OffBeat Magazine October 2019

Beignet Fest Guide PAGE 20

THE

SOUL REBELS Ain’t No Limitations

Plus

NEW ORLEANS MUSIC, FOOD, CULTURE—OCTOBER 2019

Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50

Foret Tradition Feufollet Marc Stone Kenny Neal Roland Guerin Michael Murphy’s ‘‘Up From The Streets’’ Little Steven Van Zandt

CONTENTS TA B L E

p. 36

O F

p. 32

24 Creating That Bridge

6 Letters 7 Mojo Mouth

A message from the publisher.

8 Fresh

My Music with Jamie Lynn Vessels; An Intimate Evening at Luthjens; Five Questions with photographer and videographer Dominic Scott; Music documentary Between the Notes; Dolemite is My Name; Five Questions with Bryan Batt; Festivals Acadiens et Créoles celebrates the role of women in Cajun-Creole music; Barbara Shorts celebrates her 70th birthday; Voodoo Music + Arts Experience 21st annual festival and more.

Marc Stone album release party set for Tipitina’s.

26 Soulful Takeover

Melissa Weber named curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive.

28 Hangover Power-Pop

Notel Motel bites back with Heavy & Sweaty.

30 Swamp Blues in His Bloodline

Kenny Neal at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival.

32 Solid As A Rock

Roland Guerin is not waiting for a stamp of approval.

22 Swamp Pop Lives on the Westbank 34 No Regrets Foret Tradition has built a solid following.

24 Prends Courage

Feufollet celebrates its 20th anniversary.

A conversation with drummer Barry Martyn.

p. 39

36 Shining The Light

Michael Murphy’s Up From The Streets premieres at the New Orleans Film Festival.

39 Ain’t No Limitations

The Soul Rebels pave the roads and knock down the doors.

46 OffBeat Eats 47 Restaurant Review

Michael Dominici reviews Brigsten’s.

48 Reviews

Soul Rebels, PJ Morton, Kevin Griffin, Russell Welch, Matt Lemmler, Sean Ardoin, Ecirb Müller’s Twisted Dixie, The Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band and more.

56 Listings

61 Backtalk

with Little Steven Van Zandt.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

“I have to see what happens after the storm season,” says [Lumar] LeBlanc. “Nothing’s going to stop me—but the Lord—coming to New Orleans and doing my work every week. New Orleans will always be home. What’s been interesting in Houston,” he On the Road Again: The Soul continues, “is we’ve been able to do jazz funerals.”

Rebels commute to keep the (To read more this issue can be purchased at tradition alive.

By Geraldine Wyckoff OF F B E AT.C OM

http://www.offbeat.com/shop/back-issues/2006/offbeat-magazine-august-2006/)

OCTOBER 2019

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letters “Frenchmen Street definitely has evolved …

Gone are the fabulous evenings of grabbing a bite there, listening to music, strolling the street, going from club to club, listening to the most diverse and wonderful music.”—Connie Akard, Antlers, Oklahoma St. Claude Avenue Music Corridor These are in response to Jan Ramsey’s blog post “More Music Moving East? (September 2019) questioning if St. Claude Avenue is the next music corridor and reporting that city councilmen and staff will be making a trip to see how it’s done in other cities, namely Seattle and San Francisco.—Ed. Just read the article about St. Claude Avenue becoming the next music corridor. Since they mention sending people to San Francisco, to gather information, I thought I should chime in.

San Francisco does not have a music corridor! They tried to get things going on Fillmore Street.This would have been a perfect place to have clubs up and down the street.

No success.The wonderful jazz club Yoshi’s couldn’t even survive as well as some other smaller clubs.The venues in San Francisco are just individual clubs in different areas. We are natives of San Francisco and love music so we know where the clubs are. Plus, we have no reputation as a music destination.

Our new reputation is a growing homeless problem, mental illness, open drug sales on streets, rental car smash and grab, no parking, and high prices.

Any trip here to help with your problems will be futile.

You have done it best with Bourbon and Frenchmen. I concur about Frenchmen, it has gotten too crowded.

I feel a moderate cover charge of $5.00 each would be enough to pay musicians along with a meal. Or, you can charge a surcharge on drinks during live entertainment hours specifically for musicians.

We love New Orleans and have been coming to Jazz Fest since 1989 and stay a couple of weeks.Your city is really special and we always tell everyone they have to go.

—Sher Giannini, Brisbane, California Frenchmen Street definitely has “evolved”—better or worse who knows.

Gone are the fabulous evenings of grabbing

a bite there, listening to music, strolling the street, going from club to club, listening to the most diverse and wonderful music. Now it is simply a huge, loud, crowded cluster f—k.

—Connie Akard, Antlers, Oklahoma You’re about five to eight years late on this article. St. Claude Avenue started down this road years ago, and my prediction 10 years ago was that St. Claude Avenue would be a restaurant mecca and that the “new Frenchmen” would be St. Bernard with its wide corridor and plenty of liquor licenses.

—Curtis Casados, New Orleans, Louisiana Paul Butterfield This is in response to Dan Willging’s review of Smoky Greenwell’s Blues and the Power of Peace CD review, August 2019.

Michael Bloomfield was a master of the blues guitar. He did not play harmonica.

Perhaps the author meant to write “Paul Butterfield,” with whom Bloomfield played early in his professional career.

—Rick Wilkof, New Orleans, Louisiana Spider Murphy Thank you Jay Mazza for the complimentary ink on the enormous talents of Mr. Spider Murphy [August 2019 CD review].

And you Sir should be recognized for unleashing the word as Spider Murphy is no doubt the real deal. For those who don’t know about the legend of Spider Murphy, just google his name and enjoy the ride!

—Phillip Rauls, Seattle, Washington Loss of music legends We will never get over the loss of so many New Orleans legends in such a short period of time. It has been devastating, traumatic and profoundly sad. Dealing with all of this has taken the song out of my heart and has sucked the life out of me. We all have to learn to live with this.

Accept it. Keep on keepin’ on. Much easier said than done.They say time’s a healer. Not this time.

—Ted Gogos, Buffalo, New York

Louisiana Music, Food & Culture

OCTOBER 2019 Volume 32, Number 11 Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com Managing Editor

Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com Web Editor

Amanda “Bonita” Mester, amanda@offbeat.com Consulting Editor

John Swenson Layout and design

Eric Gernhauser Listings Editor

Katie Walenter, listings@offbeat.com Contributors

Stacey Leigh Bridewell, Emily Carmichael, Cree McCree, Thomas Cole, Robert Fontenot, Tom McDermott, Amanda Mester, Brett Milano, Spike Perkins, Paul Sanchez, John Swenson, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff Cover PHOTO

Gus Bennett Videographer/Web Specialist

Noé Cugny, noecugny@offbeat.com Copy Editor

Michael Patrick Welch, michael@offbeat.com Advertising Sales/ Promotion and Event coordinator

Camille A. Ramsey, camille@offbeat.com Advertising Design

PressWorks, 504-944-4300 Interns

Jay Chris, Micahel Frank, Brandie Goff, Gabriella Killett 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 /offbeatmagazine

Copyright © 2019, OffBeat, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. OffBeat is a registered trademark of OffBeat, Inc. First class subscriptions to OffBeat in the U.S. are available for $65 per year ($70 Canada, $140 foreign airmail). Back issues are available for $10, except for the Jazz Fest Bible for $15 (for foreign delivery add $5) Submission of photos and articles on Louisiana artists are welcomed, but unfortunately material cannot be returned.

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O F F B E AT. C O M

Two Things That Get Me About New Orleans.

Well, Maybe Three.

mojomouth

A Note From Publisher J an Ramsey

I

t’s kicking into fall festival season, and as usual, there are too many things to do every weekend.

Couple that with football season and there’s certainly never a dull moment.

Sitting and looking out of my Frenchmen Street corner window, I see a much-changed street scene than I viewed 20 years ago. First of all, there are many more music venues, and also more bars.The street is much busier than it ever was, even during the day.There’s actually foot traffic during day.

Obviously this area is extremely hot: About half the block between Chartres and Royal is being auctioned (sealed bids are due on October 24 to acquire the properties).This includes the so-called “Trash Palace,” the Art Market, all the properties between Royal and Chartres, and the attached property on Chartres Street in this real estate parcel. Will it be possible to create another entertainment zone here? Remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

But here’s the rub: the city has a very difficult time keeping the peace and monitoring Frenchmen Street.The crowds and the associated rowdiness, drunks and shenanigans are hard to keep in check, especially since we don’t have an adequate police presence here. Who knows what could happen if more restaurants, bars and entertainment venues open in the future? This is a real issue.

As St. Claude Avenue also adds more and more entertainment, we can

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also probably anticipate similar law enforcement and/or safety issues there.

So here’s what gets me about the way New Orleans operates. The right hand never seems to know what the left hand is doing. First, there’s too little communication between city departments (i.e., NOPD, Mayor’s Office, Office of Cultural Economy, Zoning & Permitting, Health & Safety, etc.). There is no coordination to create, decide and enforce policy that requires cooperation and knowledge from all of these disparate groups. This is why we desperately need a person or small department that’s an information and enforcement hub to coordinate policies and enforcement for our “night time” economy (see my blog online on creating a “Night Mayor” for New Orleans).

Second—it’s very hard to get like-minded businesses or non-profits to work together to achieve a common goal. Win-win partnerships work.

They can be businesses, public/private, or non-profit/private sector.The participants just have to commit to working together; too many people in New Orleans jealously protect their turf.

And third, businesses whose bottom line produces the most money should be required to give back to their communities concomitantly. I know I’m going to be castigated for this, but whatever: sports teams make a lot of money.Yes, they do entertain the city; they bring in tourists, build community spirit, and also have charities that give to specific causes— but they also get a lot of monetary concessions to stay here and I can guarantee you that their bottom line is extremely profitable. If the hospitality industry is now obligated to help to support the city’s infrastructure, then maybe sports teams should be obligated as well. O

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NEW & NOTEWORTHY

MY MUSIC

“I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. My mom, just like her mom did for her and her five siblings, had me and my brother learn piano when I was four and my brother was five. My parents told us when we turned 10 we could choose a different instrument if we wanted to, so I chose guitar, I don’t know… the guitar always kind of spoke to me… I wanted to be a rock ’n’ roller!

I was a shy kid. I wrote songs in my room that I sang to myself.

In fifth grade I had this notion to form a band with some neighborhood friends. I was like, ‘Let’s form a band!’ I made everybody get matching outfits because we were, you know, ‘in a band’ but I was the only one who could play an instrument.

I took some lessons from a

guitar teacher who was a legit rock ’n’ roll guy. Like, he didn’t teach me music theory—he taught me what I wanted to learn.

Then I got a degree in criminal justice with a concentration in forensics from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, got my masters in criminology at U Mass Lowell and I was headed to a career in the F.B.I.!

But I always had this idea that I wanted to share my songs with other people, because that’s how I would write the songs—to share with other people. I just couldn’t get up the courage to do it.

I started going to open mics and met a songwriter named Jim, a sweet guy. He said he would look at my songs. He’s a pop-country

always wanted to do something with music, sent her some songs and she said, ‘Let’s make an album!’

So I came down here on a whim and that’s what we did in late 2012; the record came out in 2013.

The band now is Cranston Clements on guitar, David Brouillette on bass and Daniel Perez-Iriondo on drums.

We’ve started traveling songwriter and said, ‘Why don’t to Houston quite successfully, you try writing a song in this style,’ we’re going back in November and the song ended up being but I still do my Tuesdays at “Catch the Wind.” I shared it with Check Point Charlie’s at 8 p.m. him and he said, ‘Terrible… this and the second Saturday of the is not at all how you should be month at Carnaval. writing pop-country.’ I know that I like New Orleans because it’s now but for whatever reason, it’s just different—when I came here I not my style. was like, ‘Oh! This is where I fit in!’”

I had a friend down here who’d —Paul Sanchez

D o l e mi t e I s M y Na m e

Rudy Ray Moore was one of the first to put rap and rhyme to rhythm.

Rudy Ray Moore—the notoriously blue comedian, blaxploitation star and rap pioneer that Eddie Murphy portrays in the much-anticipated Dolemite Is My Name—had strong ties to New Orleans.

In 1957, Moore worked as driver for the touring Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns when Smith’s “Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” reached the R&B Top 10. Moore got the driving gig through his friend, Bobby Marchan, the Clowns’ lead singer.

Moore, a singer and emcee in those years, also appeared with Marchan in New Orleans at the legendary Dew Drop Inn. After his move to Los Angeles in 1959, Moore’s return visits to New Orleans included 2003

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and 2004 appearances at the Ponderosa Stomp. In 2002, he brought his final Dolemite movie, The Return of Dolemite, to Baton Rouge for its world premiere at a theater managed by his friend, Fred Williams.

Dolemite Is My Name, a crowd-pleasing hit at the recent Toronto Film Festival, opens in theaters October 4 before streaming October 25. Eddie Murphy’s comeback movie, it’s a project the actor and comedian has wanted to make for nearly 20 years. “I love the Dolemite pictures,” Murphy says in the Dolemite Is My Name production notes. “Back when I used to tour, we played his records on the tour bus.”

Dolemite Is My Name focuses on Moore’s late-blooming career

Eddie Murphy portrays Rudy Ray Moore

as Dolemite, a character inspired

by Rico, a toothless wino, as Moore described him, who recited black folklore toasts laced with obscenities. Moore refined Rico’s “raw-soul poetry” and

eventually recorded. In 1970, the independently-released Dolemite film Eat Out More Often became an underground hit.

In 1975, Moore brought Dolemite to movie theaters O F F B E AT. C O M

Photo BY GLENN MURRAY

Jamie Lynn Vessels

with the self-financed Dolemite.

A martial arts-plying pimp, Dolemite returned the following year in The Human Tornado. In the ’70s Moore also played the devil’s son-in-law in Petey Wheatstraw and a DJ vigilante in Disco Godfather.

The creative team behind Dolemite Is My Name includes director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Empire) and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs. O.J. Simpson). The film’s all-star cast features Keegan-Michael Key, Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Kodi SmitMcPhee and Snoop Dogg.

Dolemite records were sampled by 2 Live Crew, NWA, Easy E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and others. Moore appeared in music videos with Snoop Dogg (“Doggy Dogg World”), Erik B. & Rakim (“The Ghetto”) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (“Got Your Money”).

“Rudy Ray Moore was one of the first ones to put rap and rhyme to rhythm,” Snoop Dogg says in the movie’s production notes. “A lot of great rappers perfected their skills and their styles and their look off of watching Rudy.”

—John Wirt

Rudy Ray Moore OF F B E AT.C OM

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SOUND CHECK

Five Questions with photographer and videographer Dominic Scott Dominic Scott is a photographer and videographer whose resume belies his 21 years of age. He has worked extensively with Grammy-winning musician PJ Morton, as well as Grammywinning producer Chase N. Cashe and many more.

Recently, he directed the music video for Pell’s “Skyfall,” a single from the rapper’s 2019 album Gravity. The video was accepted into the New Orleans Film Festival’s “Louisiana Shorts” showcase and not, notably, in the “Music Videos” section. Described as “A visual representation of community and individuality in the New Orleans creative scene, showcasing the rawness and authenticity of each artist,” the video features a cast of New

Orleans hip-hop stars including Pell, Malik Ninety Five, Sleazy EZ and Kr3wcial.

How did you get your start in photography and video?

I got started with photography and video in high school. I started off making skate videos with my friends and playing around in my backyard with the first camera I got, which was from my pops. Every day I was shooting something—didn’t matter what it was, I was just determined to figure out the ins and outs of my camera.

What are some of your personal career highlights so far?

Some of my personal highlights would be starting my multi-media agency, Red Balloon Studios; the

decided that we wanted to showcase New Orleans creatives in a different light. Showing that there is a most recent music videos I’ve shot sense of community here and we all stick together to change with my good friend Pell “Skyfall” and “Too Much Of A Good Thing”; the stigma, uplift one another, and having my work featured in a and bring that feel-good vibe wherever we go. handful of blogs that I personally What about that video keep up with. in particular do you think How has being from New resonated with people?

Orleans informed your work?

I feel that people can resonate Being from New Orleans has with it because we all can feel the given my work a certain feel that change that’s taken place in the you only get from people who creative community specifically. live here. There’s a certain kind You see a lot more collaboraof energy I like to think that we tions and support from people carry with us that you can’t find anywhere else. I love color, people, and it’s beautiful to see. I believe and emotion in my work and the that the videos shows a genuine happiness that I know we all can city is full of those things. relate to when surrounded by What was the creative people we love. process like for “Skyfall”?

—Amanda “BONITA” Mester For “Skyfall” Pell and the team

Photo BY TRENITY THOMAS

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

SOUND CHECK

Bryan Batt never thought he would leave New Orleans. Even going to sleep away at camp was hard for the boy who spent his formative years wandering the grounds of Isidore Newman School, Tulane University and his family business, the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park.

Acting, however, lured him away. Batt has appeared in nine Broadway productions, and, most famously, as Salvatore on Mad Men. Now, Batt is back. When not at his home decor shop, Hazelnut, he’s working on the pilot of “Garden District” written by Southern Rep Theatre Founder Rosary O’Neill. “Garden District” tells the story of an old New Orleans family both held together and torn apart by money. Batt plays Rooster, the

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prodigal son with a pill problem who yearns to be an artist.

You’ve performed all around the world. What’s it like to be back performing in New Orleans?

I’ve done several films [in New Orleans]. My dream is to be on a series that films here. Something about New Orleans that is wellwritten and well-respected and to which people respond.

How did your upbringing in New Orleans shape how you’re playing Rooster?

Honestly, I knew some people like him. He’s a combination of a lot of different characters.

The family dynamic is the same whether it’s in a multimilliondollar Garden District mansion or a trailer park in Destrehan. And there’s money at stake.

You see people that are tied to

a life or a person in a very unhealthy way.

[Rooster] has been crippled in a sense that he is dependent completely on the family money and the mother.

A lot of people have tried to tell stories about New Orleans and do it incorrectly.

What do think this show gets right?

I think it’s just the boldness of being honest and of telling your story rather than the story you think people want to hear or what people might believe. You know I think [HBO’s] “Treme” worked because it was true to a certain cross section of New Orleans. You look at the [movie] “The Big Easy” and you’re like “What? People don’t call each other ‘Cher’”

In “Garden District,” Rosary [O’Neill] is telling her story. She’s definitely not watering it down or trying to make it palatable for a modern audience.

A big push lately is to keep talent in New Orleans and to create institutions that allow creative talent to stay in New Orleans.

You do have to leave and go to New York or L.A. or some of the places just for work—but I love that some people have been able to have a complete career here and stay here.

Do you think it will work?

The one thing Mad Men didn’t do is that it didn’t pander. And I think, if that happens here, you never know.

—Emily Carmichael

O F F B E AT. C O M

Photo COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Five Questions with Bryan Batt

Th e M a j e s t y o f M usic

Music documentary Between the Notes shouldn’t be missed.

Given the losses it’s endured over the past year, New Orleans music could use a smart, wellcrafted love letter. It gets one in Between the Notes, a half-hour documentary short by local filmmakers Bruce Dear and Travis Henry, now viewable on Amazon Prime. But no matter how many local music docs you’ve seen, this one is a little different.

For one thing, it’s not the kind of music film that hauls out the usual famous suspects: The interviewees go across genres and personality types; they include classical cellist Monica McIntyre; jazz trumpeter Leroy Jones and trombonist Katja Toivola; dancer Jeff Schechter; poet Chuck Perkins and from the rock/roots world, a pair of Tin Men (Alex McMurray and Washboard Chaz). For another, the film isn’t concerned with tracing the history of local music; instead it goes into the spiritual nature of music (the word “sacred” is used more than once) and the musicians’ thoughts about what they do. Those thoughts are what hold all the interviewees together: though their music may be worlds apart, they’re all equally reverent about the presence of the muse.

The film premiered last year at the New Orleans Film Festival which led to its worldwide distribution. According to the press release, the filmmakers “are two friends that came together with a question: Where does music come from on the individual and personal level and how might that origin influence tradition?”

