OffBeat Magazine November 2022 - BEST OF THE BEAT ISSUE

Rabadash

Louisiana Music, Food & Culture

November

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com

MANAGING EDITOR Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com

LAYOUT AND DESIGN Eric Gernhauser

CONTRIBUTORS

Joseph Bondi, Steve Hochman, Jay Mazza, Brett Milano, Cree McCree, Marielle Songy, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff

COVER PHOTOGRAPH Christopher Briscoe

WEB EDITORS

David Johnson david@OffBeat.com Dalton Spangler dalton@OffBeat.com

WEB CONSULTANT Veronika Lee veronika@offbeat.com

PHOTOGRAPHER/VIDEOGRAPHER/WEB SPECIALIST Noe Cugny, noecugny@offbeat.com

ADVERTISING DESIGN PressWorks, 504-944-4300

INTERNS Andrew Comer

DISTRIBUTION Abe Guerrero, Certified Folder Display Service, Inc.

/offbeatmagazine

OFFBEAT, INC.

400 ESPLANADE AVE, NEW ORLEANS, LA 70116, 504-944-4300

Copyright © 2022, OffBeat, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. OffBeat is a registered trademark of OffBeat, Inc. First class subscriptions to OffBeat in the U.S. are available for $65 per year (foreign subscriptions are available, check website for rates). Digital subscriptions are available for $25.99. Back issues are available for $10, except for the Jazz Fest Bible for $15 (for foreign delivery add $5) Submission of photos and articles on Louisiana artists are welcomed, but unfortunately material cannot be returned.

Mojo Mouth

A message from the publisher.

The Best of the Beat Program Guide.

Fresh

Jazz Museum exhibit Drumsville modulates to book form by John Wirt.

Best of the Beat Music Award Nominations

Best of the Beat Music Champion Award

Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser is honored for his work promoting Louisiana music.

Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Business

Geraldine Wyckoff profiles Mark Samuels of Basin Street Records.

Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Education

John Wirt talks with saxophonist, educator, and composer Tony Dagradi.

Best of the Beat Heartbeat Award

Benny Jones, Sr. the drummer and leader of the Treme Brass Band talks with Geraldine Wyckoff.

Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Bluesman Little Freddie King’s remarkable life achievements by Cree McCree.

Restaurant Review Couvant is reviewed by Marielle Songy.

Music Quest

This month’s vintage vinyl treasure hunt features five women from the Joseph Bondi collection.

Album Reviews

Meschiya Lake and the New Movement, Serabee, Dave Jordan, Nicholas Payton, Marty Peters and the Party Meters and more.

Listings

An interview with Dan Storper of Putumayo World Music by Steve Hochman.

mojomouth

NOTE FROM PUBLISHER JAN RAMSEY

A Big Thank You!

I’m so thrilled to be writing this, my first column in print since OffBeat’s 2022 Jazz Fest Bible™ in April.

It’s been a ragged summer, to say the least. In June, I had to make a trip to the local ER, as I was in severe pain (turned out to be something that was pretty commonplace), and as a routine part of the treatment, I had to get a CT scan— in fact two CT scans. Much to my surprise and horror, the radiologist told me that the second CT scan was performed to verify that I had a mass in my lung. Several scans and a biopsy later, it was confirmed that I had cancer in the right lung, but lucky for me, it was caught early, and the prognosis is good. I’ll begin treatment in mid-November.

I have been blown away by the people who have been so thoughtful, concerned, and good to me since the tumor was discovered. Michael Murphy and his wife Cilista Eberle started a GoFundMe campaign; Chris Beary and his cohorts at the Funky Uncle did a benefit for me at Tipitina’s on October 2 that featured an amazing number of bands (you are the BEST!); and Michael Patrick Welch organized another benefit towards the end of October at Welch’s Algiers restaurant, Beside The Point.

Thank you to every single one of you that has donated, played or helped organize an event for OffBeat or for me personally. You are in my heart forever.

Thanks also to my husband, Joseph Irrera, who has been my rock for over 26 years, and who has been the “silent partner” in OffBeat since 1996. Without his work at the magazine (managing editor, writer wrangler, proofreader, business manager, subscriptions and circulation manager and a lot more), OffBeat would not exist. His good sense and steady guidance has me tethered to the earth—I would have floated into the nethersphere a long time ago without him.

As you know, OffBeat is now located in the New Orleans Jazz Museum through the gener

osity of Greg Lambousy and his staff there. We are continuing to work closely together as the New Orleans Jazz Museum grows and expands to reach its full potential as a world-class facility dedicated to our music. I’d also like to express my gratitude to OffBeat’s staff (Joseph Irrera, Noé Cugny, Veronika Lee Claghorn, David Johnson) and the many great writers and photographers who have kept OffBeat alive during and post-COVID. I wish John Swenson were here!

In the 36 years since I began to become involved with the New Orleans and Louisiana music community, I’ve made some dear friends, some enemies (well, that stuff happens), and have gotten to know and appreciate how much our musicians and music businesses contribute to this city’s economy and culture. I have devoted the last three and a half decades to the music community here, and my intention is to continue to support these artists, culture bearers and music businesses—whom I still feel are under-appreciated by this community)—as long as I am able. OffBeat has been my life’s work, and it continues to be the focus of my life, along with my family and friends.

It was not an easy choice to convert the print magazine to a digital-only product, but 1) I’m getting old and my energy as an ad person is waning; 2) printing is an extremely expensive proposition now (our printing costs have literally doubled). I am seriously considering the idea of converting OffBeat into a permanent program of the OffBeat Music & Cultural Arts Foundation (OMACAF), the non-profit that presents the Best of The Beat Awards, then directing my efforts to more educational and historical endeavors related to our music. Hopefully, this also benefit what OffBeat brings to the table vis a vis the New Orleans Jazz Museum.

I hope you enjoy the Awards this year; please send me your feedback on the event as well as what you feel might be the best path in the future for OffBeat. O

Rhythm Is The First Component

Jazz Museum exhibit Drumsville modulates to book form.

Apopular exhibit at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, Drumsville! Evolution of the New Orleans Beat, has evolved into a book.

In 2018, Robert H. Cataliotti, an author and educator from Maryland, co-curated the Drumsville! exhibit with Jazz Museum music curator David Kunian. Cataliotti has now written Drumsville! The Evolution of the New Orleans Beat, an extensively researched and illustrated 228-page book published by LSU Press. It covers more than 300 years of drumming in New Orleans, including the instrument’s foundational place in brass band and Mardi Gras Indian music, traditional and modern jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and funk.

The Drumsville! exhibit opened in November 2018. The grand opening’s performers included the Roots of Music, Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, Luther Gray, Detroit Brooks, the parading Treme Brass Band and Herlin Riley. One of the renowned keepers of the New Orleans beat, Riley later authored the Drumsville! book’s foreward. “It is important to tell the history of New Orleans drumming,” Riley writes, “because the core rhythms that have evolved into second line, funk, R&B, jazz, pop and whatever contemporary style of music you can think of, were born out of the rhythms of Congo Square.”

Drumsville! author Cataliotti made his first visit to New Orleans in 1979 to attend the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He returned often through the years, sometimes multiple times a year. In 2017, Cataliotti and his wife bought a house in Algiers Point, but the couple remained Maryland residents until

Cataliotti’s retirement in June following 30 years of teaching at Coppin State University in Baltimore.

In 2017, Cataliotti’s friend for 40 years, the late New Orleans singer, guitarist and storyteller Spencer Bohren, introduced him to the New Orleans Jazz Museum. “I always called Spencer my guide to the New Orleans galaxy,” Cataliotti said.

Bohren also introduced Cataliotti to the Jazz Museum’s director, Greg Lambousy (also a drummer). That meeting led to Cataliotti co-curating the Drumsville! exhibit. During the summer of 2018, he researched and developed an outline for the exhibit. He sent the outline to Kunian and, by summer’s end, a 3D rendering of the prospective Drumsville! galleries had been produced.

“It was such a revelation,” Cataliotti said of the rendering. “I’d been working with Word documents, because I’m a writer. But all of a sudden there was a 3D rendering that transformed my outline into a physical space.”

Kunian named the exhibit after Earl Palmer’s 1961 album, Drumsville! In the fall of 2018, Cataliotti took a sabbatical from Coppin State University to help build the exhibit. Kunian chose the photos and artifacts from Cataliotti’s outline that would make the cut for the exhibit. They completed installation of the exhibit on the morning that Drumsville! opened.

Originally scheduled through Mardi Gras, the exhibit has been extended multiple times. In July 2019, the Jazz Museum arranged a private tour of the Drumsville! galleries for Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who was in town for the Stones’ concert at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The exhibit is still on display, but it

will get some tweaks related to the Drumsville! book.

In 2019, Inquiries from museumgoers about the availability of a catalog for the exhibit— there was none—prompted the museum’s director to propose a corresponding book. “It was too late to do a catalog for an exhibit that had been up for months,” Cataliotti recalled. “But Greg said, ‘What about a book?’ The drums are everywhere, but I had never wondered where and when this instrument originated. I dove right into it.”

A New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation fellowship helped Cataliotti conduct research for the book that expanded upon the exhibit’s existing text. The fellowship required that he obtain more interviews with drummers and, in turn, give those audio files and transcripts to the Jazz and Heritage Foundation Archive upon completion of the book.

Much of the book’s interview text is from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival’s Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage. Cataliotti

obtained the book’s 123 photos through Kunian at the Jazz Museum, Lynn Abbott and Melissa Weber at Tulane University’s Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Amistad Research Center.

Although drummers are, in most musical situations, sidemen, the rhythms they play are essential support to the melody and harmony they support. As Riley writes in the Drumsville! foreward: “Rhythm is the first component of a musical statement.”

Cataliotti cited the prolific drummer, Earl Palmer, as an example of the reach a drummer can have. Palmer played drums for many hits recorded in New Orleans and Los Angeles in the 1950s and ’60s and beyond as well as numerous film and TV scores during his L.A. years.

“If you’ve had any even marginal interaction with American popular culture, you’ve heard Earl Palmer’s New Orleans beat,” Cataliotti said. O

NOMINATIONS

OffBeat’s annual Best of the Beat Awards started 27 years ago, in 1995.

OffBeat founder/publisher Jan Ramsey decided that our musicians and music businesses deserved an awards event of their own and put together a concept for a music awards program that would honor only local musicians. Originally held at the House of Blues, the Best of The Beat Awards were only open to the music community (that has changed over the years to include local music fans). In the first event, rock band Better Than Ezra was the big winner and took home Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for Deluxe and Song of the Year for “Good.”

As a result of the pandemic, the 2020 Best of the Beat awards was not live, but virtual, and can be viewed on OffBeat’s YouTube channel. In 2021 the Best of the Beat Awards were postponed, but the 2022 event and will take place on November 10, 2022, at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. The events will honor both 2021 and 2022 musicians and bands. The list of nominees is larger than normal because of the nearly two-year time period that the awards cover.

OffBeat solicited nominations from our writers and editors and with input from both, we determined the nominations in each category, keeping in mind that these nomina tions only recognize work done in 2021 and 2022 through October. The 2023 Best of the Beat awards will include and recognize the last two months of 2022.

Winners will be announced at the Best of the Beat Awards, at the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Thursday, November 10, 2022.

Nominees are listed in alphabetical order.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

• Chapel Hart

• Leyla McCalla

• Lilli Lewis

• Lulu and the Broadsides

• Jon Batiste

• Tank & The Bangas

• Tommy McLain

• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

• Alex McMurray: The Recent Future (Diphthong Records)

• Hurray For The Riff Raff: Life On Earth (Nonesuch)

• Leyla McCalla: Breaking The Thermometer (Anti-)

• Lilli Lewis: Americana (Louisiana Red Hot Records)

• Lulu and the Broadsides: Lulu and the Broadsides (Kismet Records)

• Jon Batiste: We Are (Verve)

• Oscar Rossignoli: Inertia (Rossignoli Music)

• Tank & The Bangas: Red Balloon (Verve Forecast)

• Tommy McLain: I Ran Down Every Dream (Yep Roc)

• Trombone Shorty: Lifted (Blue Note)

BEST EMERGING ARTIST

• 504icygrl

• Bogue Chitto

• Boma Bongo

• Brat

• HaSizzle

• Julie Odell

• Kevin Gullage & The Blues Groovers

• LeTrainiump

• Tiffany Pollack & Co.

