New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

Me too (I worked out my homefront parenting issues). That above show is on Wednesday and I do not get in until late Thursday night. The Hot 8 schedule that I was e-mailed does not yet list anything between that Wednesday night show and the second weekend of Jazzfest. That Gangbe Brass Band from Benin are heading out to do weekend shows at the Festival International in Lafayette, that coincides with Jazzfest. I see that Alan Toussaint and Irma T. and some others are playing at that Festival as well which usually I thought stuck to French language groups.

I think they added rapper Juvenile to the Fest (he has/had the #1 selling cd on the Billboard charts recently) and he is apparently going to be backed by jam band Galactic, who also backed him on the Jimmy Kimmel show. On the jazzfest website chatboard some of the jambanders and other aging hippies were whining about a rapper being added. Ugh to those complainers.

Hot 8 will probably making the rounds doing parties and private gigs, I'm just going to call one of those dudes when we get in town.

Juvee + Galactic? Weird.

Btw my band will be playing Donna's again, I'm not sure if it's Friday or Saturday though.

pssst, here's my band from Mardi Gras w/Glenn David Andrews:

http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0ERYNF7VPXIO61B86JAU78GUAH

On a serious note re music in New Orleans, here's an excerpt from left-wing author Erik Davis's recent cover story, "Who Is Killing New Orleans," in the Nation magazine:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060410/davis/3

"...on Christmas Day the Times-Picayune--declaring that "before a community can rebuild, it must dream"--published a vision of what a smaller-but-better New Orleans might look like: "Tourists and schoolchildren tour a living museum that includes the former home of Fats Domino and Holy Cross High School, a multiblock memorial to Katrina that spans the devastated neighborhood."
"Living museum" (or "holocaust museum," as a black friend bitterly observed) sounds like a bad joke, but it is the elite view of what African-American New Orleans should become. In the brave New Urbanist world of Canizaro and Kabacoff, blacks (along with that other colorful minority group, Cajuns) will reign only as entertainers and self-caricatures. The high-voltage energy that once rocked juke joints, housing projects and second-line parades will now be safely embalmed for tourists in a proposed Louisiana Music Experience in the Central Business District.

But this minstrel-show version of the future must first defeat a remarkable local history of grassroots organization. The Crescent City's best-kept secret--in the mainstream press, at least--has been the resurgence of trade-union and community organizing since the mid-1990s. Indeed, New Orleans, the only Southern city in which labor was ever powerful enough to call a general strike, has become an important crucible of new social movements. In particular, it has become the home base of ACORN, a national organization of working-class homeowners and tenants that counts more than 9,000 New Orleans member-families, mostly in triage-threatened black neighborhoods."

Not sure I agree with everything Davis asserts, but I thought I'd put it out there for discussion.

Oops that should read "Mike Davis" "Mike Davis is the author of many books, including City of Quartz, Dead Cities and Other Tales and the just-published Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu (The New Press), as well as the forthcoming Planet of Slums (Verso)."

Nik Cohn, author of Triksta, his paean to New Orleans rap, quoted back in January in the Library Journal:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6301342.html

What are your thoughts on the future of New Orleans rap and New Orleans cultural life in general?

NC: Unless the black neighborhoods are restored, there can be no real future for rap in New Orleans. The authorities seem bent on portraying all young black males as looters and gangstas. This is nonsense, as my book makes clear. The city can have no genuine life without its youth. If the Mardi Gras Indian tribes and second-line parades are reduced to tourist attractions, as seems to be the plan, everything that has made the city so alive and ever-evolving will wither. Even those who dislike rap should understand that it's the music of the streets today. Banish it, and New Orleans becomes a museum.

Have you had any contact with the artists and personalities so vividly described in Triksta, such as Choppa, Junie B, Earl Mackie, and Supa Dave, since the book went to print? How are they doing?

NC: I'm in contact with the great majority of people in the book, except those I'd already parted ways with pre-Katrina. They all survived the hurricane but lost everything: homes, jobs, possessions. They are scattered around the South, some in Houston, some in Atlanta, and others in Dallas, San Antonio, and Florida. Only Seventh Ward Snoop and Wild Wayne are back in New Orleans. Most of the others want to return but, as I've explained, they're being kept out."

5th Ward Weebie's in New Orleans, I heard him on a radio commercial for a barbershop.

