OffBeat Magazine June 2017

LOUISIANA MUSIC, FOOD & C U LT U R E — J U N E 2 0 1 7 Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50

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Jazz Fest Redux Chef Mimi Assad Luke Spurr Allen Bacon Brothers

BLAST FROM THE PAST

You Know What It’s About

“Backstage at Emeril’s”

Flow Tribe funkiness does whatever it takes.

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PHoto (top): BRANDT VICKNAIR, Photo (Bottom): Elsa Hahne

LETTERS

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FROM PIES TO DISHES

MOJO MOUTH

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Mimi Assad is the new executive chef at Bar Frances.

FRESH

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Five Questions with Scott Gold, national bacon critic; Kristin Diable covers “Magnolia” to benefit the Roots of Music; we list the top music sellers at Jazz Fest, and more.

OFFBEAT EATS

REVIEWS 32

The gospel according to Luke Spurr Allen.

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Water Seed’s energetic spirit.

RESTAURANT PARADISE OR FOOD DESERT? Downriver New Orleans might have more restaurants than ever, but continues to struggle with how to make groceries.

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by Todd A. Price September 2007 48

Erica Falls is In the Spot at Mona’s Cafe and Peter Thriffiley reviews Turkey and the Wolf.

Our writers reflect on Jazz Fest 2017, sharing their thoughts on its best (and occasionally worst) moments.

A SOUND FOR THIS GENERATION

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Ashleigh Ruedinger mixes up Magnolia Smile for the Revivalists at DTB.

JAZZ FEST REDUX Page 14

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

IN THE SPIRIT

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Greg Schatz, Alexey Marti, Bonsoir, Catin, John Michael Bradford, Lord David, Blato Zlato, Chase Tyler, Willie Nelson, Tom McDermott and more.

LISTINGS

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BACKTALK with the Bacon Brothers

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(Kevin Bacon and Michael Bacon)

“I was contemplating whether I should retire, and the [Food Network] said, what would you want to do? So I said, you guys know I have a strong connection to music, and I think what’s missing is a food show that uses music and that’s live.”

To read more, this issue can be purchased at www.offbeat.com/issues/ september-2007/.

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Letters

“It’s clear we’re in good hands— hands that will keep us clapping for years to come. Thanks, Quint, for once again, putting on the best festival in the world.”

—Andrew Gibbs, New Orleans, Louisiana

Jazz Fest 2017

Jazz Fest Bible Book

Amidst a rocking performance at Tipitina’s on Jazz Fest Eve, Anders Osborne serenaded the audience with a prolonged rendition of “Summertime in New Orleans,” accenting the “We All Know Who Dat Is” verses. His emphatic decision not only served as an appropriate introduction to the seven-day celebration of New Orleans music ahead, but also silenced critics who ask, “Where’s the jazz at Jazz Fest?”

Never mind the 12 acts per day featured in the Jazz Tent and Economy Hall or the brass bands who blow their hearts out at the Jazz and Heritage Stage or the undercurrent of jazz influence on the big stages. What Osborne’s ode to the local artist really does is to champion the ones who attend Jazz Fest every year… who support New Orleans music year-round.

It’s no secret that New Orleans is a collision of romance and reality, and it’s easy to be cynical when a local treasure grows beyond its borders to become a national treasure, but like Trombone Shorty, make no mistake, Jazz Fest is keeping the traditions alive.

Where else but Jazz Fest can you see the evolution of music so vivaciously? When congas talk to bass drums during Trumpet Mafia’s set, when the Soul Rebels set the rhythm for Nas at Congo Square, when Cyril Neville’s Blues Tent set overlaps Jon Batiste’s Acura show, when the Midnite Disturbers push the limits of brass, when Galactic is transforming the definition of a New Orleans band before your very eyes, the Fest is at its peak, celebrating its history while practicing the essential purpose of art, making it new.

That theme continues when you see old faces in new places. Finding “Mean” Willie Green on drums for the New Orleans Suspects, June Yamagishi with Corey Henry, Shamarr Allen with Galactic speaks to the power of the New Orleans musician network and reminds us that even when groups disband, artists play on in ways that are familiar, new, and great.

It’s clear we’re in good hands—hands that will keep us clapping for years to come.

Thanks, Quint [Davis], for once again, putting on the best festival in the world.

—Andrew Gibbs, New Orleans, Louisiana

Every year I look forward to the Jazz Fest Bible. I savor it, devour it, and save it on my shelf. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if OffBeat put together a book of all of the Jazz Fest Bibles, or at least the artist stories that you publish each year. I know in the past you have put out calls to your subscriber base for ideas about how to diversify your revenue stream and re-package all of the amazing content you have stored away.

As a consumer, I could contact you and purchase back issues (Bibles) I may have missed, but a book that comes with a few bells and whistles maybe a piece or two of new content, or a compilation CD, would be very enticing. And, I could purchase a copy for a friend!

—Rich Grogan, West Chesterfield, New Hampshire

Post Office Owes Again, someone with the post office is reading my OffBeat Jazz Fest Bible.

Periodically I do not receive my OffBeat magazines for the past five years or so. I do not know if the employee that delivers on my route is taking them, or if they never leave the post office. Anyway, I really look forward to the Jazz Fest edition. My friend offered for me to look at theirs, but they do not want to give it to me because Trombone Shorty is on the cover.

—David Keith Hunt, Elmer, Louisiana

Better Festival Food, But No Football The following is in response to Marine Laval’s online piece, “Discovering Jazz Fest: A French First-Timer’s Thoughts on New Orleans’ Biggest Music Event.”

After living in Nice for a few months, I agree that there is nothing like Jazz Fest although the Festival du Port did seem to have much higher quality of food and wine than you would find at festivals in the US. I had the idea of moving there, but I couldn’t live without baseball, American football and the quality of live music in the US. At least I was happy to find a big display for Trombone Shorty’s last CD when it was released.

—Joanne Drummond, New Orleans, Louisiana

OffBeat welcomes letters from its readers—both comments and criticisms. To be considered for publication, all letters must be signed and contain the current address and phone number of the writer. Letters to the editor are subject to editing for length or content deemed objectionable to OffBeat readers. Please send letters to Editor, OffBeat Publications, 421 Frenchmen St., Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116.

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Louisiana Music, Food & Culture

June 2017 Volume 30, Number 7 Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com Managing Editor Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com Consulting Editor John Swenson Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Listings Editor Katie Walenter, listings@offbeat.com Contributors Sam D’Arcangelo, Megan Braden-Perry, Laura DeFazio, Robert Fontenot, Elsa Hahne, Alex Johnson, Tom McDermott, Brett Milano, Jennifer Odell, Nick Pittman, Clea Simon, John Swenson, Peter Thriffiley, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff, Michael Allen Zell Cover Brandt Vicknair Art Director/Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Web Editor Sam D'Arcangelo, sam@offbeat.com Advertising Sales Maggie Doussan, maggie@offbeat.com Promotions Coordinator Camille A. Ramsey, camille@offbeat.com Advertising Design PressWorks, 504-944-4300 Business Manager Joseph L. Irrera Interns Alex Guior, Marine Laval, Elina Tons Distribution Patti Carrigan, Doug Jackson OffBeat (ISSN# 1090-0810) is published monthly in New Orleans by OffBeat, Inc., 421 Frenchmen St., Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116 (504) 944-4300 • fax (504) 944-4306 e-mail: offbeat@offbeat.com, web site: www.offbeat.com facebook.com/offbeatmagazine twitter.com/offbeatmagazine Copyright © 2017, 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 $45 per year ($52 Canada, $105 foreign airmail). Back issues are available for $10, except for the May issue for $16 (for foreign delivery add $6, except for the May issue add $4). Submission of photos and articles on Louisiana artists are welcomed, but unfortunately material cannot be returned.

MOJO MOUTH

Red Hot Harris

I

started getting involved in the music industry in the early 1980s. The transition from a fan/freak to someone who tried to understand the vagaries of the music “business” versus music enjoyment was rather an ordeal.

Back then, I met quite a few people who were involved in the music business—or who wanted to be involved in the business. One of those people was Lee Rea, who had attended Tulane, was a Fulbright Scholar, and who I learned later, had worked at the Mushroom, the little record store cum head shop adjacent to the Tulane Campus on Broadway.

When I met him, Lee was probably as big a fan as me. He and his then-wife Shirani owned a

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record store in Gentilly, and several others in town known as Peaches.

Lee and Shirani had two children, but ultimately didn’t stay together; but Shirani kept the Gentilly Peaches open for years until it moved to the old Tower Records location on North Peters post-Katrina and then to Magazine Street.

Lee (at some point in time he reverted to his given first name of Harris—his son was known as Lee) and I became business acquaintances and I always admired him for his devotion to local music and musicians. Harris concocted a grand scheme and a telephonebook-size business plan to create a wholesale company that would specialize in distributing Louisiana

By Jan Ramsey music. He solicited investors for years before landing a Houstonbased and a local investor, John Elstrott, who helped make “Big Easy Distribution” a reality.

Unfortunately, the idea didn’t pan out, but at the same time Rea started a record label, Louisiana Red Hot Records, to develop and promote local music.

That idea did work.

Louisiana Red Hot was housed in a large warehouse in Gentilly when Hurricane Katrina struck, and it seemed then that Harris’ dream hit a low point; the building and the business were decimated. But he kept on going, and ultimately re-established the label. I thought it was funny and endearing that he

co-opted Louis Armstrong’s signoffs on his letters: “Red beans and ricely yours.”

I heard some years ago that Harris wasn’t doing well; that he had cancer. We met for lunch, and he didn’t look well, but he was upbeat and positive about beating his illness and pursuing the dream of Louisiana Red Hot Records.

Harris was a one-of-a-kind person, and a great example of what dedication to a dream can produce. He died from leukemia on May 11, surrounded by his family and friends.

Harris, may your dream of promoting Louisiana music be fulfilled. You started something great that will endure.

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FRESH

Kristin Diable releases fresh cover to benefit Roots of Music

Photo: KATE GEGENHEIMER

Jurassic 5, Blackalicious take over the Howlin’ Wolf

MAGNOLIA, IN BLOOM

OffBeat.com

SWEET TWEETS

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ew songs are more quintessentially Southern than JJ Cale’s “Magnolia,” and few voices more so than Kristin Diable’s. So it makes sense that Diable recorded the song and released it this month. A stand-alone single not destined for her next album, the track is notable for a few reasons: It’s her first release since the rightly acclaimed Create Your Own Mythology album two years ago; and it’s a benefit for the Roots of Music. And it’s the first cover released by Diable, who seldom sings anything but her own material.

Often featured in these pages, the Roots of Music provides music theory and instruction for low-income kids aged 9-14, and gives them real-world experience on performance and touring. The associated band has made a few Jazz Fest appearances and played at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards and for President Obama when he visited town in 2015.

“Their mission statement is ‘We believe that music has the power to transform lives,’ and that statement is a long-held belief in our band as well,” Diable said in an email from the road. “The past year of precarious political and social times left us feeling a sense of frustration and hopelessness. Instead of focusing on the world at large, we decided to focus on where we can be productive and grow the resources and support what we want to see in this world, for those who need it. We wanted to use this new music as a tool to directly support the talented young minds of the place we care so much about, to contribute in a new way to watering those seeds of possibility and growth.”

As for the choice of material, she says “I guess rather than writing a protest song, I felt our most useful act of protest would be to support what we want to see grow in this world.”

“Magnolia” has quite a history: First recorded by Cale in 1971, it was done by Poco on 1973’s Crazy Eyes, then revived twice in 2014—first by Lucinda Williams, then by Eric Clapton and John Mayer on a Cale tribute album. To these ears Diable’s version, done to a soulful electric-piano groove, beats any of those. It can be had through her Bandcamp page (https://kristindiable.bandcamp.com/releases) or from iTunes.

—Brett Milano

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@jazzfest Did you lose something at Jazz Fest? Our lost & found department can be reached via e-mail: lost@nojazzfest.com. @djsoulsister Dear new New Orleanians from elsewhere, welcome. The easiest & BEST way to fit in is it be friendly WITH EVERYONE. Otherwise, we see you... @AlisonF_NOLA The same people you misuse on your way up, you might meet up— on your way down. Bye, Beauregard. @m_tisserand Idea for big hit puppet show: Donald and Ivanka and Jared as bears return to White House and find Hillary sound asleep in Jared’s bed. @AmyTrailSongs Musician life: When you tell your husband you’re going to go play with your co-worker’s organ and hubby doesn’t blink an eye. @dougmaccash Bayou Boogaloo: Check out the Mid-City Navy in Bayou St. John.

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FRESH

SOUNDCHECK

Photo: ashley merlin

Five Questions with Scott Gold, local food writer and national bacon critic

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ou’re reaching the end of your appointment as a national bacon critic for ExtraCrispy.com. Please remind us how you got the job last year?

Sixteen hundred people applied for this position, and I got it. Everybody who applied had to do so with a 600-word essay, and that’s not a lot. You have to choose your works wisely. One night, I found myself writing in my head in my sleep and realized I had a bacon story. I invoked Dante and all the things I’d learned in classic literature. I have been, you see, in bacon heaven and in bacon hell. Hell was working as a bartender and server in a restaurant in Brooklyn. It was hell because they had some of the best bacon I’d tasted in my entire life—life-changing bacon, and I think it is for a lot of people, especially vegetarians. The problem was that we weren’t allowed to eat it. They were getting Hampshire pork bellies from upstate, dry-rubbing them and curing them and smoking them in-house. Glorious, expensive; you’re not going to give that to the staff, but we had to serve it and smell it all day long. It was torture.

And bacon heaven?

It was working for Brendan Cahill at that same New York restaurant.

He’s famous for inventing what we called “Christmas biscuits”—buttermilk biscuits with rich, white gravy, Sriracha, chives and scallions—red, green and white, and bacon bits on top. Mid-shift during an angry brunch, when you’re filled to the eyeballs with murder, a Christmas biscuit will save your life and restore your respect for humanity.

What have your learned during your appointment?

Bacon is always going to be bacon. It’s like sex; never bad, it’s still bacon. How bad can it be? But this job did not exist before I got it, and figuring it out was half the job. I interviewed other niche critics, like the

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pot critic in Denver and a barbecue critic in Austin. How do you do this?

What’s going to happen to me?

My whole family was worried. “What’s your weight like? What’s your sodium? What’s your cholesterol?”

What’s your favorite bacon?

During my regime, I found that Bill-E’s in Fairhope, Alabama, makes one of the best in America. And the absolute best might be Fermin Iberico bacon from Spain; it had me melting, weak in the knees.

I found that I prefer cured bacon. It’s not like there is actual uncured bacon, but what “uncured” means is that it’s cured without curing salts, pink salt. “No sodium nitrites,” that’s the bacon you want to avoid... If uncured, it’s only good fresh. You can’t leave it in the fridge for three weeks like you would as a bacon critic and also as an idiot.

Being a fair critic also relied on my own cooking skills. My perfect method is 400 degrees in the oven on a wire rack, nested in a sheet tray. You start at 12 minutes and go from there. Everyone likes bacon different: Chewy, soft or crispy. My father enjoys his burned in the fires of Vulcan. When a Roman god is done with it, that’s when Mel Gold knows his bacon is done.

Finally, how’s your weight? How’s your sodium?

DO NOT ASK ME THIS QUESTION. Secondly, I’m fine. I just had a checkin with my doctor, where they tested my liver using a method invented to test the ripeness of cheese, an ultrasonic fibroscan. If a truly damaged, cirrhotic liver is like a 4 to a 5, I’m somewhere between a 0 and a 1.

—Elsa Hahne For a thicker slice, Gold’s complete report can be found at www.extracrispy.com/food/2877/the-best-bacon-in-america. www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

TOP SELLING RECORDS DURING JAZZ FEST

A tale of two kings Louisiana Music Factory 1. Trombone Shorty: Parking Lot Symphony (Blue Note) 2. Jon Cleary: Live at Chickie Wah Wah (FHQ Records) 3. Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is (Sony Legacy) 4. Anders Osborne: Flower Box (Independent) 5. Chloe Feoranzo and Tom McDermott: Zeppelins Made To Order (Rabadash Records) 6. John Mooney: Truth of the Matter (Independent) 7. Erica Falls: Home Grown (Independent) 8. Little Freddie King: You Make My Night (MadeWright Records) 9. Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes: Sketch (Independent) 10. John “Papa” Gros: River’s on Fire (Uncle Bud’s Music)

Euclid Records 1. King James & the Special Men: Act Like You Know (Independent) (LP) 2. Allen Toussaint: The Allen Toussaint Collection (Nonesuch) (2 LPS) 3. 79rs Gang: Fire on the Bayou (Sinking City Records) (CD and LP) 4. Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Navigator (ATO) (CD and LP) 5. Various Artists: Trail Riderz Vol. 1 (Apex of the Universe) (Cassette) 6. Luke Spurr Allen featuring the Happy Talk Band: Pothole Heart (Chicken Little) (CD) 7. Alex McMurray: Sings His Greatest New Orleans Hits (Velvety Pod) (CD) 8. Tuba Skinny: Owl Call Blues (Independent) (CD and LP) 9. Lily Keber: Bayou Maharajah: The Life and Music of New Orleans Piano Legend James Booker (Cadiz Music) (DVD) 10. Guitar Lightnin’ Lee and His Thunder Band: Little by Little (Norton Records) (45)

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Jazz Fest Redux We reflect on Jazz Fest 2017 and share some of its best (and occasionally worst) moments.

“H

appy Fest” is a springtime greeting in New Orleans, our own kind of “Aloha.” People say it to start a conversation and again to depart. I heard this greeting a hundred times this festival season around town. I heard dog-walking neighbors say it during the week in the streets. Outside the Fair Grounds, street performers and Mid-City residents with packed porches and open doors shared it with the streams of people converging near the entrance. I heard it in cheers at logjams in the streams where people clogged around trays of jello shots. Inside the Fair Grounds I saw parties split ways saying “Happy Fest” as they went to different stages.

It’s a greeting that comes commensurate with a smile.—Alex Johnson

Michael Skinkus

Hitting the Ground Running On opening day of Jazz Fest 48 the hot and humid weather was mitigated by cloud cover and a gusty wind that made baseball caps the choice over straw hats. Crowds were sparse except for the two big

Photo: ryan hodgson-rigsbee

Usually, we like to start our Fest with some Mardi Gras Indians. But on the opening Thursday, the Semolian Warriors weren’t scheduled until 12:30, and so Michael Skinkus and Moyuba won out. It was an auspicious start, with the New Orleanian-based troupe invoking the orishas in a respectful (and pointedly non-sacred, given their appearance

on a racetrack paddock Lagniappe stage) fashion. Not that respect means dull. Although the troupe did succumb to the unnecessary revisionism of sax solos occasionally, the core of overlaid vocals and polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean percussion shone through—making a grand opening both for the Semolians (who keep that pulsing barebones parade sound alive) and for the Cuban bands that graced this year’s Fest. These were a great and long overdue addition, and the various bands, which each played several sets, drove the lesson home.

Take the Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñeiro, for example. Even performing dance music, they knew to keep the brass sharp, tight, and in the back, behind the congas and the vocals, while the more basic lineup of Grupo Caury—again, vocals and percussion—evoked nearly as wild a response.

When the rhythm is right, less is so much more.—Clea Simon

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stage headliners and lines for some hard-to-obtain goodies like cochon de lait po-boys were reasonable all day.

My first move was to buy the commemorative post office release from “Big Chief Monk Boudreaux Station.” Don’t know if Monk ever dreamed he’d have a post office named after him but he has now lived to see it. Monk also curates the Mardi Gras Indian performances at the Fest and he started the program by booking the Semolian Warriors to represent at the Jazz and Heritage stage. The uptown gang hit it hard with a nonstop call and response that touched on all the rituals, from “Shoo Fly” to “Big Chief.”

Over on the Gentilly stage things got started with a bang, as Alex McMurray rocked out his killer new tune “Ninth Ward Chickens” and played a set based on material from his latest, Alex McMurray Sings His Greatest New Orleans Hits.

Michael Skinkus and Moyuba performed a stirring invocation at the Lagniappe stage by summoning down the Vodun orishas to bless the festival. Cuba was this year’s featured guest country at the Fest and Skinkus is well versed in that country’s musical heritage. “This is

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Afro Cuban music,” he announced as he led his eight-piece band, all dressed in white to honor the spirits, through a high-energy set that had the largely female audience dancing enthusiastically. Though the music is based in ancient traditions, it moves directly into contemporary jazz via the extraordinary playing of Martin Krusche on soprano saxophone and Brad Walker on tenor.

Once his set was finished, Skinkus rushed over to the Acura stage to sit in with the New Orleans Suspects, who played one of the best sets I’ve ever heard from them. Skinkus was blazing throughout, especially during Mean Willie Green’s terrific drum break.

