OffBeat Magazine New Orleans May 2017

LOUISIANA MUSIC, FOOD & CULTURE—MAY 2017 Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50

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BAYOU BOOGALOO

inside

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Confident and In Control

“Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen: More Hipper Than What You Got”

Mia Borders is doing something right.

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LETTERS

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KIDO, KOMAKI AND VURZU

MOJO MOUTH

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Pink Magnolias followed their own paths to New Orleans.

FRESH

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IT’S A DANCE PARTY!

PBS’ American Epic music series debuts in May; Five Questions with Maggie Belle; Louisiana Folk Roots names new Director; My Music with Alfred Banks; Five Questions with Greg Hicks and more.

PHoto: Elsa Hahne

YACHT ROCK

IN THE SPIRIT 14

HIGH FIDELITY

Martin Krusche is In the Spot at Pho Bang and Peter Thriffiley reviews Blue Oak BBQ.

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Emma Jane Kulowski at Paladar 511 mixes up We Partyin’ Punch for Kermit Ruffins.

OFFBEAT EATS

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Marco Benevento debuts at Bayou Boogaloo.

Where Y’acht aims to take over the Southeast.

Guitarist Deacon John Moore talks about playing on Aaron Neville’s classic “Tell It Like It Is.”

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REVIEWS

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Jon Cleary, Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show, Ellis Marsalis Quintet, Maurice Brown, Will Payne Harrison, Canebreakers, Shawn Williams and more.

LISTINGS

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BACKTALK Tarriona “Tank” Ball of Tank and the Bangas

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by Christopher Blagg June 2002 “I had a different band at every gig, but I’d get the best musicians in the city. I was a bit cheeky, I suppose, ringing up some of these people, but the gigs were good and everyone had a lot of fun.

Even the best musicians still have to pay the rent.”

To read more, buy this issue at www.offbeat. com/issues/june-2002/.

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Letters

“At this year’s Jazz Fest, the biggest contingent of Cuban musicians ever in one place at one time in the U.S. in over 55 years is coming—and not even one page in the Jazz Fest Bible is devoted to welcoming them…”

—Ken McCarthy, Tivoli, New York

No Cuba As a holder of a Lifetime subscription I’ve never been disappointed by an issue of OffBeat, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

At this year’s Jazz Fest, the biggest contingent of Cuban musicians ever in one place at one time in the U.S. in over 55 years is coming—and not even one page in the Jazz Fest Bible is devoted to welcoming them, introducing them, or explaining their significance.

It’s tantamount to your closest cousin who you grew up with and haven’t seen in decades—and who you know has been through hell—showing up with a bouquet of flowers and not bothering to get up off the sofa to answer the door.

Havana built the “French” Quarter— literally—as the Spanish Empire’s administrator of “Luisiana” from 1763 to 1802.

New Orleans brass band music as we know it today got a big boost after New Orleans musicians from the Onward Brass Band returned from extended duty in Cuba after the Spanish American War. Uber drummer Earl Palmer said one of the musical highlights of his entire life was experiencing Havana’s music scene in 1941 as a stowaway on a ship.

Dave Bartholomew recalled to Robert Palmer that he got the sax riff to his iconic “Country Boy”—the root of all rock ‘n’ roll— from a bass line he heard on a Cuban record.

Finally, the “habanera,” the rhythm Cuba received from Africa and digested for the rest of the Western Hemisphere and the world, is the foundation of the second line beat.

Great opportunity to educate folks on an essential ingredient of what makes New Orleans New Orleans missed. Quel dommage.

—Ken McCarthy, Tivoli, New York

Real deal This is a letter to thank you again for publishing OffBeat. I am commenting on the interview with Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews in the 2017 Jazz Fest Bible edition. Troy is the real deal! The sky is the limit as far as what he can and will accomplish. I also want to bring to your attention what is on page 71. There is

an ad for the movie, The King of New Orleans.

Troy’s brother James “12” Andrews is playing a musical role in this film and his longtime bass player, Michael Randolph Ballard, is the music supervisor for this locally produced movie.

—Harry Ballard, New Orleans, Louisiana

Funding a higher purpose The following letter is in response to Jan Ramsey’s blog post, “A Side Dish Rather Than the Entrée,” about national acts playing Jazz Fest and how the Festival funds a much higher purpose to keep local music and culture at the heart of the Jazz Fest’s offerings.

This just explained why we come for French Quarter Festival not Jazz Fest any more. I remember the Earl King, Wayne Toups, Marcia Ball year, when everyone started coming for Phish and Widespread Panic, etc. We changed to French Quarter Festival and have not looked back. I come for the local music.

—Joseph Holtzman, Chicago, Illinois

Correction Our feature on Basin Street Records’ 20th Anniversary (Jazz Fest Bible 2017) incorrectly cited Mark Samuels as a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. Samuels alerted us to the mistake as follows: It’s a wonderful article and you did a great job of expressing the essence of the label.

Only one mistake. I am proud to have a BBA and an MBA in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin (not Loyola). I was however an adjunct professor at Loyola for a semester, attended a summer music program in high school there (along with Victor Goines), and was a mentor in their business school for about 5 years (assigned to about 8–12 freshmen).

I could also add that if it hadn’t been for Loyola, I likely would never have met my amazing wife Kara, who came to New Orleans to pursue a theater degree undergrad and later a law degree from Loyola. And I also love Loyola for housing the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp for the past several years.

—Mark Samuels, Basin Street Records, New Orleans

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

May 2017 Volume 30, Number 6 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, Maggie Doussan, Frank Etheridge, Robert Fontenot, Tom McDermott, Brett Milano, Nick Pittman, John Swenson, Peter Thriffiley, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff, Michael Allen Zell 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, Marine Laval, 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 Are Hotter Than Ever

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azz Fest is over. Whether you’re sad or glad about that, the largest festival in New Orleans tends to be so overwhelming that it makes everyone feel like they’ve overindulged in a decadent meal come May, and now they want to lay back, digest and take it easy for a while. I’ve perceived over the years that once Jazz Fest is over, anyone who’s involved with music goes into a month-long stupor. They’ve made their money for the summer and the living is easy. They’re exhausted.

I’ve also noticed that sometime around May, almost every business in the city tends to turn into a snail. They move slower, stay out

www.OFFBEAT.com

By Jan Ramsey

of the sun and fall into summer hibernation. It’s actually kind of crazy because 30 years ago when OffBeat started, the summers here were pretty dead. But now, they certainly are not. There are festivals all summer long now because our hunger and thirst for music and food continues unabated throughout the year. The first one of these is obviously the free Bayou Boogaloo in mid-May, held on the banks of beautiful Bayou St. John in Mid-City. And then there are other festivals like UNO’s Crawfish Mambo, the newly relocated Bayou Country Superfest, Oyster Fest, FestiGals, the Slidell Jazz & Blues Fest, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s Louisiana

Cajun-Zydeco Festival, the Creole Tomato Fest, Essence Fest, the brand new Outlaw Fest (which takes place at the same time as Essence and targets a completely different audience). Bastille Day, Running of the Bulls, Tales of the Cocktail. Then in August, Satchmo SummerFest, White and Dirty Linen Nights, Red Dress Run. Whew. It may be hot, but it’s obvious we still know how to party.

New Orleans, as we all know, tends to stick with traditional ways of thinking. The weather has a whole lot to do with how active we are indoors and less outdoors, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything shuts down and comes to a

grinding halt. The city is obviously getting more and more active every summer as more visitors are coming. This has to be supplemented by the access to European markets that New Orleans can attract by virtue of the direct flights to London and Frankfurt. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t solicit more European visitation to New Orleans during the hot summers which we locals find so oppressive. Most Europeans don’t give a damn that it’s hot as hell in New Orleans—especially northern Europeans. They love sun and heat. So we might as well make the most of it. Got an idea for a summer festival?

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FRESH

Photo: fred salinas

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at the Joy Theater

SOUNDCHECK

OffBeat.com Photo: daniel gray

Five Questions with Maggie Belle

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our music has been described as soul, blues, funk, R&B and even at times hip-hop. How do you describe your sound?

I have always been challenged with describing music with words. This project has grown so much over the years from being a duo, to now a quartet with a three-piece horn section when we are at our best. As a band, we all bring our own influences to the table resulting in the whirlwind of genres we have been described as, but really we are just trying to take what we love and make it our own.

Being originally from the West Coast—but currently residing in New Orleans—how has living here influenced your music?

I discovered my voice not too long before I moved to New Orleans. I was pushed to sing by two of my girlfriends in San Diego in a basement funk band. These same two friends brought me to New Orleans during Jazz Fest and everything about this city just felt right with me. New Orleans lives and breathes music; it gets in your soul and sparks you up, like wind to a flame. It’s impossible not to be constantly inspired and humbled by all the amazing musicians and people in this city.

You pull double duty not only being a local musician but also being a local nurse. Do you use your experiences in nursing to inspire you musically and vice versa?

I love being a nurse because I truly enjoy helping others, as cliché as it sounds. As a nurse, I have the opportunity to not only take care of people, but connect with them on an unspoken level. As beautiful and enlightening as these connections can be, sometimes they can weigh very heavy on my heart and music is my release. Nursing inspires me to take everything I see, hear and feel in the hospital and put those emotions into my music.

When you are not gigging or nursing, what New Orleans–based musicians do you go see play?

There are too many to count and I wouldn’t want to leave any out. When I am not working, I try to support the music community here as much as possible because I know how hard these musicians work, inside and outside of the clubs.

I have so much respect for all the hardworking musicians in this city.

Bayou Boogaloo will mark your first festival appearance. What are you most anticipating from this experience?

There is something so special about being on Bayou St. John, surrounded by so many sweaty people and makeshift floating devices. I am just excited to sing my heart out for the people there to listen, to share our music with those who may not have heard us yet, and play alongside people that make me feel whole.

—Maggie Doussan Maggie Belle Band performs at Bayou Boogaloo on Saturday, May 20 at 12:35 p.m. on the Port Orleans Dumaine Stage.

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SWEET TWEETS @AlisonF_NOLA I helped my friend name her rat Rats Domino, so today is already a win. @jurzak One of the best parts of being a musician is that no one can tell you that laying in a dark room with headphones on isn’t work-related. @JohnPapaGros I always say that I got my bachelor’s degree at Loyola and I got my masters and doctorate from George Porter Jr. @jonaschartock I feel sorry for rest of the country that don’t have the @bigfreedia @ JuanLaFonta commercial on TV—even better when you don’t expect it. @djsoulsister Thank God for 1) a stellar Jazz Fest; 2) surviving Jazz Fest; 3) that I don’t have to leave, ‘cause New Orleans is HOME. Yay! @AmyTrailSongs Walking across Bourbon street, a cover band was playing “I Love a Rainy Night.” Thunderbolt hits, power out in club. @dougmaccash Jazz Fest genius: 3 small trash bags + duct tape.

www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

LOUISIANA FOLK ROOTS

ON RECORD

New Director carries two big sticks

PBS’ American Epic debuts in May

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“I

’m the kind of guy who needs a project,” admits Glenn Fields. Besides being the drummer of the popular swamp pop aggregation the Revelers, Fields was named the Executive Director of Louisiana Folk Roots in January, succeeding Todd Mouton.

Louisiana Folk Roots is a nonprofit organization founded by Christine Balfa and Dirk Powell so Cajuns and Creoles could learn their cultural music locally without having to trek to foreign soils. 17 years after its inception, Folk Roots hosts several instructional music camps throughout the year. Its marquee event is the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week, also known as Balfa Week, a fun-filled week of music, culture, dance and food where students learn from professional musicians.

Almost immediately, Fields walked into the position with a vision: to better connect the cultural resources of Acadiana and Southeast Texas. Although Cajun music is being studied and played throughout the region, Fields says: “Lafayette seems to be this insular bubble sometimes. There’s no reason why there is this disconnect between, say, Ville Platte, Eunice or Lake Charles and Southeast Louisiana, like Houma, where Cajun music is still being played and people are speaking French. It is a great opportunity to reach out to all of those areas and get it all under one umbrella and feed off of each other.”

Fields sees good things happening throughout the area, such as George Marks and the NUNU Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville, but some things don’t always get the notoriety they deserve.

“That is my dream, to somehow grow the organization to where it can be a resource for people like this. Funding is the unicorn these days but at the very least connect these folks and make sure they’re working together.

That is going to be the key to turning things around in the cultural arts world is to bring folks together so we can work en masse, as opposed to this guy over here shouting and that guy over there shouting.”

Both the Black Pot Festival, a festival Fields and his then-band the Red Stick Ramblers founded 11 years ago, and the younger Grand Hoorah Festival have been incorporated into the Folk Roots framework.

Besides being excited about working with a motivated board of directors, Fields says the possibilities are endless. Just recently someone from the Baton Rouge Blues Festival inquired about potential collaborations with Folk Roots. “I would love to get Folk Roots’ toes into the blues history we have in Louisiana,” Fields says. “I’m super stoked about this, man. It gives me a chance to do what I love to do, which is to connect people.”

—Dan Willging

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merican Epic, a three-part music documentary series debuting May 16 on PBS, traces the music industry’s early–twentieth century quest to find and record blues and gospel performers in the South, Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana, country musicians in Appalachia, Tejano bands in Texas and Native American and Hawaiian musicians. Jack White, T Bone Burnett and narrator Robert Redford are the series’ executive producers.

“In American Epic,” White says in a statement, “we examine how important the fact is that when phonograph records were invented, for the first time ever, women, minorities, poor rural men and even children were given the opportunity to say whatever they wanted in song, for the whole world to hear.”

