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LOUISIANA MUSIC, FOOD & CULTURE—MARCH 2017 Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50
Ann Wilson Hurray for the Riff Raff Mardi Gras Indian Council Bryan Ferry Donna’s Charlie
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Looking Back from the Future
“Chief Smiley Ricks”
Pretty Lights brings improvisation to electronic music. Page 22
LETTERS
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IN THE SPIRIT
MOJO MOUTH
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Rachel Theriot at Petit Lion at the Troubadour Hotel mixes up Unladylike for Boyfriend.
FRESH
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OFFBEAT EATS
Five questions with AF THE NAYSAYER; Sing it: Musicians rally for David Egan; Bean Madness; Our Music with Elysian Feel; Five questions with Wendell Brunious; Top Taco Fetival, New Orleans Bourbon Festival and more.
OBITUARY
REVIEWS 14 16
Injuns Here Dey Come... Again.
FOR YOUR PLEASURE
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Bryan Ferry’s musical colors come to New Orleans.
BEAN MADNESS May the best bean win.
www.OFFBEAT.com
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Michael Skinkus is In the Spot at Mikimoto and Peter Thriffiley reviews Poke Loa.
Charles Lee Sims
SUPER SUNDAY
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Hurray for the Riff Raff, Tasche de la Rocha, the Revelers, David Greely, Corey Ledet and His Zydeco Band, Davy Mooney, David L. Harris, Josh Hyde, Vermilion Whiskey and more.
REWIND
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Joe Krown hits rewind on his Organ Combo’s Funk Yard album from 2002.
LISTINGS
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Plan A: Bach Around the Clock
BACKTALK with Ann WIlson
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by Jonathan Tabak February 2001 Like many New Orleanians, Ricks was mesmerized at an early age by the Indians and their magnificent, hand-sewn suits. “When I was like five years old, I saw this Indian pass one time in the neighborhood and that was it… when I saw them suits I said, ‘That’s me.’” To read more, this issue can be purchased at www.offbeat.com/shop/ back-issues/2001/offbeatmagazine-february-2001/.
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Letters Best of the Beat I wanted to take a moment to thank you [Jan Ramsey, OffBeat] for all the hard work you do for the music community year after year. I know it’s challenging to keep up with all the changes going on in media today, but dang it you’ve managed to stay relevant with a mighty good looking product. Thanks for the recognition for me [Best Studio and Best Studio Sound Engineer] and all the other cats last week [Best of the Beat Business Awards]. Good luck for another year. —Tim Stambaugh, New Orleans, Louisiana
Johnny V So thrilled to have been there to experience Johnny receive OffBeat’s Lifetime Achievement in Music Award. Truly one of the greatest keepers of the beat anywhere on Earth originating in New Orleans, Louisiana. —Johnny Palazzotto, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Crime After reading Jan Ramsey’s column [Mojo Mouth, Happy Safe New Year!] I felt compelled to respond. Our first visit to New Orleans was in 1970 on our honeymoon. It took two more visits before we “got it.” Then we were hooked and we have been there numerous times—our last visit was in April for the French Quarter Festival. We enjoy the festivals, but plan our trips when there is nothing to compete with soaking in the city. Each time we returned we felt that we had so much more to learn. During our last visit was when Will Smith [New Orleans Saints defensive end] was murdered. There was also a stabbing of six people in an area we had been earlier that day [Woldenberg Park near St. Peter Street]. While at the French Quarter Festival we met a couple that owned a rental condo in the Quarter. They always reserved the condo for themselves during the Festival. The same night a man was murdered on the street where the condo is located. For the first time ever we felt afraid on the city. I certainly do not have the answer, only my feelings. But I feel it is time for New Orleans to rise above the element that is destroying
“You Americans never learn, do you? If Europeans knew that guns are allowed they would not visit Bourbon Street or New Orleans. Your gun laws are insane.” —Marc Stakenburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands the most beautiful city in the United States. By beauty I do not mean physical beauty alone. I mean all the history, the kindness and all those things that make New Orleans special. Overcoming Katrina is child’s play as to the job ahead of you now. —Dianne Rundell, Gambier, Ohio
Guns on Bourbon Street The following letters are in response to Jan Ramsey’s blog post, “Bourbon Street Needs Fixing,” about a shooting on Bourbon Street that killed one person and injured nine others. How about requiring all bars to have metal detectors at the door, and personnel to operate them, as a condition of their liquor licensing? Since it’s illegal to carry a gun into a bar, metal detectors would merely be an extension of the current law. While such a program wouldn’t control guns on the streets of the Quarter, it would go a long way to reducing the number of guns brought into the Quarter in the first place. —David Turgeon, Ontario, Canada You Americans never learn, do you? If Europeans knew that guns are allowed they would not visit Bourbon Street or New Orleans. Your gun laws are insane. Wake up! Best from Amsterdam. —Marc Stakenburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Circus City The following letter is in response to Sam D’Arcangelo’s news post, “John Boutté Feels He Can No Longer Afford to Live in New Orleans,” about the cost of housing in New Orleans. Very sad but indeed very predictable, politicians tend to look for a “Disneyland” type of New Orleans but don’t get at all what this beautiful culture is based on. Mixing influences from Caribbean, Spanish, AfricanAmerican, French, just name it and it’s nicely cooked in a delicious and unique “Gumbo.” If you throw out of the City the best part you will end up with a circus city just for tourists but without a real life! —Jean-Pierre Dangy (Jipes Blues), Mulhouse, Alsace, France
OffBeat welcomes letters from its readers—both comments and criticisms. To be considered for publication, all letters must be signed and contain the current address and phone number of the writer. Letters to the editor are subject to editing for length or content deemed objectionable to OffBeat readers. Please send letters to Editor, OffBeat Publications, 421 Frenchmen St., Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116.
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Louisiana Music, Food & Culture
March 2017 Volume 30, Number 3 Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com Managing Editor Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com Consulting Editor John Swenson Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Listings Editor Katie Walenter, listings@offbeat.com Contributors Sam D’Arcangelo, Frank Etheridge, Robert Fontenot, Elsa Hahne, Brett Milano, John Swenson, Peter Thriffiley, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff Cover Elsa Hahne Art Director/Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Web Editor Sam D'Arcangelo, sam@offbeat.com Copy Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, theo@offbeat.com Advertising Sales Maggie Doussan, maggie@offbeat.com Promotions Coordinator Camille A. Ramsey, camille@offbeat.com Advertising Design PressWorks, 504-944-4300 Business Manager Joseph L. Irrera Interns Alex Guior, Brittney Karno, Elina Tons Distribution Patti Carrigan, Doug Jackson OffBeat (ISSN# 1090-0810) is published monthly in New Orleans by OffBeat, Inc., 421 Frenchmen St., Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116 (504) 944-4300 • fax (504) 944-4306 e-mail: offbeat@offbeat.com, web site: www.offbeat.com facebook.com/offbeatmagazine twitter.com/offbeatmagazine Copyright © 2017, OffBeat, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. OffBeat is a registered trademark of OffBeat, Inc. First class subscriptions to OffBeat in the U.S. are available for $45 per year ($52 Canada, $105 foreign airmail). Back issues are available for $10, except for the May issue for $16 (for foreign delivery add $6, except for the May issue add $4). Submission of photos and articles on Louisiana artists are welcomed, but unfortunately material cannot be returned.
MOJO MOUTH
Festivals, Festivals, Festivals
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elcome to the OffBeat “spring festival” issue. Since last year, so many new festivals have sprung up: the Fried Chicken Fest, New Orleans Bourbon Fest, Top Taco NOLA, Beignet Fest. While not exactly a festival, the “Bean Madness/Final Fork” tourney is certainly a month-long celebration of that creamy-delicious staple of New Orleans cuisine. I hear there’s even going to be a macaroni and cheese festival in the fall. Count me in for that one. We certainly have a few music fests in March: the Congo Square New World Rhythms Festival (another production of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation) and Buku. Plus cultural
www.OFFBEAT.com
By Jan Ramsey
events like St. Paddy’s Day parades and celebrations, St. Joseph’s Day and Super Sunday, the Tennessee Williams Festival and Hogs for the Cause at the end of the month. I’d like to see a Frenchmen Street Festival, a Brass Band Festival, a Singer/Songwriter Fest... Hey, how about a BounceA-Thon? Or a Funk-A-Thon? It would also be wonderful if any and all of these events could include an education component. This would continue to solidify New Orleans’ reputation worldwide as a music city. With the new airline services to London and Germany, we’re bound to get a lot more world visitors to the city. If there’s anything that Europeans appreciate a lot more
than Americans, it’s our music, and we should be planning on how to present even more of our worldclass musicians to a market that’s opening up to the city and state. There are still a lot of issues we have to remedy in the city to make it more visitor friendly: traffic problems, crime, sanitation. But these are problems that have always dogged us. I believe it’s a good thing for local universities or the community colleges to develop programs that educate our young people on the music business in all of its aspects. Festival development, promotion, booking, production and operations would be an interesting line of study for young people who want to make more
money than the low-paying jobs that many of our workers have to endure in the hospitality industry. Why don’t we pursue an entity like Full Sail to open a branch in New Orleans? We have the events, and they’re increasing in number every year—as they should be. There’s an opportunity out there for developing a specialized workforce that is exceptionally capable at putting together festivals and events. Did you know that the Jazz Fest routinely imports many of their production people because we don’t have enough experienced people in the city to work the event? Maybe it’s time we consider live entertainment as a homegrown industry. O
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FRESH
Five Questions with AF THE NAYSAYER (Amahl Abdul-Khaliq)
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SWEET TWEETS
ow did you get the stage name AF THE NAYSAYER and what does this moniker represent about you and your music? AF is short for abstruse function. Abstruse function is physics, dealing with ongoing, changing problems. I was thinking about human beings and how we evolve and change over time, whether it be mindset or physically. If someone were to have met me when I was younger—I didn’t talk a whole lot, per se—they would have had a hard time getting a read from me. The concept of my own evolution got me thinking of abstruse function. The NAYSAYER part pays tribute to my punk-rock roots. So, it’s my stamp of where I was and where I am. You’re originally from Los Angeles. What inspired the move to make music in New Orleans? I didn’t get into electronic beat-making until I went to college in Lake Charles, at McNeese State, where I started making hip-hop beats and eventually moved on to electronic production. When I was in college, I was always coming back and forth to New Orleans and partaking in Merged Music Series, which is put on by Justin Peake. I was inspired by being around all those people. What do you enjoy most about making beats? It’s a release for me. But I also push myself and challenge myself by giving myself certain assignments. Like learning different techniques and applying those techniques to expand upon new things and new ideas. It’s almost a religion—this routine where I make an idea come to life. How did you approach a remix? For instance, the one you created for “Friendly” by [Taiwanese hip-hop duo] Juzzy Orange? Usually when I remix, I don’t like to hear the actual original song first. I like to hear just the a cappella—build everything around the vocal track, not hear any of the instruments. Once I have a skeleton for an idea, I’ll go and listen to the original version. If it sounds too much like the same vibe of the original, then I scrap the whole idea and start over. To me the whole idea of a remix is to take a certain song and make it appeal to another audience that wouldn’t normally like it. If a song is real poppy, then I make it harsh and dirty. How does it feel to make your debut at BUKU Music + Art Project? I’m very excited to play. Probably would have wanted it to happen earlier, but it makes more sense for it to happen this year. I have two EPs out and a handful of mixes. My first EP came out September 2016. My time slot—my whole situation, really—is better because I waited. —Frank Etheridge AF THE NAYSAYER hits the Back Alley at BUKU at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.
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Photo: kim welsh
Christian McBride reigns in his throne at Krewedelusion
SOUNDCHECK
MARCH 2017
@lunanola At 1800 block of Burgundy near Kerlerec... How exactly did these crimes against architecture in the Marigny get approved? @ctkmusic (Chris Thomas King) I’m at a local bar training for Mardi Gras. I may write a king cake song. @FleurtyGirl We accept beads for recycling all year long! @mpatrickwelch Got offered an adjunct position @ local university, & also a job giving tours @ Mardi Gras World, & both pay the same hourly rate. #NewOrleans @MarkMullins TWO new studio albums headed your way in 2017!!! #BrassFunkRock #19years #NewOrleansMusic #NewMusic http://BoneramaBrass.com #keeponkeepingon
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FRESH
SING IT!
OUR MUSIC
Musicians rally for a series of David Egan tribute concerts
Elysian Feel
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here was never any doubt that the musical legacy of singer-songwriter/ pianist David Egan would live on. Now approximately a year after losing a hard fought battle against cancer on March 18, 2016, Egan will be honored in a series of concerts, titled “Sing It! The David Egan Songbook,” performed by an impressive array of talent that includes Marcia Ball, Papa Mali, Buddy Flett, Kevin Gordon, Kristin Diable, C.C. Adcock and Roddie Romero. The house band, spearheaded by Grammy-winning New Orleans pianist David Torkanowsky, includes alumni from Egan’s former bands Lil’ Band O’ Gold (Adcock, Steve Riley, Dave Ranson, Dickie Landry, Pat Breaux) and Twenty Years of Trouble (Mike Sipos, Bruce MacDonald). The four-night run kicks off with two nights at Lafayette’s Vermilionville Performance Center, Thursday, March 23 and Friday, March 24, moves to Tipitina’s in New Orleans on Saturday, March 25 and closes out at the Paradise Theater, Margaritaville Casino in Bossier City on Sunday, March 26. Proceeds will benefit the David Egan Dreamer Fund at the Community Foundation of Acadiana, a newly formed foundation to perpetuate Egan’s creative focus. Over the years, Egan’s songs have been recorded by Joe Cocker, Solomon Burke, Etta James, Mavis Staples, Percy Sledge and many others. In 2007, an Egan composition—“If You Knew How Much”— helped Irma Thomas notch her first Grammy for her album After the Rain after being in the music business 50 years. The concerts are being produced by the Lafayette collective of Adcock, writer/community music activist Todd Mouton and Egan’s widow Rhonda. Adcock explains that their vision is “to put together a musical show that will leave both the audience and the performers impressed with the depth of his songwriting catalogue and how wonderful those tunes were.” “You know the mark of a great tune is that you could do it in almost any style, any tempo. They are timeless and transferable. David has a large percentage of his catalogue that is just that good. If you really look at them and know what you are looking for, you can see how perfectly crafted they were and how much time he spent making sure they were that way,” Adcock says. While some artists will perform the Egan tunes they’re known for, others like Adcock, Romero and Diable will delve into the lesser known material. Adcock, in particular, collaborated with Egan towards the end of his life on several songs and expects to unveil them at the concerts. “I was honored to be able to do that with him,” Adcock says. —Dan Willging
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Elysian Feel members Spence Bailey (guitar, lead vocals), Dylan Kidd (lead guitar), Dylan Seals (drums), Abner Deitle (trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals)—bassist Kendrick Magallanes not present—collectively discuss their band after a Saturday afternoon rehearsal.
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e met in our freshman year at Loyola—started jamming in the dorms. We’re seniors now so that’s been going on for four years. [Fellow Loyola students] Naughty Professor and Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes were one of the first shows we ever went to. It was at Tipitina’s—a lot of fun. We look up to these older bands, because Naughty P was once in our position. We’ve played Mid-City Masquerade, we did Freret Street Festival, and a festival at Loyola. This is our first Hogs for the Cause. Recently, we’ve been doing lots of runs on the weekends. We go up to Memphis and play the Hi Tone a lot. Alabama—Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile. We just had a great show in Baton Rouge at the Spanish Moon. Around here, we’ve played Gasa Gasa, Tiptina’s, Howlin’ Wolf. Spence writes most of the songs; Abner has written some, too. We write improvisation into our structures, and everybody always ends up bringing in something new. Sometimes lyrics come completely written, sometimes they’re finished with everybody. It’s an interesting dynamic between the two of Spence and Abner; Spence’s background is more pop, while Abner is coming from the jazz, improvisational side. Abner is our horn leader and the only horn player that’s a consistent member of the band. We’ll bring in friends every once in a while when we have a bigger show. We like being able to play a lot of different types of music. At this point, when we’re early in our career, it’s great being able to explore that. We’ve played some rock shows, some jazzy shows, and with electronic artists. Recording our album Lampshade Sessions, which we dropped in November, was awesome. We’re still learning to play our songs, reformatting them, making sure they’re tight. And we’re in the songwriting process for our next album. Once we’re all done with school, we want to hit the road. We want to make music for a living and make it happen in some form in whatever way we can.” —Frank Etheridge Elysian Feel plays Hogs for the Cause 4 p.m. Friday, March 31. www.OFFBEAT.com
FRESH
SOUNDCHECK
FIRST FESTIVALS
Five Questions with trumpeter and vocalist Wendell Brunious, who kicks off the Sunday afternoon Nickel-ADance series at the Maison
Top Taco
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irst off, who’s in the band and do you change your repertoire for this gig? Tom Hook on piano, Richard Moten on the bass, Gerald French on drums and Roderick Paulin on saxophone. I try to keep a high level of musicians because I just do all kinds of stuff and you have to have the people who can do that. We try to keep it as dance music, older style music, swing and things like that. Anything from Louis Armstrong like ‘Dinah’ makes people get up and want to have fun. What is your favorite aspect of the Nickel-A-Dance? We’re actually playing for dancers. We can do swing or we can do something like ‘La Vie en Rose’ and watch people embrace and be close up and friendly with each other. It’s a great concept. It’s just small enough to be intimate. You’ve played both as leader and sideman in the series dating back to when it was held at Cafe Brasil. What’s the difference? As a sideman, I try to do what I’m told. Being from New Orleans, we just do our best. That’s who we are. As a leader, I have control over what tunes I’d like to play and mix up the keys. There’s an old saying, ‘A good leader is a good sideman.’ As a sideman, you have to support the leader—‘Yeah, bro. go get ‘em.’ How much of your style and repertoire has changed since your recently reissued 1986 album, In the Tradition, was recorded? My repertoire has changed quite a bit. I learned more tunes, I got more experience, I just grew musically and learned more styles. Before I did that record, maybe I hadn’t played with somebody like [guitarist] Leo Nocentelli. Now I’ve played with him quite a bit so I kind of know what I do with him or whoever. Even at that time, I did songs that weren’t necessarily profiled as New Orleans or in the tradition. There are many traditions to be in. I learned a lot from trumpeter Clifford Brown’s album Clifford Brown with Strings and recommend it to my students. My dad, John Brunious, who was a great musician, would always say, ‘If you can’t play it slow, you can’t play it.’ So what else is up? I’ve been teaching one class a month at NOCCA through the Trombone Shorty Foundation. I have so much fun trying to help those young guys. —Geraldine Wyckoff
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he Top Taco festival started in Denver four years ago and quickly became one of the largest food festivals in Colorado. The New Orleans version, which premieres on March 23, will host a competition featuring gourmet tacos and tequila cocktails from 40 restaurants, including Barcadia, Blue Oak BBQ, Bourbon House, Canal Street Bistro, Cochon Butcher, Del Fuego, Drago’s, Jacques-Imo’s, Johnny Sanchez, Juan’s Flying Burrito, Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar, Mizado, Nacho Mama’s, Patois, Superior Grill and many others. People’s Choice and Judge awards will be awarded in four categories: Top Creative Taco, Top Traditional Taco, Top Creative Cocktail and Top Margarita. The festivities will take place at Spanish Plaza at the Riverwalk on Thursday, March 23, 6:30-9:30 p.m. The collaboration with Top Taco Denver and local restauranteur Shane Finkelstein will incorporate live music by Los Po-Boy-Citos, Otra, Mariachi Jalisco US and Muevelo, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting One Heart NOLA, a charitable organization that raises funds and awareness for New Orleans’ foster children. Tickets range from general admission at $65, which includes a taco and tequila tasting; 1st Tasting at $85, allowing early admission; and VIP at $125, with both early entry and a private party with an open bar aboard the Creole Queen. Tickets at toptaconola.com.