Meanwhile over at Economy Hall, trumpeter Jamil Sharif was leading his sextet through a hot set of traditional New Orleans jazz. Clad in a sharp black and white checked jacket, Sharif had the fans clapping and second lining to “This Little Light of Mine” five minutes into his set.

I had to miss the Paul Sanchez set because I was interviewing Kim Carson over at the Alison Miner stage. I should not have been surprised when Carson volunteered that Sanchez, then with Cowboy Mouth, was one of the people who encouraged her to start writing songs

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“It’s almost as if Jazz Fest was taken over, or somehow completed, by the Cuban correspondence. It seemed like everywhere I walked over the course of Jazz Fest I heard congeros beating a clave rhythm into the air.”—John Swenson

when she first came to town.

We’ve all benefitted from that because Carson has gone on to become one of the top local songwriters. The interview was a delight as she recounted her days working with Theresa Andersson, having Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown sit in during a gig in Slidell and recounting an observation made by Dave Malone about the differences between herself and Dolly Parton. She didn’t even have to employ the punch line to get a huge laugh. Carson played a few of her songs as well, including her first, a tune called “Where’s the Jukebox?” written on napkins at the Saturn bar, and her great song about a dog named “Buddy Johnson.”

Carson later played with her full band at the Lagniappe stage, bringing out some of the songs she talked about during the interview.—John Swenson

Cuban Cultural Exchange The music festival culture created by George Wein at the Newport Jazz Fest and perfected here in New Orleans by Wein and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage organization has become an institution of its own. For 48 years Jazz Fest here in New Orleans has presented the best of what the city’s unique culture has to offer. In recent years, as many of the icons of the city’s music have passed away, local headliners have been replaced by national acts that have expanded the festival’s commercial appeal but have not managed to rob the event of its core identity.

Alongside the decision to bring in non-New Orleans headliners was the brilliant idea to feature a guest country each year, bringing musicians with roots common to those of New

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Stevie Wonder

Orleans into the mix. This has been a refreshing, educational and musically stimulating addition to the Jazz Fest lineup. Up until now my favorite cultural exchange had been the year the Brazilian musicians came to town and played with everyone.

But this year’s guest country, Cuba, proved to be the most spectacular choice yet. We have been cut off from interacting with this nation’s music for more than half a century, but the lifting of the embargo allows us to see how closely Cuban music is aligned with the music of New Orleans.

The common roots are intertwined in the African ancestry of the music, but there is more than just common ground here. There’s a sense of identity, like being reunited with a long lost family member. The deep links between Havana and New Orleans, the

two major port cities in the region since the colonial era, have been reestablished.

It’s almost as if Jazz Fest was taken over, or somehow completed, by the Cuban correspondence. It seemed like everywhere I walked over the course of Jazz Fest I heard congeros beating a clave rhythm into the air. Often I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, because it was represented everywhere, from the Kids Tent to the Jazz and Heritage Stage, from Congo Square to the Fais Do-Do Stage. And of course at the cultural pavilion, where a festival inside a festival rolled with its own rules.

Conga drums figure prominently in New Orleans music as well, and even national acts like Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire use congas as part of the rhythm section. So the sound was wonderfully ubiquitous, and

also a kind of completion. Many of the Cuban musicians used nothing but the human voice and percussion instruments to create exciting montunos that built in intensity and seemed to overspill their borders at will. A five-piece band at the cultural pavilion might suddenly at the end of the set explode into a 15-piece maelstrom of chanting voices, polyrhythms and dancers. More than one observer noted how close in spirit this music is to that of the Mardi Gras Indians, and on the last day, Big Chief Juan Pardo & Jockimo’s Groove featured two Cuban percussionists in the mix at the Heritage Stage. Once again, Jazz Fest was able to renew itself in a surprising way.—John Swenson The superabundance of Cubans was great of course. Lots of rumba (room-bah), a term that in North America is very loosely used, but in Cuba refers to a specific kind of vocal-and-percussion music.—Tom McDermott

Stanton Moore Saw Stanton Moore on Saturday, April 29 at the Jazz Tent and he was at his best—started out with a trio featuring Astral Project bassist James Singleton and pianist David Torkanowsky. The trio played two out of three James Black songs— “Whistle Stop” and “Magnolia Triangle”—to start things off.

The rest of the set, all taken from Moore’s upcoming album, was made up of Allen Toussaint songs.

Moore brought out Eric Bloom on trumpet, Skerik on tenor sax and Mike Dillon on percussion for a version of “Java,” Toussaint’s million-seller for Al Hirt. Bloom laid back for the first pass but soon rode into his virtuoso comfort zone. Don’t make things too easy for this guy. www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: Elsa Hahne

JA ZZ FE

WHERE Y’ACHT Next, the terrific rendition of “Magnolia Triangle” highlighted

by Moore’s thunderous drum intro and a game-changing arcoloop solo from Singleton. Moore then stood up from his drum kit and addressed the crowd: “Every musician in New Orleans considers him one of the greatest soul singers of all time.”

Enter Cyril Neville, resplendent in a tan outfit topped with a white fedora. Stanton hip-checked the band into a tricky 5/4 slicing of “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky” with Cyril navigating the beat deftly. Great horn arrangement.

Then Cyril just took over on a finale of “Night People” that had him pushing the band to successive heights with his vocals.

“Shake it…” Cyril shouted. “Jazz Fest ‘17.”—John Swenson

Moore Than Meets the Eye The schedule simply read, “Stanton Moore,” yet being presented in the Jazz Tent, those

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in the know figured that meant the drummer’s trio with pianist David Torkanowsky and bassist James Singleton. Yet there was, well, more. The three were joined by percussionist Mike Dillon and saxophonist Skerik. The group bowed to the late, great drummer James Black by doing a stunning version of his “Magnolia Triangle.”

Later, Moore introduced, “One of the greatest soul singers of all time.” Cyril Neville stepped out and, among other tunes, sang two Allen Toussaint classics, “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky” and “Night People.” A apt wrap to a great set.—Geraldine Wyckoff

Feufollet I loved Feufollet, who seem to have pivoted from a very good but conventional Cajun band to a multistylistic Americana/Cajun Pop band with very interesting harmonic progressions and counterpoint (at least on the few songs I heard). The Savoy Family Band were the usual delightful

selves, as was Roddie Romero, all at the same stage.—Tom McDermott

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Helen Gillet Belgian transplant Helen Gillet may be best known these days as the ultimate collaborator: this Fest, she not only played nighttime gigs with the sax player Jessica Lurie (at Bacchanal) and drummer Nikki Glaspie (Chickie Wah Wah), she also introduced the films of the Belgian avant garde at the Zeitgeist. But there’s something to be said for the woman alone.

With her loops and delays, Gillet conjures a full ensemble out of her cello, with a sound that ranges from gypsy jazz to Indian drones, with a strong song sensibility beneath it all. On the Lagniappe Stage the first Friday, she was in prime form with a packed set that ranged from some of her usual covers (PJ Harvey’s “Angelene” and the Belgian songwriter Julos Beaucarne’s “De Memoir de Rose”) to newer originals (“Slow Drag Pavageau,” about the

legendary New Orleans bassist) and old favorites (“Atchafalaya”). It’s always a blast to see newcomers respond to Gillet, and the standingroom-only paddock fell silent as the cellist (in a red jumpsuit) layered vocals over percussive beats (made by slapping the body of her cello) adding in bowed and pizzicato passages as each song progressed.

At times like this, solo is more than enough.—Clea Simon

Seahorse Saloon The first Sunday was a wash until the gates finally opened around 3 p.m., but being pent up in the Seahorse Saloon was a quintessential Jazz Fest experience in and of itself. The Po Boyz rocked

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the house for over three hours straight as the rain refused to quit. Throngs of dance-happy festers from near and far (mostly far) boogied down to the band’s funky brand of Latin/soul/gospelinflected country party music.

—Laura DeFazio

Rainy Day Dream Away Woke up Sunday morning April 30 and got ready for Fest Day 3. We all knew it was gonna rain, but it hadn’t started yet when word came down that the opening would be delayed. When some 3-4 inches came down sideways during the space of an hour around midday it was hard to believe the gates would open at all. But by 3 p.m. the rain had stopped and they were letting people in. The crowd at the main gate was out of control so it took quite a while to actually get in. As a result we missed Dr. John, who was treating Jazz Fest to a look at his revived New Orleans band with special guest Charles Neville on saxophone. Mac is part of the life blood of the city’s music so it’s wonderful to see him reconnect with it. Everyone I talked to who saw the set loved it and remarked on how happy Mac seemed. I’m happy for him.

Rainy days certainly have their downside, as Little Milton well knew. More than half of the scheduled performers had their gigs cancelled, and acts who could have played, but didn’t, included Pitbull and George Benson, both major draws, so their fans were bummed. Nobody took it harder than Dave Malone of the very interesting all-star lineup Magnificent 7, which includes his brother Tommy Malone, John Gros, Mark Mullins, Robert Mercurio, Raymond Weber and Michael Skinkus. Dave and Mark

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were part of the recent Last Waltz tribute tour, and I was looking forward to hearing them play “Cripple Creek.” And of course the vendors and food merchants were pretty much wiped out. If you ordered the Jama Jama you got enough spinach on the plate for three people.

On the other hand, a philosophical bent might lead to—even—a sigh of relief. Alex McMurray, who had played three gigs until 4 a.m. the previous morning, rustled himself out of bed for his 11 a.m. gig with the Tin Men, found out it was cancelled and went back to sleep.

He was gonna need the rest with Chaz Fest coming up that Wednesday.

Somewhere during the deluge, Ed Volker got the call that his Quintet Narcosis band would hit as scheduled on the Lagniappe Stage at 3:50 p.m. Though he might have been skeptical, he assembled the group only to find that there was no power. The outage had also stopped the Alison Miner stage.

“I thought about asking the guys to just come over to my place and play,” said Volker, “but here we are.”

About 4 p.m. the word came out that power would be restored in five minutes.

The band got up there and everyone was set except for Volker’s piano, which was inaudible. Bassist Rene Coman, percussionist Michael Skinkus, guitarist Camile Baudoin and tenor saxophonist Joe Cabral began playing a 20-minute sound check/jam with Cabral playing all the way through and Volker hitting the keyboards but getting no response.

Then, at 4:31 p.m., the keyboards magically appeared in the mix and Volker immediately launched into a composite of “Sailing Shoes,” lines from “Fish Head Music” and the repeated refrain “Sail Away.”

“We’re actually playing!” shouted Volker to the assembled dancers. “You’re actually here!”

The group played a truncated set of “Dancing On the Grave of a Sonof-a-Bitch,” “Go Down Swinging” and “Coup de Grace,” three songs about not leaving quietly.

“Thirty years ago,” Volker mused, “we probably would have played in the rain.”

On the day after the Fest, May 8, Volker got a chance to play two meaty sets with this same band at Chickie Wah Wah.—John Swenson

Another Magical Day Over at the Gospel Tent, Glen David Andrews got cancelled but Val and Love Alive, backed by the 30voice Mass Choir and a slamming

rhythm section that included an amazingly powerful trap drummer, must have thought God himself performed some kind of miracle to get them on that stage. Across the track at the Jazz & Heritage Stage, the Midnight Disturbers looked like a musical version of Noah’s ark with at least two of everything—or two sousaphones anyway—six percussionists, including drummers Stanton Moore and Kevin O’Day, six saxophonists led by the incredible Roger Lewis (he’s everywhere!) on baritone, three trombones including Big Sam Williams and Corey Henry, and three trumpeters led by MC Shamarr Allen. New Orleans bands know how to play fanfares and finales better than any other musicians on the planet, and the Disturbers’ break tune, 12 minutes of killer funk vamp featuring an eight-bar cameo from each member as he was introduced, was sheer ecstasy.

“When I say ‘Midnight,’ you say ‘Disturbers,’” Allen hyped the crowd at the end.

A trip for some of that spinach led me into the Tom Petty zone, and it was better than good. Petty writes rockers with a two-guitar bite and memorable hooks and he can line up an impressive array of those tunes. Many of this band’s peers are now relegated to self-parody but www.OFFBEAT.com

Petty’s band is impressively musical and he really treated his fans to something special.

In any other setting I would have stuck around for more Petty, but not with Chief Monk Boudreaux hitting the stage.

Monk is like a great preacher— you might know the scripture he’s citing, but it’s the way he tells the story that counts. Wearing a gorgeous purple and orange Indian suit, surrounded by seven family members in variously hued costumes, Monk starts out slowly with the warning “They Don’t Know,” then invokes the elements with his dramatic “Lightning and Thunder” dirge: “You walk outside… and it’s raining…” which breaks into the up-tempo call-and-response of “Shallow Water.” Monk tells the story of “Shotgun Joe,” reconfigures an old favorite as “When you come to New Orleans, You wanna come and dance with me,” brings up his grandson to sing “Sexual Healing,” then finishes out with

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“Little Liza Jane,” the reggaefied “Rising Sun” and a stirring “Indian Red,” with the 9th Ward Hunters in force in front of the stage, singing along and dancing with the crowd. As his family sings “Let’s Go Get ‘Em,” Monk slowly leaves the stage, ending another magical day at Jazz Fest.—John Swenson

Joyride Quartet Cynthia Sayer and her Joyride Quartet was a fresh breeze, with Dennis Lichtman on fiddle and clarinet. Power banjo and tango on banjo, very cool.—Tom McDermott

Jon Batiste Wearing a handmade banana leaf-printed shirt, Batiste left his piano for a stand-up solo on his melodica, or what he calls his “harmoniboard” for its harmonica-keyboard combination.

Batiste smiles as big and wide as the white keys on his piano. At the Allison Minor Music Heritage

Stage, he spoke of his calling to the piano, the band’s “social music” and “jazz two-point-oh.”

Batiste expressed his love for home, “this creative community,” and distinguished two of his mentors of the same name: John Lewis, the composer and pianist; and John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights leader. Batiste sees his music as spreading the good word and a hope to positively influence the community.—Alex Johnson

Delfeayo Marsalis: King Big Band The smartest man in the room celebrated Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office by closing out the Jazz Tent lineup on Day 2. Delfeayo Marsalis released one of the best New Orleans albums of 2016, ironically titled “Make America Great Again,” before the election.

Let’s hope his reign as the leader of the city’s best working big band lasts longer than Agent Orange.

Delf brought his 15-piece band in top form, with a four-trombone

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chorus pumping the front line.

Roger Lewis carried the weight with his powerful baritone saxophone, soloing against giant slabs of sound in classic Ellington/Mingus style. A great way to end the day and don’t let anybody tell you there’s no jazz at Jazz Fest.—John Swenson

R&B Revue Even though two of the stars of the New Orleans Classic R&B Revue featuring Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Robert Parker and Al “Carnival Time” Johnson sang just a few songs each, a huge amount of New Orleans R&B history accompanied them on stage on Sunday, the final day of Jazz Fest.

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“The place was packed on Cinco de Mayo under a sunny sky with cool temperature and a stiff breeze that continued to dry out the rain-soaked infield.”—John Swenson

Robert Parker’s voice sounded strong on the Gentilly Stage, but at 86, he wasn’t up for both singing and dancing to “Barefootin’,” his international dance hit.

Nor did Al “Carnival Time” Johnson do much moving during his two songs. Johnson, 77, opened with his relatively recent “Mardi Gras Strut,” followed by “Carnival Time,” his Mardi Gras classic from 1960. Like Parker, his voice was intact and recognizable, but he, understandably, didn’t do any jumping around either.

The mobility difficulties and other health challenges Clarence “Frogman” Henry, 80, has experienced for years have not taken the sparkle from his infectious stage presence. Endearing as ever, he sang like a girl and a frog for “Ain’t Got No Home” and charmed his way through “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do” and “You Always Hurt the One You Love.”

Still irrepressible, Henry stayed on stage longer than Johnson and Parker. He sang more songs than they did and, at the end of his set, valiantly lifted himself from the seated position he’d spent most of his show in.

Bobby Cure and his band, a group that’s specialized in classic New Orleans R&B for decades, opened the set with their own selection of local R&B favorites.

They later provided expert backup for the R&B legends.—John Wirt

Panorama Jazz Band The Panorama Jazz Band were wonderfully eclectic, with some fantastic friends sitting in.—Tom McDermott

Usher and the Roots Starting ahead of schedule, the collaboration with Usher and the Roots covered George

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Clinton, and also Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” With The Roots’ percussion and sousaphone additions, Usher’s “Yeah!” and “U Don’t Have To Call” were especially funky renditions.

Questlove’s drum leads drove the scene while Usher and Black Thought traded lead vocals. Black Thought, in a denim jacket and a red-white-and-blue-ribboned panama hat, held the crowd’s attention with his lyricism. Usher, with his hair dyed varicolored— perhaps to match the Jazz Fest logo on the curtain behind him—led the crowd through his catalogue of sexy hits, like “My Way,” “Love In This Club,” “Confessions,” and “Climax,” all while shedding his vanilla cream button-down. Ultimately, Usher skinned up and led the dancing crowd shirtless and in charge.

—Alex Johnson

Cinco de Mayo It took a week to get off the ground, but Jazz Fest was flying high on Friday, May 5. The place was packed on Cinco de Mayo under a sunny sky with cool temperature and a stiff breeze that continued to dry out the rainsoaked infield.

For me, it was one of those Jazz Fest days where I kept running into old friends and getting sidetracked. As a result, my observations are sketchy.

Plus side: A friend wanted to meet at William Bell. It was as good as it gets, a Stax classic straight out of the Isaac Hayes days. The band was tight and the arrangements superb. Bell is a great singer who has lost nothing from his heyday.

“I’m back on Stax, 40 years later,” said Bell, looking suave ‘70s in a silver Mylar suit. He introduced his classic “You Don’t Miss Your Water” with a shout www.OFFBEAT.com

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out to New Orleans: “This city was the first city where the song was Number One.” Bell played several other classics, a couple from his new album This is Where I Live and closed with “Born Under a Bad Sign.”

Minus side: I ran into some other great friends and drifted over to Wilco, which I found very disappointing. They overloaded the sound system to distortion levels. But I had a great time with my friends.

My original plan was to hang at the Lagniappe Stage, where I enjoyed Leyla McCalla’s set and sitting in stall 5 at the paddock listening to the Deslondes’ easygoing Holy Cross groove.

That’s when I ran into my friends.

More plus: There’s always something wonderful when you least expect it. Walking away from a truly mediocre national act on the Gentilly Stage, I peeked into the Kids Tent and there was James Singleton playing a gorgeous bass solo. He was playing with David & Roselyn, who were positively joyous. “We used to sell our cassette tapes off the stage to make money,” said Roselyn by way of reminding the crowd how long they’ve been playing Jazz Fest.

—John Swenson

Irma Thomas and Stevie Wonder Perhaps Jazz Fest’s largest crowd grew for Irma Thomas at the Acura Stage ahead of Stevie Wonder’s long-awaited show (Wonder’s show came after his 2016 Jazz Fest appearance was rained out).

Irma Thomas instructed the many thousands of festers on how to waive their handkerchiefs and bandanas in the air. “It’s an old New Orleans tradition, and I want y’all second lining out there right now,” the Soul Queen said before launching into “Pocky Way.” www.OFFBEAT.com

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Stevie Wonder delivered a lengthy message of love and unity before launching into his highly-anticipated—and densely packed—headlining set on the Acura Stage. John-Michael Early of local funk band Flow Tribe squeezed up front between the stage and sound booth to witness “the master” play after last year’s cancellation. “The feeling up front was well worth the wait,” Early said. Wonder’s set wound through two hours of “favorites and deep cuts,” and each song spread “Stevie’s messages of love and positivity.”—Alex Johnson May 6 was Stevie Wonder day, which was apparent from a midday venture into the Gospel Tent, where Kim Che’re opened up with an inspirational and rocking version of Stevie’s “Higher Ground,” a song that pretty much offers a synopsis of Wonder’s career aspiration to use music as a force for social and spiritual enlightenment. Backed by three backing vocalists and the slamming house band at the Gospel Tent, Kim plumbed the song’s message in both secular and spiritual terms: “Teachers, keep on teaching,” she sang, then added, “All the teachers in the audience raise your hands!” A lot of hands went up. “Preachers, keep on preaching!” The same shout out brought fewer raised hands. But the point is there’s an urgency to Stevie’s lyric, a call to public action that has been a hallmark of a career in which he’s never shied from political controversy. Calling on teachers to keep teaching at a time when Trump’s education secretary, the vile oligarch Betsy DeVos, is trying to dismantle the American public education system, is politics at its

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cutting edge. Stevie is gonna tell it like it is, and his songs will keep doing it even when he’s not there to do it himself. Just as he did with the uplifting tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, “Happy Birthday.”

