Beginning tonight, April 2, 2014, and for the next two Wednesdays, the Maple Leaf Bar will be presenting a New Orleans tribute to the great session bands and their respective record labels.
The house band features keyboardist/vocalist Nigel Hall, bassist Eric Vogel, guitarist Andrew Block, drummer Eric Bolivar, and the Naughty Professor Horns. Over the course of the three weeks, many special guests are expected. Raymond Weber will take over the drum chair next week.
The concept may require some explaining.
Back in the day, read the 1960s and 1970s, recording studios were known for their house band. The Meters and Sea-Saint studios are the most famous in New Orleans, but other cities and studios employed the same basic system.
So tonight, the tribute will focus on Motown Records and the legendary Funk Brothers studio band (pictured below) as well as King Records and the J.B.’s. The J.B.’s were James Brown’s band and when they weren’t throwing down with the Godfather of Soul, they were in the studio recording classics like “Pass the Peas.”
Unlike the J.B.’s who had some measure of fame when they were active, the Funk Brothers were virtual unknowns until the 2002 film Standing in the Shadows of Motown catapulted the surviving members to worldwide fame.
Future shows will feature the music of the Swampers of Muscle Shoals, Booker T. and the M.G.’s of Stax Records, the Meters, Stuff Records, and more.