House of Bourbon
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he Royal House of Bourbon originated in 1268 when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married French King Louis IX’s younger son. The name for the spirit made in the United States (mainly Kentucky), by extension, was inspired by New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. In his article on bourbon for smithsonian. com, Michael Veach disputes that the name came from Bourbon County in Kentucky. Instead, Veach believes “the name evolved in New Orleans after two men known as the Tarascon brothers arrived to Louisville from south of Cognac, France, and began shipping local whiskey down the Ohio River to Louisiana’s bustling port city. They knew that if Kentuckians put their whiskey into charred barrels they could sell it to New Orleans’ residents, who would like it because it tasted more like cognac or French brandy. People starting asking for ‘that whiskey they sell on Bourbon Street, which eventually became ‘that bourbon whiskey.’” The inaugural New Orleans Bourbon Festival will take place at the New Orleans Marriott at the Convention Center March 24–26. The festival features dinners that pair New Orleans cuisine with bourbon at various locations, including a dinner at the Foundation Room at House of Blues with Jim Beam Black bourbon, a dinner at the Bourbon House with a selection of Wild Turkey bourbon as well as a dinner at Kenton’s with Heaven Hill bourbons. Bourbon tastings will also take place all around town, including at Morton’s, Elysian Seafood, Primitivo, Bourbon House and many other restaurants. Tickets range from food-only at $59, dinners at $130, connoisseur at $230, VIP at $350 and Ultimate VIP at $490. Tickets at eventbrite.com. www.OFFBEAT.com
IN MEMORIAM
Charles Lee Sims (1935–2017)
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hen the jazz classic “On Green Dolphin Street” emanated from Donna’s Bar & Grill, you could bet that trumpeter Leroy Jones was blowing on stage. Charlie Sims, the beloved chef and co-owner, with his wife Donna, of the now defunct North Rampart Street club, would step out of the kitchen, his realm, to hear his favorite song. Sims, who loved jazz and cooking, died at home in Casselberry, Florida on Sunday, February 5. He was 81. “It was a prerequisite to play ‘On Green Dolphin Street,’” remembers Jones. “He loved the Miles Davis version of it and that’s the one we used to do, including the bass intro—he was waiting for that. He’d say if the cats didn’t know that, they didn’t know the song.” “Charlie was very musical,” agrees drummer Shannon Powell, who began playing at Donna’s at trumpeter Kermit Ruffins’ notorious Monday night gigs, when Sims would lay out a spread of his delicious red beans and rice and chicken. “He’d always be talking about not just the local musicians but people he met coming up as a young man in Chicago. Sims, who was born in Rome, Georgia and raised in Chicago, led a diverse life. He served 13 years in the United States Navy, including as a crew member on the nuclear submarine the USS Skate. Later he attended the Culinary Institute of America, which prepared him for his employment with Amtrak, the company he retired from in 2000 after 23 years. Sims arrived in the Crescent City by rail as the head chef of Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans.” Its route from Chicago to the Crescent City became a fateful one when in 1993 he met Donna, who had just opened the corner spot and was looking for someone to take over the kitchen. It was a perfect match not only for Charlie and Donna, who
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were married in Armstrong Park on October 15, 1994, but for the New Orleans music community. “Charlie was almost like a musician because all of the musicians were crazy about him,” offers trumpeter/vocalist Gregg Stafford. “He knew everybody by name. He was the kind of person who loved to have fun, loved to talk and he cared about people.” It was at Donna’s that the young Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and his brass band played its first official gig, holding down a residency on Sundays. “Even though we were kids, he wasn’t really treating us like kids— he treated us like professional musicians,” Andrews remembers with appreciation. “He was a strong New Orleans music lover and he and Donna played their part in giving us a home to call ‘Brass Band Headquarters.’” Donna’s small kitchen became the spot where he would “hold court” while flipping his famous cheeseburgers. Donning his signature beret and white chef jacket, he was
at the center of the storytelling, the jokes and the laughter. “Sometimes there were musicians up front playing and there was a whole group of musicians in the kitchen,” says Stafford, mentioning regulars like drummer Bob French and saxophonist Red Morgan. “In his exact words, Charlie would say, he loved to talk plenty shit,” Jones adds. “And that’s exactly what he did.” “I always asked him a million questions and he always had an answer,” Powell says with a laugh. “He taught me a lot about cooking and he really knew how to make mac ’n’ cheese. He put in a lot of cream, a lot of butter and a lot of garlic powder and it would rise like a cake.” “I was lucky enough to hang out in that kitchen with Charlie on many Mondays and you know what we’d be doin’ in the kitchen,” Ruffins adds. Charlie and Kermit, known for their generous natures and love of cooking, started up the now legendary Tuesdays on the lot (now Tuba Fats Square) in the Treme. “We would put up all our money,
hire a band and a deejay and we’d cook for the whole neighborhood,” Ruffins remembers, adding that Oswald “Bo Monkey” Jones would be there helping out. “I’d go on my bike straight from McDonogh 15 to my house to get my trombone and went to the lot and played and ate free barbecue,” Andrews still recalls with pleasure. “Mr. Charlie was one of the nicest human beings that I ever came across in life and he was always passing along a lot of knowledge.” “Charlie was always open arms to everyone—white, black, homosexual, crazy,” Jones offers. “If there was a problem, though, he’d straight up let you know you had to go. Charlie would always say, ‘You ain’t gotta go home, but you got to get the hell up outta here.’” A memorial for Charlie Sims will be held on Saturday, March 4 at the Carver Theater, 2101 Orleans Avenue. Music and remembrances will begin at 11 a.m. followed by a jazz funeral that will disband at the Mississippi River Bottom bar (MRB) at 515 St. Philip St. —Geraldine Wyckoff www.OFFBEAT.com
MG INDIAN COUNCIL
Super Sunday
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he New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council is perhaps best recognized by the general population for presenting its spectacular Indian Super Sunday parade. It’s held annually Uptown on the third Sunday in March, which this year happens to fall on March 19th, coinciding with another significant date in the Black Indian tradition. St. Joseph’s Night is when, after sunset, the Mardi Gras Indians once again take to the streets to meet each other in a ritual of song, dance and beauty. “The majority of the tribes will do both of them,” says Big Chief Howard Miller of the Creole Wild West, president of the Council. The Council, which was chartered in 1985, boasts importance in the Mardi Gras Indian Nation, black communities and the whole of New Orleans beyond its fun festival and parade. Chief of Chiefs Robert “Robbe” Lee, who came up under the legendary Brother Tillman, spoke to the organization’s founder and present director, Bertrand Butler, about the Indian gangs coming together in order, explains Miller, “so we could control our own destiny.” Theodore Emile “Bo” Dollis was appointed as the Council’s first president. Presently, 18 tribes are represented in the Council, including some of those that first joined up like the Creole Wild West, White Cloud Hunters, Mohawk Hunters, Fi-Yi-Yi and more. Though some rivalries prevail among the gangs—they are, after all, vying to be declared “the prettiest”—the Mardi Gras Indian Council solidified the Black Indian Nation. While some perceive the Council to be an Uptown organization, primarily because it presents its festival at A.L. Davis Park and parades in the Uptown
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Big Chief Howard Miller of the Creole Wild West and President of the Mardi Gras Indian Council
By Geraldine Wyckoff
neighborhood, its membership has always included tribes from all over the city. With a unified front, the gangs were able to stand as one following the dangerous fiasco of St. Joseph’s Night 2005. Police sirens wailed as their cars sped straight across the neutral ground on LaSalle Street aiming to halt a gathering tribe ringing their tambourines. Bertrand Butler was beaten by police and was further threatened as chiefs Larry Bannock and Darryl Montana stood their ground in front of the police car. The Mardi Gras Indian Council asked Butler to arrange a meeting with the New Orleans City Council to address the issue. Chiefs, Indians and their followers were there as Big Chief Tootie Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas declared, “This has got to stop!” before collapsing at the podium and dying while surrounded by his fellow Black Indians. Since that time, there has been a monumental change in the attitude and action of the police toward the Mardi Gras Indian activities as well as those of the social aid and pleasure club parades. Presently, says Miller, the Council’s monthly meetings are dealing with more positive things, like planning for its Indian parade and the renovation of two buildings owned by the Council on LaSalle Street across from A.L. Davis Park. “Right now we are in the process of making our buildings a reality. We call it the Mardi Gras Indian Campus,” explains Miller, who envisions a “fun place” with sewing machines, computers, a performance area and a coffee shop. “The children—that’s what we do, that’s what we talk about. They’ll be able to hear about us from us.” “Jerome Smith with Tambourine and Fan started this whole Super www.OFFBEAT.com
PHotoS: KEITH HILL (top), Noé Cugny (bottom)
Injuns Here Dey Come... Again.
MG INDIAN COUNCIL
PHotoS: Noé Cugny
While the title Super Sunday originated with the Tambourine and Fan’s event, now, says Miller, that name has been applied to all of the Indian processions. Sunday parade. It began Uptown and went all the way Downtown and ended at Hunter’s Field [North Claiborne and St. Bernard Avenues],” remembers Miller, who began masking Indian in 1969 as a chief scout with the Apache Hunters. Parts of that route, however, were disconnected from the community to whom the Mardi Gras Indians faithfully serve. So Smith decided to make a change and to start the parade at Bayou St. John. “Jerome Smith, he’s a brilliant person, so what I think was that he probably envisioned all the Indians on the bayou—there is something about all that water,” Miller offers. Indeed, one of the classic Black Indian call-and-response chants is “Shallow Water, Oh Mama.” While the title Super Sunday originated with the Tambourine and Fan’s event, now, says Miller, that name has been applied to all of the Indian processions. “There’s Super Sunday Uptown, Downtown and across the river,” Miller notes. “The Council’s parade was originally called Indian Sunday but the people called it Super Sunday.” “When we first started we just had Indians,” he explains. “For 15 years or more we have incorporated brass bands and social aid and pleasure clubs. The Young Men Olympian and the Lady Buckjumpers have always been with us.” The festival begins at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 19 with music by DJ Jubilee and DJ Captain Charles, with live gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz and blues groups performing throughout the day. “Bertrand Butler has been an inspiration,” says Miller. “He worked hard to bring the vendors and the kids’ rides in. He always thought it should be kid-friendly.” Some 30 Black Indian gangs are expected to participate in the parade that leaves Washington Avenue and LaSalle Street at 1 p.m. O www.OFFBEAT.com
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BRYAN FERRY
For Your Pleasure Bryan Ferry’s musical colors come to New Orleans.
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Clearmountain helped us define that sound.
ours by aging rock icons are nothing new, especially at Jazz Fest time. Bryan Ferry is one of the few who’s grown with his material. From the start, Roxy Music was a band out of time—appropriating pre-rock glamor at first with heavy irony, but ultimately revealing themselves as romantics. Ferry’s live shows nowadays include everything from the angular artrock of the first Roxy album to Dylan and Jerome Kern covers to new solo material, all of which he inhabits with impeccably cool swagger. I talked to Ferry on his previous trip to the USA last fall. This is your third US tour in three years. You turned 71 last year, and have been working hard as ever. What’s the secret? There’s no secret to longevity, I’ve just been lucky, really. I don’t follow any weird diets or anything like that. I do have a Pilates teacher that I see three times a week; the rest is just trying to keep busy. I just like to work, I like making music and I like sharing with the audiences. I used to much prefer being in the studio, because you always want to be doing new work. But now I have so much work to perform that I really like the performance side of it, plus I have a band that’s very good. With three guitars you can add a lot of different musical colors so you don’t get bored. Your live show still has a lot of Roxy Music numbers. Do those songs feel any different to you now? They feel kind of naïve, but with a real spirit. They have a lot of musical changes in them—don’t just have a beginning, middle and end in the same genre, they
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You were going through a divorce when you made your latest album, Avonmore. Did that make it more of a personal catharsis? To me it always is the albums always come out of tough times in your life. You’re trying to express your deepest feelings, it’s a time of change, and that’s always difficult for people like me. Often albums are stressfully made. This one was connected to what I was going through, but maybe not as directly as you’d think.
change moods within them. So when you put three of those in a row, it’s interesting to me the way they dart around stylistically. Even on the hit songs, the ones people always want to hear—you get so much pleasure from the feeling coursing back from the audience that you don’t mind doing those ones either. One song you’ve always done is “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” which is partly about a man’s passion for an inflatable doll. I’ve always heard that one as a very dark joke. I hate talking about my own songs to be honest, but that was a dark song and to me it caught the mood of the time. It related to some artwork that I was very fond of. People probably know By Brett Milano
that I studied art under Richard Hamilton, and he’d done a piece that I really liked, having to do with consumer extravagance. It caught a mood that got put into the song. So it wasn’t a joke at all really, and it’s still one of the best ones to do. Roxy Music got much more romantic toward the end, with the Avalon album. You still draw a lot from that one live. I really like that period—very different from something like For Your Pleasure, but I’d say those are two of the high spot albums in my career. It was a different way of making songs, and part of that came from the sophistication of the musicians I was working with—and recording in New York, with the technical excellence of those studios. [Co-producer] Bob
It’s true that you’re no stranger to sad songs. That’s what music really is to me. I’ve always been drawn to those beautiful sad songs, whether it’s Billie Holiday or Richard Strauss. Those very melancholy German lieder songs… or the first music I really listened to, which was people like Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy. I have always associated music with deeply felt pain, and that’s what I try to capture in my music. I haven’t done that many happy-golucky things—‘Do the Strand’ and ‘Editions of You’ were the rare ones. Do you keep a distance from the music business when you’re not touring? I think to enjoy life it’s necessary to have a contrast. When I’m home I have a house in the country where I’ve been for 40 years now, and I try to get a balance between five days in London and two days there. The place is part of me now; it’s very quiet with a garden. Gives me time to reflect and do a lot of… I believe people now call it chilling out. Bryan Ferry will be at the Saenger Theatre on March 16 at 8 p.m. O www.OFFBEAT.com
Lookin from t Pretty Lights brings improvisation to electronic music.
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t’s New Year’s Eve and thousands of young people have gathered at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras World Ballroom for a dazzling display that rivals any fireworks from Times Square to Disneyland. Colorado, California, Canada and Carrollton Avenue are all represented in the crowd, which feasts its collective eyes upon the wondrous spectacle at hand. Yet where they all come from isn’t as important as why they all came here, to this packed warehouse-turned-music-venue along the banks of the Mississippi River. “I moved here two years ago and I don’t even know why,” Derek Vincent Smith declared during a rare pause in the music that night. “The vibe was just so strong.” Pretty Lights has taken a variety of forms over the years, but Smith’s leadership and vision have been a constant since the project began in 2004. As one of the most forward-thinking producers in electronic dance music (EDM), he’s earned a substantial following by digging through the past to create the sounds of the future. For most of his career, that meant fusing blissful synth lines with old school hip-hop, funk and soul samples in service of tracks that are as laid-back as they are dance-worthy. While baby boomers and their Gen X counterparts may not be familiar with this sound, their millennial progeny almost certainly are. Like jazz, rock and hiphop before it, EDM has gotten an unjustifiably bad rap from older generations who don’t grasp its nuances. From its underground origins to its rapid ascent to the mainstream, the parallels with earlier music genres are many. Jazz, rock and hip-hop are broad terms that encompass disparate styles and varying degrees of quality, and the
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ng Back the Future same can be said for EDM. Some of it is inspired and some of it is bland. Some of it is groundbreaking and some if it is derivative. Pretty Lights, in both instances, is the former. The genre is not without its limitations, however, and this is particularly true on stage. Many EDM producers have yet to find a viable way of reproducing their music for a concert setting—at least not in any way that could legitimately be considered “live.” This often means pressing play on pre-recorded material and occasionally adding effects, remixing or fiddling with the music in various ways, but it rarely means creating something new on the spot. “Everyone just plays tracks,” Smith says one evening, while sitting on the back porch of his Lower Garden District home. “The music happens in the private studio and then it gets brought to the party or the concert where it’s presented, which is not the same as music happening live on stage. I just felt like I wanted to do something more with electronic music—something more improvisational. I say improvisational, but I mean something that’s more in the moment, more organic.” Considering all of that, it’s not so surprising that Smith found himself in New Orleans. If bringing improvisation to electronic music is the goal, then the birthplace of jazz is as good a place as any to do it. Roughly a century has passed since America’s great native art form seeped out of the bars and brothels of this city, hitching a ride upriver before sweeping over the world like the artistic revolution that it was. Jazz was a game changer for plenty of reasons, though many of its greatest innovations were in the realm of improvisation. Musicians have been capable of creating in real time for ages, but early jazz bands were some of the first to do it as a group. When Smith says he wanted to do something more with electronic music, what he’s really talking about is applying the innovations of the past to the art of the future.
