Leyla McCalla Branford Marsalis Kevin Naquin The Rayo Brothers
Life Beyond Rap Cabaret
BUKU
NEW ORLEANS MUSIC, FOOD, CULTURE—MARCH 2019
Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50
AF The NAYSAYER FREEWATER
HAPPY MARDI GRAS!
PHoto: NOE CUGNY
.BLAST FROM THE PAST
Dancing at Her Funeral
Big Freedia: Do Azz I Say By Michael Patrick Welch July 2011
Boyfriend is exploring life beyond rap cabaret. Page 24
Letters 6 Mojo Mouth
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Fresh 8 My Music with Nancy Gros; Five Questions with Freewater; Longhair Revelation: Per Oldeus’ scrapbook and more.
Obituaries
The Shadow and the Soul
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Branford Marsalis: Melody is at the base of all music.
Man in the Mirror
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Kevin Naquin is staying true.
OffBeat Eats
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Restaurant Review
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Connie Jones Ricky Paulin
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Michael Dominici reviews Meril.
Best of the Beat Award Winners
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The Rayo Brothers, The Asylum Chorus, Louie Ludwig, Ric Robertson, Kris Tokarski, The Dirty Rain Revelers, Cousin Joe, James Booker and Snooks Eaglin, Big Al & the Heavyweights and more.
Who took home an award this year?
Making Beats and Educating Children
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Listings 44
AF The Naysayer is finally telling his story, in three parts.
Cuba’s Havana Jazz Festival Divorced in 1960 but still madly in love.
www.OFFBEAT.com
Reviews 34
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Backtalk with Leyla McCalla
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“People be acting like the Wally-Wally-Walmart video has been putting bounce music on the map, but I am way ahead of them, trust me,” smiles Freedia, pointing out that her recent “album”—a sample-free, five-song disc released by car company Scion—was the first ever national bounce release. (To read more this issue can be purchased at http:// www.offbeat.com/issues/ july-2011/) MARC H 2019
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BEST OF THE BEAT
Best of the Beat Awards Photographs by Brandt Vicknair and Willow Haley
Erica Falls and Walter "Wolfman" Washington
Samantha Fish
Artist of the Year Samantha Fish
Best Blues Performer Samantha Fish
Best Rock Artist Revivalists
Best Traditional Jazz Artist Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Album of the Year Walter “Wolfman” Washington: My Future is My Past (Anti)
Best Blues Album Walter “Wolfman” Washington: My Future is My Past (Anti)
Best Rock Album The Revivalists: Take Good Care (Loma Vista)
Best Traditional Jazz Album Tuba Skinny: Nigel’s Dream (Independent)
Best Emerging Artist Bon Bon Vivant
Best R&B/Funk Artist Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Best Rap / Hip-Hop / Bounce Artist Alfred Banks
Best Contemporary Jazz Artist Jason Marsalis
Song of the Year “One More Trip Around the Sun” by Paul Sanchez and John Rankin
Best R&B/Funk Album Big Sam’s Funky Nation: Songs in the Key of Funk, Volume 1 (Independent)
Cyril Neville with Michael and Katherine Batiste (Jon Batiste's parents) 12
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Best Rap / Hip-Hop / Bounce Artist Album Curren$y & Freddie Gibbs: Fetti (Jet Life Recordings)
Best Contemporary Jazz Album Jon Batiste: Hollywood Africans (Verve)
John Rankin and Paul Sanchez www.OFFBEAT.com
Tuba Skinny Cha Wa Best Brass Band Soul Rebels Best Cajun Artist Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys Best Cajun Album Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys: Man in the Mirror (Flat Town)
Best Zydeco Album Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band: Black Pot (Swampadelic Records) Best Roots Rock Artist Paul Sanchez
Best Country/Folk/SingerSongwriter Artist Gal Holiday Best Country/Folk/SingerSongwriter Album Gal Holiday: Lost and Found (HTRP Music)
Best Gospel Group McDonogh #35 High School Gospel Choir Best Cover Band Bag Of Donuts
Best Roots Rock Album Paul Sanchez: One More Trip Around the Sun (Independent)
Best Zydeco Artist Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers
Jason Marsalis
LVVRS
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MARCH 2019
Boyfriend is exploring life beyond rap cabaret. by Amanda Mester • PHOToGRAPHS BY NOE CUGNY The rollers in her hair, the vintage wardrobe, the cerebral wit, the feminism—all are hallmarks of Boyfriend, the Tennessee-raised songwriter, singer and performance artist whose aesthetic realm was built primarily in New Orleans. Forever in pursuit of answers to questions like “Who do you think you are?” “What does this mean?” and “Why the fuck do we follow society’s prescriptions?” Boyfriend has always used her art as a performative means to an end. It’s nuanced and complex, but often pithy and outrageous. But for all of the in-your-face qualities of the Boyfriend character, there’s an intentional secrecy to the individual behind the retro shellac. “It’s fun,” she says of having successfully hidden her given name from the public for as long as she has. Years ago, local DJ Rusty Lazer (widely considered instrumental in making Big Freedia a star) took notice of Boyfriend’s DIY videos on YouTube. He put her in touch with glitch-hop production team Sexparty and her first two EPs were born. Love Your Boyfriend, parts one and two, arrived in 2014. For most, song number one on the first EP served as Boyfriend’s formal introduction. It’s called “Attention,” the hook for which