American Epic depicts influential early–twentieth century musicians through previously unseen film and photos, new interviews with their families and the recollections of eyewitnesses. Featured artists include the Carter Family, the Breaux Frères, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, the Memphis Jug Band, Elder Burch, Charley Patton, Joseph Kekuku, the Hopi Indian Chanters, Lydia Mendoza and Taj Mahal.

Director Bernard MacMahon and audio engineer Nicholas Bergh assembled the series during a 10-year period. They uncovered musicians who’d fallen into obscurity, restored their recordings and reassembled the abandoned technology used to record them.

“We traveled the length and breadth of America in our quest to discover the identities and stories of America’s earliest recorded musicians,” co-producer Allison McGourty says. “We captured testimonials from the last living witnesses and direct descendants of America’s musical pioneers. This is the last time their story can be told before everyone who was there is gone.”

“This is the story of a profound act of democracy,” co-executive producer Burnett says, “when the poorest people in our country were recorded and their stories, Robert Redford their songs and their voices were broadcast around the world. These pioneers set a course that led to the extraordinary library of jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock ’n’ roll and hip-hop that is our music. This is the story of the United States—a kid leaves home with nothing but a song and conquers the world.”

White and Burnett also collaborated for the series’ companion program, The American Epic Sessions. Debuting June 6, Sessions follows Alabama Shakes, Beck, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Elton John, Los Lobos, Nas, Rhiannon Giddens, Taj Mahal, Jack White, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and others. White and Burnett produce new recordings of the artists using a reconstructed electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.

Columbia Records will release the soundtrack for American Epic: The Sessions. Sony Legacy will issue the series’ companion albums American Epic: The Collection and American Epic: The Soundtrack. White’s Third Man Records will release multiple vinyl collections in conjunction with the series.

American Epic airs on WYES-TV at 8p May 16, May 23 and May 30.

—John Wirt www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

SOUNDCHECK

MY MUSIC

Five Questions with Greg Hicks, proprietor of Melt and trombonist of Bonerama and Funk Monkey Photo: jeffrey dupuis

Alfred Banks

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he tour is going great—I’m traveling to Fort Wayne [Indiana] right now, heading to Atlanta tomorrow. As far as having bigger audiences out on the road than in New Orleans, I’d say yes and no. Some of the places offer a bigger platform—I opened for Waka Flocka in Memphis [April 1 at Rhodes College] and had 1,000 people there. But I had 100 people show up for my album release party [for The Beautiful] at the Hi-Ho on March 19.

I named my album The Beautiful because, even though my brother went through some serious things, we went through some beautiful things, too.

His girlfriend was pregnant at the time of his suicide, and he still inspires me to keep fighting and do the right thing. My brother meant the world to me. It sounds crazy, but he created this body of work. The Beautiful debuted in the Billboard Top 100 and debuted at 12 on iTunes’ rap and hiphop chart. So that shows something beautiful can come out of darkness.

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hat made you decide to enter New Orleans’ culinary scene?

I have worked in restaurants from the time I was 14. I met my best friend and now partner in Melt, Miles Tully Jr., while we were both bussing tables many years ago. We would always say that one day the two of us would own our own spot; so when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped on it.

Is there any significance to the location—2549 Banks Street— choice for Melt?

The owner of the building handpicked my partner to run a restaurant in this space. Miles is someone who is totally in tune with the restaurant scene. He knew that this was going to be an excellent location for what we wanted to do. With all of the changes and growth happening in the area, when he got the call he knew this wasn’t something you say no to.

How did you decide to make gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches a central element to the restaurant?

Melt is really more about all things cheese. You can look at the menu and see we have plain grilled cheese, but also specialty melts with cheeses, made-from-scratch sauces, meats and more. We have cheese and charcuterie boards, baked brie, mac and cheese, spinach artichoke and cheese dip and many more dishes that highlight cheese.

Is the creative process for your music reflected in the creative process for Melt’s signature dishes?

I have always worked in bands where it is a total group effort in everything we do. Creating Melt’s menu has been along those lines in the sense that Miles would bring an idea to the table and we would put it together and then discuss what we could add or change to make the dish even better.

What is your perfect meal at Melt?

The best thing to start off with would be the cheese curds; there is nothing better than fried cheese. Then I would move on to the Kush’s Melt, it’s crabboiled shrimp, pimento cheese and a house-made basil aioli. [The Kush’s Melt won the best shrimp po-boy at the 2017 Oak Street Po-Boy Festival.] All of our food goes perfect with one of our craft cocktails. I would sip on a pineapplebasil margarita made with all house-made ingredients, including pineappleinfused tequila, basil simple syrup and sour mix from scratch. We make as much as possible fresh in our kitchen; we are the real deal here at Melt.

—Maggie Doussan

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Even though I lived Uptown the whole time my brother went through what he went through [having suffered from schizophrenia prior to his March 2014 death], I didn’t realize until I started doing research for the album that for the last 10 years of his life, we lived right down the street from NAMI New Orleans [local chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness]. I walked in one day, presented my idea. They were down to work with me and I’m proud to partner with them to present this album.

Everything I’ve done musically the last two years, CZA [Chris Bunch] and I’ve done it together. He’s my best friend. He’s constantly making beats.

And on Homecoming [Banks’ 2015 album] and on everything I’ve ever dropped, even as my profile rose, people have always told me that the best song was his beat. For The Beautiful, CZA did the beats for the entire album—a lot of samples, and a lot completely original, too.

With the exception of me actually developing schizophrenia, everything on The Beautiful actually happened. Like having to leave my brother’s funeral early because I had a show that night. That trip was extremely emotional for me. I felt like that ride was a moment for me, a symbol of my work ethic.

Playing that show is what my brother would have wanted me to do. His suicide letter told me, ‘There’s no reason you can’t be the greatest of all time.’

My purpose on Earth is to create music. I don’t do music because I want to, I do it because I have to.”

—Frank Etheridge Alfred Banks performs at Bayou Boogaloo on Friday, May 19, 5 p.m. on the Mothership Foundation Orleans Stage. www.OFFBEAT.com

WHERE Y’ACHT

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Yacht Rock

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Where Y’acht Sat. May 20, 1:30p Urban South Lafitte Stage

Where Y’acht aims to take over the Southeast.

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he tides have recently returned smooth music from its ’70s and ’80s island outpost to an eager and growing audience. Steely Dan and Hall & Oates are hot again.

Jazz bassist Thundercat recently released a song with guests Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. The resurgence of socalled yacht rock was given a Crescent City twist by the dapper band Where Y’acht, masters of musicianship, neckerchiefs and piña coladas.

“I had the name for four years and was trying to put the band together,” said founder

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and drummer Eric Rogers. “We rehearsed hard for about three months and played our first show in August 2015. It was a no B.S. kind of band. I wanted to play the songs like the record. It wasn’t gonna be a joke per se. We like to keep ourselves on our toes—strive to play some ambitious stuff.”

Lead singer and keyboardist Adam Campagna added, “We really like the music. It’s good, complicated, and fun to play.”

Rogers continued, “We have just under 60 songs right now.

We’re starting to expand the boundaries of what is considered yacht rock.”

By Michael Allen Zell

So, what exactly is yacht rock?

What does it sound like? Are there any definable attributes?

Rogers clarified, “If Michael McDonald had anything to do with the recording, you might have a yacht rock song. There’s a lot of saxophone. Wurlitzer or any electric piano with a chorus or phaser effect. It’s got to feel smooth.” Campagna noted, “There can’t be too many rock ’n’ roll guitars in it. You need to be able to put a flute solo in there.”

As far as an era, Where Y’acht navigates mainly in the late ’70s to early ’80s, stretching as far back as 1972 with “Brandy” by Looking

Glass and forward to 1986 with “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood.

Crowds run an age range well beyond most rock shows, whether at home base One Eyed Jacks or elsewhere. “It’s a much older crowd. There’s a large percentage of our audience over 40 years old.

Young people come out because it’s a fad right now and that’s great. A large percentage of our audience show up dressed the part and ready to have the time of their lives. Not to quote another song!” said Rogers. “Every show is pretty packed, people are getting down, closing their eyes, and losing it,” said Campagna. www.OFFBEAT.com

WHERE Y’ACHT Of course, the band itself must have a certain visual style. “We want people to look at the band and feel like they’re time warping into the ’70s,” said Rogers. “We’re not trying to go over the top like silly guys wearing costumes,” emphasized Campagna. Expected dress includes blazers, jaunty hats, white jeans and deck shoes.

Rogers added, “Facial hair was very important in the ’70s and ’80s, and we’re all on board with that—no pun intended. Check out Doobie Brothers photos from the late ’70s, or whatever Donald Fagen was wearing is pretty much spot on.”

WHERE Y’ACHT flotilla of hardcore fans who will come in on the water. There will be a lot of references to sailing.

We will play ‘Sailing.’”

Where does the band see themselves in the future? Will New Orleans hold onto the trend when pop culture moves on? Does Where Y’acht look to branch out?

Rogers said, “We aim to take over the Southeast, the casinos on the Gulf Coast, and every yacht or

lake scene party—see how hard it is for people outside of New Orleans to understand what it means. We were playing a casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi and they announced us as Where Is Yacht.”

Campagna added, “It’s a weird moment right now where it’s become a pop culture thing over the past year or so. The web series that coined the term yacht rock was from 11 or 12 years ago.

It’s hitting a chord with people.”

Rogers retorted, “It’s striking a minor 7th chord with everyone.”

Where Y’acht is Eric Rogers on drums; Adam Campagna on lead vocals and keyboards; Jon Harris on guitar; Khari Allen Lee on saxophone, flute, keyboards, and vocals; Charles Lumar on bass; Anthony Cuccia on percussion and synths; Cory Schultz on trumpet, keyboards, guitar, and vocals; and Andy Plovnick on synths.

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“There can’t be too many rock ’n’ roll guitars in it. You need to be able to put a flute solo in there.”

—Adam Campagna, lead singer and keyboardist “Or Michael McD,” said Campagna, which leads to the discussion that blue-eyed soul singer Michael McDonald is considered the patron saint of yacht rock. High regard for his vocal timbre, range and phrasing has returned from the dry dock.

Rogers stressed, “Michael’s music is the hardest stuff to play. Not just the music. To replicate his vocal range is nearly impossible, but we do our best.” “His voice is basically a synthesizer,” said Campagna.

“You’re not trying to mimic it.”

Where Y’acht’s set at Bayou Boogaloo will be the first time the band has played next to a body of water and they plan to pull out all the stops. Rogers noted, “We’re trying to put together a way to get a sailboat on Bayou St. John for that show. We haven’t reached our full potential yet for people who know about us.”

Campagna added, “Hopefully a www.OFFBEAT.com

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HIGH FIDELITY

HIGH FIDELITY Guitarist Deacon John Moore has a song for every occasion. He also played on some of the biggest 1960’s R&B hits to come out of New Orleans, including Aaron Neville’s classic “Tell It Like It Is.” Aaron Neville Tell It Like It Is (George Davis and Lee Diamond)

“I

subscribe to the idea that music is largely a genetic talent. My grandfather played banjo. My mother, valedictorian of the first Xavier University graduating class, was a choir director and pianist.

I found I could get a lot more gigs if I could play an instrument, preferably one you can play and sing at the same time.

I was self-taught. By the time I got to high school I was proficient enough at the guitar that I could make a gig with just about any band.

I was playing with my band the Ivories at the Dew Drop Inn when Allen Toussaint walked up to me and said, ‘I like the way you play the guitar. Can you come to Cosimo’s tomorrow? I’ve got some sessions for you.’ When you’re on those hit records people think you’ve got the magic touch. I played multiple markets simultaneously. It was my survival mechanism to make a living.

George Davis, who co-wrote ‘Tell It Like It Is’ with Lee Diamond, was a multi-instrumentalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. He was a good friend of mine.

Cos didn’t even have A/C at the studio. He’d get a block of ice, run a fan, and have these big ducts to blow in cool air. When I was doing sessions, the studio [J&M] was on Governor Nicholls in the French Quarter and he only had two tracks. The cutting edge of technology!

They had to experiment at positioning the musicians to get the best kind of sound. Rhythm players were situated in one semi-circle and horn players in another. It was quite a challenge.

I was the one who came up with the guitar part, how to voice the chords and play the rhythm. It didn’t take very long to cut because we had a bunch of stellar musicians. Aaron Neville was an ace singer. He had a unique voice that went along with what the song was about.

No one thought ‘Tell It Like It Is’ was going to be a hit. It was initially the B-side to ‘Why Worry?’ Rolling Stone recently put it on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Everyone who played on the original session is dead now, except for Aaron Neville. I sang for all their funerals! I’m just so overjoyed I was one of the people who played a part of New Orleans rhythm & blues recording history. That’s something they can’t take away from me.”

—Michael Allen Zell

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PINK MAGNOLIAS

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Kido, Komaki & Vurzu

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Pink Magnolias Sat. May 20, 5:35p Port Orleans Dumaine Stage

Pink Magnolias followed their own paths to New Orleans.

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he Pink Magnolias may be atypical, but they’re certainly no novelty act.

The Japanese three-piece is the real deal, with a background as solid as anyone on the music scene.

Keiko Komaki started studying classical piano when she was 5 years old and started playing New Orleans music two decades later in Japan. “I saw the Wild Magnolias at the Tokyo Blue Note. That blew my mind,” she said. “I moved here right after Katrina—followed them to New Orleans. They were the first band I sat in with. After I came here they hired me. Things happened. Being in Marva Wright’s band taught me gospel and how to play the blues.” Since then she’s played with notables including Vasti Jackson, Brass-A-Holics and Benny Turner and Real Blues, and she now tours with Playing For Change.