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One subtle but important point the film makes is that music is music and there are no divisions between pop and high culture.

Thus nobody who’s interviewed had the roots you might expect.

Now a big name in traditional jazz, Jones says he grew up on James Brown and “used to mash the potatoes with the best of them.”

McMurray was first introduced to songwriting by his sister’s collection of show tunes (she was apparently big on Evita) and Schlechter’s role model as a dancer was John Travolta.

Only Perkins’ interview attests to the influence of growing up in New Orleans; he remembers absorbing “Hey Pocky Way” from school-bus singalongs instead of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

Though there are some beautifully shot scenes of Bourbon, Frenchmen and the river, nothing in the movie’s points are really specific to New Orleans (and it may be the first local music film I’ve seen that doesn’t focus on Mardi Gras Indians, though there are a couple of parade scenes). And its best moments come when the music does the talking. Jones plays an eloquent solo in his own kitchen, and the scene of percussionist Michael Skinkus explaining his choice of the boxlike cajon as his main instrument—and then playing it at dusk in City Park and getting absolutely transported—says more about the majesty of music than any words could.

—Brett Milano

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L e s f e mm e s e t l e s f i l l e s

In April 1929, a chapter of Cajun music history was written when Amédé, Ophy and their sister Cleoma Breaux recorded the original version of a quintessential Cajun tune entitled “Ma Blonde Est Partie,” for Okeh/ Columbia Records. A few years later in 1936, the Hackberry Ramblers shortened it to “Jolie Blonde” on its waxing for RCA Bluebird. Then in 1946 and 1947, Harry Choates reached a national audience by having a hit with “Jole Blon” twice on Gold Star and Modern Records. Over time it’s become an indispensable part of Cajun culture with tons of amazing interpretations, including those by Belton Richard, Vin Bruce and Jo-El Sonnier.

This year the song about the pretty, mysterious blonde celebrates its 90th anniversary and is the inspiration for the overarching theme of Festivals Acadiens et Créoles that celebrates women in Cajun and

Creole music, October 11-13, 2019 at Girard Park, Lafayette, Louisiana.

The more Festivals Acadiens Board President Barry Ancelet thought about it, the more the theme expanded to women being sung about, as noted by songs like “Chère Alice” and “Bernadette,” to women performing onstage and women singing in the home, hence keeping the ballad tradition alive.

Women, such as Irene Whitfield, author of Louisiana “French Folk Songs,” and Catherine Blanchet, did monumental fieldwork by going door to door to collect songs.

“So, it all coincided with this big focus on what women have contributed to Cajun and Creole music in what is often been perceived as a male-dominated tradition,” Ancelet says.

The role of women in Cajun and Creole music will be explored at the festival’s annual

free symposium “Les femmes et les filles: Female Perspectives in Cajun and Creole Culture Symposium,” on Friday, October 11, at the A. Hays Town Building at Hilliard University Art Museum on the UL-Lafayette Campus, beginning at 9:00 a.m. The symposium will feature a variety of topics such as the lyrical depictions of women, women folklorists, poetry and art. At 4:30 p.m., the symposium concludes with a Women’s Charivari, a noise-making parade, that snakes from the museum to the nearby festival grounds for the opening

boudin-cutting ceremony.

Theme-related workshops are set at the Scène Atelier. One in particular, “The True Story of ‘Jolie Blonde’,” 12:00 p.m. Saturday, presented by historian Wade Falcon, will delve into the untold story behind the song, which was inspired by an actual person, not a fictional character as commonly thought. “It makes a really good story because we think she is mythical,” says Falcon. “And like a lot of myths in folklore, it’s based on someone who is real.” Be sure to get there early for this one.

—Dan Willging

S W EET T W EET S Amanda Hess @amandahess I keep coming back to what Tina Turner said to Mike Wallace. As they toured her villa in the South of France, he asked her if she deserved all of this luxury, and she replied: “I deserve more.”

that day. It’s okay if it’s different each night. #johnpapagros

Harry Connick Jr@HarryConnickJR cole porter was brilliant with lyrics. he was always poetic, but you always knew what he meant - especially when he wrote about love. #TrueLove

Michael Tisserand @m_tisserand songwriters can we trust you on no more rhyming “college” and “knowledge”?

Missy Elliott @MissyElliott Sometimes you may feel like no one understand what you going through & you have become discouraged...EVERYONE has a GIFT! DON’T QUIT because a few doors closed. Just like doors close DOORS OPEN TOO!!

Stay up

Tim Cook @tim_cook Music and food are the soul of New Orleans. Love seeing the gumbo of arts, learning and technology at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music where community becomes family.

John Papa Gros @JohnPapaGros Our approach comes from the New Orleans jazz tradition, where it is important to make sure the music is alive and reflects how we’re feeling

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Alex McMurray @alexmcmurrayyy My secret love for Pink Floyd is abiding and real. Especially in airports.

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PhotoS courtesy Festivals Acadiens et Créoles

Festivals Acadiens et Créoles celebrates the role of women in Cajun-Creole music.

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Pa r a d e o f S ta r s

It’s a triple celebration. On October 6, singer-actress Barbara Shorts will combine her Parade of Stars variety show, 70th birthday party as well as the debut of her new single with an all-star event at Café Istanbul.

Inspired by a classic TV variety program, The Ed Sullivan Show, Shorts’ Parade of Stars includes Topsy Chapman & Solid Harmony, David Batiste, Larry Sieberth, Chris Severin, Tonia Ladyt, Detroit Brooks, Russell Batiste, Fresh and Reckless, Tee Eva Ernie, Mark Sterling and the Abundant Life Tabernacle Music Ministry.

“Shows these days are mostly bands and singers,” Shorts said.

“But with this variety show, you’re not going to get any one performer longer than five to 10 minutes. It won’t be boring.”

Because it’s her birthday, Shorts will spend much of the evening in the audience enjoying the show.

She’s planning to finish the night off herself, however, singing her new recording, “Love on the Run.” For sale at her performances and cdbaby.com, the soul-blues-style “Love on the Run” represents a new musical direction for the versatile singer, whose roots are in gospel music and whose credits include performances in One Mo’Time and much more.

The Parade of Stars lineup features performers Short has worked with through the years.

“These are people I started in this business with, musicians I brought on the road with me and when I traveled overseas, who really know me” Shorts toured interna-

tionally from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, singing traditional jazz with a band of New Orleans musicians. She performed in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Estonia, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, however, severely impacted the entertainment business and air travel. When her international gigs declined, Shorts took a job as a dealer at Harrah’s Casino. Although she continued to perform, the time and energy that full-time casino work demanded made it difficult to pursue her music career.

When Harrah’s let her go after 13 years of employment, Shorts was

actually relieved.

“The money was good, but I was not as happy as I was when I was doing my performances and traveling,” she said. “When I walked out of there, I said, ‘Free at last, free at last.Thank God, almighty, I’m free at last.’ ” Turning 70 this year, Shorts has no plans to abandon her true love, music. “There are still a lot of things that I’m hoping to achieve,” she said. “And if I put music down, then I’m giving up. I’m not going to do that. My whole thing is to fight on. I want to embrace life gracefully and do all I can do.”

The Legendary Barbara Shorts Presents Her Parade of Stars at 6 p.m. October 6 at Café Istanbul.

—John Wirt

Photo BY ERIC SIMON

Barbara Shorts celebrates her 70th birthday.

V o o d o o M usic + A rt s E x p e r i e nc e You going to Voodoo? During the first decade or so of the Halloween-weekend festival, the answer for most local music fans was almost invariably yes.

In those heady years, Bingo and their fellow sideshow freaks had their own dedicated Bingo tent, trad jazz cats blew the roof off the Preservation Hall tent, and New Orleans icons like Irma Thomas were broadcast live from the WWOZ stage. Locals mingled freely with friends backstage before darting off to catch killer sets by national acts like the White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy Pop, the Flaming Lips and Wilco.

Going to Voodoo Fest is no longer the no-brainer it once was.

While its star has risen on the national festival circuit, drawing hordes of out-of-towners, New Orleans artists unfortunately haven’t been on the roster since

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C3 Presents/Live Nation assumed ownership in 2016. Still, depending on your age and musical tastes, there are some standout acts to catch at this year’s 21st annual Voodoo Fest.

Friday, October 25: Old-school rock fans knocked dead by Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction are pumped about Friday’s headliners. After years of civil war, frontman Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash and bassist Ian McKagan declared a truce in 2016, when they reunited for the “Not In This Lifetime Tour” and played the Dome. Three years later, the reborn GNR is firing on all cylinders. Setting the stage for the mayhem: New York rock revivalists Interpol, who pack an extra punch on stage with killer light shows.

Saturday, October 26: Headliner Beck, the quintessential indie alt-rocker who first won big

with “Loser,” needs no introduction in New Orleans; he asked Quintron and Miss Pussycat to open when he played the Saenger Guns N’ Roses Theatre in 2016, and always delivers thousands of fans to bounce a quirky, high-spirited set. The night’s other big act, The National, around like jumping beans while screaming all his words. Rezz also paints on a larger canvas. Though casts a spell over crowds. Her mad rooted in melodic Americana, DJ skills mesmerized Skrillex as a the Ohio-bred, Brooklyn-based quintet also channels Roxy Music- mentor, and the Ukrainian-born, Canadian-based DJ should be at style art rock, adding ethereal the top of her game at Voodoo. female voices and surreal images Her 2018 Halloween show in L.A. to the mix.

Sunday, October 27: Rap and opened with a voiceover over EDM fans get their due on closing the soundtrack of Nightmare on Elm St. while a movie showed night. Since he appeared on a secondary stage at Voodoo 2017, Rezz stalking across the screen in Freddy Krueger striped-sweater “Rockstar” rapper/singer Post drag. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Malone has blown up, bigtime; —Cree McCree he now routinely spurs tens of O F F B E AT. C O M

Photo courtesy of the artist

Highlights to the 21st annual festival.

fresh An Intimate Evening at Luthjens Marigny Studios and Julian Mutter are partnering to host “An Intimate Evening at Luthjens,” a tribute to the former historic Luthjens Dance Hall where jazz lovers danced, drank and convened in the Faubourg Marigny for much of the 20th century.

The monthly recording sessions feature current New Orleans jazz musicians performing and recording for a live, intimate audience. Performances began September 13 and will continue on the second Friday of the month through March.

Luthjens Dance Hall was one of many beer parlor/dance halls throughout New Orleans in the mid-1900’s that featured local jazz. The original Luthjens, owned

by Clementine Luthjens and her son Jules, was located at 1200 Franklin Avenue, corner Marais, and innumerable legendary musicians of the mid-20th century played there. Swing dancing was not allowed, as Luthjen’s was known as a place to bring the whole family to listen and dance to authentic New Orleans jazz.

In 1961 a fire destroyed that building, and tragically took the lives of both Clementine and Jules.

But Clementine’s nephew Jerome Luthjens re-opened the dance hall at the corner of Marigny and Chartres Street.The business closed in 1981 and now operates as Marigny Studios.

“I am very excited to have live jazz performances returning to Luthjens Dance Hall,” said Julian Mutter, property owner and supporter of local culture. We are working with extraordinary local musicians to ensure that everyone who attends the performance will have a memorable experience, and since it’s a studio, everyone will get a CD. John Boutté was the first artist to

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The original Luthjen’s Dance Hall in New Orleans. Photographer unknown

perform on September 13, and he explained “I’ve known Julian, he’s a friend; he comes to my shows. Julian said to me ‘There are so many great live shows; we should do something where the artist performs live music, and it gets recorded, leaving that performance in the hands of the artist.’ I liked the concept of playing in an intimate setting and having a recording of it.” Boutté performed with his band, Oscar Rossignoli, Nobu Osaka, Don Vappie and more.

Rick Nelson, owner of Marigny Studios says, “It was Julian’s idea to have an intimate performance with a small audience to capture the local greats of in New Orleans. We’ve lost so many recently that he thought it was a good idea to document the ones still performing.The studio, which opened in 2011, is a full multiroom recording studio facility within the historically re-purposed Luthjens Dance Hall.”

Grand Krewe Fine Wine and Spirits, a neighboring business, is a supporting partner of the event.

The shop offers a wide range of wine and spirits, a grand piano, along with Deuce and Pearl, the wine store dogs.

The cost of admission to the intimate evening includes wine, small bites and the music.

Upcoming confirmed performances are Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (October 11); and pending confirmation are Wendell Brunious (December 13); David Torkanowski (January 10).

—Paul Sanchez O F F B E AT. C O M

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Swamp Pop Lives on the Westbank he Westbank ethos is a bit grittier, more The Forets embraced the Swamp Pop label, both

by Spike Perkins industrial than the present day Eastbank, a as a brand and way to celebrate the culture of South little like something out of a James Lee Burke novel. Perhaps Louisiana. They started playing as Foret Tradition in the late 1990s. As it harks back to what the Irish Channel or the Ninth Ward was like 50 Wayne Foret says, “I love the dance step, love the beat, love the old or 60 years ago. But it is part of the tapestry of New Orleans. songs. It’s fine with me because it’s a Louisiana thing.”

Ryan and Brendan Foret grew up playing music alongside their Initially, Ryan and Brandon were influenced by New Orleans R&B older relatives, just like youngsters from the Treme, or from the on WWOZ radio: Johnny Adams, Fats Domino, Lee Dorsey and Ernie bayous of Acadiana. Their inspiration was not heavy metal or K-Doe, taping songs off the radio to learn them. Ryan says, “We knew commercial rock, like many of their blue collar peers, but the same about them before we knew about the guys from Lafayette.” But they New Orleans R&B tradition that draws young, aspiring musicians from came to love Johnny Allen, Warren Storm and Tommy McClain as well. across the US and the world. And In their vocals, you can also hear you only have to cross the river to the influence of singers like Otis find them.

Redding and the whole cannon of It all started with a softball Southern soul music. game. The boys’ uncle, Wayne Ryan usually plays bass with Foret, played on a team with band his left hand, the way he learned leader Jake Chimento, who heard from Jake Chimeno, but his lines him singing on the ball field and are often a little funkier than the invited him to come sing a couple original record, even on a classic songs with his band at the Starlight Fats Domino song. They try to put Ballroom. Wayne decided, “I like their own stamp on everything they this.” It was the 1970s. play—even well-worn line dance The band was called Jake and tunes. the Nifty Fifties, mining nostalgia Brandon’s stinging guitar solos for the oldies. The sound most show the mark of his hero, Stevie people associate with 1950s rock Ray Vaughan, but his tasteful lines ’n’ roll nationwide is the 12/8 beat and fills behind the vocals show with triplets on top crafted by Fats influences closer to home: local Domino and Dave Bartholomew guitarists like Dino Palmisano, Mark right here in New Orleans. You Templet and Kippy Bacque, who can even hear its pulse in a cappella doo wop songs from the street played with Wayne Toups and Edgar Winter’s White Trash. Louisiana corners of New York City. saxophone legend Jon Smith, another White Trash alumnus, works The brothers started playing music together when Brandon was with the Forets on some dates. nine and Ryan was 11. Ryan played keyboards and sang, but Brandon’s Foret Tradition has built a solid multi-generational following for their first instrument in the band was drums. He also learned to play tenor live shows, centered in their Westbank stomping grounds. Though sax and keyboards before concentrating on the guitar. By the time Ryan laments “we can’t seem to cross that river,” they do perform they were in their early teens, the boys were playing in bars with their regularly at the Rock ‘N’ Bowl. They have 10 CDs to their credit, and Uncle Wayne, and cousin Aaron Foret. receive airplay not so much on their early influence, WWOZ, but on Some might have wondered at the youthful Foret brothers playing the AAA commercial radio stations of South Louisiana, like KBON, with an “oldies” band. But one person’s oldies might be another’s KQKI, 94.9 Gumbo (WGUO),and 92.9 (KMRC). Their recording of roots or traditional music. That same Domino-Bartholomew sound Buckwheat Zydeco’s cover of Clifton Chenier’s “Ti Na Na” as “Tee that caught the ear of the whole nation inspired young people from Nah Nah” was a regional hit in 2007. the smaller towns and rural areas of Louisiana to create their own They play regional festivals, including Lafayette’s Festival International version. They were mostly white kids with some notable exceptions, De Louisiane, Gretna Fest, the Rice Festival in Crowley, Louisiana, like Phil Phillips and Cookie and the Cupcakes. Some had a bit of and the Crab Fest in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. But they haven’t played country influence; some gave a nod to Cajun music. A British music the Jazz Fest yet, and to Ryan Foret that would mean everything, writer, Bill Millar, dubbed the rural Louisiana rock sound “Swamp Pop,” more than even touring Europe. They will be releasing their 11th CD, a term not everyone likes or is comfortable with. recorded live this month. O

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Foret Tradition has built a solid following.

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label and they wanted to hear some new material,” says Billeaudeaux. “So we rushed into the studio at Chris’ place, Staffland Studios, and recorded the [new] songs.

One in particular by Anna Laura, [“Regard ensoleillé”] is so far out, it sounds like Radiohead. In no way is it Cajun at all. I think the record label wanted more of a Cajun thing. No wonder we didn’t get close to that folk festival that year.”

But in a sense, Prends Courage (meaning “take courage”) fits Feufollet to a “t.” At the outset, the group, a product of the Lafayette school district French Immersion program, demonstrated that it played authentic Cajun music like a group of grizzled veterans. That’s especially evident on its auspicious debut Le Bande Feufollet.

But as time went on, Feufollet demonstrated that the band wasn’t afraid to tackle new things and venture into new directions. Even as early as its sophomore effort Belle Louisiane, the band did French and English versions of Los Lobos’ “Evangeline,” and dug a song out of the ULL archives, t’s hard to fathom at this “Les clefs de la prison” with the help of producer Steve Riley. point, but what was once From there, Feufollet continued the blueprint of juxtaposing trad— a group of child prodigy sometimes by reinterpreting obscurer tunes from the archives—with Cajun musicians celebrates its sparkling innovation. In December 2010, the band received a Grammy

by Dan Willging 20th anniversary in October nomination for its album En Couleurs. with two special shows: Festivals “Actually I hadn’t listened to it in a while and we were playing at Acadiens et Créoles on Sunday, October 13, Girard Park, Lafayette and Artmosphere the other day and were listening to it when we set up,” Friday, October 18 at d.b.a. in New Orleans. Both shows will present Stafford says. “Damn, this is really weird. It has some crazy stuff on it. It’s a chronological retrospective of the band starting with founding funny; I don’t know how much I would make a record like that now. I members Chris Stafford and Chris Segura, followed by various alumni was really going for it back then.” like Anna Laura Edmiston, Ashley Hayes, Taylor Guarisco, Josh Caffery Two Universes, released in 2015, was an even bolder step, with only and others. The current configuration includes Chris Stafford (vocals, four songs sung in French and the rest in English. Ten of the 11 songs accordion, guitars); Kelli Jones (vocals, fiddle, acoustic guitar); Andrew were written by the band with the prolific Jones writing six of the songs: Toups (keyboards); Jim Kolachek (drums); and Philippe Billeaudeaux the lion’s share. “When I listened to Two Universes, I just thought the (bass). overall creative direction they were taking was the perfect evolution,” Stafford, who was only 11-years-old when the group first formed, says Edmiston. “It sounded like an effortless transition.” is the only remaining original member. Segura left in 2015 after the But gazing at the big sky picture, it still all seems natural to Stafford. release of Two Universes but is still close with his former bandmates.

“Most of us grew up in Lafayette and so much has happened in Both shows will feature special guests.

