New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

The Rebirth 25th Anniversary show was great. Not so much for the named guests as the many, many graduates of "Rebirth University." I think every living band member who still resides in New Orleans was there and onstage. In addition to Shorty, Kermit, and Shamaar (rapping the hidden track from his solo CD), there was James Durant and John Prince Gilbert on saxes, Tyrus Chapman (singing "Let Me Do My Thing") and Keith "Wolf" Anderson on tbs. Plus everyone who is in Rebirth now. I know I'm forgetting someone. OK, and now that I think about it, drummer Ajay Mallery wasn't there and neither was trombonist Herb Stevens. But still amazing to hear Rebirth as a 15 piece! And most of them stuck on stage the whole night and played through 2 sets.

At one point they played their signature jazz funeral dirge for about 10 minutes and gave a shout out to all the members, friends, and family who have died over the last 25 years.

Saw an ad for a new Treme Brass cd. Haven't heard it yet.

saw hot 8 adventurously booked opening for indie-afropop novelty band extra golden the other week. took them a little while to get into it but they are prob most consistently good of the big name brass bands.

that new dr john record is pretty decent as far as late period phoning-it-in dr john goes.

new treme cd is okay, i guess. good tracklist, but it sounds a little sterile and the dirty dozen sax players on it are annoying. corey h3nry is on trombone, but he doesn't really let it rip like he can.

no one hits a slow groove like the h8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl74E-0F_Fo

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92456200&sc=nl&cc=nn-20080711

Farai Chideya talks with three notable musicians from the Crescent City: Irvin Mayfield, a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader; Irma Thomas, who is known as the queen of New Orleans soul; and Greg Davis, a trumpeter and member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one the most famous marching bands in New Orleans.

A 17 minute NPR interview

apparently TBC is in spain? good for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0soxSM265g

interview w/benny pete on boing boing tv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgbjjECWrvU

How about this ridiculous showdown between TBC and Glen David Andrews at Jackson Square? I wish the kids had been able to bring it, but they still make the older guys look pretty pathetic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEzkNPe1q0&feature=related

Kinda sad...

Hot 8 and Donald Harrison in Maine July 30th posting by Larry Blumenfeld

http://www.artsjournal.com/listengood/2008/07/lobstercrackers-social-aid-ple.html

Satchmo Summerfest

music starts Friday night with the Satchmo Club Strut. The event takes place on and around the Frenchmen Street corridor Friday, August 1 starting at 5 p.m. with opening ceremonies and the start of a second line with the Rebirth Brass Band at Washington Square. Over the course of the evening, 29 acts will perform including Irvin Mayfield, Lionel Ferbos, Ellis Marsalis, Charmaine Neville, Vavavoom, Good Enough for Good Times, New Orleans Jazz Vipers, Twangorama, the New Orleans Saxophone Quartet and many more. During the Club Strut, writer Gary Giddins-who speaks Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Old Mint on Louis Armstrong's influence on Bing Crosby-will sign books at Faubourg Marigny Art and Books.

tbc doing a wedding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtCQqthjt_M

Good sounds in NYC today.

25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival Learn More Saturday, August 23, 2008 4:00 PM South Plaza Lincoln Center Out of Doors - free, no tickets required Battle of the Brass with The Pinettes Brass Band and The Hot 8 Brass Band 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival Learn More Saturday, August 23, 2008 5:00 PM South Plaza Lincoln Center Out of Doors - free, no tickets required Featuring The Hot 8 Brass Band featuring Shamarr Allen; Betty Harris with the Marc Stone All Star Soul Band; The Campbell Brothers’ Sacred Funk featuring Kirk Joseph’s Backyard Horns; John Boutté & the Hot Calas; and Irma Thomas & the Professionals

x-post. Wow that looked like fun--A Nigerian wedding with TBC.

looks like that tbc documentary is on dvd

I don't like Galactic but I gotta give 'em credit for taking brass band guys on tour...this year they've got Shamarr Allen and Corey Henry

The second clip with everyone singing along to "Let Your Mind Be Free" is soooo great!

http://www.neworleansdrumming.com/?id=1

x-post. Wow, great stuff.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble from New York via Chicago I think

From Offbeat's weekly Beat e-mail

BIG CHIEFS IN THE HOSPITAL

Cherise Harrison-Nelson reports that Big Chief Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias and Chief Joe Prieur of the Red, White and Blue are in the hospital at Touro Infirmary. Prieur suffered a heart attack last week, and Dollis has been in poor health for the last few years. He's scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday. Dollis can't have visitors at this time, but cards, prayers and well wishes are appreciated.