Vocalist and harmonica player Yuko Kido, a.k.a. Lady Butterfly, has been singing since high school. She made several trips to the U.S. and in 2007 brought her harmonica. “My favorite player is Lazy Lester. He accepted me as a student. I learned from him. I moved to Chicago in 2009 and came to New Orleans a year later. I was walking on Bourbon Street, heard a blues song, and went in the club. Keiko was playing with Marva Wright. Her keyboard playing was amazing,” said Kido.

Mayumi “Shara” Vurzu was a drummer in Japan playing modern jazz and bebop. “Elvin Jones was my god,” she enthused. “I moved here in 1998. I really liked traditional New Orleans jazz music. I went to Preservation Hall almost every day at that time to hear the band. The drummer Shannon Powell is still my favorite. I was soon playing with Tuba Fats.” After that she started learning blues, funk and Mardi Gras Indian music. Vurzu played with the Marva Wright band, Benny Turner, James Rivers and Kermit

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Ruffins. She continued, “I have my own band, Mayumi Shara & New Orleans Jazz Letters. Victor Goines and Victor Atkins were on my CD.” Formation of the three-piece came from a gig Komaki was offered at now-shuttered Frenchmen Street institution Yuki Izakaya. “Who do I want to play with? Mayumi and Yuko,” she recalled. “It was the first time we played together—2012. It was so fun. People were like ‘What?

Three Asians are playing this!’ People came in and went out and brought many people in.” Kido added, “They enjoyed our music. We thought we should play more together.”

The chemistry worked. Komaki’s influences of Professor Longhair and Dr. John, Kido’s of James Cotton and Slim Harpo, and Vurzu’s of New Orleans funk like the Meters in addition to all kinds of music wove together as a high-energy groove.

One might think the name Pink Magnolias came from the influence of the Wild Magnolias. “We started to think about a band name. I had the idea way before since magnolias

By Michael Allen Zell

are a symbol flower. They didn’t like the pink part. In Japan, if you say pink people have an image of a sexy thing. A club owner told us it was a perfect name. Then those two started to like it,” said Vurzu.

A band created by Japanese ladies who met each other in New Orleans is bound to have unique qualities.

“We had somebody request, ‘Play a Japanese song,’ so we put a Japanese children’s folk song with a blues shuffle on the spot and it perfectly fit,” said Komaki. Vurzu continued, “It had a call and response part people liked. We love New Orleans.

We love music. We love New Orleans music. We try to get rid of all kinds of walls to combine and create something original.”

This sense of adventure is nothing new for any of them, especially Vurzu, who plays Japanese traditional taiko drums, first in New Orleans with Big Chief Alfred Doucette when she came here almost 20 years ago and more recently with MaDeTo. Those attending Bayou Boogaloo can look forward to an expanded

Pink Magnolias beyond the core trio, with a number of very special guests including Mardi Gras Indian Spy Boy Honey, Norwood “Geechie” Johnson and June Yamagishi. Expect a wide variety by the band, who have an enlarging repertoire of songs and sounds. In fact, they’re working on bringing in three-part harmonies. “We’re still growing,” they all stressed.

Pink Magnolias have seen another transformation at their shows as sometimes skeptical audiences quickly realize how good they really are. “That’s the fun part,” laughed Komaki. It’s a dream come true for these three who found that following their own paths to New Orleans for the source of the music that so inspired them around 7,000 miles away ended up being what brought them together.

It’s important to each that they gain respect and serve as good role models. “I want to show people a woman’s power,” Kido asserted. Vurzu added, “As a woman. As a human being.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

MARCO BENEVENTO

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It’s a Dance Party!

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Marco Benevento Sun. May 21, 4:40p Mothership Foundation Orleans Stage

“I

definitely come from a lot of different places,” understates keyboardist/ songwriter and now vocalist Marco Benevento. The New Jersey native, onetime Brooklynite and current resident of Woodstock, New York, is celebrating the release of his latest album, Woodstock Sessions, on his and manager Kevin Calabro’s Royal Potato Family label.

Leading his trio—which includes bassist Karina Rykman and drummer Andy Borger— Benevento closes out the Bayou Boogaloo on Sunday.

Benevento, who attended Berklee College of Music, gained recognition as a member of the Benevento/Russo Duo. He was behind the organ with drummer Joe Russo at the trap set performing what has been described as a combination of punk, rock and experimental jazz. That they played at the progressively inclined Knitting Factory tells a bit about their music’s direction.

“I thought I was gonna be more of a jazzer,” Benevento acknowledges. “In the early 2000s, I was very much into the [jazz pianist] Brad Mehldau Trio sound.”

In New Orleans and perhaps elsewhere, Benevento remains best known as a member of Garage A Trois, a funk, punk rock, jazz and electronically enhanced band that boasts New Orleanians drummer Stanton Moore and vibraphonist/ percussionist Mike Dillon plus saxophonist Skerik. Benevento met Moore when, in 2003, his organ/ drum group came down to play its first gigs in the Crescent City, performing at One Eyed Jacks, Tipitina’s and several other small clubs. He got to sit in with Galactic and became close to the drummer and other members of the band.

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As a teenager, Benevento was into classic rock ’n’ roll and dance music, though it was during his high school years that he first discovered the Meters. “When I heard the Meters, something clicked,” he says. “My parents actually got me a Hammond organ for my 17th birthday and I was just buggin’ out about the Meters and this funk and groove music.”

“The door opened,” the keyboardist remembers as he realized that music “doesn’t have to be rock, it doesn’t have to jazz, it could be funky like James Brown and the Meters or even something in between. [Trumpeter Miles Davis’ revolutionary] Bitches Brew was the starting point to the jam band and Zappa-ish stuff.”

Benevento also connected musically to New Orleans piano greats James Booker and Dr. John. “I love James Booker and I’ve learned a lot from listening to his music,” says Benevento. For the last four years, he’s teamed

By Geraldine Wyckoff

with drummer Johnny Vidacovich and bassist James Singleton for a tribute to Booker at the Maple Leaf on the Monday night between the Jazz Fest weekends.

Benevento has also been all over the place in the keyboard realm. He began playing piano at age seven and then dug into the Hammond. Distinctively, he was known to play an acoustic piano with pickups rather than utilizing the more conventional Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer.

“I tour with a real piano— hammer hitting strings, but it doesn’t have 88 keys, it’s got 64 keys,” he explains. “They’re called train car pianos that were made in the 1920s.”

A while back, a friend handed him a modified toy piano equipped with knobs and lights and said, “Play this thing.”

Benevento, the founder and recording engineer for the Fred Short Recording Studio, was hooked on what is now known as a type of circuit bending.

“Basically, as a musician you’re always searching for different sorts of sounds,” he explains. “I have toured with it but the problem with them is that they’re made of plastic and they need batteries. So now I sample the sounds and play them through my laptop.”

As heard on Woodstock Sessions, Benevento’s latest twist is that he’s now singing.

“I’m writing simpler songs and using Casio drum machines and synthesizers that are very reminiscent of the dance scene of the ’80s,” he explains. “We’re playing music stemming from all these different places—it can almost confuse people. But when you go to a show you get it. It all makes sense.”

That rings true on listening to tunes from the album like “Dropkick,” which is both fun and funky, and “Heavy Metal Floating Upstream,” which folks into Benevento’s keyboard work will find easy to relate to and jammers should enjoy too.

Inspired by other artists, the keyboardist has also revved up his look. “I had zero style,” he admits. “I watched Mick Jagger talking about live performances and he said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to play the part.’”

“So about five years ago, I was walking to my gig in Asbury Park, New Jersey, which is a very flamboyant town in its own right, and I went by this store and there was this suit—a white and black striped suit—like a Beetlejuicetype suit. And I was like, ‘That suit looks amazing.’ I kept walking and I said, ‘Dude, you should go back and buy it.’”

Benevento promises that lights will be shining at his actionpacked debut at the Bayou Boogaloo. “Yes,” he declares, “it’s a dance party!”

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PHoto: MICHAEL DIDONNA

Marco Benevento debuts at Bayou Boogaloo.

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Mia Borders Sun. May 21, 4:15p Port Orleans Dumaine Stage

Confident and In Control Mia Borders is doing something right.

By Brett Milano Photography by Elsa Hahne

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ome artists’ Jazz Fest debuts are triumphs, some are disasters, and some are life-changing experiences. It was all the above for Mia Borders, who played her first Fest in 2010 just after graduating from Loyola. But mostly it was life-changing, even though she injured her voice mid-set and thought at the time that she’d just sunk her own career.

“I was so green and over-enthusiastic and worked myself so hard at Jazz Fest season,” she recalls. “I woke up really hoarse that morning and could barely speak. I just pushed it too hard and wound up tearing my vocal cord, right in the middle of ‘She Don’t Know.’ I felt absolutely horrible, I cried before the set and I cried after it. When it was done the EMT looked at my vocal cords and all he could see down there was blood, so I was convinced I’d done myself irreparable damage. He told me I had to go stone silent for six weeks—so I had to walk around with a little note around my neck—and not to drink any alcohol, which at the time was much harder.” But to her shock, the set was a hit. “They streamed it on ’OZ and people started buying the CD, asking for autographs. That was a peak moment for me, to know that people were connecting with the music even in those conditions. I figure we must have been doing something right.”

Her Jazz Fest in 2017 turned out to be less momentous: She got rained out on the first Sunday, cancelling a set for which she’d put together an expanded seven-piece band (she will unveil that set for Wednesday at the Square). Though she was still feeling the disappointment when we talked the next day, Borders has come a long way, both personally and musically, since that trial by fire in 2010. She committed to music full-time shortly afterward and delivered her most accomplished CD, Fever Dreams, at the end of last year. “I had to fight with myself tooth-and-nail to be able to do this, and I’m glad I did. I didn’t want to be a depressed alcoholic lawyer, and that’s the path that I was on.”

Though still a young artist, Mia Borders has now been recording for more than a decade, first with two releases by a band known (for the members’ initials) as MNSKP, then making her official solo debut (with most of the same players) on 2009’s Southern Fried

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Soul. And from the start her music was always more individual than that title would suggest, acoustically based and having more to do with voice and lyrics than with pure groove. (Her band has revolved over time, but drummer Rob Lee, guitarist Takeshi Shimmura and bassist Jesse Morrow have become the core.) Her sound is steeped in old-school R&B with some modern hip-hop influences; her voice is brassy and warm, with just a few traces of vulnerability. The old-school roots allowed her to fit comfortably into Essence along with Jazz Fest, but she was also telling a lot of her life story between the lines.

What she draws from musically is an even mix of what she grew up with and what she’s discovered from earlier eras. “I feel like I’m still catching up when it comes to Motown and Stax and the old soul stuff, but that’s what keeps me going and I could listen to it 24/7. When I start to write it’s probably an unconscious amalgam of whatever I’ve been listening to lately, so I do get nervous whenever I write anything good—‘Did I just steal this?’

There are a lot of albums I go back to, but mainly it keeps coming back to [Simon & Garfunkel’s] Bridge Over Troubled Water and [Maroon 5’s] Songs About Jane—I feel I’m less invested in this day and age of screaming music. Lately I’m getting back into hip-hop, listening to a lot of Tupac. And there’s always Bill Withers and Gladys Knight, but for whatever reason I don’t listen to a lot of female singers. I seem to set a high standard for the ones I listen to.”

If you’ve seen her perform, the idea of her having selfconfidence issues may seem a little farfetched. The swagger seems to come naturally; this is a woman who (on Fever Dreams’ “Find Another Lover”) makes a statement of purpose out of “You won’t find another motherfucker like me.” The persona she projects onstage is sometimes tough, sometimes romantic but always very much in control—and that, she says, is a long way from who she is in real life.

“There are a lot of instances where people imagine that they know something about me because of my stage persona,” she says. “But that’s what it is, a persona. It’s something I cultivated over the last 11 years, because I literally got sick before every MAY 2 017

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show. So in order to deal with my stage fright I started putting on a role—each song has an attitude and I could create a character by approaching every song in that way. You have to get to know me to realize what a silly person I really am—really, once you get past a certain point with me, it’s all ridiculous.”

Born in New Orleans and raised Uptown, Mia Borders (which is her real name) grew up with the usual local music experiences—hearing music in parades and getting dragged to Jazz Fest by her parents (“There is a photo of me as a child with my parents and the Neville Brothers behind us onstage,” she notes). Her first actual concert was the Indigo Girls at UNO, just because some friends won tickets; the first show she remembers buying her own ticket for was ’N Sync. Performing also came halfway by accident; she did a few school pageants before realizing she was any good at it. “My first memory of that is from elementary school, just a Christmas pageant where we were singing carols. And I guess it was somebody’s parents who came up to me and said ‘You’re really talented.’ And I thought, ‘What, really? We were all singing the same stuff, so how did I stand out?’” Her first serious stabs at performing happened while attending a Connecticut prep school (Taft, for which she won a scholarship); she joined a female a cappella group as a sophomore and wound up directing it as a junior. “That was

another bit of validation, and from that I got into arranging for 12 voices. That’s stayed with me; whenever we go into the studio now I have some pretty substantial vocal arrangements worked out. But I was focused more on film then; film school was always my goal.”

After that it was law, and Borders made a serious stab at that profession around the same time she got serious about music, working locally as a paralegal. “My dad in particular wanted me to get my master’s and my JD and to have the most successful backup plan I could—I understand any parent not wanting their kid to be a full-time musician. And I did enjoy working as a paralegal—yeah, it was stressful, and yeah, I hit happy hour too hard. It was still rewarding, just not as rewarding as I knew music could be.” Currently she puts some of the legal training to use by running her own Blaxican label—“something I set up mainly to protect myself, though I would eventually like to find other artists and release material besides my own.”