• Tiny Dinosaur

SONG OF THE YEAR

• Chapel Hart: “You Can Have Him Jolene”

• The Deslondes: “Good To Go”

• Lilli Lewis: “My American Heart”

• Jon Batiste: “I Need You”

• Jon Batiste: “Freedom”

• Tank & The Bangas: “Why Try”

• Tiny Dinosaur: “Brother Robin”

• Trombone Shorty: “Come Back”

BEST BLUES, R&B, FUNK ARTIST

• Dumpstaphunk

• Ghalia Volt

• Johnny Sansone

• Josh Hyde

• Little Freddie King

• Lulu and the Broadsides

• Tank & The Bangas

BEST BLUES, R&B, FUNK ALBUM

• Big Chief Monk Boudreaux: Bloodstains and Teardrops (Whiskey Bayou Records)

• Bo Dollis, Jr. & and the Wild Magnolias: My Name Is Bo (Gallatin Street Records)

• George Porter, Jr. & Running Pardners: Cryin’

For Hope (Indepedent)

• Ghalia Volt: One Woman Band (Ruf Records)

• Jon Batiste: We Are (Verve)

• Little Freddie King: Blues Medicine (Made Wright)

• Lulu and The Broadsides: Lulu and the Broadsides (Kismet Records)

• Michael John Nunez: Rouxsta (Parish Line Records)

• Monogram Hunters: Blood Sweat and Tears (Independent)

• Tank & The Bangas: Red Balloon (Verve Forecast)

BEST ROCK/ROOTS ROCK ARTIST

• The Deslondes

• The Iceman Special

• Loose Cattle

• Malevitus

• Sweet Crude

• Where Nothing Burns

Zita

BEST ROOTS/ROCK ALBUM

• Camile Baudoin: This Old House (Independent)

• The Deslondes: Ways and Means (New West Records)

• Joe Tullos: Vessels (Big Sun)

• The Junior League: Bridge & Tunnel (Independent)

• Keith Burnstein: The Things That Are Heavy

Me Feel Light (Independent)

• Max and the Martians: All The Same (Perpetual Doom)

• Metronome The City: End Transmission (Independent)

• Zita: Hardly Alive (Independent)

BEST RAP/HIP HOP/

BEST RAP/HIP HOP/ BOUNCE ALBUM

• Alfred Banks: The Range 2 (Independent)

• Boyfriend: Sugar and Spice (Independent)

• Curren$y: Covert Coup (Warner Bros.)

• Kr3wcial + Sozi: As We Proceed (Independent)

• Paasky: In Times Like These (Independent)

• Pell: Floating While Dreaming II (Independent)

BEST TRADITIONAL JAZZ ARTIST

• Leroy Jones

• Meschiya Lake

• Miss Sophie Lee

• New Orleans Nightcrawlers

• Panorama Jazz Band

• Preservation Hall Jazz Band

• Sabertooth Swing

• The Secret Six

• Smoking Time Jazz Club

• Tuba Skinny

BEST TRADITIONAL JAZZ ALBUM

• Charlie Gabriel: 89 (Subpop)

• Charlie Halloran: The Alcoa Sessions (ArtistShare)

• Derrick Shezbie: The Ghost of Buddy Bolden (Clubhouse Records)

• Leroy Jones: March of The Toddlers (Independent)

• Maria Muldaur and Tuba Skinny: Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)

• Miss Sophie Lee: The Frenchmen Muse (Three Muses Recordings)

• Sabertooth Swing: Delta Bound (Fairground Records)

• The Secret Six, Ed Polcer: Relaxin’ With The Secret Six (Independent)

• Smoking Time Jazz Club: MeanTones and High Notes (Independent)

BEST CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ARTIST

• Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

• Delfeayo Marsalis

• Extended

• James Singleton

• Randal Despommier

• Terence Blanchard

BEST CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ALBUM

• Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra featuring Cyrille Aimée: Petite Fleur (Storyville Records)

• Byron Asher & Brad Webb: Little Bigby (ears & eyes Records)

• Extended: Without Notice (Independent)

• James Singleton: Malabar (Sinking City Records)

• Joe Dyson: Look Within (Independent)

• Kyle Roussel: Church of New Orleans (Independent)

• Oscar Rossignoli: Inertia (Rossignoli Music)

• Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective and The Turtle Island Quartet: Absence (Blue Note)

• Weedie Braimah: The Hands of Time (Stretch Music)

BEST BRASS BAND

•

BEST CAJUN ARTIST

•

•

Queens

Huval and the Dixie Club Ramblers

• Michot’s Melody Makers

BEST CAJUN ALBUM

• Dougie and the Tone Drifters: Mme. Zin Zin (Independent)

• Jo-El Sonnier: Survivants (Independent)

• Kyle Huval and the Dixie Club Ramblers: Amédée’s Waltz (Valcour Records)

• Michot’s Melody Makers: Tiny Island (Nouveau Electric)

• Riley Family Band: La Vie de Riley (Valcour Records)

• T Marie & Bayou JuJu: Bayou Rearview (Independent)

• Zachary Richard: Danser le Ciel (Production Martin Electric)

BEST ZYDECO ARTIST

• Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers

• Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys

• Keith Frank & the Creole Connection

• Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas

• Sean Ardoin and Kreole Rock and Soul

BEST ZYDECO ALBUM

• Beau Bayou and the Sabine Connection: Just Doin’ Me (Independent)

• Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers: Set Me Free (Louisiana Red Hot Records)

• Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys: Boots and Boujee (Maison de Soul)

• Joe Hall & the Louisiana Cane Cutters: Proud To Be A Creole (Fruge Records)

• Keith Frank & The Creole Connection: The Resurrection of The Creole Connection (Soulwood Records)

• Nathan and The Zydeo Cha Chas: Lucky Man (Cha Cha Records)

BEST COUNTRY/FOLK/

• Julie Odell

• Lilli Lewis

• Lynn Drury

Shawn Williams

BEST COUNTRY/FOLK/

ALBUM

• Alex McMurray: The Recent Future (Diphthong Records)

• Boma Bongo: Étranger (Valcour Records)

• Ever More Nest: Out Here Now (Independent)

• Lilli Lewis: Americana (Louisiana Red Hot Records)

• Loose Cattle: Heavy Lifting (Low Heat Records)

• Lynn Drury: Dancin’ In The Kitchen (CSB Roxy Music)

• Robert Eustis: The Tipping Point (Independent)

• Shawn Williams: Wallowin’ In The Night (Independent)

Ted Hefko & The Thousandaires: Down Below (Independent)

Toussaint

Alex McMurray

Batiste

Kelcy Mae

Lilli Lewis

Lynn Drury

Sabine McCalla

Sam Doores

Shawn Williams

Tommy McLain

Dayna Kurtz

Erica Falls

Miss Sophie Lee

Robin Barnes

Quiana Lynell

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Tonya Boyd-Cannon

Christien Bold

Gregg Martinez

HaSizzle

Jamison Ross

John Boutté

PJ Morton

Tommy McLain

Scott

George Porter, Jr.

James Singleton

Jesse Morrow

Matt Booth

Max Moran

Noah Young

Pat Casey

McMurray

Robinson

Mahmoud Chouki

• Samantha Fish

• Steve Staples

Tab Benoit

BEST

Brad Webb

• Carlo Nuccio

• Herlin Riley

Johnny Vidacovich

Julian Addison

Shannon Powell

• Stanton Moore

BEST CLARINET

• Charlie Gabriel

• Doreen Ketchens

• Dr. Michael White

• Evan Christopher

• Gregory Agid

• James Evans

• Kevin Louis

• Tim Laughlin

SAXOPHONE

Aurora Nealand

Brad Walker

Brent Rose

Donald Harrison, Jr.

Khari Allen Lee

Khris Royal

Roger Lewis

TROMBONE

Charlie Halloran

Corey Henry

Craig Klein

Daniel “D-Ray” Ray

Haruka Kikuchi

Mark Mullins

Terence Taplin

Troy Andrews

BEST TRUMPET

• Ashlin Parker

• Branden Lewis

• Gregg Stafford

• Gregory “Blodie” Davis

• Kermit Ruffins

• Kevin Louis

• Nicolas Payton

• Shamarr Allen

• Wendell Brunious

BEST TUBA/SOUSAPHONE

• Ben Jaffe

• Clifton “Spug” Smith

• Jon Gross

• Kirk Joseph

• Matt Perrine

BEST PIANO/KEYBOARD

• Andre Bohren

David Torkanowsky

Ivan Neville

• Jon Cleary

• Kyle Roussel

• Oscar Rossignoli

• PJ Morton

• Ryan Hanseler

• Shea Pierre

ACCORDION

• Andre Michot

Corey Ledet

• Dwayne Dopsie

• Sheryl Cormier

• Sunpie Barnes

Steve Riley

BEST VIOLIN/FIDDLE

• Amanda Shaw

• David Greely

• Ed Poullard

• Joel Savoy

• Louis Michot

• Tysman Charpentier

BEST DJ

• DJ Blaq n Mild

• DJ Kuti

• DJ Matty

• DJ Roq Away

• DJ Soul Sister

• Lil Jodeci

• Raj Smoove

BEST OTHER INSTRUMENTALIST

• Alexey Marti (Percussion)

• Dave Easley (Pedal Steel Guitar)

• Detroit Brooks (Banjo)

• Don Vappie (Banjo)

• Helen Gillet (Cello)

• Leyla McCalla (Cello)

• Mahmoud Chouki (Oud)

• Mike Dillon (Vibes)

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

• Boyfriend with the Death Valley Girls: “There’s A Place”

• Chapel Hart: “You Can Have Him Jolene”

• Charlie Gabriel: “I’m Confessin’”

• The Deslondes: “Good To Go”

• HaSizzle featuring Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph: “Getcha Sum”

• Jon Batiste: “Freedom”

• Kevin Gullage & The Blues Groovers: “The OnBeat Sessions Full Set”

• Tank & The Bangas feat. Big Freedia: “Big”

• Tommy McLain: “I Hope”

• Trombone Shorty: “Come Back” O

MUSIC CHAMPION AWARD

Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser

Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Billy Nungesser, has worked to help the musician and music businesses of Louisiana. During the pandemic, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser found inventive ways to keep resources flowing to our musicians, culture bearers and music industry profes sionals. Working with the Office of Tourism, their work helped promote our music and included the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Jon Batiste and the Rose Bowl Parade with the Hot 8 Brass Band.

The Lieutenant Governor has also sponsored legislation that helps put more money in the pockets of composers, arrangers,

and performers and has worked to develop the Louisiana Music Trail. Like the Mississippi Blues Trail, the Louisiana Music Trail provides a music history of the state of Louisiana, highlighting important and distinctly Louisiana musicians.

Moreover, Billy Nungesser’s leadership has allowed the New Orleans Jazz Museum to flourish, providing an economic boost for all things related to music in the region.

Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser has kept his focus on preserving and supporting the most valued treasures of our state.

Therefore, we are pleased to honor Billy Nungesser with the Best of the Beat Music Champion Award.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC BUSINESS

Mark Samuels

As a teenager, Mark Samuels played in school bands that at one time or another included trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, and reedman Victor Goines. Naturally jazz and a greater appreciation of the music was bound to rub off on him.

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

Samuels, the owner of the highly respected and successful Basin Street Records label, had already been involved in music. As a child, on the insistence of his mother, he began taking piano lessons. Then in the fifth grade he picked up a metal clarinet that had long been in the family. In the sixth grade he attended Newman Middle School where the music instructor, Michael Gumia, told him he had two choices. “I had to buy a clarinet that sounded better, or he had a saxophone that I could borrow.” Samuels chose the alto and continued on the horn through his middle, high school years and several of his college years. “I really enjoyed that,” he remembers.

He then attended Benjamin Franklin High School, when, in his sophomore year, Wynton joined the band that primarily entertained the fans from the stands at football games. The group also took a trip to Mexico City at which time Samuels became better acquainted with the trumpeter who has, of course, now become internationally renowned. The school group even recorded an album that featured its ace member, Wynton Marsalis.

At the time, Samuels, now 59, was listening primarily to the popular music of the day— Kansas, Journey, Foreigner, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones.

PHOTO BY NOE CUGNY

“Then I started listening to some [John] Coltrane and got a book and started practicing a lot because of Wynton’s influence.”

When Samuels was a junior at Ben Franklin, Delfeayo joined the band and sat directly behind him. “I’d go over to their house once in a while. It was near the high school, and Delfeayo would let me listen to some stuff that Wynton was doing. Next up, during that summer, he joined a music program at Loyola University and sat next to Victor Goines.

“So, I had this influence from young great musicians who are the leaders in the industry today,” Samuels declares, grateful for such an opportunity.

“When Wynton and Branford began recording, I bought everything they did and everything that Harry Connick Jr. did and Terence [Blanchard] and Donald [Harrison],” Samuels recalls adding that he was also listening to trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane. “I started going to Jazz Fest in 1979.”

At that point Samuels figures he probably met Jason Marsalis, who years later would record for Basin Street Records. During high school, he did keep up with the local music scene. “I went to hear the Neville Brothers all the time and went to see The Cold every chance I got,” says Samuels, who was born in Colorado, lived in Oklahoma and moved to the west bank of New Orleans when he was six years old and jumped over the river to the east band when he was 12.

Being in the music business in any capacity wasn’t in Samuels’ sights when he set off for

the University of Texas in Austin where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business admin istration, and a master’s degree in finance. Though he didn’t pursue music academically, he did play in a band called—wait for it—The Urinals. Set breaks at fraternity parties playing cover tunes from Herman’s Hermits, Journey and The Cars was their beat. “I did enjoy playing music,” Samuels says though a couple of years into college he put down his horn.

Samuels’ goal was to work in New York City, and he achieved that by getting a job as a computer and business consultant. Naturally, he went out to hear a lot of music, particularly performed by his favorite New Orleans modern jazz musicians. He furthered his circle of Crescent City musical friends and acquaintances when he had lunch with Wynton, who was “hosting” Jeremy Davenport. The young trumpeter and vocalist was still in high school, and Wynton advised him to go to New Orleans to study with his father, the great pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis. Wisely, he took his mentor’s advice and Davenport too would also land on the Basin Street label. Samuels also met pianist and vocalist Harry Connick Jr. through Wynton, so he was backstage at a perfor mance in New Orleans by Connick’s band where he got to know trombonists Craig Klein and Mark Mullins, both of whom ended up on Basin Street Records performing in the group Bonerama.

Samuels’ connections to the New Orleans music world were definitely expanding due, in part, to his connection with Wynton Marsalis and even though he still lived in New York.