RUFFINS BACK WITH BASIN STREET

Earlier this week, Kermit Ruffins re-signed with Basin Street Records, agreeing to a three-album deal. The first will be out this spring. "Kermit Ruffins was our first artist signed in October 1997, the first to record in November 1997 and the first CD release in February 1998," Basin Street owner Mark Samuels says. "It also marks the first new contract for Basin Street since October of 2003."

Ordered New Orleans singer John Boutte's latest self-released effort Good Neighbor from Louisiana M. Factory and when Boutte finally brought them more copies, one was sent my way. He has trumpeter Leroy Jones playing (learned from Danny Barker and other old-timers years ago) plus two of the Andrews cousins--James and Trombone Shorty. He also has trombonist Craig Klein who plays with Leroy Jones. The cd is growing on me.

i'm not a big fan of that one, but i haven't listened to it much. the production (by the dude from soul asylum) is odd...i wish he just would've recorded his live trio (leroy + todd duke on guitar).

I didn't like it on first listen and agree with you on the production. Some of it sounds better to me on subsequent listens (that's why I said it was growing on me) but maybe that's me rationalizing.

tbc doing 'night shift':

my band in switzerland:

Both very nice. Wow, Switzerland.

Now this is sad. I did not realize awesome photographer Michael Smith died--and only 71. I have his book "A Joyful Noise" . I wish some rich folks would develop all those negatives of his--he has been taking amazing photos in New Orleans since 1969. Here's an excerpt from his obit

http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/library-156/1222581110165570.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Photographer, 71, specialized in jazz Sunday, September 28, 2008By John Pope
Michael P. Smith, a photographer who spent three decades capturing vivid, vibrant images at jazz funerals, Mardi Gras Indian ceremonies and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, died Friday at his New Orleans home of two diseases that destroyed his nervous system. He was 71.

A man of boundless energy who devoted himself to the culture he chronicled, Mr. Smith seemed to be everywhere at whatever event he was shooting. Fellow photographers joked that every good Jazzfest picture they took included the back of Mr. Smith's head.

Mr. Smith's subjects included Mahalia Jackson, Irma Thomas, James Booker, Harry Connick Jr., Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers, as well as anonymous mourners, strutters and Indians whom Mr. Smith always managed to capture caught up in the moment.

"I don't think there's another photographer who has more sensitively documented very significant aspects of the second half of 20th century New Orleans culture," said Steven Maklansky, a former curator of photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Mr. Smith started concentrating on this kind of photography at a 1969 jazz funeral and kept at it, covering every Jazzfest through 2003. Though he showed up at subsequent festivals, silently cradling his camera, the degeneration of his nervous system had put an end to his career.

He built up a trove of more than 500,000 negatives, many of which remain unprocessed because he couldn't afford to have them developed, said Michael Sartisky, president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

"He did something that no other photographer had done: He captured the cultural landscape of the streets and did so with a vision of passion and beauty," said Jason Berry, who has written extensively about indigenous music.

This world provided a sharp contrast to the genteel environment in which he had grown up. A child of Metairie who was a star athlete, he was the son of a member of the Rex organization and the Boston Club, and he graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School and Tulane University.

Everything changed, he said in a 1995 interview, when he went to work as Tulane's jazz archive's staff photographer in the 1960s. He heard hours and hours of the music that had been created in New Orleans' bars and brothels, and he was hooked.

"He paid attention when many locals took that culture for granted or ignored it," said Bruce Raeburn, the archive's curator.

Here's the rest--

He summed up his philosophy in three words: "Follow the music."