Analog Future The journey began when Smith started working on his 2013 album A Color Map of the Sun, an undertaking that represented a radical departure from his previous studio efforts. Pretty Lights’ first three albums employed live instruments and synthesizers, but relied heavily on samples that were lifted from a treasure trove of old vinyl records. These samples were then cut up, spliced, looped and rearranged to make “collages” that were integral to Smith’s sound. It’s a technique that was pioneered by instrumental hip-hop producer DJ Shadow, who created entire albums using only brief sections of songs that were recorded by other artists. Though this style served Smith well for a time, he eventually grew tired of using other people’s material as the basis for so much of his own music. www.OFFBEAT.com
By Sam D’Arcangelo // Photography by Elsa Hahne
“I got into production through the sampling world, digging through my old vinyl and collaging different pieces together,” Smith explains. “With A Color Map of the Sun I realized, or I wanted to realize, that I could make all those samples from scratch. So I went through the process of trying to create recordings that were as diverse as what I would find digging in a bunch of record stores. Jazz, funk, new wave, I was just trying to make a bunch of different styles. I tried to do bossa nova. I tried to do 1940s French film soundtrack–type stuff. I wanted to create tapes and recordings that felt like something I would be really excited about if I found them on an old 45.” “Instead of sampling a record, I was going to record a guitarist. Instead of sampling a record, I was going to get a whole band together, record them on vintage gear and then press it to vinyl,” he adds. “When I started making A Color Map of the Sun I had a crate of vinyl records, only I had created all of the vinyl records.” Most of the recording sessions that birthed A Color Map of the Sun took place at Studio G in Brooklyn, but Smith also spent two weeks conducting a series of loose sessions at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. It was there that he collaborated with local musicians like Brian Coogan, Ben Jaffe, Mario Abney, Detroit Brooks, Jeff Albert, Big Al Carson, Glen David Andrews, Simon Lott, Rod Hodges and the late Uncle Lionel Batiste. A Color Map of the Sun was well received by fans and critics alike, and even earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2014. With its soulful grooves and warm synth lines, the release was a worthy addition to the Pretty Lights catalog. More importantly, it expanded the scope of what Smith considered possible, not just for music production but for the live arena as well. “Something about the way the studio sessions happened for that record gave me a taste of something more,” says Smith. “Working with musicians in the studio, writing on the fly, conducting and playing with all these guys—it felt so good. I started craving the feeling from those studio sessions in the live setting.” It should come as no surprise that this sea change in Pretty Lights’ production philosophy was followed by a sea change in his approach to touring. Shortly after releasing A Color Map of the Sun, Smith enlisted an assortment of musicians to put a different spin on his music in the concert setting. Known as the Analog Future Band, the group featured respected players like Adam Deitch (drums), Eric “Benny” Bloom (trumpet), Borahm Lee (keys), Brian Coogan (keys) and Scott Flynn (trombone), many of whom worked with him on the album. The new outfit’s debut, which included guitarist Eric Krasno, took place in August 2013 at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Smith’s home state of Colorado. A few months later the band hit the road for a lengthy tour that took them to every corner of the United States. MA RC H 2 017
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The Analog Future Band was a big step for Pretty Lights. After years of experimenting with different methods, he finally had all of the tools he needed to perform his music in a manner that could legitimately be considered live.
In many ways the Analog Future Band was a natural progression for Smith, who had always made attempts to accentuate the genuinely “live” elements of his concerts. For instance, early incarnations of Pretty Lights saw the producer joined on stage by a drummer, but the accompaniment didn’t work out as well as he would have liked. The constraints of electronic music were difficult to escape, even as he experimented with new live production ideas with each passing tour. “When I was doing live production in the set, it was pretty sophisticated,” Smith recalls. “Essentially it was me arranging the produced beats on the fly, adding effects and pretending to play drums with my free hand. The shows were off the hook but I wanted to make it more involved and fresh so that led to this.” The Analog Future Band was a big step for Pretty Lights. After years of experimenting with different methods, he finally had all of the tools he needed to perform his music in a manner that could legitimately be considered live. He just had to work out the kinks first. “I didn’t know how it was going to work with the Analog Future Band in the beginning,” Smith admits. “When it started, we would go over the songs from A Color Map of the Sun and everyone would learn them. It was basically my production with the band playing on top of it when we were onstage. That was cool, but it took away from the potential of straight live music, while also taking away from the tightness element of straight produced music.” “So we started doing some fully live things that I call ‘breaks,’” he continues. “When we were in the studio, breaks were the pieces of music I composed and recorded to use as samples. A Color Map of the Sun even has a second disc called ‘Live Studio Sessions’ that is just
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those. We started doing that kind of thing live as well. Eventually the show was a combination of live breaks that were just the band—with me triggering samples—and produced songs with the band playing on top of them.” The new style was immediately embraced by Pretty Lights’ dedicated fan base, whose community mindset and commitment to traveling great distances for shows invokes the Deadhead spirit of old—albeit with a twenty-first century bent. Even though it was a far cry from the Pretty Lights concerts they were used to, Smith’s followers appreciated the nuance that a full live band brought to his performances. And he wasn’t the only one doing it, either. In fact, the Analog Future Band debuted at a time when numerous established electronic music acts were incorporating live bands into their sets. From big name artists like Disclosure to lower key producers like Emancipator and Tycho, adding live instrumentation had become a full-on trend by the time Pretty Lights introduced his Analog Future Band in 2013. Most of them operated in a similar manner, too, with live musicians either recreating the electronic compositions or adding www.OFFBEAT.com
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extra layers to the produced music on stage. The Analog Future Band was interesting for sure—and its use of “breaks” was somewhat unique—but the project wasn’t necessarily unprecedented. For a man with Pretty Lights’ ambition and vision, that wasn’t going to cut it.
Flying South “Right after the Grammys—at the beginning of 2014—I went out to Los Angeles for a few months and, I don’t know, it felt like a big moment in my life,” Smith says. “It changed things in Colorado. I felt like it had gotten really small. I realize it was very much my mind state too, but I felt like the isolated artist or whatever. I was just looking for a place I’d be comfortable. I went to California for a little while and it didn’t feel right either.” That’s not to say his time in California wasn’t productive. With A Color Map of the Sun now behind him, Smith began working the album’s follow-up despite not really knowing what that would mean. That process got a boost when he was approached by legendary producer Rick Rubin, who gave him some muchneeded direction and offered his studio for the project. “Rick invited me to his crib out of nowhere, and I started hanging out with him about a week after the Grammys. He asked me a lot of questions about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Just by picking my brain, he definitely helped put me on the path,” Smith says. “It really inspired me. He ended up offering me his studio, Shangri-La in Malibu, to run this two-week session where I recorded the meat of all this stuff I’m sampling right now.” www.OFFBEAT.com
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The Shangri-La session was an absolute blast, especially since Smith got to stick his teeth into an assortment of rare instruments he picked up after liquidating a Los Angeles warehouse that was going out of business. (“Antique instruments rather than vintage ones,” he notes. “Stuff that’s 100, 150 years old. Music boxes and weird instruments you’ve never heard of.”) Shangri-La was also where he first worked with world-renowned DJ and turntablist Chris Karns, who would join his Analog Future Band when they returned to the road a few months later. Karns’ mastery of the turntables opened up new possibilities for the band, allowing them to be more improvisational with their live sampling. Nevertheless, California wasn’t where Smith saw himself planting roots for the long term. A change was needed, and whenever he plotted his next move his mind wandered to his time in New Orleans. “I had a Vespa scooter down here when we were recording at Piety, and I was riding from my hotel in the Quarter to the studio in the Bywater every day,” Smith recalls. “It was those daily trips back and forth that made me realize this place was not at all what I thought it was. I started making that part of the day longer so I could explore the city, and when I decided I wanted to move, I felt drawn here. There’s a real gravity to the artists here that kind of pulls you, and I was mesmerized by the city, visually. I was mesmerized by how amazing it looked and felt.” Around the middle of 2014 Smith began renting a place on Melpomene in the Lower Garden District, where he hosted recording sessions with numerous local musicians. After an extended stint in the city he relocated to Chicago for almost a year, but “nothing felt as right as down here.” Performances with the Analog Future Band were sparse throughout these two restless years, though he did make an effort to push the group’s boundaries whenever they got on stage (a Red Rocks Amphitheatre collaboration with the Colorado Symphony comes to mind). By the beginning of 2016, Smith sensed that the Analog Future Band was running its course. Some members of the group had other artistic commitments, and Smith resolved to push the boundaries even further into the next phase of his live evolution. In a fitting conclusion, the band played its final show in March of that year when they headlined New Orleans’ Buku Music + Art Project. Immediately after the set, Pretty Lights surprised fans with an impromptu solo performance under the I-10 overpass before heading to the Joy Theater for a late-night, all-analog show that featured members of the Preservation Hall Band. If Buku 2016 marked the end of the Analog Future Band, then it also marked a new beginning for Pretty Lights. Not only did Smith move to
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New Orleans for good that weekend, he was also introduced to a young and talented local drummer by the name of Alvin Ford, Jr. The son of renowned gospel drummer Alvin Ford, Sr., he grew up playing drums in church and was best known for his work with New Orleans powerhouse Dumpstaphunk. And that’s just the top of his resume. Ford’s professional career began when he hit the road with Big Sam’s Funky Nation at the age of 16, a job that was followed by turns with Bonerama and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. In between those gigs he somehow found time to create original music with New Orleans indie darling John Michael Rouchell as one half of Tysson. If anyone was going to add some Big Easy flavor to the next phase of Pretty Lights’ live show, it was him.
Expanding Perspective “Pretty Lights was in town for Buku and my boy Adam Deitch said he wanted me to come hang at the festival so he could introduce me to someone. That was all he said,” recalls Ford. “I went to the festival and he introduced me to Derek. I didn’t know who he was at the time. I didn’t know anything about Pretty Lights or the electronic scene.” Not long after their introduction, Smith invited Ford to his studio for a jam session that, unbeknownst to Ford, was actually an audition. The pair clicked immediately, and before the young drummer could even comprehend the implications, he was a part of Pretty Lights’ next project. Pretty Lights Live, as the new band was called, was to feature Smith and Ford, along with Brian Coogan (keys), Borahm Lee (keys) and Chris Karns (turntables). Ford had no idea how big the gig was, or that he’d signed on to be part of a full-fledged community. “All of that was in March,” Ford continues. “Then in May I was leaving L.A. when Derek’s manager hit me up to say, ‘All Pretty Lights fans are going to know who you are today.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about, but when I got off the plane in Denver my phone was blowing up. Everyone was saying, ‘Pretty Lights, Pretty Lights, Pretty Lights.’ I hadn’t told anyone about it, but they had just dropped a short preview clip announcing who was in the new band and that they were going on tour. Everyone was freaking out. So I got on YouTube and looked him up. That was the first time I found out the magnitude of Pretty Lights. All that time I’d just thought he was Deitch’s tall homie.” www.OFFBEAT.com
COVER STORY With Pretty Lights Live, Smith was ready to pursue his dream of leading a fully improvisational electronic music act. The style had been explored to some degree in the past by jam bands like STS9 and the Disco Biscuits, though those groups were more about bringing electronica to improvisational music, rather than the other way around. Smith wanted to do something different, combining the sampling and technological capabilities of electronic music with the organic looseness of a jam session. It was important that the music sound electronic at its core, but it was equally important that it be created in the moment. In hindsight, it’s no wonder that the project only got off the ground after he started calling the Crescent City home. After all, the impulse that had been driving Smith for years is an inextricable part of New Orleans’ storied music culture. Group improvisation is the essence of traditional jazz, and that essence extends to the funk and brass bands that came to dominate this town in the latter part of the twentieth century. But why couldn’t it apply to electronic music as well? At their roots, both traditional jazz and EDM are forms of social music. One has its origins in the brothels, bars and dancehalls of New Orleans, while the other came to life in discotheques, raves and underground clubs the world over. On the surface, these genres could not seem further apart, yet they are united in the feeling they seek to elicit from their audience. Still, all of this is easier said than done. Before Pretty Lights Live could manifest itself the way Smith intended, the band needed to figure out some nuts and bolts. Fortunately, all the right ingredients were there. Lee’s mastery of an endless variety of keyboards and synthesizers meant that he could fill the band’s sound with all sorts of texture, while Karns’ virtuosic skills behind the turntables allowed sampling and scratching to be integrated in the most organic way possible (this was the thing that really set them apart). Ford’s ten plus years of experience with New Orleans’ finest funk and brass bands came in handy too, giving him the tools necessary to guide a jam www.OFFBEAT.com
in pretty much any context. And then there’s the visual component helmed by Greg “LazerShark” Ellis, a multifaceted lighting designer with an eye for the psychedelic and the improvisational prowess to bring his dreams to life in real time. “Derek was telling me about his ideas for doing live remixes of his songs, and he asked me what I thought about it,” Ford says. “I told him, honestly man, you’re playing to our strengths with that.
We’re players first. If you just leave us out there and tell us to play, we’re gonna come up with something. That’s what we do.” “We ended up devising something we call ‘flips’,” explains Smith. “We’ll start with a produced song, and everyone has a philosophy for playing on top of the produced songs. Alvin has acoustic drums that he’ll play on top of it, and we also have drum triggers for electronic
drum sounds so we can get a produced sound from the live kit. When I call a ‘flip’ everyone knows that I’m about to filter out the produced track. When the produced music disappears, the live musicians completely switch their sound to something that’s more electronic. Borahm will drop into a synth bass, Alvin will switch to an electronic kick and an electronic snare. It’s like a quick crossfade. It allows us to
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“Pretty Lights is fun for me because it kind of takes me back to where I started on Frenchmen Street, where you could play a song for 15 minutes.” —Alvin Ford, Jr.
go from the produced track, with the band accentuating it, to a fully live band without losing something. It’s completely improvised but we’ve put a lot of time into making sure they know, stylistically, where the bounds are.” “At a lot of jazz shows they’ll play the head of a song and once somebody starts soloing, the rest is improvised,” says Ford. “It’s the same with us. We start with the song but once we start to jam, it’s all improvised from there on out… except it’s with electronics. Instead of just bass, guitars and drums, it’s synthesizers, modulators, pads, filters and phasers.” Pretty Lights Live had ample opportunity to show off its innovative sound last summer and fall, when the band hit the road for a run of tour dates that included its multi-dimensional “Episodic Festival.” Essentially a series of five two-day mini-festivals, the endeavor brought Pretty Lights Live to New Hampshire, Colorado (both Morrison and Telluride), Chicago and Nashville from August through October. Each stop had a different theme, and the first was particularly appropriate: “expanding perspective.” For Pretty Lights’ devoted followers, the new live project represented an exciting shift in their understanding of Smith’s music and its possibilities. For an artist like Alvin Ford, Jr.—a man who is as New Orleans as they come—the change in perspective took a different form. “Pretty Lights is fun for me because it kind of takes me back to where I started on Frenchmen Street, where you could play a song for 15 minutes,” Ford continues. “It’s really cool to be on a gig at this level, creating on the spot in front of thousands of people every night. It’s mind-blowing to me. I’m just trying to take it all in. Seven years ago me and my girl were sitting on the floor of my apartment talking about how I could find a way to play Red Rocks. We thought I’d need to find a gig where I could open for someone. To go from that to having my very first time at Red Rocks be two sold-out nights with Pretty Lights has been a crazy ride.” The ride got a little bit crazier for Ford after Coogan parted ways with the project in September, leaving a wide opening in the keyboard department. When Smith asked for suggestions to fill the spot, Ford knew the perfect man for the job: his cousin Brandon Butler. The two had grown up playing together, and Butler had only recently started performing in touring bands. In under a year, the gifted keyboardist went from scoring his first touring gig—with the Nigel Hall Band—to playing in front of 10,000 people during his first show with Pretty Lights Live at Chicago’s Northerly Island. “I didn’t know it was an audition, but when I got there it was an audition,” Butler recalls. “So I’m playing and playing, I’ve got my cousin there, then next thing you know it’s like, ‘Yo, we’ve got dates that we need you on.’ I met Derek on Tuesday and then flew out with them on Thursday. I’d never been on a gig like this before. When we got to the venue and I saw my rig I was like, ‘Coogan played all of this?’ I was used to playing two, maybe three boards. Coogan had all kinds of stuff. Then all the people started rolling in. I had played gigs for maybe two or three hundred people, but Alvin told me there were 10,000 people out there. I just went with it and I’ve been with them ever since.”
