― Jordan, Thursday, 29 March 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 29 March 2007 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 29 March 2007 23:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fetchboy, Friday, 30 March 2007 00:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fetchboy, Friday, 30 March 2007 00:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 8 April 2007 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 8 April 2007 04:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Monday, 9 April 2007 06:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 April 2007 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Thursday, 12 April 2007 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Colin, Thursday, 12 April 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Thursday, 12 April 2007 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 22 April 2007 21:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 April 2007 04:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 April 2007 04:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Thursday, 26 April 2007 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 April 2007 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 April 2007 17:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 April 2007 18:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 April 2007 00:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 April 2007 00:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Monday, 30 April 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Monday, 7 May 2007 01:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Monday, 7 May 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link
― Jordan, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― Jordan, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 18:46 (sixteen years ago) link
― Jordan, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 18:47 (sixteen years ago) link
So I hear that David Simon, producer of HBO's The Wire (and writer of Homicide) had Rebirth and Kermit Ruffins come up to Baltimore and perform at his son's Bar Mitzvah. Simon's doing a New Orleans show as well.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 25 May 2007 05:27 (sixteen years ago) link
In a lot of ways, New Orleans is Baltimore but it can carry a tune. I thought Katrina was literally America having to pause for a moment and contemplate the other America that somehow, tragically, Americans forgot. It's like America looking across the chasm saying, "Oh, are you still here? Oh, and you're wet. And you're angry."
David Simon in an old Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11788752/interview_talking_with_the_creator_of_the_wire/2
― curmudgeon, Friday, 25 May 2007 13:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Has anybody ever heard that brass band from Mobile called something like the "Bay State Brass Band?" Are they any good? For that matter, has anybody been to Mardi Gras in Mobile?
― novamax, Friday, 25 May 2007 20:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Nope.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 26 May 2007 05:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Google tells me it's the Bay City Brass Band, the Bay state one is from Massachusetts. There's a little on Bay City here (with a list of top Mardi Gras songs): http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/Sec_music/music_page.html
I heard good things about the below:
ELDER BABB & THE MADISON BUMBLE BEES OF WINNSBORO (GOSPEL) A choir of 12 trombones, led by trombonist Elder Babb, plus a tuba, bari, drums and cymbals, raise a joyful noise in praise from this exciting ensemble of the United House of Praise for All People from South Carolina.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 26 May 2007 18:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I saw that trombone shout choir at Jazzfest, it was cool. Sounded just like the bands on this record: http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=2649
― Jordan, Sunday, 27 May 2007 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Soul Rebels set up shop in H-Town:
http://www.houstonpress.com/2007-06-14/music/the-soul-rebels-brass-band-find-a-houston-home/print
― novamax, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 22:14 (sixteen years ago) link
So I've been on a New Orleans reading jag too....I read Burns's Keeping the Beat on the Street. I thought it was okay, but a little too skewed toward the traditional end for my taste.
Non-brass band stuff here, but also finished Jed Horne's Desire Street. That's a pretty damn impressive piece of work. Reminded me of a season or two of the Wire in book form.
― novamax, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 22:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Been meaning to get and read that Burns book.
So Offbeat has Matt Perrine, sousaphonist for Bonerama and various other New Orleans rock and jazz outfits, on the cover. What do you folks know about him? I generally stick with the brass bands and stay away from folks that I think are associated with the jam band world, but maybe I need to just hear him and one of his groups and give him a shot.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 June 2007 11:53 (sixteen years ago) link
http://blog.nola.com/entertainment/2007/06/kermit_ruffins_performed_at_wh.html
Kermit Ruffins and the President...Should we be surprised what the Prez said:
I want to thank our Chef, Paul Prudhomme, from New Orleans, Louisiana -- one of the great chefs in America. Thanks for coming, Paul. (Applause.) I thank Tony Snow and his bunch of, well, mediocre musicians -- (laughter) -- no, great musicians. Beats Workin, thanks for coming. (Applause.) Kermit, come up here. Kermit, we're proud to have you.
