New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

Damn, another death-R.I.P. pianist/singer Eddie Bo.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jr0mEPawrhstiFM70aCUkgTkIA-gD9722CP00

so apparently john scofield just put out a new orleans gospel record with george porter, jon cleary, john boutte, and shannon powell.

They're busy touring for this--but no John Boutte on tour. Nice review in the NY Times.

Trombone Shorty's doing the jam band circuit now with his band Orleans Avenue. That means a Baltimore gig but not DC.

the main thing that bothers me about that scofield record is that shannon powell only plays drums on one song, and the other guy (bonnie raitt's drummer) is not a new orleans drummer, nor does he try to be. if i don't think of it as a new orleans album though, it's nice, i like all the other dudes on it.

just heard the hustlers brass band album. it's real stripped down, it's basically five guys from the soul rebels + wayne on bass drum (used to be with the stooges, plays percussion for trombone shorty now) playing non-soul rebelsy brass band music. there are a few hot cuts for sure.

Anybody go to the French Quarter Fest? I'm missing that, and Jazz Fest which of course starts next weekend and then the Ponderosa Stomp (not to mention that French-language music fest out in the Bayou that usually has lots of cool zydeco and African bands)

nope, going down this weekend for jazzfest though (playing two nights at donna's & possibly some other stuff).

btw i only recently realized that the woman who puts up all the best second line videos on youtube has a blog: http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/

Cool

French Quarter Fest - it was a great festival this year - weather was awesome. We (The Jack Brass Band from Minneapolis, MN) brought a band down and we we're asked to play the festival (so we also lined up gigs on WWOZ, at Louisiana Music Factory, and a couple others). Problem being, we didn't get to see everyone we wanted (haven't perfected cloning technology yet). Some great acts we saw included portions of Forgotten Souls, Original Royal Players, Soul Rebels, Storyville Stompers, Treme, Original Hurricane, Leroy Jones, Trombone Shorty). Treme was without a lot of the regulars, as they were on the road - but they had some young guys playing that were barely teenagers, including a trumpeter (John Michael) that was very impressive. Weather and food were fantastic. We also went to a downtown secondline - where we saw the Hot 8 - and caught a club show with the Stooges as well. Now we're sleepy and back home in MN - missing the beautiful weather, food and music.

Someone who's down there for Jazz Fest (both weekends! I'm jealous, that means they can do Piano night; the Ponderosa Stomp and more) siad the new Rock n Bowl is an improvement over the old one.

Geoff Himes, longtime music critic and Jazzfest goer, is blogging Jazzfest for the Los Angeles Times. Here's a post on Rebirth.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/04/new-orleans-jazz-and-heritage-festival-the-rebirth-brass-brand-galactic-and-more.html

The Rebirth Brass Band, wearing identical green “Rebirth” T-shirts, stood in the bright Saturday sun on the second day of this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The front line of three trumpets, two trombones and a tenor saxophonist was backed by a rub-board player, a bass drummer, a snare drummer and a tuba player -- the giant golden bell of his horn emblazoned with the band’s name.

With no stationary instruments such as a keyboard or a trap-drum set, these musicians were ready to go marching off in a parade -- the job description for a New Orleans brass band.

The group, which first played the festival as teenagers in the mid-'80s, is as much a jazz band as a parade band. You could tell by the way the horn players peeled off one by one from the jaunty R&B vamp of “Gemini Rising” to blow adventurous solos.

Like jazz virtuosos everywhere, though, they faced the challenge of holding the attention of an audience that was less interested in virtuosity than in party music. When Phil Frazier, Rebirth’s co-founder and tuba player, noticed the focus of the scantily dressed, beer-can-clutching crowd leaking away, he cued the band to switch to the sing-along title chant of “Who Took the Happiness Out?”