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“Alvin and Brandon are amazing,” Derek says emphatically. “It’s great working with those dudes. They totally bring this swag of, I want to say of New Orleans because it clearly is, but they also have their own vibe and style that is now getting injected into my music.” “I think what I bring to the table is my church background, these full chords,” Butler notes. “When I break into these pads it just fills the house. It fills the room real thick.” As the end of 2016 drew nearer, it was only fitting that Ford, Butler and—in a sense—Smith celebrate the occasion with a pair of hometown shows. The year’s final night was particularly special, with Pretty Lights Live taking the packed house on a nearly three-hour, uninterrupted journey in preparation for another trip around the sun. In all the years that I’ve been seeing improvisational music, I’d never encountered anything quite like this. It was EDM with all of the trappings and none of the constraints, an uncharted sonic territory in need of further exploration. The future, I hoped, would sound something like this. “I’ve always been trying to fuse electronic music with that live show feeling, that organic human connection,” Smith tells me. “We’ve been doing it really successfully this year, and it’s got me excited about touring and playing live again because I’ve found a way to fuse those together.” Another, more elusive, item on Smith’s agenda is his long-awaited follow-up to A Color Map of the Sun. One hesitates to call the undertaking an album because the concept feels so… old. There will be new tracks, of course—however they won’t be confined to their final version or even their audio version. Smith plans to release a series of cinematic vignettes with the new material, as well as recordings of the new material’s constituent parts. Exactly what that means is anyone’s guess, but he’s currently sitting on hours and hours’ worth of “breaks” from sessions at Malibu’s Shangri-La Studio, New Orleans’ Parlor Recording Studio and London’s Abbey Road Studios, where he teamed up with composer Philip Sheppard to write and record a series of orchestral pieces. Plenty of this will be included on the forthcoming release. Think of it as similar to a DVD, with a final cohesive product and loads of additional features. The new release is still in the works, and much of it remains a mystery. Less mysterious is where Pretty Lights will call home a year from now. The allure of New Orleans has had a powerful effect on the endlessly creative producer, just as it has on countless artists before him. There’s something different about the air here. There’s something different about the water. There’s something different about the people, too. The chemistry that binds this place together has a way of altering one’s perspective, and altered perspectives are the mother of invention. Smith, for his part, is ready to see where this town takes him. “People talk about how the movie industry evolved in Hollywood, not by chance, but because of the way the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean. It hits the city from this beautiful angle where the light becomes stunning,” Smith muses. “I think it’s the same thing here. We’re below sea level, and the air is so thick that the sound waves are different in New Orleans. The music sounds different. It’s richer. When you play an instrument, there’s just more music in the air.” O www.OFFBEAT.com
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Rachel Theriot/ Petit Lion at the Troubadour Hotel
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’ve worked in the service industry for over a decade now. I started in my hometown of Baton Rouge, and worked in a French bistro and fondue restaurant for a while. I got into the service industry because I’m a performer as well, and that’s the natural step when you need to make money and also need time for other things. I’ve been a server for a lot longer than I’ve been a bartender, but fell into bartending from a desire to hone a skill. Bartending is something you’ll never be perfect at. There’s always something to learn. When I’m coming up with new cocktails I use what people call the Mr. Potato Head technique. You find a good, classic cocktail, and you look at the base ingredients and what they’re doing to that cocktail, whether they’re adding acidity or sweetness. The Last Word is a great cocktail that has
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just four ingredients. You’ve got your base spirit, your floral, your sour, and your funk. That’s my favorite. You can keep the basic structure the same but replace ingredients, like give it a brighter or bolder nose. I didn’t know this whole interview was going to be based on Mr. Potato Head! I’ve been in choirs since I was eight years old and my degree at LSU was in theater. That’s what drew me to New Orleans—loving my home state, but wanting to move to a city that offers the opportunity to perform. Like Bunkie, Louisiana [laughs]. I’m trying to create my own material for film or theater, and I’m currently enrolled in improv [theater] classes, trying to be open and vulnerable to things happening quickly in the moment. I chose to dedicate this drink to Boyfriend, who’s a local, female rapper. She’s definitely not the first or
By Elsa Hahne
the most important female rapper to come out of New Orleans by any means, but I appreciate her work because she produces all of her own material and she’s a strong woman. The cocktail I came up with is called Unladylike. I chose mezcal as the base spirit— funky, smoky and strong. I lived in Germany last year, as a bartender in a hotel and restaurant in the Black Forest. The best part was being able to travel to France or Italy over the weekend and try delicious food and wine before going back to my tiny gingerbread forest. Honestly, the extent of bartending there was Aperol with champagne poured on top. Because of that, when I came back to Louisiana, I was ready to drink anything that had flavor. I overwhelmed myself with mezcal and hoppy IPAs and grapefruit juice and anything with a strong punch.
Unladylike comes from this looking all sweet and purple, but packing a punch.”
Unladylike 1 ounce Vida mezcal 3/4 ounce Espolon Blanco tequila 1/2 ounce Clear Creek Marion Blackberry Liqueur 1/2 ounce Yellow Chartreuse 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice Shake with ice; strain into a chilled coupe glass. www.OFFBEAT.com
Café Degas: 3127 Esplanade Ave., 945-5635 La Crepe Nanou: 1410 Robert St., 899-2670
Howlin’ Wolf’s Wolf Den: 907 S. Peters St., 529-5844 Le Bon Temps Roule: 4801 Magazine St., 895-8117 Little Gem Saloon: 445 S. Rampart St., 267-4863 Maison: 508 Frenchmen St., 289-5648 Mid City Lanes Rock ‘N’ Bowl: 4133 S. Carrollton Ave., 482-3133 Palm Court: 1204 Decatur St., 525-0200 Rivershack Tavern: 3449 River Rd., 834-4938 Southport Hall: 200 Monticello Ave., 835-2903 Snug Harbor: 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 Three Muses: 536 Frenchmen St., 298-8746 Three Muses Uptown: 7537 Maple St., 510-2749
GERMAN
NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS
FRENCH
Jaeger Haus: 833 Conti, 525-9200
ICE CREAM/CAKE/CANDY Aunt Sally’s Praline Shop’s: 2831 Chartres St., 944-6090 Bittersweet Confections: 725 Magazine St., 523-2626 La Divina Cafe e Gelateria: 621 St. Peter St., 302-2692 Sucré: 3025 Magazine St.,520-8311 Tee-Eva’s Praline Shop: 4430 Magazine St., 899-8350
INDIAN Nirvana: 4308 Magazine St., 894-9797
AFRICAN Bennachin: 1212 Royal St., 522-1230.
AMERICAN Barcadia: 601 Tchoupitoulas St., 335-1740 Brown Butter Southern Kitchen: 231 N Carrollton Ave., 609-3871 Poppy’s Time Out Sports Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St., 247-9265 Port of Call: 838 Esplanade Ave., 523-0120 Primitivo: 1800 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 881-1775
BARBECUE The Joint: 701 Mazant St., 949-3232
COFFEE HOUSE Café du Monde: 800 Decatur St., 525-4544 Morning Call Coffee Stand: 56 Dreyfous Dr., (504) 300-1157, 3325 Severn Ave., Metairie, 885-4068
CREOLE/CAJUN Cochon: 930 Tchoupitoulas St., 588-2123 Cornet: 700 Bourbon St., 523-1485 Galatoire’s: 209 Bourbon St., 525-2021 Gumbo Shop: 630 St. Peter St., 525-1486 K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen: 416 Chartres St., 524-7394 Mulate’s: 201 Julia St., 522-1492 New Orleans Creole Cookery: 508 Toulouse St., 524-9632 Restaurant Rebirth: 857 Fulton St., 522-6863
DELI Stein’s Market and Deli: 2207 Magazine St., 527-0771
FINE DINING Bombay Club: 830 Conti St., 586-0972 Broussard’s: 819 Conti St., 581-3866 Commander’s Palace: 1403 Washington Ave., 899-8221
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IRISH The Irish House: 1432 Saint Charles Ave., 595-6755
Biscuits and Buns on Banks: 4337 Banks St., 273-4600 Cake Café: 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010 City Diner: 3116 S I-10 Service Rd E, 8311030; 5708 Citrus Blvd., 309-7614 Cowbell: 8801 Oak St., 298-8689 Dat Dog: 601 Frenchmen St., 309-3362; 5030 Freret St., 899-6883; 3336 Magazine St., 324-2226 Live Oak Cafe: 8140 Oak St., 265-0050 Parkway Bakery and Tavern: 538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047 Phil’s Grill: 3020 Severn Ave., Metairie, 324-9080; 1640 Hickory Ave., Harahan, 305-1705 Sammy’s Food Services: 3000 Elysian Fields Ave., 948-7361 Tracey’s: 2604 Magazine St., 897-5413
ITALIAN
Chiba: 8312 Oak St., 826-9119 Mikimoto: 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., 488-1881 Seoul Shack: 435 Esplanade Ave., 417-6206 Sukho Thai: 4519 Magazine St., 373-6471; 2200 Royal St., 948-9309 Wasabi: 900 Frenchmen St., 943-9433
LOUISIANA / SOUTHERN Fulton Alley: 600 Fulton St., 208-5593 Mondo: 900 Harrison Ave., 224-2633 Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934
MEDITERRANEAN Byblos: 3218 Magazine St., 894-1233 Mona’s Café: 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115
MEXICAN/CARIBBEAN/SPANISH Barú Bistro & Tapas: 3700 Magazine St., 895-2225 Juan’s Flying Burrito: 2018 Magazine St., 569-0000 El Gato Negro: 81 French Market Place, 525-9846
MUSIC ON THE MENU Banks Street Bar & Grill: 4401 Banks St., 486-0258 Buffa’s: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Chickie Wah Wah: 2828 Canal St., 304-4714 Dmac’s Bar & Grill: 542 S Jefferson Davis Pkwy, 304-5757 Gattuso’s: 435 Huey P Long Ave., Gretna, 368-1114 Hard Rock Café: 125 Bourbon St., 529-5617 House of Blues: 225 Decatur St., 412-8068
Midway Pizza: 4725 Freret St., 322-2815 Pizza Delicious: 617 Piety St., 676-8482 Slice Pizzeria: 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437 Theo’s Pizza: 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554; 4024 Canal St., 302-1133; 1212 S Clearview, 733-3803
SEAFOOD Basin Seafood and Spirits: 3222 Magazine St., 302-7391 Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St. 569-3380 LeBayou Restaurant: 208 Bourbon St., 525-4755 Pier 424 Seafood Market: 424 Bourbon St., 309-1574 Royal House Oyster Bar: 441 Royal St., 528-2601
SOUL Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934
STEAKHOUSE La Boca: 870 Tchoupitoulas St., 525-8205
VIETNAMESE Namese: 4077 Tulane Ave., 483-8899
WEE HOURS Buffa’s Restaurant & Lounge: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Mimi’s in the Marigny: 2601 Royal St., 872-9868
Michael Skinkus hits the
Adolfo’s: 611 Frenchmen St., 948-3800 Little Vic’s: 719 Toulouse St., 304-1238
JAPANESE/KOREAN/SUSHI/THAI
PIZZA
Spot
You come here often? I eat a lot of Thai and Vietnamese food—too much—but I don’t get sushi that often. What does it mean that you eat “too much” Thai and Vietnamese? It’s just a knee-jerk thing. It gets to be predictable. I’m a creature of habit and I have to shake myself out of it when I get too into something. It’s a fine line between a groove and a rut. You can’t get too comfortable; you have to have new experiences.
How do you like this place so far? I always say that you should be able to have a fight in a restaurant without drawing too much attention to yourself. I like noise. And when I walked in the door, those people threw something on the floor Mikimoto and those people were laughing. It felt alive. 3301 S Carrollton Ave It had a good feeling right away. (504) 488-1881 —Elsa Hahne www.OFFBEAT.com
Photo: ELSA HAHNE
Kingfish: 337 Chartres St., 598-5005 Mr. B’s Bistro: 201 Royal St. 523-2078 Restaurant R’evolution: 777 Bienville St., 553-2277
Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683 Warehouse Grille: 869 Magazine St., 322-2188
DINING OUT
Poke Loa For most New Orleanians, the thought of Lenten “sacrifice” conjures delicious images of boiled crawfish, fried oyster po-boys and jumbo lump crabmeat. The tenets of Catholicism aside, those of us interested in a tasty but healthy transition from the overindulgence of the Carnival season generally reach outside our local cuisine during the annual 40-day cleanse. With the opening of Poke Loa, brother-and-sister team Joe Reiss and Cecile Tanguis, along with their other business partners, hope that a taste of the Hawaiian islands offers locals a new option. Poke—which in its purest form is a simple salad of raw, cubed fish—is most often found in New Orleans on sushi bar menus (RIP Kyoto). But the recent phenomenon of combining poke with a rice bowl has vaulted the Hawaiian staple into a national trend that’s spawned an evergrowing list of quick-service restaurants. At Poke Loa, the menu is structured in a Chipotle-esque step-by-step process where customers build
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their individualized bowls. Start with a base of white or brown rice or spring mix greens, choose from a number of protein options and continue on with sauces and toppings. First timers would be wise to defer to one of the pre-designed signature bowls, especially the King Loa Bowl. Two scoops each of raw salmon and tuna plus one serving of crab meat provide a substantial protein base to which is added thinly sliced baby cucumbers, edamame, seaweed salad, avocado and a rainbow trio of tobiko. The resulting conglomerate is salty, sweet, slightly tart from the lemon-miso aioli dressing and crunchy from a sprinkle of sesame seeds that pop in each bite along with the fish eggs. When creating your own bowl, a few guiding principles are helpful to keep in mind. Begin with a duo of rice and greens, which help reinforce the “salad” classification of the dish. Tuna, salmon and yellowtail have always appeared and tasted of pristine quality, but the crumbly tofu is less than appealing. Order the third scoop of fish—it’s worth the extra $2. For sauce, a combination of tamari or ponzu with your preferred aioli allows for adequate moisture. An unlimited number of toppings
Photo: RENEE BIENVENU
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is included in the standard price, but exercise restraint because their individual characteristics become lost with too many. Balance textures and flavors—sweet mango with fresh jalapeño; seaweed salad with crunchy wonton strips. Long lines have been the norm at Poke Loa during the opening weeks (especially during lunch), but the service is cheerful and brisk once you arrive at the ordering counter. The stark, modern interior offers plenty of natural light, but the best seats are at the outdoor tables along Louisiana Avenue. Close your eyes, and you may be able to feel the ocean breeze that inspired your meal. —Peter Thriffiley 3341 Magazine Street, 11a–9p daily, eatpokeloa.com, (504) 309-9993.
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Reviews When submitting CDs for consideration, please send two copies to OffBeat Reviews, 421 Frenchmen Street, Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116
CDs reviewed are available now at 421 Frenchmen Street in the Marigny 504-586-1094 or online at LouisianaMusicFactory.com
Powerful and Nuanced
Hurray for the Riff Raff The Navigator (ATO) I’ve been a hungry ghost/ So I travel coast to coast In New Orleans we watched Alynda Segarra grow from a ragged teenage traveler singing shyly on the streets of the French Quarter to the talented songwriter fronting Hurray for the Riff Raff. Her phenomenal progress continues on The Navigator, a coming-of-age statement that immediately places her high in the pantheon of singersongwriters from her generation. Segarra’s voice is powerful and nuanced on her strongest collection of material yet. Several songs on the album, including “Living in the City” and “Rican Beach,” are potential hits, but fans of her previous work may well gravitate to the powerful “Hungry Ghost,” a flat-out rocker that punches like a track from Patti Smith’s landmark Horses album. I’ve been nobody’s child/ So my blood started running wild The album concept is loosely based on the title, the superheroine avatar of a street kid named Navita who is trying to connect with her past in order to “pa’lante”—to move forward. The story mirrors Segarra’s own journey from her birthplace in the Bronx and
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her upbringing in a tenement surrounding, referenced in “Living in the City” and “Fourteen Floors,” to the self-realization she began to achieve hanging out on the Lower East Side of Manhattan listening to music, writing poetry and exploring her Latina roots as part of the Nuyorican Cafe group. The music ranges from the kind of folk ballads that her longtime fans will recognize in songs like “Nothing’s Gonna Change That Girl” and “Halfway There” to a daring mix of salsa, rap and rock featured on the title track, “Rican Beach” and “Finale.” I’ve been a heart for hire/ And my love’s on a funeral pyre “Hungry Ghost” resonates on numerous levels. Segarra has written about the tragedies that traveler friends of hers have suffered before, but this time she expands that view to include D.I.Y. spaces like the Ghost Ship in Oakland, where a fire killed 33 people last December. There’s no specific reference to the Ghost Ship in the song—“my love’s on a funeral pyre” could as easily be taken as a Jim Morrison reference—but the video, with its dreamlike dancers alternating with Segarra singing the words on a kind of altar, makes the connection. I’ve been a lonely girl/ Now I’m ready for the world I’ve seen some reactions on social media that indicate some of Segarra’s fans are uneasy with the new direction, but her ability to reach back and write about her life before traveling to New Orleans is a powerful sign of artistic growth. Segarra is incorporating clavé rhythms and Puerto Rican dialect into her songs, but she clearly is building on rather than abandoning the
lessons she learned on the streets of New Orleans. The last show of her current European/American tour will be at the Civic Theatre in New Orleans on May 5. That’s another sort of homecoming. —John Swenson
Tasche de la Rocha Gold Rose (Independent) Someday in the distant future, anthropologists may yet discover why a horde of hipsters obsessed with Billie Holiday and Django Reinhardt descended upon post-Katrina New Orleans like a plague of stylish locusts, devouring all the funk and soul and blues in their path. Tasche De La Rocha is among their number, charming residents by setting up shop on street corners with a folding chair and a Radio Flyer of equipment, yet she’s not exactly of them. It’s not so much her voice, which is one of the more affected and labored Holiday impressions out there; like too many of her contemporaries, she uses Billie’s breakthrough stylings to set herself up as yet another Romantic Pixie Dream Girl, the exact antithesis of the complicated, tortured love songs Billie (and let’s not forget, Ella) was known for. What’s special about this particular waif—and what takes a second listen to suss out—is that her little pledges of affection actually come with music to match. No ukuleles or torch songs here; this is classic ’50s doo-wop structure with a modern dream-pop and noise-pop aesthetic. Her latest effort actually manages to replicate the atmosphere of a little girl all alone in the big city, right up to and including the shrieking silences that surround her and the industrial musique concrète that connects the tracks. The effect is
less modern Hollywood rom-com and more like Charlie Chaplin discovering Paulette Goddard capering around the ruins of the new Gilded Age, a gamine with a backstory and an intriguing persona to boot. Most of these adorkable twee-porn practitioners come on as deep as Facebook memes, but here you feel the very real desperation and sadness behind the doe eyes. So if you see Tasche out on the street struggling to get by, slip her some money. Better yet, tag along with her. She’s impossible to write off for long. —Robert Fontenot
David Greely Shadows-on-the-Teche (Give and Go Records) Shadows-on-the-Teche is, arguably, David Greely’s most unusual recording yet in a storied career of eclectic solo projects and decades with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. Commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (owners of New Iberia’s Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation), the composer/fiddler and visual artist Lynda Frese were given a year to produce this album of thoughtful compositions and art. Luckily, family letters and other artifacts not destroyed in the Civil War (as on other plantations) www.OFFBEAT.com
REVIEWS allowed them to ascertain what 150 years of Teche life was like. Several compositions are in a similar vein to “Ashokan Farewell” and “Lover’s Waltz.” On their own merit, these gorgeous melodies etch themselves in your brain for days. “Bunk’s Tune” is one such example, a multi-layered homage to legendary trumpeter Bunk Johnson, who gardened and practiced his horn on the grounds.