“When Wynton and Branford began recording, I bought everything they did and everything that Harry Connick Jr. did and Terence [Blanchard] and Donald [Harrison],” Samuels recalls adding that he was also listening to trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane. “I started going to Jazz Fest in 1979.”

In 1989, Samuel’s father invited him to come back to New Orleans to work with him at his oil and gas company that he and another family owned.

“It sounded like a good idea,” says Samuels who was then married to his first wife, Patti, who tragically died in an automobile accident in 2000. He worked full-time at the business even after the formation of the label, on September 30, 1997. This year Basin Street Records celebrated its 25th anniversary.

It wasn’t until 1998, after Basin Street’s early success with the label’s first release, trumpeter and vocalist Kermit Ruffins’ Kermit Ruffins Live at Tipitina’s and the booming record sales of Los Hombres Caliente’s selftitled album at the 1998 Jazz & Heritage Festival, that he quit the energy company for good.

“I always thought it would be nice to do something where I wasn’t fighting with my business partners and that I really enjoyed a lot,” he says of his initial and then eventual permanent change of direction.

A discussion with Tom Thompson, who was managing Kermit Ruffins, really set the ball in motion. Samuels’ brother, the late Will Samuels, who was the manager of the Cutting Edge Music Conference, invited him to help produce a jazz showcase for the conference. “It was because of all the people I knew and because of my love jazz and music,” Samuels offers. “My wife, Patti, was the fundraising chairman for our synagogue that included Kermit [performing]. I asked Tom if Kermit could play at a showcase at Funky Butt. Tom proposed that I invest $5,000 to

help produce a Kermit Ruffins live album at Tipitina’s. Rather than invest, I suggested that we start a label with that purpose in mind.”

Next up, another “by chance” meeting occurred when Samuels met up one rainy night at Kinko’s with Matt Dillon while they were both making flyers—Samuels for Kermit and Dillon for trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. “He told me that Irvin was sitting in at the Funky Butt that night,” says Samuels who at the time remembered reading in OffBeat that the band Los Hombres Calientes, led by Mayfield, Jason Marsalis and Bill Summers, was great. “The article mentioned that they wanted to make a record before Jazz Fest. I had a connection with Jason and was aware of Bill Summers through the Headhunters.” Mayfield said, “I see you’re doing well with Kermit’s record. Are you interested in doing this with us?” I answered, “If you want to have a record out for Jazz Fest we have to sign a deal this week.” The band’s self-titled album came out not only in time for Jazz Fest but also for the earlier French Quarter Festival. Los Hombres signed with the label on March 11, 1998, and began recording in Bill Summers’ house on March 12, 1998.

Hilariously, Samuels’ knack for promotion inspired the idea of the use of sandwich board which he and his family donned as they roamed around the French Quarter Festival. In June of 1998, Samuels bought Tom Thompson’s share of Basin Street Records.

Samuels, with no interest in “watching the clock tick” or turning “knobs and dials,” only spent time in the studio for the first few of

“I was into running the label because I enjoyed music and I like the idea of helping an artist distribute and promote their music around the world. I certainly also believed in making sure that we had very excellent sound and material that would be timeless where hopefully music writers and radio stations would see that it was coming from Basin Street Records and know that they were going to get something that was going to sound pretty good.”

the label’s releases. “These days you won’t find me in a recording studio,” he says. “I was into running the label because I enjoyed music and I like the idea of helping an artist distribute and promote their music around the world. I certainly also believed in making sure that we had very excellent sound and material that would be timeless where hopefully music writers and radio stations would see that it was coming from Basin Street Records and know that they were going to get something that was going to sound pretty good.”

He left producing to Steve Reynolds, Tracey Freeman, Mark Bingham and others. “We’ve been able to work with a lot of great people and at a lot of facilities. I like the flexibility.”

“Every decision on new artists has been mine,” says Samuels though he has taken some worthwhile suggestions. For instance, Jerry Brock who was the co-owner of the Louisiana Music Factory at the time, said, “You know you’d probably do really well with Michael White because I think we could sell a lot of his records at the store.” “He was right,” Samuel declares emphatically. Basin Street has released six albums by the clarinetist since 2000.

Mark Samuels is known to be a straightup, trustworthy person who cares about the music, the artists and people. What could be more important than that in an industry that has had its share out-for-the money shysters. “I have also helped artists who didn’t have managers to manage themselves and I have looked for booking agents for those who didn’t have booking agents at the time.”

The latest addition to the Basin Street Records roster, vocalist Kevin Gullage, and his father, sought out Samuels, aware of the label’s fine reputation.

“Kevin, like a number of our most recent artists, came to me with his manger and we were interested in helping them getting a record out. They wanted the affiliation with the label,” says Samuels. “They knew we worked hard on behalf of clients.”

Gullage, perhaps most recognized as an “American Idol,” contestant, is a graduate of NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts) and Loyola University as well as a one-time student at the Louis “Satchmo”

Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. He was signed to Basin Street and in 2020 released an album with his group, the Blues Groovers, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed Blues. “It was exciting for me to have a ‘jazz camper’ on the label,” says Samuels who has been on the board of the music education program since its inception in 1995. Kermit Ruffins remains Basin Street’s Records biggest seller, followed by pianist and vocalist Jon Cleary. Rebirth of New Orleans won the label’s first and only Grammy, though Los Hombres Calientes were also nominated for an award. A ton of great music came out of the label from such notables as pianists Henry Butler and Davell Crawford and vocalist and violinist Theresa Andersson. Basin Street and its artists definitely shined a spotlight on New Orleans bringing further attention to this city’s musical gifts and heritage to national and inter national audiences.

Samuels’ head for business, which he had formally studied at the University of Texas, rings clear throughout his conversation. The flood following Katrina and the COVID epidemic hit him and his business hard as they did for everyone in New Orleans. “We battled back,” says Samuels, who now works out of his home office and, as always, looks hard at the bottom line while still looking forward. Presently, he has his sights set on releasing pianist and vocalist Jon Cleary’s 2002 album on Basin Street, Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, on vinyl. “He brought that to me finished and we bought it,” Samuels remembers. “It’s the first vinyl project I have on tap.”

“One of the challenges today is how to best spend money that allows you to create a cash flow so that you can continue to spend money on new projects,” Samuels explains. “Spend it where it counts.

“This isn’t all me,” Samuels reminds us, mentioning his late wife Patti, Tom Thompson, his late brother Will, his wife of 18 years, Kara, and an array of solidly proficient, essential employees.

Mark Samuels’ lifetime achievement in the music business, to paraphrase the lyrics of Dr. John’s song, is that he made a better world to live in for musicians and music lovers. O

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC EDUCATION

Tony Dagradi

I’ve been looking backwards a little bit these days,” saxophonist, educator and composer Tony Dagradi said recently. “Looking at all the stuff I’ve done, it’s amazing how busy all of the guys my age, like Johnny Vidacovich, have been.”

BY JOHN WIRT

The recipient of OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Education honor, Dagradi recently retired from Loyola University following from 30 years of teaching there. He directed various ensembles, taught classes in improvisation and, most of all, gave private lessons to every saxophone student who enrolled at Loyola.

In addition to his decades of teaching, Dagradi’s performance and recording credits include Astral Project, the modern jazz quartet he cofounded in 1978 with Vidacovich, Steve Masakowski and James Singleton. He’s recorded numerous albums, solo and with Astral Project, and worked in the studio and/or on stage with Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Ellis Marsalis, Allen Toussaint, James Booker, the Meters, James Black, Johnny Adams and many more.

“When I got to New Orleans in 1977, it seemed like there was never any end to the possibilities of performing with people,” Dagradi said. “There was always something to do. That kept me here. Occasionally, when I talked to friends in New York and Boston, they’d be singing the blues about how there weren’t any gigs. Here I was, working just about any night I wanted to.”

The choice to move to New Orleans clearly worked for Dagradi. “It was a good play,” he said. “Not only because there was so much music here, but because music was an integral part of the community. Being around that, and being part of it, benefited my soul.”

Dagradi comes from a large Italian family in Summit, New Jersey, a city in the New York City metro area. In third grade, his school offered students the oppor tunity to play the musical instruments of their choice. “I picked saxophone for some reason,” Dagradi said. “It was just something that I did at school then, not anything I was super excited about—until I realized that there was something called jazz.”

At 13 or 14 years old, Dagradi experi enced a revelation at a school concert

BY CLAYTON CALL

during which some slightly older students performed Horace Silver’s “The Preacher.”

“The band director put a couple of horn players together with a rhythm section,” he remembered. “They weren’t great musicians, but I liked it. I guess I had not been exposed to jazz. That quickly changed because I realized that I was right next to New York City, and there were all kinds of music to check out.”

Suddenly, Dagradi was hooked on jazz. “That’s all I wanted to do,” he said. “And that hasn’t changed for almost 60 years.”

The recipient of a DownBeat magazine scholarship, Dagradi moved to Boston after high school to study at the Berklee College of Music. He dropped out after two years. “I guess I was restless and wanted to get out and play,” he said. “I left school and tried to work as much as I could. That was not the smartest thing. I could have stayed in school and done everything I did. I guess we all do what we have to do for the experiences that make us who we are.”

After Berklee, Dagradi performed in funk, Top 40 and wedding bands. “But in Boston there were thousands of students who were 18, 19 and 20 years old, all trying to get gigs,” he said. “It was hard to become successful as a player. I eventually thought it was time to leave.”

Dagradi turned down an offer to tour with the prodigiously pompadoured white rhythmand-blues singer Wayne Cochran. The chore ography required of Cochran’s horn section was too much for Dagradi. “It might have been a good gig, but I couldn’t get behind that,” Dagradi said. “I was studying the music of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins deeply, so I couldn’t rationalize doing that particular gig.”

Instead, Dagradi joined Archie Bell and the Drells, the Houston band that scored a number one hit in 1968 with “Tighten Up.” In Bell’s band, the backup singers did the dance

steps and the musicians simply played. “It was a super funky band, and that appealed to me,” Dagradi recalled. “The bass player, Jerry Jenkins, played with James Brown and all these different cats.”

Dagradi boarded the Bell and the Drells tour bus in Philadelphia for a tour that lasted months. “It was okay,” he said of life on the road with the “Tighten Up” gang. “The gigs ranged from amazing venues in L.A. and Atlanta to cinderblock chitlin’ circuit gigs in the middle of a field. I was the only white dude in the band.”

The Bell and the Drells tour ended in March 1977. “We’d been crisscrossing the country,” Dagradi remembered. “The tour ended in Houston, where Archie Bell and the Drells were based. I had to decide whether to go back to Boston and New York. My wife said, ‘Let’s go to New Orleans.’ She had been here before, working as an artist in Jackson Square. So, we came here. She immediately got into Jackson Square scene, and I checked out the music scene. I didn’t know anybody here. I didn’t know anything.”

However little he knew, Dagradi did know New Orleans was a music town. “But my impression was that it was heavy on traditional jazz,” he recalled. “That was not of interest to me, especially at that time, because I was so immersed in modern jazz.”

Contrary to his preconceived notions, Dagradi instantly discovered there was more music in New Orleans than traditional jazz. “As soon as I arrived, I realized that music didn’t happen anywhere else in the world like it happens in New Orleans.”

Dagradi’s New Orleans gigs included two years in Professor Longhair’s band. He also played for and helped arrange Longhair’s final studio album, 1980’s Crawfish Fiesta.

“It was great,” Dagradi said of the Crawfish

“As soon as I arrived, I realized that music didn’t happen anywhere else in the world like it happens in New Orleans.”

Fiesta sessions at Sea-Saint Recording Studio. “That’s the best record that Fess ever did, documenting his piano and his singing. The weakest thing on the record are some of the sax solos. I was stretching. I wish I had played simpler, but I was too young at the time, only 27. I was excited about playing and I was playing everything I knew.”

Dr. John participated in the Crawfish Fiesta sessions, too, playing guitar and providing “invaluable production assistance.” Dagradi’s other sessions for Dr. John recordings include the 2014 Louis Armstrong tribute album, Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch. “Mack the Knife” was the first song Dagradi recorded for the project.

“Everybody knows ‘Mack the Knife’,” he said. “I’ve played it a million times. My thought was, ‘God, I don’t want to play that again.’ But once we started, it had a great groove, and the horn parts were really happening. When we finished, I thought it was the best arrangement of ‘Mack the Knife” ever recorded.”

Performing and recording during his first few years in New Orleans, Dagradi said, “That was exciting and satisfying, but I always wanted to finish up my degree.” He returned to school at 34 years old. “By that time, I had been on numerous tours and recordings with Professor Longhair, but more importantly, I had been playing Carla Bley for five years,” he said. “I made amazing recordings with her because she was a great composer, arranger and teacher. And I’d played just about every European jazz festival.”

At Loyola University, Dagradi was supposed to take saxophone lessons. It so happened that the school’s sax teacher, Paul McGinley, was a less experienced player and on fewer recordings than Dagradi. After a meeting with the dean, Dagradi was allowed to drop the sax lessons.

In 1985, Dagradi received his belated Bachelor of Music degree from Loyola. He took a year off from higher education before enrolling in graduate school at Tulane University. Unlike Loyola, Tulane insisted Dagradi take sax lessons. But rather than study jazz sax at Tulane,

he studied the instrument’s classical repertoire with Edward “Kidd” Jordan.