This got the crowd bouncing to the original vamp. Eventually, however, the players started slipping off again into jazz solos against the party groove. But as soon as the crowd’s energy began to sag, it was back to the chant. Back and forth it went for the whole set, even when co-founder and ex-member Kermit Ruffins rejoined the band to add his trumpet to the mix. The danceable grooves and exuberant catch phrases kept the music from growing too cerebral, while the inventive improvisation kept it from becoming too repetitive.

As a solution to the challenge of jazz artists connecting to a non-jazz audience, the New Orleans brass band format is more aesthetically satisfying than, say, smooth jazz. Instead of diluting both the jazz and the R&B, these musicians complicated both aspects and still made them mesh. Rebirth didn’t invent this approach, but they’re doing it better than anyone else in the city right now.

They proved once more that people will dance to a jazz band if you give them half a chance.

I wonder if WWOZ archived the Jazzfest shows they streamed over the weekend?

http://www.wwoz.org/programs/live+events

New Birth April 30th.

AT & T is streaming some of the final weekend I think on a link off the official NO Jazz & H site

Sounds like the weather was good for the 1st weekend of Jazzfest. Piano night tonight, Ponderosa Stomp Tuesday & Wednesday.

Spent yesterday listening to Louisiana CDs, cooking a big pot of jambalaya and wishing I was at Jazzfest. Discovery of the day: The Wild Magnolias second album, "They Call Us Wild," which I picked up used several years ago but somehow never listened to. Deep jazz-funk grooves from Willie Tee and his brother Earl Turbinton (clavinet and ARP on this is wicked!) and Big Chief Bo Dollis at the top of his game.

I saw a sickly but trying Big Chief Bo last summer in DC with the latest version of the Wild Magnolias. I should seek out those old efforts.

Big Chief had just been in the hospital and many were surprised he was even there, is what I mean.

The first two Wild Mags have been repackaged as a 2-CD set with outtakes etc. I've heard Bo has not been in good health. One of the last times I saw him was when "Life Is A Carnival" came out, end of the 90s. Tiny room (Funky Butt on Rampart) packed like sardines; completely ass-kicking.

that rebirth writeup is kind of annoying.

i'm back from new orleans, i'll try to recap after i get a few hours sleep.

Yea, see what you mean about the Rebirth writeup. Maybe he was trying too hard to make the article accessible to an outsider.

yeah, it's no big deal. stuff like this bothers me but only as a brass band nerd:

When Phil Frazier, Rebirth’s co-founder and tuba player, noticed the focus of the scantily dressed, beer-can-clutching crowd leaking away, he cued the band to switch to the sing-along title chant of “Who Took the Happiness Out?”

no, that's their arrangement of the tune, that they play every single time.

anyway, i had a blast playing with mahogany brass band at the fest. we had other gigs fri and sat so i didn't get to check out many other bands on those nights, but caught a lot of tbc on sunday as well as shannon powell's regular gig (unfortunately there aren't any second lines scheduled until after jazz fest). here's a video i took of tbc playing some al green the other day:

Listening to New Birth Brass Band streaming live from Jazzfest as I type!

Aw man, I forgot about that even though I posted about it above. Doh!

Jon Pareles look back at this year's Jazzfest in the NY Times---the Andrews cousins, etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/arts/music/04jazz.html?th&emc=th

He also blogged a bit from there

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/jazzfest-behind-threadhead-records/

Good news...
http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2009/05/hbo_gives_david_simons_treme_g.html

Looks like HBO will be doing the "Treme" series. Should be a great opportunity for the culture and music - not to mention New Orleans - some attention. Part of the show's theme is about the musicians - and at least in the pilot they were using several brass band musicians.

Yea, David Simon's been making the rounds doing interviews about the state of journalism and his various projects and I heard him discuss this briefly on public radio WAMU in DC. He's a big fan of New Orleans r'n'b. He goes to jazzfest every year and flew a group up to play his son's Bar Mitzvah.