That Mike Davis article is historic. Maybe life-changing.

I posted this over on ILX, but it's obvious this thread is the place for it:

The Mardi Gras Index: New Orleans by the numbers 6 months after Katrina:
http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/MardiGrasReport6.pdf

We need a solidarity movement with evacuees around the country to deal with these issues on a massive-protest scale. Anyone game? Or should we just joing ACORN? What should we do?

Thanks for that link, Pete.

What should we do?

I don't know, but if you figure it out, tell me.

I take Paypal.

I'm going to start an ILX thread about this...

I like your platform (and in an ideal world it would be followed), but here's what I wrote on your thread Pete.

I wish I could be as positive about ACORN as Mike Davis but I am not.
Bush and the Republics seem uninterested in building the levees to category 5 level or to restoring the wetlands. FEMA won't even draw up the flood insurance maps that have been promised (and there's still no new permanent head of FEMA). It's all well and good to say you want 9th Warders to return, but to what--unless you can protect the folks from flooding, you're sentencing them to another Katrina or worse. And of course pre-Katrina New Orleans had its problems that still need to be dealt with--good luck in getting the Republicans (actually any politicians of either party) to propose anything creative regarding education, job-training, crime, etc.

Musically, Without the school system and young African-Americans in brass bands learning from their elders in brass bands, it's not clear how vital this culture can remain. Certain brass bands and related Mardi Gras Indian troups will hold on, but they'll be more isolated. But these musicians, be they now stuck in a Disney museum city or not, deserve support and not dismissal as minstrels. And folks of all races shouldn't be ashamed to see them and support them.

I haven't listened to it yet, but apparently Hot 8 crashes SXSW and there's a recording here.

I responded at the thread, curmudgeon; let's keep it up over there.

OK. Adam, do you know anything about New Orleans's underground 9th Ward Rock n brass scene that is mentioned in this blog link?

http://newyorknighttrain.com/zine/issues/3/orleans.html

I've only heard a couple of the bands mentioned--didn't do much for me. I'm really not the best source for that kind of info though as the NO music I pay most attention to is metal and rap. The New Orleans hardcore kids have a site at www.noladiy.org that links to lots of show and band information--though they operate in a different orbit than the downtown folks I'm sure there's more overlap there than with Offbeat or WWOZ or the other mainstream NO music establishment (who'd have you believe that the Love Song for Bobby Long soundtrack is the second coming of Desitively Bonnaroo).

Speaking of Offbeat, their recent issues have been a bit skimpy and they've lost some writers since Katrina(Gambit apparently won't let folks write for them and for Offbeat). Ideally, I always thought they should try to cover ALL types of New Orleans sounds, but they never seem to accomplish that. Sometimes they seem to be just going for a roots music only perspective, but they don't necessarily always even have that area covered well enough for say a Ponderosa Stomp enthusiast. I should try to find the time and submit stuff to them from up North.

I remember when they put Mystikal on the cover, but that was '94 or so...

I'm just glad Offbeat cover brass bands at all, unlike, you know, the rest of the country. I pretty much ignore all the other stuff.

Yea, they still cover brass bands which is good. For brass bands to get coverage in mags other than Offbeat, they need to pitch what they're doing, be it gigs or cds, to the online and offline music press/alt-weeklies/websites/blogs/radio shows who may not have writers/djs who have been to New Orleans and realize the music is still relevent. That's not easy to do (and it also costs some bucks). Offbeat's coverage of some other genres is uneven, and they seem to be struggling a bit financially now, so I am not trying to kick them when they're down--just noting that they appear to need more writers.

This probably doesn't belong here, but...

Juvenile's New Orleans, the ghost town America made
http://citypages.com/databank/27/1322/article14261.asp

Here are some Mardi Gras weekend photos, including one of the Hot 8... audio coming Wednesday...

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/04/calling_all_my.asp

Eloquently written Pete.

Thanks, man. I really am sorry about that other thread. I get ahead of myself bigtime.

Thanks Pete. Definitely bump this thread when you post that audio.

Btw, when were you at the Backstreet cultural museum? I played there on Saturday of that weekend.

I kept missing you guys. Got in Saturday, but did other things that night; stayed around the corner from the Backstreet museum and went Monday.

