OffBeat Magazine April 2016 by OffBeat Magazine

FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL FEATURED MUSICIAN

SONNY LANDRETH

On the Upslide

LOUISIANA MUSIC, FOOD & CULTURE—APRIL 2016 Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50

BATTURE BOYS MARC STONE NEW BREED BRASS BAND CHUBBY CARRIER CAESAR BROTHERS BRASS BED INSIDE: French Quarter Festival Official Guide & Artists, A-Z

FQF IQ

Our A to Z guide to French Quarter Festival 34

Photo: jerry moran

FESTIVAL FOCUS Lars Edegran 44 Sarah Quintana 48 Asylum Chorus 52

Sonny Landreth

FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL

BACKTALK Page 80

PULL-OUT GUIDE page 35

SONNY, SONNY, SONNY Page 82 Local painter Dona Simons (cover artist) has painted the guitarist more than 30 times.

LETTERS

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE CHUBBY

MOJO MOUTH

Grammy winner Chubby Carrier isn’t afraid to take chances.

FRESH

Five Questions with Jimmie Duhon of Festival International; My Music with Wendell Brunious; the New Quorum; Five Questions with Becker Hall of Hogs for the Cause; a piggy playlist and more.

OBITUARY

IN THE SPIRIT 15 16

David Egan

TEN YEARS GONE

Lafayette’s Brass Bed courts national attention.

MEDICINE MAN

Marc Stone’s surge of sunshine.

ON THE MOVE

The New Breed Brass Band is making noise.

FOLLOWING YOUR BLISS

Mason Ruffner doesn’t adhere to a formula.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

"Sonny Landreth: Inside the Slide" By Todd Mouton, November 2000

Caesar Brothers play New Orleans music the way it should be played.

Louis Jay Meyers

OBITUARY

VALENCE AND CHESTNUT

BLAST FROM THE PAST

OFFBEAT EATS

Charlie Halloran is In the Spot at Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 and Peter Thriffiley reviews Roux Carré.

REVIEWS

Magnetic Ear, Herlin Riley, Hot Club of New Orleans, New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings, The Nth Power, Becky Shaw, Travis Matte and the Kingpins, Victor Goines and more.

REWIND

Paul Sanchez rewinds Deadeye Dick’s A Different Story with singer songwriter Caleb Guillotte.

LISTINGS 28

Anna Mangiardi at Cosimo’s mixes up I Got Loaded for Little Bob and the Lollipops.

“The whole time I was growing up I would hear something that really would just draw me in and it would immediately make a mental image or a picture. That’s a real intimate experience, and I think music is that for people.” To read more, this issue can be purchased at www.offbeat.com/issues/ november-2000/.

The Batture Boys' new vibe. A PRI L 2016

Letters

“It’s terrible that Mardi Gras is the WORST time of year to get a decent meal in New Orleans.” —Cameron Williams, New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana Music, Food & Culture

April 2016 Volume 29, Number 4 Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com Managing Editor Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com

MARDI GRAS ATTENDANCE These letters are in response to Jan Ramsey’s blog post “Mardi Gras on the skids?” wherein she observed that the parade routes weren’t nearly as crowded with people as they usually are. Perhaps the earlier date had an impact, but I agree that Mardi Gras celebrations—as far north as Burlington, Vermont—are probably cutting into the draw. As for Jazz Fest? I don’t need to come to New Orleans to see Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, or Bonnie Raitt—as much as I like them all. Most folks from away come to New Orleans for the genuine New Orleans acts. Maybe that’s why the French Quarter Festival (minus last year’s weather) continues to flourish. —Mike McNamara, Burlington, Vermont Crowds were definitely down this year. I was thinking it was just the early date and then Super Bowl Sunday but the newer transplants to New Orleans seem to be more into the Krewe of Chewbacchus than the Krewe of Orpheus. Road construction might have deterred folks and the rapid growth of both Muses and Nyx may spread out the Saint Charles parade attendance. Muses and Nyx were by far our favorite parades this year. Rex was great but Orpheus was kind of lame. I skipped Bacchus for the Super Bowl and I do not attend Endymion. But we still had a great Mardi Gras! —Billy Polcha, New Orleans, Louisiana Mardi Gras does not reach its full potential. The last major innovation was the invention of the “super krewe,” which happened more than 40 years ago. The mainstream Mardi Gras experience on St. Charles Ave., Canal Street, and in the French Quarter is fossilizing. A couple suggestions: Fix the terrible dining options. Visitors come here because we have the best food in the world, but the only food most parade-goers can get their hands on is McDonald’s, corn dogs, or Domino’s pizza. It’s terrible that Mardi Gras is the WORST time of year to get a decent meal in New Orleans. No wonder so many visitors here associate the city with public intoxication and little else. Unleash

the food trucks on the parade routes! Create food stalls and kiosks on the parade routes where locals earn money selling local food! Make them impossible to miss! Conformist, suburban-style parades clog the Uptown streets day after day. Unleash the true spirit of New Orleans’ streets into the parade schedule. More real culture. More creativity. More art. More performance. Fewer rented floats with lame themes filled with people who don’t actually represent the neighborhoods they are parading through. Too many Uptown parades: What if there was more diversity in which neighborhoods participate? Bring back more Mid-City parades. Have a day of parades on St. Claude. Move a couple parades to Lakeview, or Gentilly. Make it more of a local community thing, where parades are expressions of the neighborhoods they parade in. —Cameron Williams, New Orleans, Louisiana As an out of towner (Philly, where we have the fossilized Mummers for our parade) we come to New Orleans every year the weekend before the big weekend and Fat Tuesday (as well as other times throughout the year). We have watched Chewbacchus grow over the years and love it but we still go to Uptown parades. Never been there for Mardi Gras day because we have preferred to be there before the hordes come in. But we are looking at it for next year. I agree that the parades need to adapt to modern times and at the same time get back to some of the neighborhoods. It is so fun to catch beads and party on St. Charles Ave. at the Circle Bar but it is also so fun to really experience New Orleans by being in the neighborhoods. In Philly, we have reached the tipping point with the Mummers, stuck in their old, racist ways, and that parade, while not comparable to Mardi Gras, will have to adapt or die. New Orleans is a special place and no matter how many places “up North” have Mardi Gras celebrations, it is not the same and never will be. Every city has violence—that will never keep us away. —Kate Galer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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.

APRIL 2016

Consulting Editor John Swenson Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Listings Editor Katie Walenter, listings@offbeat.com Contributors Frank Etheridge, Robert Fontenot, Elsa Hahne, Jeff Hannusch, Tom McDermott, Brett Milano, Jennifer Odell, Paul Sanchez, John Swenson, Peter Thriffiley, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff Cover Dona Simons Art Director/Food Editor Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Web Editor Sam D'Arcangelo, sam@offbeat.com Videographer/Web Specialist Noé Cugny, noecugny@offbeat.com Copy Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, theo@offbeat.com Advertising Sales Camille Ramsey, camille@offbeat.com Advertising Design PressWorks, 504-944-4300 Business Manager Joseph L. Irrera Interns Loren Cecil, Laura Kokernot, Jacqueline Kulla, Phil Rached, Clare Welsh 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 © 2016, 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.

LETTERS

WEDDING AND CONCERT I see in the newsletter [Weekly Beat] that I won tickets to see Bobby Whitlock! I thought y’all might appreciate knowing that the night the tickets are for—March 4—is the day my fiancée and I will by stopping by Second City Court to get hitched, and I can’t believe how lucky we are to be able to add an awesome night at the House of Blues to the night’s celebration! We’re having a full-blown wedding next month, but we’re really excited to spend that night with some close family and friends and adding some live music to the mix—especially for me, who grew up with Derek and the Dominos—is too perfect. —Kelsey Foster, New Orleans, Louisiana

Congratulations Kelsey! We have you all set up for two tickets to Bobby Whitlock on March 4. Since you are getting hitched on that day as well, we’d like to extend foundation room access to you and your significant other. The dress code is business casual but I am sure you guys will look great in your wedding wear! —Callie Lardas, House of Blues, New Orleans, Louisiana

BONEYARD I wondered, can you put me in touch with the person that made the awards? The reason is that I’d like to see if they can add the name of the co-writer of “Boneyard” who is my uncle. He taught me to play and was the reason I moved to New Orleans all those years ago. I’d like to share it with him; I think he’d be really thrilled. —Jon Cleary, New Orleans, Louisiana www.OFFBEAT.com

A PRI L 2016

MOJO MOUTH

A True Family

estivals are a tribute to our music and culture. They remind us of our visceral connection to each other through the simple magic of music and food—art forms, if you will, that are derived from the unique community in which we live. It’s more than a community, it’s a true family. And, as in a family, we have our little disagreements and falling-outs, but we have to remember that we all depend on each other in a very deep, spiritual way. Music is a manifestation of that spiritual connection, and when you’re out enjoying great festivals like French Quarter Fest and Festival International, if you’re local, stop a minute to think about how lucky

APRIL 2016

By Jan Ramsey

you are to be able to live in a place like New Orleans. Please don’t take it for granted, because I can guarantee you, there is no other place like it. I would remind you to please continue to support all efforts to preserve and protect local culture and music. It’s precious; it defines us. It certainly defines OffBeat. While certainly, “in the name of progress,” we must change and redefine our community goals and actions, the powers that be cannot be allowed to forget that the legacy of our music and culture is something that, once lost, can never be regained. Obviously, new people move to the city because they are fascinated by it, and amazed at the community we’ve developed here.

But before they can or should decide to bring New Orleans more into the twenty-first century, I’d recommend that they first try to truly understand why New Orleans is such a great place to live. Dig deeper. Peel back the layers of the onion. There’s so much more here than what you see on the surface. This isn’t Brooklyn, or Austin, or San Francisco. We have a unique way of looking at the world that transcends hipsterism, technology and—dare I say it—rampant capitalism. New Orleans is more about soul and feeling, depth of connections, and preserving our history and culture and way of life. I fear for our city’s cultural future as we see a lack of understanding of why we are who we are. I fear that

the tenuous threads of our culture may be broken. I fear that if our kids and newcomers to the city aren’t educated and schooled in why we're special, they will not be able to make sure that specialness continues. It’s not to be taken lightly; care must be given. Be one of those who is a champion of this city’s legacy. Finally, this month, I would like to mention that OffBeat in its entire life span has been a tribute to the legacy of my parents, and especially my mother, Patricia Vasterling, who died on March 20. Her love and care inspired me as a human being, as a businessperson and as someone who cares deeply about the cultural treasure I’ve chosen to preserve as my life’s work. Thank you, mama. O

www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

OffBeat.com

Five Questions with Festival International de Louisiane’s Volunteer Emeritus Jimmie Duhon

SWEET TWEETS

ow did you get involved with Festival International originally? I was a member of Les Amis des Artistes, which is Friends of the Artists. And the group that was assigned to me was Sanba Yo from Haiti. That changed my life forever because it opened my eyes to a world culture that I knew nothing about prior to that. We took them to family functions. My parents fed them; we fed them at our house. We had jam sessions. Their instruments were very, very crude but that night they didn’t have their instruments with them but that didn’t matter. They found pots and pans, the post that held up the awning. Each of them just started jamming with us with whatever thing they could tinker on. It was cool. Do you ever find that the international musicians want to delve into Cajun and zydeco music? Some groups actually gravitate towards Cajun music but overall from what I’ve seen they don’t really jump into that so much as our blues, country and swing. It’s kind of shocking that they don’t do that but I’ve seen a few of them do it. The group from Réunion Island absolutely loved putting their rhythms to the music. That was a number of years ago when they hooked up with Cedric Watson. What do you look forward to every year? My most favorite part is the bi-directional cultural exchange. People pay lots of money to go all over the world to be able to experience cultures—all I have to do is volunteer for Festival and all these cultures come to me. And also be willing and ready to exchange because those people from these other countries want to learn about our culture too. What do you think of the plethora of local talent showcased at Festival every year? We want to be able to import music to our city but we are also a big music city so it is an important element of Festival to be able to export our music. We have a lot of music producers, band guys and managers who come in to help our local talent get jobs elsewhere and that’s a win for us. What is it about the city of Lafayette that continues to make Festival flourish and reach new heights every year? The most important part of Festival is that we are a Francophone festival—our ties to the French culture. We are a French nation in the United States if you call it that and as long as the Festival remains a Francophone festival then the people from Lafayette will support and continue to volunteer for it. It’s a tie to our culture. —Dan Willging

APRIL 2016

@AlisonF_NOLA (Alison Fensterstock) I think “Buku is too loud” is becoming the new “There’s not enough jazz at Jazz Fest,” a pointless conversation we have every year for fun. @michaeljoel (Michael Kauffman) Thanks @IvanNeville for reactivating the I-love-live-music chip in my brain. Tasty grooves at @BlueNoteNYC. @GalacticFunk Has anyone heard our song in the new season of House of Cards? @JohnPapaGros Each new band that I play with seems like it’s more like a gettogether family reunion kind of thing. @BantamFoxes Serious question, where can i actually watch hockey here in New Orleans? Sick of only getting to follow games on Twitter. @ericbolivar Medical update... My thyroid test/surgery results came back... No cancer :) @jeffalbert Today I learned that college students give no craps about reviews of recordings. None of those reviews we sweat over matter to them. @mpatrickwelch (Michael Patrick Welch) I can’t go to BLM protests b/c when some honky shouted “ALL LIVES MATTER!” I’d have to respond, “No, ONLY BLACK ONES!” just 2 make em madder. @nolacampanella (Richard Campanella) St. Claude at Elysian Fields, looking upriver, c1950; note Gene’s PoBoy building.