“Kidd was great,” Dagradi said. “We got into the must-know pieces, such as Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto in E Flat Major for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra and Paul Creston’s Sonata for E Flat for Alto Saxophone and Piano. And I did a lot of classical recitals.”

Earning his master’s degree from Loyola in 1989, Dagradi transitioned from graduate student to assistant professor of saxophone. “There are certain things that I get every student to do,” he said. “The technical things, basic scale studies, which are the building blocks that help everything. And I know when I know something that somebody else doesn’t know. I can show them where to go with what they have. I remember lessons when I saw the light going on in somebody’s head. That makes you feel good about being a teacher.”

Dagradi’s educational work also includes his authorship of three books: Sax Solos Over Jazz Standards; Saxophone Solos Vol. 2: Modal Classics; and Essential Scale Studies for Impro visation. He’s the subject of a book, too, Tony Dagradi, A Spiritual Approach to Jazz: The Life and Work of the New Orleans Bandleader by David Lasocki.

A master of his instrument, Dagradi is not an example of the saying: Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach. “I know a lot of teachers who are phenomenal players,” he countered the adage. “I’ve also seen great players get into a teaching situation and not know what to do with it. It takes time to learn how to teach. I learned a lot over the years, what works and what doesn’t work. Maybe some people have a natural ability, but it took me a while to learn how to do it right.”

Retired from teaching now, Dagradi fills his days with making music and creating the sculptural collages he’s exhibited in New Orleans at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery and Ogden Museum. He also plays whatever gigs he wants to play, including Astral Project performances.

“I divide my time equally between playing and art. I’m enjoying my retirement.” O

Benny Jones, Sr.

Benny Jones Sr. is best known around the world as a drummer and leader of the world-renowned Treme Brass Band. However, in New Orleans and particularly among this city’s brass band community, his reputation looms large as a kind man of remarkable patience and one dedicated to tradition and the culture.

“It’s not about me,” is a sentiment that often enters a conver sation with Jones whether he is speaking about playing music or family life.

“You have to find out what people want, what they like and work with them at their convenience,” Jones offers as an important element of his job in the music business. “It’s not about me, it’s about the people I’m working for, and you have to be patient with the audience.

To have patience, you have to take time to put the pieces together like a puzzle. You can’t just rush into this. There are always some kind of changes and sometimes for the best,” Jones says, adding that paying

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

attention to the desires of the employer and a crowd might mean they’ll hire the band again.

Jones, 79, whose father was the noted drummer Chester Jones in such historic groups as the Onward, Tuxedo and Eureka brass bands as well working at Preservation

BY EMMA DUGAS

Hall, grew up in New Orleans Sixth Ward, the third eldest of 12 children. “I had plenty of patience with my brothers and sisters especially the ones under me,” he says. “I always looked out for them. During the holidays I would go out there and work and hustle and make sure they had some kind of toys. I was never a guy who wanted too much. It’s not about me. My mom was very patient—she had all those kids. It started at my home, we learned never to rush, to wait our time to get what we wanted, if it happens it happens.”

“He’s been a great example as a man for pretty much my whole music career,” says trombonist Corey Henry, 47, of his Uncle Benny. He has performed with the Treme Brass Band since the mid-1990s and also leads the Corey Henry Treme Funktet and the Lil Rascals Brass Band. “Before I started playing music, I used to watch him. He’s just the ultimate leader, man.”

Despite the compli cations and sometimes tumultuous dealings of running a brass band, few, if anyone, remembers seeing Jones angry. “I’ve seen him frustrated sometimes but never to the point where he let it bother him or let it get in the way of things he’s doing,” Corey recalls. “I think it’s just the experience of life—the wisdom. He knows how to make it work. You do what you gotta do. If you have three band members or seven or eight band members, you still got to roll. He knows what he’s doing. That inspires all of us.”

The street parades were Jones’ home turf long before he hit them as a drummer. Since the 1960s, he’s second lined as a member of the Sixth Ward Diamonds, the Sixth Ward Highsteppers and the Money Wasters social aid and pleasure clubs. Through steppin’ out with these organizations with stops at barrooms along the parade routes, Jones got to know “everybody” in the street culture. Presently a member of the Black Men of Labor organization, Jones’ list of contacts in the brass band world seems endless.

Jones’ emergence as a musician first came when he was in his 20s and hooked up with the Batiste family’s Dirty Dozen Kazoo Band, a precursor to the now internationally renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He has since become the go-to guy to book brass bands be it the Treme, which can boast two divisions, or by directing folks to others. His experience booking bands started long ago, dating back to the Dirty Dozen’s iconic sets at the Glass House. Jones’ friend and the club’s owner said to him one day, “Man, I want you to try to help me with my club.” Done deal. The result, a jam-packed night spot and a part of the historic rise of the Dozen.

“Benny is a very, very smart guy because he knows how to put the right combination of musicians together,” says baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis, who stands as the Treme Brass Band’s longest-term member and who has been blowing with the Dozen since its

The street parades were Jones’ home turf long before he hit them as a drummer. Since the 1960s, he’s second lined as a member of the Sixth Ward Diamonds, the Sixth Ward Highsteppers and the Money Wasters social aid and pleasure clubs. Through steppin’ out with these organizations with stops at barrooms along the parade routes, Jones got to know “everybody” in the street culture.

BENNY JONES, SR.

inception. “He’s surrounded himself with good people. He has a special talent to do that.”

“My father was my first influence and my brother, Eugene—they were both drummers,” says Jones, who has gone on to influence a wealth of musicians. He also cites some of the legendary drummers like James Black, Smokey Johnson, Freddie Kohlman and June Gardner who’ve touched his life.

Jones credits being in the Olympia Brass Band, initially as a grand marshal, and his observation of leader and saxophonist Harold Dejan and trumpeter Milton Batiste on what it takes to lead a brass band. Batiste would also create the Junior Olympia Brass Band that was a first stop for many now successful brass band musicians.

“Working with them I learned plenty about how to run a band and being patient with people when you’re booking bands and booking musicians,” Jones explains. He also gives credos to Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen, the leader of the Chosen Few Brass band, which he joined after leaving the Dozen. “He influ enced me plenty about the tradition of music. People knew me first as a bass drummer and they called me Bass Drum Benny.”

He switched to the snare drum after forming the Treme Brass Band and with the arrival of bass drummer “Uncle” Lionel Batiste, who was his brother-in-law. “We compli mented one another, and someone once said, ‘You two play like a set of drums.’ ‘I learned plenty from what he was doing.”

Whenever Benny was asked if he ever

wanted to play a trap set, Jones—ever the businessman—would quickly reply” “I make more money on that one drum than I would on a whole set of drums and I can do two or three gigs a night.” When Uncle Lionel passed in 2012, Jones switched back to the bass drum and presently his nephew has taken over the position.

Revon “Teedy Man” Henry, Jones’ 39-year-old nephew and the brother of Corey Henry, stands as yet another drummer to carry on the family’s legacy. He permanently joined the Treme Brass Band four years ago, though he sat in with the band through the years while he laid down the beats with the Free Agents, Kinfolk, Lil Rascals and the Rebirth brass bands.

“My uncle has been a tremendous influence in my life,” says Revon who also grew up in the Sixth Ward. “He’s made a major impact on my life as an individual overall. Since I was young, I’ve watched him leading bands and having a sense of grace with unity and gratitude toward the musicians. I’ve admired those things and his generosity to the community. Playing with him is fantastic, man. He has a deep sense of love and passion. He has played a leading role in organizing unity with traditional bands.”

Jones adapts to situations, goes with the flow and is always prepared to do so. For instance, this interview was to be held outside at one of the tables at Buffa’s although a filming at the location hadn’t been completed. We walked around the corner and he said, “Let’s just do it on your stoop.” He whipped out a plastic chair from the bed

Jones credits being in the Olympia Brass Band, initially as a grand marshal, and his observation of leader and saxophonist Harold Dejan and trumpeter Milton Batiste on what it takes to lead a brass band. Batiste would also create the Junior Olympia Brass Band that was a first stop for many now successful brass band musicians.

of his bright orange, sticker-laden pick-up truck, set it down on the sidewalk: problem solved.

When he goes to a gig, Jones is ready. He’s got his notes on what the gig requires and always arrives at least a half an hour early. “You never know what kind of changes are going to be made at the last minute and you have to go with the changes,” Jones offers. “I just sit down and relax myself.” He admits what gets him riled up sometimes is when a musician comes late. Not enough though to let that interfere with a gig.

Corey realizes how crucial it’s been to him that his Uncle Benny demonstrated the importance of passing the music down through the family. The lineage continues with the trombonist’s daughter, Jazz, who blows trumpet with the Pinettes Brass Band. When Corey was a teenager and still a novice in the music, his uncle recruited him to play in the Treme Brass Band even though the other musicians were more advanced. “He put me there so I could learn,” Corey explains with deep appreciation.

“Our family tree has made an amazing impact on our family and relatives because we also carry the legacy of a tradition of playing our instruments from the roots that we were raised around and taught,” Teedy Man says. “It’s also had a major impact on the city itself for what we’re representing.”

Naturally, Benny Jones, who most often leads by example, does offer some solid advice to young musicians. “Number one, give your band leader respect. He hired you to play with him. Always follow your leader,” he offers adding, of course, to be on time and dress appropriately. “Learn as much as you can because you never know who’s going to hire you and listen to traditional music and then you can get around.”

“I learned a lot about life from Uncle Benny–just the way he conducts and carries himself,” Corey says with admiration. “He’s always willing to help, give a helping hand and always treats people kindly. He’s a great person, a great man.” O

LLittle Freddie King’s Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement award is long overdue. Indeed, the Louisiana Music Hall of Famer will have to make room for his latest trophy in his Musicians Village home, where a slew of awards and honorariums are enshrined on walls bursting with memorabilia. There are decades’ worth of portraits and performance photos, fan tributes like a bedspread embla zoned with album covers from his prodigious recording career, and posters for far-flung gigs, ranging from his fabled gritty New Orleans headquarters at BJs to the upscale ladies-inhigh-heels Bourbon Club in São Paulo, Brazil, where King plays free multi-block parties that the club broadcasts on large-screen TVs throughout several neighborhoods.

“That’s a good one, mmmhmm” King said about playing São Paulo when we met at his home in Musicians Village shortly after his 82nd birthday bash at BJs. “80,000 people.”

Though their numbers were slightly more modest, the overflow crowd of birthday celebrants that spilled into the street to honor the undisputed monarch of New Orleans blues was as enthusiastic as his Brazilian devotees. Greeting fans along the way, King made his way up to BJs’ makeshift stage crowned by his trademark flat-brimmed Panama, sporting a festive jacket and vest that matched his cherry Gibson SR. Then he plugged in his ax and started conjuring raw, down-and-dirty gutbucket blues that got people whooping, hollering and dancing.

“The gutbucket, see, is tribulation from stress and hard times,” King sings about his signature sound. “You don’t have nowhere to stay, got to sleep with your head on a hollow log, get up the next morning and drink muddy water. That’s gutbucket blues, all that heart and soul.”

Born in McComb, Mississippi, which honored King and fellow homeboy Bo Diddley with Mississippi Blues Trail Markers, he cobbled together his first guitar from a cigar box and picket-fence neck strung with horsehair after his guitar-picking dad whupped him for breaking the old man’s strings. He honed his chops playing backwoods porches and house parties, then hopped a freight to

New Orleans at age 14 and instantly went native.

“New Orleans blew my mind,” recalls King, who was instantly mesmerized: “There was hardly no lights where I come from, just kerosene lamps. And down here it was bright lights, big city everywhere, with sight-seeing tourists all over the riverfront. I went home for about two weeks, and when I come back, I couldn’t leave no more. Only time I leave is when I get a job overseas. Then I get homesick and wanna come back right away. I just got hooked on it.”

New Orleans also got hooked on Little Freddie King, the only artist to play Jazz Fest for 50 of its 51 years. (The sole year he missed was 1981, when he couldn’t leave his job as a sawmill foreman and expert lumber grader, one of King’s several limber-fingered parallel careers, including auto mechanic and TV repairman). And though it took a couple years of pumping gas while playing private parties and occasionally (and reluctantly) busking on the street, he soon became a mainstay on the frequently violent neigh borhood bar circuit at clubs like the aptly nicknamed Bucket of Blood.

Part of King’s lifetime achievement (and legend) is that the death-defying bluesman is still alive. He’s survived multiple shootings, stabbings, an electrocution, a near-fatal bicycle accident, hospital mishaps that compounded his injuries and an ulcer that nearly killed him before he finally got sober 48 years ago. King also survived Katrina and spent two-and-ahalf years in exile in Dallas, where the Big D inexplicably stonewalled him and he bussed back and forth to New Orleans, where fans flocked to his gigs. But the post-K federal floods destroyed his Lafitte Street home and everything in it, save for one flying vee guitar he kept as a souvenir “because it went overseas with me and made more money than I ever made in my life.”

During a lively visit to King’s Bartholomew Street home, where we were joined by his business partner, manager and drummer Wacko Wade, I drooled over his neatly organized wardrobe of outrageous stage

wear and admired a worldclass guitar collection that includes a custom Dr. Bones model. We discussed Blues Medicine, his latest release on Made Wright records, the label he and Wade started in 2008 as a 50/50 partnership, and I watched him tinker with his Katrinadamaged flying vee on his kitchen-table workbench. Throughout it all, King spun fantastic tales about a long, almost-mythic life so epic that the conversation that follows barely scratches the surface of the countless highlights (and lowlights) of Little Freddie King.