Lafayette. It’s not necessarily the most straightforward Cajun music here,” As part of this landmark celebration, the group will release a 20-track Stafford explains. “A lot of people here have done that kind of stuff commemorative CD on Feufollet Records entitled Prends Courage, before us, bands like [Steve Riley and] The Mamou Playboys, BeauSoleil christened after the raucous rock ’n’ roll track that opened 2008’s Cow and Filé. It’s the stuff we grew up listening to, people blending styles and Island Hop. The compilation features 17 tracks culled from Feufollet’s influences into Cajun music. We grew up thinking ‘oh, that’s what people adventuresome seven albums and one 45-single; for the most part, it’s do when they make Cajun records’.” sequenced chronologically to show the band’s progression. The new Yet, even after 20 years, Stafford says Feufollet continues to evolve tunes, says bassist and band manager Philippe Billeaudeaux, represent as an artistic, creative force. “I think that is a constant thing with us,” he the three identities of the band. “Dans le magasin,” a Johnny Sonnier says. “We are always reinventing what it is and what we do. We’ve had classic, is Feufollet’s nod to traditional dancehall Cajun. Kelli Jones’ people come and go and every time someone comes in, they bring in a “Going Fast” is transformed from a folksy pop tune into Keith Franknew perspective and ideas.” styled zydeco. “Regard ensoleillé” is an unearthed trippy tune that was “Thinking back on these 10 years of my life, to say they were shelved when its writer, vocalist Anna Laura Edmiston left the band in formative is an understatement,” says Edmiston. “They are just such a 2012 to join—literally—the circus. huge part of who I am today, as an adult, as a professional, as a musician “Right after En Couleurs (2010), we were in talks with a record and as an artist. I’m just trying not to cry. I owe a lot to the guys.” O

Prends Courage

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Photo COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Feufollet celebrates its 20th anniversary.

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Creating That Bridge Marc Stone album release party set for Tipitina’s

by John Swenson

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of his manifestations: from his love of Latin music which led to Otra; to his work with the New Orleans Funk Ensemble and Honey Island Swamp Band; and now doing his own thing with the True Believers.

It’s been really cool to watch his whole evolution. And all these cats are my contemporaries, so it’s been great through the years to see us all come scraping up through the club scene and working in all these different situations, and then to see them accomplish all these great things.

“That’s on the Thursday night; then on that Saturday night my band will be headlining St. Bernard Parish’s Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival.

It will be my band with John Mooney and Benny Turner. Benny has taught generations of New Orleans musicians how to play the blues, but not in the New Orleans sense. Benny was from Texas and in the ‘50s and ‘60s became part of the Chicago scene with his brother Freddie. When he moved to New Orleans and started working with [the late] Marva Wright, he wound up training a lot of people in the New Orleans scene how to play blues in the Chicago context, as opposed to the New Orleans manifestations of it. By getting to work with him, I couldn’t have possibly gotten more in touch with the spirit of this thing that I loved. With Benny and Mooney, and people like Kirk Joseph and Roger Lewis and the Dirty Dozen, not only were they great people to learn from, but they were the most generous, downto-earth, let’s-play-music kind of people. Those guys have so much to offer and share with their music and knowledge, and they love sharing it. I really hope that in the future I can point to musicians who are a little younger than me when I got here and say ‘Get with these cats.

They want vessels to carry on what they’ve carried all their lives. They want people to understand what they’ve learned.’ I really hope that everything I’ve been doing, first coming up as a sideman and now getting to work in more collaborative ways, that I can open up some avenues of that knowledge to younger people and help carry on the tradition.” O O F F B E AT. C O M

Photo BY Rick Moore

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arc Stone is planning a big celebration for his first headlining gig at Tipitina’s on October 3, the official release party for his latest album Live at Tipitina’s. The show will cover several aspects of Stone’s peripatetic musical journey and feature a host of special guests. Stone, a fixture on the New Orleans scene over the last quarter of a century for his guitar playing with Eddie Bo, Big Al Carson, Buckwheat Zydeco, Rockin Dopsie, Jr. and fronting his own groups, brings a unique understanding of blues, R&B, jazz and rock history to bear on his collaborations as well as his enduring presence as a WWOZ DJ. Stone explained that the show would feature several lineups.

“On the Tip’s show I’m going to do some solo acoustic stuff and some stuff with John Mooney. Playing with John is one of the heaviest experiences of my life. He’s the direct bearer from Son House of the Delta blues and all the rock ‘n’ roll that came out of that. John’s the vessel, so playing with him is like a master class. We’ll do that stuff at Tip’s and I’ll also have my band the New Soul Finders. We’ll be playing the new single, “The Truth”; the Naughty Professor horns played on that. The last couple of years I’ve started to play with a lot of people who are in their 20s and 30s who are these phenomenally-talented, soulful musicians who are committed to understanding the roots.

But they are also really doing their own thing with it, and I’m also still working with these cats from generations before me who are a direct connection to the people who are the real manifestation of the music that I grew up with.

“Those are people like Benny Turner, Freddie King’s younger brother, who came up playing with Elmore James, Little Walter and Muddy Waters. It’s been so fulfilling and energizing that to allow me to put these different generations together, and to be a kind of a musical fulcrum. We did a series at the Ace Hotel last year called “Blues and Boogie,” where I was doing a lot of that—bringing younger musicians and older masters together to get them to mingle and create that bridge. So I find myself in this really fun position of getting all this artistic stimulation from people younger than me, as well as from people I’ve always looked up to who are older than me and whom I’ve been lucky enough to work with.

“The Tip’s show also includes members of the Honey Island Swamp Band because bassist Sam Price and drummer Garland Paul have worked with me for years in different incarnations of my own band. Sam was the first bass player that I worked with when I did my original music here 25 years ago. It’s been great to see him develop all

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Melissa Weber named curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive.

o me, this is just a next step—an

by Geraldine Wyckoff of genres represented in the collection,” she allows saying she intends to build on that foundation. She advanced step—but it’s in line with has her eye on bringing available information on New Orleans rhythm everything I’ve done my entire life,” Melissa Weber explains, after being recently being selected as the curator of the Hogan and blues, contemporary jazz and brass band musicians up-to-date and into the present in order for the collection to more fully represent this Jazz Archive at Tulane University. city’s music.

The Hogan Jazz Archive, part of the Howard-Tilton Library at Tulane “New Orleans music and jazz is not just one story,” Weber offers.

University, is one of the city’s leading research centers for the study of “I want to help uncover all of the stories and then make the stories New Orleans jazz and many other music genres. It contains substantial available for other story seekers.This is our story. Documenting, oral histories on tape, sound recordings, film photographs, posters, preserving and building on it, I take very seriously.” sheet music, personal papers, discographies, correspondence, public Recently, she received two emails from members of New Orleans documents and much more. musical families inquiring about researching their relatives. “Legacy is Weber, who started her new job on August 10, 2019, is widely a very important thing to New Orleanians and the families of New recognized as DJ Soul Sister. She has dominated OffBeat’s Best of the Orleans musicians,” Weber—a native of this city herself—correctly Beat Awards and has won the Best DJ category every year since the awards inception in 2009 except for 2016. For 25 years, she has hosted proclaims. “They just want to look at photographs of them [their ancestors], hear their recordings, and just be able to experience their her show, “Soul Power,” on community radio station WWOZ and is a highly-respected and award-winning spinner of rare vinyl grooves at gigs ‘presence’.”

During her short tenure at the archive, Weber has been doing her and parties. At first glance, some might deem deejaying and curating an archive as disparate occupations. But Weber, who earned her bachelor’s own exploring and making some unexpected and delightfully obscure discoveries. degree at the University of New Orleans and is about to complete the For instance, she found a clipping from a 1980 edition of Figaro that master’s program in musicology at Tulane University, declares, “All of that advertised an original Meters reunion to be held at the Saenger Theatre is related to my love of music.”

“Being a deejay was never an end game,” she continues. “I started out that was sponsored by Popeyes. “That was a few years after the group broke up,” she says in amazement. Elsewhere Weber also saw an article as a crate digger; not just shopping for records but hunting for records detailing the Civic Theatre in the late 1970s when it was a discotheque. in situations that most reasonable people would not go through—like “That was completely off the cuff,” she exclaims. “I wasn’t looking for it climbing in questionable storage facilities where things might crawl on but it’s there. It tells another story of New Orleans nightlife.” you—all in the search of finding rare material.”

Weber, 44, who stands as the first person of color and first woman Feeling the need to share the music led Weber to volunteering at to hold the prestigious curator position at the archive, enjoyed early WWOZ as well as interning at OffBeat. “This to me is a prime function exposure to music through her father’s record collection. “My dad’s side of education—sharing knowledge,” says Weber who will continue of the family were music-loving people,” she proudly declares, adding towards that purpose as the archive’s curator. that her sister,Valerie George, once signed with Motown Records and Weber fills the position of curator that was vacated by the muchcurrently performs at Seal’s Class Act with fellow vocalist Lisa Amos. Her respected Dr. Bruce Raeburn who, after 30 years, retired on January cousin is the renowned, much-called-upon drummer Raymond Weber.

1, 2018. Raeburn was the recipient for OffBeat’s Lifetime Achievement “Dad wanted me to play an instrument,” Weber said. “I in Music Education Award in 2016. She realizes the difficultly of consider my turntable an instrument,” she adds, deadly the task as the personable Raeburn boasted a head full of serious in the proclamation—though with a laugh. musical knowledge.

She will continue to spin her get-down vinyl at her “I feel I bring my own specific and unique credentials “Soulful Takeover” show once a month on Fridays at to add to their amazing legacy,” says Weber of Raeburn One Eyed Jacks and at her monthly “Hustle!” parties and jazz historian Dick Allen, whose names are so closely on Saturdays at the Ace Hotel’s Three Keys. associated with the Hogan Jazz Archive. “I’m honored to When asked about taking on the position, be in that line—that’s my tribe. Of course, I’m thrilled to do Weber says she jokingly explains that for decades this and even more excited about it because it is related to she has [lovingly] maintained an archive filled the story of New Orleans music. I’ve been a music story seeker with recordings and memorabilia since I was a little girl. I’m also lucky that the musicians know at her home. “I will take the me, the music community knows me, the researchers and same care of the Hogan Jazz publishers know me, so I’m not a stranger.”

Archive that I have to my Having been in her new job only a few weeks at this own collection,” Weber writing, Weber is naturally just getting to know her sincerely promises. O way around: “I have been fascinated by the variety

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Hangover Power-Pop he Devil may live in Gentilly, as the first track

by Cree on Heavy & Sweaty tells us. But tonight he and his minions are cavorting a couple of miles down the road at DMac’s in Mid-City, where Notel Motel is playing for a packed house of fans who’ve been eagerly awaiting the follow-up album to their Chicken Party debut.

The self-styled “hangover power-pop” trio hits with “Mexico,” the opening track on their first album, Chicken Party. The crowd knows all the words and joins the lusty chorus of “Brown dogs shaking,” while Buck bops around with his bass, Emile pounds the heck out of his drums and Matt attacks the keyboards with a crazed gleam in his eyes (the band members prefer to be known by first-name-only monikers, like Cher). Then they blast into space with “Terrestrial,” off Heavy & Sweaty that recalls the brown dog motif with “Rosalita’s bark” and then doubles down with “Brown dogs shaking” in “Bites Back.”

Are you starting to sense a theme here?

“This band was originally founded because we all had brown dogs,” says Matt, only half-jokingly. (For the record, Emile’s dog Alfie is actually black). “We write a lot of lyrics about our dogs.”

“Rosalita,” named for Matt’s dog Rosie, was born the night Buck’s brother-in-law busted an inflatable swan trying to fit it through the doggie door. And if Buck hadn’t brought his own brown dog to the T-Bois Blues Festival in Larose, Notel Motel might never have even existed.

“I was just there on my own, camping with my dog,” recalls Buck.

He wound up camping next to Emile, whose ears pricked up when Buck casually mentioned he played bass. Emile and Matt had just been woodshedding informally after their first band, The Kings of Happy Hour, broke up, and they were itching to do more than just play the occasional SPCA fundraiser as a duo called The Fleas (woof!).

After two months of playing hard to get, “Buck finally reached out and said, yeah, let’s play music,” recalls Emile. “Then we started playing at my dad’s old warehouse, and it was fucking awful,” he adds with a laugh.

“But it was fun as shit,” interjects Matt. “We would jam for hours on end, recording everything, and we’d all listen to these recordings, and say at 1:64, there’s a great little 20- second thing happening: everybody listen to that. And we’d try to recreate that and formulate songs. That’s how we wrote Chicken Party, our first album.”

Which brings us to the second Notel Motel foundational tenet: grilled meats in general, and grilled chicken in particular.

“Chicken is a good meat to put on the grill because you can do indirect heat and slow cook it,” notes Buck. “So you could go inside

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McCree and jam for an hour, and not worry about the chicken.”

All three members of Notel Motel are grill masters, and have multiple Hogs for the Cause trophies to prove it. But though Chicken Party was self-recorded with the casual backyard ’tude that makes their songs so much fun, they’re also dead serious about their music, which caught the discerning ear of two-time Grammy awardingwinning producer Chris Finney.

After hearing what he aptly described as “a cross between Steely Dan and the Dead Milkmen”—soaring harmonies and hooks, delivered with a punk-rock punch—Finney offered to master Chicken Party and stepped up to produce the band’s new album.

Heavy & Sweaty, recorded in Ponchatoula using Finney’s mobile studio, invokes the “Sticky and Wet” dog days of summer in New Orleans with typical Notel Motel brio: “There’s a hole in my back melanoma came in/ It’s the middle of the summer and I can’t even swim.”

“Leaving In July” takes locals who leave to task: “Leaving in July is for quitters/ Like sipping on a sazerac and bitchin’ bout the bitters.” “The Devil in Gentilly” celebrates “fried eggs on the pavement,” along with its titular demon. And “Beach,” about a girl who strikes out at the bar, is the kind of up-tempo blaster that inspired New Orleans defensive end Cam Jordan to observe: “This is like a top-down convertible driving in the winding mountain highways of Cali’s coast line.”

Like Notel Motel’s first album, which cruises “Lakeside Mall” and muses about the “Jazz Fest Experience,” Heavy & Sweaty is full of observational humor about the world around them. It’s also larded with fist-pumpers like “Soviet Cigarettes,” which have no basis in reality but run on adrenaline powered by what Wilco bassist John Stirratt calls a “nice Vox/garage/prepunk vibe.”

The celeb endorsements were snagged by Buck, who Instagrammed Cam Jordan a picture of Cam he’d painted in gold on a black shirt, and reeled Stirrat in using their mutual hometown of Mandeville as bait. But most of the time, Notel Motel operates as one three-headed monster that co-writes the lyrics and music and trades lead vocals and harmonies as effortlessly as breathing.

“We need each other to kind of finish things off,” says Emile. With two albums under their belt, they’ve also “gelled as a group,” notes Buck. “We’ve learned each other’s ins and outs, and streamlined a lot of things.”

“Yeah, I’m pumped about the songs we’re writing now,” adds Matt.

“The next album’s gonna be awesome.” O O F F B E AT. C O M

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Notel Motel bites back with Heavy & Sweaty.

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Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, Saturday, October 19

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Swamp Blues in His Bloodline

An important factor in Kenny’s hroughout his long, career occurred in 1976 when he successful career, guitarist, traveled to Chicago to play bass in vocalist and composer Buddy Guy’s band. His tenure in the Kenny Neal has been associated Windy City inspired him to take his with Baton Rouge and its hybrid career in another direction. musical style known as swamp blues.

“When I got there, I noticed that “It has a French influence because a lot of people around Chicago we have that right next door to us had their own bands and they had in Lafayette,” Neal explains adding records out—they were leaders,” that many people moved from Neal recalls. “I thought, ‘Wow, these there to Baton Rouge. He also

BY Geraldine Wyckoff guys aren’t that good and they’ve mentions folks arriving from towns got record deals and they’re going like Woodville, Mississippi and, of to Europe. I can do this.’ So I started course, New Orleans music as writing my own music and bought influencers in his hometown’s brand a guitar and started focusing on me of the blues. being a front man. I always wanted to “That’s where we get our swamp lead my own band and I was taking a blues from—Cajuns, the Delta and backseat to Buddy.”

New Orleans,” Neal says. “Oh, and After a time performing with it’s very much country because the Neal Brother Blues Band in we’re deep down in the south.”

Canada, in 1987 Kenny released his The Grammy-nominated, first album as leader, Big New from multiple-award winning artist and Baton Rouge on Alligator Records the son of the legendary harmonica (originally released on King Snake player and vocalist Raful Neal Jr., Records as Bio on the Bayou). He’s boasts a greater tie to New Orleans been rolling ever since and really than is usually recognized. Though caught big attention for his original his father was raised in West Baton material and original sound heard Rouge Parish, his grandfather, Raful on his 2016 release Bloodline which Neal Sr., lived in the Crescent City includes eight members of his and was the pastor of the Mt. musical family. Here he sings about Calvary Baptist Church in the 9th his life: “Down in Louisiana where Ward. “We always came down,” the bloodline runs deep.” says Neal who still has uncles and At this writing, Neal had just cousins who live in New Orleans. returned home to Baton Rouge after Neal, 62, who is the eldest of 10 playing in Romania, the Netherlands children, credits his father for all of and Ireland. “They’ve been following the music that has surrounded and influenced him. He began playing guitar with his father’s band when he me for years,” Neal says of overseas audiences who he’s been entertaining since the 1970s. They love the blues and understand and know was just 13 years old. the history of it. I’m gonna tour until I can’t no more—but not like I “I grew up in a household of music,” Neal says. “My dad always would have musicians over and that was like a free concert for us. So used to when I’d do 250 dates a year.”

Since his return from a stay in California, Neal has established a that—playing music—was what we [he and his siblings] wanted to do since we were little kids. Thanks to my mom for letting us make all studio, Brookstown Recording, and started a record label, Booga Music. He has begun recruiting young artists “to put them out there.” that noise in the house.”

Neal just finished a new solo country album, Reminiscing, that he At Neal’s performance at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, his band will include his two youngest brothers, keyboardist Frederick describes as “back porch pickin’.

Neal digs the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival for giving him and bassist Darnell Neal. and other musicians the opportunity to hook up. “It is a bit of a Noted blues man Buddy Guy, who is from Lettsworth, Louisiana, was one of the musicians who would spent time at the Neal’s home; reunion because we’re always off doing our own thing,” he says. “The last time I played there I got a chance to hang out and sit and talk he and Raful played together in the 1950s. According to Kenny, they got an offer to work in Chicago and, as those in the blues world know, with Allen Toussaint and his son. I was so happy I did that because he passed soon after that. We all took pictures and laughed and talked.

Guy headed north with Raful Neal opting to stay in Baton Rouge to It was good.” O raise his family.

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Kenny Neal at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival.

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Solid As A Rock

His Grass Roots album’s title song, Guerin said, “is about family. When a child is born, their roots can be long if the parents know where the family came from. All those things, where we come from, help us to be who we are.”

Family is a priority for the 50-year-old Guerin these days. He and his screenwriter wife, Laura, are the parents of a baby girl, Malia Neve Guerin. Guerin turned down a summer tour with Paul Gilbert this year to be present for his daughter’s birth in June.

Allen Toussaint Guerin comes from a musical family in Baton Rouge. His father loved jazz and classical music. His mother played bass in blues and zydeco bands. Guerin played guitar before switching to electric bass and later, upright acoustic bass in the jazz program at Baton

by John Wirt Rouge Magnet High School. His interests went far beyond jazz, though, veering into a broad spectrum of popular music including Cameo, oland Guerin keeps good company. A master of six-string The Dazz Band, Rush, Gerry Rafferty, America, Booker T. & The M.G.’s bass, he put the bottom in Allen Toussaint’s band during the and The Police. composer-pianist-producer’s second act as a world-traveling At Southern University in Baton Rouge, Guerin pursued a marketing concert artist. Guerin spent 2017, Dr. John’s final year of performing, as degree while studying jazz with clarinetist Alvin Batiste, the school’s the singer-pianist’s bandleader. This fall, Guerin is touring Europe with the beloved jazz pedagogue from New Orleans. “Mr. Bat taught us things virtuoso hard-rock guitarist Paul Gilbert. His prestigious sideman work nobody else could,” Guerin said. “He didn’t try to change you or box further includes Marcus Roberts, John Scofield, Mark Whitfield, George you up in a rigid, repetitive thing.”

Benson, Ellis Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Scott.