www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: BRANDT VICKNAIR

Buku Fest

SOUNDCHECK

FRESH

MY MUSIC Photo: FRANK ETHERIDGE

Wendell Brunious

“I

t’s very, very important to dress nice for a gig. Think of a lawyer’s office: If he’s got on a T-shirt and jeans, don’t go in there. This is a business to me. That’s why I practice so hard and study, so I can play the best that I can possibly play. I have 55 years of practice—I hope it paid off. For my band at French Quarter Fest, it’s a total New Orleans grownfolks band, the way I think of a New Orleans band. I grew up when there were great jazz bands on Bourbon Street, players like Sharkey Bonano, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Barbarin. Because of the Internet and hashtags and all, young players today can get popular before they’re ready to play professionally. When you get an older New Orleans musician like me, that’s heard the real guys, it’s a little disappointing, really. The music’s fun, though—I like the groove. I teach some at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and wish them luck because they need to learn more melodies. My thing is to try to get these young people to raise their standard higher. If I can help you, call me, I’d be glad to do it. But I’m not sure if these guys even want lessons from the older generations. The road to the hell is paved with great intentions. I took advantages as a kid. I don’t know if I was born with enough talent to develop but I know you’re not born playing the trumpet like I do. You develop it over years and years and by listening to guys. I loved my dad [John]; I listened to him—but he wrote compositions for Cab Calloway, so he knew what the hell he was talking about. I started playing in a big band when I was 16. It was a great experience to be around all these older musicians; that’s how we were nurtured in New Orleans. At 19, [Albert] ‘Papa’ French called my dad to play a gig, but he couldn’t make it, so he said, ‘I’m going to send my son.’ I showed up in my best Kmart suit and my hair all big and Papa said, ‘Man, who are you? I thought they were sending [late older brother] John?’ He did a wonderful thing, though. He said, ‘Don’t worry about that. You’re my bandleader tonight. Whatever you call out, we’re going to play.’ In 1979, I was 23 and Wallace Davenport called me and offered me a gig at Jazz Fest playing with Lionel Hampton, who needed a fourth trumpet player. Whoa! Went and handled that. Playing with all these types of jobs has broadened my musical horizons. I played Disney World; I played strip-tease shows. Some say, ‘When an old man dies, a library burns down.’ So you better go get a book from them while you still can.” —Frank Etheridge www.OFFBEAT.com

A PRI L 2016

FRESH

HOGS FOR THE CAUSE PLAYLIST

Five Questions with Becker Hall, CEO and co-founder of Hogs for the Cause

Photo: frank etheridge

SOUNDCHECK

hat is the origin of Hogs for the Cause? I went to school at the University of South Carolina and before every single football game we used to roast whole hogs. So we got more into roasting whole hogs all night and drinking beer all day than we were the other pigskin. I came back to New Orleans and I said to Rene [Louapre, Hogs cofounder and COO] ‘Look, in Louisiana we have all this cochon de lait and boucherie but we have zero to no barbecue. So what do you think about getting a group of friends together up at the Fly and roasting a whole hog?’ Then we were introduced to a sous chef’s son who had an inoperable brain tumor, so we wanted to see if we could raise some money to help this family out. Around 200 people came out that Saturday [in 2009] and we rose close to $10,000. What all goes into your thinking when curating the barbecue competition? The great ethos behind barbecue is camaraderie. If there’s 100 teams comprised of 98 percent men, there’s going to be some pissing contests. But the great thing is it’s amicable even though it’s highly competitive. It’s a very difficult thing, to create good barbecue with just sticks and fire. How would you describe the process for curating the musical lineup? I sit down with [local music-business veteran] Adam Shipley and I say, ‘Adam, this is my first list—go after these guys.’ We wanted to have a theme to differentiate it from all the other festivals in New Orleans. Is there any way y’all could have anticipated the growth of Hogs for the Cause? No. We saw it keep doubling each year and we were like, ‘This is eventually going to plateau.’ And it hasn’t plateaued yet. We listen a lot to the people that come out to Hogs, and they tell us what kind of barbecue they want to eat, what kind of music they want to hear. We wanted to make a festival that we would want to go to. And make it affordable so as to not exclude anyone as well. What is you favorite moment of the weekend? The end. [laughs] Honestly, it’s right after we announce awards. If we’re in a good mood at that point, then nothing’s gone wrong and everyone has enjoyed their day. And when the gates open. Just watching people come in and seeing the happiness on their faces. —Frank Etheridge

APRIL 2016

n honor of this month’s Hogs for the Cause festival, we’re going hog wild with this playlist presenting ten songs, mostly in a regional vein, to do with hogs, pig meat and all related topics. Since it’s a barbecue weekend, we’ve made sure the songs about food outnumber the ones about sex. Clifton Chenier: “I’m a Hog For You Baby”: Originally by the Coasters, this song’s just-this-side-of-dirty sentiments make it an enduring cover choice, for everyone from Dr. Feelgood in the ’70s to the Strypes last year. But nobody else’s version has the funky accordion that Chenier brings to it, and the extra-loud rubboard is a plus. Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas: “Everything on the Hog”: Another one that could be suggestive but isn’t; this one celebrates the fact that you can eat everything in a hog—“except the eyes baby, the eyes ain’t no good.” We’re told some Cajuns actually use the eyes in crawfish boils; we only request you not share the details if you do so. Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas: “I’m a Zydeco Hog”: Not content to write zydeco’s best hog song, Nathan Williams penned the secondbest one as well. In this case he’s a zydeco hog because he loves the music so much; so vegetarians can play this one without shame. Natural Bridge Bunch: “Pig Snoots”: R&B madman Andre Williams cooked up this bit of soul-food insanity in the late ’60s. One of those cases where the groove is so funky that the lyrics have to match, so don’t even ask why he loves the things so much. “Take my boots, but leave the snoots!” Andre Williams: “Bacon Fat”: Probably Williams’ closest thing to a mainstream hit, this used bacon as an excuse for a dance, long before they started putting it in martinis. If anybody knows how to actually do this dance, please contact us right away. The Radiators: “Pig Meat Is What I Crave”: A favorite Rads cover, this one was usually saved for those nights when things got really lowdown. Sure, it could be about a guy with a real fondness for BBQ ribs. But since the song was originally by the late Mississippi bluesman Bo Carter, whose catalogue was virtually nothing but raunchy double entendres, we think not. Bo Carter: “Please Warm My Weiner”: Suffice to say that not many songs like this were being recorded in 1934. In fact the slide guitar on this track is at least as tasty as whatever he’s singing about. As for the lyrical sentiments… Well, at least he says please. Supagroup: “Hog Wild”: Gotta love this New Orleans band, who regularly celebrate killer riffs, wild parties, all that makes the rocking world go ‘round. Sounding like everything AC/DC haven’t been in decades, this track begins with a drum solo and rampages on from there. George Semper: “Hog Maws n’ Cabbage”: Though he was from Oakland, California, this late-’60s soul producer/arranger took a few hints from New Orleans funk; his Makin’ Waves album features this Allen Toussaint cover. All the originals have food-related titles; though they’re instrumentals they practically drip with grease. Black Sabbath: “War Pigs”: Since it’s an election year we had to include the one topical pig song that we all grew up with. With a nod to Beth Patterson who figured it out, we’ll remind you that this and “Deck the Halls” can be sung to each other’s tunes. —Brett Milano www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

KEN COLYER

A Passion for New Orleans Jazz Creates an Ongoing Legacy

ritish trumpeter Ken Colyer’s passion for New Orleans traditional jazz has created a unique and ongoing legacy. The Ken Colyer Trust was set up a year after his passing in 1988 to encourage musicians and audiences to experience New Orleans traditional jazz. Christine Stotesbury—along with another 60 British devotees of New Orleans jazz—will celebrate the 25th anniversary of an annual tour to New Orleans to experience local music. This pilgrimage has been taken every year in April by fans inspired by Colyer’s passion. In the 1950s Colyer was in the British Merchant Navy. He jumped ship in Mobile and travelled to New Orleans, where he played in George Lewis’ band among others. He was eventually detained and deported. According to Stotesbury, Colyer “told stories of his pleasure listening to the black prisoners singing gospel in the late evenings. He always told us back in the UK that that was a highlight of his time in prison.” Stotesbury continues: “Eventually funds were raised with the help of Dick Allen [the late jazz historian] to pay his bail. He was then released and repatriated to the UK where he arrived with a clear and dedicated plan to play ensemble jazz as he had heard and played it [in New Orleans].” In Goin’ Home: The Uncompromising Life and Music of Ken Colyer, Mike Pointon and Ray Smith write that “Ken was one of the most influential and controversial figures in British jazz and blues history. Colyer’s deep-rooted love of the blues was showcased through Studio 51, his cellar club in the heart of London, which often featured American legends and encouraged the early progress of such major stars as the Rolling Stones.” Yes, the Rolling Stones share a history with Ken Colyer. The Ken Colyer Jazz Club—a.k.a. Studio 51), opened after his return to the UK, and started booking R&B and rock ’n’ roll in the ’60s. The Rolling Stones were regulars, and it was there that John Lennon and Paul McCartney first encountered the Stones. They offered their manager “I Wanna Be Your Man,” which became the Stones’ first British hit. But we digress. Music historian Sam Charters is quoted in Goin’ Home: “I can give you an interesting perspective as to what happened in New Orleans when Colyer came. It was marvelous; I was not there while he was there, but I came down a couple of months afterwards, and the air was still vibrating with the effect of Colyer’s visit.” Christine Stotesbury sums up Colyer’s legacy: “Who would believe that after 25 years the link between Ken Colyer and New Orleans would still be bringing us back?” —Joseph Irrera www.OFFBEAT.com

A PRI L 2016

FRESH

NEW QUORUM

The Value of Exchanging Ideas

he purpose of most artist-in-residence programs is to provide artists time and space to work on a particular piece. At the New Quorum, which kicked off its 2016 residency program in January, the goal is a bit more complex. Its namesake (minus the “New”) was a coffeehouse that served as a hub for integrated gatherings of open-minded musicians, artists, writers and activists who believed, in the midst of a segregated South, in the value of exchanging ideas and experiences and embracing one another’s differences. Inspired by the café’s guiding principles, the New Quorum’s founder, Gianna Chachere, set out to create a sustained dialogue between local and visiting musicians through house concerts, discussions and master classes to help create opportunities for creative development. “It’s not a one-stop shop and then they go,” says Chachere, a New Orleans native who was working in film and nonprofit fundraising in New York and Los Angeles when she decided to move back home and focus on supporting New Orleans musicians. (Her great-greatgrandfather was the cornetist Manuel Perez—a pioneer of early jazz whose struggle to get by financially helped inform Chachere’s interest in supporting local artists.) “Relationships were formed in the January residency program and now those residents are all planning to come back. It’s a continuing dialogue.” The residents in 2016’s first session included trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith, flautist Nicole Mitchell, opera composer Lisa E. Harris, visual artist and multi-instrumentalist Damon Locks and music journalist Larry Blumenfeld. Smith, Chachere said, anchored the program, hosting a slew of events. “He blew open a lot of doors,” said guitarist and composer Jonathan Freilich, who studied under Smith at CalArts and helped get him involved in Chachere’s program. “I think a lot of [musicians] here are going to try new things—or get excited about seeing new music—as a result.” Participant cellist Helen Gillet said Smith changed the way she thinks about improvisation and conducting, adding that his influence made her want to try writing for larger ensembles in the future. Having talked to folks like Frelich about what support the music community here needed, Chachere saw how valuable simply bringing in fresh, outside perspectives could be. “When musicians don’t know about or are not encouraged to seek new ideas, they get bored and frustrated and move,” she said. “If they stay here that benefits all of us.” The New Quorum’s next residency program begins May 16. Check out NewQuorum.org for information on salons and other monthly events. —Jennifer Odell

APRIL 2016

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IN MEMORIAM

Louis Jay Meyers (1956–2016)

ouis Jay Meyers, one of the founders of Austin’s South by Southwest music conference and the New Orleans music conference LMNOP (Louisiana Music—New Orleans Pride) passed away last month from a heart attack. Meyers, an Austin native, started his career as a music promoter who managed the famed Austin music venue Liberty Lunch. Meyers was also a musician who played banjo and guitar. Being an avid member of the Austin music scene led to his involvement with SXSW. Meyers, along with four others, founded SXSW in 1987 and was its music director until 1994. Meyers explained his departure from SXSW in an article published in The Pitch Music: “That year, there were 640 acts, and my goal was to scale that back to around 500… Now, of course, there are 2,300 official acts. And what you lose by having that many acts is quality. You can’t prescreen all that talent efficiently and put it out in a way where the industry can digest it. And so I felt that the continued expansion of South By was—I don’t want to say greedy, but find a nice way to say greedy.” After living in Amsterdam for a while he returned to the States and founded, at the urging of OffBeat Publisher Jan Ramsey, the LMNOP Music Conference in New Orleans. Meyers worked with OffBeat Magazine, including myself and Jan Ramsey, and Scott Aiges, to develop the conference. Although successful, the conference failed to get the support of local government, www.OFFBEAT.com

making it financially impossible to continue. Meyers learned that unlike what he had experienced in Austin, New Orleans and the state government had little vision for understanding and supporting the music business. After three years the conference closed. In 2003, Meyers was named General Manager of the Austin Music Network, a non-profit independent music television channel. In 2005, he was named the executive director of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance (the Folk Alliance International Conference is held in Memphis and Kansas) and he subsequently moved to Memphis. He left in 2014 and returned home to Austin and began where he started: managing bands. His final project was an adaptation of the Who’s Tommy for bluegrass that was performed by the bluegrass band the HillBenders. The album was produced and conceived by Meyers, with Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry, being released in 2015. Meyers’ Facebook page contains a post from a friend, Chris Morris: “I considered Louis Jay Meyers a good friend. Our acquaintance went back to the late ’80s, the early days of South by Southwest. He was a smart, funny man. My last meeting with him was at SXSW. I ran into him on Sixth Street, which was teeming with throngs of drunken maniacs. Louis’ eyes swept the scene, and he said to me, ‘You know, Chris, this isn’t exactly what I envisioned when we started this thing.’” —Joseph Irrera A PRI L 2016