is the demanding “Look at me, I need some fuckin’ attention.” Also in 2014, she released the loosie “Like My Hand Did,” featuring the lyrics “I need a Facebook slut, a Kappa Kappa cunt” and a lamentation on the disappointing lack of sexual prowess in a man. Getting our attention: check. While establishing her brand of brash electroclash, Boyfriend was also busy making her live performances memorable—to say the least. In fact, the notoriety she’s earned from her stage shows has eclipsed any shock induced by her lyrics. It’s a burlesque-inspired orgy for the senses, usually accompanied by a set designed with retro furniture, a small army of backup dancers and a wardrobe of pointy bras, silk robes and stockings. All of that—the spitfire lyrics and nostalgic vêtements—Boyfriend coins “rap cabaret.” Boyfriend was initially drawn to rap out of practicality: It allowed her to be verbose without being long-winded. She has a lot to say, and rap is nothing if not storytelling. “Rap is an incredible art form that is in no way less than any other art form,” she says. But being thought of as a rapper wasn’t really her intention when using “rap cabaret” to define her style. The woman behind
BACKTALK
Sarah Danzinger PHOTO: courtesy of the artist
Leyla McCalla talks back
“You keep telling me to climb this ladder. I’ve got to pay my dues. But as I rise the stakes get higher. I’ve got the capitalist blues. When I give everything, I won’t have much more to lose.” —Leyla McCalla, “The Capitalist Blues”
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eyla McCalla ponders the discordant state of the United States in her third album, The Capitalist Blues. It’s a vast and thorny topic, but McCalla’s world-weary humor lightens the burden. Released January 25, The Capitalist Blues debuted at number 14 on the Billboard jazz albums chart and number 5 on Billboard’s contemporary jazz albums chart. Despite the album’s jazz-chart placements, it’s another of McCalla’s diverse projects. A singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, www.OFFBEAT.com
she aligns her thoughtful lyrics with traditional New Orleans–style jazz, zydeco, calypso, vintage New Orleans rhythm and blues and the music of her parents’ homeland, Haiti. Jimmy Horn, leader of the New Orleans rhythm and blues torchbearers King James and the Special Men, produced The Capitalist Blues. Veteran engineer Andrew “Goat” Gilchrist (Maceo Parker, the Meters, the Neville Brothers) recorded the project, which took flight after Horn invited McCalla to record a new version of the local standard “Eh La Bas” with the Special Men. Horn’s Special Man Industries label will release “Eh La Bas” March 1 as a digital single and a limitededition vinyl 45. “I’m grateful to Leyla for trusting me with her songs,” Horn said of his production work for The Capitalist Blues. “It’s an album By John Wirt
only she could create and only here in New Orleans could it happen. Leyla is a singular artist with a remarkable vision. I feel blessed to have witnessed the magic up close.” A classically trained cellist from New York City, McCalla moved to New Orleans in 2010. After Tim Duffy, a manager of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, spotted her playing Bach’s cello suites on Royal Street, she joined the Grammy-winning African-American string band co-founded by Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons. McCalla’s solo album debut, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, appeared in 2013. A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey followed in 2016. In addition to her solo career, McCalla is a member of Native Daughters. In February, the group—featuring former Carolina Chocolate Drop Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell—released its album debut, Songs of Our Native Daughters. Though McCalla composes songs about heavy subjects she punctuated a recent conversation at St. Coffee on St. Claude with chuckles. What inspired your Capitalist Blues songs? The inspiration came from this feeling of swimming upstream. And we’re all swimming upstream together. The system isn’t working for everyone in the same way. For a small number of people, it’s working great. For the vast majority, it’s not. So, you get a lot of ideas from current events? I listen to NPR. I follow the news. And now you can share information so quickly through social media. It’s hard to not know what’s going on if you’re on those platforms. Reading is big for me, too. I’m equally inspired by really old folk songs. Those old songs carry the themes that we’re still grappling with in our society today. There’s still conflict around poverty and inequality. That’s what this collection of songs [The Capitalist Blues] is about. It questions why we have rampant inequality in our society and why we don’t recognize that collectively. Do you think the struggle you’re speaking of applies especially to your generation? You’re told to go to college and get an education. But I know so many people with master’s degrees and PhDs who are still teaching violin at a nonprofit. They can’t find a ‘real job.’ They’re just doing their best to navigate society and try to make something out of their lives. MARC H 2 019
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