He was a founder of Tipitina's, the Uptown music club that has become famous worldwide. Mr. Smith's pictures have been collected in five books, and in magazine articles.

To supplement his income, Mr. Smith regularly took commercial jobs, such as shooting pictures for annual reports.

Mr. Smith's work has been shown in galleries, embassies and museums and at jazz festivals, and it is part of the permanent collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Louisiana State Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

In March 2007, the Historic New Orleans Collection bought Mr. Smith's archives, which contain more than 2,000 rolls of black-and-white film, tens of thousands of color slides and about 200 audiotapes. Collection spokeswoman Mary Mees declined to disclose the price.

"Michael P. Smith has defined the visual appearance of contemporary homegrown New Orleans music for people around the world," said John Lawrence, the collection's director of museum programs.

Mr. Smith's work is important, Lawrence said, because "it serves to document not just the musicians and their music, but the environment, social structures and neighborhoods that both create and sustain the musical traditions."

Mr. Smith received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor's Arts Award, the Clarence John Laughlin Lifetime Achievement Award from the local chapter of the American Society of Magazine Photographers and the Artist Recognition Award from the New Orleans Museum of Art's Delgado Society.

Survivors include a companion, Karen Louise Snyder; two daughters, Jan Lamberton Smith of Quail Springs, Calif., and Leslie Blackshear Smith of New Orleans; a brother, Joseph Byrd Hatchitt Smith of Port Angeles, Wash.; and two grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

http://www.michaelpsmithphotography.com/jazzfest/pages/jazz1.htm

Dude really deserves his own thread.

Just read that great "A Joyful Noise" book is out of print. But I think one he did, that I don't have, of Jazzfest photos from the 1st jazzfest onward, may still be in print. I haven't looked it up yet.

RIP Cookie Gabriel (courtesy of the Offbeat weekly e-mail). Not that I think I know her music, or anything about her, but if she performed regularly at the old Dew Drop Inn I bet she deserves attention.

COOKIE GABRIEL

We were sad to learn of the passing of female vocalist
Evelyn "Cookie" Gabriel, who died of cancer
Sunday at age 73. Her biggest songs were "I Just
Can't Take it No More" and "No Sweeter Love Than
Mine," and she appeared regularly at the Dew Drop
Inn. Our thoughts are with her loved ones.

By Jeff Hannusch

Renowned New Orleans session musician, composer, and label owner George Davis died September 10, 2008, from heart failure at Lilburn, Georgia. He was 70.

“He was my mentor and the greatest talent I ever knew in my life,” says Deacon John Moore. “I feel like I lost the best friend I ever had. He could play guitar, bass, saxophone, oboe—he was gifted. For several years, he was the number one session guy in the city. Allen Toussaint and Wardell Quezergue used him all the time. George played on so many hit records. ‘Mardi Gras Mambo,’ ‘Workin’ in a Coal Mine,’ ‘Barefootin’,’ ‘Teasin’ You.’ He co-wrote and played on Aaron Neville’s ‘Tell it Like it Is.’ He wasn’t just talented; George knew the music business backwards and forwards. He was really a sharp guy. He was one of the only musicians I knew that retired from the business.”

Davis first played alto saxophone before switching to guitar. As a student at Booker T. Washington High School, he joined the Hawkettes that were led by Art Neville. He attended Southern University but dropped out in 1957 to go on the road with Larry Williams. By the early 1960s, he was playing with the likes of Earl King and Ernie K-Doe and picking up a lot of session work at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio. Somewhat frustrated by the lack of financial security afforded local musicians, in 1966 Davis formed a label, Parlo, along with school teacher Warren Parker and fellow musician Alvin “Red” Tyler. Parlo’s first release was “Tell it Like it Is.”

By 1970, Davis had relocated to New York City where he stayed busy playing sessions with Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington and Buddy Rich among others. He also appeared in A Chorus Line and worked on soundtracks. After living in Florida for several years, Davis moved to the Atlanta area about five year ago. For more details on George Davis’s career, check out grdmusic.com.