Many compositions evoke imagery of nineteenth-century society balls where well-heeled revelers danced to waltzes and mazurkas played by a fiddlecentric ensemble. Some songs, like “Charlotte,” were inspired by actual Teche personnel, but Greely opted not to sing about any since he felt he couldn’t adequately represent the enslaved. The breathtaking “Frances Magill” is
Death of an American City Robert Mugge New Orleans Music in Exile (Mug Shot Productions) Robert Mugge’s 2006 documentary, New Orleans Music in Exile, serves as a time capsule for the shell-shocked months after Hurricane Katrina. Originally broadcast in May 2006 by Starz and Starz In Black, the film has been re-released with many extras in Blu-ray format. The new edition of New Orleans Music in Exile follows Katrina’s retrospective-jammed, 10th anniversary year. In 2015, Katrina fatigue set in, so releasing the Blu-ray edition of Mugge’s film in late 2016 was a good idea. Previous documentaries from Chicago native Mugge include The Kingdom of Zydeco, Rhythm ’N’ Bayous and Deep Blues. He knows the roots-music landscape and soundscape. In 2005, Mugge, his co-producer, Diana Zelman, and crew hit the post-flood ground quickly. They filmed interviews and performances two months after the disaster, while much of New Orleans was still a ghost town. Locations also include the safe-harbor cities of Austin, Memphis, Houston and Lafayette. The film’s more affecting scenes include the late Eddie Bo entering his ruined Banks Street coffee shop, Check Your Bucket, for the first time. “We put our heart and soul in here, to have something for musicians and the people from out of town,” Bo says. “And you see what’s left.” A tragic tourist in his own city, Bo dons protective gear to survey the jumbled mess in the coffee shop. He concludes it won’t reopen. “Let it go,” Bo says. More often, though, the film captures cautious, if still uncertain, optimism. Interviewees include Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Cyril Neville, Kermit Ruffins, OffBeat publisher Jan Ramsey and Basin Street Records president Mark Samuels. “Now I’m having more good days than bad days,” Ramsey says in her Frenchmen Street office. “Because I feel like we can survive.” Even as The New York Times headlines an editorial with “Death of an American City,” Cyril Neville pledges the people of New Orleans will reclaim their city. Later in the film he follows the promise with a condition. The city is a spiritless body, Neville says, “and that’s all it’s going to be without those people from the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Wards.” New Orleans in Exile, revisited 10 years after its cable TV debut, feels like long ago. It remains a revealing document, however, of the city’s darkest times and the early rebuilding process that led to both unsettling change and remarkable rebirth. —John Wirt www.OFFBEAT.com
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REVIEWS the most haunting tune, based on a tale of a woman who tragically perished at sea. Similar to “Bunk’s,” “Clemmie’s Tune” has its own infectious swing sensibility. Former Mamou Playboys bandmate Sam Broussard artfully accompanies Greely on acoustic guitar, and on bass on one track. A stunning discourse and a crowning triumph. —Dan Willging
Ron Hacker & Friends Live at the Old U.S. Mint (Independent) It’s hard to remember the last time New Orleans had a good oldfashioned blues summit meeting, but that’s more or less what Ron Hacker and his very famous friends have done with this live release,
recorded on three separate dates last April thanks to Ron, who is tangentially connected to Sleepy John Estes, landing a job booking acts at the Mint. But this is no open-mic night, not with Johnny Sansone, John Fohl, Jason Ricci and Nancy Wright sitting in. That kind of firepower doesn’t necessarily lead to the local blues album of the year, but it did this time. As one of Hacker’s rare originals proclaims, he does a pretty good job at trying to “Sing Like Elmore James,” but like all good live blues albums, this one is mostly about the groove, which is practically an encapsulation of every great electric blues style the American heartland has produced. The first third, which features Sansone on harmonica and accordion, is straight Chicago blues,
Familiar and Exciting Davy Mooney Hope of Home (Sunnyside Records) Compatibility rules on guitarist Davy Mooney’s latest album, Hope of Home. With Mooney’s sophisticated style at the helm, the talented musicians here—reedman John Ellis, pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Brian Blade— follow his lead and also instigate new directions of their own. Hope of Home, filled with classy material from Mooney’s pen, represents straight-ahead jazz as defined by a next generation of artists whose apparent goals are excellent execution presented with meaningful interplay. That is experienced from Cowherd’s big chord opening “Scarlatina.” It gets an extra tonal flair with Ellis, whose main ax is tenor saxophone, picking up the bass clarinet. Mooney’s fingers fly over the fretboard, though no note sounds superfluous. His playing throughout relies on imagination rather than licks. Mooney offers a gentle, poetic approach to his vocal on “Cold, Sober,” one of several tunes on which he sings. Everyone becomes a star of Hope of Home and shining brightly is the brilliant drumming of Brian Blade. He boasts an appreciated light touch that masterfully also offers a sense of drama and dynamics to the ensemble. On the upbeat “Think So Little of Me,” Blade takes the opportunity for a solid solo that fits well with the tune’s melodic and rhythmic theme. The drummer trades bars with Mooney on the fine “Ides of April,” as does Ellis, this time on tenor saxophone. In many ways, this tune feels like a series of duets between the bandmates with a strong spotlight on the impressive piano of Cowherd. That brings us back to the obvious compatibility between the musicians on Hope of Home. Their sensitivity to each other and to Mooney’s compositions offers a certain comfort zone that is at once familiar and exciting. —Geraldine Wyckoff
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although Johnny’s squeezebox on the traditional “Keep Your Hands Off Her” and Willie Dixon’s “Evil” are a revelation about the missing link between Cajun music, swamp blues and its Midwest counterpart. The second third, featuring Fohl on guitar and Nancy Wright on saxophone, wanders between the Excello sound of Nashville (check out Slim Harpo’s “Gonna Miss You (Like the Devil)” and the jazzier Memphis strain found in Sleepy John Estes’ “Going to Brownsville” and the deathless “It Hurts Me Too.” The four songs that wrap things up are pure Chicago all the way, with Jason Ricci doing his best Little Walter on harp and Hacker’s originals sitting comfortably and unobtrusively next to Estes’ and Jimmy Rogers’. Hacker even proves his cred once and for all by climaxing with “Two Timin’ Woman,” a rave up about his ex that’s fueled by real cuckold anger and humiliation and tempered with humorous bookends: “Y’all woulda loved my first wife,” he snickers. “She loved all my friends.” Then, after eviscerating the memories with his guitar: “Yeah, she was a good old gal.” A real authentic barn burner, this one. —Robert Fontenot
Corey Ledet & His Zydeco Band Standing on Faith (CPL Records) It’s becoming a familiar story. Many of today’s zydeco stalwarts would rather be known as artists with overarching talents than be pigeonholed solely as zydeco. Now add Corey Ledet to that growing sentiment. His ninth album of a 25-year-career is not all zydeco, with nary a trace of Clifton Chenier, www.OFFBEAT.com
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REVIEWS whom he’s channeled since the beginning. Instead, he follows his muse to create music that feels right rather than make futile attempts at being marketable. Of these eight tracks, only two are trad zydeco, the snappy “Push Me Away” and the whip-snapping, out-of-control “New York City,” which salutes the late Roy Carrier. Two more fall into the nouveau camp where Ledet straps on the piano note and makes it sound quite urban-contemporary. Kicking off the proceedings is “Intro,” a Prince-styled vamp with a cartoonish voice announcing Ledet’s grand entrance as if he was a WWF wrestler. The title track offers an optimistic explanation of his career philosophy, and the Caribbeantinged, steel pan–emulating “A Good Day” is just as sunny. The
arrangements are well crafted, loaded with riffs, effects and lush background vocals, especially given the chill “Take Me There.” With just eight tracks, it’s more of a taste of Ledet’s new direction than an immersion, but still enough to establish a new baseline. —Dan Willging
Burris Meant to Be (Independent) Introducing jazz elements into otherwise straightforward rock is a gimmick as old as Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago, but when done right, it’s thrilling in a way that rock ‘n’ roll usually can’t be by definition. Possibly because they’re working with one saxophone, some soft-rock keyboards, and a
Biker Rock Vermilion Whiskey Spirit of Tradition (10 South) Now that hip hop, EDM and DJ culture rule the world, the question can be asked: Is rock ‘n’ roll dead, finally, after all this time? The answer: yes and no. It’s no longer driving the mainstream, but like blues and jazz and a lot of other music genres that New Orleans cares deeply about, rock will always exist as an option. In fact, for Louisianians of a certain skin tone and economic class, it’s become a legacy music, the sound of the heartland, a tradition that at this point starts somewhere around the advent of Southern rock in the early ’70s and reaches its peak in the Metairie metal scene of the ’90s. So in a lot of ways, Vermilion Whiskey’s EP is a traditionalist album, and not just because of the third-hand blues elements present in the vocals of “TJ” Riordan. It comes off like cock rock at first, but a closer listen reveals that these six songs only begin there, taking the aforementioned path from Skynyrd into Priest into COC. It’s a synthesis too smart for hard rock, too nimble and rootsy to pass as straight metal, but also not self-conscious like stoner rock or pretentious like retro grunge. If anything, it’s a new style of biker rock, if only because TJ’s howl resonates so much like a modern exurban blues, a voice for the day-to-day struggles of poor semi-suburban white folks with no options but to live as hard as possible, just to feel like they’re finally part of something. He moves from growl to howl to wail easily, landing somewhere in between Rob Zombie and Chris Cornell, not just stylistically but emotionally—living and playing hard as a way of staring down the abyss. You hate to bring politics into an arena that’s too smart for it, but if 2017 is about the revenge of the underclass, then Vermilion Whiskey, in all their diamond-hard, burnout glory, are the soundtrack for people just starting to realize they’ve slipped nearer the bottom of the totem pole. —Robert Fontenot
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violin rather than a full-fledged brass section, the members of Burris have chosen to take a mellower approach to jazz-rock with their debut, one that very definitely carries the imprint of Crescent City jazz history on it. However, lead singer and guitarist Chris Hochkeppel seems stuck in jam band mode much of the time, attempting a genial mix of Ben Folds and Dave Matthews in these ten originals, and introducing fusion-lite into your ’90s roots-rock mix turns out to be a wobbly bit of artifice. When you’ve got a good instrumental groove going in blues or jazz, one
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unencumbered by any but the most basic lyrics, it makes sense to give everyone a solo: Here, it just complicates matters, taking what should be tight, punchy little fourminute songs and brooding over them until they become extended, monochromatic jams. It’s more about fattening the song than creating an atmosphere. “Dance,” for example, has no reason to suddenly drop into an extended samba shortly after introducing itself, taking four minutes to arrive back at its original premise. The simple lust of “Burning Rays” gets waylaid by percussion spotlights that feel gimmicky in context. “A” is gentle and comforting but unnecessarily explodes into endless, nearly bombastic violin and sax noodling. When they merely shade with blue chords, as on the ballad “Morning Light,” they start to feel smart, not just nimble, but too often Burris’ improvisation distracts from the mood they want to create. —Robert Fontenot
David L. Harris Blues I Felt (Independent) Trombonist, vocalist and composer David L. Harris opens Blues I Felt with a lot of gumption and drama. The Baton Rouge native teams with an A-team of young up-and-comers on the New Orleans jazz scene. Perhaps most notable is the inventive pianist Shea Pierre, who answers the trombonist’s call for an emotional response on self-penned number and album highlight “A Pisces’ Dream.” It’s natural that Harris’ tune “Dewy’s Notion,” which is dedicated to fellow trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, swings. The toe-tapper, complete with the walking bass of Jasen Weaver, who shows up all over town these days, includes the trombonist trading bars with drummer Miles Labat. When he’s not working on original material, Harris goes for classic standards such as James Moody’s and Eddie Jefferson’s
“Moody’s Mood for Love.” Vocally Harris is most successful on this upbeat number, particularly with his rhythmic delivery of the lyrics. He sounds like he’s smiling. It’s followed by the beautiful ballad “There Is No Greater Love,” on which his trombone “sings” the lyrics before he steps to the microphone. Shea jumps and bounces on the keys and the whole combo gets into the act on this once-dreamy, now-swinging tune. The title cut, “Blues I Felt,” lives up to its name on an album that reveals Harris’ old-school leanings performed by musicians of today and tomorrow. —Geraldine Wyckoff
Josh Hyde The Call of the Night (Independent) Though he isn’t exactly a household name in the Pelican State music scene, singersongwriter/guitarist Josh Hyde isn’t a stranger, either.
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Joe Krown hits rewind on his Organ Combo’s Funk Yard album from 2002.
Joe Krown Organ Combo Funk Yard (STR Digital Records)
“[T
he title for Funk Yard] actually started with a picture. I was working with Bob Compton, who’s a photographer, and we were looking for a name for the record and thinking about different album covers. He had this picture of this thing, a funk yard, apparently a junk yard someone homemade with the [cover image] tire, all that. It was great and it just stuck with me. Back in that day, I was still playing with ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. We were still touring, going to Europe a lot and playing all the festivals around the country. I was making my own records and had my own band on the side and playing solo gigs. Gatemouth never had that 250dates-a-year thing—it was more 100, 125 dates a year—so I pursued my own stuff. We played the Funky Butt every other Thursday night, one Sunday a month at the Maple Leaf, once in a while over at Le Bon Temps. Sometimes we’d hit at House of Blues or Tip’s. Just doing the local music scene. Funk Yard was my fifth CD without Gatemouth. I did a solo piano album called Just the Piano… Just the Blues. Then we did my first organ one, Down & Dirty. Then after that Buckle Up, an organ one, then I did New Orleans Piano Rolls, which was another piano CD. Then I did Funk Yard. That was five CDs in six years. They were all on a local label, STR Records, which was run by a couple of professors at Loyola [University]. The main guy was Sandy Hinderlie, who ran the recording studio at Loyola. He had a recording class and he needed bands to record so his students could experience that. It was a symbiotic relationship. Sometimes we had student engineers, sometimes they were just assisting, but they were getting the whole recording experience and we were getting records out of it.
We did all these records up at Loyola. Funk Yard was interesting because I used a different organ. I had this [Hammond] A-100 that I was carrying around and wanted to record with it. All my other organ records I did with this 1958 B-3—that’s my number-one organ. I didn’t write all the material on Funk Yard—I wrote five or six songs. The other guys in the band contributed, too, and it was a nice experience to have everyone chipping in some music. I had [guitarist] John Fohl, who around that same time went on to play in Dr. John’s band. I had Mike Barras on the drums and Brent Rose on saxophone. I used two different bass players: mostly Jim Markway, and the other was Bob Sunda, who after Katrina moved up to Memphis. When you’re playing live, you’re in the moment and you’re stretching. Sometimes you’re hitting your mark and sometimes you’re not quite hitting it. [laughs] Things don’t all fall together at the right time or in the right space. Being in the studio is a different piece of artwork. You’re trying to create a performance that’s as perfected as you can make it. You have things climaxing all together; you have the execution all very precise. Sometimes it’s contrived sounding, all planned out, and I feel it can sometimes miss that spark when you hit something and it falls into place and becomes very intense. In the studio, you can really craft the finished product better. When you’re playing live, there’s a big spontaneous burst that happens and you hope it comes out as this big beautiful picture. Whereas when you’re in the studio, you do it and then you stand back and wonder, ‘How can I adjust this? How do I make that burst more accurate?’” —Frank Etheridge
“Being in the studio [...] You’re trying to create a performance that’s as perfected as you can make it..”