The series' first-season story will begin several weeks after Hurricane Katrina and follow its characters -- based on real-life models Kermit Ruffins, Donald Harrison Jr. and Davis Rogan, among others -- at least through the first Mardi Gras after Katrina. Each subsequent season of the series would advance the story one year further from the storm.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/colley_photo_for_treme_story.html

I know they also used some local musicians in the "brass band" - including Trombone Shorty and Keith Frazier....not sure who else was included...but an article I came across also said Kermit plays himself in the show. This could have some great economic impact for NOLA in general, and the brass bands specifically...It sounds like they are trying to be as real as can be - it's always frustrating to see actors holding instruments with the wrong hands, etc - but they're doing the right homework and bringing in the right people to make it work....kudos to Simon and HBO.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-05-13/music/hopeful-dispatches-from-the-40th-jazz-heritage-festival

..............Hanging in the balance ever since the levees failed is the very existence of neighborhoods like Tremé, which is fast gentrifying (a 52 percent post-Katrina citywide rise in rents doesn't help). But such places have long sanctified what Jazz Fest sells.

....The second-liners and Indians were fewer in number this year, and their traditions are embattled beyond the Fair Grounds (the clubs have twice taken the city to federal court). But they were there, and things would've been a good deal less sacred were they not

Leroy Jones, the hometown trumpeter most deserving of wider acclaim, reassembled nearly all of the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band in tribute to banjo player and bandleader Danny Barker, and to a moment when a fading tradition was rejuvenated. Jones's carefully restrained, sweet-toned playing was featured in five other bands, which gets at one of Jazz Fest's great pleasures: the chance to hear favorite musicians in varied formats. Trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews (playing trumpet, too), and drummer Herlin Riley popped up on stage after stage.

Then there's the festival beyond the festival: beefed-up local gigs in between weekends. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard showcased a new edition of his quintet that gleamed with promise at tony Snug Harbor. Fellow trumpeter Michael Ray re-created Sun Ra's well-arranged psychedelia at the rough-hewn Zeitgeist. Pianist Henry Butler stormed through his former city, reasserting his primacy-in-exile at each stop. And Riley proved that no one hits harder, hipper, and more correctly nearly everywhere, and especially at the Blue Nile, with alto saxophonist Donald Harrison in organist Lonnie Smith's band.

The Fair Grounds is removed from the harsh realities outside its gates, but listen closely, and you'll get the news you need. "This is for all the people who are trying to bring charity back," singer John Boutté announced between tunes. He meant the larger virtue, by way of the latest local hot-button issue: the fight over Charity Hospital, the city's largest health care provider for the uninsured, which has stood vacant since Katrina.

Working musicians in New Orleans face steep enough challenges: Since Katrina, bookings are down by nearly half, while the cost of living has risen 11 percent, according to one recent survey.

...Tuba player Bennie Pete turned down a slot at the modest "Jazz & Heritage" stage for his Hot 8 Brass Band, requesting a bigger-draw tent based on his group's raised profile and international tours: "The festival has an opportunity to help lift up the local musicians," he said. "We want something to aspire to-not just surviving in the streets."

Yet despite hard times and spurred in part by disaster, local musicians have broadened their creative pursuits. Trumpeter Shamarr Allen's new CD is titled Box Who In? "Lately, I'm covering Ornette Coleman and Jimi Hendrix as often as Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington," Christopher noted. Clarinetist Michael White, an authoritative if often buttoned-down traditionalist, wore a T-shirt and the smile of a pleased mentor while playing with the Hot 8 at Sound Café. And at the Jazz Tent three days later, he sported a colorful West African shirt with Fatien Ensemble, in collaboration with Seguenon Kone, whose balafon and dundun drums bespeak his native Ivory Coast. The group played a new tune of White's, "Ancestral Reunion," then a rhythmically realigned version of "St. James Infirmary."

"I think life as I knew it ended with Katrina," White had told me. "And I'm on to another one now."
-Larry Blumenfeld

From Keith Spera's obit

RIP Sam Butera, the hard-driving, hard-swinging New Orleans saxophonist who was Louis Prima's longtime musical partner, died Wednesday in Las Vegas following a long illness. He was 81.