David Egan (1954–2016)

avis Staples, Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Johnny Adams, Joe Cocker, Etta James, John Mayall, Solomon Burke, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Marcia Ball, Tab Benoit, Marc Broussard, Trout Fishing In America: They all recorded the songs of David Egan. One of Louisiana’s most accomplished songwriters, Egan died March 18 in Lafayette, two days before his 62nd birthday. “He was a sensitive, sweet, humble person,” said writer Todd Mouton, a friend. “But like Allen Toussaint, David moved between styles, points of view and perspectives beautifully—all while keeping it funky, soulful and ringing with the truth.” Mouton’s recently published book, Way Down in Louisiana: Clifton Chenier, Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop Music, features a profile of Egan. In 2003, Louisiana Red Hot Records released Egan’s solo album debut, Twenty Years of Trouble. Largely composed by Egan, the recording also features C.C. Adcock, the songwriterpianist’s bandmate in the swamp pop supergroup Lil’ Band O’ Gold, and Buddy Flett, Egan’s bandmate in the 1980s Shreveport group A-Train. Egan’s and Flett’s collaborations include “First You Cry,” a deep soul ballad recorded by Percy Sledge for his 1994 album, Blue Night. Egan’s credits also include “Sing It,” the high-spirited title track for a 1998 trio album by Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball and Tracy Nelson. Thomas recorded three more Egan songs for her Grammy-winning 2006 album After the Rain. Johnny Adams, another classic New Orleans R&B

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singer, cut Egan’s “Even Now” for his final album, 1998’s Man of My Word. Egan underwent successful lung cancer surgery in 2004, but cancer returned in 2014. In the decade between his cancer surgeries, he advocated for smoke-free workplaces, appearing on Let’s Be Totally Clear billboards. At Egan’s behest, he and Adcock completed several songs during the six weeks before his death. “His focus was really amazing,” Adcock said. “He flowed through the songs beautifully.” Before Egan went solo in 2001, he played keyboards for A-Train and Cajun acts Jo-El Sonnier, Hadley J. Castille and Filé. As a member of Lil’ Band O’ Gold, Egan collaborated with former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant on the road and in the studio. Egan grew up in Shreveport. The gospel songs his family’s African-American housekeeper sang as she worked left a lasting impression on him. The songwriter’s high-profile cuts began in 1992 when Joe Cocker recorded “Please No More.” Jimmy Witherspoon released “Wake Up Call” that year, and in 1993, Mavis Staples and John Mayall issued their duet of “Wake Up Call.” Adcock places Egan in the same realm as fellow Louisiana songwriters Allen Toussaint and Slim Harpo. “I love the same thing about David’s writing that I love about theirs,” Adcock said. “That great country-soul music and everything in between.” Egan is survived by his wife, Rhonda, and their 15-year-old son, Reuben. —John Wirt www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO: scott saltzman

IN MEMORIAM

BRASS BED

Ten Years Gone Lafayette’s Brass Bed courts national attention.

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PHOTO: alison bohl dehart

he Secret Will Keep You, the third album from Lafayette psychedelic-pop band Brass Bed, inspired national acclaim in 2013. NPR, The New Yorker, Spin, Paste, VICE, Mother Jones and more praised the band’s Beach Boys and Beatles–tinged songs. The album also brought Brass Bed a prestigious Tiny Desk concert at NPR in Washington, D.C. All of that positive attention left singer-guitarist Christiaan Mader feeling validated. “It showed that we can, and I use the word liberally, compete on a national level,” Mader said. “They recognized us as artists, not just guys who do this on a Saturday—because we’re not just weekend warriors. We carved out a lot of our lives to do this.” The success of The Secret Will Keep You among critics represented one of the career marks Brass Bed always aspired to, drummer Peter DeHart said. “But once you hit it, it’s like, ‘Well, now what?’” DeHart mused. “I guess we’ve got to do it even better the next time.” The widespread recognition Brass Bed received for its third album didn’t translate to music sales. Mader took consolation in knowing that many full-time musicians who experience similar levels of acclaim still struggle to make music pay the bills. “They’re not making as much money as you would think,” said Mader, who suspects the proliferation of music stars during the twentieth century was an anomaly. “It was weird that people drove Cadillacs for 50 years because they sold hit records,” he said. Ten years into Brass Bed’s existence, band members Mader, DeHart and Jonny Campos, all in their early 30s, are releasing their fourth album, In The Yellow Leaf, on April 15. It’s their first opus

for Austin’s Modern Outsider Records. Brass Bed recorded In The Yellow Leaf in Austin, Sacramento and Lafayette. If time spent writing the songs is included, the project was two years in the making. And when mixing the album in New York and mastering it in Boston are added, In The Yellow Leaf qualifies as a continent-spanning work. “That was definitely not by design,” Mader said. Like The Secret Will Keep You, In The Yellow Leaf again features Brass Bed’s gift for melody in both vocal and instrumental lines. The Beatles and Beach Boys remain stylistic guideposts. “Those two bands are always there,” DeHart said. “A lot of musicians feel that way, almost like the Beatles and Beach Boys are their education. We learned about songwriting and arranging from them.” Campos feels just as strongly about 1960s vocal groups as DeHart. He grew up in front of his mother’s stereo. By John Wirt

“Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, they’re in my DNA,” Campos said. “It’s not even a conscious thought. It’s part of who I am.” Mader, too, offers no apologies for loving the music of the ’60s. “Anybody who thinks that Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘America’ is cheesy is just afraid of feelings,” Mader said. “That’s something lost to a generation that sees irony as a primary form of communication. People aren’t being honest. “Simon and Garfunkel, in particular, are part of the great American songbook because they were genuine. And, at one time, they were progressive and innovative, backward- and forward-looking—which is what influential pieces of art tend to be. They transcend their own time. “This is the music that’s hydrated me for a long time. That’s not to say I don’t look for other streams, but it’s still the main artery.” Despite Mader’s artful assessments of Brass Bed’s influences, he has no art-for-art’s-sake reluctance about wanting their latest album to sell.

“I don’t think that’s crass,” Mader said. “That’s how you continue to make records. Let’s be real about it. In that regard, I feel like we’ve underperformed as a licensable band. A lot of our stuff would fit well in a cinematic context. That’s something I’ve always wanted for us.” Campos hopes In The Yellow Leaf will help Brass Bed become a viable touring act. “It’s hard to string along a tour when people are like, ‘Oh, yeah. I sort of heard of you,’” he said. This year, Brass Bed returned to South by Southwest in March; they will tour the East Coast in April and May, and reach the West Coast in June. Even if the trio doesn’t become a full-time band and national touring act, Mader, DeHart and Campos have no thoughts of abandoning the band. “I can’t see the forest for the trees,” Campos said. “This is what we do. It’s not a choice.” “And it does well enough to not eat itself,” Mader said. O Brass Bed will perform April 14 at Gasa Gasa in New Orleans; April 15 at Feed & Seed in Lafayette; and April 21 at the Historic Scoot Inn in Austin. www.OFFBEAT.com

MARC STONE

Medicine Man

or a lot of New Orleans music fans, French Quarter Fest starts when Marc Stone kicks his band into high gear Friday morning at the Tropical Isle stage. The Gazebo has been his spot for nine years, a kind of unofficial start to the festival season, and this year he’s celebrating it with the strongest band he’s ever assembled and a deep book of originals highlighted by songs from his latest and best album, Poison & Medicine. It is certainly a magic moment after a lousy winter, with the warm spring air and (hopefully) a surge of sunshine accompanying Stone’s crisp blues. Stone’s band features the great keyboardist Josh Paxton, Terry Scott Jr. on drums, Thomas McDonald on bass, Garland Paul on percussion, Phil Morin on saxophone and Mark Levron on trumpet. All the band members also sing harmony vocals. Stone is ubiquitous these days in various versions of his own band; his duos at the Funky Pirate with longtime collaborator Paxton (Friday and Saturday from noon until 4 p.m.), 30/90 with guitarist John Mooney and the Columns Hotel with Mason Ruffner; and his solo work at B.B. King’s Blues Club (Fridays from 5 to 7:30 p.m.). Other April dates include the Louisiana Blues Throwdown at the Little Gem Saloon, April 22 with Benny Turner, John Mooney, Marilyn Barbarin, Mason Ruffner and Rockin’ Dopsie Jr; and a Layla tribute at Southport Hall on April 27 with Brint Anderson and an all-star cast. He also leads Marc Stone’s New Orleans Kingpins with Benny Turner and Joe Krown at B.B. King’s Blues Club every Tuesday from 8:30 to 11 p.m.

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In 1993 Stone visited New Orleans for the first time and immediately decided to immerse himself in the music he heard here. He began what amounted to a long apprenticeship with some of the legends of Louisiana music. “I had been here about a year or so when David and Roselyn invited me to join their group and that was really cool because those guys know so many different songs from so many different traditions and they have their own unique way of doing everything. That’s something I’ve found working over the years with New Orleans–based artists, they all draw from similar wells but everybody has their own way of doing stuff and that By John Swenson

makes it all so interesting. For a time that was my main gig, then I started playing with Big Al Carson at the Funky Pirate as a substitute for Harry Sterling.” During this time Stone also began working as a DJ at WWOZ, eventually working into his trademark Tuesday afternoon Soul Serenade show. But the most important thing that happened to him was getting to play with Eddie Bo. “I was fortunate to play with a lot of people but the experience of playing with Bo, he was an encyclopedia of musical knowledge and one of the true inventors of rock ’n’ roll and New Orleans rhythm and blues. He could turn on a dime, and there was no communication. He was just making me play and not telling

me anything just cumulatively with every gig trying to teach me stuff directly. He just threw me in the water and made me play. Having grown up listening to Fats Domino and Little Richard and a lot of other R&B stuff from the ’50s that was recorded in New Orleans helped me because I intuitively understood a fair amount of his style. He also had stuff in his vocabulary that was way beyond what I understood. He was a great Art Tatum–esque jazz player, you never knew what he would pull out. He would just set the key and blast into it. He would never end stuff the same way consistently, you just had to feel him out” Being in Bo’s band unlocked the door to the gnostic secrets of New Orleans R&B, giving Stone a chance to work with Tommy Ridgley, Allen Toussaint, Carol Fran, Henry Gray and the amazing Ernie K-Doe, among others. “I played with K-Doe a number of times, but the one thing I did with him [that stood out] was the legendary 1999 July 4th performance at the Washington Monument. That was an insane and wonderful experience. I spent some time around K-Doe and just to be around the cat who could be so amazingly wildly out there in another world, whose voice never lost an iota of its strength and beauty, and to see him in his incredible moment of glory in front of 200,000 people, up there in 105-degree summer heat in Washington D.C. in full top hat and Uncle Sam regalia, white gloves, it was spectacular.” Through his connections with Big Al Carson, Stone was www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO: rick moore

Marc Stone’s surge of sunshine.

MARC STONE

“I had a lot to learn,” Stone admits, “and these guys weren’t into telling me much. Fortunately Clifford Alexander would come over to me before each tune and scratch out a pattern on his washboard and say ‘Dat’s your part.’”

recruited into the C.J. Chenier band, where he learned the deep affinity between zydeco and blues. “When I got into C.J.’s Red Hot Louisiana Band I was very fortunate to have Harry “Big Daddy” Hypolite as the other guitarist in the band,” Stone explains. “He went back to Clifton’s band and the earliest days of electric blues in the Creole community in southwest Louisiana. These guys were some of the baddest, most hardcore blues musicians I’ve ever met. I’ve never played deeper blues than with those guys. “I had a lot to learn,” Stone admits, “and these guys weren’t into telling me much. Fortunately Clifford Alexander would come over to me before each tune and scratch out a pattern on his washboard and say ‘Dat’s your part.’ I picked up that rhythm on my guitar and he’d go back to his spot on the stage and play his rhythm part.” In the summer of 2005 Stone went through a career crisis that had him questioning himself. He went to Europe, where he was visiting friends when Katrina struck. “I moved back on December 15, 2005 and I was living in Algiers Point. Things were a little less insane over there. Everybody appreciated everyone who was back. They were happy to have musicians around to bring music back into the community. “Everything felt different then. There was just hope that someday we would get it back to where it was before as opposed to having no city. I concentrated more on my own music after that. That’s when

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my career turned from being a guitarist mostly playing for other people to concentrating more on my own work.” One of Stone’s first postKatrina projects was the 2006 string-bending extravaganza with the Campbell Brothers at the Old Point Bar, later released as the great live album Rallytime! A year later Stone put together another memorable night at the Old Point when he assembled a band to bring soul music diva Betty Harris out of retirement. Meanwhile Stone was working on his songwriting and putting together a band. “That first French Quarter Fest was when it felt like, ‘Okay this whole thing is really starting to take shape’,” he says. “When I made Trickeration & Rascality I was still in the early phases of

Harris in 2007,” Stone explains. “He did a spectacular job and eventually became the first call piano player in my band. Then we began doing duo gigs at the Funky Pirate. We got to know each other on a much deeper rhythmic level.” Stone has become one of the featured performers at the recently opened B.B. King’s Blues Club, which occupies the space that used to be Margaritaville, with two residency gigs there. It’s a measure of how far he’s come that he’s returned to the scene of his apprenticeship with Eddie Bo as a leader. “To be back in that building where I served my apprenticeship with Eddie Bo,” says Stone, “and get to play my own stuff on that stage as well as put together the New

Stone has become one of the featured performers at the recently opened B.B. King’s Blues Club. doing a lot of music on my own and doing my own music. It was the first time I did a serious studio record. By the time I did Poison & Medicine I had done years of intensive solo gigging. A couple of years of that and my abilities as a performer and guitarist made it much easier to do Poison & Medicine.” One of the keys to Stone’s developing sound both on the record and in live performances is the great sympatico he shares with keyboardist Josh Paxton. “I asked Josh to play with me in a band to back Betty