After college, Guerin performed with jazz pianist Marcus Roberts Moreover, in addition to being an in-demand bassist, Guerin writes, from 1994 to 2008. He played bass for many albums, too, including the sings, plays and produces his own music. On October 18, Louisiana Red Blind Boys of Alabama’s Grammy Award- winning Down in New Orleans Hot Records will release his latest solo album, Grass Roots. The album and Allen Toussaint’s 1996 recording, Connected. mirrors Guerin’s broad and surprising influences. He sings lead for the In 2008, Guerin played spot gigs with Toussaint when the band’s project as well as multi-tracked clouds of backing vocals. The other regular bassist couldn’t make it. Toussaint’s son, manager and percusGrass Roots players include Mike Esneault, piano; Chris Atkins, guitar; and sionist, Clarence “Reginald” Toussaint, soon invited him to be the group’s drummers Herman LeBeaux Jr. and John Jones. permanent bassist. It was easy to say yes. Recalling his reaction to the Grass Roots’ tracks include two Prince-like pop-rhythm-and-blues offer to work with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who’d songs, “Running on Nightfumes” and “Inside Outside Upside Down;” the written, produced and arranged so many classic recordings, Guerin said, Peter Gabriel-inspired “Summer Moon”; the adventurous, almost rock “I was like, ‘Man, this is a dream.’ We shared things and I discovered more of “Stick to the Basics” (with lyrics by Allen Toussaint); and the jazz-rock and more about him. I was drawn further and further in.” hybrid piece “To the Edge of Something.”

Toussaint wrote the words for “Stick to the Basics,” one of Guerin’s Lilli Lewis, head of the artist-and-repertoire department at Louisiana Grass Roots songs. “He handed me the lyrics at a rehearsal,” Guerin Red Hot Records—and an accomplished musician in her own right— recalled. “He even signed them. He signed everything. His penmanship said the subtlety and cinematic beauty in Guerin’s music persuaded was impeccable. And when he notated whatever he was hearing in his her to sign him. “It’s as universal as anything any other New Orleans head, it looked like it had been printed by a scripted program.” master might produce, but also wholly unto its own,” Lewis said.

Toussaint is also responsible for Guerin’s return to singing lead.

“Roland considers himself a New Orleans roots musician, but what he’s “Scared the daylights out of me,” Guerin said of Toussaint’s request that produced here is timeless and 100 percent unexpected.” he sing lead for a song during the maestro’s concerts. “But in the same Guerin has named the album and his band Grass Roots. “Because breath that I would have said ‘no’ I said ‘yes’.” it says so much,” he said. “Everybody wants to put titles on this and a During a rehearsal for Guerin’s first lead vocal spot, Toussaint gave his genre on that. They want it to fit in a box. But life isn’t in a box.” bassist a masterclass in singing. “He stopped the band and walked over On stage, the Grass Roots band can go anywhere. “That’s the vibe,” to me,” Guerin remembered. “Mr. Toussaint asked me, ‘Are you living Guerin said. “Pop, jazz, blues. In Allen’s band, we would go everywhere— what you’re singing? Live what you sing. Do that.’ That stuck with me like because there’s such richness in New Orleans and the world. RhythmI don’t know what. When Allen talked about things, it was about the life and-blues, rock and roll, blues, Mahalia Jackson, gospel, Louis Armstrong in whatever it was. ‘Are you connected with that? Is that part of you? Are and what folks call jazz, the African heritage from Congo Square, the you living that story? Because that’s what’s going to touch the people.’ I Cuban rhythms. All these things are here.” kept going further and further with that, in my head and my heart. Music

Roland Guerin is not waiting for a stamp of approval.

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is human. It’s an extension of us.”

The always-studious Toussaint even helped Guerin expand his bass soloing. “Allen would practice all the time,” Guerin recalled. “He figured that he had to play something at least 100 times before it started feeling comfortable in his hands. And he had perfect pitch. If you played something for him, he’d play it right back at you.”

Two years after Toussaint’s unexpected death at 77 in November 2015, Guerin joined another New Orleans music star’s band. In January 2017, he became bassist and bandleader for Dr. John’s Nite Trippers, performing alongside one of the city’s great drummers, Herlin Riley.

bass and the drums are at the heart of it. And I’ve been playing with Herlin for a long time, so there’s that hook-up and that freedom within the beat. Mac [Rebennack, a.k.a. Dr. John] loved it.”

Simpatico on the bandstand though Guerin was with Dr. John, their relationship was quite different from the deep connection the bassist developed over a much longer time with Toussaint. “With Allen it was a lot more like family. We were very close. We felt things without saying anything or calling it something. With Dr. John, he shared stories in that honest, childlike, matter of fact way that was just so funny and real. His playing had that in it, too. And the way he looked at life and people, he saw exactly what was going on. A lot of people thought he was a little Dr. John slow, but, man, he checked everything out. On stage, I’d see him looking at “They got something that I always feel in my spirit,” Dr. John said of me, listening to everything. He saw everything.”

Guerin and Riley before his final appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Before every gig with Dr. John, Guerin said, “We’d all hold hands and and Heritage Festival. “Everything that is good about my band is better say a prayer. And that’s the vibe. He wanted all of us to let go and let the with them guys.” “We would get into some grooves,” Guerin rememmusic happen. It didn’t have to be any way other than whatever it was. bered. “With something that good, I’d chuckle, I’d laugh.”

Not like it should be something or it had to be something—just let it be.”

Guerin and Riley are mutually appreciative of their respective talents.

Sometimes, Guerin noticed Dr. John slowing down in his last year of “Roland is an impeccable musician who pays attention to the details and touring. “But what he was playing was golden,” the bassist said. “His love subtle nuances of the music,” Riley said. “He is a consummate professional and life always came out. And he would still play stuff that nobody else who shows up on time, with a pleasant attitude, the spirit of camaraderie could play, way beyond what somebody else could do on their off nights. and musical fellowship. Whatever the musical setting, he always plays There was no taking away from who he was.” the right notes with the right feeling to solidify the foundation of the Dr. John’s “roll with it” mantra reinforced Guerin’s own natural rhythm section. When Roland is on the gig, I am relaxed and comfortable, tendency to follow his own drummer. “Especially with that vibe of not because I know the bass playing will be solid as a rock.” caring, but caring all the same,” he said. “A lot of people in my life told “When I think about that New Orleans drum sound, there are Herlin me what wouldn’t work and what shouldn’t work. I went around them Riley and Shannon Powell,” Guerin said of Riley. “I still play with Shannon. and made it work. I’m not worrying about what somebody else thinks or He’s the one who taught me about New Orleans traditional music.The waiting for somebody else’s stamp of approval.” O

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No Regrets A conversation with drummer Barry Martyn.

Barry Martyn is a U.K. born and raised jazz drummer,

by Thomas Cole piano player from The Animals, Alan Price, would come. The last time I saw him was 10 years ago in the principally interested in the New Orleans jazz revival Quarter; he came to listen to us play. I even auditioned for a band circuit. Upon first visiting New Orleans in 1961, he studied drums under featuring Ginger Baker. the tutelage of Cie Frazier, and has performed with other renowned I came to New Orleans in 1961 with segregation in full force; New Orleans jazz legends including Kid Sheik, George Lewis and Percy fraternizing with blacks was forbidden. I listened to old records and Humphrey. He has called New Orleans his home since 1984. became friendly with the colored players in town and ended up performing with Kid Sheik and Noon Johnson at the Black Masonic was born to a lower class family, and grew up about 20 Hall downtown. If the cops had ever come, we would have caught miles outside London where my daddy had a store. The hell. first time I really heard New Orleans music was on the Eventually I wanted to make a recording but had to join a musicians radio when I was maybe 12 years old, sitting with my mother listening to Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America. My father was also a singer and union. Naturally, I joined the black one, as I knew only two white had his own band. They would come over to practice and when they musicians in town. That evening, I received two phone calls, one from Ebony Magazine, and the other from left, the instruments stayed in our the Klan, threatening to come over house. Sometimes I would take and raise my voice a couple octaves. one of the drums and play out I was worried but replied, ‘I don’t back in a field. want you boys hurting yourselves Eventually I wanted one for coming up these really narrow myself and had my eye on a stairs and tripping over your robes, snare drum. But I had to forge my and I’ll be sitting with a sawed off daddy’s signature on the papers to shotgun to pick you off one by one.’ buy it on time. And when he found They never showed up. I came here out, he gave me a good whipping, to learn about music from black but I didn’t care; I had the drum musicians, not from white players; and still do to this day. after all, it was black music. That’s I eventually formed my own what you had to put up with in band, Kid Martyn’s Ragtime Band, those days! and we made our first recording At one point I wanted to tour in 1959. The other musicians were U.K. with Kid Sheik, but he needed older but I had a better business a passport. We finally got the sense than them, was more paperwork together and made the ambitious, and was always the trip. The first night, before returning bandleader.

Barry Martyn to my place, I asked him if he wanted We played at Studio 51 in to go in a bar and get a drink. He London, where all these cats looked at me incredulously and asked, ‘Will they let colored people would sit in and play, including Charlie Watts. He [Charlie] was originally a jazz drummer and liked New Orleans music too. Years later, he in there?’ I responded, ‘Of course! People will follow you in, and the bartenders will want to keep you around so they can sell more drinks arranged that stunt to greet the New York press, playing music from the back of a truck on the streets of Manhattan just like New Orleans to everyone else!’ He could not begin to grasp that concept; it was heartbreaking. jazz bands did to promote upcoming gigs.

I’ve toured the world including U.K., Japan and Europe, and once Enjoying some success, we were headliners in some clubs. We once played on the same bill with the Stones, but they were just beginning played for Prince Rainier. I’ve even played for President Reagan while performing with The Legends of Jazz at Ford’s Theater in Washington, and had to be introduced on the handbill as ‘Rhythm and Blues with D.C. Looking around at all those dignitaries, I remember thinking to The Rolling Stones’; no one knew what they played. Every Sunday, myself, I’ve come a long way. we performed at The Railway Tavern south of London and once, the These days, I am working on a documentary film called A Thousand Stones were playing nearby. My wife was good friends with Chrissie Years of Jazz, and I still play around town, for old families Uptown Shrimpton, Jean’s younger sister, and whose boyfriend was this kid on special occasions, and with Andrew Hall’s Society Brass Band, named Mick Jagger. That night, we all took the same train back home and I asked him how the gig went, whether many people showed up. but most musicians I grew up with here, they’re all dead! I’m a good drummer, not an excellent one, but will probably die on the He was so quiet and shy; you could barely get a word out of him! bandstand with no regrets!” O We often played in Newcastle and Eric Burdon, along with his

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Photo BY Thomas Cole

“I

s Street the m fro Up

Shining The Light

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Michael Murphy’s Up from the Streets premieres at the New Orleans Film Festival.

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Murphy said. ichael Murphy’s new film distills Murphy originally envisioned a five-or New Orleans’ deep, diverse six-part project. When funding for that musical culture into a packed proved difficult, he opted for a feature103-minutes. Featuring local stars and length documentary. Murphy and Eberle international names Keith Richards, Robert financed the project themselves until Plant and Sting, Up from the Streets—New

by John Wirt they obtained funding in 2017. Securing Orleans: The City of Music reaches from financing and distribution is always a lengthy process, Eberle said. “You pre-colonial native American rhythms to enslaved Africans playing drums in Congo Square to opera, jazz, gospel, rhythm-and-blues, funk, have to get the meeting,” she explained. “But if Michael can get the meeting, he can sell it.” rap and bounce.

Jim Moriarty, Murphy’s friend and former camera operator, Up from the Streets will make its world confirms that the 69-year-old premiere October 19th at the 30th Annual filmmaker is the best advocate New Orleans Film Festival. “It’s the perfect for his projects. “Michael can place for it,” Murphy said in the front room walk into an office and tell the of his Uptown home. “This film is about story of the importance of what’s my hometown and our culture and our he doing,” said Moriarty, vice musicians. It’s the most important film we president of YES Productions in have ever created.”

New Orleans. “They trust in what A filmmaker for more than 30 years, he says and what he delivers. And Murphy’s myriad credits include 2005’s he’s been delivering forever.”

Make It Funky! and the 2003’s Legends of Told many times that jazz doesn’t New Orleans: The Music of Fats Domino. sell, Murphy never bought that The writer-director and his supervising common show business belief. “I producer, Cilista Eberle, invested five was seeing five-hundred thousand years and thirty-five edits into Up from people come to the New Orleans the Streets. The New Orleans Jazz and Jazz and Heritage Festival, which I Heritage Foundation Archive gave the filmed for nearly twenty-five years,” filmmakers access to archival material and he said. “I knew there has always allowed them to film interviews at the been an audience for it.”

George and Joyce Wein Jazz and Heritage In 2017, Eagle Rock Entertainment, Center. “I wanted to hit as many a London-based division of the different threads as I could and make an Universal Music Group, signed on as engaging, compelling, entertaining film,”

Veteran filmmaker though Murphy is, he feared during the film’s production that he’d taken on too much.The anxiety led him to seek consolation from Blanchard, an executive producer for the film. “I’ll never forget Terence saying, ‘Michael, you’re an artist.You’re a filmmaker. Make the film you want to make and I’ll support you.’ ” Up from the Streets’ distributor and executive producer. “The artists who have given identity to what we think of as the music of New Orleans,” Eagle Rock’s Geoff Kempin says in a release, “are now represented by a film that is both insightful and honest in its portrayal of the music culture of the city.”

The panorama Murphy presents in Up from the Streets includes biographical sketches of Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Danny Barker and the Neville Brothers. Musicians and experts also offer their take on what makes the city and its music special, including Harry Connick, Jr, Irma Thomas, Branford, Jason and Wynton Marsalis and Mannie Fresh. New performances shot for the film—including Terence Blanchard with Quiana Lynell and a duet featuring Aaron and Ivan Neville—join archival performance footage.

“Terence and the other musicians in this film, they’re the key element,” said Bruce Raeburn, an Up from the Streets consultant and former curator at the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University. “If you experience New Orleans music, you’re going to get the message.”

In addition to performing for the film, Blanchard, a Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated trumpeter-composer, naturally fills the role of host and guide. “Terence is so personable, so good on camera,” Murphy said.

Veteran filmmaker though Murphy is, he feared during the film’s production that he’d taken on too much. The anxiety led him to seek consolation from Blanchard, an executive producer for the film.

“I’ll never forget Terence saying, ‘Michael, you’re an artist. You’re a filmmaker. Make the film you want to make and I’ll support you.’ ” When Raeburn watched a rough cut of Up from the Streets, he found himself moved to tears. “I’m the academic who has to stay one step removed and be ‘objective’,” he said. “But I also played drums with James Booker and Earl King. When I think about Allen Toussaint and Booker, and all the deaths since I’ve seen the film’s rough cut— Spencer Bohren, Art Neville, Dr. John, Dave Bartholomew—those are huge losses. I was beaming because I knew them and worked with them, but grieving because they’re gone.”

The film does indeed tell a stirring story, Moriarty said. “Michael and Cilista understand the big picture, the players and where they came from.”

Sonny Schneidau, the former House of Blues and Tipitina’s talent buyer who’s an associate producer for Up from the Streets, noted Murphy’s dedication to the musicians he’s been documenting for decades. “Michael put his heart into this,” he said. “New Orleans musicians are so deserving of wide attention, and I hope this shines a light on them.” O The New Orleans Film Festival premieres Up from the Streets— New Orleans: The City of Music at 1 p.m. Saturday, October 19, at the Orpheum Theater.

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Ain’t No The Soul Rebels pave the roads and knock down the doors.

b y A m a n d a “ B o n i ta” M e s t e r

P O R T R A ITS BY G U S BENNETT

Photo BY Laiken Joy

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n object in motion stays in motion.

For the Soul Rebels, that’s been an unspoken mantra since the band formed in 1991. Borne from the wellspring of traditional brass and marching bands with a goal of becoming the standard bearer for performing popular music through horns and drums, the Soul Rebels have moved in a consistently impressive trajectory for nearly three decades.

The band’s ever-expanding and atypical list of collaborators includes everyone from Marilyn

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Manson to Matisyahu, Robin Thicke to Robert Glasper. They’ve opened for The Rolling Stones, appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” performed at Jazz Fest with pop superstar Katy Perry, opened the prestigious TED Conference and backed legendary Wu-Tang Clan rapper GZA on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series—all within the last two years. A copious touring schedule keeps the Soul Rebels on 250-plus stages a year, landing them in Australia, China, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Africa. At home in New Orleans, the band holds down its historic residency on Thursdays at Le Bon Temps Roule, plus frequent gigs on Frenchmen Street and at Tipitina’s.

A few years ago, the band began to concentrate on writing and recording its first album since 2012’s Unlock Your Mind. The album, titled Poetry in Motion that arrives October 25, is both a culmination of and introduction to the band’s genre-blending course. Featuring guest appearances from PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty, Big Freedia, Robert Glasper, Branford Marsalis, Tarriona “Tank” Ball and others, it’s the group’s most concerted effort to showcase its versatility. One would be remiss not to mention the contributions of songwriter and singer Sean Carey, whose masterful work on hooks gives the album the catchy characteristics needed to make it a crossover darling.

On the album, folks will hear rapping from trumpet player Julian Gosin and/or trombonist Corey “Passport P” Peyton on seven of the 12 tracks. Rapping has been elemental to the band’s live performances for years; if it isn’t a member MCing, then it’s any of myriad rappers they’ve shared stages with—Mobb Deep, Nas, Rakim, Talib Kweli, and Wu-Tang Clan are but a few. Much like The Roots did before settling in as Jimmy Fallon’s house band, the Soul Rebels have become a pre-eminent force in live hip-hop across the globe, using drums and horns to break down and analyze the genre from a molecular level.

But don’t get it twisted—the band does it all.

The group opted to roll out Poetry in Motion with the bounce record “Good Time” featuring Big Freedia, Denisia and Passport P. Nestled elsewhere within the track list are soca, reggae, neo-soul, jazz, R&B, Latin and various other styles. On paper, it could sound like a maniacal hodge-podge of genres with an obvious hip-hop foundation.

In reality, it’s precisely what the Soul Rebels—who can really only be considered a brass band based on an instrumental technicality—have always done. As founding member and snare drummer Lumar Leblanc says, “Throw whatever you want at us; we’ll be able to play it.”

An Act of Rebellion “The Soul Rebels are a quote-unquote brass band,” says PJ Morton.

“Out of all the bands, I feel like they are the ones who are on the edge. They were trying to create something new out of this art form.

From the way they think about and approach music, to the fact that they don’t do second line music, they’re creating something out of those instruments that other brass bands aren’t.”

The entity that would become known as the Soul Rebels started with the Young Olympia Brass Band, in which founding member and bass drummer Derrick “Oops” Moss as well as founding member and snare drummer Lumar Leblanc played together. Under the tutelage of Milton Batiste, the two played the traditional music of a New Orleans brass band but found themselves more attracted to the funkier, street-savvy sounds of The Dirty Dozen and Rebirth Brass Bands.

Since the band’s first gig as the Soul Rebels at Tipitina’s, rebellion was innate. “Soul Rebels was the first to do hip-hop with a brass band,” says trumpeter Marcus “Red” Hubbard, who remains so devoted to the band, he commutes from his home in Houston to Soul Rebels gigs in New Orleans. “That’s history.”

Derrick says at its onset, the Soul Rebels drew inspiration from

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Earth, Wind & Fire as well as Public Enemy. “I don’t know if it ever gets credited, but the Soul Rebels was the first to merge hip-hop with brass band. Technically, we are a brass band because we have a sousaphone, horns and separate drums, but it was always going to be more than that.”

Joining the Soul Rebels offered trombonist Corey “Passport P” Peyton an opportunity to become part of a group with a bold musical perspective. He admires the band’s early decision to stop performing second lines and instead prove that brass bands could do much more.

“It was about trailblazing. You didn’t want to cut anyone off, but that’s what made me want to be in this band. In the ‘90s, to say you didn’t want to do brass band shit anymore, that was unheard of.”

You can read more about the Soul Rebels’ history in the August Derrick 2006 cover story of OffBeat, which features a very different lineup of the band.