The struggles with stage fright also came out at an early age, and made her that much more determined to keep playing. “I was very outgoing when I was young, that was something my mom always encouraged. She died when I was six, and after that I started turning inward. So I didn’t have a lot of friends in elementary school, it was easier to just disappear inside myself.

“My dad in particular wanted me to get my master’s and my JD and to have the most successful backup plan I could...”

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When I started doing music it was the discovery of something that could help me cope with the anxiety and connect with other people. At the same time I thought that performing in front of other people was the most terrifying thing imaginable.” It’s only more recently that she’s gotten close to conquering it. “Anytime I feel anxiety about music or about a social situation, I take that as a task. If I get freaked out over Mia Borders with her something, then it must be important to me grandmother, who lives upstairs in some way. So if I get nervous before a show, that just means I understand that the show is a big deal. I can be proud of myself for facing that fear, it’s uphill, I get a thrill when I reach the top”)—along with a and diving into what was terrifyingly unknown.” chorus (“Mama told me, girl you better dance”) that turns it into To hear how she draws from all this in her songwriting, check something funky and uplifting, the kind of transformation that one of her early signature numbers, “Mama Told Me” (from her soulful music is all about.

2012 album Wherever There Is). The personal revelations are all And in recent years she does feel closer to the character she there, the self-doubt (“It’s been a long time and I’m still trying projects onstage—not least because she made a decision to stop to win this fight”) as well as the determination (“Whenever drinking four years ago and stuck to it, going cold turkey without

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joining any programs. “I can feel confident and in control when I’m onstage now, that was something I lacked in my adolescence. The drinking just stopped one day after somebody told me a story about something I’d done the night before; it was mildly inappropriate and I didn’t remember any of it—to me that was not okay. I didn’t necessarily notice any change at first; it was very gradual and then fans starting talking to me, saying things like ‘You were really good before and now you’re

“I can feel confident and in control when I’m onstage now, that was something I lacked in my adolescence. The drinking just stopped one day after somebody told me a story about something I’d done the night before; it was mildly inappropriate and I didn’t remember any of it—to me that was not okay. I didn’t necessarily notice any change at first; it was very gradual and then fans starting talking to me, saying things like ‘You were really good before and now you’re on another level.’ And I’d think, really? I didn’t know there was a turning point.” on another level.’ And I’d think, really? I didn’t know there was a turning point. I still have my bouts with anxiety and depression but for the most part, I am genuinely happier now. I feel lighter, and I know how weird and cliché that sounds.” She quit smoking around the same time and generally stuck with that as well, though she does admit to going through a bunch of cigarettes on the night Trump was elected.

“Even at the worst moments—like my first show in 2006, when I threw up the entire day—it was always about getting onstage and starting the first song. Once I’m there a switch in my brain just flips and it’s like, ‘Yeah, this is fine, what are you talking about?’ I’m better with that now, and I’ve probably gotten better at accepting compliments—I was notoriously bad at that when I started out, it just seemed strange that people would applaud something you wrote. I’ve sung at weddings, and when you do that it means your song stays with people for www.OFFBEAT.com

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the rest of their lives—so I might be important to someone in the same way that Bill Withers or Marc Broussard is to me—and since I still have that young kid without many friends inside my brain, that’s a hard one to wrap my head around.”

Her musical path has been fairly consistent since the early days, the only real departure being the 2013 album QuarterLife Crisis—still a soul record at the core, but with a tougher rock sound encouraged by producer Anders Osborne. At the time, she says, she was processing a romantic breakup and starting to get sober, so a louder album was called for. “There was a lot to talk about, with everything coming to a head at once, so what I wrote was really aggressive. This time around with Fever Dreams, I was nervous that people would find this too much of a departure from the last one. We did a lot of experimenting with the programming on top of the actual instrumentation—a lot of my favorite albums were that way, but this is the first time we’ve actually done it. I set out to write a really happy album because the last one was so angry. But of course I wound up writing ‘Leave Me Alone’ first, which isn’t happy at all.”

And as she points out, the autobiographical slant of her songs only goes so far. If it were sequenced differently, Fever Dreams would play like an arc-of-a-relationship album: There are kissoff songs to exes and hopeful ones to new partners, along with “Love You,” which seems to celebrate parenthood (and includes some kiddie vocals in the chorus). As it turns out, she hasn’t been through any of that, at least not lately. While she’s talked in earlier interviews about wanting to adopt, she’s put that on hold for a while; the kids on the record are her nieces. And she wrote her latest round of intense relationship songs while not being in a relationship at all.

“I’ve been single pretty much since I quit drinking—I think there’s a lot of stuff I need to work on before I get someone else involved in this nonsense. But I’ll always remember what it feels like to fall in love, and how it feels when it ends.” Likewise the song that dismisses a particularly nasty ex by name (“Sara”) isn’t about one of hers. “Sara is me. I get a lot of the same responses from exes, and that’s another reason why I’ve been single for a long time. Apparently I wasn’t very good at being with people for a while, apparently I broke a bunch of hearts, and that’s what ‘Sara’ is about. Sexuality is one of those things that I’ve always been an open book about; for me it’s a spectrum. And right now I am super into dudes. I went to a party by myself recently and said that to somebody and she took offense, but there you are—I wouldn’t mean it in an offensive way.”

And having come this far, we can’t ignore one of the elephants in the room: The fact that the (unrelated) artist M.I.A. had a hit called “Borders” last year, still probably the first thing you’ll get if you Google Mia Borders. “Oh, man—I have a Google alert set up whenever somebody is talking about me, and that isn’t going away. It was pretty cool for about a week.”

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EATS

photos: Elsa Hahne

Emma Jane Kulowski/Paladar 511

“I

love Kermit—a lot. He’s one of my top five people.

He embodies everything I love about New Orleans—fun, good times. He’s a really sweet guy and I love hanging out at the Motherin-Law Lounge. I’ve been going there Sunday evenings when they have a reggae band and Kermit’s always there, greets you with a hug, cooks food for everyone in the neighborhood. He’s always having fun; he’s always enjoying what he’s doing, so obviously I wanted to make a cocktail for him.

The drink I made is called We Partyin’ Punch. His catchphrase is ‘We partyin’...’ The drink is topped off with two different types of Big Shot sodas, strawberry and pineapple.

When you’re making a punch, it’s important that each different element

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in it doesn’t overpower another. It has to be bitter, sweet, fruity, fresh—all of those things, balanced.

The Mother-in-Law Lounge is so diverse. There are old people, young people. Black people, brown people, white people. Kids, families... And everyone’s there, just having a good time. I think that’s what Kermit is all about, providing a good time for everyone, and it brings him pure joy. That’s why the place is so warm and welcoming. Sometimes you go places and you’re like ‘I’m not sure if I’m welcome here or not.’ But at Kermit’s you know. That’s also why I love living in New Orleans so much.

I’m from Connecticut originally and this will be my sixth summer here.

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like an outcast. I don’t feel like I have to tone down who I am to not step on people’s toes.

By Elsa Hahne

I moved down for college, to go to Loyola. I never finished—I was working full time, doing school and studying art and I was trying to pay for it all and have a life and be healthy and happy and it was so overwhelming.

But I really love bartending. I’m happy, and that’s all that matters.

I do get wanderlusty moments, still. But honestly, where do you go after falling in love with New Orleans?”

We Partyin’ Punch 1 1/2 ounces La Favorite Rhum Agricole Blanc Coeur de Canne 1/2 ounce Aperol 1/2 ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur 3/4 ounce lime juice 1/4 ounce simple syrup

1/8 ounce bitters (see recipe in the online version of this story on offbeat.com) Strawberry Big Shot soda Pineapple Big Shot soda Lime Jasmine Stir together the first six ingredients in a rocks glass. Add ice and top off with the two sodas.

Garnish with a slice of lime and a sprig of fresh jasmine in season. www.OFFBEAT.com

FRENCH Café Degas: 3127 Esplanade Ave., 945-5635 La Crepe Nanou: 1410 Robert St., 899-2670

GERMAN 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

NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS 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 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 B.B. King’s Blues Club: 1104 Decatur St., 934-5464 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

PIZZA 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 Deanie’s Seafood: 841 Iberville St., 581-1316; 1713 Lake Ave. Metairie, 834-1225 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

Martin Krusche hits the

Adolfo’s: 611 Frenchmen St., 948-3800 Little Vic’s: 719 Toulouse St., 304-1238

JAPANESE/KOREAN/SUSHI/THAI

Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683 Warehouse Grille: 869 Magazine St., 322-2188

Spot

What are you eating?

I always get the Pho Tai, with the thinly sliced raw beef that’s just dropped in the hot soup. You can get big or small—small is good enough for me. And for an appetizer—especially if you’re two people—the two rice paper spring rolls and two fried egg rolls. The combination of the rolls and the soup does the trick.

Did you ever try pho with tripe (omosa)?

[Vigorously shaking head.]

No! The texture is not for me.

Is this your favorite place for pho? It’s quite a hike to get out here.

Yes, but I also like Lilly’s Café on Magazine Street, in New Orleans proper.

Their meat is the most tender.

Pho Bang —Elsa Hahne 14367 Chef Menteur Hwy Martin Krusche leads Magnetic Ear, whose latest album, Live at Vaughan’s, can be New Orleans East found at the Louisiana Music Factory.

(504) 254-3929 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

Hard Rock Café: 125 Bourbon St., 529-5617 House of Blues: 225 Decatur St., 412-8068 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

DINING OUT

Blue Oak BBQ When the sun set on the ninth annual edition of Hogs for the Cause on Saturday, April 1st, Ronnie Evans, Philip Moseley and their merry band of teammates—all clad in their signature baby blue Hogwaiian shirts— stood victoriously on the stage and showered themselves with champagne in celebration of being named Grand Champion. The award was an exclamation point on a banner year for the proprietors of Blue Oak BBQ, which has emerged from the relative obscurity of the kitchen in Chickie Wah Wah to be a leader in what has become a deep and competitive roster of local barbecue restaurants. But behind the glitz, the glamour and the groupies is a team of pitmasters who simply love the smell of smoked meats in the morning.

While treading lightly so as not to undermine their accomplishment in the pork-centric Hogs for the Cause competition, I dare say that the noble pig is not the pièce de résistance in Blue

www.OFFBEAT.com

Oak’s repertoire. That title instead belongs to the brisket, whose salty, fatty black pepper crust gives way to meltingly tender beef. Or maybe the honor goes to the ever-so-saucy smoked and flash-fried chicken wings, which may cause Blue Oak to hoist another trophy if a poultry category is ever added to the official/unofficial judging criteria. Those two viable candidates aside, my mind still keeps wandering back to the nachos, a shameless but expertly constructed conglomerate of pulled pork, queso, pico de gallo and diced pickled jalapeños atop rafts of crispy tortilla chips.

But don’t dismiss the simplicity of a rack of St. Louis–style spare ribs with their caramelized exterior and toothsome bite. Spicy green-onion sausage matches well with either chopped brisket or pulled pork in the Doobin Lubin sandwich, topped by slaw on a Weiss Guys Bakery sesame seed bun. Speaking of slaw, while most customers opt for the roasted garlic mac ‘n’ cheese or the brussels sprouts (both of which are worth ordering), instead adhere to tradition with the ginger cole slaw flaked with sesame seeds (which is anything but traditional) and the baked beans, which are more meaty than sweet.

Located in the former location of Fellini’s at the foot of Carrollton Avenue near City Park, Blue Oak is a prime destination for

Photo: RENEE BIENVENU

EATS

pre- and post-festing. Place your food order at the counter and then head over to the bar for a pint of a dozen or so local and regional craft brews on tap, or an Old Fashioned made with one of the 40-plus whiskies on offer.

Grab a seat inside or at a table underneath an umbrella on the patio, wait for your order to be delivered, and savor the smoky flavors of success.

—Peter Thriffiley 900 N. Carrollton Ave.; Tue–Sun: 11a–9p; (504) 822-2583, blueoakbbq.com

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REVIEWS

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

Stupendous and eye-opening

Jon Cleary Live at Chickie Wah Wah (FHQ Records) This is Jon Cleary’s first solo piano album. Since Jon is as good as anyone at performing the New Orleans R&B/funk songbook, people have been waiting eons for this. As wonderful as his band the Monster Gentlemen are the intimacy of a man and his piano is special.

The base of Cleary’s style is Mac Rebennack and, to a lesser extent, Professor Longhair. But he is in fact an encyclopedia of African-American music from the 1940s to (perhaps) the 1980s.

His knowledge of R&B, funk, gospel, reggae, Cuban music—no one connects New Orleans to Cuba more suavely—and boogiewoogie is profound, leading to a splendid rhythmic freedom.

And his fantastic voice, a more conventionally beautiful one than his idols’, is full of melismatic invention and fervor.

This CD is divided evenly between originals and covers.

I’ve heard Jon over 100 times, I’m sure, but don’t recall tunes like Jessie Hill’s jolly “Sweet Jelly Roll,” nor “Guess Who?” or the achingly ferocious “My Baby’s in Love with Another Guy.” Among Jon’s originals are Cleary hits (if anyone in New Orleans has hits any

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longer) from earlier band albums: “Unnecessarily Mercenary,” “So Damn Good” and the ingenious “When You Get Back.”

My favorite track would have to be “The Very Thought of You,” a Great American Songbook standard from 1934.