Orleans Kingpins with people who are idols to me—Joe Krown, and of course Benny Turner, who’s the brother of the late great Freddie King and played with all my idols, he was one of the cats in Chicago playing at the highest level with the blues legends of the ’50s and ’60s when this music was making its statement and taking the shape that would influence generations of musicians who came after, to have a place dedicated to blues in the French Quarter like that is really important for me.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

NEW BREED BRASS BAND

On the Move The New Breed Brass Band is making noise.

he New Breed Brass Band rolls at four major New Orleans festivals this year. In order of its appearances they include the Freret Street Festival, the French Quarter Festival, Jazz Fest and the Essence Festival. At OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards in January, the band won for Best Emerging Artist. Not bad for a group that’s only been around for about three years. “It’s an honor for a band that’s just starting out,” agrees 25year-old snare drummer Jenard Andrews, the son of trumpeter James Andrews, nephew of Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and co-leader of the New Breed with tuba player Desmond Provost. Okay: As far as name recognition and connections in the music world, it doesn’t hurt to have an Andrews co-leading the band. Of perhaps greater importance is the music and career guidance provided by the family. Both James and Troy have been influential in Jenard’s and the band’s development. Like he did with his brother Troy, James Andrews introduced his son to the music scene. “He took me to a lot of gigs, so I got exposed to that at an early age.” Most of the musicians who make up the New Breed came out of the Baby Boyz Brass Band, led by Jenard’s cousin, trumpeter Glenn Hall. “When we first left the Baby Boyz, my dad said not to be afraid to start over—to start from scratch,” Jenard explains. “And it worked. We’re actually making some noise.” Troy gave the New Breed access to his studio housed at the Music Shed Studios. One day Troy came to check them out. “We were just like mimicking other bands,” Jenard remembers. “Then Troy said, ‘You’re not really practicing here, you’re just jamming in here. You’re playing stuff that’s not yours. You guys really need to find yourself and push that—

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originality is the key.’ He gave us some different artists and songs to listen to—to expand our horizons.” The New Breed also includes members of other highly regarded New Orleans musical families. Co-leader Provost is the nephew of guitar and banjo master Carl LeBlanc, trumpeter Aurélien Barnes is the son of accordionist/ vocalist Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes and trombonist Caleb Windsay is the son of singer Yolanda Windsay and grandson of gospel and jazz vocalist Topsy Chapman. “Topsy and her whole group [Solid Harmony] sometimes come to the shows and she’ll give us [front row vocalists] the right harmony,” says Jenard. Windsay also acts as the emcee. “He’s a lot like my dad from the entertainment perspective,” Jenard adds. Jenard, who was raised in the very heart of the Treme neighborhood on St. Philip and N. Robertson streets, is the only band member who truly grew up in the second line culture. “They’re not your typical second line cats,” he says of his bandmates, adding that several studied a variety of genres at NOCCA and at Lusher High School. Windsay and others were involved By Geraldine Wyckoff

with gospel music and many of the guys also met each other while attending the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. “All of us are really musically inclined,” says Provost, who, like Andrews, studied music while at McDonogh 15 Elementary School, where they were highly influenced by teacher Jerry McGowan. “He started me off playing tuba and I never put it down,” Provost says. “It kinda stuck to me.” On the other hand, when Jenard arrived at McDonogh 15, he wanted to play drums. But when he got there McGowan said, ‘James is your daddy, Troy is your uncle— no, you’re going to play horn.’ So Jenard started on trombone and while at St. Augustine High School played the mellophone as well as the tenor drums. “One of the things my uncle [Troy] told me was to listen to different styles of drummers,” says Jenard, who studied African drumming in middle school under the direction of percussionist Luther Gray. “Second line beats are actually like African rhythms so learning those helped me out a lot. I listen to Caribbean drummers, I love Cuban

drummers and then there’s [New Orleans drummers] Joe Dyson, James Black, Gerald French and Herman LeBeaux.” The New Breed also had the enviable opportunity to go on tour to open for Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue for a series of concerts. “Those are always great fun— most of them are sold-out shows,” Jenard says. “It’s definitely good to get in front of these different crowds. The energy is amazing and people love New Orleans music.” The large ensemble—boasting three trumpets, two trombones, a sax, a tuba and a bass drummer— promises that its debut album, due out in April, won’t be filled with “typical” brass band music. The New Breed’s roots in the Treme neighborhood, the musical birthplace of influences like the Rebirth and Lil Rascals brass bands, will always be a part of the group’s sound. “Now we’re trying to take that sound, bring in some new stuff and expand it to a different level,” Jenard says. This summer, the New Breed Brass Band is on its own, touring the West Coast at various festivals. Talented and ambitious, the New Breed is ready to, as Jenard puts it, “Rock out in a second line style.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

MASON RUFFNER

Following Your Bliss Mason Ruffner doesn’t adhere to a formula.

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PHOTO: elsa hahne

ason Ruffner had everything it takes to build a mainstream blues-rock career—everything but the desire to do so. Back in 1989, Ruffner had the elements in place: He had a song on the radio, an album on the charts, and high-profile sessions under his belt. He was being endorsed by the best around—opening shows for Jimmy Page, and having his songwriting praised by Bob Dylan. And then, he quietly left New Orleans and disappeared. He recently returned just as quietly: Ruffner’s been back in town since last fall, and his French Quarter Fest appearance will be one of the few he’s made. And if one thing has endured over the years, it’s his disregard for the music business. “It’s been tough sometimes,” he says. “Ever since I quit a good gig on Bourbon Street to start my own little blues group. I’ve always followed my passion, which is to improve my playing. Once you start making records, it’s all about making it— music’s not as important anymore, and that twists things around. I just couldn’t stick with that.” Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, Ruffner first hit New Orleans in 1977. After playing for years at the 544 Club on Bourbon Street, he got signed to CBS/Epic where he made two albums, both produced by fellow hotshot guitarists: Rick Derringer did the self-titled debut, Dave Edmunds the follow-up, Gypsy Blood. It was the latter album that hit the radio, with the hard-driving title track and the sleek rocker “Dancin’ On Top of the World.” Having pulled a similar trick with the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ “Tuff Enuff,” Edmunds added just enough polish to put the blues-based music across. Ruffner admits that he prefers the tracks with fewer production frills: “Dave Edmunds likes that raw

sound, and we did a couple songs that way—looking back, that’s my favorite stuff now. Those kind of songs age better than when you’re doing the flavor of the month, or the flavor of the decade. When I was making records for CBS, it was always that bashing snare sound—that ‘Born in the USA’ sound, boom! So I wish I had been a little more raw in my approach to recording.” Though he never went out looking for high-profile gigs, they seemed to come to him anyway. During 1989 he got a call from Daniel Lanois, then based in New By Brett Milano

Orleans, to come play on a session; Lanois wouldn’t name the artist but Ruffner guessed it would be Bob Dylan, who was in town to make Oh Mercy. “When you’ve got Daniel Lanois producing you, you can’t go wrong. And that’s not to take anything away from that record, because those sessions were important for Dylan, the songs and his singing were all there. For me it was a thrill and a little nerve-wracking at the same time. Dylan seemed a little aggravated sometimes, so I tried to clam up when it came to talking to him. But he was cool.” The

sessions led to his playing on Lanois’ first solo album, Acadie. Ruffner in fact had no idea that Dylan thought anything of his songwriting, until many years later when he found himself praised in Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume One, which deals extensively with the New Orleans sessions (the line Dylan singled out was “You do good things for people and that makes them bad,” and said he might have recorded one of Ruffner’s songs if he didn’t have his own). Ruffner says he was as surprised as anyone else to read that. “I was even more surprised that he spent so much time talking www.OFFBEAT.com

MASON RUFFNER about that one particular part of his career, that he’d pick that out from the long career he’s had.” So Ruffner ended the ’80s on a high, and hopes were high for the follow up to Gypsy Blood—except that there wasn’t one, much to the label’s displeasure. “I was on the label for another five years, I just didn’t make a record. And there wasn’t even a specific reason. They just wanted me to keep doing what I was doing, and that’s not the kind of stuff that I like to hear. Once you start having a little bit of success, they want more of whatever the formula is. You have to feed the star-making machinery, and that’s when the wheels just came off for me—I couldn’t get inspired from the business end of things. That’s when I realized I’m more of an underground musician, and I found that out the hard way. I don’t write songs to have a music career; I never wanted one in the first place. “It was tough because I had a band and a manager, people believed in me but I didn’t want to keep on,” he adds. “And I have mixed feelings about what happened—I had a great opportunity, and I was disappointed in myself for not taking advantage of it. But there are a lot of musicians who just aren’t good at promoting themselves, and I fall into that category.” He didn’t record again until 1997, on the European-only album Evolution—and once again he had some accidental success when Carlos Santana got hold of the album and started playing the track “Angel Love” in concert. “That just happened out of the blue, and someone who’d been to his concert had to tell me about it.” They wound up playing the song live together at a Santana show, and Carlos’ version made it onto the deluxe reissue version of Supernatural—thus putting one of Ruffner’s songs on one of the best-selling albums of all time. While this was happening, Ruffner was basically making himself scarce. He returned to Texas for a few years, then moved to Norway and then to Sweden, where he lived for seven years until his marriage broke up last year. “In terms of playing, it’s totally the opposite of being here. If you’ve got a local band in the States, you www.OFFBEAT.com

probably want to play every night you can, but it doesn’t pay that good. But if you’re over in Norway or Denmark, you can get one or two thousand dollars from playing a club gig. So what it boils down to is that I didn’t play very often, but the pay was ten times better.” Another surprise was last year’s album Aerial—his first in seven years and the first that’s all instrumental, more cinematic than blues-rock. “I had those

songs laying around over the years and I started thinking, man, I’d love to put a record of those kinds of songs together. There’s a few things in there I never did before, including the acoustic guitar, I never put much of that on a record before. I love classical music and flamenco, so these are the little pieces to my own kind of symphony. I have a passion for composition and I’ve studied that, but not really in an

educated way—more in my own, country-boy kind of way.” Longtime fans will be glad Ruffner’s back in town, but they still may not see him play too often. “I just want to play a little bit occasionally. I’d like to please people but I also need to follow my muse. You know, I was just reading a book by Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth) and he talks about following your bliss. And I thought hell, that’s just what I did.” O

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THE BATTURE BOYS

Everything Old is New Again

he Batture Boys are a brandnew band; they’ve just been around for a long while. Tommy Malone and Ray Ganucheau have played together on-and-off for two decades, mostly on Malone’s solo projects. Now rechristened as an official duo, they’ve just released a six-song EP, Muddy Water, and will play one of their first gigs at French Quarter Fest, after a February debut at Chickie Wah Wah. Malone is rightly renowned as a subdude and solo artist, while Ganucheau is one of the city’s more overlooked roots-rock talents—mainly because he hasn’t released much, beyond a self-titled solo album five years ago and a ‘90s stint with the Continental Drifters (during which he co-wrote their anthem “The Mississippi”). Though the two have played together extensively, they hadn’t done much writing together or sung fullfledged harmonies. Since they do both as Batture Boys, the EP has a different vibe than their solo work. It was a sad occasion that brought them together, when Ganucheau was trying to finish a song about Malone’s subdudes bandmate Johnny Ray Allen, who died suddenly of a heart condition in 2014. “I’d lost a bandmate and we’d both lost a dear friend. In my case we’d been friends since childhood,” Malone says. “Ray came in with this piece of a song, ‘Send the Bones Back Home to Tupelo’—that’s the part of the world he was from. When I asked if he’d finished it, the song needed verses so I wrote those. And our next conversation was ‘This is nice, let’s do more of this.’” Adds Ganucheau, “Tommy’s done more collaborating through the subdudes years, where I usually work in my own vacuum. Once we started writing together, the idea of doing collaborative arrangements and stressing the vocal harmonies started to develop.”

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The original plan was to make a casual, acoustic duo record. But it got more fleshed out after they called in producer Jim Scott—who engineered the subdudes back in the day and went onto megasuccess with Santana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Says Malone, “We thought it would be like the Milk Carton Kids—microphones, acoustic guitars, two guys singing. But when we brought Jim in, he took more of the reins.” Adds Ganucheau, “It became a more rocking experience, more band sounding even though [drummer] Jimmy Paxson was the only other person on the session. We cut everything on acoustic guitars and drums and added everything else later, so the acoustics were still the driving force in the arrangements.” By Brett Milano

The duo’s harmonies give the music a sunny, inviting sound—and a necessary balance, since the subject matter is as murky as it gets. The songs divide neatly into three about ecological disasters—“The Mighty Flood” and “Deep Water Horizon” are respectively about Katrina and the BP oil spill—and three about friends in desperate situations; thus the “muddy water” is part literal and part spiritual. “Send the Bones Back Home” is suitably heartbreaking lyrically, but gets an uplift from the gospel harmonies. And “Rabbit Hole Blues,” which warns a friend to get his life together, has some Everlysstyle harmonies that sweeten the message. “We both have a loose interpretation of what we think the theme is for the Batture Boys,”

Ganucheau says. “I’d say the river and the Delta is the common theme through the material, even though the stories may be more personal; it’s still about the lives of people in this area.” “Politics, drugs, life—It’s all a big mess when you think about it,” Malone says. “‘Mighty Flood’ is absolutely and completely about Katrina—and the way it was handled, which was all business as usual in Louisiana. The way they do things that aren’t always in the best interests of the majority, but they manage to line the right pockets. A song like ‘Send the Bones’ still makes me tear up to sing it—Johnny and I drifted apart and then back together, but I would say he was the closest person in my life.” The EP includes “You Had a Problem,” the last song he and Allen ever wrote together—“a song where we basically pointed the finger at each other about things we’d done in the past.” It would have undoubtedly been a subdudes song if Allen was still around. The subdudes are continuing, but Malone admits it’s a lot different now. “It would be a completely different dynamic if he was still with us. For one thing, I’m the only one that still lives here now, so I lost an ally in that regard. We treat it like a once-amonth thing; we go out and play a few gigs, and we enjoy those. But if he were still here, we would have gone on trying to be more creative.” On the other hand, the Batture Boys have a future that looks promising. They have a growing batch of original songs and newly worked-up covers, so they don’t have to rely on familiar songs. “It’s really the most enjoyable thing I’ve done in a long time,” Malone says. “Long as we can keep these greased pigs in the same pen I’ll be happy.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO: ray ganucheau

The Batture Boys' new vibe.

