New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

I emailed them and just got this quick response:

Thanks for writing. The film won't be coming there real soon - because it will air on national television in February. Before the broadcast we can only do a handful of screenings in New Orleans and NYC. After the broadcast we will see what kind of theatrical or group screenings we can arrange in other cities. And then it will also get released in DVD and online.

Thanks! Very cool that it will be on TV. Will have my DVR ready to go.

Just a reminder to join us at Rump-A-Pum-Pum – A Drum Summit: Holiday Beats of the Gulf South, and kick off this special season with some 'groove carols.'
The concert will take place at Tulane University's Dixon Hall tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 16) at 6:30 pm.

Master drummers Shannon Powell and Johnny Vidacovich (Astral Project) with Cuban percussionist Alexey Marti, Larry Sieberth, Roderick Paulin and Chris Severin will explore traditional carols infused with New Orleans and Cuban rhythms.

http://www.offbeat.com/2013/12/19/best-of-beat-awards-2013-voting/?utm_source=WB+12+19+13&utm_campaign=WB+12.19.13+&utm_medium=email#

Best Brass Band Album
•Brass-A-Holics: I Am a Bras-A-Holics
•Hot 8 Brass Band: Life and Times of the Hot 8 Brass Band
•Hot 8 Brass Band: Tombstone
•The Original Pinettes Brass Band: Finally
•Stooges Brass Band: Street Music

Best Brass Band
•Brass-A-Holics
•Hot 8 Brass Band
•The Original Pinettes Brass Band
•Rebirth Brass Band
•Soul Rebels Brass Band

Best Traditional Jazz Artist
•Leroy Jones
•Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns
•Kristina Morales & the Bayou Shufflers
•Preservation Hall Jazz Band
•Kermit Ruffins

Best Traditional Jazz Album
•Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns: Foolers’ Gold
•Tom McDermott: Bamboula
•Kristina Morales & the Bayou Shufflers: Louisiana Fairytale
•Preservation Hall Jazz Band: That’s It!
•Kermit Ruffins: We Partyin’ Traditional Style
•Miss Sophie Lee: Love Street Lullaby

Best Contemporary Jazz Artist
•Terence Blanchard
•Kidd Jordan
•Jason Marsalis
•Nicholas Payton
•James Westfall

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
•Jon Batiste and Stay Human: Social Music
•Terence Blanchard: Magnetic
•Gillet Singleton Duo: Ferdinand
•Kidd Jordan & Hamid Drake: A Night in November: Live in New Orleans
•Jason Marsalis: In a World of Mallets
•Nicholas Payton with the Sinfonieorchester Basel: Sketches of Spain

TBC getting robbed again, wtf?

Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans (Duke
University Press)

I stil haven't read this Matt Sakakeeny book (with artist Willie Burch). Matt's a New Orleans college prof and plays music in Los Poboycitos

There's a brass band piece in the new issue of Downbeat that's ehhh. The hook is the proliferation of brass band music from New Orleans outward, but the actual New Orleans bands are given short shrift. Great quotes from Youngblood BB but otherwise I think it does a disservice to the NOLA bands by putting some of these other bands on the same level (some more than others).

Not online I see.

I'm not familiar with writer Jennifer Odell, although I see she has a blog and says:

You’ll find more of my work (and lots from other New Orleans-obsessed writers) in a new book about New Orleans culture, “What Can’t Be Lost: 88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City,”

http://jenniferodell.wordpress.com/about/

http://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2014/DB1402/single_page_view/50.html

I see your point. You're right

Thx, maybe I'm being too hard on it given the thrust of the article, but I'm just an old brass band hater.

more importantly: http://instagram.com/p/jR-j-PSIqM/

x-post-- nah, you have reason to hate here

what is happening with the goofy hipstery brass band on the previous page

http://blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes/2014/01/glorious-noises-and-inglorious-ordinances/#more-3164

Check out the photo of the musicians showing up with instruments at the council meeting

writer Larry Blumenfeld:

It’s easy to frame a situation that pits city officials and a small but influential pocket of homeowners and businesspeople against scores of musicians, club owners and music lovers as a culture war: And to some extent there is one—maybe always has been one—going in in New Orleans. But like all exercises in policy as it affects people’s lives and livelihoods and most stories in general, the truth is more nuanced and complex than simply good against bad or right versus wrong.