Once you got to New Orleans, where did you first start to play?

At lots of private parties. People pick you up, take you to parties and give you a little money. I also played on the streets a little, but not for long. I didn’t like playing in the street.

You’re too good for the streets. You belong in a club. Where was your first club gig?

Irene’s Bar and Lounge on Jackson, right after I got my first band together. I played there 12 years, but I never sang at the beginning. Harmonica William sang. Then I got a job at the Saints Lounge on Bourbon and my band didn’t show up, none of ’em. Didn’t even call. And the guy had paid me a deposit. So, when I come he said the place is full of people waiting for you to play, and if you ain’t going play, give me my money back. And I couldn’t give it back ’cause I had spent it. [laughs] So I got up there on the stage and made a one-man band out of myself.

I had never sung before, so I said, Lord, what in the world am I gonna sing? Then I

thought of one Jimmy Reed song, so I started singing that song and blowing the harp I had on a rack around my neck and playing my guitar. And people loved it, they had a ball. Ever since then I’ve been singing, but that’s what made me start singing: I didn’t have no band! [laughs] After that I didn’t use that band no more and just stopped playing for a while.

Then [the first] Jazz Fest happened, and Percy Randolph, who used to blow harp for me, told me Quint had sent for me. So, we went and played it together, over in the Congo Square. It wasn’t very big, but I was proud that they hired me and give me that job. And when they moved out to the Fairground, they had me play both weekends, all six days. They wasn’t able to pay much then, I only made $300 for six days. But it kept getting bigger and every year Quint would give me a good raise.

When I went to my first Jazz Fest in 1988, the blues stage was still just a tent on the infield, and I gatored with this guy in the mud while you were playing!

Yeah, it be some deep, deep mud out there. It rained just about every festival almost. I played all of ’em, only missed the one in 1981, when I couldn’t get anyone to take my place as foreman in a sawmill yard. Now I just play like 45 minutes.

Yeah, but you make every minute count! You really blew the roof off the Blues Stage at this year’s Jazz Fest, looking dapper as ever. It’s a thrill for a fashionista like me to see your entire wardrobe of outrageous jackets, ties, suspenders and super-snazzy shoes.

“The gutbucket, see, is tribulation from stress and hard times,” King sings about his signature sound. “You don’t have nowhere to stay, got to sleep with your head on a hollow log, get up the next morning and drink muddy water. That’s gutbucket blues, all that heart and soul.”

When did you first start spiffing out?

Since way back, way back. When I go to play music, I used to leave the job, go home, take a bath and dress. But one day I had this show for WWOZ and I didn’t have time to go home. So, I had to go straight from the shop to the Louisiana Music Factory in my auto shop uniform. I gave a good show, but I wasn’t satisfied because I wasn’t dressed good. I had my work uniform on.

Now you have your own stylish uniform, with a crown fit for a King.

Little Freddie King: Wacko caused me to start wearing that hat. He said, we gotta start spiffing you up a little more so we gonna get you a hat to be your trademark. And from ’94 on, I been wearing this style of hat. Wacko used to pick out jackets and pants for me too, at New York Fashion on Canal Street. That ain’t there no more.

Wacko Wade: There’s a new place in Elmwood, K & G, but there’s not really anything that matches his craziness. Freddie does all the coordination. When I come to the house, I’ll look at him and say, holy Moses! [laughs] He does a lot of mismatching. That’s his style of dressing. And a lot of fans send him presents.

Little Freddie King: I haven’t bought a tie myself, I bet you, in 20 years.

Your iconic style is part of your legend. And ground zero for that legend is BJ’s, the corner bar on the far fringes of the upper ninth ward that’s been your New Orleans headquarters for years. How did that come about?

We used to practice at the [auto] shop where I worked. Then my harmonica player, Bobby, said come on down by the bar where I work, maybe we could practice there. And Carlos, the owner, said yeah, y’all can play here. That’s like about 27 years ago. But you had to have a music license to play in the city, so we put out a tip jar. And when fans started coming we’d say if they wanna pay, put something in a jar. That way, when the police come, Carlos was off the hook. He’d say oh, they’re just practicing.

That was smart! Another huge part of your legend is all your close calls with death. Many of them are notorious, at least to your fans, like the time you almost electrocuted yourself fixing a TV when you were drunk and forgot to unplug it. But a lot of people don’t know about your plywood escapade when

Hurricane Frances blew into town.

I ain’t never boarded no house up, not for any storms that come through. But when Frances was coming [in 2004], all the neighbors was boarding their house up, and my wife said go get some plywood and board up all these windows so the water don’t come up. So, I had to go all the way back to the lumberyard on my bike to get plywood.

I don’t know how you could possibly carry plywood on your bike.

Well, they normally had guys with pickup trucks, but there wasn’t none of ’em there. So, I went to Rich’s house, LC’s house, but wasn’t none of ’em home. So, I said, Lord, have mercy. I just gotta take them home myself. So, I got six pieces of plywood, tied ’em together good with wire and tied it down to my bike. Then I had to push that plywood on the bike, walking against the wind, and that wind was comin’ on strong. When I finally got back home, I had to take all that plywood off the bike and nail up all the windows. When I got to the very last nail on the last board, I felt a tickle in my throat. Then I coughed up blood and it just kept on coming. So, my wife called the paramedics, and they rushed me to the hospital. The doctors said the strain of nailing up all those sheets of plywood had ruptured

my esophagus.

Oh my god! Did the plywood at least help save your house?

No, didn’t do no good at all. I did all that for nothing, But thank God Frances wasn’t a bad storm.

I think you survived the plywood fiasco and every other insanely close call because you’ve only just begun. 2022 marked your triumphal return to Jazz Fest; the inaugural Little Freddie King Festival at BJs; a live performance at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for the premiere of Music Pictures: New Orleans; and a steady stream of gigs and festivals, near and far, that extends well into 2023 and beyond. Capping it all is your latest album, Blues Medicine, a sure cure for all that ails us in these uncertain times.

It’s better than the doctor’s prescription, a dose of medicine that will make you well. I just play what come to me from my heart. And it come out clear, there’s no false sound to it.

What do you personally consider your biggest lifetime achievement?

I appreciate this reward from the bottom of my heart. I’m thankful for all my awards and for all my fans. I really appreciate that people appreciate me. O

diningout

Couvant

Couvant is the French restaurant at the Eliza Jane Hotel that serves breakfast, dinner, and weekend brunch with Chef Ryan Pearson at its helm.

BY MARIELLE SONGY

Couvant was open for two years before COVID forced it to temporarily shut down in March 2020. Pearson took over the kitchen this past January, and the restaurant reopened in March 2022 with the chef putting his own French touches on the menu.

“All of our food is rooted in French technique,” he said. “Couvant is less of a literal French brasserie than it was pre-COVID. I wanted to create a menu that created a sense of where we are in the world; the food is made in a French technique with local ingredients.”

The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, food and cooking were an important part of Pearson’s childhood. A New Orleans native, he cooked in local kitchens before moving to New York, where he cooked at Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad Restaurant.

He spent time as Sous Chef at Bâtard in Tribeca, a time in his life that Pearson described as special.

He said, “That was a beautiful opening and it felt like we were always celebrating something.

Within six to eight months, we received three stars in the New York Times, a Michelin star, and a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America. I consider the chef there, Markus Glocker, to be my mentor.”

After spending four years at Bâtard, Pearson had the opportunity to cook in Paris. Here he learned about wine and the importance of ingredients.

“As a chef, your mentality changes a bit when you’re living there,” he said. “The ingredients you get are so good— flats of perfectly ripe figs, beautiful heirloom tomatoes and fish that’s fresh-caught that day. You really have a hard time accepting mediocre ingre dients and that’s stuck with me ever since.”

Pearson then returned to New York and cooked under Chef Daniel Boulud at Daniel, a two-star Michelin restaurant, for four years.

“Working for Daniel Boulud, your attention to detail and standards have to be high,” he explained. “It’s one of the best restaurants in the world and having the opportunity to be in that kitchen was incredible.”

During COVID, Pearson wanted to make a change and leave New York. He had the oppor tunity to work as a private chef on the west side of Puerto Rico.

When it came to his next step, Pearson knew that he wanted to return home to New Orleans. Speaking with the Eliza Jane Hotel owners about reopening Couvant, he realized he wanted to create a menu of French food with New Orleans touches.

Pearson succeeded with a dinner menu that includes Cochon de Lait, Dry Aged Duck, and Côte de Boeuf for two.

A menu specialty that Pearson recommends is the Blue Crab Gnocchi made with Louisiana blue crab, sweet corn and chili-garlic crisp.

Couvant Brioche Crusted Veal

“It’s become a staple,” Pearson said of the dish. “We make a consommé with crab shells, strain it and add butter to make a crab butter. We then make a roux with the crab butter and add the consommé to that and that’s the sauce for the dish. It’s a very intense crab flavor. We serve that with potato gnocchi that we make fresh every day, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and a generous portion of picked blue crab.”

Another chef recommendation is Brioche Crusted Veal made with a veal tenderloin in a crisp brioche crust, king trumpet mushrooms, asparagus, and sauce diable.

Pearson explained, “The veal is wrapped in Swiss chard and brioche and cooked until it’s beautifully pink. The sauce diable is made with roasted veal bones, in the French technique, with shallots and a lot of vinegar to create an acidic au jus. It’s served with asparagus, roasted king trumpet mushrooms, and mushroom purée.”

Pearson said that the brunch menu errs more on the side of fun and welcoming dishes rather than typical French tradition.

Highlights include shrimp and grits made with grilled Gulf shrimp, sautéed onions and peppers, chorizo sauce, and stone-ground grits; and croque madame made with Jambon de Paris, Gruyère, béchamel, and sunny side up eggs.

Brunch also includes bottomless mimosas for $25.

The restaurant serves a breakfast menu which includes favorites such as omelets, pain perdu (“lost bread”), shrimp and grits and croque madame.

Couvant also hosts a daily happy hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., which includes $7 glasses of wine and half-off snacks such as tête de cochon (head cheese) topped with Dijon mustard deviled eggs, panisses (chickpea flour) with crispy chickpea fries and tomato aioli, and sourdough bread served with cultured butter. O

Couvant, 317 Magazine Street, 504-342-2316. Hours: Breakfast – Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., Brunch – Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dinner -Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

vintagevinyl

Music Quest

the

This month’s installment features five women of my vintage vinyl collection that never fail to lift my spirits and ultimately bring me back home. That is the mark of a great album. My daughter said in no uncertain terms that I should “just pick five already” as I stressed over narrowing my list from the albums spread out over the living room rug. I countered with my best Bill Murray and offered that she should “Back off, man. I’m a scientist.” She responded that she would lock our cat and dog, both rescue animals, in the room with me to lend a hand. Mission accomplished, score one for the brighter half.

1. Bonnie Raitt: Streetlights (Warner Bros. Records) – Catalog Number BS 2818, released 1974.

What more could one want from a release than Bonnie Raitt’s soulful rendition of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” with Steve Gadd on drums and Motown’s Bob Babbitt on bass? Well, there is Allen Toussaint’s “What is Success,” Joni Mitchell’s “That Song about the Midway,” James Taylor’s “Rainy Day Man,” and Bill Payne’s “Streetlights” included for good measure. Nothing like this one on the turntable on a sunny Saturday afternoon with a cold drink in hand. It makes 1974 seem like just yesterday.

2. Joan Baez: Diamonds & Rust (A&M Records) – Catalog Number SP-4527, released 1975. The title track, a Baez composition, of this gold-selling release weaves a story in song as good as any, in my humble opinion. It is followed by Joan’s interpretation of tunes written by Jackson Browne, Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright, Bob Dylan, Dickie Betts,

John Prine, and Janis Ian. Session musicians lending a hand included Larry Carlton on guitar, Jim Gordon on drums, Wilton Felder and Reinie Press on bass to name a few. Joan does a fine job of turning her love our way on “Blue Sky” and has fun with a certain, once close artist on “Simple Twist of Fate.”

3. Aretha Franklin: Spirit in the Dark (Atlantic Records) – Catalog Number SD 8265, released 1970.

It is a given that Aretha seldom disappoints, and her 17th studio release is no exception. I have said it before and will likely say it again, but her vocals are second to none. Duane Allman plays guitar on the Mac Rebennack composition, “When the Battle is Over” while the Queen belts it. Add in the Dixie Flyers and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as backing musicians on 12 great tunes, including Ahmet Ertegun/Betty Nelson’s “Don’t Play That Song,” Aretha’s “One Way Ticket,” Jimmy Reed’s “Honest I Do,” Carole King’s “Oh No Not My Baby,” and B.B. King/Dave Clark’s “Why I Sing the Blues” and you have a true classic standing tall over the test of time.

4. Laura Nyro: Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (Columbia Records) – Catalog Number PC 30259, released 1970.

I found this album in excellent condition in

a small shop on Magazine Street in a three-for-one dollar bin. I love it when there is a connection among random selections realized after the fact—makes me look like a scientist, man. The year was also 1970 and in addition to the Swampers of Muscle Shoals lending a hand, this release also features Duane Allman soloing on one cut. Eight insightful and expressive tunes penned by Laura and the lone cover, Carole King’s “Up on the Roof,” closes side one quite nicely. Her vocals and piano on “Been on a Train” are perfect, in a word. Gone too soon at the age of 49 but before this unique artist passed, she left us with a number of classics including “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “When I Die,” and “Eli’s Coming.”