Published October 2008, OffBeat Louisiana Music & Culture Magazine, Volume 21, No. 10.

The first post-election second line in New Orleans

Can we fly everyone up to take part in the inaugural parade in DC in January?

Back when Clinton was elected I recall seeing people's inaugural events (not just the expensive night time events for those who contributed big bucks) on the mall--Aretha Franklin, Al Green and others performed.

Got a promotional e-mail for a NYC showcase of "whirled" and jazz bands that will include Hot 8. Lots of promoters and folks from Universities with any money apparently go to this event, so it should get them some bookings all over the U S of A.

Ned Sublette comments on an article that discusses New Orleans's dwindling population but expresses a bit of hope because the city's not in the rust belt.

Ned Sublette on the article:

new orleans is at 72% of its former population, 63% of its former african american population. so there's a weird disconnect between a pull-quote like, "Many cities don't have a cultural heritage like New Orleans does," and the unequal population shrinkage that has direct implications for that culture. that demographic shift also has huge political implications within the state of louisiana (which voted 59% for mccain, 40% for obama, whereas orleans parish voted 81% for obama.)

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/its_time_for_new_orleans_to_ad.html

It's time for New Orleans to admit it's a shrinking city, some say
by Gordon Russell, The Times-Picayune

Saturday November 22, 2008, 9:27 PM

From Offbeat magazine's e-mail:

Last year, the French Market honored the late
Tuba Fats (pictured) with "Tuba Tuba
Tuba," a day of tuba-centric music culminating
with a sousaphone orchestra organized by Kirk
Joseph. Friday, the French Market presents
"Tuba Tuba Tuba 2" from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
starting with two sousaphone-led processions at
11:10, one leaving from Conti and Decatur and one
from Dumaine and Decatur. They'll merge at Jackson
Square and St. Ann and continue to Battery Park
across the street from Jackson Square for a
sousaphone ceremony and performance. Afterwards,
the Kirk Joseph-led ensemble will second line
to the Barracks Street Stage, where music will
continue all afternoon with the New Wave Brass
Band (12:30 p.m.), Loose Marbles (1
p.m.), Tin Men (2 p.m.), Kirk Joseph's
Backyard Groove (3:15 p.m.) and Kirk Joseph,
Anders Osborne, John "Papa" Gros and
Jeffery "Jellybean" Alexander (4:30 p.m.).
Sousaphone-oriented ensembles will be also
perform throughout the French Market.

Tuba Fats on Tuba Fats. - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001L7sen1JEYmKiHAWWfOnb_jtY7oA7OQ8JKOmMNY3CuN48_pc0tY6vKc1pIW4io17avlB7n7hqJC4m2bz_W867vh4SVXKC2Jzm3u4Yengr3A2OQNthZomQtrVbzRBBvxLpRTikLh9U8hJBVvSeltQOD8mAPgYKnyaw18JwAs77sxcnlLXqYvQGxA==

Got a promotional e-mail for a NYC showcase of "whirled" and jazz bands that will include Hot 8. Lots of promoters and folks from Universities with any money apparently go to this event, so it should get them some bookings all over the U S of A.

Does the e-mail describe the other acts on the bill, and if so can you share?

(i'm assuming this is the globalfest thing with femi kuti)

Yep. globalFEST 2009 at NYC’s Webster Hall, January 11, 2009

Line-up to feature Calypso Rose, Chicha Libre, Femi Kuti & the Positive Force, Hot 8 Brass Band, Kailash Kher’s Kailasa, L&O, La Troba Kung-fú, Marcio Local, Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, Shanbehzadeh Ensemble, Tanya Tagaq, and Watcha Clan.

anything else?

not enough music for you?

no, i mean any more content from the email. i know what the lineup is, i want to know more about it.

ayo Jordan have you ever heard these guys: Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship?

not really a New Orleans brass band, but an indie band from NO w/ a brass section, played Baltimore last night and put on a great show.

don't want to be a hater but:

i checked out that why are we building such a big ship band on myspace and they are lame

― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:24 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm sure they're fine for that indie old-timey thing, but if i think of them in relation to NO and second line bands then they look super corny.