I intend to write at greater length and with more depth and balance about this situation as it continues to play out. In the coming days, I plan to speak with the city council members and supporters of the original ordinance that I’d hoped to quote from the canceled meeting. According the a statement posted on the city council website Thursday evening, a new ordinance proposal will be put forth soon, with a meeting scheduled Jan. 27 for public comment. It’s unclear right now precisely who is working on this revision, when it will be made public and what it will say.

But only 1 councilperson was there

In more positive news:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2014/01/20/barbecue-dancing-and-brass-open-kermits-treme-mother-in-law-lounge

Louisiana Music Factory is having a store-wide moving sale January 25 - 31, prior to its move to Frenchmen St.

http://www.nolascape.org/sound-amendment-autopsy/

From Offbeat editor Ramsey re the rescheduled meeting:

in the video of Monday’s meeting where voices were heard concerning the VCPORA-sponsored noise legislation, Councilmember Stacy Head said: ” I do hope that some of the hyperbole be brought down some and we can get to a point where some people may believe, and I think Ms. Ramsey may be one of them, that we shouldn’t have any rules regulating sound. And that is a position, that is a position that some people can take, but on the other side there will be people who don’t want any noise, don’t want any sound, don’t want any noise to disturb the crickets. That’s also an irrational position.”

I would challenge Ms. Head to actually read the editorials and blogs on this issue where I have consistently said that enforcement is crucial and compromise was necessary, but that one side—that is bankrolled and promoted by a moneyed attorney with a penchant for winning his battles, no matter what the cost to our culture or city—should not be the voice that’s heard over the majority of citizens.

Sometimes “hyperbole” is needed to point attention to an issue that’s dominated by one side with money and power versus a majority that’s concerned, less powerful (read poorer) and needs to hear its voice heard.

Meg Lousteau, executive director of VCPORA, said there was "nothing secret" about the ordinance drafting as proposed. Lousteau said Bourbon Street businesses are "creating a straw man of music" on which to blame their excessive noise. Coco Garret, vice president of French Quarter Citizens Inc., and Carole Allen, VCPORA vice president, agreed. "The scofflaw businesses are cranking up the music to the detriment of musicians," Allen said.

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2014/01/27/new-orleans-weighs-in-on-noise-ordinance

i think Sidewalk Steppers is the only second line that Rebirth can be counted on to play these days, but they're rolling deeep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL-a_gdHKWM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIsj1ZyL6Yc

Trombone Shorty, members of New Birth, TBC, etc.

email I received from R*chard B*rber:

I'm writing to let you know about the broadcast this Saturday,
February 15th, of "The Whole Gritty City". The documentary about kids
in New Orleans marching bands that Andre Lambertson and I began 6 years ago
will air as a special 2-hour "48 Hours Presents" on CBS at 9 pm
Eastern and Pacific, 8pm Central time.

I gotta remember to watch or tape that

Another reminder to myself to pae it. I think CBS is having Wynton Marsalis connected to this though

tape it

It's on right now on CBS

streaming for two weeks: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/48-hours-presents-the-whole-gritty-city/

watched it last night and it's really, really good.

