Some people really know how to throw a party. It helps if you host a weekly dance floor celebration like DJ Soul Sister does every Saturday night at the Hi Ho Lounge. It also helps if you have impeccable taste in music.
Tonight at Tipitina’s, the evening begins with a “Right On Party Situation Pre-Jam” featuring none other than the birthday girl herself spinning records to get you ready for the main event.
She has assembled an all-star group dubbed Nigel Hall’s Big Payback Band to keep the party going late. As an added bonus, a-list jazz bassist Christian McBride will be in the house as a special guest.
Nigel Hall is a recent transplant to the Crescent City, but the singer and keyboardist is no stranger to these parts. He plays with the soul-jazz band Lettuce, and he has been a collaborator with Soulive. For denizens of the late night scene at Jazz Fest, he also appears with Dr. Claw, a super group of sorts that rarely gigs outside the season.
The rest of the Big Payback Band reads like a funk encyclopedia. Derwin “Big D” Perkins will be on guitar along with John Notto. Donald Ramsey, a force on nature on bass, will anchor the rhythm section with a young cat who gigs with Hall, Alvin Ford Jr. on drums.
The horn section is out of the box as well. Jennifer Hartswick is on trumpet. She may be best known as being in Trey Anastasio of Phish’s solo project, but I saw her play in Chicago with a band called Van Ghost and she tore it up on vocals as well as on trumpet. Roderick Paulin and Eric Bloom round out the horn section on tenor sax and trumpet respectively.
I hate to admit that I have never been to one of the birthday jams that Soul Sister (pictured above) throws , but I’m not gonna miss this!