Usually played as a swing ballad, Jon’s R&B approach is eyeopening, and his vocals are just stupendous. I’d love to hear JC do a whole piano/vocal album of old standards (his “Stardust” is killer too), but will settle for anything he puts out. As a NOLA singer, pianist and songwriter he’s hard to match.

—Tom McDermott

Shawn Williams Shadow (Independent) If you’ve ever been to the “Stella”-shouting contest that happens in Jackson Square to honor Tennessee Williams every March, you’ll understand why Shawn Williams’ “Stella” is a song that needed to be written. The singer manages to channel Stanley Kowalski at his most hell-bent—no small feat for a woman whose deep voice and languid singing style bring Shannon McNally to mind. And she treats the Streetcarthemed lyric as an excuse for some good dirty fun, letting the character work up steam for the inevitable shouts at the end.

Shawn Williams already spends plenty of time on the radio—in her other life, she’s an on-air personality on The Alternative 106.1—so she’s probably got fewer qualms about recording songs that don’t stand a chance in hell of getting airplay. She drops some “fucks”

into a few songs, and “You Got Some Growin’ Up to Do,” the other standout tune on her debut, is hopped-up punkabilly that’s frank about why she’s dumping the guy in question. But on the other hand, she’s got a good sense of what makes for a good radio sound: The production gets close to arena-big at times, and her voice is always front and center. And when she wants to get respectable, she’s more than able: “Gone Again” is a love song Stevie Nicks would love; “Shake Shake Shake” cops a Petty-esque heartland rock sound with its power chords and Hammond, and the country ballad “What If I Stayed” is almost a Nashville readymade. It’s easy to imagine her going for the gold if she tones down the words and turns down the guitars, which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t catch her in the meantime.

—Brett Milano

Canebreakers Still Lives (Independent) With its members now spread across the Pelican State, the Lake Charles–rooted Canebreakers didn’t have months to record a new album like it did for its auspicious debut Frame and Floor.

So it did the next best thing: gather together and record these six tracks in two efficient sessions. It’s a very live, minimally overdubbed sound that’s a cross between folk and early Wilcoinfluenced alt-country. Having three songwriters in the fold is what makes the Canebreakers appealing since different personalities, writing styles and vocal inflections are showcased.

A few tracks feel like alternating songwriters in the round accompanied by gentle, rolling fingerpicking and minimalist arrangements.

Road trip reflections are a recurring theme with mostly worries and regrets haunting the sojourning protagonist.

Taylor Clements’ “Worry in Mind (Coyote)” is a fictionalized account of a French Quarter performer pondering about his life beyond the stage. While Clements wrote three songs and Jon Paul Zimmermann two, Mason Feduccia penned only one, the blockbuster “Pequot” about a Massachusetts Native American tribe being brutally slaughtered by colonists in the seventeenth century. Camryn Clements’ rumbly piano playing adds impact to this tragic tale of early North American ethnic cleansing.

—Dan Willging www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS

Will Payne Harrison East Nashville Blues (Independent) Anyone who thinks a musician’s life is nothing but free rides and cashed checks should press play on the title track of Will Payne Harrison’s East Nashville Blues.

The Louisiana native and current Nashville dweller sings about being broke and not being able to afford the rent in Music City. His lack of funds takes him all over the Nashville area to places like Hendersonville and Antioch, but he is still broke. Even after he scores a hit song, he still has three roommates. It is a wakeup call a lot of folks need to hear—not only to value those who give so much to our culture and economy but also those who think a decent grasp of three chords and voice that doesn’t scare cats can make them set for life. It is the kind of honesty he lives and breathes in his music. Harrison fills the rest of East Nashville Blues with this honesty, a good grasp on string-filled Americana and a voice that—while not pop-star immaculate or rock-star strong— won’t scare cats.

Harrison frames his honest but fabricated singer/songwriter style with an early-morning Americana alt-country sound—sleepy fiddles, dobro, nonchalant percussion.

Easy, clean and humble, this, his follow-up to Louisiana Summer, is well-written but simple. Very sparse melancholy string songs like “Shame” and others, like “Poor Man Blues,” reflect an easygoing spirit you can hear throughout in Harrison’s voice.

As he sings on East Nashville Blues, Harrison hopes that he will make it someday. This record won’t blow up his bank account www.OFFBEAT.com

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REVIEWS but it does showcase the hard work and talent that make his high-rent lifestyle in Nashville worth it.

—Nick Pittman

Brown’s high-flying extensions.

Hip-hop master Talib Kweli appropriately makes a guest appearance on the politically charged “Stand Up.” In the liners, Brown remembers his father wisely telling him, “Stand up for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

The Mood continues Maurice Brown’s reputation as a musician who expertly combines the seriousness of jazz music and the fundamental elements of joy.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

Maurice Brown The Mood (Ropeadope) Maurice “Mobetta” Brown boasts a signature sound that stems from the soulfulness of his trumpet playing and, in many cases, his memorable melodies.

Brown, a Chicago native who spent some significantly formative years in New Orleans, also provides what could be called Maurice-isms, little nuances that make the trumpeter quickly recognizable. Two tunes, “On My Way Home” and “Serendipity”— both very danceable numbers— are good examples of Brown’s distinctive melodic phrasing. They both happen to team him with his old blowin’ partner, New Orleans saxophonist Derek Douget. These guys complement each other while engaging in a conversation of musical understanding and direction.

Chelsea Baratz takes over sax duties on the internationally flavored “Moroccan Dancehall,” which is rhythmically driven by drummer Joe Blaxx and percussionist Weedie Braimah.

Brown’s aggressive horn suggests a rallying call with Baratz responding to the command by really taking off.

The tune “Shenanigans” is right up Brown’s alley with its stick-inthe-brain repetitive refrain. The big, two-handed chords of pianist Kris Bowers lay down a solid foundation for both Baratz and

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Various Artists Cajun Accordion Kings (and the Queen) (Valcour Records) On Cajun Accordion Kings (and the Queen), producers Joel Savoy and Steve Riley turn back the clock and give the accordion—and the accordion alone—a gracious spotlight.

It is the antithesis of dressed up for Saturday night Cajun music, with its full band sound.

Kings, instead, is stripped down to the core, just accordion in a variety of playing and song styles.

Though majority traditional songs and mostly instrumental, there’s a nice blend of waltzes and twosteps with a few surprises along the way. For one, Robert Jardell takes on the quintessential Cajun string song “Jolie Blonde.”

The title isn’t hyperbole as the compilation features many crownworthy modern squeezers and seasoned veterans such as Jo-el Sonnier, Marc Savoy, Riley himself, Wayne Toups, Bruce Daigrepont, Paul Daigle, Ray Abshire and the queen Sheryl Cormier.

In the liner notes, Riley writes that he hears ghosts on the

Sanchez’ straight-out rock rocks Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show Life Is a Ride (Independent) For a lot of New Orleans musicians, the flood and forced depopulation of the city after Katrina was a slow motion train wreck that piled disaster upon disaster and either ended in tragedy or still hasn’t stopped. You didn’t have to die immediately in the flood to be killed by it.

Some musicians and artists in other disciplines have managed to sublimate this tragedy into their work. Their art flourished even as their lives fell apart. It’s an old story, familiar to the people whose ancestors were brought here in chains or arrived as refugees fleeing religious persecution. When all else fails, music has the power to sustain the spirit and bear witness to the horror of history.

Paul Sanchez is one of those New Orleans musicians who found deep strength in his work even as the comforts of home life disintegrated.

Katrina robbed him of his house, his job and eventually his marriage.

12 years later he’s living a nomadic existence, a restless traveler touring the world while he sings and writes about the experience. The personal agony has inspired his songwriting and considerable storytelling ability, and led him to seek out new collaborations.

His latest album, Life Is a Ride, is a new array of material, some songs co-written by friends like Alex McMurray, his partner in the Write Brothers, his old Cowboy Mouth sidekick Vance DeGeneres and Threadhead Records founder Chris Joseph.

Joseph has been a stalwart friend to Sanchez since the flood, arranging financing for his solo projects through the Threadhead Foundation and backing productions of Nine Lives. Joseph also went through some personal problems in recent years, topped off by discovering he has a critical illness. Joseph’s bucket list was to co-write some songs with Sanchez, and the results are impressive.

Joseph and Sanchez co-wrote three songs on the album, including the title track, which McMurray also had a hand in. In “Long Gone Used To Be,” Joseph and Sanchez commiserate on the end of a romantic relationship and partnership: “Suddenly love left/ Vanished like a thief/ It’s gone, long gone used to be.”

On the other songs Joseph and Sanchez turn to philosophizing to try to understand the implications of being told you’ve got an imminent appointment with the grim reaper. When death comes, not suddenly and unexpectedly, but with a formal medical notice, you get to comment on your own life from a distance. That’s what happens in “Tears of Healing”: “You never know what life will throw at you/ Go with the flow wherever you go/ Do what you got to do/ To get on with dealing. This river of tears/ Turns into tears of healing.”

In this context “healing” becomes an incremental victory over despair rather than a full medical recovery. The body may fail but the spirit can certainly heal.

The album’s final track, “Mary Hold the Candle,” an uplifting gospel-inspired reverie. With backing from Royal Fingerbowl, the cast from Nine Lives and a few other fellow travelers, Life Is a Ride rocks with joy—it’s the best straight-out rock record Sanchez has cut in years—and the songs continue his own saga, hitting the open road, telling tales of parties long gone, remembering loves, singing praise to his fans and never forgetting the need for “A Small Vacation.” Which is a good thing to remember when you’re heading for The Big One. —John Swenson www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS record—ghosts of the music and the culture’s past. There’s truth to that. Yet you can also hear building blocks clacking in place for the music’s future and a potential return to accordiondominated Cajun sounds.

—Nick Pittman

Heads of State Four in One (Smoke Sessions Records) This is real hard-boppin’ jazz played by some of its legendary masters: saxophonist Gary Bartz, pianist Larry Willis, drummer Al Foster and bassist David Williams.

The all-star ensemble of veteran artists got together for a show in New York in 2014 (then with bassist Buster Williams onboard) and enjoyed it so much that the musicians decided to keep the party going. The Heads of State made their recording debut with 2015’s Search for Peace, which paid tribute to pianist McCoy Tyner. The band also performed a tremendous set at last year’s Jazz Fest.

Four in One offers the same superbly creative soloing and intuitive ensemble work as the group’s debut. This time out, the repertoire is expanded with more original material from each of the band members mixed successfully with well-chosen selections from other jazz greats.

It opens with Bartz and Foster mixing it up on the title cut, Thelonious Monk’s “Four in One,” before the rest of the band jumps in. One after the other, these remarkable musicians strut their stuff as soloists in what could be considered an old-school format.

Hey, with heavies like these, it still www.OFFBEAT.com

works and always will.

Bartz’s pen provided “And He Called Himself a Messenger.”

Williams’ bass introduces the tune and Bartz’s very individualized sax is up first. Willis, without hesitation, takes over with his big chords and flying fingers. Foster’s insistent drums urge them on.

Foster, who in his long career hasn’t really been known as a composer, shows his talent in that realm with “Aloysius,” which appropriately starts with a mighty drum roll. The bright selection is followed by Willis’ heart-breaking slow and gentle “The Day You Said Goodbye.” Bartz’s breathy saxophone echoes that emotion and Williams’ fat bass tone adds further poignancy.

Williams’ “Keep the Master in Mind,” on which he utilizes his bow, is also quietly reflective.

Bartz’s saxophone lightens the mood of this melodically rich tune.

Between these originals, the Heads of State work out on classic material from Wayne Shorter, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and more. At the end, these geniuses wisely land on the imaginative saxophonist Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance.” Its quirkiness fits these jazz giants well and takes the brilliant Four in One out high-steppin’.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

Soul Science Lab Plan for Paradise (Independent) Soul Science Lab’s Plan for Paradise—featuring New Orleans native Asante Amin—is likely the most eclectic hip-hop record out this year.

Somehow without sounding disjointed, the record boils down and congeals the OutKast duality of out-of-this-world future sounds and Southern rap; chopped and trap beats; political, spiritual and socially conscious lyrics and the actual musicianship of the Roots; tons of hip-hop similes and metaphors that reference such far-flung subjects as Mansa Musa and McLovin from Superbad; a couple tastes of brass MAY 2 017

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REVIEWS and funk sounds from the Crescent City; obscure samples and a modern rap meets Jungle Brothers flow that also sports their acceptance of electronica elements. In short, it could be mistaken for a mash up of the Crystal Method’s “Keep Hope Alive” and Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” at a #BLM march.

Though Soul Science Lab are young and cool enough to use words in ways they aren’t supposed to be used, they are talented enough to make them sound right—their use of “infinite” on “We So Infinite” is this year’s “basic.”

The high water mark of the record, instead, has a higher purpose. “I Can’t Breathe” is a ferocious track that meets a soul singer’s pleas with the brutal answer of “Fuck Yo’ Breath.” Like a sidewalk full of broken bottles of all types, Plan for Paradise’s varied influences somehow make an intricate mosaic. Though it is a fascinating listen and with few standout tracks—“Built My City” is a great example of their boundless sound—there’s a lot of build but enough bang. Plan for Paradise is one hot hook away from launching Soul Science Lab and their message into the mainstream pop culture conversation.

—Nick Pittman

Extended Extended (Independent) Extended is a trio with pianist Oscar Rossignoli, bassist Matt Booth and drummer Brad Webb. If those names don’t sound familiar, they soon might as these are some extremely talented young cats on the jazz scene. As heard throughout this excellent album, these musicians, individually and as an ensemble, cannot be denied. On the opening cut, “Doce Lunas,” composed

by Honduran-born New Orleans resident Rossignoli, the group’s edginess makes an immediate impression. It has attitude. The second selection, “Actually,” this time from the pen of Webb, continues that confident vibe. The furious pace that evolves from the

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gentle start of “Never Odd or Even” startles with its unexpectedness. It’s a quality that permeates the album full of original material contributed by all three artists.