Stevie may be the person most responsible for getting Dr. King’s birthday declared a national holiday.

It’s no surprise, then, that “Higher Ground” was close to the beginning of Wonder’s own set. Eight years ago, at his last Jazz Fest performance, Stevie was promoting the candidacy of Barack Obama and kept on during the set, repeatedly urging the crowd: “Don’t be afraid to win!” This time he couldn’t even bring himself to utter the current president’s name, referring to him as “45.”

He had a message for the current occupant of the White House: “God gave him the position he’s in for a purpose,” he said during a lengthy opening address to the audience.

“To bring us together again.

Divisiveness is not a solution.”

The crowd was as big as any I’ve seen at the Acura stage—maybe there were more for Aretha, it’s hard to tell with the addition of the grandstands—and Stevie, dressed in an orange, brown and turquoise dashiki, engaged them in a spirited, hit-packed show. The band teased the reggae groove of “Jammin’” to the crowd’s delight, but Stevie stopped them and said “This is a celebration of life, so clap your hands!”

He then got the crowd to sing the chorus, a trope that worked at various spots in the set. The band was tight, with two guitarists who played some terrific back-and-forth solos and an intense rhythm section.

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instruments was as great as ever.

The only parts of the set that didn’t project well to the festival crowd were the ballads, although you could tell he delivered songs like “When Did You Leave Heaven” and “Overjoyed” with all the emotion he could wring out of them. He was never far from a barnburner like “Don’t You Worry About a Thing” or “Sir Duke,” though, so it all worked out in the end.—John Swenson

Chucho Valdés Quintet Fifteen minutes after the scheduled start for the Chucho Valdés Quintet, the audience in the Zatarain’s/WWOZ Jazz Tent let its impatience be known. Even after the Jazz Tent announcer introduced Valdés, the Cuban pianist was nowhere in sight. The announcer soon returned to say, dryly, “Coming soon to a Jazz Fest near you.”

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shirt of vibrant, tropical colors, walked on stage and offered an embracing wave. His Jazz Tent audience was less than capacity, but extremely enthusiastic.

Valdés and his quintet— featuring a drummer, two percussionists and an upright bassist whose instrument was too low in the mix—got quickly down to their Latin jazz business.

Presiding good-naturedly from a grand piano, Valdés dominated the keyboard with endless fluency.

His florid musical imagination, transferred effortlessly into lines, patterns and lushly harmonized chord solos, never faltered.

Valdés represents the best of the jazz and classical traditions.

These two usually disparate worlds exist without conflict in this one extraordinary musician. It’s as if 19th-century Romanticism and elegance meet mid-20th century jazz and Cuban rhythms at a dance.

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“Conga Los Hoyos, with several members dressed in folkloric costumes, danced into the audience along with a very animated guy costumed as a horse.”—Geraldine Wyckoff

With a drummer and two percussionists on stage, rhythm and percussion played a major role in Valdés’ Jazz Fest set. I would have preferred more of his piano, more melody, simply because Valdés is such a brilliantly skilled, elegant pianist.—John Wirt

Tom Petty

Trumpets Trumpeting There seemed to be an abundance of trumpeters featured at this year’s Fest, particularly in the Jazz Tent. That’s not a complaint in the birthplace of Louis Armstrong, but an observance. It sprang forth on the first Friday with the arrival of New Orleans Trumpet Mafia led

by Ashlin Parker. The set started mildly enough with just four guys blowin’ out front. Soon, however, a line of trumpet players who had been waiting behind the scenes streamed onstage making a joyful noise. Responding to the sound, those in the audience jumped to their feet in what could be described as a good kind of shock and awe and offered a rousing applause. Former New Orleans resident and trumpeter Maurice Brown was the featured guest this day and performed several tunes from his new album, The Mood. Brown, an enthusiastic musician, added to the show with his sense of fun, dance moves and by twirling his trumpet. This set also provided the first sighting of Ghana-born percussionist Weedie Braimah who turned up to sit in or dance out front of stages—most often at the Cuban pavilion—all over the Fair Grounds. This man had some fun on both weekends.

Terence Blanchard substituted for trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who regrettably had to cancel due to health problems, for what was to have been a reunion with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya.

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Jones got his share. Jason Marsalis stood attentively at the side of the stage apparently checking out the vibes of Warren Wolf or perhaps the sharp young drummer, Obed Calvaire. The excellent set included some hard swinging, Davis’ classics like “Tutu” and original material such as “Feel the Groove” provided by pianist Edward Simon.

Even several of the Cuban groups featured a trumpet-like instrument, a Chinese cornet, in their mostly percussive instrumentation. Conga Los Hoyos, with several members dressed in folkloric costumes, danced into the audience along with a very animated guy costumed as a horse. As another member used a brake drum as a percussion instrument—“We have lots of old cars in Cuba!”—the colorful steed danced with bassist James Singleton.—Geraldine Wyckoff

Music Thinkers

Blanchard kept a somewhat low profile though blowing strong in the ensemble that included three saxophonists and a fine, young, low-riding drummer. The everdistinguished Ibrahim often took solos rather than including himself with the multi-instrumentalists in the group that added harmonic flavor with the addition of flute and cello. A lovely set.

Blanchard was back the next weekend leading his E-Collective band. While it was great to hear him blow as a sideman with Ibrahim, the trumpeter was at center stage for this outing that combined some screamin’ blowing on his part, electronics, sampling and some pure funk.

Though very different, Blanchard and trumpeter Nicholas Payton, who performed three days later, share some common directions.

Both New Orleanians boast deep roots and continue to challenge the music in order to propel it forward. Payton, playing horn and keyboards on music from his new album, Afro-Caribbean Mix Tape, embraced all—old and new—of what he calls Black American Music. Old school slurs met electronic sampling as Payton offered a knowing sly grin.

A tribute to Miles Davis was in order, provided by the all-star SF Jazz Collective. Surprisingly, the set opened with a sax solo though later the brilliant trumpeter Sean

Jazz Fest is a good time to meet not just music players but music thinkers. One such scholar excited me with his discovery of syncopated piano and band scores from the Caribbean, dating back to 1780!—Tom McDermott

Lost Bayou Ramblers The Lost Bayou Ramblers took two stages the first weekend, first playing a raucous set on the Gentilly Stage with their fiddle-and accordion-stomping Cajun music.

Later, at the Allison Minor Music Heritage Stage, the Rambler’s Michot brothers played a more intimate set with storytelling between songs. They played a family favorite, “Blues de Tactac,” Cajun-French for popcorn blues.

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“Wonder brought out an electronic pad and began dropping samples of everything from Parliament’s ‘Flashlight’ and David Bowie’s ‘Fame’ to the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California.’”

—Sam D’Arcangelo up singing in the church and don’t want to grow up. It’s like recess. We want to shine the positivity back for everybody.”—Alex Johnson

popcorn at the bar and I’ll even eat some crumbs tonight. It’s just that kind of weekend.”—Alex Johnson

DJ Stevie Stevie Wonder’s long-awaited makeup show on the Acura Stage had its ups and downs for sure.

The sound quality was shockingly poor for the first few tunes, and a series of ballads during the middle section fell flat despite their sincerity. It just wasn’t that kind of crowd. Fortunately, the show really picked up during the second half as Wonder dove into a string of hits: ”Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” and so on, that reminded everyone why he’s one of the most beloved pop stars of all time. Nevertheless, the thing that stuck with me the most was the Motown legend’s brief and somewhat bizarre foray into DJing. In a turn of events that I certainly did not see coming, Wonder brought out an electronic pad and began dropping samples of everything from Parliament’s “Flashlight” and David Bowie’s “Fame” to The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” He even threw in some on-the-fly remixing in there for good measure. This unexpected DJ detour came toward the end of the set, right after a “Living for the City” that featured guest vocalist Corinne Bailey Rae and right before the “Superstition” that closed out the show, so it was an odd use of prime setlist real estate. The crowd seemed to be kind of into it, though I’m not sure everyone knew what was going on. Hell, I barely knew what was going on. Is this just something Stevie Wonder does now? Were there technical difficulties I didn’t know about? Was he paying tribute

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Henry Butler The highlight of the Fest?

Pianist Henry Butler blazing away as fiercely as ever; given his current predicament, this was a very emotional thing to experience.—Tom McDermott

Michael Guidry

to recently-departed musical colleagues? Is this the beginning of Jazz Fest’s transition to electronic music programming?

Please, someone clue me in on what was happening there. I need answers. The people need answers.—Sam D’Arcangelo

Travers Geoffray Travers Geoffray opened with a Pete Johnson cover, “Death Ray Boogie,” and then steamrolled his hot piano through his own catalogue. Fresh off the Mississippi Rail Company, Geoffray plays as fast as the Ferriday Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the growing crowd sang along to “Mabel” and “Take Me Home,” even though these new songs from his first solo record, Highway Kings, were released less than a month ago.

Clad in a navy suit, this showman proved he’s ready for the main stage.—Alex Johnson

Tank & the Bangas The festival spirit thrives in the message of Tank and the Bangas, who played their “theatrical soul” music in the shade of the Gentilly Stage. Fresh off their recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert win—a major accolade besting more than 6,000

other contestants—Tarriona “Tank” Ball led her players and dancers, on stage and those in the enormous crowd, with her inspiring lyrics, bright smile and beautiful voice.

“I am the sun, boy, look,” Tank sang in “Oh, Heart.” Holding a beer in one hand and a water in the other, an old gray-bearded man sang along with Tank. As she went on about “swimming in an ocean of butterflies” in “Rollercoasters,” a young couple, both shoeless in the grass, danced together passing their baby between them.

After the Gentilly Stage set with the full band and green-andblue spandex-onesied dancers, Tank and Merrell Burkett, keyboardist and NOCCA alumnus, performed a slam poetry-infused discussion at the Allison Minor Heritage Stage. Tank grew up on Music Street in the 8th Ward where she began writing poetry and, at first, felt insecure about her clothing. Her voice, singing or rapping, offers inimitable range, as unique as the woven fabrics she wears, or the flowers and beads in her purple hair.

When asked what it’s like to be in their band, Tank said, “We grew

Michael Guidry, whose art hung from the bleachers displaying a gate-mouthed alligator releasing warblers and red-winged blackbirds, said he had an “amazing day” selling his paintings from his studio booth. “I hear them before I see them,” Guidry said of the birds, his voice only audible at a close distance because of the guitars and brass resounding from nearby stages.—Alex Johnson

Wilco I love that at Jazz Fest we can be swept away by huge, internationally famous bands but also stumble into tiny, low-tech local ones. I passed by Wilco (who I had never really listened to before) at the Gentilly Stage and was rooted to the ground by the heart-wrenching lyrics and musical build. The sound was actually good (always a crapshoot on big festival stages) so the messages hit home powerfully.—Laura DeFazio “We made it!” exclaimed Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy as the band returned for an encore of the Being There favorite “I Got You (At The End of the Century).” Much was said, in the run up to Jazz Fest, about Stevie Wonder’s return to the Acura Stage following last year’s weather debacle, but the men of Wilco still www.OFFBEAT.com

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had a show of their own to finish.

Two years ago the beloved—and surprisingly enduring—American rock band was forced to call off its Gentilly Stage performance after half an hour when a downpour brought too much lightning for anyone’s comfort. The group wasted no time making use of 2017’s fairer skies, immediately launching into a beautiful “Ashes of American Flags” that soared toward its gentle peak. Other selections from the band’s 2003 magnum opus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot appeared as well, including “Jesus, Etc,” “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.” That last one showcased Nels Cline’s signature guitar distortion, a calculated cacophony that almost always gels into a lovely melody. However, the day’s highlight came with a particularly sprawling take on “Impossible Germany,” a dueling guitar jam-vehicle that reached its highest of heights on this Friday afternoon (the best version this Wilco fan has seen in his 12 shows). Between the careerspanning setlist and a healthy dose of cynical Tweedy banter, the only criticism to be made is that they didn’t play “Sky Blue Sky.” But then again, I guess they didn’t need to.—Sam D’Arcangelo

Terrance Osborne While the Soul Rebels played a midday set at Congo Square, artist Terrance Osborne showcased his signature Jazz Fest “Nola” portraits nearby. “I use my wife’s eyes for Nola and my daughter’s face.” With her face painted in various Dia de los Muertos patterns, Nola is a beautiful woman whose hair grows Creole cottages, roses and birds’ nests. A full second line brass band parades up her spine.—Alex Johnson

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Jonathon Boogie Long

Pat McLaughlin and His New Orleans Outfit Pat McLaughlin is such a good singer/songwriter/guitarist. Give him a two-guitar quartet and you’ve got a gourmet meal. At the Lagniappe Stage he teamed up with the inimitable lumberjack Alex McMurray, bassist Rene Coman of the Iguanas and potential monument Carlo Nuccio on drums. McLaughlin is a singer who puts so much into every vocal you link to Van Morrison (tone, phrasing) and Joe Cocker (sheer soul bearing emotion). But only Pat McLaughlin sounds like this.

Blues and R&B, could be from underwater, Bobby Charles and beyond—send out a search party.

McLaughlin told the crowd that his day job was playing guitar with John Prine, then sang a song he wrote with Prine about going downtown to rattle somebody’s cage. And something about a monkey, I think. Lots and lots of songs, “Still In the Morning Light.”

McLaughlin with his gritty red Telecaster with the PM inscribed on the neck and McMurray with his fat hollow-body Gibson, the perfect dialogue of twang and shaking reverb, rolling it up on “Repo Man,” “I’m In the Mood to Break My Baby’s Heart,” then the astonishingly dramatic “Cry On Me.”

“I don’t know if there’s a better gig than this,” said McLaughlin.

“It just means so much to be able to get up here and play your shit.”—John Swenson

Blues Tent Blues: Great Music, No Dancing It must have felt strange for the Cedric Burnside Project to be pounding out the raw and driving hill country blues without folks dancing like crazy. But that’s how it goes in the Blues Tent where the audience remains estranged from the performers. The power duo with drummer, vocalist and sometimes guitarist Cedric Burnside, the grandson of the late R.L. Burnside, and guitarist Trenton Ayers, the grandson of the late Junior Kimbrough, dug in nonetheless. Past time to rethink this venue.—Geraldine Wyckoff

Big Freedia, Queen Diva Resplendent in bleach-speckled denim with a shock of blue hair cascading down her back, Big Freedia owned the Congo Square Stage from the moment she walked out and held a pose before commencing with the hit-packed show. Between the long blueon-blue jacket that dipped down almost to her feet, her thick and swaggering vocals and her team

of high-kicking, split-twerking dancers, she truly lived up to her Queen Diva moniker as she pumped up the large crowd with numbers like “Rock Around the Clock” and “Gin In My System.” (“I know it’s a little early in the day,” she acknowledged, “but how many of y’all have a little liquor in your system?”)

The almost gymnastic dance-off between members of the female backup crew and the single file, back-to-front of the stage “Back That Azz Up” twerk parade probably ranked as the best dance performance I’ve ever seen at the Fairgrounds. Part of what made it so compelling, though, was that all those “Azz Everywhere” moves underscored the larger message about self-love and empowerment that runs through Freedia’s music and stage persona. Bounce is an important part of New Orleans’ music heritage and in 2017, Freedia deserves to wear its crown.—Jennifer Odell

Amos Lee and Alabama Shakes On the Gentilly Stage, Philadelphia’s Amos Lee played his hits, along with covering local favorites, like “Hey Pocky Way.” He also led the crowd in Ginuwine’s “Ride My Pony,” www.OFFBEAT.com

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George Michael’s “Faith,” and closed with a lively version of Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road.”

A mellower than usual Alabama Shakes followed Amos Lee with a relaxed set. Lead singer Brittany Howard, however, rocked local Krewe frames as she ripped her teal guitar and proved her voice is as powerful as ever.—Alex Johnson

country flavor to their show with some fine guitar licks provided by the group’s leader, James Williams whose wife, Lynn, plays keyboards with the group. The Seekers now have a couple of secret weapons—two men that sing falsetto and go up for the high notes. Wow.—Geraldine Wyckoff

Landry Walker Charter High School

Kristin Diable and James Andrews

The most moving performance I encountered was the Landry Walker Charter High School in the Gospel Tent, hands down. I love that a high school choir can move me as much and more than a group that’s all over mainstream radio. That’s just so cool! I won’t even bother to try to describe the sense of joyful uplift I felt hearing all those voices raised in unison.

It was simple but powerful. It was better than drugs (I’d imagine).

The soloist singing “His Eye is on the Sparrow” was particularly mind-blowing.—Laura DeFazio

The first Friday was hot and muggy, and after a couple of hours of fighting crowds and hearing snippets of different bands (turning the corner to Kristin Diable belting “I’ll Make Time For You” on the Acura Stage was particularly powerful), it was a relief to collapse on a chair in the comparatively cool Blues Tent.

But of course I got up again almost immediately, because when James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars take the stage, sitting is not really an option. Their brass is always electrifying, their rhythm section is always on fire, and (in keeping with the family tradition) Andrews is a ridiculously charismatic entertainer. Their Jazz Fest performance was just as good as I expected.—Laura DeFazio

Give Me That Old Time Religion The big choirs that perform in the Gospel Tent can really pack a punch, yet the combos—quartets, quintets and such—who have been praising through song for decades also hold a special appeal. Groups like Leo Jackson & the Melody Clouds, the Rocks of Harmony and the Electrifying Crown Seekers create magic with the members’ fine vocal harmonies and sincere delivery. Leo Jackson, the son of the group’s founder, ran through the aisles of the tent, bringing his spirit to the crowd. Similarly, a member of the Rocks knelt at the edge of the stage to testify, a move that brought the audience to its feet. The Crown Seekers are unique in that they offer a www.OFFBEAT.com

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Snoop Dogg After being rained out last year, Snoop Dogg made up for lost time at the Congo Square Stage.

DJ Raj Smoove warmed the crowd before Snoop appeared onstage with long dreads and dressed in all black—all except for his silver shades facing the sun and a shining chain and diamond emblem, “Cold.”

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tired of changing outfits to match the songs, from “Beautiful” to “Sensual Seduction,” “Drop It Like It’s Hot” to “Gin and Juice.”

Caught up in the song “Gin and Juice,” the beer man stood on his cooler and waved handfuls of bills in the air dancing in synch with the music like a choreographer leading the audience along.

After “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” got the crowd singing along, Snoop Dogg lit a blunt and asked the hand-waving crowd if seeing Snoop play was on their bucket list, and then got to his real question: “Or is smoking weed with big Snoop Dogg on that bucket list?” Thousands checked that box when he sang “Smoke Weed Everyday.”

Snoop played Tupac’s “Gangsta Party” immediately following Biggie Smalls’ “Hypnotize,” a way of bringing the festival spirit to a 1990s East Coast-West Coast rift.

He ended the day by thanking New Orleans, professing his love

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for the city and promising to return anytime Jazz Fest asks him in the future.—Alex Johnson

Keeper of the Flame Davell Crawford is known as the Piano Prince of New Orleans, though at this year’s Blues Tent set he could also be dubbed the Keeper of the Flame of New Orleans rhythm and blues. When Crawford, playing both a baby grand and electric keys, got down and sang classics like “Working in a Coal Mine” and “Ruler of My Heart” he did so with authenticity and love. This wasn’t simply a stroll down memory lane.—Geraldine Wyckoff

Gal Holiday After a morning downpour, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue rang in Thursday a.k.a. Locals’ Day at the Gentilly Stage with a lively set filled with old favorites and new tunes. Their new-ish (and predominantly female) band configuration sounds

awesome. And get this! Guitarist Gregory Good’s one-year-old son, backstage with mom Ali, took his first step just before the show started. How’s that for some Jazz Fest magic?—Laura DeFazio

Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi, was flamboyant both in his spectacular orange suit adorned with shells and in his vibrant attitude. Leading the Mandingo Warriors, which included a full rhythm section, the Chief declared, “It’s all about celebration,” and proceeded to bring out his three wee grandsons, all of whom he proudly informed were born during a Jazz Festival week.—Geraldine Wyckoff

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jazz Fest went further with their chair control efforts in 2017. As far as I could tell, the “no chairs beyond this point” lines were placed further from the stage than in years past, and festival staff actually did its job of keeping chairs off the walking paths during particularly packed shows. This doesn’t change the fact that, on its most crowded days, Jazz Fest has simply outgrown the Fair Grounds. But it does go a long way toward making the festival experience more enjoyable for everyone. Well, everyone except people who like to build a chair fortress at the front of a 30,000 person mass. Good work, Jazz Fest.—Sam D’Arcangelo

Chairs

Stage Krewe Thanks

Back in April I wrote about French Quarter Festival’s lack of interest in doing anything about the overabundance of folding chairs in a piece on OffBeat.com.