The Moving Parts Today, the Soul Rebels consist of two original members—Lumar and Derrick— plus six members who’ve joined the band as far back as 1998 and as recently as 2016.

Marcus joined in ‘98 and saxophonist Erion Williams came on board in 2005. In 2010, the band added trumpeter Julian Gosin as well as trombonists Paul Robertson and Corey.

Sousaphonist Manuel “Manny” Perkins Jr. is both the youngest (25 at press time) and newest Soul Rebel, joining the group just a couple of years ago.

With eight voices (not to mention those of management), each of whom represents a specific contribution to the group, the band’s concordance is truly remarkable. Despite their differing ages, years of experience, tastes in music and personalities, they all seem to share a philosophy: “We always gonna keep things moving forward,” as Marcus says. Achieving homeostasis is one thing; achieving harmony is another. Here’s a look at all the moving parts.

Corey Erion Corey’s voice is the first we heard from Poetry in Motion, thanks to his verse as Passport P on lead single “Good Time” (a song which Marcus claims came to be because of a piano riff Corey randomly played on the road). He also

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lends the album its first rap, on the triumphant intro cut “Blow the Horns.”

In 2018, the New Orleans East native and former member of Kinfolk, Hot 8 and Rebirth Brass Bands released a Corey solo rap album, Global Ambition. During a Soul Rebels show, his prowess at both rapping and blowing take center stage as he vacillates effortlessly between MC and trombonist. Other members champion his fashion sense, as well as his contributions as a producer and songwriter.

“You feel better about it when you had a hand in it,” he says when I ask him about the songwriting on Poetry in Motion. “I couldn’t imagine someone taking my freedom away, as far as making music. The heart of it, even though struggling, is making some shit that you like.”

Described by others in the band as the cool and introverted one, Corey is arguably the band’s most stylish member. “I think I bring a style, a swagger to the group,” he tells me. “Not that no one else got swagger but, I’m the slim guy who does the MC thing, the rap thing. So people think of me as the rapper of the group. Whatever, so be it.”

Derrick Oops, as he’s better known, was drum major of the Southern University Marching Band (as a freshman!). Born in Charity Hospital and a graduate of Alcee Fortier High School where he marched as the tenor drum section leader in the school band with “Slim” (CEO of Cash Money Records), he has an encyclopedic knowledge of New Orleans music history.

The oldest in age of all the members and with two grown sons of his own, he says his contributions to the band can sometimes border on the parental.

“Sometimes I feel like pops, and I had to realize that I get into father-son mode sometimes. But I do bring, I think, a realness and honesty to whatever’s happening.”

On stage, Oops is energetic but serious.

His bandmates use terms like “driven” and “persistent” to describe him, words that also describe his instrument. Says Lumar, “Derrick is someone who can’t separate his musicianship from what his role is, because the bass drum is so important. It’s the heart beat; O F F B E AT. C O M

it’s the main rhythm component. Imagine hearing a show without a bass drum. It just won’t work.”

Erion Unanimously described by his bandmates as the reliable quarterback of the group, Erion and his sax contribute a soulful, laid-back equilibrium to the band’s dynamic. As Corey says, “Erion is the glue guy. He’s never too far left, never too far right. He pulls everyone together and makes shit happen.”

A member since 2005, the Lower 9th Ward native is a former member of The Stooges and Mahogany Brass Bands. During high school at St. Augustine, he played in the globally- renowned Marching 100 and today works with students as a woodwind instructor for Roots of Music and the Trombone Shorty Academy.

For Erion, Poetry in Motion is less of a departure than it is a reminder. “When I got in the band, the goal was, we didn’t want to be known as a brass band. Everyone knows we’re a brass band by instrumentation, so we can’t fight that, but as far as the music goes, we’ve always wanted to be known as a mainstream act,” he says.

“I call this album Rebelution 2.0 [referring to The Soul Rebels’ 2005 debut album Rebelution]. It’s the realization of what the band came out with. I got in the band when Rebelution came out. It was unheard of for a brass band to have tracks and rapping. It was the Soul Rebels at that point, Manny we brought it back to Soul Rebels Brass Band, and then went back to the Soul Rebels again later on. I think this is the realization of that album, and it’s always what this band has wanted to do.”

Lumar

Julian The 7th Ward trumpeter and rapper has played with the city’s most revered brass bands including Rebirth and Hot 8. Like many other musicians, Julian found his current position through sitting in and subbing for former band members. Le Bon Temps Roule, the Magazine Street club where the band continues to play, was his entry point.

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Now 33, Julian describes himself as one of the most vocal members of the band. His contributions on Poetry in Motion are substantial. He has a duet with PJ Morton on “Slide Back,” and provides some sharp sociocultural analysis on “Greatness,” where he raps alongside Dee-1 and Alfred Banks. On “Real Life,” he waxes Julian vulnerable and steadfast, sharing personal details about his history. He also raps on two of the album’s most ambitious tracks, “It’s Up to You,” featuring soca group Kes; and the Matisyahu-assisted reggae-tinged joint “Count Your Blessings.”

“It feels good. Just being able to express myself outside of the instrument is always a good thing. Because I know the average person doesn’t necessarily gravitate towards horns as much as they do lyrics,” he tells me. “I definitely approached this album from a lyrical standpoint, but that’s something we’ve been talking about doing for years.”

Other members of the band describe Julian as athletic and a person who cares deeply about the band’s success. “If we need things to be done,” Manny says, “Julian’s going to be like, ‘Yo, we need to make sure this happens.’ ” Lumar The gatekeeper and peacemaker of the group, Lumar breathes old-school hip-hop.

He’s always got at least one pair of fresh sneakers on his person, and his admiration for the virtuosity of rappers like Rakim and LL Cool J is endless.

The founding member of the Soul Rebels didn’t even want to be a musician. He played the bass drum as a member of the St. Augustine High School marching band, but he had his eyes set on college and a traditional career. Much like the old-school MCs he admires for changing popular music, Lumar was eager to be innovative and saw the band as an opportunity to change the way people thought of New Orleans music.

“I’ve got ideas, and my role in the band is definitely one of leadership,” he tells me.

“I try to be the equalizer and create the balance between the older guys and the younger ones. I try to keep us all evolving as a person. We spend so much time together, it’s important to keep the peace. We’ve got to have peace because it’s going to come out through the horns or the drums. You know, you can get away with it if you’ve got a lot of electricity producing the sound. But when you’ve got people physically who have to play it, it’s going to tell when you don’t get along.”

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Manny Known as the jubilant trendsetter of the band, Manny first picked up the tuba while playing in the McDonogh 35 High School marching band. He’s played with The Stooges, Kinfolk and Hot 8, but with the Soul Rebels, he’s stepped into his most important role yet.

“I’m the energy-giver in the band. The band has been to all of these places around the world, and the places are new to me. My job is to keep everyone from feeling like we’re doing the same thing again and give them a spark.”

He may be the youngest member, but he’s an impassioned student of brass band history, particularly when it comes to the legacy of his current band. “Anybody who’s followed the band since [2008’s] Let Your Mind Be Free should have known an album like [Poetry in Motion] was coming. This album is needed. People box Marcus you in, when they’re so used to seeing you in a certain way.

We have a bigger platform to showcase to the world that we’ve actually been coming at it this angle for ten years. We don’t want you to be, like, ‘this is a brass band type of album.’

We want you to perceive this like any other type of album that you’d listen to. Hear it coming from one of your favorite pop artists and then try to tell me it’s a brass band record.”

Marcus Like Lumar, live performance was never the career Marcus envisioned for himself. In 1994, he won a prestigious NAACP competition in classical music, the same year he was bitten by the jazz bug. As he grew, he became far more interested in studio engineering and producing.

While attending Southern University, he was spending his weekends playing trumpet with bands like New Breed and Hot 8 before joining the Soul Rebels in the late nineties.

In the decades since, he’s stepped into a leadership role not unlike that Paul of Derrick and Lumar. “He’s always where he’s supposed to be, on time or early, just like a leader should be,” says Derrick. “He’s definitely paramount,” adds Lumar, “especially when it comes to the intricacies of what we have to do to get the live shows right.”

Marcus, although primarily known for his trumpet playing, ended up as a kind of engineer, after all.

Dubbed the level-headed, down-for-whatever, driving force of the band, Marcus is a bridge between the original members and those who came after him. As such, he’s got a unique perspective on where the band has been and where it’s going.

“We didn’t start doing what we’re doing on this record here.

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Everybody started in the traditional vein, just like we did. We knew we had to learn traditions. That’s why a lot of musicians in the street, they never disrespect us, because they know our history. They know we’re not a band that just popped up, just started doing what we’re doing. That’s the thing we try to push on these youngsters; don’t try to start where we are now.”

Paul The welcoming, vivacious “Big Paul” starting coming around the Soul Rebels when the band was still participating in the Krewe du Vieux parade. Like Julian, all roads pointed to Magazine Street. “Erion hit me up one day and said ‘Pull up to Le Bon Temps,’ and I didn’t even know where that sucker was at.” The Kenner native came on full time in 2010 after subbing for previous member Winston Turner who now is a member of the Brass-A-Holics.

Before that, the trombone player honed his chops playing with the Palmetto Bug Stompers, Smitty Dee’s Brass Band, the Algiers Brass Band and more. During a Soul Rebels show, you’ll likely hear Paul show off his singing voice.

Easily the most gregarious member, Paul admits that work is difficult sometimes. I asked him how he remains so positive on the hard days, when the band has to ship out from a late-night gig to travel for a show in another state, or even country. “Yeah, it gets difficult.

People leave you, stuff happens.You miss birthdays, anniversaries. Sometimes music is a good-ass drug, though. When you see people enjoying it, it makes you push.”

“Paul is a wildman,” says Erion when I ask what the trombonist’s role in the band is. “He keeps the crowd hype. Legit, people come to see Paul. He keeps that energy going on stage. He’s a fan favorite.”

Corey echoes the sentiment, saying “Paul is the fun guy. People love him. He’s like a teddy bear playing the trombone. Who wouldn’t want to see that?”

No Limitations “When you see Michael Jackson, you don’t care if he’s from Indiana or not. He just makes great music that lots of people can enjoy.” Marcus— along with his bandmates—hopes Poetry in Motion will be the album that proves a horn-based band from New Orleans is not limited by the sounds of its home base; that they can, in fact, be mainstream.

“Hopefully,” he adds, “when it’s all said and done for us, we’re the ones who paved the roads and knocked the doors down for brass bands to be on the main stage of any festival.”

I decided to ask the band’s youngest member, Manny, about what Poetry in Motion and the Soul Rebels’ next chapter will look like. “Ain’t no limitations. You can write that verbatim. Ain’t no limitations in any of us.” O O F F B E AT. C O M

offeats AMERICAN Port of Call: 838 Esplanade Ave., 523-0120

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NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS Cake Café: 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010 Dat Dog: 601 Frenchmen St., 309-3362; GROCERY STORES 5030 Freret St., 899-6883; 3336 Breaux Mart: 3233 Magazine St., 262-6017; Magazine St., 324-2226 2904 Severn Ave. Metarie, 885-5565; Junction: 3021 St. Claude Ave., 272-0205 9647 Jefferson Hwy. River Ridge, 737Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant: 8146; 315 E Judge Perez, Chalmette, 701 Tchoupitoulas St., 523-8995 Mardi Gras Zone: 2706 Royal St., 947-8787 Parkway Bakery and Tavern: 538 Hagan Ave., INDIAN 482-3047 Nirvana: 4308 Magazine St., 894-9797 Piece of Meat: 3301 Bienville St., 372-2289 Sammy’s Food Services: 3000 Elysian Fields JAPANESE/THAI/CHINESE Ave., 948-7361 Bao & Noodle: 2700 Chartres St., 272-0004 Mikimoto: 3301 S Carrollton Ave., 488-1881 Tracey’s: 2604 Magazine St., 897-5413 Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Sukho Thai: 4519 Magazine St., 373-6471; Ave., 866-3683 2200 Royal St., 948-9309 Wasabi: 900 Frenchmen St., 943-9433 PIZZA LOUISIANA / SOUTHERN Midway Pizza: 4725 Freret St., 322-2815 Balise Tavern: 640 Carondelet St., 459-4449 Pizza Delicious: 617 Piety St., 676-8482 La Petite Grocery: 4238 Magazine St., Slice Pizzeria: 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525891-3377 7437 Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., Theo’s Pizza: 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554; 943-3934 4024 Canal St., 302-1133; 1212 S Clearview, 733-3803 MEDITERRANEAN Mona’s Café: 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115

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SEAFOOD Briquette: 701 S Peters St., 302-7496 Deanie’s Seafood: 841 Iberville St., 5811316; 1713 Lake Ave. Metairie, 834-1225 VIETNAMESE Namese: 4077 Tulane Ave., 483-8899 WEE HOURS Buffa’s Restaurant & Lounge: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038

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diningout

Brigsten’s Review by Michael Dominici he learned in his mother’s kitchen.

Although best remembered for his legendary blackened dishes— he culinary particularly redfish—it was much experience at more than that. Prudhomme’s Brigtsen’s is living ascension successfully integrated testament to the late great Cajun country-style cooking into Chef Paul Prudhomme’s the Creole cannon that redefined profound legacy. Chef Frank the cuisine forever. In 1986, Frank Brigtsen was an integral part and Marna Brigtsen opened up of Prudhomme’s revolutionary, a modest-sized restaurant in the game-changing impact on Riverbend part of Uptown that our distinct cuisine both at featured several intimate dining Commander’s Palace, where rooms adorned with local art. he served as sous chef, and From its inception, Brigtsen’s later at K-Paul’s where he immediately was lauded as one was part of the legendary of the city’s finest dining establishteam that included chefs Jan ments ranked right up there with LeRuth’s, Galatoire’s, Antoine’s, Bierbaum and Greg Sonnier, Gautreau’s and Commander’s to name a few.

Palace.

Before Prudhomme entered the fray, the old-line At Brigtsen’s, a full roster Creole French restaurants of Creole classics are on the of New Orleans essentially menu: seafood okra gumbo with served interchangeable menus andouille sausage, BBQ shrimp that were tried and true with calas (Creole rice fritters), classics dating back over a fried Des Allemands catfish, century. Prudhomme’s early broiled Gulf fish with crabmeat, life experience growing up and even veal Parmesan—the hallmarks of a great neighborhood with a dozen siblings on a restaurant. But there are also farm in Opelousas imbued dozens of signature creations that in him a deep appreciation of farm-fresh local ingreBrigtsen’s legion of loyal diners dients from the land, sea and clamor for, such as his decadently creamy bisque made with pureed air including crawfish, duck, butternut squash and shrimp.

Tasso ham, andouille sausage, Other delicious favorites are the molasses, pecans, and recipes and cooking techniques that appetizer of rabbit tenderloin

“A progression of sensation with every bite.”—Frank Brigtsen.

photo courtesy of Brigsten’s

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with Parmesan and andouille sausage grit cakes, spinach, and Creole mustard sauce; shrimp remoulade garnished with mirliton corn relish, guacamole, and served with deviled eggs; and fried soft shell crab with a deeply flavorful meunière sauce studded with roasted pecans.

Highlights from the entree selections are a wonderful roasted duck with cherry sauce and dirty rice, and a generously portioned pork chop smothered in debris sauce and accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes. I still remember the first time I tasted Frank Brigtsen’s blackened yellowfin tuna with smoked corn sauce, one of the most delicious dished I’ve ever had. It’s still on the menu and served with red bean salsa and roasted red pepper sour cream.

But the showstopper is “The Shell Beach Diet” seafood platter with grilled redfish and chanterelle mushrooms; baked scallops LeRuth with shrimp, crab, chanterelle and leeks; shrimp cornbread; stuffed shrimp with seafood eggplant dressing; and crabmeat with tomato-basil concasse— truly a tour de force!

Desserts are serious business at Brigtsen’s and are not to be missed. The pecan pie with caramel sauce is unmatched in this town, and the same could be said for the tres leches cake with strawberries and the café au lait crème brûlée. We also love the lemon ice box crème brûlée and the banana bread pudding.

A huge part of what makes Brigtsen’s so memorable is the service— hospitable, professional and personable. This begins with the reservation process

where most likely you will engage with an actual person and have a conversation regarding preferences and availability. The small rooms adorned with photographs, and paintings of flowers, food, and local topography are a big part of the charm of the restaurant, that strives to make the guest feel as if they are dining in the home of a beloved friend that knows how to cook and entertain in style. I couldn’t help notice that dining rooms were filled with entertainment legends that were holding court and having a grand time. We were taken great care of by service industry legend (and singer) Jane Harvey Brown—so attentive and charming. Above all, beyond the accolades and James Beard Awards bestowed upon Brigtsen’s, this is one of the quintessential classic neighborhood restaurants of New Orleans, and one of the few where the celebrity chef actually still prepares every dish that leaves the kitchen.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Frank Brigtsen is not an empire builder. His mission is not only to cook and serve guests at Brigtsen’s but to teach. He’s worked for decades at culinary institutions inspiring professional chefs and enthusiastic home chefs. Giving back and contributing to the community is a big part of Frank Brigtsen’s philosophy, which supports the Second Harvest food bank and the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

We are fortunate to have a special place like Brigtsen’s in New Orleans. O 723 Dante St., 504-8617610, Tuesday - Saturday 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m.

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

Catchy,Vibrant, Energetic and Polished the album No More Parades, it declared a new day.

The Soul Rebels put the spotlight on the natural brotherhood between next-generation brass band musicians and hip-hop artists in New Orleans, and has for years dug into the opportunities and possibilities that musical collaborations have to offer. These pairings with the likes of hip-hop artist Talib Kweli have become a The Soul Rebels Rebels’ signature.

Poetry in Motion That brings us to Poetry in (Mack Avenue) Motion, an album that features The Soul Rebels’ unique musical special guests on every cut and journey has mystified some, from a wide variety of musical shocked others and delighted genres, while the Soul Rebels fans both in New Orleans and continue an established tradition around the world. The band’s of socially conscious messages. latest release, Poetry in Motion, The album opens with that continues its adventurous and attitude on “Blow the Horns,” very successful trek. which celebrates the Rebels and The first step of the Rebels the payoff the band enjoys for its adventure began when the hard work. Featuring trumpeter members, including original Julian “Passport P” Gosin and snare drummer Lumar LeBlanc trombonist Corey Peyton on and bass drummer Derrick MC vocals, it stands out as one Moss, performed with the Young of the tunes that brings contemOlympia Brass Band under the porary R&B, hip-hop and horns direction of trumpeter Milton together, a blend that’s become so Batiste and the watchful eye of prevalent today. saxophonist Harold Dejean. Eager The fun “Down For My City” is to get into the hot street scene all about positive vibrations and created by the Dirty Dozen and the love for New Orleans that Rebirth brass bands, the guys took opens with the lyrics “Ain’t no city a step away from the tradition and like my city,” with a whole array in 1991 formed the Soul Rebels of guests, asking “What kind of Brass Band. The group hit hard city has...? with the blank filled in with its anthem “Let Your Mind Be with such Crescent City specialties Free,” the title track from its 1995 as the Saints, the culture, fried chicken and tomatoes, keeping the release remains alive at second lines today. When the Soul Rebels beat with a bottle and drum stick, and its 17 Wards. Those featured dropped “Brass Band” from on this swaying pleasantry are its name and in 1998 released

equally iconic including Emeril Lagasse, Trombone Shorty, Kermit Ruffins, Mannie Fresh, the Citywide Youth Choir and more.

Sophistication also finds a home on Poetry in Motion on such tunes as “Slide Back,” that features keyboardist and vocalist PJ Morton with the Soul Rebels acting—as the band often does on the album—as a backup horn section. Even modern jazz man Branford Marsalis gets into the action by adding a sax solo to the instrumental “Rebellious Destroyer” that includes the soft keyboards of Brandee Younger.

Fans of reggae should dig “It’s Up to You” that rhythmically and lyrically encourages dancing and features Kes, Kayla Jasmine and Julian Gosin. Ditto for “Count Your Blessings,” another message song that advises: “Count your blessings, you can’t predict the ending.”

Matisyahu sings while Gosin brings on the hip-hop.

