is the one and only Derek Shezbie (pictured at top), the longtime trumpeter for the Rebirth Brass Band.

Though he has been gigging a lot around town with his new outfit, this will be the highest profile gig thus far of his solo career. There is a ticketed event as part of Jazz in the Park’s Tremé Crab Fest on Friday night with Stephanie Jordan, Roy Ayers, and Michael Franks. But the free music continues on Saturday and Sunday.

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With one month before the annual celebration of New Orleans music and culture, the stage lineups for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival were revealed this morning at a spirited press party at the New Orleans Fairgrounds.

This year’s festival, the 48th in a row, celebrates the music of Cuba and fittingly the musical entertainment was New Orleans’ own Cuban band, AsheSon. The group, which now features the wonderful Cuban native Alexey Marti on congas, played a couple of tunes as a very excited man waved a Cuban flag, hooted and hollered.

Quint Davis, the producer/director of the fest, explained the detailed process in dealing with the communist government of Cuba. Former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu got involved and set up a meeting with diplomats over two years ago.

Though former President Obama gradually began the process of restoring relations between the two countries, some of what the festival’s planners had in mind might not necessarily have been legal at the time.

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Sometimes an idea is so good there’s just no stopping it. When New Orleans musician and chef Jamie Galloway (pictured below) passed away on February 23, 2013 of a medical problem that was most likely treatable, Dave Jordan, his friend and musical partner of many years, decided he had to do something to keep other musicians from falling through the health care safety net.

Thus, Jamie’s Big Ass Party was born. Tickets are available here. Created to honor the legacy of Galloway, the event, which is now in it’s fifth year, is a benefit for the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and a great block party. It takes place Sunday afternoon in the 8300 block of Oak Street and at the Maple Leaf Bar.

The Big Ass Party is also a massive crawfish boil party with some of New Orleans’ best musicians playing inside and outside the saloon. Expect over 2,000 pounds of mudbugs and numerous musical jams.

Jordan’s band, the Neighborhood Improvement Association, will play, as will George Porter, Jr. and Runnin’ Partners, the Honey Island Swamp Band, Papa Mali, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, the New Orleans Suspects, Billy Iuso and Restless Natives, the Soul Brass Band, Flow Tribe plus lots of special guests. There are special VIP tickets available with a private crawfish table and beer all day.

PHOTO: RICK MOORE | Guitarist, singer and songwriter Marc Stone will be leading his all-star band this Friday night at D.B.A. featuring one of the unsung heroes of New Orleans music along with the three trombonists who make up the front line of Bonerama.

Guitarist Eric Struthers has a deep resume in New Orleans. He played with Dr. John and the Neville Brothers. His recording credits include four albums with the Nevilles in the 1990s including the stellar Live on Planet Earth and more recently he appeared on Michael McDonald’s Christmas album.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the two guitarists can conjure up. Stone promises, “stretching into some heavy psychedelic zones.” The Bonerama Horns—Mark Mullins, Craig Klein, and Greg Hicks—are no slackers when it comes to getting down either.

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The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and hundreds of community musicians in conjunction with the New Orleans Airlift will debut composer Yotam Haber’s “New Water Music” on April 8, 2017. The music will be performed partially from the water by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra along with a choreographed visual presentation, which is being conceived and executed by New Orleans Airlift.

“New Water Music” needs your help ushering audience members, helping artists and musicians, decorating, and more. Volunteers will be provided costumes so that you truly become part of the show! Learn more and sign up here.

The new hour-long work for hundreds of musicians fuses new and traditional music, procession, water culture, and pageantry while galvanizing listeners to save Louisiana’s coast. As the sun begins its descent on April 8, the musicians will take positions on water-bound staging for the grand event against the incredible backdrop of Lake Pontchartrain.

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You know spring is upon us in New Orleans when the fine folks at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation kick off their free festival series. This is where your Jazz Fest dollars are spent, so come out and hear some great music. The full schedule is here.