We seem to notice when technical problems interfere with sound quality at Jazz Fest. As a collective audience, we’re less prone to appreciate the work the

Do Whatcha Wanna

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stage krewes do to turn out eight hours’ worth of music from acts with vastly different technical (and in some cases, personal) needs in an outdoor setting where stages are positioned relatively close to one another.

Abdullah Ibrahim’s unintentional moment of silence while he was playing piano stung a bit. It was balanced out a few days later, though, when David Torkanowsky stopped to publicly thank the stage krewe for squeezing a large horn section onto the stage along with a rotating cast of singers that included Germaine Bazzle, Kermit Ruffins and Sinatra devotee Clint Johnson.

Asking the audience to give the tech krewe a round of applause, Torkanowsky expained, “This is an unusual setup and they’ve had a lot of work to do to accommodate basically who the hell I think I am.”

During his set the weekend prior, Dr. John displayed similar grace when it came to acknowledging folks behind the scenes by shouting out both the front of house and back of house sound guys in his band introduction.—Jennifer Odell

Chaz Fest: Descent Into the Maelstrom My favorite New Orleans festivals are the local gatherings around my neighborhood in Bywater, particular the quixotic Chaz Fest, named after local musician Washboard Chaz Leary and designed to showcase music that Jazz Fest usually overlooks. It’s a labor of love for organizer Alex McMurray, because it would be an understatement to call it a non-profit organization.

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long thunderstorms, torrential rain that made it impossible to play for most of the day.

During the late afternoon hours a break in the rain allowed the Valparaiso Men’s Chorus, one of McMurray’s several bands, to perform on the main stage.

The group is basically the Tin Men—McMurray on guitar, Chaz on washboard and Matt Perrine on tuba—augmented by accordions, tin whistles and the “Chorus” of somewhere from 12 to 20 people singing the calland-response work songs called sea shanties. It’s a wonderfully improbable aggregation that only comes together on special occasions for obvious reasons, and I’ve always been struck by its popularity. I suppose part of the reason people like it so much is that the audience gets to sing and drink along with the chorus.

But standing there amid the drenched surroundings of this allbut-washed-out festival, listening to these musicians and their hardy fans sings songs about drinking, drowning, hangings and death on the high seas, I finally understood the tortured glory that informs the concept.

McMurray and his gang were singing in the face of disaster, just as so many who sang these same songs amid maelstroms that threatened them to the point of death have over the centuries.

Someone said it was like being in the band on the Titanic, playing as the sea claimed the ship. Even as the elements were bringing Chaz Fest down to Davy Jones’ locker, Alex McMurray stood there defiant and raised a can to the gathered crew, all of whom were damn glad to be there with him.

“Drink!” he exclaimed. And so they did.—John Swenson JUN E 2017

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Whistling Past the Graveyard The gospel according to Luke Spurr Allen.

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uke Spurr Allen has patience.

It’s a quality that might be mistaken in a city other than New Orleans for inertia, but in the somnabulant byways of his adopted city, where many greet the day only because they’ve been up all night, Allen’s patience could well be viewed as a kind of ambition.

The somnambulist tradition is second nature to the legions of barflies, bartenders and musicians who spend their lives here working in the wee, wee hours. The tradition has lingered into the 21st century despite the exponential gentrification that has taken place since Katrina.

Many of the newcomers to this place prefer spin classes, chai tea and luxury condos to a seat on the porch and a pot of red beans. They are so busy they consider it an imposition to say hello to a stranger. But there are still enough Miller-High-Life-anda-whiskey holdouts around to keep the bars alive.

Which is where the kind of patience Allen possesses comes in handy. In addition to being one of the key songwriters in the city’s recent re-emergence as a place where good songs are written, Allen is a bartender who’s seen his share of sunrises and a co-club owner who helps curate one of the signature music rooms in the city, Siberia.

Allen’s patience is an absolute virtue at Siberia, although one imagines that virtue is often sorely tested.

Other club owners are throwing their proverbial babies out of the proverbial window in their frenzied dealings with the tedious process of complying with city ordinances; dealing with new neighbors who moved to New Orleans for the peace and quiet; and fighting off other club owners with visions of Live Nation in their heads. Allen moves stoically through the process until he has all his ducks in a row. As a result, Siberia is a thriving business along the St.

Claude Avenue club strip with Allen as a key partner.

“Owning a bar/venue was never exactly a dream of mine,” says Allen, “but when my wife Meghann and I knew we were both done with tending bar for other people, it made sense to invest our money in Siberia when one of the original partners there left.

“Matt Muscle is one of my partners at the bar. He books the majority of the shows: the punk and metal is more his scene and he’s friends with Katey Red and Big Freedia so we get some good bounce shows. I’m more connected with the folk and Americana scene, so I fill in gaps in the calendar with that business. There are lots of great country and folk musicians in Holy Cross where I live now. Sam Doores, Leyla McCalla, Esther Rose, Lydia Stein, Lauren Herr, Chris Ackers and Samm Bones, to name a few.

“When we first bought into the bar, the kitchen was doing regular bar fare: wings, burgers, jalapeno poppers, etc. and wasn’t exactly

By John Swenson

thriving. My old friend Matt ‘The Hat’ Ribachonek moved back to New Orleans right around then.

Back in the early aughts he worked at Fiorella’s when the whole Bingo thing was happening. He cooked fried chicken there, but he’s of Ukrainian and Polish descent and an all-around talented man and had a side business selling homemade pierogi out of a duffle bag on Decatur Street. Good stuff. So, it was a logical move to have him take over the kitchen with his ‘Slavic Soul Food.’ Perfect fit for a bar in New Orleans called Siberia.”

Patience also characterizes Allen’s approach to his music. When it comes to songwriting, this guy can really wait around for the fish to bite. His new album, Pothole Heart, is seven years in the making. It’s not surprising that the record has a timeless quality about it. There’s even a reference to that paragon of Biblical patience, old Job himself, in the song “Grackle.”

“Two weeks after we made the decision to invest in Siberia, we

found out Meghann was pregnant with our son Arlo,” notes Allen.

“Real game changer between the two. And thus, Pothole Heart is my first album in seven years.”

The album starts with a blow-yourmind song. When I first heard Allen play “Too Late to Die Young” at Chaz Fest it absolutely stunned me, nailed me to the spot. Wow. The song was clearly not autobiographical, but in total empathy with the realization of the title. It’s not a moment that happens, it’s a moment when you realize that it’s happened already and there’s nothing you can do about it.

It’s not even fatalistic, almost Zen. Deadpan, which Allen is a master of. It’s the kind of song you can only write after you’ve met a hell of a lot of people. I found myself wishing Crawdaddy founder Paul Williams could have heard this song. He probably would have written one of his 10,000-word essays about it, linking it to Philip K. Dick’s novels and the Man With No Name films. “’Too Late To Die Young’ has been kicking around for a while. People www.OFFBEAT.com

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“I started writing songs and stories when I was really young.

My mom was always great about reading to me when I was little and both my folks were very strict about any TV.”

have asked me for a while when it was going to be recorded. We have giant Viking funerals for our younger friends, but if you make it to your 90s and all your friends are gone, who’s going to show up for the service?”

Allen allows that the experience of marrying, taking a job and raising a family has affected his songwriting.

“It’s made me older,” he says. “It’s made me wiser. It’s kept me from wallowing in certain things. It’s made me think more outward and less inward. Just a larger perspective.”

Several songs on the album are about, or inspired by, Allen’s new family. “’There Is Time’ and ‘Mercury Lexapro’ kind of go together at the end,” he says, referring to the album’s last two songs. “’Mercury Lexapro’ was about having a kid before I had a kid. We were living on Gallier Street and talking about growing things in the backyard. My wife started talking about all the shit that was in the soil. She said if we have a kid we should call it Mercury Lexapro. And I thought what a great astronaut name. Then I started thinking about the connection to Noah, so I was thinking about this kind of half Noah, half Luke Skywalker kind of figure.”

“Please Be Good” is Allen’s plea to Arlo: “Don’t be like your old man.

That song is the one honest song about Arlo that I wrote. The anxiety of having a kid. Don’t be like me.”

Another song, “White Dog,” was based on a character in one of Arlo’s children’s books.

“Arlo will be five in August,” says Allen. “He’s genuinely funny and he’s sweet and he’s built like a linebacker.

We didn’t exactly name him after Arlo Guthrie, we just really like the name. I love ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ though. And the film based on the song is, hands down, my favorite Thanksgiving Day anarchist manifesto.”

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Alex McMurray and Luke Spurr Allen

Allen has a history of writing dark songs examining the pathology of people who’ve gone off the deep end. Pothole Heart contains a powerful song, “Gary Brown,” about a mass murderer who kills himself. “I wrote that right after Sandy Hook,” he says. Arlo was a newborn when the children at Sandy Hook Elementary were murdered.

Allen can relate to his son being so involved in his music. When he was five years old his own writing habits and love of music were nurtured by his parents and older siblings.

“My sister Sylvia has a cassette of me somewhere at age five singing along with ‘Fly Like An Eagle’,” he laughs. “I guess I knew every word: ‘Shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet.’ Neil Young was a huge influence, as was Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel. I was born in 1970, but my sisters were born in ‘60 and ‘63. My brother Mark was born in the last day of ‘57. I remember listening to Roger Miller with him.

“One of my earliest memories is a party my sisters threw while my folks were away. I must have been five or

six and curled by the stereo speaker and listening to the ‘lie lie lie, la la lie lie lie lie lie’ of ‘The Boxer.’ And the seeming explosion that followed.

Also Tea for the Tillerman and a ton of Neil Young. ‘Out On The Weekend’ is another early memory.

And Neil Young has remained valid and a renewable source of inspiration with his ability to tread through the dust of quiet despair and then rage when it’s time to rage.

“I started writing songs and stories when I was really young.

My mom was always great about reading to me when I was little and both my folks were very strict about any TV. We lived in a little box canyon between Salinas and Monterey. Lots of sage brush and oak trees and hills to climb. Spent a lot of time by myself. Lots of makebelieve complicated story lines I’d act out. I guess the stories started there. And my mom gave me a real appreciation of the natural world. I knew the names of all the animals, all the birds, the plants and wild flowers by the time I was six or seven years old. And unlike the rest of my family, I didn’t get poison oak.

So that was good.”

After studying creative writing in college, Allen hit the road and, like a lot of young musicians in the 1990s, found himself in New Orleans where the lifestyle fit his needs.

“When I moved here in the early ’90s it was just a cheap place to live and thrive and drink and play.

Tons of musicians and plenty of big old moldy barge board rooms to rehearse in. I was never super into trad jazz or New Orleans brass music or zydeco and certainly incapable of playing it. But this town allowed me to be loose and a little lazy and it was new to me, so I was always listening and playing attention and falling in love with girls.

“Back then I’d write lyrics on bar naps and then transfer the good www.OFFBEAT.com

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stuff to notebooks and get my guitar and run through some chords ’til I had something. These days I write on my iPhone mostly. Write the lyrics in the notes section and record little vocal lines and whole songs I want to share with other players. A lot more efficient this way and a lot less gets lost. Not nearly as romantic as the bar naps though. A lot of those would be pretty terrible, though, the next day. Not to mention illegible.

“But it was a great town to write in and read in. And there were lots of artists and writers and players late night at bars. I remember late late drug-addled nights on lower Decatur talking literature with wellread off-duty strippers. The soil was just so rich, you know. Maybe from all the decay?”

As the decade wore on Allen met like-minded songwriters and musicians and became part of the unofficial “house” band at Piety Street Studio, where producer Mark Bingham delighted in bringing disparate people together to make music. The first Happy Talk Band

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album was recorded at Mike West’s studio, which was destroyed in the Katrina flood. The next two were recorded at Piety Street, where Bingham and his partner Shawn Hall took the band under their wing. Alex McMurray, Morning 40 Federation and Helen Gillet were all in and out of Piety. A scene was born.

“I’m a big fan of Alex as a songwriter and guitarist,” says Allen. “I think I’ve listened to Banjaxed the most but really admire everything from Fingerbowl ’til now.

I think Ryan Scully is a phenomenal songwriter and arranger as well.

And Julie Odell, Tasche de la Rocha, Leyla McCalla, Helen Gillet are all amazing songwriters and players.

Too many to name.”

I wondered if Allen ever felt like he was having a conversation with other local songwriters through their songs. I suggested that Alynda Segarra’s “Body Electric” could almost be an answer song to some of Allen’s murder ballads. I give him a lot of credit for not ducking the question.

“Alynda is a powerhouse,” he answered, “and I think ‘Body Electric’ is a good answer to every murder ballad ever written. What a beauty of a song.

“I don’t know if it’s an answer to any of mine. Years ago, though, she and Walt McClements—another spectacular songwriter—came upstairs in Mimi’s when I was playing and she got up halfway through ‘Forget-me-Not’ and split. Was it to protest my murder ballad, or maybe I was drunk and sloppy and playing like shit, or maybe she had an appointment? I guess I could ask her.

“I like murder ballads. I think I’ve written one for each of the albums I’ve put out. ‘Gandy Dancer’ on the new one.”

Perhaps one of the reasons Allen’s fascination with death resonates is because his tone is usually ironic rather than morbid. Like whistling past the graveyard. He speculates that it may have something to do with his experiences in New Orleans.

“I know so many people who’ve died,” he says. “Not kids I grew up

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with but people who came to New Orleans. When I was in my 20s and 30s it was murders and suicides and motorcycle accidents and ODs. Now it’s more people who’ve been going hard since their 20s and their bodies just gave out. My dad is getting up there in years and I feel like I have more dead friends than he does. It’s the nature of the town.”

It’s a place where you might be inspired to write a song called “Too Late to Die Young” and find out you have a hit.

“People do like that song,” he admits. “I think it’s because it’s pretty funny. It’s dark, but it’s kind of tongue-in-cheek. It’s catchy.

It’s fun to sing along to. It’s a fun song, man.”

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WATER SEED

A Sound for This Generation Water Seed’s energetic spirit.

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here’s a new sound in the air. New Orleans musicians are doing fresh original work, and the rest of the world is paying attention. This recent and necessary renaissance is heard with Tank and the Bangas, Sweet Crude, Charm Taylor, and more.

Like the others, Water Seed defies easy categorization; with their new album We Are Stars, they’re ready to take their seat at the table.

Founder Lou Hill has spent considerable time thinking about the particular aesthetic the band is striving for. “If The Meters decided to come together with all these progressive things that didn’t exist when they were coming up—hip hop, R&B, jazz fusion—what if they started today and set their sound through this whole filter?

What would they sound like?” he asked.

Though Water Seed might seem to have appeared out of nowhere, the first incarnation of the group began 15 years ago when New Orleanian Hill was a Xavier University student. He and two others, no longer with the group, were a production team who moved into performance, finding it best for them to play the songs they wrote.

“We were working quite a bit in New Orleans,” said Hill. “We evacuated to Atlanta for Hurricane Katrina, and our time there taught us about the recording artist side of the business. We’ve only been back to New Orleans about three years.”

Time in Atlanta also changed the formation of the group to its present version, including adding a flutist with a classical background. “Prior to joining Water Seed, I hadn’t been doing music for eight years,” admitted flutist Cinese. “It was definitely

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an eye opener for me, because I hadn’t dealt with it all in terms of live shows and the recording process.”

Lead singer Berkley was on the band’s radar, but until recently he had too many acting and music projects going on. Eventually his schedule opened and he was willing to take the risk. He recalled, “The four of them had been together, and I was the new guy. Lou asked me, ‘Who is it you need to impress or what is it you want people to know after you do these songs?’ No one had ever asked me that.”

The recorded result is the ambitious and infectious We Are Stars, a soulful 14-track release that just dropped and is striking for its energetic spirit, strong musicianship, and memorable songs. It also makes one realize that Water Seed’s unique sound is a welcome one that is recognizable but not mimicry.

Hill clarified, “There are some songs on there that people say,

By Michael Allen Zell

‘That’s an old sound.’ It may sound that way, but if you really listen to what’s happening in the chord progressions, the vocal parts, and the rhythms, we’re pretty good at disguising clever stuff and new kinds of sounds within something that sounds familiar.

The album kicks off in this fashion with “Open Sesame,” which sounds like one of the best 70’s songs you’ve never heard, while also being thoroughly modern and adventurous. The lyrics tell us about the band’s name, with Water representing knowledge and Seed symbolizing growth. It’s also the first song Berkley recorded with the band, and his raised-in-the-church vocals help to make it a perfect summer song.

Those with open ears are often first to recognize exceptional talent, and so it was a few months back. “The biggest thing that happened to us this year was Cyril Neville coming to a Blue

Nile show, falling in love with the band, and saying, ‘Whatever you need, I’m supporting you because I believe in what you’re doing.’

That was really a shot in the arm,” said Hill.

Water Seed has just embarked on an extensive tour that will take them around the country over the next three months. “The response has been fantastic with the shows we’ve done locally. I want that energy exchange to be carried on to the tour,” said Cinese.

Hill spoke on the live harmonies, “Over our last few years it evolved. At first, I didn’t have a mic. How can we record great songs but have the live energy of a brass band? That turned into everybody getting a mic and a part. It happened organically on stage.”

Water Seed performs mostly originals, which can be a third rail for musicians in a tourist town. Berkley said, “As artists, it’s our job to communicate. If you only do covers, you’re not communicating your life.” Hill agreed, “When I was coming up, you couldn’t get a gig in this city if you played cover tunes. You always had to come with your original sound.”

Hill is quick to state the band’s place in the new New Orleans. “I wanted to create a sound for this generation. Not a disrespectful sound. Not throwing away our heritage. But our version of the sound we grew up with. We’ve been quietly working on it for years. To my mind, there are no limitations to the sound of Water Seed.”

O Lou Hill: composer, drums, and backing vocals; Berkley: vocals; Cinese: flute and backing vocals; Shaleyah: vocals and percussion; J Sharp: keyboards and vocals. www.OFFBEAT.com

By John Wirt Photography

by Brandt Vicknair

Flow Tribe funkiness does whatever it takes.

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n the summer of 2004, a band formed by recent Brother Martin High School graduates picked the perfect name—Flow Tribe.

For 13 years, the band has literally been a tribe, busting out music made to shake a tail feather to. The band’s self-described “backbone crackin’ music”—a gumbo of funk, rhythm-and-blues, rock, bounce, hip-hop and zydeco—flows directly from the players to the people. Flow Tribe has that communal, celebratory connection so characteristic of New Orleans music.

Flow Tribe’s members, all of them products of Catholic schools in New Orleans, grew up with local music. Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and Kermit Ruffins, R&B and funk classics of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, and hip-hop hits released by Cash Money Records in the 1990s and 2000s, inspired the music-crazy kids who formed Flow Tribe.

“Growing up in New Orleans, we lived in dual worlds,” says singer-trumpeter K.C. O’Rorke. “You’re raised on Dr. John, the Meters, Rebirth Brass Band, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas—those classic New Orleans figures. But we also heard national talent. We liked Sublime and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“And then the local rappers with Cash Money Records blew up at the national level,” O’Rorke adds. “For years, Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh were the biggest names in hip-hop. It was crazy seeing videos with all these girls backing it up in City Park. There’s always a period in time when New Orleans bubbles up to the surface in the national consciousness.”

Flow Tribe makes a big Cash Money connection with Boss, the band’s new album.

Mannie Fresh—the DJ and studio maestro behind Cash Money’s Juvenile and Lil Wayne hits—produced Boss. In early May, the album debuted at number 53 on the Billboard R&B albums chart.

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“We have a lot of different personalities... But one thing we have in common is being obsessed with music —especially New Orleans music.”

—John-Michael Early

“Mannie Fresh is a guy from our childhoods,” O’Rorke says. “We listened to all the Cash Money stuff he did. Working with him was a thrill.”

“He’s professional,” says harmonica, washboard and keyboard player John-Michael Early (son of former New Orleans city councilman Mike Early).

“But as you would expect of Mannie, he likes to have fun. There’s nothing better than showing up at the studio to work with Mannie. It’s a blast.”

The respect is mutual. Fresh says: “Flow Tribe is a great bunch of New Orleans guys who have that funkiness to them. Working with them was a pleasure. We had a great time working on this current project. I see it doing big things!”

Flow Tribe originally planned to collaborate with Fresh for one single only, the funk-and disco-flavored “You Know What It’s About.” The Roland SPD-SX sampling percussion pad the band had recently added to its shows inspired the song’s dance vibe.

Flow Tribe’s manager, Alex Bowen, who’d booked Fresh for headlining gigs at colleges throughout Louisiana in 2010 and 2011, connected the band with the famous hip-hop producer.

“K.C. and the guys were having a band meeting,” Bowen recalls.