5. Rickie Lee Jones: Rickie Lee Jones (Warner Bros. Records) – Catalog Number BSK 3296, released 1979.

With a handful of musician’s musicians including but not limited to Mac Rebennack, Willie Weeks, Randy Newman, Steve Gadd, and Jeff Porcaro, how could Ms. Jones’ debut album fail to deliver funk and fun? And was that our own once-upon-a-time Leslie Smith lending a hand with backing vocals? Platinum status and number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 were well within reach with tunes such as “Chuck E’s in Love,” “Young Blood,” “Danny’s All-Star Joint,” and “Weasel and the White Boys Cool,” among others. I recall that this one was a favorite for impromptu dance-offs while babysitting nieces and nephews back in the day. Home, if just for the moment, is a nice place to be. – JOSEPH BONDI

Meschiya Lake and the New Movement Looking the World Over (Sungroove Records and Synco pation Society)

Instrumentalists are often praised for wearing many musical hats. Vocalists? Not so much. But over her many years in New Orleans, Meschiya Lake has played the chanteuse in duets with pianist Tom McDermott, led her own jumping trad jazz band, the Little Big Horns, sang harmonies with Tuba Skinny vocalist Erika Lewis in Magnolia Beacon and even ripped rock ’n’ roll as a backing vocalist with the Rough 7.

The first tune, Duke Elling ton’s “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” opens with a gentle strum from guitarist Leo Forde and a pretty piano figure from Declan Forde. Lake’s vocals enter, as languid as I have ever heard, stretching syllables, as she inhabits the old standard.

Two cuts later, the band shifts gears into a ska groove for another classic, “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think).” Drummer Ugo Aluni and bassist James Banner anchor the cut with an island groove. The horns of trumpeter Laurent Humeau and trombonist Carlos Santana punch in before Humeau takes a swell solo. Needless to say, Lake crushes the vocal.

The leader contributes lyrics to two originals, co-written by producer François Perdriau. “My Sweet Little Girl from New Orleans” features a sumptuous guitar solo and great clarinet work from Eldar Tsalikov.

comes before it’s more like a statement of fact in times like these.

—JAY MAZZA

Her latest album, Looking the World Over, with a band dubbed the New Movement, is more of a lateral move. Recorded in Berlin right before the pandemic hit with a different set of musicians, the album resonates by cutting across genres.

The closing cut, the original “The Place I Call Home,” feels like a funeral hymn sung by the protagonist before her death. She reaches deep on the vocal and the listener can feel the release.

It might seem from reading this that it’s a morbid way to end the album but given all the musical joy that

Serabee Hummingbird Tea (Rabadash Records)

Though you’ve probably never heard of Serabee, she’s already had quite the career: in the early 2000s she had three major-label albums (under the name Sera Buras); two were produced by Gary Katz of Steely Dan fame and one track was co-produced by Peter Gabriel. One of her originals from that era, “Crazy Chick” was covered by Charlotte Church and went to number two in the U.K. Serabee was also a contestant on television’s The Voice, making it to the semifinals in 2011. Cee-Lo Green was one of the judges who voted for her.

All of which says that Serabee knows how to

When submitting CDs for consideration, please send two copies to OffBeat Reviews, 421 Frenchmen Street, Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116

make hit records. And her New Orleans-made indie debut was clearly made to be one—but not in the programmed and processed modern-day style. What we’ve got here is a modern homage to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, the kind of album where Southern roots are displayed proudly (Serabee is originally from Kiln, Mississippi); the band (all notable local names) maintains a steamy Muscle Shoals groove, and the singer takes every chance to open up and emote.

Serabee’s throat-tearing performance on “Fair Weathered Man” is proof enough that she can do the gospel fireworks when a song calls for it; but she’s also smart enough to know that not every song calls for it. She keeps it restrained on the countryish “I Need Saving Too,” where she has Willie Nelson partner Mickey Raphael’s harmonica to duet with; and on “Tennessee,” a close cousin to the goingback-home songs Lucinda Williams used to write. The two best songs here, “Anything Like the Boy” and “I’m Closed,” are also the most retro-sounding; one could easily imagine Dusty having a go at them (and the Steve Cropper-style lick that Shane Theriot plays to kick off the latter is the icing on the cake). Serabee waits ’till the last track, the eight-minute “Moonchild,” to show off all the range she’s

got: having done love and loneliness on the rest of the album, here she does desire for all it’s worth.

—BRETT MILANO

wind and rain.”

But hearing the song in full, especially the first verse, which is just Jordan and his acoustic guitar, I realized this tune is really deep in the style of John Prine, one of Jordan’s heroes. That late great songwriter gets something like a shout out on the final cut of the album, “Pink Supermoon.”

Dave Jordan Keep Going (Independent)

Singer songwriter Dave Jordan is back with another collection of stellar songs, which clearly establish him—for those who ever doubted—as one of the best lyricists on the scene today. Produced by Anders Osborne and featuring George Porter, Jr. on bass, Chad Cromwell on drums and the secret weapon, Rurik Nunan, on violin and viola, Keep Going brims with feeling and emotion.

The first time I heard the opening cut, “Gone Again,” was at an outdoor gig during the November 2021 lull in the pandemic. Partying with family and friends, all I noticed about the song was this amazing couplet: “Sometimes it feels like a hurricane, when it ain’t nothing but some

While most of the nine songs tread familiar musical terrain in the Americana vein—sympathetic strings, great grooves, wonderful backing vocals—one cut, “I Don’t Want to Leave This Dream,” is a tour de force. It starts like a pining-for-a-lostlove lament with a recurring chorus, “I ain’t movin’ on,” but there are musical hints early on that this isn’t just another tearjerker.

The song continues to build, drops to a piano solo from Eric Adcock, before Jordan’s voice comes back— anguished, adamant and desperate—“I ain’t movin’ on!” The music mirrors the emotionality with a revved-up, reverbed guitar from Osborne and a final bass drum beat before the whole thing collapses into emptiness. Powerful stuff.

Keep Going was recorded at the famed Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana. It is destined to be another classic from that facility filled with flourishes and embellish ments that provide immense enjoyment long after you know all the words.

—JAY MAZZA

reviews

Nicholas Payton

The Couch Sessions (Smoke Sessions Records)

Nicholas Payton continues his quest to record with some of those jazz giants who he has long admired. On his 2021 album, Smoke Sessions, the title of which unusually duplicated the name of the label on which these meetings have been captured, he teamed with the great bassist Ron Carter. On The Couch Sessions, the

Rhodes and then, as he switches to acoustic piano, he and the terrific rhythm section start beboppin’. Payton jumps on to trumpet, the instrument on which he first made his mark. It seems every time one hears Nicholas on piano, he gets better—though granted with the drive of drummer White—how can he miss? Payton’s abilities on the instrument are further exemplified on fellow pianist Herbie Hancock’s “Watch It.” The next cut, “Bust-aMove, a Payton original and a bow to the album’s bassist, is hilarious, moving from the opening chants to the repeated shout outs, “Busta, busta, busta, busta, busta!” The bassist contributes his own lovely ballad, “Christina,” in a thoughtfully executed trio setting.

album from Marty Peters and the Party Meters you can tell this is not going to be a rehash of traditional jazz songs. Though I dig most of the bands playing on the scene today, sometimes it sounds as if they are inter changeable.

Peters and his killer band

New Orleans native went for the rhythm section of bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White, who often provided the magic behind trumpeter Miles Davis, as well as others. Payton has also paid homage to jazz legends by mixing their compositions among his original material and using some spoken word passages from those among us as well as departed souls.

It opens with the voice of the late, great pianist Geri Allen speaking about the diversity of the Detroit music scene as a preface to her “Feed the Fire.” Payton sets the mood on a Fender

Wayne Shorter tells some amusing stories about working with Miles Davis before an album highlight, his own “Pinocchio,” that Miles recorded in 1967.

The Couch Sessions simply flies by which is a true indication of a great album that you just don’t want to end.

—GERALDINE WYCKOFF

Marty Peters and the Party Meters

Big Easy Livin’ (Independent)

From the opening notes of Jelly Roll Morton’s classic “Milneburg Joys” on the new

are shaking up the old genre in a way that would certainly have the knickers of the “moldy figs” of days of old tied up in knots. Not only are they playing tunes from deep in the well of the trad genre, but they are also spicing them up with new arrange ments and bringing the party back.

Besides Peters’ strong sax and clarinet work and exciting vocals, the musician who really stands out on the first listen to the album is the guitarist, Mark Weliky. Listeners might find his sound a bit modern for the genre, but his clean solos and complementary comping help the songs sound fresh. In fact, I thought a couple of the more obscure cuts were originals.

The rhythm section of

drummer Spencer Knapp and bassist Taylor Kent keep the party moving with a solid groove as they continually push the music forward. This is up-tempo stuff and as hinted at above, not your grandfather’s trad.

“Froggie Moore,” another Morton composition, and the first one I thought was an original, is an instrumental that would not have been out of place in a Las Vegas lounge circa 1955. While the rhythm section chugs along, all three instrumentalists take swinging solos. This is one tight band.

Marty Peters and the

Party Meters have been around since 2016 and began holding down a weekly gig at the Spotted Cat this year (Wednesday nights). Yet, I have never seen them live. This album is sure to remedy that serious omission.

—JAY MAZZA

Travis Matte and The Kingpins Rockin the Town (Mhat Productions)

With its cover depicting a dance party of gyrating ’60s hipsters, one might initially think Matte is attempting to recycle his 2011 release

Old School. While Old School was a reworking of rock ’n’ roll classics, Rockin the Town

features eight Matte originals showcasing The Kingpins’ versatility that straddles

various South Louisiana genres. Its trademark is still crunchy, buzzy, party-doused zydeco, as evidenced by the opening “The Tequila Song.” It’s somewhat reminiscent of The Champs’ 1958 Latintinged surf instrumental “Tequila” but with contem porary 420 references.”

The blitzing title song and “That Good Boudin” follow a similar zany spirit. On various tracks, journeyman saxman Pat Breaux unleashes screeching, hair-parting rides while guitarist Kevin “Turtle” Cormier scorches his solos.

Half the songs are well-done slower numbers. It’s these tracks that demon strate the depth of Matte’s songwriting augmented by a compelling vocal perfor mance. “Go On” follows a lovely melody and is graced with eloquent lines like “Whisper sweet songs in harmony.” It’s the perfect soundtrack for those moonlit, romantic moments before any pre-nup is signed.

As good as everything else is, “Fly Angel Fly” is even more impressive, an eye-watering tribute to two fallen friends. Cormier plays a soaring, cloud-scraping solo and Matte sings such powerful lines as: “You’re every reason why I’ll never be afraid to die.” For those experiencing loss, it’s sure to have a cathartic effect. For those who are not, other tracks offer the necessary

escape from reality.

—DAN WILLGING

all hit a sweet spot between great vocals, killer instrumental breaks, fun lyrics and groove.

The lone instrumental cut, “The Unicorn,” sounds South African. This band is all over the musical map, but with a production ethos that reflects a coherent whole, they also sound like no other band while sounding exactly like themselves.

California Honeydrops Soft Spot (Tubtone Records)

I’ve long had affection for the idea of the California Honeydrops for two reasons. Any band that does a good job of channeling the quintessential New Orleans groove is all right in my book. Secondly, the quintet has long used New Orleans percussionist Scott Messersmith as an auxiliary member on the road and in the studio.

Then, I finally saw them live at Tipitina’s and my feelings were compounded. Now with the release of their post-pandemic album, Soft Spot, it felt like time to dig into their recorded work.

Besides having New Orleans music as a root source, they are also heavily influenced by Motown and other Black American music. The songs on the new album

Guitarist, trumpeter and vocalist Lech Wierzynkski has an unmistakable voice that hovers around a high tenor. Combined with gospel-style backing vocals, many of the songs on the record would sound great on an old-time radio show.

“Tumblin’” starts with a fine curlicue guitar lick, hand claps and an irresistible groove. The chorus is effervescent—“When my love comes tumblin’ down.”

The title cut hits with horns and then a straightout-of-the Crescent City piano figure. “I got a soft spot for you baby, there’s nothing you could do that would make me stop loving you.”

Then in a clear reference, “Something you got gets me in my soft spot.”

Every song on this album is a tight little treat. A couple of songs are over four minutes, but this stuff is radio-ready for a radio format that doesn’t really exist anymore. There’s no fluff, no filler, all killer.

—JAY MAZZA

O

EXPRESS

These listings are abbreviated. For complete daily listings, go to offbeat.com. These listings were verified at the time of publication, but are of course subject to change. To get your event listed, go to offbeat.com/add-new-listings or send an email to listings@offbeat.com.