Brass bands article in Sunday NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/arts/music/09kun.html?pagewanted=print

Too bad those fuckers couldn't mention any New Orleans bands.

I'll be down for the first weekend of Jazzfest, hoping to catch Hot 8 and the Stooges this time.
-- Jordan (jordan...), March 22nd, 2006.

The grid schedule is out and Hot 8 and the Stooges are both playing the 2nd weekend. Sorry. The Stooges are with jam band Galactic at a club show at night somewhere during the first weekend though, but I do not yet see any club gigs for Hot 8 listed at their website or in Offbeat (yet).

The Treme Brass Band are at Donnas the Friday of the first weekend.

Hot 8 will be hitting parties and private gigs, I'm sure, and I plan to catch 'em.

I think we're at Donna's on Saturday, but I don't think anything's confirmed yet.

From the Offbeat.com e-mail:

Bo Dollis on the mend?: We also heard Big
Chief Bo Dollis of the
Wild Magnolias is in the hospital. He was
recently reported to be in intensive care with a
diabetes-related illness, but according to his
manager, Glenn Gaines, Mr. Dollis has passed a crisis
and is doing much better. More on this when we
hear...

Yep, while other ILMers are gonna be in Seattle for the Experience Music Project Conference I am heading to New Orleans the weekend of April 28 through 30th for the 1st weekend of Jazzfest. Despite my grumblings about the scheduling it should be a good time. Jordan, et. al. can you let me know of exciting evening stuff either here or at my other e-mail addresses? (I am still looking for good eats too)

I know the Treme Brass band will be at Donna's on Friday 4-28. I will be gone before the annual Monday night Piano thing.

Will do (do I have your other email?).

My band (Mama D1gd0wn's Brass Band) is at Donna's on Saturday 4/29. Looks like Rebirth has some Rock n' Bowl gigs that weekend. I'll see what Hot 8 are up to.

We're opening for Rebirth tomorrow night, looking forward to it.

Hmmm. I sent you an e-mail the other night(I thought I did!). You can try my hotmail account- ritmika at hotmail.com

SOULJA SLIM AND DA BIRTH THEY'LL NEVA 4GET. REBIRTH IS A REAL CLASSIC YA HEARD ME. THEY DID A WHOLE ALBUM WITH MY NIGGA, R.I.P, SOULJA SLIM. IF U AINT BEN 2 A SECON LINE. GET 2 DA N.O. AND CHECK OUR SHIT OUT YA HEARD ME. OR KILL YOSELF YA HEARD ME. "EVERY SUNDAY IT GOES DOWN AT DA SECON LINE". DIS N.O. BLACK, A GANGSTA UPTOWN NIGGA. HOLLA AT ME AND KEEP IT REAL. REPPIN, HOLDIN IT DOWN FA DA N.O. IN MEMPHIS YA HEARD ME

I was hungover and asleep in N.O. during Soulja Slim's second-line. :(

(just sent you an email curmudgeon)

Kelefah S. In NY Times again criticizes token status of New Orleans rap at Jazzfest:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/arts/music/23sann.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Rebirth sounded amazing on Saturday.

Flying down there tonight. Rebirth are at Rock n Bowl with snooze-worthy blooz rockers tomorrow night and Treme are at Donna's. Jordan's band Mama Dig Down at Donna's on Saturday, and the Hot 8 are playing various little clubs listed at jazzfestgrids.com Lots of good stuff during the day at Jazzfest from Friday through Sunday (I'm talking brass bands and r'n'b, zydeco and Cajun, and world music--I am staying away from jambands and bloozerockers and Dave Mathews). I won't have internet access, will post when I get back.

I had a good time (mixed with some sobering moments seeing the 9th Ward and other devastated areas) in New Orleans, but alas, Jordan, I went with the flow and could not convince my ol' college pals to see your band or go to Broadview. Enjoyed New Birth, Mahogany and many many others by day--those Andrews' were everywhere--Glenn and his cousins-- Troy Trombone Shorty, and James. Wow.