Bassist Booth offers a quieter mood and slower tempo on “Before Grey” while Webb’s drums maintain a tap-dancing rhythmic undercurrent.

Rossignoli’s classic training is in evidence at the opening of another, somewhat more meditative number, Webb’s “What If.” A taste of the pianist’s Honduran homeland briefly enters on “Neck and Neck.”

These three musicians sound as if they were destined to play with each other. Their interactions, improvisations and the seamless way their compositions flow from cut to cut feel instinctive.

Extended exemplifies creativity.

—Geraldine Wyckoff

Doombalaya Pants on Fiya (Independent) A band like Doombalaya more or less lives to take challenges and turn them into art, which is what you come to expect from the many rockfunk bands somehow produced by the Tulane Jazz program. (Only in New Orleans.) These are, after all, classically trained world travelers who take all that musical knowledge and apply it to real-world, down-home constructs that the simplest person could get into. Yet they’ve nearly doubled down on their vision here, adding a drummer, beefing up the horn section, adding a female singer (again, from the Jazz program) and featuring two new songs from the percussionist, prominently featured as bookends along the usual ideas from co-leaders Ethan Stern and David Bode.

Clearly, Doombalaya knows how www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS to let some air into a concept, and it works beautifully, even after a three-year recording hiatus: They’re picking up right where they left off on 2013’s debut, Dinner, polishing their party-ready fusion of progressive jazzrock and Afro-funk. Jason Winikoff’s added polyrhythms don’t complicate matters: He only gives them an extra color on the sonic palette. On “Those Were the Days” and especially the album’s emotional centerpiece, “Be,” however, new vocalist Jenna

Winston matches the majesty of their five-piece horn section note for blue note, taking their self-discovery and putting it into full flight. They can still jam as well as anybody, especially with the added components, but they must really be feeling themselves these days: Why else would you end your new album with a danceable yet somehow still pensive pass at Radiohead’s “Airbag”? With its own raucous guitar majesty left intact?

—Robert Fontenot

Ellis performing Ellis The Ellis Marsalis Quintet The Ellis Marsalis Quintet Plays the Music of Ellis Marsalis (ELM) Ellis Marsalis is known as an extraordinary pianist, influential jazz educator and the patriarch of the renowned Marsalis musical dynasty. His peers, jazz aficionados and many next-generation jazz musicians, particularly those who came up under his tutelage, remain aware of Ellis’ gifts as a composer.

Under the direction of the album’s producer, Marsalis’ son, Jason Marsalis, a fine selection of tunes from Ellis’ rich songbook stands on one recording. The Ellis Marsalis Quintet Plays the Music of Ellis Marsalis isn’t a compilation of previously recorded tunes. Rather, the leader and composer reinvestigates his own material with his working quintet. These guys, saxophonist Derek Douget, trumpeter Ashlin Parker, bassist Jason Stewart and drummer Stephen Gordon, all of whom are decades younger than Marsalis, bring their own fresh energy and flavor to the session.

Marsalis has always represented a certain sense of the timelessness of jazz.

He’ll throw in a musical quote or reference to the past as he does on perhaps one of his best known songs, “12’s It.” On the other hand, “Tell Me” shines modern from start to finish with the pianist digging into the tune’s raging tempo, though with his natural ease—he’s never rushed. The horns on the front line are in superb unison and drummer Gordon is dramatically all over the place but always right on time. Watch out for Douget’s formidable solo.

Listeners expect elegance from Ellis Marsalis; it’s an element of his playing that remains a constant and is best realized here on his beautiful intro to “Orchid Blue.” It sways with Parker’s trumpet providing the “voice” of the tune.

There’s a funny little interlude that precedes “Dippy” that is so ’70s, it’s bound to bring a grin. “Dippy” continues the bow to the, well, “Laugh-In” era though it comes around to more recent times by Douget’s blowing.

The album musically moves to some furious hard-boppin’ on another one of Marsalis’ more often performed songs, “Zee’s Blues.” The pianist pounds it, again with his typical relaxed composure. Then “Zee’s Blues” just starts screamin’.

The Ellis Marsalis Quintet Plays the Music of Ellis Marsalis might seem like a rather simplistically humorous title for this fine album. Yet its name tells it like it is—Ellis performing Ellis, a musician who stands as the forever searching master invigorating the tunes of his lifetime.

—Geraldine Wyckoff www.OFFBEAT.com

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Find complete listings at offbeat.com—when you’re out, use offbeat.com/mobile for full listings on any cell phone.

Listings

EXPRESS

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

TUESDAY MAY 16

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Mark Weliky (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (JV) 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) 7p, Elvis DeLarge (CB) 9:30p Columns Hotel: John Rankin and Paul Sanchez (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Dmac’s: Carson Station (BL) 8p Dos Jefes: Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p House of Blues: the Damned, the BellRays (PK) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz National Historical Park: Richard “Piano” Scott (TJ) 12p Jazz Playhouse: Ricardo Pascal Orchestra (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: NOLA Dukes (VR) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Claire and the Company, Gregory Agid, Ricio and Reeces Pieces (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Old U.S. Mint: Down on Their Luck Orchestra (JV) 2p

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Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Ray’s on the Avenue: Bobby Love and Friends (BL) 8p Siberia: Nordjeval, Imperial Triumphant, Witch Burial (ME) 9p SideBar NOLA: Carlo Nuccio and Jonathan Freilich Duo (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: NOCCA Jazz Ensemble (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: 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 and Spirits: Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland (JV) 7p Three Muses: Sam Friend (JV) 5p, Messy Cookers (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9:15p

WEDNESDAY MAY 17

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Jesse Morrow (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Candlelight Lounge: Andrews Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Mike Doussan Band (VR) 10p Circle Bar: the Iguanas (RK) 7p, Dark and Shiny S.I.Night (IL) 10p 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 Dmac’s: Kenny Triche and Steve (BL) 8p Dos Jefes: George French Trio (RB) 9:30p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Joscoe Bird, Sabine McCalla, Black Suzie (SS) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Rougarou (VR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Russ Wake Up (VR) 9:30p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Will Dickerson (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesdays at the Square feat.Tank and the Bangas (VR) 5p Little Gem Saloon: Marc Stone (BL) 7p Maison: Dinosaurchestra, Jazz Vipers, Sam Price and the True Believers (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Jason Ricci’s Wedding Celebration (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 All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Yat Pack (SI) 8p Siberia: Lazer Background, Video Age, Izzy True, Rudy Stoned Band (RK) 9p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra (BL) 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 and Spirits: Bart Ramsey (JV) 3p, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p

Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Schatzy (VR) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p

THURSDAY MAY 18

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, the Courtyard Kings (JV) 7:30p Banks Street Bar: Lost in the Holler (FO) 9p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Bullet’s: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Café Negril: Revival (JV) 6p, Soul Project (FK) 9:30p the Cannery: Innocence Project Fundraiser feat.

Original Pinettes (BB) 6:30p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Natalie Mae and Gina Leslie (CW) 7p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: MainLine (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Donacello, NEX (RK) 9p; Upstairs: Soundclash (HH) 9p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Noelle Tannen Band, Kaya Nicole, Elizabeth McBride (SS) 9p Houston’s Restaurant: Hansen presents Garden District Trio (JV) 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: Dave Bandrowski (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (BB) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (TJ) 7p Maison: 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: Ogden After Hours feat. Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 6p One Eyed Jacks: X 40th Anniversary Tour (VR) 7p, Fast Times ‘80s and ‘90s Night (VR) 10p Orpheum Theater: Pepe Romero and the ThreeCornered Hat (CL) 7:30p Palm Court Jazz Café: Banu Gibson and Duke Heitger with Crescent City Joymakers (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Lil Nathan (ZY) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: Move Beyond feat. Julianne and Derek Hough (DN) 7:30p Siberia: Helen Gillet and the Wazozo Orchestra (MJ) 9p SideBar NOLA: Karl “Pickles” Kummerle and Martin Masakowski (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Spencer Bohren (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Davis Rogan (JV) 3p, Tom Witek Band (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 Muses Maple: Mia Borders (VR) 7p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Reckless Kelly, Blue Water Highway (VR) 9p

Tropical Isle Bourbon: Beach Combers (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p

FRIDAY MAY 19

Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Harmonouche (JV) 5p, Willie Green Project (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Riverside Jazz Collective (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Keith Burnstein (VR) 6p, Marina Orchestra (VR) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Café Negril: Jamie Lynn Vessels (JV) 4p, Dana Abbott (JV) 7p, Higher Heights (RE) 10p Champions Square: Kidz Bop (PO) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Paul Sanchez (RR) 8p Circle Bar: Rik Slave’s Country Persuasion (CW) 7p, Viva l’American Death Ray Music (PK) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers (ZY) 10p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dmac’s: Dave Feratto and Stan Cuquet Jam Session (BL) 8p Dos Jefes: Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots (ZY) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 11p; 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 Hi-Ho Lounge: Second Hand Street Band, Ainsley Matich and the Broken Blues (VR) 8p, Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10:30p Historic New Orleans Collection: Concerts in the Courtyard feat. the Sweet Olive String Band (JV) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Justine Skye (RB) 9p House of Blues: Bustout Burlesque feat. the Bustout Jazz Band (BQ) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Humble Kind, the Widowers (VR) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Cam’ron, Juelz Santana (VR) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Luther Kent (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Joy Theater: Band of Horses (RK) 9p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Naydja Cojoe (RB) 7:30p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 4p, Big Easy Brawlers, No Good Deed (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Ari Teitel Band feat. Donnie Sundal, Terence Higgins, Eric Benny Bloom and Eric Vogel (VR) 11p Marigny Opera House: OperaCréole presents La Flamenca (CL) 7p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Old Point Bar: Rick Trolsen (PI) 5p, Jamie Lynn Vessels (RK) 9:30p Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Brass feat. Daniel “Weenie” Farrow (TJ) 8p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Wiseguys (VR) 9:30p Siberia: the Incorrigible Danny Pearson, Alexandra Scott, Stoo Odom (FO) 6p, Garden Marbles, Bunch, Toonces, Pony Hunt (FO) 9p Smoothie King Center: New Kids of the Block, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men (PO) 7:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Monty Banks (JV) 3p, Russell Welch’s Mississippi Gipsy (JV) 3p St. Alphonsus Art and Cultural Center: Holy Warriors feat. Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, Helen Gillet, Matt Hampsey, Calvin Johnson, James Singleton, Bill Summers, Rick Trolsen, Cole Williams (VR) 8p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 5p, Monty Banks (JV) 8p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p

SATURDAY MAY 20

Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Red Organ Trio (JV) 4p, Jasen Weaver Band (JV) 7:30p Blue Nile: Balcony Room: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Quartet (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Dapper Dandies (JV) 6p, Davis Rogan (VR) 9p Café Istanbul: HOPfest NOLA feat. Volume Overload, Sexy Dex and the Fresh, Sexual Thunder, Delish Da Goddess (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots with Johnny Sansone (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, Brass-A-Holics (BB) 11p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 9p Dmac’s: Ambrose and Company (BL) 9p Dos Jefes: Joe Krown Trio (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Kaya Nicole (SS) 5p, Baby Giants Jazz Band (JV) 7p; 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: Vallis Alps, Kweku Collins (EL) 10p Green Zebra Bar: the Deft Funk DJ’s Uptown Getdown (FK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Drunktoons (CO) 7p, Hustle feat.

DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p Houston’s Restaurant: Hansen presents Garden District Trio (JV) 6:45p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Chuck Inglish (VR) 10p Jazz National Historical Park: Luther Grey (AF) 12p, Music for All Ages with Bud Holmes (TJ) 2p Jazz Playhouse: Tom Hook (JV) 5:30p, Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Van Hudson (FO) 5p, Invisible Cowboy Band (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Royal Street Winding Boys, Smoking Time Jazz Band (JV) 1p, the Wahala Boys, Raw Deal (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Russell Batiste and friends (VR) 11p Marigny Opera House: OperaCréole presents La Flamenca (CL) 7p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old Point Bar: Revival (RK) 9:30p Gillet, Matt Hampsey, Calvin Johnson, James Singleton, Bill Summers, Rick Trolsen, Cole Williams (VR) 2p Orpheum Theater: Pepe Romero and the ThreeCornered Hat (CL) 7:30p

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Palm Court Jazz Café: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Jazz Masters feat.

Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Mia Kylie Band, DJ Majik Mike (VR) 10p Siberia: Shannon Ridout, Julie Odell, Esther Rose (SS) 6p, Happy Talk Band CD-release show, Helen Gillet, Washboard Chaz (RR) 9p Snug Harbor: Dr. Michael White and Original Liberty Jazz Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks (JV) 12p, Russell Welch’s Gipsy Jazz (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Molly Reeves (JV) 10a, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): HOUxNOLA with CoolNasty feat. Jack Freeman and guest, DJ Big Reeks and DJ Ben Shive (SO) 9p Three Muses Maple: Davy Mooney (JV) 5p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a Tipitina’s: Tipitina’s Graduation Throwdown feat.