A prodigy, he turned pro at 14, serving as the human jukebox for strippers on Bourbon Street. "I worked at every joint on that street," he recounted. "You name it and I worked it. All those girls wanted to do was mother me."

At 18, he was voted the "Outstanding Teenage Musician in America" by Look Magazine at Carnegie Hall in New York. After graduating from Holy Cross High School, he considered Notre Dame University scholarships for music and track and a career in mechanical engineering. Instead he hit the road with big bands led by Ray McKinley, Tommy Dorsey and Al Hirt.

By late 1954, he'd cut several records under his own name. He often performed at the 500 Club on Bourbon Street, which was owned by Prima's brother Leon. Looking to staff his new band at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, Prima scouted Mr. Butera at the 500 Club and offered him a job.

More bad news from Offbeat magazine's weekly e-mail:

I was sorry to hear that Marva Wright has had a stroke (read down for more information) and shocked to hear that the lovely Lionel "Uncle Lionel" Batiste had been mugged last week outside of his residence on Frenchmen and Royal Street. Mr. Batiste is fine, but did receive a minor cut on his head, and of course, the violation of being mugged. What are these stupid thugs thinking anyway?

FFS, is Uncle Lionel not one of the most recognizable persons the Marigny/Quarter/Treme? There's an extra-hot wing of hell reserved for anyone who would mug him.

And be well, marva.

yeah, that's messed up. i wonder if he fought the muggers off with his sword cane.

Jordan's band is on tour folks-

Jordan, I'm gonna plug your band, Mama Digdown's tour here:

June 16th - Dick's Den, Colombus OH
June 17th - Bertha's Restaurant & Bar, Baltimore MD
June 18th - Chick Hall's Surf Club, Hyattsville, MD (outside Wash. DC)
June 19th - Turntables on the Hudson @ Water Taxi Beach, Queens, NY
June 20th - Mermaid Parade, Coney Island
June 20th - Flatbush Farm, Brooklyn, NYC
June 21st - Rose Live Music block party, Brooklyn NYC

I missed Rebirth Saturday at the Washington Monument grounds. Heard they were great. Missed Dr. Michael White too, at a paid gig with Pacquito D'Rivera.

yeah, i was checking out the d.c. city paper and it looks like there's been all kinds of new orleans music going on there.

thanks for the hype. i hope we have time to do a little busking at dupont circle on the 18th as well.

And if you don't busk there, head down to Wilson Plaza near the Reagan Building where they have live music most days from noon to 1:30. You can busk once the gig ends maybe for workers and tourists... Or maybe do both. After Wilson plaza, jump on the subway and head up to Dupont Circle...

Did you do any busking? How did the NYC shows go?

great! the rest of the shows were well-attended and hittin'. we did busk at dupont circle the day after the chick's show, made some gas money and sold some cds for sure. thanks again for your help.

tbc brass band has a studio album out, on this weird little l.a. label. it's all good, but at least four tracks are straight, unadulterated fire.

So I guess I gotta give in and pay $15.99 plus postage for it. Have not checked to see if cheaper downloads are for sale anywhere.

As far as regional bands go, Primate Fiasco in Western New England do some mean Dixieland, though mixed in as it is with all kinds of country-blues-psychedelia, so it's not for the purists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rjL44jav7U

(that's keith, not phil btw)

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/08/06/cnnheroes.derrick.tabb/index.html

I'm gonna miss Rebirth at the State Theatre in Virginia next week when I'm out in Oakland for work. I might go see hornman and Satchmo voice imitator (and cousin of Trombone Shorty) Glenn Andrews and band band do a mostly unpublicized show for free out in suburban Reston, VA Saturday night.

August 16th at the Kennedy Ctr. Millennium Stage for free (and weebcast) -The Marine Corps Band's Dixieland Ensemble performs selections from the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth Brass Bands, New Orleans' street music, and original charts

Interesting