CHUBBY CARRIER

There’s Nothing Like Chubby

“I

sn’t that crazy, man?” Chubby Carrier says about being in his 27th year as a zydeco accordionist, songwriter and performing front man. But since winning the Grammy in 2011 for his superb release Zydeco Junkie, life has gotten substantially easier for the accordionist, who is in a small but elite class of fellow zydeco Grammy winners, including Clifton Chenier, Rockin’ Sidney and his buddy/former mentor Terrance Simien. He’s no longer a fixture on America’s highways and byways, who was knocking out 175 dates as of a few years ago (and 275 at his peak). That’s down now to a comfortable 125 dates per year, with only 30 being prestigious road gigs. “I used to be a road dog,” Chubby jokes, about how he’s now spared grueling 15–20 hour van rides and languishing in airports. Chubby recalls how when he first went on the road, newly proselytized fans would comment that his music and unique sound were going to take him places. “They didn’t necessarily say I was going to win a Grammy,” Chubby says. “But they would say: With this sound that you have you are going to open up the doors to a lot of places.” As a thank-you to those fans who stuck by him all those years, in 2011, Chubby reopened those doors with his “give back to the people” campaign, a 200date tour spanning the U.S. and Canada. “When I left for the road in ’89, there were no zydeco clubs and festivals on the road,” Chubby explains. “Everything I played was blues festivals and blues clubs. They were telling my agent we don’t want any zydeco or zy-deco

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band because we are a blues club. I had a challenge. I had to go out there and sell myself. And the agent had to do his best in selling because a lot of those places didn’t even know what zydeco was. Man, talk about paying your dues.” That unique sound was incubated in Chubby since the age of eight. Every week Chubby watched his father, Roy, rehearse his band the Night Rockers at the house. “Of course, you are a kid and daddy has got drums, guitars, amps and bass all sitting around the house. What’s a kid going to do? He is going to stick his fingers where he doesn’t have any business. And here I go, By Dan Willging

trying to play drums, guitar, bass and washboard. And my daddy said ‘Hey, those aren’t toys. If you are going to learn how to play, then I’m going to teach you how to play them.’” So learn he did, devouring the bluesier accordion style of his father and grandfather Warren Carrier. When he wasn’t practicing accordion, he drummed constantly, playing along to recordings of his dad’s music. Chubby’s first gig two years later came about by accident. Roy’s notoriously late drummer didn’t show up for a gig, leaving Roy in the lurch and an hour behind schedule. Out of desperation, Roy sent for his eldest son, hoping he could

handle it since he attended rehearsals and played drums practically nonstop around the house. “Let me tell you brother, from the word go until Daddy said ‘We were done,’ I played the entire show. I knew I could do it. Daddy didn’t know I could do it. He just took a chance on me. The next thing you know he said ‘Well, you are going to be my drummer from now on.’” Chubby’s first bandstand experience as an accordionist came at age 14 when his father allowed him to play a few numbers at a time. Since Roy worked offshore, seven on and seven off, the rest of the guys urged Chubby to play accordion during Roy’s absence, thus keeping the band working. He agreed, under the condition he didn’t have to sing. Younger brother Dikki Du jumped on the drums while a cousin handled the rubboard. A few years later Terrance Simien offered the drum chair and a chance to tour the States, Canada and Europe to Chubby. Breaking the news to Roy—who was in disbelief that any interest in zydeco existed outside Louisiana— wasn’t exactly easy. “This dude [Simien] is all over the place. You ought to see his schedule. And he wants me to be his drummer. My daddy’s jaw dropped. He had never been without me, right?” During Chubby’s two-and-half years with Simien, he noticed that there was a pent-up demand for zydeco outside Louisiana. “I told Terrance, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m going to stay too long with you,’” Chubby explained about zydeco’s growing demand. “He said ‘I don’t blame you Chubby. You are a great accordion player. Go for it. There’s room for everybody.’” Eventually, Chubby convinced www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO: scott saltzman

Grammy winner Chubby Carrier isn’t afraid to take chances.

create. I write. I produce. I’m an entertainer and a performer. I just want people to know that my talent is more than just being a zydeco musician.” While image is a concern, so is the future of zydeco, a troubling subject for Chubby’s worried mind. “There are too many bands today that sound the same. They are not trying to create, write and be themselves and that’s why you see zydeco music on a downfall. It’s too much of the same sound that people have already heard. That’s not progress.”

“He fell in love with it. The sucker wouldn’t come home sometimes. People were so appreciative of his music, you know?”

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THURSDAY APRIL 21

TUESDAY APRIL 26

with STANTON MOORE, ROBERT WALTER, SCOTT METZGER featuring members of Galactic, GreyBoy Allstars with DJ Kevvy Kev (BBRP Resident DJ of Wu Tang Clan)

ERIC LINDELL, STANTON MOORE, ROBERT MERCURIO featuring members of Galactic, Neville Brothers, and Dumpstaphunk

STANTON MOORE TRIO

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Chubby goes on to argue that the new stars who have won Grammys did so with a new sound. “And what a great record by Adele because she wrote a great song [“Hello”] and that’s why she won the [British Music Awards] record of the year, because she is creating new music. And I try to teach that to the young guys: Don’t be afraid to take chances. Write your own music and create because that’s what gives zydeco another incentive for growing. A lot of them are like ‘Oh, I just love Boozoo. I love Beau Jocque.’ I do too but we got to quit playing the old stuff and create some new stuff because that is why it’s not on the upswing. Listen man, y’all got to create. Y’all got to write. Y’all got to be yourself.” O

DRAGON SMOKE & DJ LOGIC with IVAN NEVILLE,

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ONE EYED JACKS | $35 ADV 9PM – 1:30AM (Doors 8PM)

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WORSHIP MY ORGAN

THE WHIP! with ROBERT WALTER, COREY HENRY, ERIC MCFADDEN, MIKE DILLON, ERIC BOLIVAR, NATE EDGAR, BRIAN J, featuring members of Pimps of Joytime, Galactic, Greyboy Allstars, Katdelic, P-Funk Allstars, New Mastersounds, KDTU with DJ Kevvy Kev (BBRP Resident DJ of Wu Tang Clan)

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KARL DENSON, ERIC KRASNO, STANTON MOORE & WIL BLADES featuring members

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started his Carrier Family Reunion at his club the Offshore Lounge in Lawtell. A couple years later, various groups of fans began asking if they could partake in the festivities. According to Chubby, Roy was obviously flattered by the response, said “Oh sure, sure, y’all are welcome.” Roy and his two sons proceeded to invite their fans and the Carrier Family Reunion became the Carrier Family Reunion Festival, drawing some from as far away as Europe. These days, Chubby misses the time when his musical palette was broader, noting that, at least locally, today’s fans prefer a dance gig of purely zydeco. Instead of being thought of solely as a zydeco musician, he’d rather be viewed as a risk-taking artist. “I want to be known as an artist because I

his father to go on the road when his music began to fade locally. Initially Roy was reluctant, but that all changed once he was met with a favorable response. “He fell in love with it. The sucker wouldn’t come home sometimes. People were so appreciative of his music, you know?” Before he knew it, Chubby, Roy and Dikki Du were constantly on the road, rarely seeing each other except for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. To celebrate his family’s musical tradition and catch up with friends from other bands, in 1995 Roy

IER AR R

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MONDAY APRIL 25

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with ROBERT WALTER, DONALD HARRISON, STANTON MOORE, SCOTT METZGER, ROBERT MERCURIO featuring members of GreyBoy Allstars, Headhunters, Galactic, Jazz Mafia, Orgone with DJ Kevvy Kev (BBRP Resident DJ of Wu Tang Clan) ONE EYED JACKS | $25 ADV 9PM – 4:30AM+ (Doors 8PM)

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WORSHIP MY ORGAN II with JOHN MEDESKI with

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CAESAR BROTHERS

Valence and Chestnut

rummer Rickey and keyboardist Norman Caesar were born and raised in New Orleans’ notorious Uptown funk neighborhood. Related to the Nevilles by marriage—Cyril’s wife, Gaynielle Neville, is their aunt— they grew up in the 13th Ward on Valence and Chestnut Streets. That’s deep in the heart of Neville territory. “Caesar territory also,” Rickey quickly pipes in. Those musical roots—the funk and Mardi Gras Indian rhythms— run deep in their sound whether they’re leading their band, the Caesar Brothers’ Funk Box, or backing one of many New Orleans Black Indian chiefs. “The rhythms just stuck with us,” Norman offers. Since the two siblings were so close in age—Rickey is 44 and Norman, 43—their experiences both in life and music traveled a similar course. They attended the same high school, Walter L. Cohen, and both participated in the marching band, with Rickey blowing baritone horn and tuba and Norman on baritone horn and trombone. “I used to play the keys on a clothes hamper when I was about four years old,” Norman remembers with a laugh. “That was my imaginary keyboard when Rickey used to play drums.” Vocalists are also a strong tradition in the 13th Ward and the Caesar brothers are no exception. “We always sang in the church choir and also my grandmother, Thelma Housey, was a very excellent gospel singer,” says Rickey. “She was our biggest influence. Singing was always in our blood in our family.” On the brothers’ paternal side, their father, Julius Caesar III, was a cousin of Barbara and Rosa Lee Hawkins of the renowned Dixie Cups. “I grew up in the church as well,” Norman says. “We were

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around the Nevilles coming up and also [the band] the Louisiana Purchase with Terry and Phillip Manuel, who were singers in our neighborhood.” When the brothers were in their pre-teens, they began playing with their older cousin, valve trombonist Emanuel Steib. “We really embraced his music and started firing up horns behind him,” Rickey says, adding that both he and Steib also became involved with the dawning of the Soul Rebels Brass Band. The year 1988 marked the beginning of the group Deff Generation, which teamed the brothers and Steib with a bunch of Neville cousins—Aaron Neville Jr., Cyril Neville Jr., Damion Neville, Jason Neville and Omari Neville. It was with that band that they gained further recognition, particularly with the release of 1991s “Running with the Second Line,” considered by many as By Geraldine Wyckoff

the first recording merging brass band music and hip-hop. In the group, the brothers double on instruments with Rickey on drums, percussion and tuba and Norman playing keyboards and trombone. “We switched off because we were like a brass band inside of a band,” Norman explains. The duo of Rickey and Norman Caesar dubbed as the Caesar Brothers kicked in at the now legendary Benny’s Bar, the Uptown place to go late nights following hot gigs at Tipitina’s. They were also often called on to put their funky touch behind numerous groups, including with Uncle Cyril Neville and in the world of bounce. One of their specialties remains backing various Mardi Gras Indian chiefs. “We’ve followed the Indians all our lives,” Rickey says. “Our first group of Indians was the Wild Tchoupitoulas when we were like three and four years old.”

“I can remember when I was small going by Cyril’s house and Jolly [George Landry, Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas] used to be in there working on his suits and playing the piano,” Norman recalls. “That’s really how I got into playing the piano, watching Jolly—he was a really good piano player.” “We’re one of the main bands on the scene with the Indians,” Rickey says, naming early gigs with Black Indian gangs like the Wild Magnolias and June Victory and the Bayou Renegades. Nowadays, they lay down their funky rhythms and harmonies with chiefs like Juan Pardo of the Golden Comanche and Kevin Goodman of the Flaming Arrows. Through much of their career, the Caesars have backed, toured and/ or recorded with a variety of artists including Cyril, the Neville Brothers and funkmaster George Clinton, among others. Throughout it all, they have regularly gigged as leaders. The Caesar Brothers’ Funk Box’s latest release, In a Place Called New Orleans, which is filled with primarily New Orleans–centric material, also includes a host of guests including family members plus Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and saxophonist Tim Green, who played with them regularly until his passing in 2014. “We want everybody to know that we strive to keep New Orleans music alive,” says Rickey, adding that along with originals they perform classics such as the Meters’ “Love Slip Up on Ya” and Huey “Piano” Smith & His Clowns’ hit “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.” “You can’t forget Huey,” Norman enthusiastically reminds us. “We play New Orleans music the way it should be played. The Funk Box is like putting a quarter in the jukebox at one of these funky joints in New Orleans that you never heard of and the Caesars will be playin’ it.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO: elsa hahne

Caesar Brothers play New Orleans music the way it should be played.

FQF IQ

FQF IQ illustration: monica kelly

Your A-Z guide to all the artists at this year's French Quarter Festival.

rench Quarter Fest 2016 will feature more than 1,700 local artists on 23 stages spread throughout the Quarter. Our comprehensive guide to this year’s festival will help you plan your attack.