Saw bits and pieces of it. Some very serious and sad interviews and such, the title of the program is correct.

http://narrative.ly/beyond-bourbon-street/queen-for-a-day/

Although the Indians are a preponderantly male tradition, many women have masked and marched with tribes over the years. They are known as Queens and usually occupy an ancillary spot by virtue of their relationship with the Big Chief.” (That ancillary role is underscored in the book, first published in 1986; although several photographs of Indians appear, no women are identified by name, and a photo of the Harrison family in their Indian suits only includes Donald Sr., Donald Jr. and Brian Nelson, Cherice’s son, masking as a small boy.)

the coldest second line of the year goes to...

http://vimeo.com/88466060

http://artgallery.yale.edu/publication/playing-benefit-band-new-orleans-music-culture

Expanded version of photographer Lee Friedlander's book

Pricey but looks good-- A revised and expanded edition of his 1992 monograph The Jazz People of New Orleans, Playing for the Benefit of the Band features over 200 photographs taken by Friedlander between 1957 and 1982, many of which are published here for the first time. Storied figures such as Duke Ellington and Mahalia Jackson have been captured by Friedlander’s disarming lens, and Sweet Emma Barrett, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Johnny St. Cyr, and other luminaries are seen in their homes and the back rooms in which they gathered to play. Also included are photographs of the city’s second-line parades, whose jubilant dancing has long been a defining aspect of New Orleans jazz culture.

That's a beautiful book. I have the first one.

Jazzfest stage "cubes" schedule just popped into my inbox. Used to be one of my happiest days of the year, but skimming past Robin Thicke, Christina Aguilera and Vampire Weekend, plus lengthy sets by Phish and String Cheese Incident, I'm wondering if there's much left for me there anymore.

Still some brass bands, gospel and old jazz & r'n'b folks, but its a predictable lineup of locals and its obscured by all the big touring names above (they didn't take a hint from Ponderosa Stomp re seeking out obscure locals; plus so many old-school New Orleans musicians have passed on)

Yeah, I'm sure I could still pass a good time with Feufollet and a bowl of Crawfish Monica, but it's a pretty uninspired schedule. Santana again, it must be Jimmy Buffett's off year.

http://www.offbeat.com/2014/04/16/frenchmen-street-brass-band-controversy/?utm_source=WB+04+17+14&utm_campaign=WB+04+10+14&utm_medium=email#

Young Fellaz Brass Band on Frenchman St. controversy.

this band is not very good. that said, all frenchmen st business owners are assholes. the important takeaway here is that dat dog, who by building on the vacant lot where young fellaz used to play started all this trouble, sells artisanal hot dogs for $8 each. rip new orleans.

Wish I coulda been in New Orleans this weekend for Jazzfest; or in Seattle for this EMP Pop Conference presentation:

Matt Sakakeeny is an ethnomusicologist, journalist, and musician in New Orleans, and an Assistant Professor of Music at Tulane University. His book Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans was published by Duke University Press in 2013. Matt has also contributed to Wax Poetics, Oxford American, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and is the guitarist and bandleader for Los Po-Boy-Citos.

ABSTRACT
“The New Orleans Brass Band and Old Technologies of Mobility”
The New Orleans brass band is the ensemble responsible for mobilizing the local cultural traditions of the jazz funeral and the second line parade. As these processions move through the city streets, their pace is determined by the tempos set by the drummers, and the ecstatic dancing of the participants that make up the “second line” is propelled by the syncopated rhythms and improvised melodies of the musicians. These ensembles are entirely acoustic, and the processions they perform in can be connected to West African burial rituals that predate slavery, but the instruments themselves were once cutting-edge technologies. Marching drums, sousaphones, and other wind and percussion instruments were specifically designed to mobilize crowds, and most originated in military bands and developed through technological advances in metallurgy, woodwork, and synthetics via industrial design and automated labor. As products of Ottoman, European, and American innovation, these instruments were appropriated by black musicians whose presence in the New World was, of course, a product of their ancestors' forced mobilization from Africa. As an inherently mobile ensemble, the brass band has facilitated the movement of black New Orleanians through public spaces where lynchings, race riots, segregation, and gentrification have all taken place. The many vectors of mobilization that intersect with the brass band ensemble problematize contemporary equations of mobility solely with “new” media. We have always been mobile.

