New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

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.

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

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?

Nope.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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)

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.

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]

I think I saw Oliver 'Who Shot the La La' Morgan at Jazzfest.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if Minneapolis musician Prince Rogers Nelson (aka Prince), born in 1958, was named after singer Lawrence "Prince La La" Nelson --

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/business/yourmoney/05tipi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
The Katrina Effect, Measured in Gigs
By ANDREW PARK
Published: August 5, 2007 New York Times

excerpts

Still, nearly two years after Katrina, there are fewer restaurants and bars offering live music, and the ones that do are paying less, musicians say. As the reality of the slow recovery has set in, fewer locals feel that they can afford cover charges or even tips, so clubs that used to have live music four or five nights a week have cut back to two or three.

Conventions, typically a strong source of music gigs, are running at 70 percent of 2004 levels, but leisure travel remains far below pre-Katrina levels, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau

But musicians say they wonder if New Orleans will ever nurture their careers the way it once did. The Hot 8 Brass Band, which was featured prominently in Spike Lee’s documentary film “When the Levees Broke,” is concentrating on touring elsewhere in the United States and abroad — even if that might mean missing Mardi Gras — so it can play for outsiders. Outsiders, say band members, seem to value them more than their hometown.

“They make you feel how valuable you are to New Orleans,” says Raymond Williams, a trumpeter for the band. “I feel like maybe the city should treat musicians in the same way.”

Big article in the Aug. 17th Entertainment Weekly by Clark Collis and Vanessa Juarez about New Orleans opens a bit too optimistically before getting more realistic. Can't find it online, just this from the EW blog:

The Lower Ninth is where you will find the house of rock 'n' roll legend Fats Domino which has been renovated. But many other musicians who used to live here — and in other, similarly still devastated neighborhoods — currently dwell in other cities or in FEMA trailers. The latter may sound cozy, but, as we discovered upon entering one, are cramped and fairly hellish. And with recent reports of people getting sick from exposure to formaldehyde, conditions in these aluminum boxes are officially unsafe. One retired trumpeter who has been living in a trailer since Katrina told us that, at first, he joked that his new living quarters were so narrow he could only eat spaghetti. He went on to inform us that he had long since ceased to find his living situation even remotely humorous. In fact, these dispossessed musicians must also dwell in a place inside their own heads, which can be every bit as suffocating and depressing as their physical quarters. As Bethany Bultman, founder of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, told us, “Everyone — myself included — is suffering from post-traumatic stress. Stress-related stroke. Stress-related heart attack. They’ve all increased since Katrina, they’re everywhere.” Many of the stories we heard were certainly tragic. We also heard tales of anger and hope and resilience. Actually, we heard a LOT of tales. Everyone had a story and everyone knew two or three — or ten — other people whose histories they recommended we hear. Initially, two weeks had seemed like an extravagant period of time to get our story, which you can read in the issue on stands this Friday. In the end — despite having the pleasure of chatting with such legends as Fats Domino and Cyril Neville and Irma Thomas as well as a host of less well known local musicians — it, perhaps inevitably, felt like we were only scratching the surface of this problem.

The article quotes Glen David Andrews as saying he's still living in a FEMA trailer. Googling elsewhere I see that Andrews has recently done shows in Amsterdam with his fairly new (I think) Lazy 6 band, and back in New Orleans they're now playing every Sunday at Preservation Hall. I wonder if he's still playing and singing with Treme as well? They're gonna be in the DC area for a free Labor Day show in Arlington, VA not far from the Iwo Jima memorial.

Actually the Lazy 6 have been around for awhile, I think. Glenn's also been playing his trombone on the street these days I saw elsewhere.

Meanwhile, his cousin Trombone Shorty is traveling everywhere according to his website.

these are good people. send them money. disregard the 1996-style webpage.

With the anniversary of Katrina coming up there are New Orleans related articles everywhere. Saw a Time Magazine cover in the grocery store checkout line with a harshly worded cover about the levees. The Sunday New York Times had a big article about trumpeter Terence Blanchard, his new cd, and his efforts to revitalize New Orleans (and fix his Mom's house)

August 29th-Katie Couric CBS Katrina show...

2 years since Katrina today--

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082301413_pf.html

excerpt from

Still Singing Those Post-Katrina Blues

By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 26, 2007; M01

Two years post-Katrina, it's like this for the city's musicians: New Orleans may be the music mecca, the birthplace of jazz, the place where you go to get your juice. But it's no place to make money.