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Since 1998, he’s released five self-produced albums, and he occasionally plays the Crescent City with pal/keyboardist John Gros. On his sixth album, he goes for broke, enlisting notable Nashville producer Joe V. McMahan to helm these sessions recorded at Dockside Studio. Gros jammed on six of the nine tracks while another old friend, slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, dropped by to play on two others. Yet it’s hardly a case of fancy wrapping paper and pretty, silky bows without substantive content inside. Hyde’s intriguing songs, written over a dark period, have merit to warrant this step up in production. Stylistically, it’s his most diverse platter yet, a rootsy concoction with slippery, sneaky funk (“The Truth,” “Need a Lil More”) being the most prominent. Landreth gives “Offshore” a blitzing space-age attack. Interestingly, the rollicking country-ish “Mississippi Bridge” was Hyde’s first song ever, written at age 11 when he took the all too familiar, frequent bus rides between Baton Rouge and Alexandria to visit family. A few depict despair, loneliness and unresolved tensions that are shrouded in mystery. As a guitarist, Hyde meticulously develops his solos into something meaningful instead of relying on artificial flash and dash. Just as his songs run the gamut, so do his vocals, sometimes sounding worldweary soulful, other times Curtis Mayfield silky high (“I’ve Got This Song”). Lyrically, Hyde’s songs often end somewhat unexpectedly. He’s not one to repeat himself once he’s made his point. —Dan Willging
Scott Ramminger Do What Your Heart Says To (Independent) Say what you might about Scott Ramminger, a veteran saxophonist from D.C. who works in all manner of blues, soul and R&B styles: He’s www.OFFBEAT.com
REVIEWS
not afraid to give the people what they want. When his second album, Advice From a Father to a Son, spooled off several tracks straight to satellite radio’s rootsier channels, he came back to New Orleans almost immediately and started cranking out more of the same. That includes guest spots from some of the city’s most venerated musicians: no less than George Porter Jr. on bass, David Torkanowsky on keys, and Shane Theriot on guitar, now assisting with 14 originals that cover so many of the city’s beloved subgenres that you half expect a Mardi Gras song to show up. And it’s easy to see how Ramminger made it to Dad Radio in the first place. It’s always a mistake to assume too much about a musician based off the characters in his songs, but any profiler could come up with a composite sketch of his target audience: He’s middleaged, loves New Orleans piano classics (“Living Too Fast”), soulblues (“Off My Mind”), and maybe a little Americana. He’s perpetually in and out of love (“Someone New to Disappoint”), is wary of certain types of women (“Give a Pencil to a Fish”), sees himself as a bit of a bad boy (“It’s Hard to Be Me”) but is ultimately faithful. He’s getting old and trying to laugh about it (“I Need a New One”). He works hard (“Get Back Up”), parties less than he used to but way more than he should (“Too Fast” again), and yet usually gets what he wants. Anyone could probably make an album with Johnny Vidacovich sitting in on drums and Bekka Bramlett and the McCrary Sisters singing backup and make it work, but Ramminger more than holds his own; his vocals are solid but unspectacular, but his sax work is first-rate. And his lyrics, while not
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quite as witty as they think they are, have emotional hooks the size of which you usually only find in classic country music. Occasionally he gets off something downright inspiring or poetic, and he has a countryish knack for the small, telling details (there’s not one but three songs about how bad food tastes after a breakup). Too bad Scott really has nothing more on his mind than finding a new way to revisit ageold musical tropes and emotional truths, but that’s really all radio asks for, anyway. —Robert Fontenot
Alison McConnell These Walls (Independent) Chances are you’ve heard Alison McConnell singing around town with her band Wonderland, but her first five-song EP is a solo affair that sounds like it was designed for your living room couch more than the sweaty, once-smoky stage of a club. These are simple folk-blues–based dramatic pieces, confessionals even, sort of an attempt to graft Lucinda Williams to Melissa Etheridge via Mazzy Star or Cowboy Junkies. There’s no 3-inthe-morning atmosphere linking the songs together, but they are quiet and thoughtful, and in their own way, epic. What they aren’t is particularly intriguing. One by one, they unfold slowly, with sparse lyrics and lots of potential import, but though there’s a vague unease, a little restlessness, and some repressed anger in slow burners like “Saint Peter” and power ballads such as the title track, there’s no payoff to be found in too-familiar invitations like “bring it on home to me” or conclusions like “we all gotta pay our dues.” Alison’s voice expertly walks the tightrope between sounding wise and just plain earthy, but these little nuggets of wisdom aren’t worth scaling her huge walls of sound inch by inch. In fact, what emotion is here usually gets wrung out of Marco Delmar’s guitar neck. Big sounds and big presence need big ideas off which to feed. —Robert Fontenot www.OFFBEAT.com
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Listings
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These listings are abbreviated. For complete daily listings, go to offbeat.com. These listings were verified at the time of publication, but are of course subject to change. To get your event listed, go to offbeat.com/add-new-listings or send an email to listings@offbeat.com.
AF African AM Americana BL Blues BU Bluegrass BO Bounce BB Brass Band BQ Burlesque KJ Cajun CL Classical CR Classic Rock CO Comedy CW Country CB Cover Band DN Dance DX Dixieland DB Dubstep EL Electro FO Folk FK Funk GS Gospel GY Gypsy HH Hip-Hop HS House IN Indian Classical ID Indie Rock IL Industrial IR Irish JB Jam Band
MJ Jazz Contemporary TJ Jazz Traditional JV Jazz Variety KR Karaoke KZ Klezmer LT Latin MG Mardi Gras Indian ME Metal RB Modern R&B PO Pop PK Punk RE Reggae RC Rockabilly RK Rock RR Roots Rock SS Singer/ Songwriter SK Ska PI Solo Piano SO Soul SW Spoken Word SP Swamp Pop SI Swing VR Variety ZY Zydeco
WEDNESDAY MARCH 1
Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: the Rubin Wilson Folk Blues Explosion (VR) 6p, Aurora Nealand and Tom McDermott (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (BL) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Fernando Noronha, Luciano Leaes (RB) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Ricardo Pascal Octet (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Slick Skillet, Jazz Vipers, Smokin’ On Some Brass (VR) 4p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Yat Pack (SI) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Bart Ramsey (JV) 3p, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Helen Gillet and Brian Haas (MJ) 9p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Lynn Drury (BL) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
THURSDAY MARCH 2
Banks Street Bar: Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 9p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Josh Paxton (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, Buku Broux (VR) 8p
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Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Luke Winslow King (JV) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: the Ocean Party, Midriff, the Fruit Machines (ID) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Blato Zato (LT) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Geovane Santos Quartet (LT) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave Hickey (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (JV) 7p Mag’s 940: De Lune Deluge, Julie Odell, the Garden Marbles (FO) 9p Maison: the Good For Nothin’ Band, Sweet Substitute, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, Brian Haas and James Singleton (FK) 11p Palm Court Jazz Café: Leroy Jones and Katja Toivola with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Louis Ford (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Horace Trahan (ZY) 8:30p Smoothie King Center: Twenty One Pilots, John Bellion, Judah and the Lion (VR) 7p Snug Harbor: John Mooney and Uganda Roberts (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Davis Rogan (JV) 3p, Miss Anna Q (JV) 6p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): NOLAmericana with Lynn Drury and Papa Mali (RR) 9p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (PI) 5p, Jeremy Lyons (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Arsene DeLay (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 5p, Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Beach Combers (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and Treme Funket (FK) 10p
FRIDAY MARCH 3
Bombay Club: Aleksi Glick Trio (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Warren Battiste (JV) 6p, Asylum Chorus (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Sam Price and the True Believers (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Rik Slave’s Country Persuasion (CW) 7p, MOTO, the Planchettes, Midnite Prowler (PK) 10p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Alvin Youngblood Hart (BL) 10p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: the Staves, Mikaela Davis (FO) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tephra 4 feat. Helen Gillet, Nikki Glaspie, Brian Haas and Jessica Lurie (MJ) 8p, Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10:30p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry (BL) 5:30p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Stoked: NOLA’s Best Comedians (CO) 10:30p Jazz National Historical Park: Johnette Downing (VR) 11a Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Leroy Jones (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx (JV) 11p Joy Theater: Circa Survive, Mewithoutyou, Turnover (RK) 7:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 5p, Lonestar Stout (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Johnny No (BL) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 7:30p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Mag’s 940: Gina Marie Leslie, Una Walkenhorst, Aaron LopezBarrantes (FO) 10p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (VR) 4p, Organized Crime, Mutiny Squad (FK) 10p
Maple Leaf: Funk Monkey feat. members of Bonerama (FK) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: DJ Pasta’s Greasy Fuzz (VR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Contraflow (RK) 9:30p Snug Harbor: the Headhunters feat. Mike Clark and Bill Summers (MG) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Overkill, Nile (VR) 8p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Gary Washington (JV) 3p, Russell Welch Band (JV) 6p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Jermal Watson (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Sam Cammarata (JV) 6p, Monty Banks (JV) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p UNO Lakefront Arena: the Lumineers (ID) 7p
SATURDAY MARCH 4
Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p Bombay Club: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Camile Baudoin and Marc Paradis (VR) 6p, Marina Orchestra (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunpie Barnes and Lil’ Buck Sinegal (ZY) 9p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Trad Stars Jazz Band (JV) 11a d.b.a.: John Boutte (JV) 8p, Vapors of Morphine (VR) 11p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall: Kenny Neal and Henry Gray (BL) 6:30p Dragon’s Den: McKenna Alicia (SS) 7p, Southern Dynasty (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sexy Back with DJ Dizzi (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Close Me Out (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: the Rabbithole feat. DJs Otto and Matt Scott (VR) 11:59p Howlin’ Wolf: the Hodgetwins (CO) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Michael Watson (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave Bandrowski (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Dr. Michael White (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: LMF’s 25th Anniversary Celebration feat. Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, the Iguanas (VR) 2p, Little Freddie King (BL) 4p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Royal Street Winding Boys, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Big Easy Brawlers, RnR Music Group (FK) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a New Quorum: All-Ages Drum Workshop with Nikki Glaspie (MJ) 12p One Eyed Jacks: Tribal Seeds, Raging Fyah, Nattali Rize (VR) 9p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Republic: Riff Raff, Dolla Bill Gates, Owey, Peter Jackson (VR) 11p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bonerama (FK) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Norah Jones (FO) 8p Snug Harbor: the Headhunters feat. Mike Clark and Bill Summers (MG) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Antoine Diel and Arsene DeLay (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Davis Rogan Band (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Mia Borders (FK) 6p, Russell Welch (JV) 9p
Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a Tipitina’s: Wake of the Dead feat. Papa Mali, Dave Easley, Reggie Scanlan, Pete Bradish (VR) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: the Troubadour (KJ) 1p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p
SUNDAY MARCH 5
Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, St. Roch Syncopators (JV) 5p, Gerald French Trio (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: James Singleton Trio with Brian Haas and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Samantha Fish, Lightnin’ Malcolm (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Gasa Gasa: Helen Gillet and Tephra 4 feat. Nikki Glaspie and Jessica Lurie, Mario Abney and the Abney Effect (MJ) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p House of Blues: Gospel Brunch (GS) 10:30a Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Mark Parsons (VR) 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Hokum High Rollers, Nickel-A-Dance feat. Wendell Brunious (JV) 10a, Meghan Stewart, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (RB) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Orpheum Theater: Southern Soul Assembly feat. JJ Grey, Marc Broussard, Luther Dickinson, Anders Osborne (RK) 8p Palm Court Jazz Café: Tom Fischer and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Republic: Deafhaven, This Will Destroy You, Emma Ruth Rundle (VR) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bruce Daigrepont (KJ) 5:30p Snug Harbor: Betty Shirley Tribute to Bessie Smith (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascale (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (JV) 11a Tipitina’s: Sunday Youth Music Workshop feat. Ron Johnson Band (VR) 1p Trinity Episcopal Church: World Premiere of the Cantata “Sojourner Truth” by Stanley Friedman (CL) 5p, Jazz Vespers with Ellis Marsalis (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 2p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
MONDAY MARCH 6
Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Carver Theater: Tribute to Slim Harpo (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Benny Maygarden and Thomas Walker (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Andrew Duhon (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: Hot Club de Cosmos (GY) 7p, Hangover Mondays with DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Appleford (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, RnR Music Group (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Terrence Houston and Mike Lemmler (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Ooh Poo Pah Doo: James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars (VR) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Sam Cammarata (JV) 3p, Carolyn Broussard (JV) 6p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Boiler Room: New Orleans feat. special guests Three Muses: Monty Banks (JV) 5p, Joe Cabral (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Beach Combers (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robinson Band (RK) 5:15p, Trop Rock Express (RK) 9:15p
TUESDAY MARCH 7
Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Carl LeBlanc (RB) 6p, Period Bomb, Problem Child, Three-Brained Robot (PK) 10p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Ellis Marsalis Center for Music: Key LaBeaud (JV) 6:30p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Progression feat. Little Girl, Dirty Lungs,Toonces (ID) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tuco Taco Presents (FO) 8p House of Blues (the Parish): Dorothy, the Georgia Flood (RK) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Marc Stone (BL) 7p Mag’s 940: the All-Star Covered-Dish Country Jamboree (CW) 9p Maison: Sam Winternheimer Quartet, Gregory Agid, Corporate America (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p One Eyed Jacks: Marc Stone Band: A New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic Benefit (BL) 7p Orpheum Theater: Justin Hayward (RK) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Boiler Room: New Orleans w. guests (VR) Three Muses: Sam Friend (JV) 5p, Messy Cookers (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland Jazz (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9:15p
WEDNESDAY MARCH 8
Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Carver Theater: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: the Rubin Wilson Folk Blues Explosion (VR) 6p, Aurora Nealand and Tom McDermott (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Xenia Rubios (LT) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Marina Orchestra (RK) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Son Volt, Jonny Irion (CW) 8p, Jet Lounge (HH) 11p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): the Quickening (FK) 9:30p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Jimmy Eat World, AJJ (VR) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Spodie and the Big Shots (JV) 6:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Circular Time (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Ramblin’ Letters, Jazz Vipers, Lil’ Glen and Backatown (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Soul Brass Band plays hip-hop covers (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p
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Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Joe Krown (SI) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Bart Ramsey (JV) 3p, Food & Spirits: Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Boiler Room: New Orleans feat. special guests (VR) 9p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
THURSDAY MARCH 9
Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Gumbo Cabaret (VR) 5p,Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Carver Theater: TBC Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, Josh Hyde CD-release party with John Gros (VR) 8p, Tephra 3 with Helen Gillet, Brian Haas and Nikki Glaspie (VR) 10:30p Circle Bar: Natalie Mae (CW) 7p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Little Freddie King (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Jeremy Kern Quartet (JV) 6p, Que Hefner (HH) 9p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: the Wild Reeds, Blank Range, the Lostlines (ID) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Chew, Tranche (RK) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Spencer Racca (SI) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Sonic Harvest (JV) 7p Mag’s 940: Bjorn and Francois, Matt Bartels Trio (VR) 9p Maison: the Good For Nothin’ Band, Roamin’ Jasmine, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr. and special guest (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 6p Palm Court Jazz Café: Duke Heitger and Tim Laughlin with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Louis Ford (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Chubby Carrier (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Calvin Johnson and Native Son (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Sabotage: Beastie Boys Tribute (VR) 8p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Little Cosmicana, the Artisanals, Jackson and the Janks (FO) 9p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Keith Burnstein (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Arsene DeLay (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 5p, Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and Treme Funket (FK) 10p
FRIDAY MARCH 10
Bombay Club: Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Warren Battiste (JV) 6p, Davis Rogan (VR) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Kristin Diable (SS) 9p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6p, Dave Jordan and NIA, Little Maker (RR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Motel Radio, the High Divers, Edison (RK) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p Historic New Orleans Collection: Leroy Jones’ Original Hurricane Brass Band (BB) 6p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry (BL) 5:30p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Mark Farmer (SS) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Shannon Powell (FK) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx (BQ) 11p Joy Theater: Buku Late feat. Griz, SunSquabi, Muzzy Bearr, AF the Naysayer (VR) 11:59p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, One Tailed Three (FO) 9p Mag’s 940: Mia Borders, Noelle Tannen Band (VR) 10p Maison: Claire and the Company, Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Barry’s Pocket, Big Easy Brawlers (FK) 10p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Maple Leaf: Khris Royal and Dark Matter (FK) 11p Mardi Gras World: Buku Music + Art Project (VR) 2p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Old U.S. Mint: Zachary Richard (ZY) 7p One Eyed Jacks: Mad Dogs and Englishmen: a Celebration of Joe Cocker (CR) 9p Orpheum Theater: Augustin Hadelich Plays Bartók (CL) 7:30p Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 6p, Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Republic: Buku Late feat. Zeds Dead, Andrew Luce, Nebbra, Pusher, RedBarrington B2B KTRL (EL) 11:59p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Groovy 7 (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Russell Welch Band (JV) 6p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 6p, Monty Banks (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Robert Earl Keen (SS) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p
SATURDAY MARCH 11
Bombay Club: Tim Laughlin Trio (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Nattie’s Songwriter’s Circle (SS) 6p, Freddie Blue and the Friendship Circle (VR) 9p, Phil the Tremelo King (JV) 11p Carver Theater: Davis Rogan Band (VR) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Johnny Sansone Band (VR) 9p d.b.a.: John Boutte (JV) 8p, Brass-A-Holics (BB) 11p Dragon’s Den: Vincent Marini (SS) 5p, Kompression (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Kane Strang, Bonus, Scenic World (ID) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Brown Improv (CO) 8p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: Dance Gavin Dance, Chon, EidolaVasudeva (ME) 6:30p, the Rabbithole (VR) 11:59p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Southern Avenue (SO) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Michael Watson (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Buku Late feat. Gramatik, Ganja White Night, Josh Pan, Space Jesus (VR) 11:59p Kerry Irish Pub: St. Claude Serenaders (FO) 5p, Roux the Day (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7 & 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Robert F. Bogaert (VR) 2p, Noisewater (VR) 3p, P.H. Fred and the Round Pegs (VR) 4p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires (JV) 1p, Smoking Time Jazz Club, Pinettes Brass Band (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: the Gripsweats (VR) 11p Mardi Gras World: Buku Music + Art Project (VR) 2p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old U.S. Mint: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton Live CD recording (JV) 2p Palm Court Jazz Café: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: John “Papa” Gros, Colin Lake (BL) 9p Snug Harbor: Amina Figerova Sextet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Body Drill with Kathi, Bouffant Bouffant, Disko Obscura (VR) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Davy Mooney (FK) 6p, Russell Welch (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Durand Jones and the Indications (VR) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: the Troubadour (KJ) 1p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p Woldenberg Park: AbstractNOLA Concert (VR) 6p