Sexual Thunder, Miss Mojo, Aaron Cohen Band, Palaye Royale (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 MAY 21

AllWays Lounge: Steve DeTroy and the Swing Revue (TJ) 9p Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, the Tradsters (JV) 4p, Roamin’ Jasmine (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Steve DeTroy (JV) 4p, Steve Pistorius, Orange Kellin, James Evans and Benny Amon (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Shaggy’s Crawfish Boil (VR) 3p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Kettle Black (VR) 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 Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour Open Mic (CO) 8p, Stripped Into Submission (BQ) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Jazz and Heritage Center: Classical Music Sundays feat. Tori Lambert and Alden Devoe (CL) 4p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Irish Session (FO) 5p, Beth Patterson (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: the Diaz Trio (JV) 11a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Kristina Morales (JV) 10a, Leah Rucker, Higher Heights (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (FK) 10p Marigny Opera House: OperaCréole presents La Flamenca (CL) 7p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Café: Lucien Barbarin and Mark Braud with Sunday Night Swingsters (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: Sigur Ros (VR) 8p Siberia: A Place To Bury Strangers, Bottom Feeders, Trance Farmers, the Detail (PK) 9p Snug Harbor: the Organic Trio with Brian Seeger (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (JV) 2p, MAY 2 017

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Novos Sapatos (JV) 10a Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p

MONDAY MAY 22

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Helen Gillet (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Joe Krown (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Carver Theater: Ooh Poo Pah Doo Monday Blues (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Alex Bosworth (SS) 8p Circle Bar: Phil the Tremelo King (VR) 7p, the Poppy Field (EL) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Chappy (SS) 7p, Soul Brass Band (BB) 10p Dmac’s: Danny Alexander and the Monday Night Blues Jam Session (BL) 8p Dragon’s Den: Monday Night Swing feat. Jeff Kreis and the Crescent City Blue Blowers (JV) 7p, 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 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 (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr. and guests (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Black Lips, Surbfort, DJ Jubilee (VR) 8p Orpheum Theater: Golden Dawn Arkestra (VR) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5 & 8p Siberia: Flat Duo Jets, Planchettes, Luxurious Faux Furs, DJ D. Lefty Parker (RK) 9p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 12p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Sam Cammarata (JV) 3p, Carolyn Broussard (JV) 6p Three Muses: Bart Ramsey (JV) 5p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Beach Combers (RK) 9p

TUESDAY MAY 23

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Mark Weliky (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Columns Hotel: John Rankin and Spencer Bohren (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Dos Jefes: Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Progression Music Series (JV) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Jazz National Historical Park: Richard “Piano” Scott (TJ) 12p Jazz Playhouse: KC and the Irresistibles (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Charlie Miller (PI) 7p

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Maison Bourbon: Mark Wayne Rhythm and Blues Band (JV) 3p Maison: Novos Zapatos, Gregory Agid, CoolNasty (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Old U.S. Mint: Down on Their Luck Orchestra (JV) 2p Pour House Saloon: Spider Murphy and his Cosmic Open Mic Nite (VR) 8:30p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Siberia: Crown Larks, Bipolaroid, Jack and the Jackrabbits, Proud/Father (RK) 9p SideBar NOLA: Helen Gillet, Franz Hautzinger and Isabelle Duthoit (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Wayne Maureau Brazilian Jazz Project (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 2p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland (JV) 8p 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 MAY 24

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Jesse Morrow (JV) 7:30p Bamboulas: Bamboulas Hot Trio feat. Giselle Anguizola, Messy Cookers, Mem Shannon Band (VR) 2p Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Café Istanbul: Franz Hautzinger, Isabelle Duthoit and guests (VR) 9p Candlelight Lounge: Andrews Brass Band (BB) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Mike Doussan Band (VR) 10p Circle Bar: the Iguanas (RK) 7p, National LaGarde, Fury and the Whole World Shakes (RK) 9:30p 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 French Market: Patrick Cooper and Natasha Sanchez (FO) 2p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Moonchild (JV) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Think Less Hear More (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Deluna, Roadside Glorious (VR) 9p Jazz National Historical Park: Orchard Farm High School Jazz Band (JV) 12p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Paintbox with Dave James and Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesdays at the Square feat. Mia Borders, Sweet Crude (VR) 5p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (TJ) 7p Maison: Loose Marbles, Jazz Vipers (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: Raja Kassis Presents the Wahala Boys (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 All-Stars (TJ) 6p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Creole Stringbeans (SI) 8p Siberia: Beastmaker, Vaginal Bear Trap, Fat Stupid Ugly People, Pussyrot, Romasa (ME) 9p Snug Harbor: Prof. John Gary and Uptown Jazz Orchestra (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 and Spirits: Bart Ramsey (JV) 3p, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (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 MAY 25

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, the Courtyard Kings (JV) 7:30p Bamboulas: Kala Bazaar Swing Society, Jenavieve and the Royal Street Winding Boys, Swamp Donkeys (VR) 2p Banks Street Bar: Zac Maras Band (FO) 9p Bombay Club: Larry Scala (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and friends (JV) 8p Bullet’s: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 6p, John “Papa” Gros Band (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Little Freddie King (BL) 10p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 5:30p Dos Jefes: Loren Pickford Quartet (JV) 9:30p Dragon’s Den: Jason Danti Quartet (JV) 6p, Greazy Alice (RK) 9p; Upstairs: Unfortunate Side Effect, Phantom Fiction (RK) 9p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: the Orbiting Human Circus feat. the Music Tapes (ID) 8p Hi-Ho Lounge: Stefan, B. Tarell, Erika Flowers (SO) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8:30p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Michael Watson presents the Alchemy (TJ) 7p Maison: Tuba Skinny, Good For Nothin’ Band, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: Ogden After Hours feat. Lynn Drury (SS) 6p One Eyed Jacks: Fast Times ‘80s and ‘90s Night (VR) 10p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Gregg Stafford (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Geno Delafose (ZY) 8:30p SideBar NOLA: David Bandrowski and Calvin Martin Duo (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton CD-release show (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: the Protomen (VR) 7p 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 and Spirits: Davis Rogan (JV) 3p, Tom Witek Band (JV) 6p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Russell Welch (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

FRIDAY MAY 26

Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Harmonouche (JV) 5p, Willie Green Project (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: David Torkanowsky (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Phil DeGruy (VR) 6p, Ben Fox Trio (JV) 9p Bullet’s: Original Pinettes Brass Band (BB) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Kim Carson Band (SS) 8p Circle Bar: Rik Slave’s Country Persuasion (CW) 7p, Push Push, Mythological Hybrids (RK) 9:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p

Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 7p, the Tipping Point with DJ RQ Away (HH) 11p; 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 Hi-Ho Lounge: Relapse Dance Party with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10:30p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Poetry Night (SW) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Joe Krown (JV) 4p, Quiana Lynell (JV) 7p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Guitar Slim Jr. (BL) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Annual Bob Dylan Tribute with Foot and friends (FO) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 7:30p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Shotgun Jazz Band, RnR Music Group (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Sonic Bloom feat. Eric “Benny” Bloom (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Old Point Bar: Rick Trolsen (PI) 5p, Steve Mignano (RK) 9:30p Old U.S. Mint: Bellevue College Band (JV) 2p, Marina Crouse (BL) 8p One Eyed Jacks: Ty Segall (VR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Kevin Louis and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Legacy Band feat.

Wendell Brunious (TJ) 5p, Preservation Brass feat. Daniel “Weenie” Farrow (TJ) 8p Republic: the Mountain Goats, Holy Sons (ID) 8p, Ganja White Night, Bleep Bloop, Pleasure (EL) 11p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Karma (VR) 9:30p Siberia: Eyes Set To Kill, the Nearly Dead (PK) 9p 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 and Spirits: Monty Banks (JV) 6p, Russell Welch’s Mississippi Gipsy (JV) 6p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5p, Doro Wat Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 5p, Monty Banks (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p

SATURDAY MAY 27

Apple Barrel: Ricky T and the Rockets (BL) 10:30p Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, Red Organ Trio (JV) 4p, Jasen Weaver Band (JV) 7:30p Blue Nile: Balcony Room: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p Bombay Club: Leroy Jones (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11a, Davis Rogan (VR) 6p, Arsene DeLay (VR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Greazy Alice and friends (VR) 9p Circle Bar: Mod Dance Party with DJ Matty and DJ Kristen (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.: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 7p Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6:30p Dragon’s Den: Elizabeth McBride (SS) 5p, Claire and the Company (JV) 7p, Southern Dynasty DJs (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: Black Coffee (RK) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: the Rip Off Show (CO) 8p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister and DJ Mannie Fresh (FK) 11p Howlin’ Wolf: Rebirth 34th Anniversary Party (BB) 10p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Miss Trisha Presents the Voices of New Orleans feat. Jamie Lynn Vessels, Ron Hotstream and the Mid-City Drifters, Dick Deluxe Revue (SS) 10p Jazz Playhouse: Tom Hook (JV) 5:30p, Shannon Powell (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Neisha Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FO) 5p, Roux the Day (FO) 9p Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Leah Rucker, Smoking Time Jazz Band (VR) 1p, Brass-A-Holics, Big Easy Brawlers (BB) 10p Maple Leaf: Boukou Groove (VR) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old Point Bar: One Percent Nation (RK) 9:30p One Eyed Jacks: Where Y’acht (RK) 9p Orpheum Theater: Trey Songz presents Tremaine (RB) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Pontchartrain Vineyards: Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 6:30p Preservation Hall: Preservation Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 5p, Preservation AllStars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: 5th Annual Gentilly Get Together feat. Mo’ Jelly, F.A.S.T (VR) 8:30p Siberia: Alex McMurray (SS) 6p, Samothrace, He Whose Ox Is Gored, Recluse, Shadow Giant (ME) 9p Snug Harbor: Jacqui Naylor Quartet (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 Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Kitty Baudoin (JV) 10a, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Superdome: Bayou Country Superfest (CW) 5p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Three Muses Maple: Davy Mooney (JV) 5p Time Out: Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (VR) 11a Tropical Isle Bayou Club: the Troubadour (KJ) 1p, Bayou Cajun Swamp Band (KJ) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p

SUNDAY MAY 28

AllWays Lounge: Nahum Zydbel and the Blue Four (TJ) 9p Bacchanal: the Tangiers Combo (JV) 12p, the Tradsters (JV) 4p, Roamin’ Jasmine (JV) 7:30p Bombay Club: Larry Scala (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Rebecca Zoe Leigh and Sam Kuslan (JV) 4p, Gerald French Trio (VR) 7p Bullet’s: Big Frank and Lil Frank (RB) 6p Chickie Wah Wah: Shaggy’s Crawfish Boil (VR) 3p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 8p Circle Bar: Micah McKee and friends, Blind Texas Marlin (FO) 7p, Pearl Earl, Midriff (ID) 10p Columns Hotel: Chip Wilson (JV) 11a Crazy Lobster: the Gator Bites (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Bon Bon Vivant (JV) 10p Dos Jefes: Michael Mason and the NOCCA Alumni Band (JV) 9p 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 Open Mic (CO) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Irish House: Patrick Cooper (FO) 6p Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8p Little Gem Saloon: the Diaz Trio (JV) 11a

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Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Eight Dice Cloth, Roamin’ Jasmine, Brad Walker, Higher Heights (VR) 10a Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (FK) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old Point Bar: Amanda Walker (PI) 3:30p One Eyed Jacks: Fleetwood Mac Rumours 40th Anniversary Party (CR) 9p Palm Court Jazz Café: Mark Braud and Sunday Night Swingsters with Craig Klein (TJ) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars feat.

Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Siberia: Conan, North, Space Cadaver, Forming the Void (ME) 8p Snug Harbor: Khari Lee and New Creative Collective (JV) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: the Hot Shots (VR) 8p Spotted Cat: Carolyn Broussard (JV) 12p, Asylum Chorus (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10a Superdome: Bayou Country Superfest (CW) 5p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Moonshine Taste with Nicole Lynn Foxx and the Moonshine Players (VR) 10p Three Keys (Ace Hotel): Saints and Sinners Sunday Swing with Bon Bon Vivant and friends (SI) 12p, Moonshine Taste with Nicole Lynn Foxx and the Moonshine Players (VR) 7p Three Muses: Raphael et Pascal (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p UNO Lakefront Arena: Erykah Badu (SS) 8p

MONDAY MAY 29

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Helen Gillet (JV) 7:30p Bamboulas: Dinosaurchestra, Swinging Gypsies, Sunshine Brass Band (VR) 2p Bombay Club: Joe Krown (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Café Negril: Noggin (VR) 6p, In Business (JV) 9:30p Carver Theater: Ooh Poo Pah Doo Monday Blues (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Justin Molaison (VR) 6p, Alex McMurray and Papa Mali (SS) 8p Circle Bar: Phil the Tremelo King (VR) 7p, A Motown Monday with DJ Shane Love (RB) 10p Columns Hotel: David Doucet (KJ) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 7p, Soul Brass Band (BB) 10p Dmac’s: Danny Alexander and the Monday Night Blues Jam Session (BL) 8p Dos Jefes: John Fohl (BL) 9p Dragon’s Den: Monday Night Swing (JV) 7p, 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 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 Bourbon: Mark Wayne Rhythm and Blues Band (JV) 3p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Vegas Cola (JV) 4p Maple Leaf: the Porter Trio feat. George Porter Jr. and guests (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Mulate’s: La Touche (KJ) 7p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5 & 8p Siberia: Comic Strip (BQ) 9p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (JV) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Royal Street Winding Boys (JV) 12p, Sarah McCoy and the Oopsie Daisies (JV) 2p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. AllStars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p MAY 2 017

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Spotted Cat Food and Spirits: Sam Cammarata (JV) 3p, Carolyn Broussard (JV) 6p Three Muses: Monty Banks (JV) 5p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5:15p, Trop Rock Express (RK) 9:15p