Lots of horns and some fine hand-drumming by Weedie Brahmah and the piano of Kyle Roussel drive Gosin’s instrumental “Sabor Latino,” with Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews blowin’ a strong solo before leading the band out. Surprisingly perhaps, the album ends quietly with the breezy title cut featuring keyboardist Robert Glasper and vocalists Tarriona “Tank” Ball and Fabriq.

Poetry in Motion tracks the ongoing evolution of the Soul Rebels and deserves attention for its diverse, finely delivered “something for everyone”

programming while welcoming others to occasionally try a different flavor.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

The Soul Rebels have been warning us that an album like Poetry in Motion would someday arrive. With previous album titles like Rebelution, Let Your Mind Be Free and Unlock Your Mind, the band has been asking listeners to disassociate them from whatever we think a “brass band” should and could be doing. With its latest—the group’s best damn album yet—the eightmember band has proven, once again, they are special.

Poetry in Motion features an assemblage of high-profile featured guests including Grammywinning singer and keyboardist PJ Morton, who lends his voice to the sexy, soulful “Slide Back.”

The band has been performing a skeleton of the song during its live show for a while, but the recorded version (also featuring a verse from trumpeter/rapper Julian Gosin) makes it a perfect example of the Soul Rebels’ ability to combine the intensity of live horns with the refined qualities of studio recording.

Speaking of horns, they’re center stage on the album’s intro, “Blow the Horns.” On it, singersongwriter Sean Carey makes his first of many appearances on the album, reminding us the Soul Rebels are here and have never left. “Everything we got, we workin’ hard for—you should be looking to the stars more,” sings Sean before trombonist/rapper

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

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Corey “Passport P” leans in with the album’s first rap verse. In fact, hip-hop informs the majority of the album, not an unfamiliar quality for anyone who’s been paying attention to the Soul Rebels’ discography. Over half the tracks feature rapping, either from guests like New Orleans rappers Dee-1 and Alfred Banks on “Greatness,” or from the members themselves.

For those wondering—yes, there are instrumental tracks on the album. “Rebellious Destroyer” features a saxophone solo from Branford Marsalis and the resplendent harp of Brandee Younger, with drummer Jamison Ross filling it out. On “Sabor Latino,” Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews joins the band as lead guest, but drumming from Weedie Bramah and Alvin Ford Jr. gives it an extra punch of Latin flavor.

The album’s title comes from a refrain in the closing song, which is really a pair of beautiful records spearheaded by Robert Glasper and Tarriona “Tank” Ball.

Band member Erion Williams calls Glasper an “alien,” particularly because of the lusty voicemail from an admirer he used as a sample. “Blush Intro” and “Blush (Poetry in Motion)” are neo-soul and spoken word, definitely. But all of that is reductive to what is a truly breathtaking closer.

What The Soul Rebels have accomplished with Poetry in Motion is their magnum opus. It’s catchy and vibrant, energetic and polished. It’ll make you twerk and dance cheek-to-cheek. Genres melt into each other and the lyrics stick to your ribs. Just play the damn thing, already (and read more about it in this month’s cover story).

—Amanda “Bonita” Mester

The Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band The Crustaceous Capers of the Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band (Independent)

The Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band started as a Royal Street busking

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band, then became a Bourbon Street traditional jazz band, and now, 10 years on, they’re a Spotted Cat genre-bending party favorite. While their previous albums have dabbled in alternative styles and song choices, The Crustaceous Capers of the Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band is a crystallized expression of the band’s newfound commitment to goof around and have fun, thumbing their noses at the jazz police.

Songs like “Shrimp and Gumbo,” “Michigan Water Blues,” “Cake Walking Babies from Home,” and “Back in Your Own Backyard” demonstrate the band’s ability to execute classic repertoire, but the standouts are the songs where they take liberties. For example: their delirious rendition of “Dark Eyes” with the lyrics to “You Are My Sunshine” delivered in a leering Eugene Hutz-style by Dr. Sick.

They also do a giddy, surf-tastic version of “Something Stupid” and the funky, nostalgia-inducing Sesame Street relic “Eleven Twelve (Pinball Number Count).”

Colin Myers distinguishes himself as a songwriter with the album’s opening MGM musical tune, “If I Live to Ninety-Two,” and as an arranger with “Prokofiev Does Frenchmen Street.”

Wrapped in a “leather-bound” design by John Dixon, including a pun-tastic nonsense story on the inside cover, this album is the physical embodiment of jazz swashbuckling.

—Stacey Leigh Bridewell

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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.

Kevin Griffin Anywhere You Go (BMG)

Though most locals know him as the frontman for Better Than Ezra, Kevin Griffin has quietly carved out a career as a co-writer to the stars.To put it bluntly, he’s represented on a stack of albums I wouldn’t dream of owning—by Howie Day, James Blunt and the

Barenaked Ladies—and one that I do own and like, the Struts’ Young & Dangerous. And did you know that he had a song on Beach Boy Mike Love’s Christmas album last year? Neither did I. All of which explains why Griffin’s solo debut sounds like the work of a skilled craftsman stretching out. It’s not a Better Than Ezra album, though with a

Crackling with the energy of youth Russell Welch Acetate Sessions

(Twerk-O-Phonic)

Everybody talks about the weather, or so the old joke goes, but nobody ever does anything about it. (Sharpies don’t count.) Hey, remember when nothing had to be done about the weather?

Likewise, gypsy jazz is another problem we didn’t know had to be solved, but Russell Welch is not about to be caught slipping—rather than just continuing the fine tradition of musicians celebrating the genre, he actually recreates it, using real acetate masters (hence the title); a mix of original instrumental compositions and jazz classics; his own take on gypsy’s famed acoustic “hot guitar” technique; and vintage recording equipment to make brand-new historical gypsy swing artifacts. It’s kind of like a master filmmaker using classic Hollywood B&W film stock to preserve the exact feel of a place and time—if you’re one of those people who likes to “hear the room,” this shotgun double’s practically laid out as a blueprint.

It could have easily gone wrong, a musical experiment turned into a mere exercise in academia. Fortunately, Welch and his merry band of cohorts don’t play like they’re museum pieces— these dozen tunes crackle with the energy of youth discovering someplace magical. Working with his own hot five of two guitars, upright bass, clarinet and violin, Welch makes these dozen classics sound as fresh as tomorrow, whether it’s Django’s own “After You’re Gone” (done with less speed but more bounce); local legends like Sidney Bechet’s “Georgia Cabin” and Joseph C. Smith’s “Hindustan”; Great American Songbook faves such as “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams”; Ella’s “When I Get Low, I Get High”; and “I’m an Old Cowhand” (featuring an excellent vocal by Molly Reeves); or original instros like “Don’t Startle Her” and “At the Friendly Bar.” Now that the Great Gentrification has transformed the city that forgot to care about gypsy jazz, the hipsters are putting their own twists on our habitual musical archeology. If we’re all gonna melt and/or drown anyway, there are worse dance bands to play on while it happens, you know?

—Robert Fontenot

few tweaks it could have been: Griffin’s writing/singing style is recognizable by now, and the Ezras are capable of arranging anything he comes up with. But the band still prefers an uncluttered guitar-band sound, and this album is all about multi-layered arrangements, with exotic keyboards and walls of backing vocals. The best moments come when the arrangements enhance the lyrics, and when Griffin’s natural cleverness admits a bit of personal detail. That happens on “Got Off Easy” whose opening line pulls a bit of nostalgia: “I still remember you there, wearing your Modern Lovers T-shirt, choking on a clove cigarette.” But

the song ultimately celebrates the couple’s getting away with whatever impulsive things they did as kids. What really makes it work is a marimba playing the riff from the Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way”—which of course is exactly what the couple in the song would have been listening to.

Griffin’s craftsman instincts are the album’s strength as well as its occasional drawback: Every song heads straight for the chorus hook, even if it’s about the cycle of city violence (“Bleed For It”) or the passing of time (“Bad Old Days”). Label promo is dropping Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Neil Young’s Harvest as touchstones, but it doesn’t feel like that kind of intense catharsis. It does feel like commercial pop with smarts.

—Brett Milano

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PJ Morton Paul

(Morton Records)

On his latest release, Paul, the multi-talented PJ Morton has something to say, be it a message of hope or of political significance.

In some ways, that inclination speaks of his gospel roots as the son of the Bishop Paul S. Morton.

PJ’s “sermonizing” is set to soul and contemporary rhythm and blues grooves on which the outstanding keyboardist and vocalist often handles all or most of the instrumentation.

A few examples of Morton’s compassionate lyrics include the gentle, under three-minute sweetness of “Kid Again” and the funky “Buy Back the Block” that includes trumpeter Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown, saxophonist Brad Walker and trombonist Jon Ram. Morton really digs into this one vocally and hits all those essential high notes.

As a hip Grammy-award winner and a member of the renowned band Maroon 5, Morton is also essentially old school. On an album highlight, “Built for Love,” his duet vocalist Jazmine Sullivan comes right out of Motown’s tradition of great of pairings like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

Here, PJ’s fine acoustic piano work is backed by a full band on yet another tune that comes in around that three-minute mark that was standard during the 45 rpm era.

Morton is also a romantic and shows that side on the pleading, “Don’t Break My Heart,” a O F F B E AT. C O M

contemporary rhythm and blues dance number. The repeated lyrics, “I just can’t take it,” add to the emotional and musical build up that climaxes in a cacophony of sound.

On Paul, a first name he shares with his father, PJ Morton brings on the soulfulness that is the essence of his style.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

ska band, Twisted Dixie gives “Moon” an extended instrumental intro ahead of Brice’s vocals.

“Beyond Jamaica,” his take on a Frank Sinatra standard, straddles disco and a demented a circus band. “My Blue Heaven” gets a ska-meets-cabaret arrangement and “Bye Bye Blackbird” becomes the reggae-filtered “My My Blackbird.”

Jokesters though Miller and the Twisters are, they nonetheless have the musical skills necessary to kept their crazy train rolling.

—John Wirt

Ecirb Müller’s Twisted Dixie What Had Happened Was… (Independent)

Irreverent and risqué, Ecirb Müller’s Twisted Dixie twirls traditional jazz on its venerated head. Led by singer, trumpeter and educator Dr. Brice Miller, Twisted Dixie bills itself as America’s funkiest traditional jazz band. It’s also the funniest jazz band in the land, unless you’re easily—and maybe not so easily—offended.

Miller’s spoken-word intros to the band’s often ska- and reggaeinflected versions of jazz standards qualify him as a scathing satirist.

What Had Happened Was…, Twisted Dixie’s debut album, is a 21-track history of Ecirb Müller, the world’s oldest living jazz trumpeter. In this crazy concept album, Miller also claims that Müller is the nation’s greatest unsung inventor (electric streetcars, the airplane, automobile and cell phones).

And Müller was the first man on the moon; reason enough for Twisted Dixie to give “Fly Me to the Moon” a wacky ska-groove.

Following the example of The Skatalites, Jamaica’s quintessential OF F B E AT.C OM

Fr. Ron & Friends On My Way Home (Independent)

Retired Episcopal priest Father Ron Clingenpeel and his merrymaking musical gang enjoyed recording his 2016 folk covers album This Land so much, they had to do it again. But unlike that self-produced effort, André Bohren was enlisted to helm this original affair that runs a relatively wide folk music gamut in a mere eight tracks. Paramount to the proceedings is “Peregrinatio,” a Latin word that aptly describes the Celtic theological concept of how life is a continuous journey.

Clingenpeel sings the first verse a cappella, and then is joined by a resounding choir that sounds as if it were singing in a cavernous cathedral.

Clingenpeel’s journey offers a variety of sonic scenery, like a jump rope rhyme set to melody and a steady beat (“Alligator Purse”), a realistic portrayal of a OCTOBER 2019

51

cowboy (“Hard Living Man”) and a beautiful, tender love song (“So Close a Heart”). “Marie Laveau,” a far cry from the Bobby Bare novelty song of the same name, is relatively artistic with various background voices and Gina Forsyth’s ethereal fiddling.

But since this is a collection of songs related to journeying,

Clingenpeel tackles the biggest humanitarian crisis of all on “Refugee,” where he cites the atrocities committed against those journeying for a better life. Of course, to some, the subject will be infuriating, but the message does make you wonder if there isn’t a middle ground somewhere in this

Bluesy, offbeat filigree that is never predictable Matt Lemmler New Orleans in Stride Volume 1 and 2 (NolaJazzRevival)

Even by the standards of New Orleans musicians, pianist/ singer Matt Lemmler is wideranging. I first became aware of him for his work with the Dukes of Dixieland and Pete Fountain. Not long after that he produced a very well-regarded album of Stevie Wonder tunes.

And three years ago, he arranged the music of Kevin Clark in a beautifully nuanced new-age (I can think of no other title) CD, The Awakening of Calm. He spends a lot of time directing ensembles for jazz masses…you get the point.

Stride piano in New York City means the blazing pyrotechnics of Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Art Tatum and others. New Orleans Stride is a slower cousin, a loping rhythm, akin to rag but with an underlying triple-meter feel most associated with James Booker (think “Sunny Side of the Street”) and Pittsburgh’s Erroll Garner.

This medium tempo beat is important here, because after Katrina Matt took up singing. In a city of great pianists, he’s about the only one jazzing the Great American Songbook as a solo pianist/vocalist. He’s got an expressive voice, sometimes straight, often wise-guyish. And his piano playing is always interesting: bluesy, offbeat filigree that is never predictable. I wasn’t surprised to see pianist/singer Dave Frishberg lauding Matt in the liner notes, for they are birds of a feather.

There are lots of standards in this two-CD set; many of them with excavated verses that are rarely heard, always a plus. There’s a clever medley with the ever-dependable Don Vappie of likesounding tunes: “House of the Rising Sun/ Amazing Grace (in minor)/ I Want Jesus to Walk With Me/ St James Infirmary Blues,” ending in a Brazilian jam—also a version of “If I Only Had a Brain” that incorporates the chords of “Giant Steps” (therefore, “If I Only Had a Trane.”)

And true to his wide-ranging character, there are pop songs: “Desperado”, Randy Newman’s “Same Girl,” “Blackbird,” “Ballad of the Sad Young Men.” This is the album I’ve given the most airplay this summer, and I highly recommend it.

—Tom McDermott

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OCTOBER 2019

golden land of opportunity.

—Dan Willging

Monty Russell Fat Man (Independent)

his 13-year layoff seem more like 13 months, whether he’s singing about prison (“Parish Pea Farm”), domestic abuse (“Shake Back Baby”), or our new cultural normal on “Nothing But Love for You,” which reveals him as a conscientious objector in the Cold Civil War: like any true old-school country blues hybrid, his politics is all personal.

A genuine raconteur of Americana, Monty Russell’s version of it is agreeably diverse yet less ambiguous than most; plot his various styles on a map —Robert Fontenot and you’ll generally describe an arc between Bakersfield, where he gets his twang, the bluesier parts of Texas, and a brief stopover for some Memphis soul.

In fact, it’s his excellent cover of Percy Sledge’s “First You Cry” that lays his priorities bare: though he comes off like a bluesman on most of the up-tempo stuff, classic country is his true center.

Notice his Gatemouth tribute “Cowboy Cadillac” and the winking confessional “Too Many Donna Angelle and the Honky Tonks,” which mines the Zydeco Posse same vein of bad-boy nostalgia I’m Just a Country Girl (Cypress Records)

as Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried.”

Even the swamp-pop slow dance of “Hold Out for Love” features a slide guitar that drags it into Ronnie Milsap territory.

Featuring backing by a youngish group of local roots-rockers turned Nashville scenesters known as The Levees, Monty’s second release (after his 2006 debut The Fool) pops with more spirit than you’d expect from an old vet, although the real MVP of the session is his peer, Joe Diffie sideman Kevin Adams on piano and organ. Along with some churchy backup vocalists and a hot brass section, Monty makes

Can you believe it? Donna Angelle’s last album, Guaranteed Lover, was released 11 years ago (2008) before the zydeco diva experienced one of those “life happens” events. Despite being musically active since then, the good news is she’s back on track with her best album yet featuring nine originals and one cover, Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman.”

With venerable producer Michael Lockett twisting the dials, Angelle took a meticulous two years to complete her sixth disc while never feeling rushed or pressured by the clock.

As the title and artwork suggest, Angelle will always be a Creole country girl, steeped in trail rides, dancing and celebrating life. Of the tunes related to this rural sub-theme, the euphemistic, bilingually-sung “Chicken in my Yard” is the most jovial as she vows to hunt down that intruding chicken laying eggs in her domain.

Also a fun one is “Everybody,” O F F B E AT. C O M

an instant dance floor filler.

Drummer Robbie Melancon assures Angelle she can easily step into the band’s emerging groove and when she does, the whole affair really takes off.

R&B remains an essential component of Angelle’s musical DNA; it’s the best stylistic vehicle for her to sink her teeth into— just listen to the grittiness of a song like “Groove Me All Night Long.” She’s also well-suited for gospel, as evidenced by the moving “Satan We Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down” that’s embellished by Paul Wiltz’s supporting sax lines and a child crying “Mommy, daddy” to symbolize absentee parents. This time out, Angelle has testified.

recordings, re-released as a set of three vinyl LPs and two CDs. The audio quality of the recordings, too, matches Williams’ recording-studio produced MGM releases.

All that said, The Complete Health & Happiness Recordings, recorded in October 1949 at WSM in Nashville, is a mixed blessing. Williams’ performances—including his early hits “Lovesick Blues” and “Mind Your Own Business”—are sandwiched into formulaic, 15-minute- long country music variety shows.

Announcer Grant Turner introduces the star every week as the “ol’ ‘Lovesick Blues’ boy.”

The opening selection is always “Happy Rovin’ Cowboy.” The first four programs include Williams’ —Dan Willging first wife, Audrey, singing solos and duets with her husband.

Audrey Williams fancied herself a singer. She sang in dry, grating tones and was prone to being off pitch. Fortunately, Mrs. Williams dropped out of the final four Health & Happiness shows, a blessing that gave ol’ Hank an additional song.

Every program also features two hot fiddle numbers from Drifting Cowboys band member Jerry Rivers. His flashy fiddling Hank Williams The Complete Health & Happiness might have been crowd pleasers, but Don Helms’ crying steel Recordings guitar is the real star among (BMG) Williams’ sidemen.

In October, Hank Williams’ On a side note, Hadacol, Health & Happiness radio the elixir distilled by Louisiana program turns 70. Time and state senator Dudley LeBlanc, the decades of country music sponsored the Health & that trailed the hillbilly ShakeHappiness shows. Hadacol speare’s brief career haven’t supposedly cured epilepsy, heart dimmed his heartache. In the eight Health & Happiness shows, trouble, stroke, weak spells and the unvarnished soul in Williams’ insomnia. Newspapers ads for the brilliant songwriting and poignant alcohol-heavy product including expression with which he delivers the line, “It used to be I couldn’t sleep with my wife because she his material sound immediate tossed and turned all night. She enough to have been recorded started taking Hadacol and now this morning. anyone can sleep with her.” New Williams’ powerful, high and Orleans’ Professor Longhair piercing voice is remarkably recorded “Hadacol Bounce,” one present in the 70-year-old

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OCTOBER 2019

Celebrating His 20th Anniversary Sean Ardoin Ven

(Zydekool Records)

Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t Sean Ardoin just put out an album? But hot off the heels of his 2018 Grammy-nominated Kreole Rock and Soul comes Ven (meaning 20 in Creole) to celebrate Ardoin’s 20th anniversary as a solo artist. It’s not a collection of new material nor is it a greatest hits package, but previously released tunes re-imagined the way Ardoin says he originally envisioned them.

Compared to the original versions, the new incarnations feel fresher, sound sharper and boast fuller background vocals and arrangements, the latter augmented by using a keyboard that wasn’t part of zydeco back then. They’re still highly danceable and feature Ardoin’s skilled accordion playing, though it’s not the dominating force in the action-packed arrangements. Still, it makes you appreciate how innovative “Bounce,” “ZydecoKool Rollin’” and the revival-like “Pullin” were in the first place to be able to spawn these more universal versions.