Start your day on Saturday with Cole Williams. This dynamic performer has only lived in New Orleans for a short time, but she’s fully integrated her music and life into the Crescent City. Need proof? I saw her set at the Krewe Delusion ball and she put on show like she was in front of thousands of people when there was only handful of revelers in the room.

Another highlight on Saturday will be James Andrews and the Crescent City Allstars with special guests John Boutte and Sharon Martin. James and John are sons of Tremé and that’s where it all began. Congo Square, as most readers know, is located in the Tremé neighborhood.

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The latest collection of recordings by Ed Volker features two fishhead favorites, but most of the songs on the new album are brand new, penned in 2016 and recorded earlier this year.

The album opens with a whoop and then a piano line familiar to most fans of the Radiators. It’s “Jolly House,” which is also the name of one of Volker’s many side projects dating back to 1996. The album closes with another song, “The Blue Distance” that dates to the same period. It is one of the most compelling tunes on the collection—a mid tempo ballad of sorts with a chorus that reflects on the musician’s life on the road that Volker gave up when the Radiators retired. “Dancing in the blue distance, will I never make it home, raven says, ‘Man, you were born to roam’… will I ever make it home.”

Over the course of the thirteen songs on Holy Wine Special many of the lyrical reference points that have been hallmarks of Volker’s songwriting pop up, some in less than expected places. Wine, the spirit world, heaven, the past, the future, and mortality all make appearances in the wry, sometimes mystical words.

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New Orleans funk continues to grow and develop. Organized Crime, the latest group to take up the mantle, will celebrate the release of Kiss The Ring, their debut recording, tomorrow night at Gasa Gasa. Miss Mojo opens.

The trio has only been around for a couple of years, but they have evolved from their beginnings as a typical 1960s style jazz organ trio into a much more modern sound reflecting the youth of the members and the collision of jazz and funk.

The band features Andriu Yanovski on synths, keyboards, and vocals, Henry Green on guitar, and Patrick Kelleher on drums. Initially influenced by the greats from the heyday of organ jazz like Jimmy Smith, Organized Crime also listened intently to second and third generation organ-based groups like Soulive and Medeski, Martin and Wood.

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PHOTO: BOB ADAMEK PHOTOGRAPHY | Since singer/songwriter Alex McMurray (pictured above) began playing a regular show every Monday night at Chickie Wah Wah, he has welcomed a number of local co-conspirators as well as a couple of nationally known luminaries including fellow singer/songwriter Pat McLaughlin. But this Monday represents a watershed moment in the weekly series when Peter Holsapple joins him on stage.

Holsapple has a long career going back to 1970 despite the fact that he is only 61 years old. For locals, his tenure in New Orleans was marked by numerous performances and one band, the Continental Drifters, that exists larger in our imaginations than any other so-called supergroup.

For fans with a longer frame of reference, it’s probably his song, “Amplifier,” which was released in 1981 when he was a member of the seminal power pop band, the dBs. That tune came out during a period when pop music was in transition, and for fans of a certain age it displayed a wry lyrical focus missing from much of punk and new wave (with certain exceptions including Elvis Costello).

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PHOTO: MICHAEL DOMINICI | Helen Gillet is a restless musician always seeking out new musical partners and new sounds. Her new ensemble, Tephra III, will be appearing at the fine listening room on Canal Street. Tephra III features Nikki Glaspie on drums and Brian Haas on keyboards. Gillet will be playing cello and using loops and other effects in order to increase the magnitude of the sound. Show time is 10:30 PM. Josh Hyde celebrates the release of his latest album with special guest John Gros at 8 PM.

Nikki Glaspie is a powerhouse drummer whose biggest claim to fame is working with Beyonce. More recently she has toured with Maceo Parker. She also has dipped her toes in all kinds of local sounds including working with Ivan Neville and his band, Dumpstaphunk and touring with her own band, the Nth Power.

Brian Haas is best known as the keyboardist with the eclectic jazz ensemble Jacob Fred’s Jazz Odyssey. But he is also a versatile musician who has played with a wide range of musicians both locally and internationally including Nolatet, the New Orleans supergroup with James Singleton, Johnny Vidacovich, and Mike Dillon.

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