TUESDAY MAY 30

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Mark Weliky (JV) 7:30p Bamboulas: Joe Goldberg Jazz Trio, Dana and the Boneshakers, Chance Bushmen and the Rhythm Stompers (VR) 3p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Tacos, Tequila and Tiaras with Vanessa Carr (VR) 8p Café Beignet (Musical Legends Park): Steamboat Willie Jazz Band (TJ) 10a Café Negril: 4 Sidemen of the Apocalypse (JV) 6p, John Lisi and Delta Funk (FK) 9:30p Champions Square: Train, O.A.R., Natasha Bedingfield (PO) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p Circle Bar: Carl LeBlanc (RB) 7p, the Noise Complaints (RK) 9:30p Columns Hotel: John Rankin and Matt Rhody (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Dinosaurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 10p Dmac’s: Texas Tex (BL) 8p Dos Jefes: Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p, Lincoln Durham (RK) 9p Jazz National Historical Park: Richard “Piano” Scott (TJ) 12p Jazz Playhouse: Nayo Jones Experience (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p

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Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop: Lucky Lee (SS) 9p Little Gem Saloon: Charlie Miller (PI) 7p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Geovane Santos, Gregory Agid, Kristina Morales (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Old U.S. Mint: Down on Their Luck Orchestra (JV) 2p Polo Club Lounge: David Boeddinghaus (JV) 6p Pour House Saloon: Spider Murphy and his Cosmic Open Mic Nite (VR) 8:30p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p Siberia: Vader, Internal Bleeding, Sacrificial Slaughter, Voices of Ruin, Micawber (ME) 7p SideBar NOLA: Brad Walker and David Bandrowski Duo (MJ) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (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 and Spirits: Dave Geare (JV) 3p, Geovane Santos Brazilian Jazz (JV) 6p Steamboat Natchez: Duke Heitger’s Steamboat Stompers (TJ) 11:30a & 2:30p, Dukes of Dixieland (DX) 7p Three Muses: Messy Cookers (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Gypsyland (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 MAY 31

Bacchanal: Raphael Bas (JV) 12p, Jesse Morrow (JV) 7:30p Bamboulas: Bamboulas Hot Trio feat. Giselle Anguizola, Messy Cookers, Mem Shannon Band (VR) 2p

Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Café Negril: Maid of Orleans (JV) 6p, Another Day in Paradise (JV) 9:30p Candlelight Lounge: Andrews Brass Band (BB) 8p Celebration Hall: TBC Brass Band (BB) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Mike Doussan Band (VR) 10p Circle Bar: the Iguanas (RK) 7p, Beyond the Darkness XVI (EL) 10p Columns Hotel: Andy Rogers (FO) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p Davenport Lounge (Ritz-Carlton): Jeremy Davenport (JV) 5:30p Dos Jefes: George French Trio (RB) 9:30p Dragon’s Den: Groove Therapy (HH) 9p, Reggae Night (RE) 10p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Kurt Metzger, Barry Crimmons (CO) 8p Irish House: Patrick Cooper (FO) 6p Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Little Gem Saloon: Reid Poole Duo (TJ) 7p Maison Bourbon: Mark Wayne Rhythm and Blues Band (JV) 3p Maison: Slick Skillet Serenaders, Jazz Vipers, Smoking on Some Brass (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Raja Kassis Presents (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Orpheum Theater: CeCe Winans (GS) 8p Palm Court Jazz Café: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (TJ) 8p Polo Club Lounge: David Boeddinghaus (JV) 6p Preservation Hall: Preservation All-Stars (TJ) 5p, Preservation All-Stars feat. Charlie Gabriel (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Boogie Men (SI) 8p Siberia: Newlyweds, Neutral Snap, Paris Avenue (RK) 9p Snug Harbor: Uptown Jazz Orchestra (BL) 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 and Spirits: Bart Ramsey (JV) 3p, Up Up We Go (JV) 6p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Russell Welch (JV) 8p Three Muses Maple: Lynn Drury (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5:15p, Late As Usual (RK) 9:15p

FESTIVALS MAY 19-21 The annual Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo on Bayou St. John features three stages of live music, food and art vendors and a kids’ stage.

TheBayouBoogaloo.com MAY 26-27 The Little Walter Music Festival takes place at the Alexandria Amphitheater. Facebook.com/ LittleWalterMusicFestival MAY 26-28 The New Orleans Greek Festival features live music, Greek food and drink, a run/walk and Hellenic dance performances. GreekFestNola.com

SPECIAL EVENTS ONGOING The New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint presents the exhibit “Pete Fountain: A Life Half-Fast.” MusicAtTheMint.org

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BACKTALK

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Tank and the Bangas

Fri. May 19, 6p Mothership Foundation Orleans Stage

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Tarriona “Tank” Ball talks back

Photo: ELSA HAHNE

ver 6,000 acts entered NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Contest, but when the 10 judges convened for a vote they landed on a unanimous winner: New Orleans’ own Tank and the Bangas. Led by the infectiously positive Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the genre-defying group blends clever spoken wordplay with laidback grooves and beautiful melodies to create a progressive sound that doesn’t even have a name yet (“neo-neosoul” just doesn’t have a ring to it).

“Tank and the Bangas is like a psychedelic joy rap explosion,” said contest judge and Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. “Like a female Sly Stone teleporting into 2017 and landing in New Orleans.”

“There is star power all over this,” noted judge and WFUV host Rita Houston. “From the flawless soulful vocals, to the ensemble camaraderie, to the playful presence of Tank, this one is going to bring a lot of joy to music fans everywhere.”

Needless to say, things have changed dramatically since the group’s triumphant victory.

The spotlight is shining on them like never before, and new fans from New Orleans and beyond are lining to see their exuberant performances (they’ve also picked up thousands of new fans on social media and their NPR set is nearing a million views on YouTube). I caught up with Ball ahead of the band’s May 19 set at the Bayou Boogaloo, their last New Orleans date for some time.

Your Tiny Desk Contest submission was, obviously, very good. It wasn’t just the band or the music, the video itself was very creative. What went into putting that together?

Everybody has to have a desk in their video. So we went to [Joseph] Clark [High School] where I knew that my friend, Charlie V, had an amazing classroom that was bright and colorful because he’s an art teacher. I knew that he wouldn’t just have tiny desks; he would have really big desks because he has to put these really big paintings on them. I thought it would be perfect since everyone could touch the desk and be a part of it. We had such a nice classroom. I knew it would be great. Gus Bennett, Jr. shot it. At first we shot it on a big camera and it looked really nice, but then we scratched that and shot it on an iPhone so he was able to get close up and get the feel of all of it. It looked really good, and it was only www.OFFBEAT.com

two takes. Like Jelly says, ‘lunchtime!’ They had to go to a rehearsal for Big Freedia right after so the second take had to be right. We couldn’t do it again, we had to go.

How was the shoot for the real deal Tiny Desk Concert in Washington, DC? DC was very cool. The moment we got there, it was pretty much on. There were guys waiting for us with our names on those little chalkboards.

That’s something we’ve never experienced as a band, having people literally waiting to take us somewhere. We got there and sound checked.

There were very few people in the room during sound check and I thought that was just how it was going to be. Then we came out there so they could introduce us, and there was a whole room full of people clapping for us. It felt like we were now part of the Tiny Desk engine, the machine. We got to get behind the memorable desk. We were the champions for this year, and it almost felt like a family event.

By Sam D’Arcangelo

Was it difficult to choose the three songs you were going to perform?

No, not at all. My musical director, Joshua [Johnson], and I decided on it together.

He gets a lot of the final say, and if it ever gets too close we’ll get everyone in on the final decision. I think we only had one problem. We chose ‘Boxes and Squares,’ which is one of our first songs, and we chose ‘Quick,’ of course, because it was the song that helped us win. Then for the last one it was between our song ‘Eggs Over Easy’ or ‘Roller Coasters,’ but I knew it had to be ‘Roller Coasters’ because it’s poetry and we needed to show all sides of Tank and the Bangas. I had to end it with that piece because I knew that it brings out the very emotions of who I am as an artist and as a person. I knew it was going to touch everyone around me, and that’s exactly what it did. I get emails everyday about it.

It’s pretty exciting.

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“...there’s those magical moments on stage where you’ll literally make up another part to your song in front of everybody.”

Does it feel like you’ve been thrust into the spotlight all of a sudden? Has that brought any challenges?

So far it’s been pretty great all around. Lots of people didn’t know about us, but a lot of people did. It just feels like this has helped us get to the next level in our career that we’ve been trying so hard to get to. We’ve traveled all over the world ourselves, and for years all over the country with this band, but it’s amazing now that the shows are actually sold out. The NPR tour is sold out. It’s just amazing. It’s what we’ve really been looking for, to get this music to people who’ve never heard it before. Think Tank is three years old but it’s gone to number one on iTunes in one of those categories.

It’s new to someone else now and that’s amazing. I don’t really feel any horrible pressure except that it’s now time to give people an even bigger experience than before. That’s what it’s really all about, giving an experience to people.

Have there been any big “wow this is real” moments these past few weeks?

We’re going to be opening up for Alabama Shakes soon. That’s going to be a crazy moment.

I just cannot believe that we are opening for Alabama Shakes. That’s so huge to me. Selling out shows has been pretty awesome. Anderson .Paak, who is someone we are hugely influenced by and who we love, tweeted about our Tiny Desk performance. It feels like this is the beginning. I feel brave and bold enough now to reach out to artists I’ve always wanted to work with and say, ‘Hi, I’m Tank from Tank and the Bangas, NPR’s latest Tiny Desk winner, and I would love to work you,’ and they actually email me back! [laughs] I was out on Frenchmen Street just a few days after y’all won and there was a line around the block for your show at Blue Nile. Does it feel like even New Orleans is showing you more love now?

Most definitely. I would never say that I wasn’t loved or appreciated by New Orleans because I always have been, especially in the community that I came from, the spoken word community.

There’s always so much love and support there—but these days, most definitely. You reach people that didn’t know about you before. Some of them are even surprised that you’re living in their city, or they want to be connected to the winning, which is great because we love to win

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for New Orleans. The fanbase has definitely grown in New Orleans, even though we’ve always received a lot of love here.

I can feel the shift though. The last three shows in New Orleans have been sold out.

To have that happen in New Orleans—when there’s so much talent around the corner, across the street, down the block—is crazy. It feels like the Roots or the Missy Elliott crew, something like that. It’s this wild, crazy, creative group that we haven’t seen in a while. I feel like it’s time for New Orleans to have something like that, on a major platform, representing the type of people that we have here. There are so many underground scenes and movements going on that nobody knows about. We’re not just brass music. We’re not just jazz. We’re not just Mardi Gras. We have so much that people don’t know about. The moment anyone brings up New Orleans, they go straight to Bourbon, but that’s not all we are. It’s definitely not what I am.

How important is improvisation in your shows? Both for you and for the band?

I like improv. I like it more on certain stages though. If I’m on a festival stage, since we’re on contract for a certain amount of time and I want to get everything in, I’ll go with a little less than usual. I don’t want to cut off any songs because I’ve been talking too much or something [laughs]. But then there’s those magical moments on stage where you’ll literally make up another part to your song in front of everybody. We have plenty of different sets, but there’s no two Tank and the Bangas shows that are exactly the same. Something is always going to be different. We like to surprise our audience and we like to surprise ourselves.

Your music is usually bursting with positivity, even when it deals with challenging themes. Is positivity important to you for its own sake?

Oh yeah, man. You just wanna make people feel good. You wanna feel good. If you’re not feeling good then you’re doing a job. Nobody wants that. We don’t want our work to feel like work. And sometimes it can. Once you start getting with the big dogs and truly getting paid, you’re expected to deliver at a certain point. But when you’re naturally gifted at so many things, you can get pretty lax about it. You’re like, ‘I can

do this, its fine.’ But you gotta keep your eye on the prize and remember what you’re doing this for. It’s not just for you, but to give people an experience every single time. It’s to encourage people and to help them get through this day-to-day life shit. That’s why it’s important to be positive. What is it going to be if it’s not positive? Negative? That’s not cool.

It’s been a little while since Think Tank came out. What’s next from y’all in the studio?

We just finished doing an official recording for ‘Quick,’ and we’re going to follow it up with another song after that. It’s funny, we’ve been fighting about the title of the song since I wrote it. It’s either going to be ‘Spaceships’ or ‘Movies’ or ‘I Like Money’ or ‘Make It Rain.’ Maybe ‘Don’t Make It Rain’ or ‘Foolishly Spending.’ I don’t know what the hell I’m going to call this song, but it’s going to come after ‘Quick.’ It’s very cute and bouncy and fun.

It makes me feel good. Everyone I’ve played it for has really liked it. We’re also wrapping up a video for ‘Quick,’ and it’s going to be dope.

We can’t wait to premiere it.

Is there another full-length album coming? When can we expect it?

I guess in the next year or so. We’re really trying to work hard on it and balance everything. I’m not going to say it isn’t demanding, because it is. I have very much less free time than I did before, so I need to use my time wisely. I still want to put on a great live show, and my problem is that I spent so much time thinking about the live show, but I need to spend just as much time thinking about the studio album. That’s what I have to do now. I always focused on it, but now it’s time to focus way more on it. I don’t want to hear anyone else’s new album; I want to hear our new album. There’s going to be a lot of awesome songs. I wrote some of them when I spent time in London, just going to playgrounds and spending time by myself. I can’t wait for people to hear what we sound like now. Some people who were on that last album aren’t even in the group anymore. It’s a new wave for us, and I want all the people who are in the group now to have an album that they played on.

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