“They were like, ‘Man, it would be cool to do something with Mannie Fresh.’ I said, ‘Actually, I know Mannie. I can reach out and see if we can make something happen.’”

“Mannie was receptive,” Early recalls. “He’s open-minded and he’ll try new stuff.”

In March 2016, Fresh and Flow Tribe recorded “You Know What It’s About” at The Parlor Recording Studio in New Orleans. Despite the band’s excitement, O’Rorke says, “going into the session, we didn’t know what to expect.”

Ultimately, the studio production differences between the band and their producer—rock versus hip-hop and electronic music—didn’t matter.

The chemistry and atmosphere in the studio turned out to be good.

“We were starstruck at first,” O’Rorke admits, “but Mannie is just a good dude who’s easy to work with. He’s so knowledgeable, but he’s really humble and funny, somebody you can have a real conversation with.”

Fresh went the extra mile for “You Know What It’s About,” returning to the studio for an unplanned second day of work. “That’s when Mannie got in the vocal booth and did the song’s intro,” Early says. “He was willing to do whatever it took to get the song right, which we appreciated.”

“Mannie and the band really clicked,” Bowen says. “It snowballed from there.”

Following Flow Tribe’s first studio experience with Fresh, Early says, the band wanted more. “We decided that we couldn’t put this Mannie Fresh track on an album without other Mannie Fresh tracks.”

“We were just going to do a single for release last summer,” O’Rorke adds. “But after working with Mannie, we were like, ‘This is cool. Let’s do a full-length album.’ He was down for it.”

Flow Tribe postponed the release of “You Know What It’s About.”

The band and Fresh returned to The Parlor in September 2016 to record more music for Boss. They devoted an intense week of work to the production of nine more tracks.

“We got there every day around 9 a.m. and stayed until 10, 11, midnight,” O’Rorke says. “We cranked it out with a workmanlike

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mentality. Because we knew we didn’t have a lot of time with Mannie.

He was so busy and we were about to go on the road.”

Flow Tribe recorded the new songs live in the studio as a full band.

Fresh subsequently ran the songs through his production filter. He tightened things up and applied his hip-hop, DJ sensibility to the songs.

“Mannie picked out the pieces that he really liked and accentuated them,” O’Rorke says. “It’s definitely a different sound for us. It was a great learning experience, a great give and take.”

Fresh and Flow Tribe, despite their different backgrounds and studio approaches, nonetheless have much in common.

“It’s that New Orleans connection,” O’Rorke says. “Although this is a guy who’s from the same place as us, he’s had a totally different experience. But Mannie still loves the same music that we love. Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas. We talked with him about that for hours. People who create art in New Orleans are inspired by the same source material. But when they go off on their own, it’s cool to see the tributaries forming from the river.”

Two weeks before the album’s April 28 release, Billboard magazine premiered the music video for “You Know What It’s About” on its website.

The band found the perfect location for the video, the Airline Skate Center in Metairie. Fresh guest stars in the clip, sitting at a grand piano.

“Skate Center is a place where we always went when we were kids,” O’Rorke says. “And the song has that dance vibe.”

Fresh didn’t hesitate to join the video shoot, O’Rorke says.

“He’s always been really behind our project. Sometimes the bigger producers, working with an up-and-coming band, it’s a paycheck for them, not something they’re super-invested in. We never got that vibe from Mannie. He was like, ‘Let’s do something cool.’”

Flow Tribe features five graduates of Brother Martin High School and one Jesuit High grad.

“I’m surrounded,” says Early, the sole Jesuit High grad in the group.

In addition to Early and O’Rorke, the band features Russell Olschner (drums), Chad Penot (bass), Bryan Santos (guitar and timbales) and Mario Palmisano (guitar).

“We have a lot of different personalities,” Early says. “But one thing we have in common is being obsessed with music—especially New Orleans music. Music from as far back as when the first recordings were made through the current stuff. As early as we could get into the music venues, we went to hear local music. Anything we’d hear on WWOZ, or elsewhere, gave us great leads to explore. And it seems the longer we search through the city’s music, the more it unfolds. The legends who played through the last century keep being revealed to us.”

Flow Tribe has had much the same membership throughout its 13 years. The band began with summertime jams in Penot’s backyard. By summer’s end, the musicians knew they were into something good. But then college in Baton Rouge and Alabama and National Guard duty scattered most of the band’s members beyond New Orleans. A major obstacle followed in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

O’Rorke watched his hometown’s agony from Alabama. “I could see the city was hurting,” he says. “We all felt it. Our families’ houses were destroyed and everything else. But I had a really strong desire to www.OFFBEAT.com

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return to New Orleans. All of us did. We felt New Orleans calling us home. Katrina woke us up to the fact that nothing is permanent. After Katrina, I really wanted to do the band and make it a full-time thing.”

By summer 2006, despite a few members still attending LSU in Baton Rouge, Flow Tribe reactivated. “We took the opportunity to come back, establish the band and be a part of the rebirth of New Orleans,” O’Rorke says.

That summer, too, Flow Tribe secured a Sunday night spot at Friar Tuck’s Bar & Grill on Freret Street. Early dropped by one Sunday and sat in with Flow Tribe. He never left. Brian Santos joined in 2006, too.

The Sunday night Friar Tuck’s residency helped Flow Tribe cultivate its performance chops. The band also played birthday parties and any other gigs it could get. In the next few years, Flow Tribe played the first real music venues of the band’s career in New Orleans. It also took road trips to Baton Rouge, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Destin, Florida.

Financially, these were challenging times. “Sometimes we had to play a house party the next day to pay for gas,” O’Rorke says. “Just scraping by. Sleeping on floors. Whatever it took.”

Flow Tribe continued its progression to better venues and small festivals. “Over time we became more selective,” O’Rorke says. “My advice to any new band is just keep playing. Play as many shows as possible. Do whatever it takes. And it takes time to develop your live sound. The live show is where it’s at. That keeps people coming back.”

In spring 2017, Flow Tribe combined the release of Boss with its usual hectic schedule of festival-season gigs. The band’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival-concurrent gigs included Tipitina’s, the Little Gem Saloon, Wednesday at the Square, the Sanctuary Cultural Arts Center and, in Lafayette, Festival International de Louisiane.

“Those two weeks are crazy,” O’Rorke says. “It all runs together. There’s so much stuff going on. Everybody’s doing music and parties. Not only do the local musicians get to hang out with visiting national musicians, they get to shine for people coming in from all over. It’s great for everybody.”

Unfortunately, stormy weather forced the cancellation of Flow Tribe’s Jazz Fest show. “We were ready,” O’Rorke says. “Van packed, trailer loaded. We met at John-Michael’s house. And then we got the call. Cancelled. We saw the wall of lightning on the radar. As much as we wanted to perform at Jazz Fest—a great opportunity—nobody wanted to get electrocuted.”

A disappointment, but this year Flow Tribe will play some 150 shows throughout the United States. That’s about 180 days on the road. The band’s spring and summer tour will take it across the Gulf Coast, up the East Coast, through the Midwest and to the West Coast.

“It’s crazy that we’ve made it this far,” O’Rorke says. “I chalk it up to everybody buying into it and our general love for music. We started as www.OFFBEAT.com

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18-year-old kids. Now half the band is married. Two guys have kids. Life keeps happening, but we keep rolling.

We still have the same focus and desire to play as many shows as possible. We still want to make the best music possible and spread as much as love as we can.”

And along the way, some only-in-New Orleans experiences have come Flow Tribe’s way. In 2015, songwriter, producer and pianist Allen Toussaint sat in with the group at Tipitina’s.

In 2016, their heroine, Irma Thomas, joined them in a performance of “Proud Mary” during a WWOZ pledge drive.

“There have been moments like that throughout our career,” O’Rorke says. “It’s like, ‘Is this really happening? Allen Toussaint, an architect of New Orleans music, is sitting in with us?’ It blew us away.”

“Unbelievable,” Early agrees. “It’s going to be tough to top those two as far as career moments. Me, personally, Toussaint is my number one.

Toussaint and Stevie Wonder. I can listen to them all day. Sometimes I do.”

“The Irma thing was crazy,” O’Rorke says. “My DJ buddy at WWOZ was like, ‘Yeah, if we get 10 calls, we’ll ask Irma to sing with Flow Tribe.’ And Irma said, ‘I love those guys.’ I thought, ‘What! Irma Thomas knows who we are?’ And she killed it. It’s that connection between New Orleans musicians. It’s special.”

The joyful link between musicians and their audience, O’Rorke adds, is special, too. “That’s always been our mantra. As long as we focus on that, that keeps people coming to our shows. We realize that people have endless entertainment options. So, when someone does come out to our show, we give it everything we’ve got. And there’s nothing better than when the audience and the band melt into this weird musical organism. That reflects New Orleans culture, second-line culture, Mardi Gras. You don’t know where the band starts and the crowd begins.”

Having toured throughout the U. S., Flow Tribe wants to bring its backbone crackin’ music to the world.

“New Orleans has such a good brand across the globe,” Early surmises. “We have a New Orleans-influenced sound, with that New Orleans backbeat. It’s rhythm and dance music.”

“But that’s the one area where we really are chomping at the bit,” O’Rorke says. “We’ve always gotten a lot of good feedback from international folks.

They love what we do, but we haven’t made that leap yet.

“Even now, when we go on the road, we’re ambassadors for New Orleans and Louisiana. We love having that responsibility. People say, ‘Man, I really enjoy what you guys are doing.’ And we say, ‘Come to New Orleans.

We’ll show you a good time.’ Other New Orleans musicians have been ambassadors. Allen Toussaint. Dr. John, the Neville Brothers have been seen as embodiments of New Orleans. That’s the tradition we strive to be part of.”

A serious mission, but the uninhibited entertainers in Flow Tribe don’t take themselves too seriously, despite being serious about their music. Anyone who saw them busting moves in nuns’ habits at the 2012 Voodoo Fest knows that.

“It was Halloween in New Orleans,” O’Rorke says. “You gotta dress up. And, obviously, we all went to 18 years of Catholic school. Voodoo Fest was a nice little homage to the sisters.”

O Flow Tribe headlines the New Orleans Oyster Festival on June 3 in Woldenberg Park.

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FOOD DESERT?

Restaurant Paradise or Food Desert?

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he St. Roch Market is my go-to if I’m meeting friends for dinner and drinks. It’s about 15 minutes max from any neighborhood, there’s a parking lot and there’s something for everyone. (I usually stick to the Eva’s salad bowl and ginger lemonade from Fritai, though.) Before the St. Roch Market reopened, I’d take friends to Castnet in the East for most of the same reasons. But as I was reminded on a date recently, some people have negative feelings about the East. I’d often be dressed and ready to head to Castnet to meet a friend, only to get the old Marcia Brady “something suddenly came up” okie doke.

I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t feel strange to be on St. Claude Avenue, seeing so many new residents, outsiders, tourists, bikes and non-stray dogs. Going to the Schwegmann’s there with my mom when I was younger, well-meaning friends of the family would see us waiting for the bus and practically beg us to accept a ride. “You really shouldn’t be out here this late,” they’d say.

When I was writing my Public Transit Tuesdays column for ­Gambit in 2011-2012, in which I’d ride the bus (I had neither a car nor a license and had to catch the bus everywhere anyway) and walk around neighborhoods documenting my observations, I noticed small, continuous changes near St. Claude Avenue. They made me upset at the time. I’d greet people and no one would respond; I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome in

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Downriver New Orleans might have more restaurants than ever, but continues to struggle with how to make groceries. a neighborhood that I thought was “ours.” There were several out-of-state license plates and new businesses that weren’t like the old ones.

A neighborhood that—if we had a preKatrina time machine—outsiders would call “sketch” is now getting hipper by the minute.

Oddly enough, I’ve learned to embrace and welcome it. Some parts, at least.

Anjanielle Henry, a Spanish teacher from New Orleans who was born and raised in the 9th Ward, wishes there were grocery stores nearby, like there was pre-Katrina. “We only have a Save-a-Lot. We can go to Wal-Mart on Chef [Menteur Highway] or in the [St. Bernard] Parish,” Henry says. “I just leave my neighborhood to go to Rouses near UNO [about a 20-minute drive; this is still] one of the food deserts until the Robert’s opens up, and hopefully that will help us out.”

Like many natives, Henry is concerned the Robert Fresh Market on the corner of St. Claude and Elysian Fields Avenue, predicted to open sometime next year, will be overpriced and lacking in the items she and her neighbors used to find at Schwegmann’s and Winn-Dixie.

Henry says, “I don’t think it will be affordable, honestly, because right now they know their market. A lot of the people who’ve moved here and established residence, they can afford to pay a little more.” Still, Henry is looking forward to the store opening. “I think it will offer a lot of choices, so I’m excited about it,” she says.

The reason Henry doesn’t like Save-a-Lot is the same reason most people don’t: You have to buy bags, there aren’t many familiar brands, the fresh food doesn’t always seem fresh and the ambiance is the pits. The co-op grocery inside the Healing Center, also doesn’t entice her: “I’ve been to the co-op,” she says.

“It’s overpriced and caters to a certain demographic. To me it’s not worth it and I’m not particularly enthused with the food there.

I’d rather wait and go to another store.”

On a more positive note, Henry enjoys dining at The Joint, Pizza Delicious, Arabella Casa di Pasta and other nearby restaurants, and is glad Jack Dempsey’s and some of the old corner store hot counters are still around. But she misses the old businesses. “A yoga studio popped up. [But] where’re the hairdressers? Where’s the barbershop?

Where’s the doctor’s office? Where’s the pharmacy?

Those are the things I’m missing,” she says.

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Soon the Winn-Dixie in Gentilly Woods will shutter, leaving Desire-area residents with only a Wal-Mart where I once found a glob of spit on the floor of the produce section and vowed to never return.

David LaViscount, a French teacher who was born and raised in Harlem and has lived between New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the Northshore since 2003, has seen the same thing happen: new residents, more tourists, shiny new restaurants and shops. Although he’ll try a new restaurant, he finds his friends and family prefer going to the old places.

“I think a lot of those types of restaurants are mostly frequented by outsiders, people who are not originally from the neighborhood and grew up there. [For example,] Hispanic and black people who have been in Harlem for generations might not go to those restaurants,” LaViscount says. “People in my family might not go to those places. Like these new cafés in Spanish Harlem, my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my brother won’t go in there. They don’t purposefully not go for any political reason like they’re trying to take a stand; it’s just they aren’t used to it.”

LaViscount draws parallels between his hometown and the current landscape downriver in New Orleans—there are the corner stores selling bananas, apples and oranges, but it’s still not the same as having nearby access to an entire grocery full of affordable, fresh and healthy food. But is this (still) enough to describe both places as food deserts? Maybe, and maybe not. LaViscount points out, however, that this demographically-influenced lack of affordable healthy food is a national phenomenon.

Soon the Winn-Dixie in Gentilly Woods will shutter, leaving Desire-area residents with only a Wal-Mart where I once found a glob of spit on the floor of the produce section and vowed to never return. There, a Wingstop recently opened, along with Pontilly Coffee and a soon-to-open

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second location of We Dat’s Chicken and Shrimp.

Like I could see years ago around St. Claude— Gentilly, Gentilly Woods and Pontchartrain Park are now also changing. The residents are getting younger, commercial property is changing hands and there are panhandlers at Press Street and Chef Menteur Highway. However, since the new businesses fit in with the local demographic and since most of the residential property is still affordable, it looks like—this time—it’s mostly changes that are easy to welcome.

—Megan Braden-Perry

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Megan Braden-Perry is the author of the new book Crescent City Snow, a guide to 50 sno-ball stands in the Greater New Orleans area.

There’s also a map and space in the back of the book to write your own observations.

Follow @CrescentCitySnow and @MeganDoesNOLA for real-time scoops.

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PHoto: ELSA HAHNE

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www.OFFBEAT.com

MIMI ASSAD

From Pies to Dishes

PHoto: ELSA HAHNE

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Mimi Assad is the new executive chef at Bar Frances.

ising through New Orleans’ restaurant ranks, Mimi Assad first came on OffBeat’s radar as the gifted baker behind the yummy pies at the recently shuttered Noodle & Pie on Magazine Street.

Her creams were creamier and her crusts crustier than what should be possible without actual magic in the heat and humidity.

Before Noodle & Pie, Assad worked briefly as a sous-chef for Whole Foods, having held the same job at Le Foret under chef Jimmy Corwell and shouldering much of his job after his dramatic departure in 2011. Before then, Assad worked for the chef she describes as her mentor and role model, Sue Zemanick at Gautreau’s. This was Assad’s first job in New Orleans after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in 2009, so she started as a lowly line cook and garde manger—in charge of cold foods, such as salads and desserts—where temperature and timing don’t necessarily make or break a perfect meal. She was quickly promoted to the sauté station, marking her permanent move to the hotter side of things. Once done manning the ovens at Noodle & Pie, Assad returned to work with Sue Zemanick, helping her open Ivy as chef de cuisine. Chef Alex Harrell then lured her away to help him open Angeline in the French Quarter, where Assad—once again sous-chef—found herself in charge of mostly everything, along with the daily seafood special.

“As sous, you do everything,” Assad says. “You’re organizing the walk-in [refrigerator], doing prep, and you’re also doing the dishes if the dishwasher doesn’t show up to work that day. You’re slogging through, seventy hours a week, and it’s thankless, except that you take pride in actually getting it done so things can run smoothly www.OFFBEAT.com

for the executive chef.”

Assad chuckles at the suggestion that sous-chef (French for “underchef”) basically means “slave chef,” but with a fancy name.

“I had to literally put out a fire one time,” she recalls. “It was in the middle of brunch and we were serving something called Eggs in Hell of all things, eggs in a spicy tomato sauce. One of the guys spilled a pot of sauce that got into an electrical outlet and caught on fire. It was a good thing Alex wasn’t there or he’d had a heart attack and

chef at the fresh Freret Street eatery Bar Frances. She now turns out plates such as roasted chicken with sautéed greens, field peas, grilled lemon, green garlic jus and harissa (the North African red pepper paste), or tender tofu-stuffed squash blossoms with roasted eggplant, red pepper and tahini.

“My worry level is higher,” Assad says. “I have more responsibility, but also, being here six or seven days a week makes a lot of sense to me now. Finally, I can have my own menu and have

Tuna tartare with Castelvetrano olives, fried capers, pine nuts and za’atar crostini

died... Anyway, all the kitchen guys ran to the opposite end of the room so that left me, running towards the fire. I was able to put it out once I managed to snap the plastic ring off of the fire extinguisher; it was brand new. So we didn’t miss a beat. We immediately went back to serving steak and eggs.”

Assad then brought her skills as chef-cum-plumber-cum-carpentercum-electrician to the spiffy Ace Hotel until this past April when she was asked to come on as executive

By Elsa Hahne

my own identity in that menu. It’s as if all of my hard work led me here. I really look forward to talking with purveyors, like the pig farmer in Mississippi, or Michelle [Posey] at Pelican Produce. I learned so much from both Sue and Alex, and I hope they’re proud of me.”

Assad describes “her food” as reflecting her own Middle Eastern roots, Lebanese mixed with French and Portuguese: Southern ingredients coming together in a Mediterranean way. As far as

the increased time commitment, Assad never seemed to have much of a problem with putting in extra hours—when she was working fulltime as a cookbook editor (it was reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential that catapulted her to the CIA) up in Boston 2004-2007 she also volunteered at the East Coast Grill three nights a week—for free—because it was “so much fun, and they gave me a lot of beer,” she explains: “Working on a book, I would sometimes not see my work paying off until after a year, or many years.

The controlled chaos of the kitchen is much more results-driven. If you do your part, you stand out. There’s a lot of mediocrity and you don’t really need an education to be a cook—you don’t need to go to culinary school at all—but you have to work hard and if you do, you get rewarded, because if you don’t have the skills, it’s obvious to everyone.

Restaurants are very hierarchical, and that can really work for someone who has the desire.”

Now as executive chef, Assad sometimes has to fight her well-deserved reputation as “the girl who bakes great pies”—sometimes from people who’ve never even heard of her pie-making prowess.

“When you tell people you’re a chef, they go, ‘Oh, you do pastry?’”

Assad says. “As if you have to be working in desserts because you’re a woman—that’s an annoying one.

Also, when are we going to not have to be ‘woman chefs,’ but just chefs? Maybe in five years—what do you think?”

The future is hard to predict, but history informs us that Mimi Assad likely will be working in a restaurant, sending delicious food into crowded rooms. Whether it’s pies or eggs or chicken—to Assad, excellence always came first. O JUN E 2017

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photos: Elsa Hahne

Ashleigh Ruedinger/DTB

“I

just moved here from Florida three months ago. Worked as a beverage director and bar manager down at a little place in Delray Beach called Max’s Harvest.