AF African

AM Americana

BL Blues

BU Bluegrass

BO Bounce

BB Brass Band

BQ Burlesque

KJ Cajun

CL Classical

CR Classic Rock

CO Comedy

CW Country

CB Cover Band

DN Dance

DX Dixieland

DB Dubstep EL Electro FO Folk

FK Funk

GS Gospel GY Gypsy

HH Hip-Hop

HS House

IN Indian Classical

ID Indie Rock

IL Industrial IR Irish

JB Jam Band

MJ Jazz Contemporary

TJ Jazz Traditional

JV Jazz Variety

KR Karaoke

KZ Klezmer

LT Latin MG Mardi Gras Indian

ME Metal

RB Modern R&B

PO Pop PK Punk

RE Reggae

RC Rockabilly

RK Rock

RR Roots Rock SS Singer/ Songwriter SK Ska PI Solo Piano SO Soul SW Spoken Word SP Swamp Pop SI Swing VR Variety ZY Zydeco

with DJ Maynor (DJ) 8p

House of Blues: Joshua Ray Walker plus Margo Cilker (CW) 7p

Jazz Playhouse: Funkin’ It Up with Big Sam (FK) 7:30p

New Orleans Jazz Market: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (CL) 6p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran & Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Swing Night with DJ Twigg (DJ) 8p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30p

Sandbar: Gerald French (TJ) 7p

The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park: Johnette Downing (TV) 11a

Palm Court Jazz Café: Leroy Jones & Katja Toivola with the Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7:30p Pavilion of the Two Sisters: Raphael Bas & Harmonouche (JV) 6p

Peacock Room: Da Lovebirds: Robin Barnes & Pat Casey (JV) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (TJ) 5:30p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30p

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Bistro Orleans: Santi “Harmonica” Garcia (TV) 5p

Broadside: Electric Yat Quartet with Andre Bohren (JV) 8p

Tipitina’s: Plains plus MJ Lenderman (RK) 8p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Thursdays (BB) 9p

University of New Orleans Amphitheatre: John “Papa” Gros (FK) 5p

Wetlands Sake: Eric Johanson (BL) 6:30p

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Davenport Lounge: Jeremy Davenport & His Band (TJ) 5:30p

Fillmore: Demi Lovato (RB) 7p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Beast (CO) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Latin Night

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30p

Smoothie King Center: Greta Van Fleet (RK) 8p

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2

Comedy House: Stand-up Comedy Open Mic (CO) 8p

Davenport Lounge: Jeremy Davenport & His Band (TJ) 8p

Cafe Negril: Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (RB) 10p

Davenport Lounge: Jeremy Davenport & His Band (TJ) 8p

Dragon’s Den: It’s Good Comedy Open Mic (CO) 7:30p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Brass-AHolics (FK) 7:30p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio &

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

Abita Springs Trailhead Park: Abita Fall Fest with Rebirth Brass Band, Flowtribe & more (BB) 5:30p

Constantinople Stage: The Tanglers (RR) 6p

Dragon’s Den: Comedy F#@K Yeah! (CO) 8p

L’Auberge Casino and Hotel: Better Than Ezra (RK) 7p

Find complete listings at offbeat.com—when you’re out, use offbeat.com/mobile for full listings on any cell phone.

Mahalia Jackson Theater: Zebra & The LPO Present The Music Of Led Zeppelin & The Music Of Zebra (CL) 8p

NOPSI Hotel: Matt Lemmler (PI) 4p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis & Yolanda Robinson with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: T Marie & Bayou Juju (KJ) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: The Rouge Krewe (RK) 8:30p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 8p

Tipitina’s: Leo Nocentelli’s Another Side (FK) 7p

Zony Mash Beer Project: Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 8p

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5

Abita Springs Trailhead Park: Abita Fall Fest with Imagination Movers, Ever More Nest, Bon Bon Vivant & more (RK) 11a

Bombay Club: Anais St. John (JV) 8p

House of Blues: Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes (JV) 8p

Mahalia Jackson Theater: Bonnie Raitt and special guest Marc Cohn (BL) 7p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Neutral Ground Coffeehouse: Frenchie Moe & Family (SS) 7p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Will Smith with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (JV) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

One Eyed Jacks: Julie Odell with Ocean Boyfriends (SS) 9p

Republic NOLA: beabadoobee and Lowertown (RK) 8p Santos: She Might Be

a Beast with Drab and Sansho (RK) 9p

Smoothie King Center: Carrie Underwood and Jimmie Allen (RK) 7:30p

Zony Mash Beer Project: Bo Dollis Jr. and The Wild Magnolias (MG) 8p

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6

One Eyed Jacks: EYEHATEGOD plus Ringworm plus Cult of Lilith (RK) 7p

Orpheum Theater: Myriam Hernandez (SS) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud with the Sunday Night Swingsters

(TJ) 7:30p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 1p & 6:30p

Southport Hall: Black Flag, The Dickies, more (RK) 6p

St. Pat’s Irish Coffeehouse: The Celtic Music Session (IR) 5:30p

Tipitina’s: Shovels & Rope (SS) 8p

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7

12 Mile Limit: Bear With Me Open Mic (CO) 7:30p

Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BL) 8p

House of Blues: Ambré (RB) 7p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Fillmore: Yung Gravy & bbno$ (RK) 7p

House of Blues (The Parish): Blitzkid (RK) 7p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Beast (CO) 7:30

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Latin Night with DJ Maynor (DJ) 8p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Carousel Lounge: James Martin Band (MJ) 8p

Comedy House: Stand-up Comedy Open Mic (CO) 8p

House of Blues: XTC’s Terry Chambers & Friends (RK) 7p

Jazz Playhouse: Funkin’ It Up with Big Sam (FK) 7:30p

Joy Theater: Mac Demarco (SS) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran & Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Swing Night with DJ Twigg (DJ) 8p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30p Sandbar: Bryon Asher & Basher (MJ) 7p

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10

Bistro Orleans: Santi “Harmonica” Garcia (JV) 5p

Cafe Negril: Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (RB) 10p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Brass-AHolics (FK) 7:30p

Mahalia Jackson Theater: Tauren Wells (RB) 7p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

New Orleans Jazz Museum: Best of the Beat Awards featuring music by Jon Cleary, Tommy McLain & CC Adcock, Lulu & the Broadsides, Tribute to Little Freddie

King & More! (BL) 6p

One Eyed Jacks: OffBeat Best of the Beat Party with Meschiya Lake (TJ) 10p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Clive Wilson with the Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7:30p

Pavilion of the Two Sisters: Bruce Daigrepont (KJ) 6p

Peacock Room: Da Lovebirds: Robin Barnes & Pat Casey (JV) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Chubby Carrier & Bayou Swamp Band (ZY) 8p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 7:30p Santos: Supersuckers w/ Volk (RK) 9p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Thursdays (BB) 9p

University of New Orleans Amphitheatre: George Porter Jr & Runnin’ Pardners (FK) 5p Zeitgeist Theatre: Luke Martin & Derek Baron + Special Guests (MJ) 7p

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11

Constantinople Stage: The Guitar Masters (RR) 6p Dragon’s Den: Comedy F#@K Yeah! (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Trixie Minx’s Burlesque Ballroom (JV) 9:30p

NOPSI Hotel: Matt Lemmler (PI) 4p

One Eyed Jacks: Tool Tribute SCHISM (RK) 9p

Orpheum Theater:

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performs Dvorak Symphony No. 8 (CL) 7:30p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis & Yolanda Robinson with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Preservation Hall: Rising Appalachia (BU) 7p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 8p

Sazerac Bar (Roosevelt Hotel): The Big 15 Gala feat. The Roots Studio Academy, The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders, The Nayo Jones Experience & More (BB) 7p

Southport Hall: Mothership: Tribute to Led Zeppelin (CV) 8p

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12

Bombay Club: Anais St. John (JV) 8p

Buffa’s Bar & Restaurant: Freddie Blue & the Friendship Circle Band (BL) 7p

Dew Drop Social & Benevolent Hall: Charlie & the Tropicales (JV) 6:30p Gasa Gasa: Lingua Ignota (RK) 9p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Will Smith with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: Bogue Chitto (RK) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Contraflow (CB) 9p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 2p & 8p

Sidney’s Saloon: MINKA with Fungi and Beach Angel (RK) 9p

Snug Harbor: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p & 10p

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13

Broadside: Shaking Souls ft. Helen Gillet & Simon Berz (MJ) 7p

NOLA Brewing Co: Valerie Sassyfras (RK) 3p

One Eyed Jacks: Une Soire Macabre staring Vita De Void (BQ) 9p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud & the Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition (KJ) 4:30p

Saenger Theatre: The Lion King (JV) 1p & 6:30p

Santos: Mothership with Vermilion Whiskey (RK) 9p

Tipitina’s: Spafford (RK) 8p

Toulouse Theatre: Tigers Jaw with Heart Attack Man and Glitter (RK) 8p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Sundays (BB) 9p

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14

12 Mile Limit: Bear With Me Open Mic (CO) 8:30p

Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BL) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

House of Blues (The Parish): The American Psycho Band (RK) 6p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Beast (CO) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Latin Night with DJ Maynor (DJ) 8p

Santos: The Legendary Shack Shakers w/ Joecephus George Jonestown Massacre (RK) 9p

Toulouse Theatre: Oddisee & Good Company (RK) 8p

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16

Carousel Lounge: James Martin Band (MJ) 8p

Comedy House: Stand-up Comedy Open Mic (CO) 8p

Dixon Hall: Faina Lushtak (CL) 7:30p

Jazz Playhouse: Funkin’ It Up with Big Sam (FK) 7:30p

One Eyed Jacks: The Soft Moon (RK) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran & the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Swing Night with DJ Twigg (DJ) 8p

Sandbar: Roger Lewis (MJ) 7p

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17

Bistro Orleans: Santi “Harmonica” Garcia (JV) 5p

Cafe Negril: Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (RB) 10p

Carrollton Station: Hash Cabbage (RK) 10p Dragon’s Den: It’s Good Comedy Open Mic (CO) 7:30p

House of Blues: Leonid & Friends (RK) 7p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Brass-AHolics (BB) 7:30p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Tim Laughlin & Duke Heitger with the Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7:30p

Pavilion of the Two Sisters: Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue (RC) 6p

Peacock Room: Da Lovebirds: Robin Barnes & Pat Casey (JV) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p

Southport Hall: Smile Empty Soul (RK) 7p

Tipitina’s: Penny & Sparrow + Annika Bennett (RK) 8p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Thursdays (BB) 9p University of New Orleans Amphitheatre: Muevelo (JV) 5p

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18

Carrollton Station: Sweet Magnolia Brass Band with Les Provocateurs (BB) 9p

Dragon’s Den: Comedy F#@K Yeah! (CO) 8p

House of Blues: Amigo The Devil (SS) 7:30p

Madame Vic’s: Valerie Sassyfras (RK) 8p

Mahalia Jackson Theater: Hansel and Gretel opera by Humperdinck (CL) 7:30p

NOPSI Hotel: Matt Lemmler (PI) 4p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis & Yolanda Robinson with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: Dick Deluxe (BL) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: The Chee Weez (CV) 9p

Saturn Bar: Conjunto Tierra Linda (JV) 9:30p

Southport Hall: Drowning Pool (RK) 7p

Tipitina’s: Seratones and Sweet Crude (RK) 9p

Zony Mash Beer Project: Rene Gros (SS) 8p

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Bombay Club: Anais St. John (JV) 8p

Hi-Ho Lounge: Hustle with Soul Sister (DJ) 11p

House of Blues: Trained Professionals with Dr. Sick (JV) 6p

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park: Dr Ben Redwine Duo (TJ) 2p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

New Orleans Jazz Market: The Big Beat Gala featuring Adonis Rose & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with special guests Nicholas Payton, Philip Manuel, and Leroy Jones (MJ) 7p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Will Smith & the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: Washboard Rodeo (BL) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Rock ‘n’ Roll Over: Kiss Tribute (CV) 8:30p

Santos: Killer Whale with Slow Motion Cowboys, Rose Vaughn (RK) 9p

Siberia: Caleb Caudle, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (RC) 8p

Tipitina’s: Lettuce (FK) 8p

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20

Mahalia Jackson Theater: Hansel and Gretel opera

by Humperdinck (CL) 2:30p

NOLA Brewing Co: Valerie Sassyfras (RK) 3p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Tom Fischer & the Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7:30p

St. Pat’s Irish Coffeehouse: The Celtic Music Session (IR) 5:30p

Tipitina’s: Fais Do Do With Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band (KJ) 5p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Sundays (BB) 9p

UNO Lakefront Arena: Maverick City Music + Kirk Franklin (GS) 7p

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21

12 Mile Limit: Bear With Me Open Mic (CO) 7:30p

Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BL) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Beast (CO) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Latin Night with DJ Maynor (DJ) 8p

WEDNESDAY, NOV 23

Carousel Lounge: James Martin Band (JV) 8p

Comedy House: Stand-up

Comedy Open Mic (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Funkin’ It Up with Big Sam (FK) 7:30p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran & the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Republic NOLA: Tvboo with Toadface and Ahee (RK) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition (KJ) 8p

Tipitina’s: A Tribute to The Songbook of Allen Toussaint ft. Irma Thomas, Ivan Neville, Deacon John & more (RB) 8p

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24

Cafe Negril: Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (RB) 10p

Dragon’s Den: It’s Good Comedy Open Mic (CO) 7:30p

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Brass-AHolics (BB) 7:30p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie (ZY) 8p Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Thursdays (BB) 9p

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25

Dragon’s Den: Comedy F#@K Yeah! (CO) 8p

Fillmore New Orleans: PJ Morton (RB) 7p

NOPSI Hotel: Matt Lemmler (PI) 4p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis & Yolanda Robinson with the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue (RC) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bucktown Allstars (CV) 8:30p

Tipitina’s: Gimme Gimme Disco: Dance Party inspired by ABBA (RK) 9p

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26

Bombay Club: Anais St. John (JV) 8p

Constantinople Stage: Layla Musselwhite (BL) 6p

House of Blues: Scarface (HH) 8p

Joy Theater: Mark Norman (CO) 7p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Will Smith & the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p

Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou: Little Freddie King (BL) 8p

Polo Club Lounge: John Royen (PI) 5:30p; Robin

Barnes (JV) 9p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Three Thirty Seven (CV) 8p

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27

One Eyed Jacks: She Wants Revenge (RK) 9p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Tom Fischer Clive Wilson with the Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7:30p

St. Pat’s Irish Coffeehouse: The Celtic Music Session (IR) 5:30p

Treme Hideaway: Brass Band Sundays (BB)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28

Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BL) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29

Howlin’ Wolf: Comedy Beast (CO) 8p

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club: Danny Rubio & The Catahoula Music Company (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Latin Night with DJ Maynor (DJ) 8p

Saenger Theatre: SIX: The Musical (JV) 7:30p

Tipitina’s: The Menzingers: with Touche Amore + Screaming Females (RK) 8p

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30

Carousel Lounge: James Martin Band (JV) 8p

Comedy House: Stand-up Comedy Open Mic (CO) 8p

Jazz Playhouse: Funkin’ It Up with Big Sam (FK) 7:30p

Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran & the Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7:30p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Swing Night with DJ Twigg (DJ) 8p

Saenger Theatre: SIX: The Musical (JV) 7:30p

Southport Hall: Norma Jean with guests (RK) 7p

Tipitina’s: The Wood Brothers (RK) 8p

FESTIVALS

NOVEMBER 3-8

New Orleans Film Festival: The 33rd annual New Orleans Film Festival takes place in venues across the city with in-person events, parties, panels, filmmaker pitches, and much more. For more information call (504) 309-6633.