STAGE CODES (ABS) Abita Beer Stage (Riverfront, Berger Great Lawn) (BB) Popeyes/OffBeat Magazine Stage (Brass Band Jam Stage)

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(BMI) BMI Songwriter Stage at Historic New Orleans Collection (533 Royal) (JAC) Smokefree NOLA Jackson Square Stage (Jackson Square) (CHV) Chevron Stage (Cajun/Zydeco Showcase) (CLS) St. Mary’s at the Old Ursuline Convent Classical Music Stage (1116 Chartres) (FMS) French Market Stage (Traditional Jazz Stage) (GE) GE Digital Stage (Big River Stage) (HOB) House of Blues Voodoo Garden Stage (225 Decatur) (INT) French Market International Stage (Dutch Alley at St. Philip)

By Jennifer Odell and OffBeat staff

(JD) Jack Daniels Stage (600 Bourbon) (KID) New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park Centennial Stage (Kid’s Stage) (MAY) Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse at the Royal Sonesta Hotel (300 Bourbon) (OMN) Omni Royal Orleans Stage (500 Royal) (OUT) Outlet Collection at Riverwalk with Harrah’s Stage (Spanish Plaza) (PAL) New Orleans Magazine Cabaret Stage at the Palm Court (1204 Decatur) (PH) Moxy Hotel’s Preservation Hall Stage (726 St. Peter) (ROU) Rouses Stage (700 Royal) (HER) Tequila Herradura Stage (700 Bourbon)

(COU) Crimestoppers Court House Stage (400 Royal) (TRO) Tropical Isle Hand Grenade Stage (Riverfront, Woldenberg Park) (WWL) WWL-TV Stage (Esplanade in the Shade Stage) (ZAP) Zapp’s Stage (522 Bourbon)

aron Lopez Barrantes, 4/9, BMI, 3p: Born in France, this blues-addicted singer/ songwriter also has a deep affection for classic rock. Adam Crochet, 4/9, BMI, 3:45p: The singer, songwriter, and guitarist blends

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classic blues, R&B, funk, soul, and roots music into moving arrangements of what he’s dubbed “Louisiana smooth blues.” He also backs the Wild Magnolias and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles. Alex McMurray Band, 4/10, WWL, 2p: McMurray’s wit-spiked and often gleefully dark songwriting takes centerstage in a band that both showcases new work and harkens back to the guitarist’s Royal Fingerbowl days, lineup and repertoire-wise. Alexandra Scott, 4/10, BMI, 12:45p: The quirky, versatile folk guitarist spins out songs that can be heartrending, achingly lovely, and optimistic all at once. Alexis and the Samurai, 4/9, BMI, 4:30p: This is a band led by two of the brighter talents on the local rock scene, singer/songwriter Alexis Marceaux and multi-instrumentalist Sam Craft. Both were in the alt-rock band Glasgow and in Susan Cowsill’s group, and Marceaux was a finalist on NBC’s The Voice. The Allyn Robinson Project, 4/8, ABS, 11a: Drummer Allyn Robinson—a former colleague of Wayne Cochran and Jaco Pastorius—infuses funk, soul and plenty of groove into the New Orleans R&B big band sound of his latest album, Dreams Realized; My Life in Music. Amanda Shaw, 4/10, CHV, 3:30p: This Cajun fiddle prodigy has been in the spotlight since age 10. Her sets can jump from teen-friendly pop to straight-up Cajun, with a classic rock cover or two thrown in. Amy Nicole and Zydeco Soul, 4/9, CHV, 12:30p: This Opelousas-based vocalist and accordion player was recently awarded the Zydeco Blues Trailrider Award for Best Upcoming Female Zydeco Artist; she’s currently working on her second album. Amy Trail, 4/10, BMI, 3p: This singer/ songwriter is equally adept at playing her originals with her own band or fielding requests from the crowds at Pat O’Brien’s. Anaïs St. John, 4/9, COU, 3:45p: St. John is an accomplished singer specializing in jazz, torch songs, and cabaret tunes. She currently plays Saturday nights at the Windsor Court Hotel bar. Andre Bohren, 4/9, CLS, 2p: After making a name for himself as a drummer and percussionist with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Bohren began developing a strong solo career on his father, Spencer’s instrument, the piano. Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians, 4/10, OUT, 11a: A classic New Orleans swamp blues band with a smoky, down-and-dirty groove. Andrew Duhon, 4/9, BMI, 5:15p: With his tender voice and penchant for lyrical depth, folk-pop singer-songwriter Duhon’s lyrics tap into personal experience as he strums his way through original music that echoes the blues. Andrew Hall’s Society Brass Band, 4/10, BB, 11:15a: Hall is a skilled traditional jazz and rhythm and blues pianist who has performed with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dr. John, and the Olympia Brass Band. Andy J. Forest Trio, 4/10, PAL, 1p: Blues master Forest has mellowed out

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Alexandra Scott

in recent years and the result offers a window onto his keen lyric writing skills without compromising the power of his abilities as a harmonica player and guitarist. Astral Project, 4/10, WWL, 5:30p: All four members of this band—guitarist Steve Masakowski, saxophonist Tony Dagradi, bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich—are influential bandleaders in their own right. Together, they’ve been one of New Orleans’ premiere jazz groups for three decades. Asylum Chorus, 4/10, BMI, 3:45p: A vocal sextet doing traditional hymns and highly non-traditional material by Duran Duran, Amanda Palmer and others. Solo artists Amy Trail and Alexandra Scott are among the cast. Audacity Brass Band, 4/8, BB, 11:15a: This traditional group formed to play at French Quarter Fest 2008 and includes talented locals Tom Fischer, Charlie Fardella and Freddie Lonzo. Aurora Nealand & The Royal Roses, 4/9, ZAP, 4p: Inspired by Sidney Bechet and Django Reinhardt, singer/ saxophonist Nealand is a bright young player whose non-Roses work spans performance art-inspired improvisation and the rockabilly of Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers. ad Penny Pleasure Makers, 4/9, PAL, 3p: This quintet’s focus harkens back to the ‘20s with hot jazz and dance-ready, early swing. Babineaux Sisters Band, 4/8, CHV, 2p: Sisters and songwriters Gracie and Julie Babineaux lead this south Louisiana roots rock band. Their first CD covered “All Along the Watchtower” (“Le Tour de Garde”) was inspired more by the Hendrix version than Dylan’s original and featured lyrics sung in Cajun French.

Bag of Donuts, 4/7, TRO, 5:25p: Known for their outlandish costumes, Bag of Donuts delivers an unusual take on popular songs of the ’60s onward, as well as tunes from TV, film and commercials. Bamboula 2000, 4/9, COU, 11a: “Bamboula” was originally a form of drum and dance ceremony held in Congo Square. Bamboula 2000’s leader Luther Gray brings that spirit into the present with a troupe of players and dancers. Banu Gibson & the New Orleans Hot Jazz, 4/8, JAC, 12:45p: A singer/dancer who specializes in the Great American Songbook and has been captured by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, Gibson has been instrumental in popularizing the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp. The Batture Boys, featuring Tommy Malone and Ray Ganucheau, 4/8, WWL, 5:30p: Helmed by the lead guitarists for the Subdudes (Malone) and Continental Drifters (Ganucheau), this new Americana-focused act released its debut EP, “Muddy Water,” in April 2016. Ben Polcer and the Grinders, 4/8, FMS, 12p: Trumpeter and pianist Polcer grew up listening to jazz greats at his father’s New York music club, The Eddie Condon Jazz Club. He is a frequent performer at venues around Frenchmen Street. Benny Grunch & the Bunch, 4/8, WWL, 12:30p: This jovial crew is responsible for the carnival sendup “Ain’t No Place to Pee on Mardi Gras Day,” plus a bunch of seasonal albums built around the regional standard “12 Yats of Christmas.” Beth Patterson, 4/8, INT, 12p: A native of Lafayette, multi-instrumentalist Patterson performs Celtic-inspired folk music with a dollop of humor and sting. Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr. & the Wild Magnolias, 4/9, GE, 5:30p: Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr. carries on the legacy of his father, leading the Wild Magnolias’ impassioned, funk-inspired Mardi Gras Indian music.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation, 4/9, ABS, 7:15p: The charisma of former Dirty Dozen trombonist Sam Williams makes him an able focal point for a musical party that blends brass, Meters-style funk, hip-hop and rock. The band has toured hard and earned a following in the jam-band world. Bill Summers and Amber Matthews, 4/9, MAY, 5p: Headhunters percussion master Summers teams up with rising star vocalist and frequent NOJO performer Matthews. Bill Summers & Jazalsa, 4/8, GE, 7:15p: Known for his membership in Los Hombres Calientes and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, legendary percussionist Summers explores Latin and world music with his Jazalsa band. Bonerama, 4/9, ABS, 5:25p: Mark Mullins and Craig Klein’s trombonecentric jazz/funk/rock combo is as comfortable with James Brown as it is with Black Sabbath. Brass-A-Holics, 4/10, ABS, 5:20p: Formed by ex-Soul Rebels trombonist Winston Turner, this band created its own genre of “go-go brass funk,” combining New Orleans music elements with the strong grooves of Washington DC’s go-go scene. Brint Anderson Trio, 4/9, HOB, 12:30p: This smoky-voiced country singer charted on Hot Country Songs with his 2011 debut single, “Amy’s Song.” Brother Tyrone & The Mindbenders, 4/9, ABS, 12:35p: Charismatic R&B vocalist “Brother Tyrone” Pollard has shared the stage with greats such as Jessie Hill, Ernie K-Doe, and Walter “Wolfman” Washington. Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, 4/7, CHV, 12:30p: A New Orleans-reared Cajun, this self-taught accordion player has hosted the Sunday Cajun session at Tipitina’s for decades and the Maple Leaf before that. His latest CD Jamais de la Vie was released to critical acclaim. Bucktown All-Stars, 4/10, ABS, 12:35p: This nine-piece rhythm and blues band from Metairie covers the soul classics, adding their own funky grooves. They have won OffBeat’s Best of the Beat award for best cover band nine times. Buckwheat Zydeco, 4/10, ABS, 3:45p: Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural has lately been returning to the pounding Hammond organ of his early R&B days, along with accordiondriven zydeco. His YouTube series, Buckwheat’s World, sheds light on his work and life in Southeastern Louisiana. aesar Brothers’ Funk Box, 4/10, TRO, 2p: Solid, Uptown funk from keyboardist and drummer Norman and Rickey Caesar, whose musical family members include an assortment of Nevilles. Camile Baudoin, 4/9, OUT, 12:45p: Since the end of the Radiators era, guitarist Baudoin has continued to play a similar brand of funkified blues-meets rock in various projects. Here, he focuses instead on acouystic Cajun music inspired by his upbringing on Bayou LaFourche. Canal Creepers, 4/9, INT, 4:30p: Another European band in love with traditional New Orleans jazz, this one is from Sweden. They’ve made frequent trips to play here in the past.

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photo: elsa hahne

FQF IQ

FQF IQ Carl LeBlanc, 4/10, OMN, 1:45p: This versatile and soulful banjo player and Preservation Hall regular LeBlanc has worked closely with the likes of Sun Ra, studied with Kidd Jordan and mentored local jazz guitarists like Jonathan Freilich. Cary Hudson, 4/10, HOB, 2p: Hudson’s Americana guitar sound blends musical elements from Louisiana and his native Mississippi. Casa Samba Extravaganza, 4/9, OUT, 11a: Curtis Pierre, the self-professed “samba king of New Orleans,” leads the Afro-Brazilian troupe he founded in 1987. Cedric Burnside Project, 4/10, HOB, 6:30p: Echoing the driving Hill Country blues rhythms he came up playing with his grandfather, R.L., drummer Cedric Burnside has become one of the top purveyors of his family’s historic North Mississippi music roots. He’s joined by bass and guitar player Trenton Ayers, a childhood friend and the son of guitarist Roy “Little Joe” Ayers. Cha Wa, 4/7, GE, 3:30p: Veteran Mardi Gras Indians (Irving “Honey” Bannister, J’Wan Boudreaux, Kerry “Boom Boom” Vessell) and local musicians (Joe Gelini, John Fohl, Wes Anderson) perform a mix of groove-soaked funk and soul. Chance Bushman and the Ivervillianaires, 4/10, FMS, 12:45p: Tap dancer and singer Bushman leads this small combo through a mix of classic New Orleans jazz tunes like “Bourbon Street Parade” and the occasional rocker. Charlie Halloran and the Quality 6, 4/9, FMS, 2:30p: Halloran, a prolific trombonist who also plays with the Panorama Brass Band and Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, among other bands, leads his own traditional jazz septet, which released their eponymous, debut album last fall. Charlie Wooten Project, 4/7, GE, 12:30p: Bassist, Lafayette native and longtime Royal Southern Brotherhood member Wooten returns to the flexible and genre-skipping format he created while living in Atlanta a few years back. Charmaine Neville, 4/9, GE, 3:45p: This vocalist and bandleader, a part of the famed Neville family, dishes out spicy versions of New Orleans blues and R&B favorites. Chegadão, 4/10, TRO, 12:30p: Samba-funk, forró and jazz concepts blend seamlessly in this innovative and unique collective made up of New Orleans-based players from Mexico, Brazil and the U.S. Chris Mule and the Perpetrators, 4/8, GE, 2p: A native of New Orleans, guitarist, songwriter (and Honey Island Swamp band member) Chris Mulé cites Snooks Eaglin, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Leo Nocentelli as his influences; he performs with his own project the Perpetrators. Christian Serpas & Ghost Town, 4/9, TRO, 11a: This band plays “boot stompin’ American music,” with lots of revved-up, high-volume country twang. Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, 4/8, CHV, 5:30p: One of the most energetic zydeco groups around, Carrier and band won the 2010 Cajun/ Zydeco Grammy for their album Zydeco