From the Jon Pareles overview in the New York Times:

"The Mahogany Brass Band was playing for its first time since the storm, and it was the first time all its members — dispersed as far as Phoenix and San Francisco — had seen one another. Brice Miller, its leader, started a strikingly emotional "St. James Infirmary" alone as a tearful solo trumpet dirge; when he sang the lyrics, about seeing a lover's dead body, he interjected, "My baby's New Orleans!" . . . .The good times in the music were more treasured at this Jazzfest, and rightly so. Behind the scenes, each band had to recreate itself after the
evacuation: to find its place in New Orleans or to reconstitute it somewhere else. The New Birth Brass Band, originally from New Orleans, wore new T-shirts depicting both Louisiana and Texas.

Still, New Orleans music hasn't stopped putting pleasure first. Jazzfest is, as always, a festival of good-time dance music, whether it's traditional jazz, bayou zydeco, brass-band struts, Mardi Gras Indian chants or fiercely complex electric funk. A superb jazz pianist, Jonathan Batiste, grounded his jubilant, splashy harmonies in Caribbean and New Orleans rhythms. Brass bands like Rebirth, New Birth and the Soul Rebels spanned classic second-line swing and hip-hop-influenced funk, with the Soul Rebels also pushing toward Latin beats. And there was plenty of straightforward funk from New Orleans elders like the Meters [NOTE: I found them jam-band dull-Curmudgeon] and Dr. John [Eh], as well as next-generation funk bands like Galactic [self-indulgent, dull solos]and Papa Grows Funk[skipped them].

The destruction in New Orleans is bound to change the city's culture. (For one thing, an influx of Mexican labor for construction is bound to add yet another ingredient to New Orleans music.) And whether a majority of the city's population can ever return will be decided by large political and economic decisions, not by who's playing in the clubs. But this Jazzfest was a symbol of how eager the city's culture is to rebuild itself, and how resourceful New Orleans' inhabitants — current and former — can be. If the New Orleans of deep local traditions does not renew itself, it won't be for lack of desire.

The triumph of this year's Jazzfest was that on the surface, it was a normal Jazzfest: crowded, sweaty, ebullient and full of homegrown New Orleans spirit. "Normal is an incredible word to use down here," said Quint Davis, the producer and director of Jazzfest. "Normalcy is a nonexistent term."

haha "next generation funk." That'd be a serious red flag even if I didn't already know what Galactic sounded like.

I did my best to avoid the jam bands.

While it wasn't straight-up hip-hop and second-line inflected brass band style, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra were booming out the horn power with lots of special guests including Trombone Shorty and Mayfield's colleague in other groups, Bill Summmers. I think that's whom I saw Kirk Joseph(one-time Dirty Dozen member who has his own group now) blowing tuba with. The all-women Pinettes Brass Band were just ok--the Ol Skool Brass Band and the more traditional Paulin Brothers Brass Band were better.

Alan Toussaint and Elvis Costello used a New Orleans horn section to get across old Toussaint songs, and songs they had worked on together for the upcoming River in Reverse cd. Unfortunately Toussaint rushed through his beginning of the set retrospective, doing too many of his songs as a cheesy medley. The new stuff lacks catchy melodies. The horns sounded strong though. Bruce Springsteen used a New Orleans-inspired horn section. He got more attention though for adding a verse about Bush to Blind Alfred Reed's
1929 song "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live"--
he called him "President Bystander." Springsteen was taken to the Lower Ninth Ward and spoke about "criminal ineptitude that makes you furious... that's what happens when people play political games with other people's lives." He finished with a slow, funeral tempo take on "When the Saints Go Marching In," done duet-style with Marc Anthony "Chocolate Genius" Thompson. I only saw the beginning and end of Springsteen's long set (I left the huge 20,000 or more mob scene there to go see excellent swamp pop supergroup Lil' Band of Gold in front of 100 people or so). The version of "When the Saints" was impressive, his beginning of the set takes on songs associated with the new Seeger cd were less so.

I missed seeing at night Hot 8, the Stooges, the To Be Continued Brass Band, and the Lil' Rascals Brass Band.

Here's some interesting quotes from a Dan Deluca article syndicated by Knight-Ridder:

"There are plenty of efforts to help displaced musicians, like TipitinasFoundation.org. Habitat for Humanity broke ground this week on a Musicians Village in the Ninth Ward. But if, as jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis says, "music bubbles up from the streets" here, what happens when the streets are deserted?

"It's just phenomenal the Third World treatment they've gotten from the federal government," said singer and pianist Dr. John, the New Orleans native who was born Mac Rebennack. "This city is the country's greatest ambassador to the world with its music."