NOVEMBER 4-5

Abita Fall Fest: Featuring live music and drinks. Friday, November 4 from 5p until 10p features the Brasshearts Brass Band, Flow Tribe and the Rebirth Brass Band. Saturday, November 5 from 10:30a until 7:30p featuring Imagination

Movers, Ever More Nest, Bon Bon Vivant, Margie Perez, Washboard Chaz and much more. Abita Springs Trailhead, 22044 Main St.

NOVEMBER 5

Art Walk: Art-lovers and art-makers along Julia Street present a slate of new art exhibits.

NOVEMBER 5

Bayou Bacchanal: Celebrating 20 years with Trinidadian soca artist, Farmer Nappy. Also featuring Trinette Zakiya, Peoplez Choice Mas Band, Madd Colors Carnival Band, Pan Vibrations and more. Crescent Park (Piety and Chartres Streets). 12p-10p

NOVEMBER 5-6

Giant Omelette Celebration: The festival includes a juried art show, egg games, Cajun food, and music. Sunday’s main event is the procession of chefs to the 12-foot skillet where they cook a 5,000 plus egg omelette. Magdalen Square, Abbeville Louisiana 70510. 9a-4:30p

NOVEMBER 6

Oak Street Po-Boy Festival: The festival is presented by the Oak Street merchants, residents and property owners. The festival features po-boys from local restaurants as well as local music that will play throughout the day. Located on Oak Street

between S. Carrollton Ave. and Leake St.

NOVEMBER 8-14

Hell Yes Fest: The Gulf Coast’s largest and weirdest comedy festival. Features a different nationally touring headliner every night of the week across multiple venues.

NOVEMBER 11-13

Jean Lafitte Seafood Festival: Includes live music, Louisiana food, swamp tours, kayak rentals, carnival rides and an art walk. 4953

City Park Dr, Jean Lafitte, Louisiana 70067

NOVEMBER 12

Sober Fest: Bridge House/Grace House presents the very first alcohol-free music festival. Featuring Camile Baudoin of the Radiators, Cha Wa, the Trombone Shorty Academy Brass Band, and more. Mardi Gras World, 1380 Port of New Orleans Pl. 11a-5p

NOVEMBER 12

FORESTival: A Studio in the Woods presents a celebration of art and nature. Art, food and music featuring Shamarr Allen, Sabine McCalla, and Wayne Singleton & Same Ol’ 2 Step. 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans. 11a-5p O

backtalk

Dan Storper talks back

In 1967, when Dan Storper was 16, his aunt and uncle invited him to go on a trip with their family to northern Mexico. It was lifechanging, to say the least.

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

“That led to a whole series of things,” he says, Zooming from his New Orleans home. “I worked for the summer at an archaeo logical excavation outside of Mexico City, fell in love with the handicrafts, decided to major in Latin American studies in college and then travel to Latin America to visit the countries I’d studied.”

And that sparked his desire to explore the world, which in 1975 grew into Putumayo, his venture that sells handicrafts from various cultures, countries and styles via its boutique stores and, starting in 1993, music through the Putumayo World Music record label, the seemingly ubiquitous (and still-ongoing) album releases found in bookstores, cafes and gift shops.

Things came full circle this year on another visit with his uncle, noted endocri nologist Dr. Si Reichlin who is now 98 and who moved to Tucson decades ago. The trip, with the two of them driving around southern Arizona (Aunt Ellie died in 2011) came as Storper was starting work on the latest Putumayo release, Feels Like Home: Songs From the Sonoran Borderlands and Beyond, a companion to the book Feels Like Home: A Song for the Borderlands, a new memoir by Linda Ronstadt, who was born and raised in Tucson in a Mexican-American family with deep roots in Sonora.

“I was listening to songs in his car that I was considering for the album,” Storper says. “He was helpful to me, gave his feedback on some of the music.”

The book, co-written with Lawrence Downes, features border-straddling stories, anecdotes and lavish photos, but food (it includes 20 recipes) and songs shared in Ronstadt’s very musical family are its

core. It all complements her 2013 autobiography Simple Dreams and the related 2019 life-story documentary The Sound of My Voice, the title a nod to her no longer being able to sing due to progressive supranuclear palsy.

And both book and album connect strongly with the 2020 film Linda and the Mockingbirds of a bus trip she, Jackson Browne and students from Los Cenzontles, a cultural-musical-educational center in California’s East Bay Area, took to Banámichi, the small town where her greatgrandparents first settled in the 1840s, with staff.

Family, naturally, figures heavily in the album, with the Mexican folk song, “El Sueño,” sung with her brothers Peter and Mike (one of two recordings drawn from her landmark late-’80s/early-’90s trilogy of Spanish-language albums) and a new recording by P.D. Ronstadt & Co.—Linda’s nephew Peter Dalton Ronstadt, her cousin Bobby Ronstadt, and Bobby’s granddaughter, Katie Arellano.

And there’s the late Mexican American folk titan Lalo Guerrero. He is a close friend of her father and a strong presence in her life, a collaborator with Ry Cooder, and is in her extended musical family. Guerrero is present in two duets from her catalog: one with Dolly Parton (the Appalachian folk song “I Never Will Marry”) and another with Emmylou Harris (Bruce Springsteen’s pointed “Across the Border”).

The stars, though, are Los Cenzontles, featured in four songs: Browne’s “The Dreamer,” an account of a young girl’s migration to and deportation from the U.S. inspired by the bus trip and written with the organization’s founder Eugene Rodriguez, and folk songs with guests David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Taj Mahal.

Storper, a Great Neck, Long Island native who moved to New Orleans 20 years

backtalk

ago, discussed his approach to the album, the Putumayo “aesthetic” and more.

But first, has he tried the recipes?

“No,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s funny. She says she doesn’t cook, and I don’t cook. So, it’s not something I would naturally try. I wish! I wish I could say otherwise. But no, I’m not a chef.”

The album and book are titled Feels Like Home, but there are a lot of musical homes represented—Appalachia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, Nashville, both sides of the San Francisco Bay Area and, of course, Tucson, and through you New Orleans, at least indirectly. But the state of Sonora is the real home in question, even though Ronstadt makes the point in the liner notes that she never lived there.

She grew up deeply influenced by what is essentially a Mexican American community. She was somewhat privileged. Her family had some money. She wasn’t typecast as a Latin person. But she understood that there was a lot of prejudice and a lot of poor treatment of people, whether they were on this side of the border or on the other side. And obviously that’s the underlying story of the book and so much about the music. The Jackson Browne song really talks about that, and a couple of the other songs talk about the importance of respecting people and not demonizing them.

What got you interested in this project?

they aren’t familiar with. And I don’t think [people] have an understanding of how deep her repertoire went, what her influ ences were.

The album starts with the Lalo Guerrero/Ry Cooder track [from Cooder’s 2005 album Chávez Ravine, about the demolition of an historic Los Angeles neighborhood where Dodger Stadium now stands], which really ties everything together.

I was a fan of Linda’s all these years, but I hadn’t realized that she had produced three albums of Mexican and Mexicaninfluenced music. What Putumayo does is introduce people to music that they aren’t familiar with. And I don’t think [people] have an understanding of how deep her repertoire went, what her influences were.

[The publisher] got me a list of songs that were mentioned in the book. And there was enough there that I thought would fit the Putumayo aesthetic. I was a fan of Linda’s all these years, but I hadn’t realized that she had produced three albums of Mexican and Mexican-influenced music. What Putumayo does is introduce people to music that

Linda’s father was a really brilliant singer and probably could have been a profes sional. He was good friends with Lalo, and Lalo serenaded her when she was a kid. She grew up listening to him and many of the other artists whose songs became famous. We had a struggle licensing some of the tracks we were interested in from some of the old-time singers. It was hard to find out who owned them, and a couple of the labels seemed to be defunct. So, we ended up focusing more on songs that had been recorded later by people like Los Cenzontles, who she loves and has collabo rated with and deserve a lot of respect.

Were there things she lobbied for or lobbied against?

There were two songs she wanted by a woman named Lola Beltran, who was

known as Lola La Grande. And we couldn’t find the license, couldn’t reach the people for the songs she wanted. So, we found another [recording] of one of these songs that inspired her that we thought she would love. But as it turns out it was a later recording and she didn’t think it was as good. So, we were kind of stuck.

“I Never Will Marry” is the most far-afield choice.

What started this was the list of songs that she and the publisher provided, songs that were influential and for the most part were going to be mentioned in the book. Her influences were not just Mexican. There was country, Americana, roots folk. So, these songs appeared simply because they were part of her roots. That’s why there are a few songs that were not Latin-oriented that made it, including “I Never Will Marry.”

This is not the typical Putumayo release. Were you concerned it fit for you?

One of the things about Putumayo is the aesthetic. You’ve got to be able to listen to a song scores of times and not get tired of it, because we sell to so many museum shops, bookstores, places that that, they have to be able to play it and the staff has to be able to listen to it without getting sick of it. That’s

a qualification that a lot of people don’t necessarily think about. So, it both required Linda’s liking the song and the recording and then us filtering it through out aesthetic. I think we’re both disappointed that we didn’t get earlier vintage recordings. But some of them didn’t sonically have the right quality we needed. But we’re both happy with the way it turned out.

In some ways the album is a showcase for Los Cenzontles.

When I got to know a little more about the group, their cultural work and to read

about them in Linda’s book, I went, “Where have they been all my life?” I’d heard of them but discovering this through her eyes and through her ears was a big discovery for me. When I saw that there were three songs by them that I really liked and our staff really liked we said, “Sure!”

There are no explicit New Orleans elements, but do you hear any connections?

The album represents a lot of threads of the Caribbean and Latin America and North America. You can hear a kind of microcosm of the New World elements that also help make up New Orleans.

The most personal song here is

backtalk

the one by her nephew and cousins. That’s a new version that Linda’s manager sent us near the end. We were going to use the original version and he said, “Why don’t you try this one?” We liked it. The idea was she obviously had a musical family and I love this line in the introduction where she said, “To make music is a marker that unites generations of Ronstadts. It’s one of those stubborn traits we have, like the circus family where everyone from baby to grandma can twist themselves into pretzels and nearly fly.”

In the book Ronstadt notes that Sonora and Tucson are just five hours apart—Tucson being like parts of Sonora but with more development and money. What were your early impressions of the region from your youth?

When I worked in Mexico City at this archaeological excavation, I was living on a budget and my lunch every day was the fruit of the prickly pear cactus— they were called tuna in Mexico. So, I just love the saguaros and prickly pears, The beautiful landscapes, though dry, are majestic. The mountains. And my uncle and aunt were just so good at taking me on drives throughout the region. We’d go down to this little mining town called Bisbee [Arizona], and a few other towns along the border. Being led by them enabled me to see the region in a way that I guess if I was on my own, I might not have experienced.

And your impressions of the people?

At the time I had started speaking Spanish and that had kind of endeared me to the people. They were friendlier because I made the effort to speak Spanish. And even later as I majored in Latin American studies, I always appreciated the people, the craftsmanship and the sense that the indigenous people had on that first trip to Mexico. On subsequent trips throughout Latin America that stuck with me. Putumayo began as a result of my first experience in a little village in southern Colombia where it was carnival time, and everyone was dressed in beautiful costumes. And there was this feeling that all was right in the world.

There was a sense of how to find happiness in a challenging environment. I think the music was reflected from that. And there’s a real interesting connection between the music of the Caribbean and Mexico that made its way gradually to the Southwest. It’s very joyous. That’s the kind of sense I had.

Your aunt and uncle gave you a great gift in the connection to the region, which must have made this project very meaningful to you.

I would go visit them in Tucson for years. They officially moved there 30, 35 years ago. And I would go regularly [to the Southwest] for my business. I’d visit the region, Southern California near the border, West Texas. I would often do the drive through that beautiful countryside. And I got to know it through reading the book, looking at the photographs. Ronstadt did a wonderful job connecting the region to the culture, to the food, to the music. O

Putumayo began as a result of my first experience in a little village in southern Colombia where it was carnival time, and everyone was dressed in beautiful costumes. And there was this feeling that all was right in the world.