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Delfeayo Marsalis

Junkie. Their latest is Zydeco Stuff, released in 2015. Clive Wilson’s New Orleans Serenaders, 4/9, JD, 1:30p: Known for their lively interpretations of old New Orleans classics by Armstrong, Kid Ory, and others, the members of the Serenaders have played together in various musical contexts since the ’60s. Colin Lake Trio, 4/10, BMI, 5:15p: With a soulful voice and innovative use of the lap-slide guitar, Colin Lake puts on a captivating blues/roots show. Connie Jones and the FQF All Stars, 4/8, JAC, 11:15a: New Orleans native trumpeter Conrad “Connie” Jones III joined the Basin Street Six with Pete Fountain in 1952. In 1967, he became a full-fledged member of Fountain’s band, departing seven years later to lead the reincarnation of the Dukes of Dixieland. Corey Henry’s Treme Funktet, 4/10, GE, 5:15p: Since founding the influential Lil’ Rascals Brass Band back in the ‘80s, this dexterous trombonist has collaborated regularly with Galactic and Rebirth, but he’s come into his own with the Funktet, which now holds down the Thursday night slot at Vaughan’s. Cowboy Mouth, 4/7, ABS, 5:20p: Singer/drummer Fred LeBlanc and guitarist John Thomas Griffith have led this anthemic rock band trough a few lineups and any number of full-tilt live shows. Creole String Beans, 4/10, WWL, 12:30p: Fronted by photographer Rick Olivier alongside former Iguanas and Cowboy Mouth members, the Creole

String Beans began as a “Yat cover band” doing vintage local gems, and moved on to write similarly-styled originals. aniele Spadavecchia & Sicilian Swing, 4/8, INT, 1:30p: This talented European Gypsy jazz guitarist frequently delves into flamenco and the music of his native Italy. Daria and the Hip Drops, 4/9, WWL, 11a: Taking their name from a ‘60s funk nugget, this band has a more modern dance-pop sound. Frontwoman Daria Dzurik is one of the few lead singers who doubles on steel drums. Dash Rip Rock, 4/9, TRO, 5:45p: Known for their high-octane roots rock and founded by frontman and songwriter Bill Davis, Dash Rip Rock brings on a party every time. Davis Rogan, 4/10, GE, 3:45p: Rogan (who inspired Steve Zahn’s character in HBO’s Treme), plays New Orleans rhythm and blues mixed with topical and political lyrics and witty comments. His latest CD Ex Machina is number 23 in OffBeat’s Best CDs of 2014. Dave Jordan and the NIA, 4/10, WWL, 11a: An alum of the funk band Juice, this guitarist and songwriter has been fine-tuning the mellow rock sound and malleable lineup of his Neighborhood Improvement Association band for the past year or so. Davell Crawford, 4/8, JAC, 2:20p: With an outsized personality to match his musical gifts, Crawford is equally adept at funky B3, gospel vocalizing, or jazz piano excursions, and his sets typically include some of everything.

David Torkanowsky tribute to Allen Toussaint, 4/8, MAY, 2:30p: One of the city’s finest modern jazz pianists, Tork has performed with Astral Project for decades. He’s cited Danny Barker, Ellis Marsalis and members of the Lastie family as musical mentors. Dayna Kurtz, 4/9, PAL, 1p: Singer and guitarist Kurtz’s big, warmly textured voice seems to stretch for miles in whatever direction she dares to take it – a powerful addition to her proclivity as a songwriter for sharing intimate truths, no matter how raw. Deacon John, 4/7, ABS, 11a: The singer/guitarist’s long history in New Orleans music includes leading the band at debutante balls, performing at the Dew Drop Inn and playing on some of the city’s classic records including Aaron Neville’s “Tell It Like It Is” and Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-In-Law.” Debauche, 4/10, GE, 12:30p: In their own words, Debauche is “a Russian Mafia Band that plays great punk rock hooligan Russian street songs with stomping energy;” the recent addition of multi-reedist Rob Wagner adds a new layer of depth. Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, 4/7, JAC, 5:30p: Premier trombonist Marsalis recently released The Last Southern Gentleman, an album in collaboration with his father, Crescent City piano-great Ellis Marsalis. He will perform at the festival with his acclaimed modern jazz ensemble. Denton Hatcher, 4/9, OMN, 12:45p: Singer/songwriter Hatcher’s work runs the gamut from dark pieces to optimistic rockers. Dex Daley and Jam X, 4/8, TRO, 2p: Daley’s steel drum-led ensemble specializes in Calypso, reggae and other Caribbean music styles, keeping the beat of the tropics alive in New Orleans. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, 4/8, ABS, 7:15p: This band was formed in 1977 by Benny Jones and introduced bebop and funk into the brass band sound; they’ve continued to evolve by adding drum kit and electric guitar, while influencing countless artists in New Orleans and beyond through the years. Dixie Cups, 4/7, ABS, 2:10p: New Orleans’ contribution to the ’60s girlgroup sound, they scored nationally with “Chapel of Love,” its even-better follow-up, “People Say,” and the Mardi Gras Indian-derived “Iko Iko.” Founding sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins remain two-thirds of the group. The Doghill Stompers, 4/7, GE, 3:45p: Comprised of the legendary Boozoo Chavis’ grandsons, this zydeco outfit performs a mix of originals and Boozoo classics. Donna Angelle and the Zydeco Posse, 4/9, CHV, 3:45p: A former bassist who switched to accordion, Angelle approaches Zydeco with a flexible sense of rhythm (check out the Caribbean inflected “Cypress Island,” an homage to where she grew up) and a soft spot for ‘70s R&B. Don Jamison Heritage School of Music, 4/10, COU, 11a: These student players aged 11 to 17 hail from the New

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FQF IQ Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s principal education program and study under the artistic direction of Kidd Jordan. Don Vappie & the Creole Jazz Serenaders, 4/9, COU, 2p: This eclectic banjo player and singer has made a career of exploring his Creole heritage through music, whether it’s traditional jazz, island music, or joining bluesmen in the Black Banjo Project. Don Vappie & Steve Masakowski Duo, 4/8, MAY, 5p: Banjoist Vappie is joined by Astral Project guitarist, educator and modern jazz master Steve Masakowski for a strings-focused duo performance. Duke Heitger’s Steamboat Stompers, 4/9, HER, 3:30p: Trumpeter Heitger came to New Orleans from Toledo in 1991 to join Jacques Gauthe’s Creole Rice Jazz Band. Since then he’s toured internationally, led his Steamboat Stompers on the river, and played on a platinum Squirrel Nut Zippers album. Dukes of Dixieland, 4/8, JAC, 3:50p: More than 40 years after their debut, the Dukes of Dixieland continue to weave pop, gospel, and country into their own brand of traditional jazz. The Grammynominated group is a staple on dinner cruises aboard the Steamboat Natchez. Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, 4/10, CHV, 2p: This secondgeneration accordion slinger carries on the blues-infused style of his dad Dopsie Sr., often with a whole lot of added speed and volume. d “Sweetbread” Petersen & Victor “Red” Atkins Stevie Wonder Tribute, 4/9, MAY, 2:30p: Two of the most esteemed members of Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, perform a sax (Peteresen) and piano (Atkins) focused version of Stevie Wonder’s music, likely drawn from NOJO’s recent Wonder tribute. Egg Yolk Jubilee, 4/10, WWL, 3:45p: Egg Yolk’s brass-driven sound is a wild, anarchic mix of brass band, garage rock, vintage New Orleans R&B, Sun Ra-like jazz, and whatever else moves them at the moment. Ellis Marsalis, 4/7, JAC, 3:50p: At age 80, the premier pianist, educator and patriarch of one of the city’s top musical families is still an active performer who

you can hear every Friday at Snug Harbor and at other venues around the city. Erica Falls, 4/10, TRO, 5:25p: This soulful R&B vocalist has sung with Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas but her chops and songwriting skills demand attention on their own merit. Erin Miley, 4/9, OMN, 1:30p: Alternative folk singer Miley’s haunting vocals and sparse guitar-work are lovely, gripping, and permeated with melancholy. eet Street Jazz Band, 4/9, INT, 3p: Norway’s Feet Street Band performs its rendition of traditional New Orleans jazz. Feufollet, 4/9, CHV, 7:30p: This Grammy-nominated crew of young Cajun musicians helmed by Chris Stafford recently expanded their sound by adding violinist, singer and songwriter, Kelli JonesSavoy, who co-wrote much of their latest release, Two Universes, and keyboardist Andrew Toups. Flow Tribe, 4/9, 7:15p: “Backbone cracking music” is the chosen genre of this party-friendly funk/rock band, which adds Red Hot Chili Peppers and hip-hop to the Meters on its list of funk influences. Frank Oxley and the Joint Chiefs of Jazz, 4/9, PH, 2p: Drummer Oxley has led and performed with many trad jazz bands over the years and frequently plays at such venues as Preservation Hall and the Palm Court Jazz Café. He s worked with Wendell Brunious, Danny Barker, and countless other greats. Fredy Omar con su Banda, 4/7, JAC, 2:20p: Once proclaimed the “Latin King of Frenchmen Street” by OffBeat, Omar is a Honduras-born singer with a sizzling band. Fritzel’s New Orleans Jazz Band, 4/10, HER, 3:30p: The house band at the famous Fritzel’s Jazz Pub on Bourbon Street, this group contains some of the French Quarter’s finest traditional musicians. Funk Monkey, 4/9, GE, 12:30p: This hard-grooving crew of local funk experts was conceived of by Bonerama’s Greg Hicks and Bert Cotton and features Jason Mingledorff (Papa Grows Funk), Rik Fletcher (Smilin’ Myron), David Pomerleau (Johnny Sketch), and Eddie Christmas (John Cleary).

photo: elsa hahne

Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers

APRIL 2016

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photo: elsa hahne

FQF IQ Flow Tribe

al Holiday & the Honky Tonk Revue, 4/9, GE, 2p: Bigvoiced Maryland native Vanessa Niemann fronts one of the city’s leading Western swing bands, which plays originals, honky-tonk favorites, and less obvious choices like Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Garden District Band, 4/9, HER, 11a: Drummer David Hansen’s trio plays traditional and Latin jazz along with standards from the Great American Songbook. Gina Brown & Anutha Level, 4/9, OUT, 5:30p: Gina Brown bills herself as “New Orleans’ own soul diva,” and sings a mix of blues, jazz, oldies, hip-hop and funk. Glen David Andrews Gospel Tribute, 4/10, MAY, 2:30p: This singer/ trombonist, cousin of Troy and James Andrews, is a brass traditionalist and a testifying R&B vocalist who honed his entertaining chops in Jackson Square. His album Redemption was named by OffBeat Magazine the number one album of 2014. Goat in the Road, 4/10, PAL, 2p: First-time FQF performers Goat in the Road present original works of humorcentric theater, dance and performance art. Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestras, 4/9, CLS, 11a: Directed by Dr. Jean Montes, the goal at GNOYO is to provide every willing young person in the area access to a quality and comprehensive orchestral program.

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Gypsy Elise and the Royal Blues, 4/9, HOB, 4p: Gypsy Elise’s rich contralto voice fronts this funk-informed, balladfriendly blues act. annah Kreiger-Benson, 4/10, BMI, 2:15p: Kreiger-Benson is a multi-talented pianist, singer, and trumpeter who’s also been a vocal spokeswoman for MACCNO. Happy Talk Band, 4/9, WWL, 2p: Luke Spur Allen’s raw and literary approach to songwriting along with his perfectly rasp-tinged voice front this New Orleans-style alt-country pack of Bywater rock all-stars. Harmonouche, 4/10, ROU, 12p: This gypsy jazz band was formed by Raphaël Bas, a French guitarist who moved to New Orleans just before Katrina. They approach the music with energy, romance and humor. Hazy Ray, 4/9, HOB, 7:30p: Guitarist Joshua Ray leads this Latin-funk fusion band, which relocated to New Orleans a few years ago from its central Texas base. Helen Gillet’s Wazozo Zorchestra, 4/10, COU, 1:30p: The Belgian-born singer/cellist music falls somewhere between French chansons, ethereal pop, free jazz and the Velvet Underground, though she leans more toward quirk with the Wazozo Zorchestra big band, which released its latest CD Dusk in Wallonia last year. Honey Island Swamp Band, 4/10, TRO, 3:50p: Formed in San Francisco by Katrina exiles who’ve since returned to

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FQF IQ Joe Krown Trio

town, the HISB is a hard-driving rock band with roots in R&B, country and funk. Hot 8 Brass Band, 4/8, BB, 5:45p: The storied Hot 8 is a study in survival, having lost three members in shooting deaths. But the band has endured, and they carry on traditional brass-band sounds and add elements of hip-hop and jazz. In 2015, they celebrated their 20th anniversary with a series of new releases including their Vicennial double LP. Hot Club of New Orleans, 4/9, ROU, 12p: Fronted by skilled and versatile clarinetist Chris Kohl, the Hot Club performs classics of the gypsy jazz songbook. Hot Rod Lincoln, 4/9, TRO, 2p: Oldies cover band whose members include some prominent figures from the worlds of business and politics. Hot Stuff featuring Becky Allen, 4/10, PAL, 3p: Allen, a charismatic female impersonator, brings the hot stuff in the form of show tunes and standards with a great sense of humor and an overthe-top attitude. guanas, 4/9, 2:10: With Tex-Mex rock as their base, the Iguanas can swing freely into jazz, country, garage and Caribbean music. Ingrid Lucia, 4/10, OUT, 12:45p: A performer since childhood and a local favorite since her days with the Flying Neutrinos, the singer’s latest CD, Living the Life, with the theme, “the exuberance and strength of the human spirit in this crazy journey called life” is one of her best. Irene Sage Band, 4/8, GE, 12:30p: Rock/soul vocalist Sage has been a local presence since fronting Irene & the Mikes in the ’80s. She’s been a featured singer with Allen Toussaint and a collaborator with the late Coco Robicheaux. Irma Thomas, Soul Queen of New Orleans, 4/8, ABS, 2:10p: With a career that spans more than 50 years, Thomas earned her royal nickname through innumerable contributions to the development of soul and R&B. While she still plays early hits like “It’s Raining” and “Time is on My Side,” she continues to introduce new material. ake Landry, 4/10, HOB, 12p: This singer/songwriter hails from South Louisiana and is also a member of the Right Lane Bandits.