As noted practically everywhere, the innovation cycle never stops. “It’s Love” concludes with an impressive a cappella outro that wasn’t in the original.

One tune never released commercially is “Gumbo Time,” only on YouTube. Remixed here, Ardoin gangs up with New Cupid and comedian Uncle Luck for a culinary discourse on how to make the perfect gumbo. With all the nonstop chatter, it’s so insanely hilarious, it makes you wonder how good their gumbo really is. If it’s half as good as this track, it must be out of this world.

—Dan Willging

of LeBlanc’s many promotions for the elixir.

—John Wirt

The Links Take it Away EP

(Warganized Records)

Their PR claims they’re partially influenced by the “Madchester” rockers of the ‘90s, but while they’re certainly danceable, this local trio isn’t psychedelic or shoegazer. Rather, they weld Madchester to the glitzy post-punk revival of the other, younger Bush dynasty, as if the Stone Roses’ or Inspiral Carpets’ route had been diverted through the Killers’Vegas

or the Strokes’ NYC. “Take It Away” and “Last Goodbye” are the obvious hits here, airy and atmospheric and attitudinal (with “Take It Away” riding on a 2/4 quasi-disco hi-hat and also available in a rubbery ‘80s funk revision), but both the R&B of both “Boxed Wine” and the instrumental “Bomber’s Lounge” take surprising turns into genuine guitar rock, as if there were some sort of unnamed nastiness wriggling under all the slickness. Keep an eye on these guys and see if they mutate further.

—Robert Fontenot

O F F B E AT. C O M

express These listings are abbreviated. For complete daily listings, go to offbeat.com.

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

AF African AM Americana BL Blues BU Bluegrass BO Bounce BB Brass Band BQ Burlesque KJ Cajun CL Classical CR Classic Rock CO Comedy CW Country CB Cover Band DN Dance DX Dixieland DB Dubstep EL Electro FO Folk

FK Funk GS Gospel GY Gypsy HH Hip-Hop HS House IN Indian Classical ID Indie Rock IL Industrial IR Irish JB Jam Band MJ Jazz Contemporary TJ Jazz Traditional JV Jazz Variety KR Karaoke KZ Klezmer LT Latin MG Mardi Gras Indian ME Metal

TUESDAY OCTOBER 1 30/90: Set Up Kings (RB) 5p, Kennedy and the M.O.T.H. (RK) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s:Tacos,Tequila, and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 7p Café Negril: Marla Dixon Band (VR) 6p, Diamond Dick Gorilla and the Swingin’ Vibes (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Ken Schwarz and Palace of Sin (RR) 6p, Slick Skillet Serenaders (JV) 9p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p,Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Fillmore: Rick Ross (HH) 7p House of Blues: Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul (RK) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Big 6 Brass Band (BB) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Dana Abbott Band (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby:Tech Tuesdays (VR) 7p Three Muses: Keith Burnstein (SS) 5p, Mia Borders (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2 30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Colin Davis and the Night People (SO) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 6p, Luscious Duchess (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: David Roe (SS) 6p; Highway

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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

to Hell: A Tribute to AC/DC (RK) 9p Cove at UNO: Jazz at the Sandbar presents Ellis Marsalis (JV) 7p d.b.a.:Tin Men (RK) 7p,Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Boom Child (RK) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Adelita’s Way (RK) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den):Wasted Potency, Venture, flexi, Lil Pilz La Flare (HH) 3p Kerry Irish Pub:Will Dickerson (FO) 8:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (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): Lobby: Sinking City Selects (VR) 8p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (VR) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p

THURSDAY OCTOBER 3 30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (SO) 9p, DJ Fresh (VR) 10p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Rebecca Leigh and Harry Mayronne (JV) 5p,Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Café Negril: Claude Bryant and the All-Stars (VR) 6p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Mark Rubin and friends (RK) 6p, Salt Wives (GY) 9p Covington Trailhead: Rockin’ the Rails feat.Tuba Skinny (JV) 5p d.b.a.: Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, the O-Pines, the Fabulous Faux Furs (RK) 10p

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

House of Blues (Foundation Room): Mike Doussan Trio (RR) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Gumbo and Gris Gris: A Benefit for Bernard Pearce feat. Helen Gillet, Meschiya Lake, Julie Odell and others (VR) 7:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p Palm Court Jazz Cafe:Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown Tribute to Louis Armstrong (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Sal Geloso Trio (JV) 2p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Harlequeen presents Honor Thy Mother (VR) 9p; Lobby:Tarot with JP (VR) 7p Three Muses:Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Arsene DeLay (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Marc Stone Live at Tipitina’s CDrelease party, Keiko Komaki (BL) 8:30p

FRIDAY OCTOBER 4 30/90:Tiffany Pollack and Co. (JV) 2p, Jon Roniger and the Good For Nothin’ Band (JV) 5p, Sam Price and the True Believers (RK) 8p, DJ Dot Dunnie (VR) 10p, Gene’s Music Machine (FK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Davis Rogan (VR) 6p, B Side Beatniks with Larry Scala (JV) 9p Café Negril: Shawn Williams (VR) 2p, Dana Abbott Band (VR) 6p, Higher Heights (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Secondhand Street Band (BB) 6p, Forro Nola (LT) 9p d.b.a.: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 7p, Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat. Matt Tolentino and his Royal Klobasneks, the Brats (VR) 4p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry and the Right Lane Bandits (FO) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (FK) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Krewe du Vieux’s Little Wet Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolfman Spectacular feat.Walter “Wolfman” Washington (VR) 7p Joy Theater: Greensky Bluegrass, Michigan Rattlers (BU) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Paul Ferguson (FO) 9p Mahalia Jackson Theater: New Orleans Opera Association presents Carmen (CL) 7:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lucien Barbarin and Kevin Louis with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Smoothie King Center: Miranda Lambert (CO) 7p Snug Harbor: Phillip Manuel and the Michael Pellera Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Dana Abbott Band (JV) 2p, New

Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 6p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): AfroXotica with Andrea Peoples (VR) 11:59p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Esther Rose (JV) 9p Tipitina’s:Temps Petit: A New Orleans Tribute to Tom Petty, Jamaican Me Breakfast Club (VR) 10p

SATURDAY OCTOBER 5 30/90: Jonathan Bauer Project (MJ) 11a, Kettle Black (SS) 2p, Organami (JV) 5p, Big Mike and the R&B Kings (RB) 8p, DJ Torch (VR) 10p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (SO) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Camile Baudoin and Papa Mali (VR) 6p, Charlie Wooton (VR) 9p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 2p, Colin Davis and the Night People (VR) 6p, Another Day in Paradise (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Fraulein Francis and the Sleazeball Orchestra (JV) 6p, the Cozmos Sun Ra Tribute (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Robin Rapuzzi’s Novelty 5 (JV) 4p,Tuba Skinny (JV) 7p, Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat. Prost Band, Matt Tolentino and his Royal Klobasneks, the Brats (VR) 1p Fillmore: Countess Louann and friends (VR) 8p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Biglemoi (ID) 7p House of Blues: the Sweet Spot New Orleans: Red Light Special Edition (BQ) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Cricket and the 2:19 (FO) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Blackalicious: Nia 20th Anniversary Tour (HH) 9p Kerry Irish Pub:Vali Talbot (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Greg Stafford and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation Brass Band feat.

Mark Braud (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars with Mark Braud (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Quiana Lynell (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Antoine Diel and Arsene DeLay (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, the Catahoulas (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): NOJO 7 (JV) 8:30p Three Muses: Debbie Davis (JV) 5:30p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Generationals, Neighbor Lady, Amelia Neville (VR) 10p

SUNDAY OCTOBER 6 30/90: Allie Porter (FO) 11a, Set Up Kings (RB) 2p,Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires (FK) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p,Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot (JV) 11a, Pfister Sisters (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius Jazz Quartet (JV) 7p Café Negril: Ecirb Muller’s Twisted Dixie (JV) O F F B E AT. C O M

6p,Vegas Cola (JV) 10p Carnaval Lounge:Walking Shoes (BL) 6p, Jeff Krause and friends (FO) 9p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (JV) 6p, Jamaican Me Breakfast Club (VR) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Revocation, Voivod, Psycroptic, Skeletal Remains, Conjurer (ME) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge:TBC Brass Band (BB) 6p Kerry Irish Pub:Traditional Irish Session (FO) 5p, Beth Patterson (FO) 8p Mahalia Jackson Theater: New Orleans Opera Association presents Carmen (CL) 2:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Lilli Lewis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Aurora Nealand and the Reed Minders (JV) 2p, Robin Barnes and the FiyaBirds (JV) 7p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints Game Screening (VR) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, the Clementines (JV) 8p

MONDAY OCTOBER 7 30/90: Margie Perez (SO) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam presented by Gene Harding (VR) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk:Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay and Charlie Wooton (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (VR) 8p Café Negril: Noggin (VR) 6p, Soul Project NOLA (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Margi Cates (VR) 6p, Comic Strip (CO) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Porch): Graveyard (RK) 7p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 10p Starlight: Or Shovaly (JV) 5p, Boss Tenors (JV) 8p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Movement Mondays: WHIV 102.3 with LA District 94 Candidate Forum (VR) 6p Three Muses: Monty Banks (JV) 5p, Joe Cabral (VR) 8p

TUESDAY OCTOBER 8 30/90: Mem Shannon and the Membership Band (BL) 5p, Ed Wills and Blues4Sale (BL) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s:Talkin’ to New Orleans: Andre Bohren Classically Cooks (VR) 7p Café Negril: Marla Dixon Band (VR) 6p, Diamond Dick Gorilla and the Swingin’ Vibes (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Alex Bosworth (SS) 6p, Transiberian Nightmare Drag Show (VR) 9p OF F B E AT.C OM

d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p,Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Braun/ Wood Duo (SS) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Kajun’s Pub: Karaoke (KR) 5p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Big 6 Brass Band (BB) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p 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 Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby:Tech Tuesdays (VR) 7p Three Muses: Sam Cammarata (JV) 5p, Salvatore Geloso (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9 30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Big Mike and the R&B Kings (RB) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 6p, Luscious Duchess (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Live Jazz Band (JV) 6p Cove at UNO: Jazz at the Sandbar presents Stanton Moore (JV) 7p d.b.a.:Tin Men (RK) 7p,Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Fillmore: Judah and the Lion (VR) 7p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jeremy Joyce (RK) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Sweet Lillies, Anne Elise Hastings and her Revolving Cast of Characters (FO) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Mahalia Jackson Theater:Thom Yorke, Andrea Belfi (ID) 8p Maison: Eight Dice Cloth, Jazz Vipers, Jason Neville and the Funky Soul Band (VR) 4p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Creole String Beans (SI) 8p SideBar NOLA: Charlie Wooton Presents (JV) 9p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (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):Think Less Hear More: Matrix Reloaded (VR) 8:30p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p

THURSDAY OCTOBER 10 30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Dat Band (RK) 9p, DJ Fresh (VR) 10p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Berthena (VR) 5p,Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Café Negril: Claude Bryant and the All-Stars (VR) 6p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (VR) 10p OCTOBER 2019

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express Carnaval Lounge: Hanna Mignano Quartet (TJ) 6p,Tom Legget Band (RR) 9p Covington Trailhead: Rockin’ the Rails feat.

Where Y’acht (RK) 5p d.b.a.: Lynn Drury (SS) 7p, Charlie Wooton Project feat. Arsene DeLay (VR) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): And Then Came Humans (FK) 6p House of Blues: Steve Lacy of the Internet (RB) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub:Vincent Marini (FO) 9p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Ogden After Hours feat. Soul Brass Band (BB) 6p Palm Court Jazz Cafe:Tim Laughlin and Clive Wilson with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Amina Scott feat. Leon Anderson (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Sal Geloso Trio (JV) 2p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias (MG) 9p, the Night Janitor (VR) 10:30p; Lobby:Tarot with JP (VR) 7p Three Muses:Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, St. Louis Slim (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Joseph,Thad (VR) 9p

FRIDAY OCTOBER 11 30/90: Jeremy Joyce (BL) 2p, Jonathan Bauer Project (MJ) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 8p, DJ Trill Skill (VR) 10p, Soul Project (FK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Marc Stone (BL) 6p, HG Breland (VR) 9p Café Negril: Shawn Williams (VR) 2p, Dana Abbott Band (VR) 6p, Higher Heights (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Arsene DeLay (RK) 6p, Nicky Bob Shoulders and Okay Crawdad (FO) 9p d.b.a.: 101 Runners (MG) 11p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat. Das Ist Lustig, the Brats (VR) 4p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry and the Right Lane Bandits (FO) 7p House of Blues (the Parish): Justin Townes Earle (FO) 8p House of Blues: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (HH) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (FK) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Shannon Powell Jazz Quartet (JV) 7:30p,Trixie Minx’s Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye (BQ) 11p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p,Will Dickerson (FO) 9p New Orleans Creole Cookery: the Rik-Tones (JV) 6p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lucien Barbarin and Kevin Louis with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p,Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, Dr. Brice Miller and Buku NOLA (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): 1Social presents the

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Living Room Experience (JV) 9:30p Three Muses: Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Bunny Fest 2 feat. Lonely Lonely Knights, Highway Robbery, Guitar Lightnin’ Lee and his Thunder Band, Borealis Rex, Norco Lapalco, Suplecs, Billion Dollar Baby Dolls (VR) 8:30p

SATURDAY OCTOBER 12 30/90: Sleazeball Orchestra (JV) 11a,Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires (FK) 2p, Rebel Roadside (BL) 5p, Mofongo (LT) 8p, DJ Trill Skill (VR) 10p, Raw Deal (FK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Freddie Blue and the Friendship Circle (VR) 6p, Greg Schatz (VR) 9p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 2p, Colin Davis and the Night People (VR) 6p, Soul Project NOLA (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Jamie Lynn Vessels (RK) 6p, Hal Mayfield and Velvet Cowboys (FO) 9p d.b.a.: Robin Rapuzzi’s Novelty 5 (JV) 4p,Tuba Skinny (JV) 7p, Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 11p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat. Prost Band, Das Ist Lustig, the Brats (VR) 1p Fillmore: Griz (VR) 8p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jank Setup (FK) 7p House of Blues: Dean Lewis (PO) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Doug Stanhope (CO) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: DJ Smoke A Lot (VR) 4:20p, Neshia Ruffins (RB) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Mike Kerwin and Geoff Coats (FO) 5p, Lynn Drury (FO) 9p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Joanne Brackeen Quintet presents Art Blakey Centennial Tribute (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Rhythm Stompers (JV) 6p, James Martin Band (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Big Easy Brawlers (BB) 8:30p; Lobby: DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p Three Muses: Cassidy Holden (JV) 5:30p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p

SUNDAY OCTOBER 13 30/90: Samantha Pearl (SO) 11a,Truman Holland and the Back Porch Review (SS) 2p, Carolyn Broussard (FO) 5p,T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p,Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot (JV) 11a,Yoshitaka “Z2” Tsuji and friends (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius Jazz Quartet (JV) 7p Café Negril: Ecirb Muller’s Twisted Dixie (JV) 6p,Vegas Cola (JV) 10p Carnaval Lounge: the Aftermath (JV) 6p, Johnny Mastro and Mama’s Boys (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (JV) 6p, Soul Brass Band (BB) 10p Fillmore: Drag Diva Brunch (VR) 10:30a, Sublime, Rome (VR) 7p House of Blues: Andy Grammer (PO) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge:TBC Brass

Band (BB) 6p Kerry Irish Pub:Will Dickerson (FO) 8p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Jason Marsalis Trio Excursion (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 2p, Robin Barnes and the FiyaBirds (JV) 7p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, the Clementines (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16

30/90: Dapper Dandies (TJ) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam presented by Gene Harding (VR) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk:Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay and Charlie Wooton (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (VR) 8p Café Negril: Noggin (VR) 6p, Soul Project NOLA (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: the Whyo’s (ID) 6p, Comic Strip (CO) 9p Kajun’s Pub: Karaoke (KR) 5p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. AllStars (JV) 6p, Rhythm Stompers (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel):Too Trill Trivia with Eric and Terri (VR) 6p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p,Washboard Rodeo (JV) 8p

30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Colin Davis and the Night People (SO) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s:Treme Brass Band (BB) 7:30p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 6p, Luscious Duchess (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: KatieCat and Cain Bossa Nova Love (LT) 6p, Shawn Williams and Dana Abbott (RK) 9p Cove at UNO: Jazz at the Sandbar presents Cyrille Aimée (JV) 7p d.b.a.:Tin Men (RK) 7p,Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Fillmore: Banks (VR) 7p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Charlie Halloran (JV) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Maxo Kream (HH) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p SideBar NOLA: James Singleton and James Evans (JV) 9p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (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): SONO presents Shape of Jazz to Come (JV) 9p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Schatzy (JV) 8p

TUESDAY OCTOBER 15

THURSDAY OCTOBER 17

30/90: Set Up Kings (RB) 5p, In Business (FK) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s:Treme Tuesdays with Davis Rogan and friends (VR) 7p Café Negril: Marla Dixon Band (VR) 6p, Diamond Dick Gorilla and the Swingin’ Vibes (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Meryl Zimmerman and Kris Tokarski (JV) 6p, Prism Bitch (ID) 9p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p,Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Fillmore:Tenacious D (RK) 7p Gasa Gasa: the Weeks, Future Thieves, H.A.R.D. (RK) 8p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Shawan Rice (SO) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Big 6 Brass Band (BB) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Hugh Morrison (FO) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p Starlight: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby:Tech Tuesdays (VR) 7p Three Muses: Salvatore Geloso (JV) 8p

30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Burris (RK) 9p, DJ Fresh (VR) 10p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Larry Scala, Steve DeTroy and Josh Gouzy (JV) 5p,Tom McDermott and Michael Skinkus (JV) 8p Café Negril: Claude Bryant and the All-Stars (VR) 6p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Mark Rubin and friends (VR) 6p, Josh Benitez Band (FK) 9p Covington Trailhead: Rockin’ the Rails feat.