Saw praise for Matt's presentation on twitter

nice

Golden Star Hunters Big Chief Larry Bannock passed away on April 30, just three days after performing at Jazz Fest 2014.

funeral is Saturday for this Mardi Gras Indian, according to Offbeat

unflattering closeups on public television: http://video.wpt.org/video/2365220219/

From Offbeat Mag email:

the brass band—the Young Fellaz Brass Band—that seemed to have caused a lot of problems with some of the local businesses, has proclaimed that the band is interested in being part of the street and that it will stop playing around 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. They’ve also promised not to play as loudly as they have been. Sam Jackson, the leader of the Young Fellaz, has made a sincere attempt to meet and talk to the other business owners on the street to assure them that the band is making an effort to be a part of the Frenchmen Street community of businesses.

The animosity towards the band from some of the businesses on the street seems to have been ameliorated somewhat. I think this is great news. Talking to each other and trying to get along with your neighbors is key to making Frenchmen Street a great destination for music and culture. It’s starting to happen. It just takes time and patience.

They’ve also promised not to play as loudly as they have been

good to hear in general, but trust me, this is a promise that no brass band can keep.

More from Offbeat editor Ramsey:

I personally like the idea of letting the brass bands play in the flea market of the French Market. as t he vendors there go home every evening, and the area is vacant, lighted, and covered. Adding some food trucks in that area could create a destination attraction. Of course, this idea needs development and support by the city, the French Market Corporation and the bands themselves.

It would add another night-time entertainment area if there could be some traffic flow from Frenchmen to that area of the flea market if there was music and some food there. Another obstacle is the presence of the Old U.S. Mint. Let’s face it: it’s poorly lit, and pretty forbidding (even during the day). It’s almost a “blockade” between Frenchmen Street and a “Brass Band Alley.” The Old Mint needs to be made a lot friendlier. How about adding some lighting on its Decatur Street and Barracks Street sides in the evening? How about adding some signage on the corner of Decatur and Esplanade as well as on the Barracks Street side?

The Old Mint has great programming during the day (the National Jazz Historical Park has regular programs about New Orleans music); there also events occasionally in the evening. Why are they not capitalizing more on this contribution to the musical offerings in this area? Why couldn’t the Old Mint also get involved in developing a place for brass band to play at night?

http://blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes/2014/05/in-and-around-jazzfest-fair-grounds-for-new-orleans-culture-and-what-that-means/

Larry Blumenfeld re the ongoing battles re sound decibel regulations, changing New Orleans neighborhoods and more:

Back at City Hall, the outlook for policy reforms remained cloudy at best once the city council deadlocked, 3-3, thus balking at a proposed ordinance revision.
The revisions would have dictated new methods of measurement and acceptable decibel levels for sound along a particularly loud section of the French Quarter’s Bourbon Street (based on an exhaustive study by acoustician David Woolworth, whose Oxford, Miss.-based firm was hired by the city council).

Saw Glen David Andrews perform in Rhode Island Friday night and while I enjoyed the show immensely, I’m curious: Is he considered more of a draw for tourists or is he a favorite of NOLA locals, too? We basically heard the greatest hits of New Orleans — “Basin Street Blues,” “St. James Infirmary,” even “Saints.” Wondering if he dumbs down the set list while touring? Dynamic performer, though. Opening the show was the Funky Dawgz Brass Band from UConn, which played a great set of original material.

Jordan might be able to say more, but Glen used to play on the street a bunch and got arrested once for violating rules on second lining, so I'd say he is a favorite of both locals and others. He also has always been more into some traditional songs than other brass band players are (though he probably also thinks that when he's on the road that is what folks want to hear). He's never been as funky/hip-hop oriented as some. I saw him many years ago with the Treme Brass band on tour in DC doing the songs you mentioned,plus years later with a band at another DC club, and I've seen him do them onstage in New Orleans at Jazzfest and clubs as well.