"People tell me I should get the (expletive) out," says Boutte, at 48 and 5-foot-3, a bronze-skinned, bellicose, curly-haired Pan.

"Hell no. Why should I leave? This is my home. My ancestors' bones are here. . . .

"They've squashed my joy. But I'm not extinguished yet."

* * *

Nearly 4,000 New Orleans musicians were sent scattering after Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005. Many of them have been trying to return ever since. Today the soul of the city -- its rich musical legacy-- is at risk.

"Everything is shrinking," says David Freedman, general manager of WWOZ-FM, a public radio station in the city. "In the clubs, you get the impression that all's back to normal. When you start scratching the surface, it's smoke and mirrors.

"So many musicians have not come back. How many can we lose before we lose that dynamic? To what degree do we just become a tourist theme park?"

By industry insiders' estimates, a third of the city's musicians, like Boutte, have found a way back home for good. Another third, like Lumar LeBlanc of the brass band Soul Rebels, are doing what he calls "the double Zip code thing," parachuting into town for gigs and then heading back to temporary homes in Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles. The final third, like blind bluesman Henry Butler, stuck in Denver, have yet to make it back.

2 years ago today was the last normal day before katrina. there was hurricane talk but nothing crazy. regular friday stuff. saturday nagin was on the tv talking like it was going to be a 4 or a 5 and that people should evacuate to the west. which is what i do and i hate evacuation traffic so i called off of work and we went to dallas.

this silent second line today is a nice idea but musicians get handouts like crazy in this city and loudly campaigning for more just points out to the rest of the new orleans working class that no one cares about them (non-musicians) at all. doing this through the mall in DC in support of all new orleanians would make more sense.

just points out to the rest of the new orleans working class that no one cares about them (non-musicians) at all

Yeah, this has crossed my mind a lot.

i don't mean to suggest that the average professional musician in new orleans walks an easy road. people who used to get by gigging in clubs and stuff now play on the street for spare change.

Couple videos of the Stooges (reunion) gig at Jazzfest showed up on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZcizg1VYgk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTHeNA4q3TI&NR=1

(4 trombones & 4 trumpets, ha)

Oh and look, TBC has a myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/blakson7

The tunes on there are same as on that live bootleg they've been selling, there's some pretty hot shit on there.

I should do a phone or e-mail interview with TBC and pitch it to Offbeat (or pitch them first and then hopefully do a piece). They need some new contributors I think.

The TVOne channel is gonna have some sort of N'awlins music special on Wednesday night, as is some other cable channel whose identity I have forgotten. Plus, if you get HBO they're showing the Spike Lee doc again.

Today is the 2 year Katrina anniversary I think. Adam, hope things are going well for you down there (and I think an American Routes radio show staffer from down there sometimes peruses this thread also--I need to catch up on some of their radio offerings via their website).

The day has also attracted a passel of politicians _ President Bush chief among them. He and Laura Bush arrived Tuesday night and dined with Leah Chase, the Queen of Creole cooking, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and musician Irvin Mayfield.

I wanted to throw something through the tv when I saw Bush in New Orleans on tv today (but I kinda felt the same way when I saw Mayor Nagin, and when I saw the head of Habitat for Humanity justify how little of the money that got sent to them for New Orleans, actually went to New Orleans). I switched back and forth from various tv specials later and saw Rebirth and bluesy-jazzy soul vocalist Deacon John. On the Deacon John show I unfortunately came in on the end of a portion all about Earl Palmer's unique drumming.

http://foodmusicjustice.com/

http://nonotes.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/buildings-music-and-catastrophe-bonds/

Rob Walker states in the above link Salon has an article that (in the second half) emphasizes the continuing problems faced by N.O. musicians. Actually it’s stories like this that make me wonder about that Jazz Center proposal(he previously linked to a proposal to build a huge jazz center in New Orleans). I know it isn’t this simple but: Is it really going to be the case that some massively expensive monument to jazz gets built for the benefit of tourists or whatever — while actual New Orleans musicians end up being unable to make a living in the city? What’s wrong with that picture?

Rebirth played Baltimore last month, but not DC. Someone's gotta do a better job of booking bands here (or I need to try to get involved and try to help)