MR. RUFFINS: Well, thanks for having us.
THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)
MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over. (Laughter.)
God bless you, and may God bless America. Thanks for coming. (Applause)
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 05:20 (sixteen years ago) link
HIGH NOON August 26 Sunday we are organizing a Silent second line in protest of the lack of local, state and national support for our local musicians. We will be paying 2 brass bands to march without playing. Hankies waving, umbrellas, indians in costume from Armstrong Park to Jackson square. No music.
We will ask musicians all over the world to support the protest with 1 hour of Silence.
Please support us. We need to know we are not alone as we approach the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Our task force will be circulating our Save New Orleans Musicians Manifesto after a meeting at the musicians union hall on July 31.
Cheers, Bethany
Bethany Ewald Bultman NOMC Co-Founder and Program Director neworleansmusiciansclinic.org New Orleans Musicians' Clinic 504 415-3514 NOMC OFC.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 15 July 2007 16:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Oliver Morgan, 'La La' hitmaker R&B singer 'had 9th Ward soul' Wednesday, August 01, 2007By Keith Spera From the New Orleans Times-Picayune http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-23/118594883216750.xml&coll=1
Oliver Morgan, the New Orleans rhythm & blues vocalist best known for his 1964 hit "Who Shot the La La," died Tuesday in Atlanta. He was 74.
Mr. Morgan grew up in the 9th Ward alongside Fats Domino, Jessie Hill and Smiley Lewis. He sang in church and with friends from the neighborhood. He recorded his first singles in 1961 for AFO Records under the pseudonym "Nookie Boy."
Three years later, "Who Shot the La La," a whimsical take on the mysterious 1963 death of singer Lawrence "Prince La La" Nelson -- who was not shot, but died of an apparent drug overdose -- became his first and only national hit. Recorded at one of engineer Cosimo Matassa's studios and released by the GNP-Crescendo label, the strutting party anthem featured keyboardist Eddie Bo, who is credited as the song's writer even though Mr. Morgan claimed to have written it himself.
Mr. Morgan toured nationally on the strength of the song, but eventually settled back into the life of a popular local entertainer. In nightclubs and at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, he performed with his trademark second-line umbrella. He was among the first to incorporate this jazz funeral accessory into a nightclub act, and never hesitated to lead a parade.
He did not release a full-length album until 1998's "I'm Home." Produced by Allen Toussaint and issued by his NYNO Music label, the CD finds Mr. Morgan covering a program of classic R&B compositions by the likes of Toussaint, Lee Dorsey, Otis Redding and Dave Bartholomew.
"He had 9th Ward soul," said Antoinette K-Doe, the widow of Ernie K-Doe and a friend of Mr. Morgan's for more than 40 years. "And he was a good father and a good husband."
For years, Mr. Morgan worked as a custodian at City Hall and then as the caretaker of the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum on Chartres Street. He suffered a stroke in 1997, days after he finished recording "I'm Home." Indicative of his popularity amongst his peers, a January 1998 benefit concert in his honor at Bally's Casino featured Toussaint, Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Jean Knight, Tommy Ridgley, the Dixie Cups, Frankie Ford and more.
Mr. Morgan and his wife, Sylvia, would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January. The couple resided on Tennessee Street just off North Claiborne Avenue in the Lower 9th Ward until Hurricane Katrina's breached levees destroyed their home. They moved to Atlanta, where a son and daughter lived, and bought a house there. Mr. Morgan had not performed since Katrina.
Survivors include his wife, Sylvia; five sons, Darrell and Kevin Morgan of Atlanta, Donald and Carl Morgan of New Orleans and Bruce Morgan of South Carolina; three daughters, Sylvia Grant of Atlanta and Anita Robert and Kimberly Hall of New Orleans; and 19 grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Oliver 'Who Shot the La La' Morgan was among the first to incorporate a second-line umbrella into a nightclub act, and never hesitated to lead a parade. [3434829]
― curmudgeon, Friday, 3 August 2007 05:08 (sixteen years ago) link