SUNDAY MARCH 12
Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Heather Holloway and the Heebie Jeebies (JV) 5p, Steve Pistorius, Orange Kellin, James Evans and Benny Amon (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunday Crawfish Boil with Papa Mali and friends (FK) 3p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, John Sinclair with Carlo Ditta Trio (JV) 10p Dos Jefes: Joplin Parnell (JV) 9p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p
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PLAN A: Bach Around the Clock It’s Johann Sebastian Bach’s 332nd birthday! Born on March 31, 1685, J.S. Bach has inspired many celebrations around the world, but you will find nothing like the celebration here in New Orleans. For the nineteenth year, Trinity Episcopal Church on Jackson Avenue will celebrate J.S. Bach’s birthday. The festival is the brainchild of organist Albinas Prizgintas. “When we started the festival we played only the music of Johann Sebastian Bach but over the years musicians kept suggesting Mozart or Beethoven,” he said. “Now we celebrate the birth of Bach and perform everything because he is the father of all music.” Albinas was born in Schweinfurt, Germany in 1947 to Lithuanian parents in a camp for refugees displaced by World War II. His father and brother played violin, while his mother, grandfather and great-grandfather were organists. Albinas moved to New York City to study at Juilliard and it is there that he met his Parisian wife Manon, who co-produces the festival. Bach Around the Clock is a non-stop musical smorgasbord with over 300 performers playing music from 7 p.m. on March 24 through midnight on March 25. That’s 29 hours of continuous music. Don’t expect only classical music: Attendees will experience all genres of music, from jazz and blues to R&B, folk, opera and even rock. Some of the performers include saxophonist Calvin Johnson, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, guitarist John Rankin, pianists Sandy Hinderlie and Victor Atkins, and many other unannounced surprise guests. You never know who will take the stage. Also scheduled are Patrice Fisher & Arpa performing Bach and Latin rhythms; a four-piece group (accordion, fiddle, bass and darbuka) playing Greek music; a ten-piece women’s polyphonic choir performing a repertoire from the Balkans, Ukraine and
Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Gasa Gasa: Blackfoot Gypsies, Chief Scout, Neighbor Lady, the Detail (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, the Undercover Dream Lovers (ID) 10p House of Blues (the Parish): Colony House, Deep Sea Diver (ID) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Space4Lease (RK) 8p, Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Mark Parsons (VR) 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs (SI) 10a, Loose Marbles, Nickel-A-Dance feat. Kerry Lewis, Leah Rucker, Higher Heights (VR) 1p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (RB) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Franks and Deans: A Rat Pack Rock and Roll Tribute (VR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 6p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Cameron Dupuy and the Cajun Troubadours (KJ) 5:30p Snug Harbor: Oscar Rossignoli Extended Trio CD-release show (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p, Tephra 5 (MJ) 9p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascale (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (JV) 11a Trinity Episcopal Church: Rocky’s Hot Fox Trot Orchestra (SI) 5p, Jazz Vespers with Charmaine Neville and Amasa Miller (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
MONDAY MARCH 13
Georgia; Micaela y Fiesta Flamenca and international dancer Kenneth “Kynt” Bryan. Jean Montes and the Loyola Orchestra, the New Orleans Trombone Choir, and classical pianists Quinn Peeper and Michael Harold will also perform. At midnight on Friday, the silent film The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be shown, with Albinas accompanying the film on the pipe organ, harkening back to the days of New Orleans–born motion picture organist Rosa Rio. If you’re going to attend the entire 29 hours, sleeping bags are permitted and coffee, tea, finger food and other refreshments will be available. As usual Prizgintas will close with Bach’s Toccata in D Major as the clock strikes midnight. “Playing Bach makes you stronger. And it cures your ills.” Bach Around the Clock: March 24-25, Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue, 522-0276. Admission is free. —Joseph Irrera
Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Carver Theater: Tribute to Guitar Slim (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Benny Maygarden and Thomas Walker (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Peter Holsapple (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.:Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: the Bailsmen (GY) 7p, Hangover Mondays with DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Valley Queen (RK) 9p Jazz and Heritage Center: Etienne Charles (JV) 8p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, New Legacy (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Terrence Houston and Mike Lemmler (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Preservation Hall: Neko Case with Preservation Hall Jazz Band (SS) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p, Arsene DeLay (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5:15p, Trop Rock Express (RK) 9:15p
TUESDAY MARCH 14
Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Seth Walker (VR) 8p, Mia Borders (VR) 9p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Gasa Gasa: Allison Crutchfield and the Fizz, Vagabon (ID) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Skelatin, the Light Set, We’re Ghosts Now, Fun While You Wait (ID) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Andrew Baham (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Little Gem Saloon: NOLA Dukes (JV) 7p Mag’s 940: the All-Star Covered-Dish Country Jamboree (CW) 9p Maison: McKenna Alicia, Gregory Agid Quartet (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Orpheum Theater: Ryan Adams (RK) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: The Price Is Right (VR) 4 & 8p Snug Harbor: David Torkanowsky Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland Jazz (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9:15p
WEDNESDAY MARCH 15
Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s: Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots (ZY) 6p Carver Theater: Miss Sophie Lee and the Parish Suites (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: the Rubin Wilson Folk Blues Explosion (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Helen Gillet, Eric Bloom and Simon Lott (JV) 10:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Julie Odell (SS) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Noelle Tannen, Kaya Nicole, McKenna Alicia (SS) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): the Quickening (FK) 9:30p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Claire and the Company, Jazz Vipers, Brasszilla (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Old-School Hip-Hop Review with Derrick Smoker, Terrence Houston, Danny Abel, Drew Meez, Matt Peoples, Julian Gosin, Edward Lee and Tuba Steve (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Johnny J. and the Hitmen (SI) 8p Saenger Theatre: Experience Hendrix (CR) 8p Smoothie King Center: Stevie Nicks, Pretenders (CR) 7p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: To Whom It May, Secrets of Boris, Fin Fox (VR) 7p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Schatzy (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Sam Cammarata (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
THURSDAY MARCH 16
Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Carver Theater: TBC Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Funk Monkey (FK) 10p Dos Jefes: Stephanie Nilles Band (BL) 9:30p Dragon’s Den: Claire and the Company (JV) 7p, the Essence and Iris P. (RB) 9p; Upstairs: Soundclash (HH) 9p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Circus Darling (BQ) 10p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jason Bishop (BL) 6p House of Blues: Metal Blade, Whitechapel, Cattle Decapitation, Allegaeon, Necromancing the Stone (ME) 6:45p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Three with Mark Carson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (JV) 7p Mag’s 940: Hestina, Mikayla Braun, Elizabeth Devlin (VR) 9p Maison: the Good For Nothin’ Band, Asylum Chorus, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Carsie Blanton (SS) 6p
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Orpheum Theater: LPO presents Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 (CL) 7:30p Palm Court Jazz Café: Tim Laughlin and Ben Polcer with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Louis Ford (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Geno Delafose (ZY) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: Bryan Ferry (RK) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Jason Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Davis Rogan (JV) 3p, Miss Anna Q (JV) 6p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Washboard Chaz Blues Band (BL) 9p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (PI) 5p, Mia Borders (FK) 6p Three Muses Maple: Esther Rose (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 5p, Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Beach Combers (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and Treme Funket (FK) 10p
FRIDAY MARCH 17
Bombay Club: Don Vappie (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Davis Rogan (VR) 6p, Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Carver Theater: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, George French Swing Band (JV) 8p, Margie Perez CD-release show (VR) 10p Civic Theatre: At the Drive-In (RK) 8:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 6p, Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Mykki Blanco, Cakes Da Killa (HH) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Helen Gillet, Ohmme (MJ) 8p, Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10:30p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry (BL) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Cane Hill, Darke Complex, Daemon Grimm, the Arbitrary (ME) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Van Hudson (FO) 12p, Beth Patterson (FO) 3:30p, Roux the Day (FO) 7p Little Gem Saloon: Glen David and the Andrews Family Brass Band (JV) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maple Leaf: Mainline Brass Band (FK) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Palm Court Jazz Café: Leroy Jones with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Topcats (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Russell Welch Band (JV) 6p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 6p, Messy Cookers (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Bonerama (FK) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p UNO Lakefront Arena: Nephew Tommy (CO) 8p
SATURDAY MARCH 18
Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio with Andy Schumm and Hal Smith (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Alexandra Scott (SS) 6p, Royal Rounders (JV) 9p Carver Theater: Jon Cleary, Cha Wa (FK) 10p Civic Theatre: Conor Oberst, the Felice Brothers (ID) 8:30p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p d.b.a.: John Boutte (JV) 8p Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall: Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p Dragon’s Den: Jon Roniger (JV) 7p, Sexy Back with DJ Dizzi (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Sketch and the City (CO) 8p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: Metal Shop, New Rebel Family (ME) 9p, the Rabbithole (VR) 11:59p House of Blues (Foundation Room): the Ibervillianaires (SI) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Ruby and the Rogues, Richard Bates (ID) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Rebirth Brass Band, Brass Lightning (BB) 10p Joy Theater: John Waters (CO) 8p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FO) 4:30p, Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7 & 9p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Mahalia Jackson Theater: Stars of American Ballet Encore (DN) 8p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires, Leah Rucker, Nickel-A-Dance feat. Steve Pistorius (JV) 1p, Royal Street Winding Boys, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Café: Brian O’Connell and Lester Caliste with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Category 6 6th Anniversary Party (VR) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Bill Maher (CO) 8p Smoothie King Center: Winter Jam feat. Crowder, Britt Nicole, Tenth Avenue North, Sadie Robertson and others (VR) 6p Snug Harbor: Herlin Riley Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Jumbo Shrimp CD-release party (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): La Noche Caliente with Margie Perez and Muevelo, Bookoo Rueda (LT) 9p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 6p Three Muses Maple: Davy Mooney (JV) 5p, Sarah Quintana (JV) 7p Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a Tipitina’s: Eric Lindell (BL) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: the Troubadour (KJ) 1p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
SUNDAY MARCH 19
Bombay Club: Larry Scala Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Beatles and Brews with John Meunier and guests (JV) 4p, Gerald French Trio (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunday Crawfish Boil with Papa Mali and friends (FK) 3p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Soul Brass Band (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Generations Hall: Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orleans presents L’Extravagance feat. Ivan Neville, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Royal Teeth, Harmonouche, Sauveterre (VR) 5p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, Alfred Banks album-release party (HH) 10p House of Blues: Gospel Brunch (GS) 10:30a, Ann Wilson (RK) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Desert Mountain Tribe (RK) 7p, Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Irish Session (FO) 5p, Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs (SI) 10a, Leah Rucker, Nickle-A-Dance feat. Steve Pistorius, Royal Street Winding Boys, Higher Heights (VR) 1p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (RB) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Valerie Sassyfrass and the Sasshay Dancers, BateBunda (VR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Republic: JoJo (PO) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bruce Daigrepont (KJ) 5:30p Snug Harbor: Kris Tokarski Jazz Band feat. Andy Schumm (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10a Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascale (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (JV) 11a Tipitina’s: Sunday Youth Music Workshop feat. Johnny Vidacovich Trio (VR) 1p Trinity Episcopal Church: Alessandra Belloni and Albinas Prizgintas (VR) 5p, Jazz Vespers with James Andrews (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 2p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 7p
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Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p
MONDAY MARCH 20
Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Carver Theater: Blues Accordian Party (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Benny Maygarden and Thomas Walker (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray (VR) 8p d.b.a.:Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dos Jefes: John Fohl (BL) 9p Dragon’s Den: Nathan Rivera’s Gypsy Blues (GY) 7p, Hangover Mondays with DJ Ill Medina (VR) 11p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Gasa Gasa: Big Thief, Mothers, Kalvin (ID) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p House of Blues: Kreator, Obituary, Midnight, Horrendous (ME) 7p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Mutiny Squad (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Terrence Houston and Mike Lemmler (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Sam Cammarata (JV) 3p, Carolyn Broussard (JV) 6p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p, Washboard Rodeo (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Beach Combers (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5:15p, Trop Rock Express (RK) 9:15p
TUESDAY MARCH 21
Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Carl LeBlanc (RB) 6p, Platinum Boys, Bottomfeeders, Mama, Trampoline Team (PK) 9p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Dave Capello and Jeff Albert, Outercore, Extended Trio (MJ) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tuco Taco Presents (FO) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Joy Theater: William Singe, Alex Aiono (SS) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Marc Stone (BL) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Mag’s 940: the All-Star Covered-Dish Country Jamboree (CW) 9p Maison: Eight Dice Cloth, Gregory Agid Quartet, Vegas Cola (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Chicago, JD and the Straight Shot (CR) 8p Snug Harbor: Tom McDermott and Chloe Feoranzo (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p Three Muses: Sam Friend (JV) 5p, Messy Cookers (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland Jazz (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9:15p
WEDNESDAY MARCH 22
Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s: Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots (ZY) 6p Chickie Wah Wah: the Rubin Wilson Folk Blues Explosion (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): the Quickening (FK) 9:30p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Spodie and the Big Shots (JV) 6:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Loose Marbles, Jazz Vipers, Organized Crime (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Blue-Eyed Soul Review with Derrick Smoker, Terrence Houston, Danny Abel, Drew Meez, John Paul Carmody and Devin Kerrigan (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Creole Stringbeans (SI) 8p Saenger Theatre: Brain Candy (VR) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Anvil (VR) 7p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Lynn Drury (BL) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
THURSDAY MARCH 23
Bombay Club: Davy Mooney (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Gumbo Cabaret (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Bullet’s: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 6p Carver Theater: TBC Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Natalie Mae (CW) 7p, Urban Pioneers, Dirty Rotten Snake in the Grass, Pony Hunt (FO) 9:30p Dragon’s Den: Sam Winternheimer Quartet (JV) 6p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Noruz (MJ) 9p House of Blues: Mayday Parade (ID) 7:30p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Dick Deluxe Revue (BL) 6p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Randy and Mr. Lahey of Trailer Park Boys (CO) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Irish Music with Annette and Mark (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Allen Hebert (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Good For Nothin’ Band, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Bob Malone (PI) 6p Palm Court Jazz Café: Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Louis Ford (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Wayne Singleton and Same Ol’ 2 Step (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Davell Crawford (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (PI) 5p, Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Albanie Falletta (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 5p, Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Beach Combers (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and Treme Funket (FK) 10p
FRIDAY MARCH 24
Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Harmonouche (JV) 5p, Willie Green Project (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: David Torkanowsky (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Warren Battiste (JV) 6p, Margie Perez (VR) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Carver Theater: Bobby Rush,Walter “Wolfman”Washington (BL) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Zabaduo with Charlie Wooten and Rafael Pereira (VR) 9p Circle Bar: Rik Slave’s Country Persuasion (CW) 7p, Giantology (ID) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Marc Stone Band with Bonerama Horns (BL) 10p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dos Jefes: Haruka Kikichi and the Big 4tune Band (TJ) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Gravity A (FK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p House of Blues: Matisyahu (RE) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jake Landry (BL) 6p
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House of Blues (the Parish): White Animals, Dash Rip Rock (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Eleanor Tallie (SS) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Shannon Powell (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx (BQ) 11p Joy Theater: Flogging Molly, Skinny Lister (PK) 8:30p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: One Tailed Three (FO) 5p, Van Hudson and friends (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Dr. Michael White (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: Chapter Soul Kanye’s Universe (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: the Edwardian Ball Artist Mixer and Soiree (VR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Benn Clatworthy Quartet with John Donaldson (TJ) 7p, Clive Wilson and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Karma (VR) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Impractical Jokers (VR) 7p Saturn Bar: Static Masks album-release, Shame, the Self-Help Tapes, Raspy (RK) 9p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Shawn Williams, Jaryd Lane, Todd O’Neill (VR) 6:30p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 6p, Monty Banks (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Tank and the Bangas (SO) 10p Trinity Episcopal Church: the XIX Annual Bach Around the Clock Festival of Music (VR) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons feat. Maggie Havens (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p UNO Lakefront Arena: 10th Annual Big Easy Blues Festival (BL) 8p
SATURDAY MARCH 25
Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Red Organ Trio (JV) 4p, Jasen Weaver Band (JV) 7:30p Blue Nile: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Bombay Club: Joe Krown Trio with Walter “Wolfman” Washington (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Steve DeTroy Trio (JV) 5p, Doyle Cooper (JV) 7p Carver Theater: Stooges Brass Band (BB) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Roosevelt Collier Band (VR) 9p Circle Bar: Mod Dance Party with DJ Matty (RB) 10p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, Poppy’s Poppin’ Saturday Review (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Trad Stars Jazz Band (JV) 11a d.b.a.: John Boutte (JV) 8p, Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dos Jefes: Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots (ZY) 10p Dragon’s Den: Vincent Marini (JV) 7p, Southern Dynasty (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sexy Back with DJ Dizzi (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 2p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Cardinal Sons (ID) 10p Generations Hall: the Inaugural New Orleans Edwardian Ball feat. Preservation Hall Brass Band, Aurora Nealand the Royal Roses, the G String Orchestra and others (VR) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: the Rip Off Show (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: Biz Markie: ‘80s vs. ‘90s Decades Collide, Right Lane Bandits (VR) 8p, the Rabbithole (VR) 11:59p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Shane Smith and the Saints (FO) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Pancakes and Booze Art Show (VR) 9p Jazz Playhouse: Michael Watson (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Irish Music with Annette and Mark (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7 & 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Extended Trio (JV) 1p, Black Laurel (VR) 2p, Alfred Banks (VR) 3p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillianaires (JV) 1p, Cajun/Zydeco Fais Do Do (KJ) 4p, Smoking Time Jazz Club, Big Easy Brawlers (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes CD-release party (FK) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Fleur De Tease presents Alice In Wonderland (BQ) 8p Palm Court Jazz Café: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p
Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Crescent City Soul (VR) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Chris Rock (CO) 7p Smoothie King Center: Charlie Wilson, Fantasia, Johnny Gill (RB) 7p Snug Harbor: Evan Christopher with Aaron Diehl (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Jazz Band Ballers (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p Three Muses Maple: Davy Mooney (JV) 6p, Russell Welch (JV) 9p Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a Tipitina’s: Sing It: the David Egan Songbook feat. Marcia Ball, C.C. Adcock, Roddie Romero, David Torkanowsky, Kristin Diable, Buddy Flett, Kevin Gordon, Papa Mali, Steve Riley (VR) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: the Troubadour (KJ) 1p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p
SUNDAY MARCH 26
Bombay Club: Tim Laughlin Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Syncopating Seamonkeys (JV) 5p, Steve Pistorius, Orange Kellin, James Evans and Benny Amon (JV) 7p Bullet’s: Teresa B. (RB) 6p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunday Crawfish Boil with Papa Mali and friends (FK) 3p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p Dragon’s Den: Open Jazz Jam with Anuraag Pendyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour (CO) 8p, Stripped Into Submission (BQ) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Bloody Mary Festival (VR) 12p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Mark Parsons (VR) 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs (SI) 10a, Eight Dice Cloth, Nickel-A-Dance (JV) 4p, Brad Walker, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (RB) 10p Maple Leaf: Annual Jamie Galloway Crawfish Boil and Block Party (VR) 3p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Café: Gerald French and Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bruce Daigrepont (KJ) 5:30p Saenger Theatre: Chris Rock (CO) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Benn Clatworthy Quartet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascale (JV) 5p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (JV) 11a Trinity Episcopal Church: McGehee Choir’s Spring Concert (VR) 5p, Jazz Vespers with David Batiste Sr. and the Young Voices of New Orleans (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 2p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
MONDAY MARCH 27
Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Carver Theater: Hammond B3 Night (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Benny Maygarden and Thomas Walker (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Dayna Kurtz (VR) 8p Dragon’s Den: Todd Yanacone and the Hot Club of Mazant (GY) 7p, DJ RQ Away and DJ Otto (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett Band (BL) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Dance Party with DJ Dizzi (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p
Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, RnR Music Group (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr., Terrence Houston and Mike Lemmler (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Ooh Poo Pah Doo: James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars (VR) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Chris Rock (CO) 8p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Monty Banks (JV) 5p, Joe Cabral (VR) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Beach Combers (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5:15p, Trop Rock Express (RK) 9:15p
TUESDAY MARCH 28
Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Mark Weliky (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Carl LeBlanc (RB) 6p Columns Hotel: Guitarmony feat. Phil DeGruy, Todd Duke and John Rankin (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild, Biglemoi, Chris Lennox Band (JV) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tuco Taco Presents (FO) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ricardo Pascal Trio (JV) 6p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Marc Stone (BL) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Mag’s 940: the All-Star Covered-Dish Country Jamboree (CW) 9p Maison: Slick Skillet Serenaders, Gregory Agid Quartet, Brass Lightning (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland Jazz (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9:15p
WEDNESDAY MARCH 29
Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Bullet’s: Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots (ZY) 6p Carver Theater: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: the Rubin Wilson Folk Blues Explosion (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p Circle Bar: the Iguanas (RK) 7p, Beyond the Darkness XV (EL) 10p Columns Hotel: Andy Rogers (FO) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Jet Lounge (HH) 11p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): the Quickening (FK) 9:30p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Spodie and the Big Shots (JV) 6:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Jazz Vipers, Kristina Morales and the Inner Wild (VR) 6:30p Maple Leaf: Old-School Hip-Hop Review with Derrick Smoker, Terrence Houston, Danny Abel, Drew Meez, Tuba Steve and Edward Lee (VR) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Boogie Men (SI) 8p Saenger Theatre: Bryan Wilson presents Pet Sounds, Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin (CR) 8p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra with Delfeayo Marsalis (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 2p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Muses: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 8p
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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Three Muses Maple: Lynn Drury (BL) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p
THURSDAY MARCH 30
Armstrong Park: Jazz in the Park’s Treme Crab Festival (VR) 4p Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, the Courtyard Kings (JV) 7:30p Banks Street Bar: Las Catajulas (FO) 9p Bombay Club: Matt Johnson (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Beth Patterson (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Bullet’s: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 6p Carver Theater: TBC Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p, Woodenhead with Mark Mullins and Helen Gillet (VR) 10:30p Circle Bar: Natalie Mae (CW) 7p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Lightnin’ Malcolm (BL) 10p Dos Jefes: Burke Ingraffia (JV) 9:30p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Wolves and Wolves and Wolves and Wolves, Burn Like Fire, I’m Fine (ID) 9p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Jenn Howard Band (BL) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Katchafire, Inna Vision, DJ Green Thumb (RE) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz National Historical Park: Wheaton High School Jazz Ensemble (JV) 11a Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Foot and friends (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (JV) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Allen Hebert (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Tuba Skinny, the Good For Nothin’ Band, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Mia Borders (SS) 6p Palm Court Jazz Café: Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Louis Ford (TJ) 8p Republic: RAW: New Orleans Artist Showcase (VR) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Corey Ledet (ZY) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: the Avett Brothers (RK) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Mahmoud “Mood” Chouki (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Davis Rogan (JV) 3p, Miss Anna Q (JV) 6p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 2p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Delgado Songwriter Competetion Finals Showcase, Ruby and the Rogues (SS) 8p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (PI) 5p, Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Esther Rose (JV) 7p Tipitina’s: Reverend Horton Heat, Unknown Hinson, Goddam Gallows, Birdcloud (VR) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 5p, Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Beach Combers (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Vaughan’s Lounge: Corey Henry and Treme Funket (FK) 10p
FRIDAY MARCH 31
Armstrong Park: Jazz in the Park’s Treme Crab Festival feat. Roy Ayers and Michael Franks (VR) 6p Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Harmonouche (JV) 5p, Willie Green Project (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Scott Myers (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Warren Battiste (JV) 6p, Arsene DeLay (VR) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Carver Theater: Honey Island Swamp Band, Dave Jordan and the NIA (RR) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Paul Sanchez and Jenna Guidry’s EP-release party (VR) 8p, Lightnin’ Malcolm and Cary Hudson (BL) 10:30p Circle Bar: Rik Slave’s Country Persuasion (CW) 7p, Mindscar, Witch Burial, A Hanging, Fat Stupid Ugly People, Recluse (ME) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, John “Papa” Gros (FK) 10p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 10p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p
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Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Shark’s Teeth, Greater Pyrenees, Patrick Shuttleswerth (PO) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Trishes, People Museum (PO) 8pm, Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p House of Blues: Bustout Burlesque (BQ) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Vita and the Woolf, Pucusana (RK) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Shannon Powell (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx (BQ) 11p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Appleford (FO) 5p, Beth Patterson (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 7:30p Mahalia Jackson Theater: New Orleans Opera Association presents Faust (CL) 8p Maison: Eight Dice Cloth, Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 1p Maple Leaf: Joe Marcinek Band (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Old Arabi Bar: Maggie Belle Band (BL) 9:30p Old Point Bar: Rick Trolsen (PI) 5p, Maid of Orleans (RK) 9:30p Orpheum Theater: the Charlie Daniels Band (CW) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Republic: Hippie Sabotage (VR) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Iguanas (LT) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy (CL) 8p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat Food & Spirits: Russell Welch Band (JV) 6p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Seguenon Kone Band feat Cole Williams (FK) 10p Three Muses: Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 9p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 6p, the Tanglers (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: the Rides feat. Stephen Stills, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg, Shannon McNally (BL) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons feat. Maggie Havens (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p UNO Lakefront Arena: Hogs for the Cause (VR) 3:30p
FESTIVALS MARCH 10-11 The Buku Music + Art Project takes place at Mardi Gras World. TheBukuProject.com MARCH 18-19 The Congo Square Rhythms Festival at Armstrong Park features live music, soul food vendors and an arts market. JazzAndHeritage.org/Congo-Square MARCH 23 Top Taco NOLA combines gourmet tacos and creative tequila cocktails at this festival and competition located at the Spanish Plaza. TopTacoNOLA.com MARCH 24-26 The first annual New Orleans Bourbon Festival at the Sugar Mill and the Marriott Convention Center includes panels, tastings, a bourbon marketplace and more. NewOrleansBourbonFestival.com MARCH 30-APRIL 2 Jazz in the Park’s Treme Crab Festival at Armstrong Park features live music and food vendors celebrating the crustacean. Pufap.org MARCH 31-APRIL 1 Hogs for the Cause features a barbecue cook-off and live music on the grounds of UNO’s Lakefront Arena. HogsForTheCause.org
SPECIAL EVENTS MARCH 23-APRIL 22 The National World War II Museum’s Stage Door Canteen presents Neil Simon’s play “Biloxi Blues” on weekends. NationalWW2Museum.org MARCH 31 & APRIL 2 The New Orleans Opera Association presents Gounod;s “Faust” at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. NewOrleansOpera.org
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Ann Wilson I
n the 1970s, hard rock music was a boys’ club. Girls weren’t supposed to rock. But Ann and Nancy Wilson, two talented, determined sisters from Seattle, smashed the stereotype. The future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees stormed out of the Pacific Northwest in gloriously hard-charging style. Heart’s 1975 album debut, Dreamboat Annie, stars Ann’s operatic vocals in the riff-fueled hits “Magic Man” and “Crazy on You.” The album’s title song shows an exquisitely acoustic side of the sisters. Nonetheless, the musically aggressive Wilsons were at least as influenced by Led Zeppelin as Joni Mitchell. Heart followed Dreamboat Annie with 1977’s Little Queen. Featuring “Barracuda,” another of Heart’s quintessential rockers, the album repeated Dreamboat Annie’s platinum-plus ascent. Dog and Butterfly, from 1978, yielded “Straight On” and 1980’s Bebe le Strange introduced another future rock classic, “Even It Up.” Heart stalled in the first half of the ’80s with the lackluster Private Audition and Passionworks albums. The Wilsons staged a career-resurrecting comeback with 1985’s Heart and the hits “Never,” “What About Love?” and “These Dreams.” Fast-forwarding through the years to 2017, the sisters kept Heart going but also pursued other projects. There’s the early-’90s Heart spinoff, the Lovemongers; Nancy’s solo album debut, 1999’s Live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop; Nancy’s composing and recording for the films Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous; and Ann’s recordings of movie themes for Footloose (“Almost Paradise”) and Tequila Sunrise (“Surrender to Me”) as well as her solo album debut, 2007’s Hope & Glory. More recently, Ann launched a blues-rock band, The Ann Wilson Thing. And in 2016, Heart released its 16th album, Beautiful Broken, and Live at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017, the Wilsons are going solo. Nancy is leading her new band, Roadcase Royale. Ann’s month-long Ann Wilson of Heart tour, opening March 8 in the sisters’ hometown, Seattle, reaches New Orleans on March 19 for a show at the House of Blues. She says her fans can expect some renditions of soul classics, songs from her solo career and Heart classics.
and older males in the music business absolutely believed that no woman could match a man in musical skills or talent. Did you and Nancy encounter a great deal of prejudice and obstacles during those years? Oh, yeah. When we started, back when we were trying to get a record deal and just entering the business, it was very much like that. Nancy and I had two choices back then. We could either be folk singers or cheesecake. We didn’t fit into either category, so we started writing our own rules. It became obvious from the get-go that no woman can be the same as a man as a musician. But I think women rockers, women musicians, must create their own universe, one that runs parallel. And when women do that, when they write the new language and sing it, they shine just as much as men, but in their own way. And I never get off when I see chicks trying to be guys. That’s fake to me. It’s like saying, ‘I’m really unhappy with what I am. I want success, so I’ll just be something I’m not.’
Rock music in the 1970s was so maledominated. Young male musicians
Because you and Nancy have had such great success with Heart—a pioneering example of a female-dominated rock band—have young women told you through the years that you inspired them to follow their own musical dreams?
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By John Wirt
talks back
For sure. It’s always a surprise to me that someone who is 16 or 15 in 2017 listens to Heart songs from the ’70s. I think, a lot of the time, their mothers and their grandmothers are playing those songs now. But when these teenagers hear them, they go, ‘Wow. That’s cool.’ It’s also amazing that some of the other people we meet tell us they really like our stuff, that it influenced them. People I would never expect, like Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains. But they listened when they were kids, they listened in their rooms, to music a world apart from what the culture told them they were supposed to like. You’re bringing your show, Ann Wilson of Heart, to the House of Blues on March 19. Heart is mentioned in the tour’s name, but your name comes first. Are you letting people know that the show includes projects you’ve done away from Heart as well as non-Heart music you love? Absolutely. I put ‘Heart’ in it for people who only think of me as the lead singer of Heart. I wanted to come up with a really honest name to let people know that it’s me. I’m going to do a few Heart songs, but it’s not the big monolith of Heart. It’s me stretching out. In 2017, you’re touring and Nancy will tour with her new band, Roadcase MA RC H 2 017
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I feel like I have a connection to New Orleans from, maybe, some other time. I’m comfortable there.
Royale. Will this year see an extended break from Heart, in part because you had such a busy 2016 with the band? Yeah. And 2015 and 2014, too. Since about 2006, we’ve been really banging it out with Heart. The band is sort of like a marriage we have going with, not only Nancy and I, but with the people who come hear us. You want to be there for it and keep working on it. But you also have to know when to give it some space. So this is one of those years where she and I take a breather. If and when we come back to Heart, we will do it because we really want to, not because we’re part of some big mechanism that says we have to make our nut. Can tell me about Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which features Heart performing in that legendary London concert hall? It’s a fantastic place to play. Kind of nerveracking a little bit because it’s so formal. There’s so much tradition there. But once we got up there and got going, and saw that people were standing up for a rock show, it took the pressure out. It was an amazing night. For Heart’s latest album, Beautiful Broken, you re-recorded some songs from the 1980s. Did you think those songs deserved a second shot, because the earlier versions of them don’t do them justice? Exactly. Because of all the crap that was being used in production the ’80s, we felt that some of those songs were never really heard. There were all the new synthesizers and tech then. Everyone wanted to use it all at once. So sometimes the songs faded into obscurity beneath all that gloss. We tried to bring them out in the light. For your Ann Wilson of Heart tour, you’re singing some classic soul songs? I’m doing a couple of them. There’s an Aretha Franklin song, ‘Ain’t No Way.’ Just pure, old-school singing. No frills, just guts. Out of the church. The show is a mix of stuff, with that included. The soul songs in your solo show are a bit of a surprise, because people think of Heart and the Wilson sisters as rockers. In your formative years, were you a fan of the soul music from Detroit and Memphis? That’s the stuff I actually learned from. I didn’t start singing rock until I was in my mid-twenties.
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So, I was into Ann Peebles, Aretha (Franklin), the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, that kind of singing. I’m real comfortable with that. Did you love looking for some different material to perform for your new solo tour, maybe finding favorites you always wanted to sing? Oh, let me tell you. That is so much fun. I don’t mean any disrespect to any of the old Heart songs that people love, but it’s fun to get outside of that box. I just stretch out, try stuff. Especially to a deeper level of messages in the lyrics, that Heart never really achieved. Cool lyrics. Tender, human lyrics. Meaningful for the times. Heart lyrics tend to be—they were written a long time ago. “Magic Man” was written when I was 22. So my perspective has changed a lot since then. It’s cool to find some things that really represent how I feel now. Can you name some of the other songs in the show? ‘For What’s It’s Worth,’ ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again,’ ‘Don’t Give Up.’ And they are a blast to sing and play. You just named songs originally recorded by Buffalo Springfield, the Who and Peter Gabriel. Were they important songs to you when they were originally released? They were. But they’re more important to me now, because of their timeless quality. And because of what the words are saying, the songs may as well have been written yesterday. I have sort of a bully pulpit now to come out and sing some stuff. Stephen Stills wrote “For What It’s Worth” in 1966 as a response to the Vietnam War and an anti-curfew protest staged by young people on the Sunset Strip. When it was written, it was anti–Vietnam War and police brutality and all of that. The man and the pig against the hippies. But it has a much broader meaning now. It’s talking about how we’re living in a world of illusion. But if you turn over the rock, like has just happened after this last election, you see that things really aren’t as politically correct as you thought. There’s still misogyny, still all this stuff that’s so easy to believe doesn’t exist—until you see it does. So
‘For What It’s Worth’ is just saying, ‘Hey, can you take a look around and see what’s really going go?’ That’s the first step to actually changing things, getting past the mudslinging. In the late ’80s, you and Nancy built a studio for Heart in Seattle. But then other bands in Seattle took the place over. We built it so we could record in a world-class studio without having to go to L.A. or New York. So we could just be at home and go downtown to a studio that had everything we needed. We’d worked on it really hard. It was all fresh and pristine in there. And then Alice In Chains and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and a few of the other ones came in, one after the other. They had food fights in there. They burned cigarette holes in the board. So we just let it be a rock ‘n’ roll place. Neil Young, tons of people came there after that. Those were crazy days. Grunge was huge in Seattle. And there were all these people from L.A. and New York walking around Seattle in plaid shirts and combat boots, trying to be grunge people. During the years that you’ve been coming to New Orleans—to perform with Heart and as a solo visitor—have you enjoyed the city’s music and culture? Yeah. I’ve been there myself quite a bit, outside of the band. And I’ve been there with Nancy, with the band, 8 or 10 times, I guess, to play. New Orleans is definitely a musical, spiritual center. Are you a fan of music from New Orleans? There’s a rich mixture of genres that exists there, loud and proud. I really like walking around and going to clubs. When did you start visiting New Orleans on your own? Way back in the ’80s. First as a tourist. After a while that really got old. I wanted to see what the city really was, to see where the heart and soul of the city was. I met a few people and started going to places to eat dinner, little holes in the walls. And going to people’s houses. They’d cook and we’d play and talk. I feel like I have a connection to New Orleans from, maybe, some other time. I’m comfortable there. The Ann Wilson of Heart tour comes to the House of Blues on March 19. O www.OFFBEAT.com