He fears that if developers turn it into a "shuck-ass Disneyland, it ain't going to survive. The politicians just want to push it into something they can make more money on. They don't give a damn about these people."

For many New Orleans musicians, business has been good on the road but hurting at home - if they have one. "After the hurricane, a lot of people had New Orleans on their mind," Bennie Pete, tuba player for the Hot 8 Brass Band, said before a gig at Tipitina's on Wednesday. "We got a lot of bookings."

But keeping the band together has been a trial. Pete's family lost its home in the Ninth Ward so he has been living in nearby Kenner. Other band members are as far-flung as Houston, Atlanta and New York.

"They say they want to rebuild the city, but do they want to rebuild it for us?" said the bandleader. JazzFest, he said, promises exposure to a wider audience, but "other than that, it's just another gig."

Although he was not just playing brass band style, Troy Trombone Shorty Andrews exuded charisma and hiphop swagger with his own band (with special guest Steve Turre) and sitting in with others. Cousin Glen Andrews can both sing soulfully and blow a horn. Trumpeter James Andrews set had its moments (he was joined by his brother and cousin)but sometimes it turned into jazz-rock and jam-improv style excessiveness.

After seeing Glen up onstage several times in one day, a friend of mine predicted we would see him again later. Sure enough we did, standing next to us watching Etta James! He said to me "I'm here to get a music education."

Oh yeah I almost forgot, 95-year-old Lionel Ferbos can still blow that trumpet trad New Orleans style...

Musical highlights from the weekend:

--Mahogany Brass Band at Jazzfest

--Glenn David pushing the Edge offstage during New Birth's fest set

--Juvee

--The Digdown show went great, at least half the Stooges lineup was with us and there were a lot of heavy dudes in the house

--Hot 8 @ Cafe Brasil started slow but turned into a party, too bad their hot snare drummer Dinnerall wasn't there

--The "Rascals" at the Blue Nile on Monday was actually more of a 6th ward all-stars thing, best brass band set I've seen in ages. Damn.

Yea, Mahogany were great. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Juvenile. I enjoyed the end of his set--I got hooked on Etta James and did not step away. Did I tell you I got folks riled up on the jazzfest chatboard when I reprinted that K. Sanneh NY Times article calling for more New orleans rap at Jazzfest, and the folks there acted all defensive as if they would be tied up and forced to watch the rappers rather than whatever they wanted on other stages.

Apparently The Edge played with Dave Mathews--but I did not go anywhere near that show. I wish I had still been in town for that Rascals set.

Hot 8 are playing Central park in NYC in August, and hopefully will get a DC area show right around that time.

Thanks for keeping this thread rolling. After going 16 years in a row, I'm not there this year, so this is a vicarious Jazzfest for me. Yeah, Lionel Ferbos is heartwarming -- the oldest active performer in NOLA -- and I love seeing swamp-pop king Warren Storm with Little Band of Gold. Next year...

I was in my 20s when I first started getting into zydeco and Cajun, and other Louisiana sounds and when I first went to Jazzfest(1989). This was my first time back in 10 years. But it appears to me now that the audience for the zydeco and Cajun bands has just aged along with me---there do not seem to be many 20 somethings into seeing such groups. I did see a kinda young Cajun band called T-Sale' (there's an accent on that 'e'), and Marc Savoy's son has a band called the Pine Leaf Boys, and there's the Red Stick Ramblers and one other young Cajun band whose name I forgot--maybe they'll change things (or I guess those jambanders might adopt the music--I think they like the Rebirth Brass band).

There sre still many folks just discovering how the young brass bands incorporate hiphop and funk, and don't wear white dress shirts and caps and play Preservation Hall style (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I forgot to mention that Clarence Frogman Henry still sounded nice. Whille he joked around with it a bit, "Ain't Got No Home" took on a new poignancy. Not too many other New Orleans old-time r'n'b singers performed (some are no longer with us). I loved bluesman and more Snooks Eglin when I saw him down there years ago, but was less wowed this time. I had seen Walter Wolfman Washington in the DC area ages ago and enjoyed him. At jazzfest he was kinda uneven--too bluesrocky sometimes, but othertimes he nicely took advantage of his horns and organist.