Delray is about 30 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale, small little laid-back beach town—one of the original beach communities.

Everyone in South Florida loves mojitos, and every bartender hates making them. They gave me the reigns of the bar and I pretty much taught myself. It was a farmto-fork concept so I tried to use local ingredients. That’s why, with this cocktail, I chose Louisiana sweet corn and Pepperland Farms habanero pepper jelly, which also has Ponchatoula strawberries; I won’t touch a California strawberry ever again now. The strawberries here are so delicious!

I moved to New Orleans for this restaurant, but I can’t wait to get out and explore more of Louisiana.

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In my mind, New Orleans is the cocktail capital of the world.

Very liquor-driven. You can drink for 24 hours and have it to go.

I like bitter cocktails, and I love wine. Right now I’m desperately craving a sparkling rosé, but I can’t have it [Ashleigh is seven months pregnant]—so that’s probably why.

My fiancé is originally from Kenner and he’s also the chef de cuisine here at DTB. We’re going to have our second baby on the fourth of July.

I made fresh corn milk for this cocktail. You make it by shucking the fresh corn and then shaving it, cut the kernels off as close to the core as possible and then shave out more milk from the husk by scraping it with the back of a knife. Most of the milk is actually in the stem of the corn. Then you run the kernels and the milk in a blender and pass it through a fine-mesh sieve. First, I tried just muddling [essentially mashing] the corn, but I didn’t get

By Elsa Hahne

as much flavor as I wanted, so that’s why I did it like this.

I used to not like Mezcal much by itself. So I started mixing tequila with it to a point where I was able to have it on the rocks.

I find tequila adds vibrancy and I feel I can taste the agave more.

The strawberry dust that goes on top is easy to make. You take freeze-dried or dehydrated sliced strawberries and run them in a spice grinder.

The Revivalists was really the first band that got me into New Orleans music. They have great energy and make their audience feel good. I love their connections with each other on stage. When my fiancé and I started dating, The Revivalists was the first group he introduced me to and he used to sing me that song, ‘Up In the Air.’ In the second line of the chorus, the song goes ‘...with a magnolia smile...’ so that’s the reason for the name of this cocktail.”

Magnolia Smile 1 1/2 ounces Espolon Tequila 1/2 ounce Vida Mezcal 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice 2 bar spoons Ponchatoula Strawberry Habanero Pepper Jelly 1/2 ounce fresh corn milk (see instructions in text) Shake with ice and doublestrain into a coupe glass. Garnish with strawberry dust (see instructions in text). www.OFFBEAT.com

FRENCH Café Degas: 3127 Esplanade Ave., 945-5635 La Crepe Nanou: 1410 Robert St., 899-2670

GERMAN Jaeger Haus: 833 Conti, 525-9200

ICE CREAM/CAKE/CANDY Aunt Sally’s Praline Shop’s: 2831 Chartres St., 944-6090 Bittersweet Confections: 725 Magazine St., 523-2626 La Divina Cafe e Gelateria: 621 St. Peter St., 302-2692 Sucré: 3025 Magazine St.,520-8311 Tee-Eva’s Praline Shop: 4430 Magazine St., 899-8350

INDIAN Nirvana: 4308 Magazine St., 894-9797

AFRICAN Bennachin: 1212 Royal St., 522-1230.

AMERICAN Barcadia: 601 Tchoupitoulas St., 335-1740 Brown Butter Southern Kitchen: 231 N Carrollton Ave., 609-3871 Poppy’s Time Out Sports Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St., 247-9265 Port of Call: 838 Esplanade Ave., 523-0120 Primitivo: 1800 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 881-1775

BARBECUE The Joint: 701 Mazant St., 949-3232

COFFEE HOUSE Café du Monde: 800 Decatur St., 525-4544 Morning Call Coffee Stand: 56 Dreyfous Dr., (504) 300-1157, 3325 Severn Ave., Metairie, 885-4068

CREOLE/CAJUN Cochon: 930 Tchoupitoulas St., 588-2123 Cornet: 700 Bourbon St., 523-1485 Galatoire’s: 209 Bourbon St., 525-2021 Gumbo Shop: 630 St. Peter St., 525-1486 K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen: 416 Chartres St., 524-7394 Mulate’s: 201 Julia St., 522-1492 New Orleans Creole Cookery: 508 Toulouse St., 524-9632 Restaurant Rebirth: 857 Fulton St., 522-6863

DELI Stein’s Market and Deli: 2207 Magazine St., 527-0771

FINE DINING Bombay Club: 830 Conti St., 586-0972 Broussard’s: 819 Conti St., 581-3866 Commander’s Palace: 1403 Washington Ave., 899-8221

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IRISH The Irish House: 1432 Saint Charles Ave., 595-6755

NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS Biscuits and Buns on Banks: 4337 Banks St., 273-4600 Cake Café: 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010 City Diner: 3116 S I-10 Service Rd E, 8311030; 5708 Citrus Blvd., 309-7614 Cowbell: 8801 Oak St., 298-8689 Dat Dog: 601 Frenchmen St., 309-3362; 5030 Freret St., 899-6883; 3336 Magazine St., 324-2226 Live Oak Cafe: 8140 Oak St., 265-0050 Parkway Bakery and Tavern: 538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047 Sammy’s Food Services: 3000 Elysian Fields Ave., 948-7361 Tracey’s: 2604 Magazine St., 897-5413

ITALIAN

Chiba: 8312 Oak St., 826-9119 Mikimoto: 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., 488-1881 Seoul Shack: 435 Esplanade Ave., 417-6206 Sukho Thai: 4519 Magazine St., 373-6471; 2200 Royal St., 948-9309 Wasabi: 900 Frenchmen St., 943-9433

LOUISIANA / SOUTHERN Fulton Alley: 600 Fulton St., 208-5593 Mondo: 900 Harrison Ave., 224-2633 Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934

MEDITERRANEAN Byblos: 3218 Magazine St., 894-1233 Mona’s Café: 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115

MEXICAN/CARIBBEAN/SPANISH Barú Bistro & Tapas: 3700 Magazine St., 895-2225 Juan’s Flying Burrito: 2018 Magazine St., 569-0000 El Gato Negro: 81 French Market Place, 525-9846

MUSIC ON THE MENU Banks Street Bar & Grill: 4401 Banks St., 486-0258 B.B. King’s Blues Club: 1104 Decatur St., 934-5464 Buffa’s: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Chickie Wah Wah: 2828 Canal St., 304-4714 Dmac’s Bar & Grill: 542 S Jefferson Davis Pkwy, 304-5757 Gattuso’s: 435 Huey P Long Ave., Gretna, 368-1114

PIZZA Midway Pizza: 4725 Freret St., 322-2815 Pizza Delicious: 617 Piety St., 676-8482 Slice Pizzeria: 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437 Theo’s Pizza: 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554; 4024 Canal St., 302-1133; 1212 S Clearview, 733-3803

SEAFOOD Basin Seafood and Spirits: 3222 Magazine St., 302-7391 Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St. 569-3380 Deanie’s Seafood: 841 Iberville St., 581-1316; 1713 Lake Ave. Metairie, 834-1225 Pier 424 Seafood Market: 424 Bourbon St., 309-1574 Royal House Oyster Bar: 441 Royal St., 528-2601

SOUL Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934

STEAKHOUSE La Boca: 870 Tchoupitoulas St., 525-8205

VIETNAMESE Namese: 4077 Tulane Ave., 483-8899

WEE HOURS Buffa’s Restaurant & Lounge: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Mimi’s in the Marigny: 2601 Royal St., 872-9868

Erica Falls hits the

Adolfo’s: 611 Frenchmen St., 948-3800 Little Vic’s: 719 Toulouse St., 304-1238

JAPANESE/KOREAN/SUSHI/THAI

Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683 Warehouse Grille: 869 Magazine St., 322-2188

Spot

What are you having?

The grilled chicken salad; I love it! I normally get this and the hummus with the pita.

And you prefer the chicken kebab over the chicken shawarma?

I do. I like that it’s grilled all the way around and still tender and juicy in the middle. I don’t eat seafood, I don’t eat pork, so I’m kind of limited to beef and chicken—so I love really good chicken.

Are you allergic to seafood?

I am. I ate so much as a kid, I think my body just had enough; we had these huge spreads with crawfish and shrimp and crab...

“Are you from here?!”—I get that a lot. Yes, I’m from here... An older gentleman told me, “Baby, don’t tell them you’re from here. Tell Mona’s Cafe them you’re from Jersey.” What? I can’t even be from here [and not eat seafood]?! [laughs] 504 Frenchmen Street —Elsa Hahne (504) 949-4115 www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: ELSA HAHNE

Kingfish: 337 Chartres St., 598-5005 Mr. B’s Bistro: 201 Royal St. 523-2078 Restaurant R’evolution: 777 Bienville St., 553-2277

Hard Rock Café: 125 Bourbon St., 529-5617 House of Blues: 225 Decatur St., 412-8068 Howlin’ Wolf’s Wolf Den: 907 S. Peters St., 529-5844 Le Bon Temps Roule: 4801 Magazine St., 895-8117 Little Gem Saloon: 445 S. Rampart St., 267-4863 Maison: 508 Frenchmen St., 289-5648 Mid City Lanes Rock ‘N’ Bowl: 4133 S. Carrollton Ave., 482-3133 Palm Court: 1204 Decatur St., 525-0200 Rivershack Tavern: 3449 River Rd., 834-4938 Southport Hall: 200 Monticello Ave., 835-2903 Snug Harbor: 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 Three Muses: 536 Frenchmen St., 298-8746 Three Muses Uptown: 7537 Maple St., 510-2749

DINING OUT

Turkey and the Wolf While the foundation and the awards that bear his name connote images of food snobbery, James Beard, according to a recent documentary film, savored the simple pleasures of peanut butter and jelly as much as he enjoyed indulging in foie gras and caviar. Still, the question remains: How would “America’s First Foodie” respond when presented with a tostada smeared with French onion dip (which ingredients include onion powder and granulated chicken-flavored soup mix) dusted with pulverized Doritos? Better yet, what would Mr. Beard’s reaction be when he’s informed that the restaurant serving such a concoction was named a semi-finalist for his eponymous foundation’s award for Best New Restaurant?

My prediction: After his first crunch into that freshly made tortilla and the taste of the salty and creamy spread, he would take a sip of his Sunny D margarita, pause for a moment, and then quixotically say: “Where has this been all my life?”

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Mason Hereford has no shame in his pervasive use of American cheese, white bread and other processed foods throughout the menu at Turkey and the Wolf, his eccentric sandwich shop that opened last year in the cinderblock shack in the Lower Garden District. After six years on the line at Coquette, Hereford turned his attention to creating food that at first glance is designed to appeal to stoners and 7-year-olds, but practically satisfies deep longings for comfort.

Hereford’s bologna has a first and second name— Leighann Smith, whose artisanal deli meat is pan-fried and dressed with hot English mustard, shrettuce (shredded lettuce), Duke’s mayo and American cheese between two slices of white bread. Delectable shards of lamb slowcooked in chilies and caraway are wrapped inside freshly fried roti and cooled by lemon yogurt and cucumbers sliced as thin as a deck of cards.

Fans of Turkey and the Wolf will attest that the outlandish cleverness in the food permeates the entire operation, from the social media hashtags (#whenshitgetsweirdturntodrugs and #dukesmayoandfreeyayo) to the cocktail names, such as Ma’am Don’t Be Hysterical, a refreshing combination of gin, Campari, house blackberry syrup, lime and pickled peppers. Luckily, Turkey and the Wolf’s lone dessert is soft-serve ice cream served with a handful of topping

Photo: RENEE BIENVENU

EATS

combinations, like tahini and date molasses or savory and salty snack foods. Learn to expect (and appreciate) the unexpected.

—Peter Thriffiley 739 Jackson Avenue; Wed–Mon 11a–9p, Sun 11a–5p, closed Tuesday; (504) 218-7428; turkeyandthewolf.com

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

CDs reviewed are available now at 421 Frenchmen Street in the Marigny 504-586-1094 or online at LouisianaMusicFactory.com

A good-natured raconteur

Greg Schatz Small Peace of Mind (Independent) There was a time when singersongwriters were assumed to be sensitive, which usually meant they were angst-ridden or at least lovelorn. Not the case with Greg Schatz—who may well be sensitive, but angst-ridden he ain’t. There’s not a trace of self-pity to be found anywhere on these twelve songs, which prove that you can make a smart, resonant singer-songwriter album while keeping the music and lyrics on an upbeat.

Not that everything is rosy in Schatz’s world—the angry girlfriend in “Get a Hold of Yourself” turns out to have a gun pointed at him, and “Welcome to Crazy Town” is less about New Orleans than the whole country since around November. But the personality in these songs is that of a goodnatured raconteur who takes things in stride—anyone who’d venture an almost-rhyming couplet like “I know a guy with an old pickup truck/ It doesn’t run so well but he don’t give a darn” isn’t the type to overanalyze. “The Devil That You Know” is about a life where things clearly aren’t going great, but the lyrics gently suggest picking up and moving on; while the lightly funky groove (and Susan Cowsill’s

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harmonies) imply that things will get better after all. “Roll Like a River” says in so many words that life tends to work out, and it takes a skilled writer (and another funky groove) to make those sentiments convincing. Even a tune with the foreboding title “Everybody’s Got to Die Somehow” turns out to be a stringband stomp with a rhyming list of ways one could check out—but ideally not anytime soon.

This is Schatz’s second album in two years with a band dubbed the Friggin’ Geniuses, including familiar names from the Iguanas (drummer Doug Garrison) Gal Holiday (guitarist Dave James) and all over the place (guitarist Alex McMurray).

His own piano is solidly in the New Orleans R&B tradition and it sounds like he’s writing more with the band in mind, doing a swamp-pop homage (“Claudine Please Come Back Home”) just for the fun of it.

If you had these folks behind you, you’d probably be an optimist too.

—Brett Milano

Alexey Marti Travesia (Independent) Since his arrival in New Orleans in 2008, Havana-born percussionist Alexey Marti has become a part of the fabric of this city performing with many different musicians in any number of genres. A few that have utilized his skills on congas and the bata drum include drummer Herlin Riley, percussionist Bill Summers and pianist/vocalist Davell Crawford.

On Travesia, listeners not only get to hear Marti again leading his own band but also to further discover his skills as a composer and arranger. Unexpectedly,

perhaps, the album opens quietly gentle with the wonderful piano of Oscar Rossignoli, who is magnificent throughout the session. Marti’s congas soon enter adding a certain passion to the tune’s memorable melody. Writing songs that feel like welcoming old friends is one of Marti’s many gifts.

As the title suggests, Marti’s “Gringo in Havana” perfectly blends the influences of his native Cuba and American jazz. Brent Rose picks up his tenor saxophone for this number that rhythmically dances between the two countries.

When Marti’s congas exit for a few bars, “Gringo” starts swinging.

Julian Addison’s drums introduce “Bicycle” that Marti describes as an anthem to his adopted home, New Orleans. It’s a happy, energetic selection that reflects the spirit of its honoree and the kind of tune that inspires one to hum to and dance.

Marti selects the late great bassist Charlie Mingus’ “Moanin’” as one of the two non-originals on the disc.

It features Pat Casey’s bass work and moves to the rhythms of the island nation as Marti’s inspired congas and Rossignola’s Cuban-style piano riffs together keep the drive alive.

Travesia ends as sentimentally as it began on “From My Window”—a soft breeze on an album full of powerful and often joyful gales.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

Bonsoir, Catin L’Aurore (Valcour Records) The question of what does it mean to be a modern Cajun band is answered on Bonsoir, Catin’s L’Aurore.

Without daring to confine themselves, the band members Christine Balfa, Anya Burgess, Maegan Berard, Kristi Guillory and Danny Devillier build layers of rhythm around the poetry of Guillory and new member Ashley Hayes (veteran of Feufollet, Kevin Naquin & the Ossun Playboys).

The pair strings together a narrative of losing love and finding it where they shouldn’t.

They keep to Cajun song structure but with a more poetic modern edge: “I put my knees to the floor before you came/ I paid for my sins a long time ago,” Hayes writes on “‘Tit Ange Sur Mon Épaule.” The record starts by swirling together dreamy altcountry and pop with a beauty worthy of Neko Case’s “Deep Red Bells.” “L’aurore” and “Si Loin” form a two-song suite of what might be the first classical arrangements in the genre. On its way out, “Je t’oublie”—featuring guest vocals by Roddie Romero and keys by Eric Adcock—brings piano to the forefront, which adds to its intimate quality. www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS In “The Squirrel Song” after a brightly colored intro pulled from Blur and Broken-era Nine Inch Nails collaboration, Bonsoir, Catin unleashes a raucous and earthy foot stomper that is sure to be a live favorite. Closer to home, they cover “All Night Long” by Clifton Chenier and the traditional “Cher Minoux,” and touch on BeauSoleil’s style with “J’ai vu Lucille.”

L’Aurore’s tracks are all fresh and well-built no matter the style the band was exploring at the moment. Here, Bonsoir, Catin is not redefining themselves but evolving without ever asking, “Are you sure Aldus Roger done it this way?”

—Nick Pittman

Lord David Blood from a Stone (Independent) It works just fine for the here and now, but this debut from local singer-songwriter Lord David sounds like it should be copyrighted 1991, that fateful year when hairmetal crested and broke on the inevitable culmination of a full decade of underground “college rock,” leading to the eventual triumph of “alternative” music.

David essentially bookends this collection of ten songs with the kind of outsize meat-and-potatoes riff and roll that borrows heavily from the Rolling Stones, the kind of bar-band stuff where you hear the very last of rock’s original blues leanings shivering their way out of the mainstream.

What they don’t come with, thank God, is any of the booming, echoey, corporate Aqua Net production this would have had at the time, which makes them sound not only cleaner and more direct but more clever. And more impressive: David recorded this album almost all on his own, save for the drums. But while he might have come off like a one-man Faster Pussycat, it’s in the heart of the album where he starts to play to his strengths with a more acoustic-based and personal approach that makes his ballads more genuine—and, in that context, drags his riff-rockers from www.OFFBEAT.com

Axl Rose into Paul Westerberg territory. When he gets more lucid, his handful of guest spotlights make sense, like Dave Easley’s pedal steel, Irene Sage’s backup vocals, and Ratty Scurvics’ drums.

Blood from a Stone reaches its peak exactly at midpoint with the openhearted mid-tempo yawp of “Closer” leading right into the epic, nearly symphonic extended metaphor of “Siren,” and while simple romantic distress still takes up most of his mind, David eventually comes off like an authentic late-Eighties roots rocker, raised by folk-rock but brought through puberty by punk. He probably won’t be transitioning to grunge like his forebears did, but that’s probably just as well: his blues aren’t quite so self-involved as all that.

—Robert Fontenot

Chase Tyler Tailgate Sunset (Independent) Chase Tyler calls Baton Rouge home, and he identifies strongly with it; not for nothing does he work Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge” into his shows. It’s that kind of fan service that has him and his eponymous band primed to move from regional to national new-country stardom.

Chase is definitely from the post-Brooks school of country music thought—the songs he sings are half heritage and half lifestyle accessory—and while he didn’t write any of the ten songs on this, his second album, his voice is certainly up to putting them across: he’s nothing if not professional, bringing the same commitment to big breakup JUN E 2017

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REVIEWS ballads like “Wash Me Away” and complicated relationship songs like “Just Like a Woman” as he does to up-tempo party jams like “I’ll Drink to That.”

Consistency isn’t a problem behind the mic, but on the page may be something else entirely: mixed in with the title track, a gorgeous panorama of what it’s like to live cheek-by-jowl with nature, is dreck like “Real Fine Bass,” too terrible a pun even for corporate radio. (You probably don’t want to ponder the metaphorical significance of a line like “I’ll give you all my minnows.”) Honestly, he’s better than this: “Good Place to Turn Around” is an excellent heartbreaker about what it’s like to find yourself on a one-way path to destruction: if you’ve ever been in the country for long, you know what it’s like to feel trapped on a narrow highway surrounded by nothing but swamp. He’s clearly swinging for the majors here with titles like “Between Me and God” and “Growin’ Up Down in Dixie,” but his real artistic redemption lies in an unlikely cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” which adds twang without losing any of the original’s poetry. He probably didn’t have to quote Van’s original lyrics on the merch, but whatever.

Fan service is what it is.

—Robert Fontenot

Blato Zlato Swamp Gold (Independent)

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Willie Nelson God’s Problem Child (Legacy Recordings) Willie Nelson released his latest album, the wise and warm God’s Problem Child, on April 28, the day before his 84th birthday.