Cheeseburger Ranchers (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Deltaphonic (FK) 10p Fillmore: Dwight Yoakam (CW) 7p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Neurotic Diction (JV) 6p House of Blues: Gin Blossoms (RK) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 9p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Ogden After Hours feat. Dara Tucker (SS) 6p Palm Court Jazz Cafe:Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Byron Asher’s Skrontch Music

MONDAY OCTOBER 14

O F F B E AT. C O M

express CD-release party (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Sal Geloso Trio (JV) 2p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Sails ‘n’ Watson (VR) 9:30p; Lobby:Tarot with JP (VR) 7p Three Muses:Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Mia Borders (JV) 8p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet (FK) 10:30p

FRIDAY OCTOBER 18 30/90: Jonathan Bauer Project (MJ) 2p, Jon Roniger and the Good For Nothin’ Band (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 8p, DJ Dot Dunnie (VR) 10p, MB3 (RK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Calvin Johnson and Native Son (JV) 6p, Cole Williams (VR) 9p Café Negril: Shawn Williams (VR) 2p, Dana Abbott Band (VR) 6p, Higher Heights (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Oxenphree (VR) 6p,Twin Lovers (ID) 9p d.b.a.: Smoking Time Jazz Club, 007 (VR) 7p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat.Yodel Blitz, the Brats (VR) 4p Fillmore: Amon Amarth (VR) 7p House of Blues: Insane Clown Posse (HH) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den):Tris (SS) 10p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 5p, the One Tailed Three (FO) 9p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lucien Barbarin and Kevin Louis with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 6p, Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Nikki Hill (SO) 9p; Lobby: Cue’d Up feat. G-Cue, B2B, DJ Kemistry (VR) 10:30p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Sweet Crude, Givers (VR) 10p

SATURDAY OCTOBER 19 30/90: Jonathan Bauer Project (MJ) 11a, Shawn Williams (RK) 2p, Simple Sound Retreat (PO) 5p, Marc Stone (BL) 8p, DJ Torch (VR) 10p, Soul Project (FK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s:Tchopsley (VR) 6p, Keith Burnstein (VR) 9p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 2p, Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (VR) 6p, Soul Brass Band (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Royal and Dumaine Hawaiians (VR) 6p, Ismonic, Ozys (ME) 9p d.b.a.:Tuba Skinny (JV) 7p, Robin Rapuzzi’s Novelty 5 (JV) 4p, Soul Rebels (BB) 10p Deutsches Haus: Oktoberfest feat. Die Musikanten,Yodel Blitz, the Brats (VR) 1p Fillmore: X Ambassadors (VR) 6:30p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry and the Right Lane Bandits (FO) 7p House of Blues: Steel Pulse,Tribal Seeds, New Kingston,Tropidelic (RE) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Koodookoo and OF F B E AT.C OM

Quarx (RK) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Exhorder, A Hanging, Morbid Torment (ME) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave Hickey (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Palm Court Jazz Cafe:Will Smith and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Cyrille Aimee Septet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Russell Welch’s Band (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): La Noche Caliente with Muevelo and Mambo Orleans (LT) 10p Three Muses: Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Mt. Joy, Susto (VR) 10p

SUNDAY OCTOBER 20 30/90: Danielle Ryce (ID) 11a, Set Up Kings (RB) 2p,Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires (FK) 5p, Chris Klein and the Boulevards (BL) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p,Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot (JV) 11a, Molly Reeves and Nahum Zdybel (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius Jazz Quartet (JV) 7p Café Negril: Ecirb Muller’s Twisted Dixie (JV) 6p,Vegas Cola (JV) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Pfister Sisters (JV) 6p, Cut Throat Freak Show (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (JV) 6p, Keith Stone with Red Gravy (BL) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Badflower (RK) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge:TBC Brass Band (BB) 6p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Kris Tokarski Birthday Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Giselle Anguizola and the New Orleans Swinging Gypsies (JV) 2p, Robin Barnes and the FiyaBirds (JV) 7p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Ain’t I A Woman: the Criminalization of Parenting presented by Birthmark Doulas (VR) 12:30p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints Game Screening (VR) 3:30p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, the Clementines (JV) 8p

MONDAY OCTOBER 21 30/90: Margie Perez (SO) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam presented by Gene Harding (VR) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk:Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay and Charlie Wooton (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (VR) 8p Café Negril: Soul Project NOLA (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Dick Johnson Band (BL) 6p, Comic Strip (CO) 9p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub:Vincent Marini (FO) 8:30p Preservation Hall: Joe Lastie’s New Orleans Sound (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat.

Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Movement Mondays: WHIV 102.3 with LA State Health Secretary Dr Rebecca Gee and Chinua (VR) 5p Three Muses: Monty Banks (JV) 5p

TUESDAY OCTOBER 22 30/90: Mem Shannon and the Membership Band (BL) 5p, Ed Wills and Blues4Sale (BL) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: NOLA Movie Nite (VR) 7p Café Negril: Marla Dixon Band (VR) 6p, Diamond Dick Gorilla and the Swingin’ Vibes (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Antoine Diel and Daniel Schroeder (VR) 6p,Transiberian Nightmare Drag Show (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p,Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Yung Gravy (HH) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Big 6 Brass Band (BB) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Hugh Morrison (FO) 8:30p 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 Starlight: Scott Stobbe (JV) 5p, Brewster (FO) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby:Tech Tuesdays (VR) 7p Three Muses: Sam Cammarata (JV) 5p, Neva Wright (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Nahko and Medicine for the People, Nattali Rize (VR) 9p

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23 30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Big Mike and the R&B Kings (RB) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s:Treme Brass Band (BB) 7:30p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 6p, Luscious Duchess (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Doc Lovett’s Louisiana Remedy (BL) 6p, King Serpent, Green Gasoline, the River Dragon (RK) 9p Cove at UNO: Jazz at the Sandbar presents Dave Stryker (JV) 7p d.b.a.:Tin Men (RK) 7p,Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Samantha Pearl (JV) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Making Movies (LT) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p

Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (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): Psychedelic Society of New Orleans Meet-Up (VR) 7p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Joy Patterson and Matt Bell (JV) 8p

THURSDAY OCTOBER 24 30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 9p, DJ Trill Skill (VR) 10p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Matt Lemmler (JV) 5p,Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Café Negril: Claude Bryant and the All-Stars (VR) 6p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Josh Paxton (PI) 6p, New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars (KZ) 9p Covington Trailhead: Rockin’ the Rails feat.

New Suit (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Little Freddie King (BL) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Zoe K. (JV) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Leroy Jones and Katja Toivola with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Dave Stryker Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Sal Geloso Trio (JV) 2p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby:Tarot with JP (VR) 7p, Gladney (BB) 9:30p Three Muses:Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Arsene DeLay (JV) 8p

FRIDAY OCTOBER 25 30/90: Jeremy Joyce (BL) 2p, Samantha Pearl (SO) 5p, Sleazeball Orchestra (SO) 8p, DJ Dot Dunnie (VR) 10p, Raw Deal (FK) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Soul O’ Sam (VR) 6p, Eileen Dennis (JV) 9p Café Negril: Shawn Williams (VR) 2p, Dana Abbott Band (VR) 6p, Higher Heights (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: St. Roch Syncopators (TJ) 6p, Tiny Dinosaur and the Gravity Wells, Sunshine Brass Band (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 7p, Morning 40 Federation (RK) 11p Fillmore: Cody Ko and Noel Miller (VR) 8p Howlin’ Wolf: Rock for Reproductive Rights feats Gools, the Green Demons, the Chris Lee Band, the Quaalords (RK) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Hugh Morrison (FO) 5p,Van Hudson and Will Dickerson (FO) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Soul Rebels Brass Band Concert and Album-release party (FK) 7p Music Box Village: Leyla McCalla’s the Capitalist Blues (JV) 6p & 8p OCTOBER 2019

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express New Orleans Creole Cookery: the Rik-Tones (JV) 6p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lucien Barbarin and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Astral Project (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p,Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, Soul Brass Band (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Brass and Beats feat.

Kings of Brass and Raj Smoove (BB) 8:30p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Elementals feat. Erica Falls, Chali 2na, Lyrics Born, Alfred Banks (VR) 11p

SATURDAY OCTOBER 26 30/90: Fraulein Francis (JV) 11a, Chicken and Waffles (JV) 2p, Simple Sound Retreat (PO) 5p, Armando LaDuc y Salsa Royale (LT) 8p, DJ Torch (VR) 10p, Big Easy Brawlers (BB) 11p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Luna Mora (VR) 6p, Marina Orchestra (VR) 9p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 2p, Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (VR) 6p, Higher Heights (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Alex McMurray (SS) 6p d.b.a.: Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 7p Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall: Kenny Neal (BL) 6:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 5p, Paintbox feat. Dave James and Tim Robertson (FO) 9p Palm Court Jazz Cafe:Will Smith and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation Brass Band feat.

Mark Braud (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat.

Mark Braud (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: the Organic Trio (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 Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby: Archive with Felice Gee (VR) 10p Three Muses: Debbie Davis (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Lucero,Vandoliers (VR) 10p

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27 30/90: Kennedy and the M.O.T.H. (RK) 11a, Truman Holland and the Back Porch Review (SS) 2p, Carolyn Broussard (SS) 5p,T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p,Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot (JV) 11a, Mark St. Cyr Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius Jazz Quartet (JV) 7p Café Negril: Ecirb Muller’s Twisted Dixie (JV) 6p,Vegas Cola (JV) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Arsene DeLay’s Birthday Bash (VR) 6p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (JV) 6p, Lightnin’ Malcolm (BL) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge:TBC Brass Band (BB) 6p

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Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Jason Marsalis Trio Excursion (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (JV) 2p, Robin Barnes and the FiyaBirds (JV) 7p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints Game Screening (VR) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, the Clementines (JV) 8p

MONDAY OCTOBER 28 30/90: Dapper Dandies (JV) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam presented by Gene Harding (VR) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk:Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay and Charlie Wooton (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (VR) 8p Café Negril: Noggin (VR) 6p, Soul Project NOLA (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Holy Cow! Margie Perez and Sunny Duval Play the Songs of Lee Kajun’s Pub: Karaoke (KR) 5p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. AllStars (JV) 6p, Rhythm Stompers (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Movement Mondays: WHIV 102.3 Live Broadcast (VR) 6p; Lobby: Simple Play Networking Happy Hour with Mopadna (VR) 5p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p

TUESDAY OCTOBER 29 30/90: Set Up Kings (RB) 5p, In Business (FK) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Café Negril: Marla Dixon Band (VR) 6p, Diamond Dick Gorilla and the Swingin’ Vibes (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Antoine Diel and Daniel Schroeder (VR) 6p, Transiberian Nightmare Drag Show (VR) 9p Champions Square: the Chainsmokers (VR) 7p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p House of Blues: Sabrina Claudio (RB) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Kajun’s Pub: Karaoke (KR) 5p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Big 6 Brass Band (BB) 7p Kerry Irish Pub:Vincent Marini (FO) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: We Will Rock You: The Musical by Queen (RK) 8p 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

Starlight: Lizzie and the Makers, Helen Rose, Air-Cool Jenny (RR) 4p, James McClaskey and his Rhythm Band (BL) 8p, Goodnight Starlight (FO) 10p Three Muses: Josh Gouzy (JV) 8p

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30 30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Colin Davis and the Night People (SO) 9p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s: Treme Brass Band (BB) 7:30p Café Negril: John Lisi and Delta Funk (VR) 6p, Luscious Duchess (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: Tiffany Pollack and Co. (SS) 6p, Hank West and the Rat Brain Robot (RK) 9p Cove at UNO: Jazz at the Sandbar presents Jean-Yves Jung (JV) 7p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Or Shovaly Plus (JV) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Consider the Source, NuSpeak (VR) 9p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Karaoke (VR) 6p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8:30p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat. Rickie Monie (TJ) 5p, Preservation AllStars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: the California Honeydrops (VR) 9p

THURSDAY OCTOBER 31 30/90: Kennedy and the M.O.T.H. (RK) 2p, Carolyn Broussard (FO) 5p, Deltaphonic (FK) 9p, DJ Torch (VR) 10p, Big Easy Brawlers (BB) 11:59p Bourbon Street Honky Tonk: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters (BL) 8:30p Buffa’s: Meryl Zimmerman (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Antoine Diel (JV) 9p Café Negril: Claude Bryant and the All-Stars (VR) 6p, Sierra Green and the Soul Machine (VR) 10p Carnaval Lounge: People Museum, Whipcream (VR) 9p Covington Trailhead: Rockin’ the Rails feat.

Lost in the ‘60s (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Cha Wa, Sexual Thunder (FK) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Jack Harlow (HH) 7p House of Blues: Helmet: 30th Anniversary Tour (ME) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p, Elephant Wrecking Ball (VR) 10p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 9p

Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p One Eyed Jacks: the Iceman Special (VR) 8p Palm Court Jazz Cafe: Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 7p Snug Harbor: Halloween with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Spotted Cat: Sal Geloso Trio (JV) 2p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Lobby: Tarot with JP (VR) 7p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (SI) 8p Tipitina’s: Galactic feat. Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Motel Radio (VR) 10p UNO Lakefront Arena: Widespread Panic (VR) 7:30p

FESTIVALS Sept. 27-28

The Bogalusa Blues Festival features live music, food and drink vendors, camping and more. BogalusaBlues.com

Sept. 27-29

Gretna Heritage Festival includes live music, food and drink villages, arts and crafts, and carnival rides. GretnaFest.com

Oct. 4-5, 11-12, 18-19

Deutsches Haus presents Oktoberfest on Bayou St. John featuring three weekends of German food, culture and music.

DeutschesHaus.org/Oktoberfest

Oct. 5

Algiers Fest at Federal City includes live music, food and drink vendors, and kids’ activities. AlgiersDevelopment.com/2019Algiers-Fest

Oct. 5

Beignet Fest in City Park features live music, sweet and savory beignets, kids’ activities and an art market. BeignetFest.com

Oct. 11-13

Voice of the Wetlands in Houma features live music, Cajun food vendors, an art market, kids’ activities and camping.

VoiceOfTheWetlands.org

Oct. 16-23

The New Orleans Film Society presents its annual Film Festival with galas, red carpet events, film screenings and panel discussions.

NewOrleansFilmSociety.org/lineup

Oct. 18-20

The Andouille Festival in Laplace features live music, regional cuisine and drink vendors, a gospel tent and kids’ art tent.

AndouilleFestival.com

Oct. 18-20

The Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival in Lafayette Square Park features live blues performances, barbecue and drink vendors and an art market. JazzAndHeritage.org/ Blues-Fest

Oct. 25-27

The annual Voodoo Music and Arts Experience in City Park features live music, an arts market, food and drink vendors and art installations.VoodooFestival.com

Oct. 26-27

The Rougaroo Fest in Houma features an evening parade, costume contest, live music, wetlands discovery center and art market.

RougarouRest.org O F F B E AT. C O M

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backtalk

ittle Steven Van Zandt calls his 14-member band the Disciples of Soul. A singer, songwriter, actor, radio host and founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Van Zandt truly is a disciple of soul. A child of the 1960s, he still believes music can change the world.

During the past few years—while Springsteen appeared in Springsteen on Broadway and made the Western Stars album and concert film—Van Zandt revived his solo career. His Summer of Sorcery album and its corresponding tour are genre-sweeping celebrations of the 1960s and ’70s music that inspired Van Zandt, Springsteen and their music-loving generation.

Before Springsteen and the E Street Band regroup to record their upcoming album, Van Zandt’s United States tour with the Disciples of Soul will bring him to the House of Blues in New Orleans on October 1.

With the Disciples of Soul and the E Street Band, haven’t you been playing New Orleans for more than 40 years?

We’ve been coming down there since ’75, ’76. Very early on. It’s a wonderful, historic music city. A lot of what we do was born there. I’ve always been a big fan of Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, all the way to Allen Toussaint and Lee Dorsey and the whole gang.

You resurrected your solo career “Man, this stuff has some value.” So, we did a record of songs in recent years. Were you simply too busy during the previous two decades to do music beyond the E Street I’d written for other people (Soulfire). Then we toured and, suddenly, new ideas started coming to me.

Band?

With your new Summer of Sorcery album, you plotted When I did my five albums in the ’80s, I said, “I’m going to a different course from the political songwriting you did do five conceptual albums. I’m going to learn about myself in the ’80s. and talk about what’s going on in the world. I’ll be the I didn’t want to be political or autobiographical anymore. I extreme political guy.” I wanted to have my own identity. I wanted to fictionalize my work. I said, “I’ll do 12 little movies did those five albums and then I was like “Okay. I said what I and play a different character in each one.” That’s exactly what wanted to say.” happened.

Later, from 1999 to 2007, you got busy playing the But you are still on a mission with the new music role of Silvio Dante in The Sopranos. you’re making?

David Chase asked me to come be an actor. I said, “Well, Now may be the darkest time in our civilization since I’ll give that a shot.” And that was 14 years between The Sopranos and Lillehammer [in which he plays a gangster hiding World War II. I’m not exaggerating. It’s even worse than the Vietnam War era—because I’ve never seen such a rise of out in Norway]. And then Bruce put the band back together. fascism, nationalism, white supremacy, religious extremism. It’s Before I knew it, 20 years went by. going crazy all around the world. And all these agreements are What brought you back to being a front man with being broken. Instead of us heading towards global unity, we’re the Disciples of Soul?

I didn’t plan on coming back in. But then a guy said, “Throw heading back into isolation and darkness and fear.

I said, “For me to be useful now, I need to write a record a band together, man. Play my blues festival.” We played about with optimism in it. We need a little hope. We a dozen of my old songs and I reconnected with

by John Wirt need a little fun. I mean, this is getting ugly.” So, them for the first time in 20 years. I was like,

Little Steven Van Zandt

Photo BY Heidi Gutman

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backtalk that’s what Summer of Sorcery is and that’s what the show is. I leave politics out. It’s a fun dance party. My usefulness right now is transporting people to another place for two hours, because the real world is just so ugly right now.

The album also has a big sound. Were you going for a Phil Spector Wall of Sound kind of thing?

Yeah, but it’s everything from Allen Toussaint to Phil Spector to Lieber and Stoller to Motown to the Four Seasons. Which are big sounds. Arranging the horns and the strings and background vocals so that they interweave and complement each other is so much fun for me.

And you’re reproducing that big band sound on stage, too?

The past two records, I’ve locked into that bigger sound that I started in Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. I think you’ve got to reproduce the sound you’re recording. And it’s a sound people are not going to hear often, even in New Orleans. Not too many bands travel with 15 people on stage and 35 on the road.

It’s a big machine. I hope people come and check it out, because they ain’t never seen a band like this. These are the best musicians in New York. Everybody wants to hire them. But they’ve been loyal to me for two years and I really appreciate that. And we just keep getting better and better and better. It’s blowing minds.

Do you get a different kind of satisfaction from the Disciples of Soul than you get from the E Street Band?

Oh, yeah. I’m very proud of the E Street Band and my contributions to it, but it’s Bruce’s work. Disciples of Soul is my work.

It’s a whole different thing.

Even though you’ve been making music since you were teenager, you sound more enthused and creative than ever.

It’s a rebirth. Who figured on that? I didn’t.

You’re just back from a European tour. New Orleans musicians who tour Europe talk about how appreciated they are over there.

The Europeans have a love for American music that Americans don’t. We don’t honor our own artists and our own artistic history. We just don’t. I don’t know why that is, but it’s a shame. But over there, once they’re a fan of yours, they’re a fan for life. It’s not like America, where, if you don’t have a hit record, you get abandoned.

With both the E Street Band and the Disciples of Soul, we’re luckier than most. Our audiences stick with us. But not everybody [American bands and artists] went to Europe in the ’70s and ’80s. It was not a normal thing to do, actually. But thank God we went over there when we did. We can sustain the rest of our days in Europe without a problem. We also still have a great American audience, but for those who don’t, they

got nowhere to go.

Many stars fell far from wealth and fame, such as Sly Stone, who spiraled into poverty and homelessness.

That’s just a crime—one of the greatest artists of all time; and somebody who I modeled the Disciples of Soul around. Our thing is patterned after his, which was multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-genre.

When you launched your Underground Garage radio show, did you want to create a program you wanted to hear?

Exactly. I turned the radio on one day and I’m like, “What the hell happened to music?” I said, “Man, it’s just not fair that our generation had all the fun.” Really, later generations have had diluted music. I said, “It ain’t right. We’ve got to preserve this stuff and pass it along and make sure future generations have access to greatness.” Greatness—which is what my generation experienced because the 1950s and ’60s was a renaissance period. It’ll be studied for hundreds of years to come, I believe. That’s when the greatest art being made was also the most commercial. Ain’t never gonna see that again.

What was your first experience in a band?

At 15, I was as a singer in somebody else’s band. By 16, I become a bandleader.

I picked the songs, sang lead, played lead guitar player and made the arrangements. It was my band. But what got it all started was, basically, February 9, 1964—the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. We all had our minds blown by this whole new thing called a band. We’d never seen a band before, really—because it had been individuals.

We might have known Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley.

And we might have known doo wop and instrumental groups, girl groups. But we never saw a band that played and sang and wrote songs. So, it was like, “Wow. What is this?’ Everything about the Beatles was new and radical and wonderful. Their hair, their clothes, how witty they were, how smart they were. Their accents. They opened up a whole new world for us misfits, freaks and outcasts. Believe me, there was a bunch of us who weren’t going to fit into society.

But were the Beatles so good as to be a bit intimidating?

They didn’t exactly invite you in because they were just so good. They were incredibly sophisticated. The harmony and everything about them was perfect. But, luckily, four months later, the Rolling Stones came on The Hollywood Palace. Their hair wasn’t perfect—except for Brian Jones. They wore different clothes. They didn’t have any harmonies. They were the first punk band and they did invite you in. They made it accessible.

After that, it was like, “That’s what I wanna do.” O Little Steven Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul will perform October 1 at the House of Blues in New Orleans.

“Man, it’s just not fair that our generation had all the fun.” Really, later generations have had diluted music. I said, “It ain’t right. We’ve got to preserve this stuff and pass it along and make sure future generations have access to greatness.”

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