Like any great album, it works as a complete statement about where the artist is in his life. God’s Problem Child assembles songs about life, love, mortality and carrying on amidst adversity.

Nelson and his longtime producer, Buddy Cannon, cowrite seven of the 13 songs.

Nelson, Johnson and Nelson’s recently passed on friend, Leon Russell.

Nelson responds to exaggerated reports of his own death with the funny “Still Not Dead.” The lyrics likely will inspire cheers among the Nelson fans who already cheer lines they love during his concerts. “The internet said I had passed away,” Nelson sings in his half-sung, have spoken manner. “If I died I wasn’t dead to stay, and I woke up still not dead again today.”

The album opens with “Little House on the Hill,” a sweet country-gospel tune written by producer Cannon’s 92-year-old mother, Lyndel Rhodes. It’s another comfortable fit for Nelson, with lyrics that follow that great

Linguistic silliness Tom McDermott Five Lines No Waiting: Limericks & Sketches (Sagging Shorts) In his work as a composer and pianist, Tom McDermott has held a long fascination with the rag, a song structure popularized in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As he explains in the foreward to his new first book of poetry and drawings, part of what he loves about working within the rag format is the thrill of playing with references from other periods in music history as a way of challenging his listeners’ expectations.

McDermott takes a similar approach to limericks in Five Lines No Waiting, a lighthearted survey of AABBA-structured rhymes he began writing and sharing online in the spring of 2016. Though he trades the bawdiness associated with traditional limericks for his own poignant wit, he offsets the verse with his own pencil sketched mini-comics in a nod to the limerick’s common appearance alongside funny sketches in the mid-to-late 1800s.

The results range from subtle, esoteric humor that deals in the linguistic silliness limericks were once known for, to limerick-formatted jokes about things like booze, animals, art and relationships. “Have you ever come out of a dream / and things aren’t the way they should seem?” McDermott writes in one of multiple odes to alcohol. “You’re in mystery’s thrall / When you slowly recall / the 23 shots of Jim Beam.”

The poem, which precedes a vaguely existential interlude about gout and death, appears across from a shaky-penned sketch of a man cowering beneath his sheets with pinhweels for eyes as martini and highball glasses, a bottle of liquor, a star and a ringed planet circle his head in a thought bubble.

There are some misses here, too—they’re limericks, after all.

But McDermott’s low-key humor, along with his devotion to testing the limits of an inherently repetitive structure, make the book a fun read.

—Jennifer Odell

bookmark

Even in a city that’s renowned for combining everything with everything else, this one’s a little surprising. Blato Zilato bill themselves as a band putting a Cajun spin on Balkan music but in truth, they’re even more eclectic than that. The X factor in their music is progressive folk-rock of the Steeleye Span/Horslips variety: Though their instrumental lineup is strictly acoustic (and consists of fiddle, accordion, string bass and hand percussion) they manage to play rather aggressively, and their arrangements take some creative twists and turns. You don’t really hear much “swamp” in their mix

(beyond an occasional lilt in Ian Cook’s fiddling), but you do hear a band rocking out with exotic sounds. The prog elements extend to the suite-like construction of the album, with instrumental links bridging the main tunes.

It doesn’t hurt that frontwomen Annalisa Kelly and Ruby Ross have gorgeous voices, and the Balkan style of singing—not too sweet, with shouts and dissonances allowed—suits them well. They get a few lovely unaccompanied bits, but the best moments happen when their harmonies meet with the band’s rolling thunder. The ten-minute centerpiece “Dere Geliyor Dere” begins with a mournful fiddle/ vocal section, until a heavy riff takes over and gives it a mad celebratory feel (There’s no English lyrics, so use your imagination).

The prog-rocker in me wants to hear what this band could do with full electric backing, but they already make plenty of noise with the acoustic lineup. You can even dance to it if you don’t mind the tricky time signatures.

—Brett Milano

The selections they didn’t write compliment the original material beautifully. They include “He Won’t Ever Be Gone,” a tribute to Nelson’s friend and fellow country outlaw, the late Merle Haggard. “When it comes to country music, he’s the world,” Nelson sings. “And it wouldn’t be all it is without Merle.” Haggard’s guitarist son, Ben, and Alison Krauss are among the album’s guest stars.

The minor-key yet still optimistic “God’s Problem Child,” another song Nelson didn’t write, is one of many examples of his talent for interpretation. He finds meaning in the song and claims it for himself.

“God’s Problem Child” is also an allstar collaboration, written by Tony Joe White and Jamey Johnson, sung by

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REVIEWS

metaphorical country and gospel tradition, Johnny Cash’s moving “Are All the Children In” being an earlier example.

God’s Problem Child, which debuted at Number One on the Billboard country charts and Number Ten on the all-genre Billboard 200 shows, Nelson at 84 is undimmed.

—John Wirt

Bobby Watson Made in America (Smoke Sessions Records) Made in America offers some terrific blowing by alto saxophonist Bobby Watson heading an all-star band with bassist Curtis Lundy, pianist Stephen Scott and drummer Lewis Nash. It also provides a history lesson with each tune, primarily penned by the leader, paying tribute to the accomplishments of Black Americans whose contributions have generally been overlooked or forgotten.

The album begins mightily with Watson’s horn flying high on “The Aviator, ‘For Wendell Pruitt.’” The comprehensive liner notes inform that Pruitt was “a pioneering Black military pilot” who was a distinguished member of the Tuskegee Airmen. Humorously, Watson quotes the familiar bars of “Off we go into the wild blue yonder” from the Air Force anthem on a lyrical tune that swings and hard bops.

Others who Watson chooses to shine the light on include actress Thelma McQueen, who brilliantly played Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in “Gone With the Wind.” The tune, “The Butterfly ‘For Butterfly McQueen’” is a slow, Southernstyle, mournful blues with the www.OFFBEAT.com

exceptional pianist Scott evoking the fluttering of wings with a string of light notes. Watson suggests McQueen’s signature, high-pitched voice with his horn.

Lundy’s bass sets the tempo for the compelling “The Real Lone Ranger ‘For Bass Reeves’” with Nash rhythmically complimenting and driving Watson’s and Scott’s solos. Reeves, we learn, was the first Black U.S. Marshall west of the Mississippi. With Watson utilizing a fade out ending, the music gives the sense that Reeves got his man and is riding into the sunset.

The Smoke Session Records label has gained a reputation for its success working with legendary jazz artists performing together. All of the musicians on the album are leaders in their own right and bring their creative, individual intuitions to the group.

It’s a plus that they do so while honoring some unheralded, worthy black Americans. Made in America is about the music that was born here and prompts further investigation of those who forwarded the country through their endeavors.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

Deltaphonic See Red (Independent) Two years ago, Deltaphonic’s debut full-length debut, Texas Texas, came out of nowhere to redefine, despite its title, that distinctly New Orleans blend of blues, rock and funk that rules the Red Solo Cup crowd. Like everyone else in this town, they had hardluck tales and groove to spare, but their blend was truly unique, relying heavily on quality singer-songwriter JUN E 2017

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REVIEWS for the Black Keys and the White Stripes—dark Americana with history’s dust shaken off.

—Robert Fontenot

Various artists American Epic: The Collection (Lo-Max/Third Man/Legacy)

introspection from leader Andrew T. Weekes and trimming down the jam-band excesses of their contemporaries. The car that graced the front of their album—beat up, broken down, covered with street art and completely ablaze—set the tone for what was inside, but their long-awaited follow-up features the same car (for all anyone can tell, it’s the same photo), this time sepiatoned and with a much bigger logo screaming over the top.

This also makes sense. Because while they’ve been away, Deltaphonic have apparently been working to erase the pencil lines entirely on whatever genre it is they inhabit. See Red not only finds the band more comfortable in several styles at once, the production this time around gives them, for the first time, a signature sound. It’s an atmosphere that’s raw enough to be live but psychedelic enough to be cerebral: if you opened a lounge outdoors in a graveyard next to a swamp, this would be the only album you’d need on the jukebox.

Their new backwoods mystik only augments their trademark smirking despair; a lot of bands in this town provide songs to drink and get hungover to, but Deltaphonic at this point staggers with the Jack Sparrow-like swag of a character who’s come to expect that he’s doomed and is just trying to make his damnation as stylish as possible; “Black Magic,” to give just one example, is the most charming cuckolding you’ll ever witness. The chorus that backs Weekes on beautifully ramshackle constructions like “Too Late to Hang Me” could be a gospel choir, a Greek chorus, or a gaggle of dead pirates; the way this band works, it might be all three. NOLA finally has an answer

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American Epic: The Collection seems destined to win a Grammy award for best historical album. A box set in a bound book format containing five CDs and 100 recordings, The Collection is a handsome companion piece for the PBS documentary music series, American Epic.

In the 1920s, producers and engineers and their newly developed portable electronic recording machines journeyed throughout the United States. They recorded regional musical styles performed beyond the nation’s big metro areas. The recordings included blues, gospel and jug bands and string bands from the South; Cajun and Creole musicians from Louisiana; country performers in Appalachia; Tejano performers in Texas; and Native American chants and Hawaiian songs.

Despite the age of the American Epic recordings and their engineers’ early technology, the audio quality is impressive and immediate. The talent is undeniable.

There are such obvious choices from the ’20s and ’30s as the Carter Family (“Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”), Jimmie Rodgers (“Waiting for a Train”), Robert Johnson (“Cross Road Blues”) and Mississippi John Hurt (“Louis Collins”).

Most of the artists, however, are obscure. Some of them—especially the Bentley Boys (“Down on Penny’s Farm”) and Bascom Lamar Lunsford (“I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground”)—reveal the roots of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.

The collection also features Emmett Miller’s rendition of “Lovesick Blues,” a hit 20 years before Hank Williams’ version; “Blue Doze Blues,” the splendid original recording by Henry Thomas that inspired Canned Heat’s “Going Up

the Country”; and “Walk Right In” by Cannon’s Jug Stompers, the song that became a hit 30 years later for the Rooftop Singers.

Although early jazz is noticeably absent from American Epic, Louisiana is represented by Atlanta and New Orleans sessions featuring Cajun and Creole musicians, including Cleoma Breaux, Joseph Falcon and the duo of Amédée Ardoin and Dennis McGee. Shreveport’s Lead Belly appears, too.

Across its five discs, American Epic: The Collection takes a vast

musical journey. A single-disc version, American Epic: The Soundtrack, is also available.

—John Wirt

Without stylistic boundaries John Michael Bradford Something Old, Something New (AFO) The title of this debut by trumpeter and vocalist John Michael Bradford, Something Old, Something New, accurately describes the music within and his continued interest in both traditional and modern jazz. It begins with Bradford blowing hard on King Oliver’s classic, “West End Blues,” executed in an authentically slow tempo that screams that these are New Orleans musicians. The trumpeter, who came up surrounded by this city’s music playing with brass bands, also offers some lovely, old school vocaleese on this timeless song. Other tunes from this stylistic portion of the album include “Paul Barbarin Second Line” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “New Orleans.”

On the recording, Bradford, a NOCCA graduate, utilizes a wealth of musicians to match the material. For instance, bass drummer Benny Jones is in on the beat for the classic jazz tunes along with clarinetist Rex Gregory. The trumpeter switches gears for the last half of the disc introducing original, modern material he wrote or co-wrote. Bradford constantly rotates bassists, pianists, drummers and the like—Chris Severin to Max Moran or Jasen Weaver, Rickie Monie to Jesse McBride or Shea Pierre and Joe Dyson to Alfred Jordan, respectively. They all have one thing in common; they are all ace players. Bradford also brings in a number of this city’s best horn players. He and saxophonist Derek Douget impressively trade bars on a fine contemporary original, “Crossroads.”

Bradford teams well with alto saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr, with whom he enjoyed the opportunity to study and travel. On “Monie,” Harrison goes for the edges before swinging it out with the help of two of his other former students, bassist Max Moran and drummer Joe Dyson. Then Bradford’s trumpet continues that push.

Something Old, Something New brings together generations of musicians that play music without stylistic boundaries. Bradford stands strongly among them with his pure trumpet and sincerely delivered vocals that are complimented by his understanding that the past forever lives in the music’s future.

—Geraldine Wyckoff www.OFFBEAT.com

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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

THURSDAY JUNE 1

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Gumbo Cabaret (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and Chloe Feoranzo (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Roamin’ Jasmine (JV) 7p, James Martin (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: the Constants feat. Ian Louis, Tony Wilson, the Ill Relatives and the Essence (JV) 9p; Upstairs: Pucasana (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: A Lovely Triangle, Naughty Palace (SS) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jamie Lynn Vessels (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Ricardo Pascal (JV) 7p Maison: Good For Nothin’ Band, Sweet Substitute, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr. and Chris Combs (FK) 11p NOSH: Larry Siebert Duo (JV) 7p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Carol Fran (SO) 6p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Chris Ardoin (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Seva Venet’s New Orleans Banjo Celebration (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Arsene DeLay (JV) 8p

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Tipitina’s: Marty Gras Concert to Benefit Marty Hurley Endowment at Brother Martin High School (VR) 6:30p

FRIDAY JUNE 2

Apple Barrel: Adam Crochet (BL) 6:30p Bombay Club: Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Marc Stone (BL) 6p, Keith Burnstein (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Paul Sanchez Song Swap (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 6p, Rotary Downs, David J. (RK) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Black Laurel (RK) 9p, Relapse with Matt Scott (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Donacello (CL) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Luther Kent (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Soul Project, Brasszilla (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Dave Jordan and the NIA (RR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Soul Sister presents Revolution: A Prince Celebration (VR) 10p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lucien Barbarin with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Supercharger (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Foundation Free Fridays feat. Billy Iuso and Restless Natives, Noisewater (RR) 10p

SATURDAY JUNE 3

Bombay Club: Don Vappie (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Debbie Davis And Josh Paxton (VR) 6p, Freddie Blue and the Friendship Circle (VR) 9p Carver Theater: NOLA Comedy Jam with Blowfish, Rude Jude, Mario P., Downtown Lesli Brown (CO) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Papa Mali Wake the Dead (VR) 9p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Trad Stars Jazz Band (JV) 11a d.b.a.: Kala Bazaar Swing Society (JV) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Dragon’s Den: Chris Hamlett (RK) 5p, Jon Roniger (JV) 7p, DJ Dizzi (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Joystick Album Release (SK) 10p Gasa Gasa: Renshaw Davies, Coyotes, Quintessential Octopus (CW) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Close Me Out (CO) 7p

House of Blues: Appetite for Destruction: the Ultimate Tribute to Guns N’ Roses (CB) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Doc Lovett (BL) 6p Kerry Irish Pub: Mike Kerwin and Geoff Coats (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 7:30p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Cajun Fais Do Do feat.

T’Canaille, Gerard Delafose and the Zydeco Gators (VR) 1p, Smoking Time Jazz Club, Big Easy Brawlers (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen with Nigel Hall (VR) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a NOSH: David Torkanowsky Trio (JV) 8p Palm Court Jazz Café: Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Jazz Masters feat.

Leroy Jones (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Yat Pack (JV) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Astral Project (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Antoine Diel and Arsene DeLay (JV) 2p, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses (JV) 6p, Davis Rogan Band (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Jim Lauderdale (BL) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a

SUNDAY JUNE 4

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Spike Perkins Trio (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius, Orange Kellin, James Evans and Benny Amon (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Sweet Olive (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Pontchartrain Wrecks (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p; Upstairs: Church (EL) 10p Gasa Gasa: Frontier Ruckus (RB) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, the Iceman Special (FK) 10p House of Blues: Maxx P Uncensored Live (HH) 11p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz and Heritage Center: Classical Music Sundays feat. Betsey Heimburger, Kelly Cuppett and others (CL) 4p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: Mo Better Brunch with the Diaz Trio (TJ) 11a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Luneta Jazz Band, Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 10a, Leah Rucker, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (RB) 10p Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud with Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bowl-A-Palooza (VR) 12p Snug Harbor: Tom McDermott (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: John Lisi and Delta Funk (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p

Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Trinity Episcopal Church: the Zion Harmonizers (GS) 5p

MONDAY JUNE 5

Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 5:30p, Alex McMurray and Brian Coogan (SS) 8p d.b.a.: Alexis & the Samurai (ID) 7p, MainLine Brass Band (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Monday Swing Night (SI) 7p; DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Gasa Gasa: Jared and the Mill, the Rocketboys (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (JV) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Joy Theater: the Bacon Brothers (RK) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, New Thousand (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Michael Lemmler, Terrence Houston (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p, Keith Burnstein (JV) 8p

TUESDAY JUNE 6

Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Ellis Marsalis Center for Music: Evan Christopher (JV) 6:30p Gasa Gasa: Jeff the Brotherhood, the Detail (PK) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: David Bode and Choose to Think (MJ) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Michael Watson (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Charlie Miller (PI) 7p Maison: Gregory Agid Quartet, Shhh (VR) 6:30p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars feat.

Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 7:30p SideBar NOLA: Rob Wagner and Dave Capello Duo (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Betty Shirley with the Will Thompson Organ Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Muses: Sam Cammarata (JV) 5p, Messy Cookers (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY JUNE 7

Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Elizabeth Cook (VR) 10p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (BL) 7p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Gasa Gasa: the High Divers, the Great Peacock, Blonde Roses (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: New Creation (VR) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Zakk Garner Duo (JV) 7p Maison: Robin Sherman Quartet, Jazz Vipers, Organized Crime (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Tony Hall Band (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a; Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Ron Hotstream and the Mid-City Drifters (SI) 8p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Spirit and Sparrow feat.

Monica McIntyre and Keisha Slaughter (SO) 9p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p

d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Ike Stubblefield Trio feat.

June Yamagishi and Jermal Watson (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Gasa Gasa: the Arbitrary, Amnesty Please, Drood, Crypt (ME) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Volume Overload (RK) 9p, Relapse with Matt Scott (VR) 10p House of Blues: Who’s Bad: the Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience (PO) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Dimension of Color (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Eric “Benny” Bloom (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Kerry Irish Pub: Van Hudson (FO) 5p, Lonestar Stout (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, the Grid, Big Easy Brawlers (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Miss Mojo Tour Send-off Show (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Boogie Men (VR) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 8p Saturn Bar: Greg Schatz CD-release party (VR) 9p Smoothie King Center: Journey, Asia (CR) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Foundation Free Fridays feat. Mike Dillon Band (VR) 10p

THURSDAY JUNE 8

SATURDAY JUNE 10

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tom Saunders and the Hot Cats (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Chloe Feoranzo (JV) 8p Champions Square: Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars (RK) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary (FK) 7p, Funk Monkey (FK) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Future Funk (SO) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Spencer Racca (SI) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Three with Mark Carson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Mason Ruffner Band (BL) 7p Maison: Good For Nothin’ Band, Asylum Chorus, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, June Yamagishi and guest (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Tumbling Wheels (FO) 6p Palm Court Jazz Café: Leroy Jones and Katja Toivola with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Chubby Carrier (ZY) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 7:30p Southport Hall: Doyle, Davey Suicide, the Tomb of Nick Cage, the Angry 88 (VR) 7:30p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Little Cosmicana with friends (FO) 9p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: New Orleans Swamp Donkeys, Organized Crime (VR) 9p

FRIDAY JUNE 9

Bombay Club: Larry Scala (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Little Coquette (JV) 6p, Ed Doskey Jazz Band (JV) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: the Set Up Kings (VR) 6p, Creole String Beans (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p

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Bombay Club: Leroy Jones (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Tom Saunders Trio (JV) 6p, Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: the Bluerunners (VR) 9p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Kala Bazaar Swing Society (JV) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 11p Dragon’s Den: Ukalady’s Man (FO) 5p, DJ Ill Medina (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Gasa Gasa: A Living Soundtrack, Metronome the City, Shuviuuia (VR) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Brown Improv (CO) 7p House of Blues: Hot 8 Brass Band album-release show, Keedy Black, DJ Soul Sister (BB) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Sunquakes (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: the Gentleman Experience Part 2 (VR) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 5p, Mark Hessler and Harold Vivien (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7 & 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Leah Rucker, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Raw Deal, No Good Deed (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (FK) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Pontchartrain Vineyards: Jazz’n the Vines feat. Los Po-boy-citos (LT) 6:30p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Good Feelin’ Band (SP) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 2 & 8p Snug Harbor: Ike Stubblefield Organ Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Davis Roga (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Nigel Hall Band (FK) 10p

SUNDAY JUNE 11

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Little Coquette (JV) 4p, George French Trio (VR) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (VR) 8p

Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Mikey B3 Band (FK) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p, Upstairs: Church (EL) 10p Gasa Gasa: Tin Roof Brewery Night (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, Ukalady’s Man, Henny Herz, Brain Cream (FO) 10p House of Blues: Yngwie Malmsteen (RK) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Shannon Powell Trio (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Tour de Fat feat. Corey Harper (VR) 7p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: Jazz Brunch with Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (TJ) 11a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Tuba Skinny (JV) 10a, Royal Street Winding Boys, Meghan Stewart, Higher Heights (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (RB) 10p Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud with Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Glory Rhodes Reunion Show, BSL Trio (VR) 5:30p Saenger Theatre: Mamma Mia! (VR) 2 & 7:30p Snug Harbor: Doug Belote Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p

MONDAY JUNE 12

Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Dave Malone (SS) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: MainLine Brass Band (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Monday Swing Night (SI) 7p, DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Gasa Gasa: Strawberry Girls, Comrades, Bella Noire, the Continual (PK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (JV) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Max Bronstein Music (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Michael Lemmler, Terrence Houston (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Preservation Hall: Preservation Jazz Masters (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Joe Cabral (JV) 8p

TUESDAY JUNE 13

Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Champions Square: Third Eye Blind, Silversun Pickups (RK) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Push Push (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: K.C. and the Irresistibles (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p JUN E 2017

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: NOLA Dukes (VR) 7p Maison: Gregory Agid, Midnight Love Band (VR) 6:30p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Travis Wall’s Shaping Sound (DN) 7:30p SideBar NOLA: Brad Walker, Matt Booth and Chris Alford (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Clarence Johnson III Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Muses: Schatzy (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY JUNE 14

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Mike Doussan Band (VR) 10:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Marina Orchestra (JV) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Drew Dixon (VR) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Zakk Garner Duo (JV) 7p Maison: Cosmo Alleycats, Jazz Vipers, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Tony Hall Band (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p NOSH: Joe Ashlar (PI) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars feat.

Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Yat Pack (SI) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p

THURSDAY JUNE 15

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tom Saunders and the Hot Cats (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Heidijo (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary (FK) 7p, Mason Ruffner (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Upstairs: Soundclash (HH) 9p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Buku Broux (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Snake Oil Festival presents the Unholy Roller Revival (VR) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Mason Ruffner Band (BL) 7p Maison: Stray Cat Strut Benefit, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, June Yamagishi and guest (FK) 11p NOSH: Matt Lemmler Duo (JV) 7p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Andre Bohren (PI) 6p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Gregg Stafford (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco RoadRunners (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: David Sager Jazz Band (JV) 8 & 10p

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Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Mia Borders (JV) 8p

FRIDAY JUNE 16

Bombay Club: Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Davis Rogan (VR) 6p, Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes (BB) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6p, DiNOLA, Egg Yolk Jubilee (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Hi-Ho Lounge: Relapse with Matt Scott (VR) 10p Historic New Orleans Collection: Concerts in the Courtyard feat. Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (FK) 6p House of Blues: Squad Up Reunion Show (HH) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): the 9 Songwriter Series (SS) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Snake Oil Festival presents Carnival at the Crossroads (VR) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Luther Kent (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 5p, Van Hudson (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, the Groove Factio, Big Easy Brawlers (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a NOSH: Cristina Perez (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bucktown All-Stars Anniversary Celebration (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Dave Easley Band (JV) 2p, St. Louis Slim and the Scuppernongs (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Foundation Free Fridays feat. Good Enough for Good Times, Funk Monkey (FK) 10p

SATURDAY JUNE 17

Bombay Club: Banu Gibson (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Miles Lyons Quintet (JV) 6p, the Salt Wives (GY) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (VR) 9p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Kala Bazaar Swing Society (JV) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Dragon’s Den: Quicksand (JV) 7p, Kompression (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Aldous Harding (FO) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Drunktoons (CO) 7p House of Blues: Bidi Bidi Banda: A Tribute to Selena (LT) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): A’jeanette (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Snake Oil Festival presents Hoochie Coochie Babylon (VR) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave Hickey (FO) 5p, Roux the Day (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Evan Christopher’s Clarinet Road feat. David Torkanowsky (JV) 7p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Royal Street Winding Boys, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Brass-A-Holics, Gene’s Music Machine (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Fuel feat. Daryl Johnson (VR) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a NOSH: Kris Tokarski and Meryl Zimmerman (JV) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Mixed Nuts (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Herlin Riley Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Leo Forde Band (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Deacon John and the Ivories (RB) 9p

SUNDAY JUNE 18

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Heather Holloway and the Heebie Jeebies (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius, Orange Kellin, James Evans and Benny Amon (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Hill Country Hounds (CW) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p; Upstairs: Church (EL) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, the Olio (BQ) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): TWRP (EL) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: Jazz Brunch with Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (TJ) 11a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs (JV) 10a, Swamp Donkeys, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (RB) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Fais Do Do with Bruce Daigrepont (KJ) 5:30p Snug Harbor: John Rankin and Tom Fischer (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p

MONDAY JUNE 19

Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray, Amy Levere and Will Sexton (SS) 8p d.b.a.: MainLine Brass Band (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Monday Swing Night (SI) 7p, DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (JV) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Appleford (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Michael Lemmler, Terrence Houston (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (JV) 8p

TUESDAY JUNE 20

Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Chip Wilson (VR) 6p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p

Hi-Ho Lounge: Ruby and the Rogues, Lilli Lewis, Joy Clark (FO) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: George and Gerald French (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Charlie Miller (PI) 7p Maison: Novos Sapatos, Gregory Agid Quartet, CoolNasty (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Muses: Sam Cammarata (JV) 5p, Messy Cookers (JV) 8p Trinity Episcopal Church: North Star Boys Choir with Albinas Prizgintas (CL) 6p

WEDNESDAY JUNE 21

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p French Market: Patrick Cooper and Natasha Sanchez (FO) 2p House of Blues (the Parish): Jake Shimabukuro (PO) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Maison: McKenna Alicia, Good For Nothin’ Jazz Band (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: Tony Hall Band (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p NOSH: Joe Ashlar (PI) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Boogie Men (SI) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p

THURSDAY JUNE 22

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tom Saunders and the Hot Cats (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Chloe Feoranzo (JV) 8p Bullet’s: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 6p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Drums and Tuba (VR) 10p Gasa Gasa: Black Marble, Body of Light, Boyish Charm (ID) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): the Yat Pack (SI) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Foot and friends (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Mason Ruffner Band (BL) 7p Maison: Dysfunktional Bone (FK) 9:30p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, June Yamagishi and guest (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Lynn Drury (FO) 6p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Gregg Stafford (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas (ZY) 8:30p SideBar NOLA: James Singleton Trio with James Evans and Chris Alford (MJ) 8:30p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Snug Harbor: Cindy Scott Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: the Company Stores, Mudcat (VR) 9p

FRIDAY JUNE 23

Bombay Club: Joe Krown Trio (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Steve DeTroy Trio (VR) 6p, Rebecca Zoe Leigh with Clint Johnson (JV) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Kudzu Kings with George McConnell (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Alex McMurray with Horns (SS) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Falsifier, Aethere, I Am (ME) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Loose Willis (FK) 8p, Relapse with Matt Scott (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Chris Klein and the Boulevards (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Quiana Lynell (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: John Mooney, Marc Stone and Mike Dillon (BL) 8p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Vegas Cola, Big Easy Brawlers (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Smoke N Bones (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a NOSH: Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Brass feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Groovy 7 (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Foundation Free Fridays feat. Naughty Professor, the Crooked Vines (VR) 10p

SATURDAY JUNE 24

Bombay Club: David Harris (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Joe Krown (BL) 6p, Royal Rounders (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Joe Ely (VR) 9p Civic Theatre: Bayou District Blues Night feat.

Lurrie Bell, Seth Walker, Walter “Wolfman” Washington (BL) 7:30p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Kala Bazaar Swing Society (JV) 4p, Mike Dillon Band (MJ) 11p Dragon’s Den: Sexy Back with DJ Dizzi and DJ Ill Medina (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Gattuso’s: Paul Molinario Project (RK) 7p House of Blues: Bustout Burlesque (BQ) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Sidewalk Chalk (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Shannon Powell Quartet (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Vali Talbot (FO) 5p, Lynn Drury and Chris Pylant (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Dr. Michael White (JV) 7p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Leah Rucker, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Raw Deal, Smoking on Some Brass (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Tony Hall Band (VR) 11p

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Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a NOSH: Tom Hook and Cristina Perez (JV) 8p Pontchartrain Vineyards: Jazz’n the Vines feat.

Charmaine Neville (RB) 6:30p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Topcats (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Jon Cowherd Mercy Project with Brian Blade (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Jazz Band Ballers (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p

SUNDAY JUNE 25

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, All Ferrell (JV) 4p, George French Trio (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Sweet Olive (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Bon Bon Vivant (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p; Upstairs: Church (EL) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, Stripped Into Submission (BQ) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: Mo Better Brunch with the Diaz Trio (TJ) 11a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Kristina Morales and the Bayou Shufflers, McKenna Alicia (JV) 10a, Brad Walker, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (RB) 10p Snug Harbor: Darrian Douglas and the Session (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p

MONDAY JUNE 26

Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Matt Rhody (SS) 8p d.b.a.: MainLine Brass Band (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Monday Swing Night (SI) 7p, DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Little Tybee (VR) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Appleford (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Vegas Cola (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Michael Lemmler, Terrence Houston (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p

TUESDAY JUNE 27

Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Chip Wilson (VR) 6p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: High Profile Drag (VR) 10p House of Blues: Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Revocation, Withered (ME) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p

Jazz Playhouse: Shannon Powell (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Charlie Miller (PI) 7p Maison: Quicksand, Gregory Agid Quartet (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Boston (VR) 8p Snug Harbor: Phil DeGruy with Emily Robertson (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Noggin (JV) 10p

WEDNESDAY JUNE 28

Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lilli Lewis (VR) 5:30p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Mike Doussan Band (VR) 10:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tangerine Dreams (BQ) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Paintbox with Dave James and Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Maison: Luneta Jazz Band (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: Tony Hall Band (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p NOSH: Joe Ashlar (PI) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Jerry Embree (SI) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p

THURSDAY JUNE 29

Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tom Saunders and the Hot Cats (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Chloe Feoranzo (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Neat, Killer Dale, Rad Wagon, Feudal Blue (ID) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p Hi-Ho Lounge: Henry and the Invisibles, Noisewater (FK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Mason Ruffner Band (BL) 7p Maison: Good For Nothin’ Band, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, June Yamagishi and guest (FK) 11p NOSH: Larry Siebert Duo (JV) 7p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Andrew Duhon (SS) 6p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Geno Delafose (ZY) 8:30p SideBar NOLA: Jonathan Freilich presents a Duo (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Brent Rose Sextet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p

Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (JV) 8p

FRIDAY JUNE 30

Bombay Club: Scott Myers (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Jerry Jumonville (JV) 6p, Sherman Bernard and the Ole Man River Band (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: the Set Up Kings (VR) 6p, the Black Lillies (FO) 9p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Hi-Ho Lounge: Relapse with Matt Scott (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 7p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Late Night DJ (HH) 10p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Big Easy Brawlers, Lil Glenn and Backatown (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Tab Benoit presents the Fuzz: A Tribute to the Police (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a NOSH: Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Deacon John’s Birthday Celebration (RB) 9p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Foundation Free Fridays feat. Maggie Koerner and Travers Geoffray, Cha Wa (VR) 10p

FESTIVALS June 3-4 The New Orleans Oyster Festival at the Woldenberg Park includes food vendors celebrating the oyster, live music and an art market. NolaOysterFest.org June 10-11 The French Market presents its annual Creole Tomato Festival with live music and food vendors.

FrenchMarket.org June 22-24 The FestiGals empowerment weekend and conference takes place at the J.W. Marriott.

FestiGals.org June 24-25 The Jazz and Heritage Foundations presents the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival at Armstrong Park featuring live Cajun and zydeco music, an art market and food vendors. JazzAndHeritage. org/Cajun-Zydeco June 24-25 The NOLA Caribbean Festival features cuisine and live music celebrating Caribbean culture at Central City BBQ. NolaCaribbeanFestival.com June 30-July 2 Essence Festival includes live music, seminars, speakers and an arts and tech marketplace at the Superdome and Morial Convention Center.

Essence.com/Festival-2017

SPECIAL EVENTS ONGOING The New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint presents the exhibit “Pete Fountain: A Life Half-Fast.” MusicAtTheMint.org JUN E 2017

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59

BACKTALK

The Bacon Brothers [Kevin and Michael Bacon] talk back

A

ctor Kevin Bacon and his film-scoring brother, Michael, formed the Bacon Brothers band in 1995. Despite their busy separate careers, they keep their Americana, rock, country, singer-songwriter band going.

The Bacon Brothers released their seventh album, 36 Cents, in 2014. They recently returned to the studio to record a new song written by Kevin Bacon, “Broken Glass.” A 14-date spring and early summer tour will bring them to the Joy Theater in New Orleans on June 5 and the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette on June 6.

Kevin and Michael Bacon grew up in Philadelphia with their four sisters. Their parents’ tastes ranged from the Weavers folk group to Broadway to the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra.

Michael Bacon, nine years older than his brother, formed a jug band with his sister, Hilda, when they were high school students. The brothers’ musical partnership began after their sister left for college.

Good News, one of Michael Bacon’s early bands, signed with Columbia Records in the 1960s. He later performed as a frontman, sometimes with his brother as percussionist.

In 1972, Michael Bacon moved to Nashville.

He worked as a staff songwriter at a music publishing company and recorded two solo albums. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon moved to New York City to pursue acting.

Michael Bacon eventually moved to New York, too. He has since composed dozens of film and TV scores and won an Emmy award for the 2009 American Experience documentary, The Kennedys.

Kevin Bacon made his film debut in 1978’s Animal House. His more than 70 films and TV series include Apollo 13, Diner, Footloose, Tremors, A Few Good Men, X-Men: First Class, last year’s Patriots Day and the New Orleans-filmed JFK. In advance of their tour, the Bacon Brothers spoke to OffBeat.

I was between jobs and thought that could be fun. Mike said, ‘You’ll play guitar and I’ll play guitar. We’ll get a bass player and percussionist.’

I said, ‘I don’t play well enough to stand in front of people and play guitar!’ Mike said, ‘Yeah, you can do it.’ So, I immediately started woodshedding. We pulled up old stuff and a few covers that had relatively simple changes, things that I could handle.

We went down to Philly and played the first show. That was it. Everything else has been an evolution of that. The reason we still play is because we started writing songs for us to play ourselves, as opposed to writing stuff for other people to play.

You formed the Bacon Brothers band in 1995, after you’d making music together offstage for decades. Why the long wait?

Kevin: Michael has always been a full-time professional musician. We’d been writing stuff to try to get other people to record it. And then a friend of ours from Philly heard some of the demos we made to try to get other people to record the songs. Our friend said, ‘Come down to Philly and play a Bacon Brothers show.’

With Kevin’s acting work and Michael composing and teaching film scoring at Lehman College in New York, has it been a challenge to keep the band going for 22 years?

Kevin: It is a long time. It’s always challenging to carve out the time to continue doing it.

And I’m someone who wants everything to be a smash. But we’ve done really well, yet we haven’t cracked the mainstream. Many places where we go no one even knows that we have the band. That’s sometimes frustrating for me.

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By John Wirt

But I always like the playing. It’s a cliché, but I always like the making of the music.

The rest of it—and I feel the same way about acting—my tolerance for travel and press, soundchecks and hotels and buses, that kind of stuff, that’s something you have a lot of patience for when you’re 19. But the playing is always fun. Even if a show does not go well, there’s a good one right behind it.

Are you comfortable being called an Americana band?

Michael: That’s a good word. In my mind, Americana is the Band and the Jayhawks, two of my all-time favorites. The difference, though, at least for my brother and I, is we’re not reminiscing about a time long ago. I was always Americana. It was acoustic guitar, Hammond B-3 organs, drum sets, percussion and electric guitar. Even the Jayhawks, who are younger than I am, they’re going back and trying to grab something. But this is the music I’ve always done best. If you listen to my records from the late ’60s and through the ’70s and ’80s, I’ve never deviated from that kind of song.

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“Many bands out there now have careers that peaked a long time ago. Our career is still unfolding.”

—Michael Bacon were still at home with your parents in Philadelphia, did you sing and play music together for fun, before there was a Bacon Brothers band?

Michael: My sister and I had a jug band together. We rehearsed in a basement. At that point, if I was 15, Kevin was 6. He sat at the top of the stairs and listened. It was a really a fun band. After my sister went away to college, Kevin and I played music and wrote songs.

What sort of ambitions did you have for the songs you wrote together?

Michael: We tried to write songs that we could cash in on what was happening at the time.

You wanted to write a hit?

Michael: Exactly. We still do. But we found out that we were better at writing more personal songs. Those are the songs that people respond to.

Your father was a nationally known architect and city planner in Philadelphia.

Did he set an example for you guys?

Kevin: That’s our roots—building something, playing something, writing something, drawing something. Those are the things that we were expected to do.

Michael: In our family, creativity was ingrained in us. And once you create something, you want to make it great. You don’t do it just to get through it. You do it because you dream about how good it can be.

Cassidy and the Jackson 5. Sometimes music and acting overlap. The Beatles made three movies. I would have been happy if my way to acting had been a hit song. But I started taking acting classes. I got serious about it.

There’s a great history of brothers making music together. The Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Jackson 5, the Everly Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Oasis, etc. Do you guys have that special sibling chemistry?

Michael: What makes us different from all the groups that you mentioned is that those groups had enormous success early in their lives. We’re kind of backwards. We have to move forward without people coming to the shows because they want to hear a hit song we did 20 years ago.

Many bands out there now have careers that peaked a long time ago. Our career is still unfolding. That’s exciting. Anticipation is a fantastic thing. The main thing that I love about our band is that we’re getting better. Kevin’s development as a musician, in the past 20 years, is amazing. And I’m a much better singer, player and songwriter now.

Kevin: When we started playing with the band, I had very little experience playing live and even less experience recording. It was sort of like doing theater your whole life and then setting foot on a movie set for the first time. But now I really like the studio and feel comfortable there.

Working on this new song has been really fun.

Many younger brothers look up to their older brothers. Is that true for you, Kevin?

Kevin: Yeah, definitely. Mike was cool and creative. He played music and wrote songs. I would go to see his shows. Girls were into him. I looked up to him.

Michael: Kevin didn’t need much teaching.

When he first began, he didn’t play an instrument, he had no technical understanding of music, but I can see talent in people immediately. I knew that Kevin had enormous talent for music and acting.

How is the new Bacon Brothers recording coming along?

Michael: The new single is called “Broken Glass.” We’re really excited about it. We were playing it live, but we changed it in the studio.

Kevin said it wasn’t dark enough. As soon as he said that, it became the same conversation I, as a film composer, have with a client. That’s an exciting process for me.

Kevin: When Michael and I write, we usually start with guitars or, sometimes, piano. We tend to do demos. But with this one, we didn’t do that. I just played it for Mike and the guys. It’s turned into something that I didn’t ever envision. I like it.

Did you want to be a pop star, Kevin, when you were a kid?

Kevin: I wanted to be a star anyway I could get it. I was into the Beatles and the Monkees, the Partridge Family and David

Do you guys have a method for writing songs?

Michael: No. In all the years of us writing songs, we haven’t found a time of day to do it or room to write in. We don’t sit somewhere

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for an hour and make a song. The more successful writing is about responding to the feelings, moods and experiences we have.

Is there an advantage in being an actor who’s also a songwriter?

Kevin: When you’re playing a part, you’re ripped opened emotionally. You have to keep yourself in a vulnerable place. Oftentimes, depending on the part, you are more open to songs finding their way to you.

Here’s a question for Kevin. How serious about acting were you before you moved to New York?

Kevin: It started coming on in Philly. I was apprenticing at a few small theaters, hanging out with older actors and seeing the actor’s life. The romance of staging a play and being backstage became super desirable to me.

Moving to New York was a way to fulfill that need to be part of the theater.

Here’s a question for Michael. Did you think Kevin might be a professional musician?

Michael: To me, he always was a musician. I was probably in Nashville when I heard he’d been auditioning for acting parts. The first thing I saw him in was Animal House, a huge hit. After that, we saw him in Diner. People were lined up around the block. I knew something was going on. Whatever musical thing we had was on the back burner then, but we never stopped writing together.

Here’s one more question for Kevin. You filmed JFK in New Orleans. You were in the city for only four days to film your role, but what did you take away from the experience?

Kevin: I loved doing JFK in New Orleans. JFK was a real turning point for my movie career.

And I love the history of New Orleans and the architecture and the culture and the music and the food. After Hurricane Katrina, my family and I came down at Christmas. We rolled up our sleeves. We didn’t change the world, but it was a good, positive Christmas experience to see what we could do to help.

The Bacon Brothers will perform June 5 at the Joy Theater in New Orleans and June 6 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette. www.OFFBEAT.com