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James Andrews, 4/8, JAC, 5:20p: Grandson of Jessie Hill and brother of Trombone Shorty, Andrews has gone in a funky, expansive direction. A neighborhood’s worth of players have joined the core band onstage. Jean Knight and her Band, 4/10, ABS, 11a: An icon of New Orleans R&B history, Knight’s best known for her hit “Mr. Big Stuff” and frequently performs with the Dixie Cups and Wanda Rouzan. Jee Yeoun Ko, 4/10, CLS, 2p: Dr. Jee Yeoun Ko, is an award-winning Korean cellist who now makes New Orleans her home and has held an assistant chair position at NOCCA for nearly a decade. Jeremy Davenport, 4/10, JAC, 3:50p: Schooled as the featured trumpeter in Harry Connick, Jr.’s band, the St. Louis native has carved out a solo career with a tender tone to both his playing and singing on romantic standards and originals. Jerry Embree’s Jazzman Band, 4/9: Over the course of his 30-plus year career, jazz saxophonist, singer and composer Embree has recorded with Fats Domino, Bobby Charles and others. Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra, 4/10, COU, 6p: Inspired by big bands like Lester Lanin’s and a former colleague of society bandleader Peter Duchin, pianist Jimmy Maxwell has had a long association with the carnival balls for Rex and Comus. Joe Cabral Thrio, 4/10. OMN, 3:30p: Saxophonist and Iguanas cofounder Joe Cabral plays baritone and sings music from a wide-ranging, lighthearted repertoire that spans rock (both Latin American and otherwise), jazz, New Orleans R&B and reimagined pop. He’s joined by his Iguanas cohort Doug Garrison and bassist James Singleton. The Joe Krown Trio with Walter “Wolfman” Washington & Russell Batiste Jr., 4/7, TRO, 12:30p: The hardest working keyboard and organ player in the Big Easy, Krown does a classic organ trio with a New Orleans twist alongside two of the city’s best: drummer Batiste and candidate for most soulful musician in the world, guitarist Washington. Jo-el Sonnier, 4/9, CHV, 2p: The Cajun and country songs of this Grammy Award-winning accordionist uphold

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FQF FOCUS JAZZ FEST A-Z

Lars Edegran LARS EDEGRAN’S NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND, 4/10, PAL, 12 PM

“M

usic, really,” Lars Edegran replies when asked what brought him to New Orleans. Born in Stockholm in 1944, Edegran arrived in America on a green card to work for famed Chicago label Delmark Records. Four months in, he took a trip to New Orleans. “I came to check it out and decided I liked it better,” he says as sunshine streams through French Market-facing windows and into the offices of GHB Jazz Foundation. “I arrived right before [Hurricane] Betsy hit New Orleans, August 1965.” Employed at the foundation— established by his late friend, radio mogul/rabid jazz collector George H. Buck, with its Jazzology Records imprint and nine labels in total—in a multi-faceted role labeled simply “office manager,” Edegran explains that he was exposed to traditional jazz at an early age, listening to records his father, a banjo and guitar player, enjoyed from the likes of Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson and Fats Waller. Noting that he was “familiar with most Preservation Hall players” even before settling in New Orleans, Edegran recounts first playing piano before learning guitar, banjo “and clarinet by the time I came to New Orleans, which I began playing in brass bands, my first job in the city.” Over an hour conversation, Edegran sits surrounded by stacks

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and shelves of CDs, records and tapes, affably spinning yarns from decades of a jazzman’s life: playing Newport Jazz Festival in the early ‘70s in honor of Louis Armstrong’s birthday on a NOLAcentric bill with Mahalia Jackson, Eureka Brass Band and others (“even Buster Holmes was there, cooking his famous red beans”); joining the black musicians’ union pre–Civil Rights; performing at long-shuttered Uptown dance halls; writing music for the 1978 Susan Sarandon film Pretty Baby; living in New York for five years to work as composer and player for the musical One Mo’ Time; and annual summer sojourns to Europe leading his band, the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra. “I’m the only one left in the band!” Edegran exclaims with a grin, noting the loss two years ago of 40-year member Lionel Ferbos and describing the orchestra as the longest-running such ensemble in America. “It’s odd—this is the only day job I’ve ever had in my life,” he says of his GHB Jazz Foundation duties. “It’s a lot of fun, producing albums, licensing to movies and TV… all the things we do to make money and keep the company going. This started in 1949 and is one of the oldest independent record companies in the country. There aren’t many of these types around anymore.” —Frank Etheridge www.OFFBEAT.com

Johnny Sansone

his rural Louisiana roots while often incorporating rock and pop influences. John Boutte, 4/7, JAC, 12:45p: A local favorite with a high and haunting voice, Boutte is an inspired, passionate interpreter of songs; his acclaim spread widely after his tune “Treme Song” became the theme of the hit HBO series, “Treme.” John Mooney & Bluesiana, 4/9, ABS, 11a: Known for his mean slide guitar, Mooney mixes Delta blues with a funky beat straight out of a New Orleans second lines. He’s been playing with his band, Bluesiana, since the ’80s. John “Papa” Gros, 4/7, GE, 5:15p: New Orleans funk scene stalwart “Papa Gros” took his music in a new direction after disbanding Papa Grows Funk in 2013; the powerhouse keyboardist, singer and French horn player recently headed back to the studio to record a new solo album, due out this year. John Rankin, 4/10, CLS, 12:30p: Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist in the mold of Leo Kottke or Chet Atkins. When not performing solo, he’s part of the all-star Guitar Masters and collaborates in diverse duos and trios with Alex McMurray, Norbert Slama, Phil DeGruy, Todd Duke, and others. John Royen’s New Orleans Rhythm Band, 4/9 PH, 12p: Royen is credited with bringing East-Coast style stride piano to Preservation Hall in the early ’80’s, adding a syncopated ragtime beat to the traditional New Orleans sound. Johnette Downing, 4/10, KID, 11a: Children’s author and guitarist Downing, who often performs a medley of Louisiana roots music dubbed “Swamp Romp” with Grammy-winning producer Scott Billington, presents a solo kids program. Johnny J. and the Hitmen, 4/8, OUT, 11a: Rock and roll guitarist Johnny J. delivers raw, stripped down rockers, hard-hitting rockabilly, and dirge-like

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ballads with equal skill. He’s also a witty lyricist. Johnny Sansone, 4/7, TRO, 11a: A multi-instrumentalist who draws from swamp-rock, blues and zydeco, Sansone has two aces in the hole: his songwriting and his gut-shaking harmonica solos. Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, 4/8, GE, 5:30p: Fronted by a cellist turned guitarist, they’re a funky rock band with a few gonzoid touches. The band’s philosophy can best be summed up by the sentiments of the single and video, “Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance.” Jumonville Staehle Band, 4/9, COU, 5:30p: Saxophonist Jerry Jumonville and drummer Freddie Staehle have been delivering lively, skillful, improv-heavy jazz together since their high school band in the ‘50s. at Walker Jazz Band, 4/9, KID, 11a: A painter as well as a jazz singer, Kat Walker has been known create works of art onstage mid-song. Kelcy Mae, 4/9, OMN, 12p: Mae’s alt-country folk rock is shot through with bluegrass influences and propelled by creative lyrics that would stand on their own in print and an evocative voice. She’s been nominated multiple times in recent years for OffBeat Best of the Beat Awards. Ken Swartz & the Palace of Sin, 4/10, ROU, 1:45p: Swartz’s country blues guitar trio veers between quiet, rootsy nostalgia, blue-eyed soul and Snooks Eaglin’-inspired blues rock. Kent Burnside, 4/10, HOB, 4p: Another grandson of R.L. Burnside’s plays before the Cedric Burnside Project: bassist Kent Burnside, whose funk and rock influences give him a sound that fits somewhat more into the jam band scene than that of Hill Country blues.

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photo: elsa hahne

FQF IQ

FQF IQ Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers, 4/7, ABS, 12:35p: One of New Orleans’ most beloved trumpeters and personalities, Ruffins also runs the Mother-In-Law Lounge. Kid Merv & All That Jazz, 4/8, TRO, 12:30p: This tradition-steeped trumpeter was a protégé of the Treme Brass Band's Uncle Lionel Batiste. His great uncle Kid Rena replaced Louis Armstrong in Kid Ory's band. Kid Simmons Jazz Band, 4/10, JD, 11:15a: Trumpeter Simmons has been active in traditional jazz since he first came to came to New Orleans in 1966. He’s also a musicologist and WWOZ DJ who’s unearthed some overlooked classics of the ragtime era. Kobe Next Winners, 4/9, INT, 1:30p: This traditional New Orleans jazz-loving ensemble visits the International Stage from Japan. Kris Tokarski, 4/10, ZAP, 1:45p: A Berklee School of Music grad whose interest shifted from classical and Hungarian folk to bop to early New Orleans jazz, this pianist’s first recording, Drop Me Off in Harlem, features clarinetist Evan Christopher and tenor saxophonist James Partridge. Kumasi, 4/8, HOB, 5p: New Orleans’ only Afrobeat orchestra brings highenergy dance music in the form of West African-inspired originals and Afro-funk, along with some Fela covers. a Coeur Creole featuring Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, Latasha Covington, Leroy Etienne & Michael Harris, 4/9, KID, 1p: Accordionist Sunpie Barnes and members of his band perform a program dedicated to Zydeco and historical songs of the 19th Century. Lagniappe Brass Band, 4/10, BB, 4p: This bright young crew in the vein of the Soul Rebels got extra cred last year, courtesy of the all-original material on their self-titled debut album. Lars Edegran’s New Orleans Jazz Band, 4/10, PAL, 12p: This Swedish jazz pianist migrated to New Orleans in the 1960s to learn the traditional music of New Orleans. Now he is an elder statesman and a staple performer at the Palm Court. Last Straws, 4/10, ZAP, 11:20a: This traditional New Orleans jazz band has been playing together for half a century. The band features Robert Ice on bass, Mo Canert on cornet, Rory Dufour on clarinet, Darryl Barnes on Trombone, Bill Lee and saxophone, Bob Wahers on drums and Bruce O’Neil on banjo. Lawrence Cotton and the Legendary Experience, 4/10, COU, 3p: Guitar Slim’s longtime piano player and an alum of Dave Bartholomew’s band, among many others. At 89, Cotton remains devoted to his art and full of great stories. Lena Prima Band, 4/9, JAC, 12:45p: The youngest daughter of Louis Prima performs her dad’s classics along with her own jazz-pop material, which she performs regularly at the Hotel Monteleone.

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FQF FOCUS JAZZ FEST A-Z

Sarah Quintana SARAH QUINTANA AND THE MISS RIVER BAND, 4/8, WWL, 11 AM

“W

e worked hard to find that sound,” Sarah Quintana says of the hydro-sonicscape she explores with her Miss River Band. “It took us a few seasons to get to the thought of going into the studio. All the pieces came together when I met [musician/ producer] Mark Bingham. I worked closely with him to bring the water element and the sound of the album together.” With Bingham’s acclaimed Piety Street Recording operations (Tom Waits, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, John Fogerty) having moved from the Ninth Ward to Breaux Bridge, Quintana and bandmates headed down the bayou to employ such elements as wine glasses, a hydromic submerged in fast-flowing water at the end of a fishing pole and thunderstorms (on the track “New Life”) to create the sound found on Miss River, her much-lauded second album released independently in 2015. Talking over an almond-milk cappuccino on the deck of Pagoda Café, under its canopy of live oaks along Bayou Road, Quintana explains that her water-inspired artistic concept evolved over a Studio in the Woods residency and an all-improvised performance at the Contemporary Arts Center before she entered the studio with Bingham. In addition to her acoustic guitar and upper-octave, angelic-mermaid vocal pitch, Quintana’s vision benefitted from the arrangements

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and masterful horn/reed play of Miss River Band member Rex Gregory. This multi-year collaboration culminated in the songs that form Miss River, with Gregory’s playing highlighted on such tracks as “In the Devil’s Country,” featuring a filthy double bassline supplied by his bass clarinet. “It’s so dirty—I love [it],” Quintana says of Gregory’s playing here. “He’s such a talent. We worked hard together to work water into these songs. We play a lot of loops of water while on stage and now we are working on triggering those samples live through our instruments. Isn’t that cool?” That Quintana, 30, would ultimately discover water to be her musical muse comes as little surprise when looking at her career trajectory. The New Orleans native shifted her focus away from visual arts after all her paintings drowned in Katrina. She honed her folksy jazz style during a decade on the jazz scene in France, where she splits her time, and from years on Frenchmen Street singing with the Moonshiners. Quintana took money earned from gigs with that trad jazz band, which played Lincoln Center and beyond, to fund her yoga-teacher certification, a training she continues but says today takes a backseat to her musical aspirations. “Your soul is going to tell you what you need to do in this lifetime,” Quintana says. “Just let go and go with the flow until you discover your deepest longings and then honor that with all that you have.” —Frank Etheridge www.OFFBEAT.com

photo: elsa hahne

FQF IQ

Maggie Koerner Leroy Jones & New Orleans’ Finest, 4/9, JAC, 3:50p: Trumpeter Jones is a protégé of the legendary Danny Barker and at 13 was leading the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. In 1991 Jones joined Harry Connick, Jr. s band; he s also appeared with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Dr. John. Leroy Jones’ Original Hurricane Brass Band, 4/8, BB, 2:15p: Jones draws on his experience with the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band to play traditional New Orleans brass band music in this historic group. Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners, 4/8, CHV, 7:30p: Like his father Leo “the Bull” Thomas, Leroy Thomas began his career as a drummer. After teaching himself accordion, he joined his dad’s band, with whom he toured for 15 years before kicking off his career as a leader with the Roadrunners. Lillian Boutte & Gumbo Zaire, 4/9, JAC, 5:20p: Celebrated jazz singer Boutte has performed with giants from James Booker to Patti Labelle. The City of New Orleans honored her as an Ambassador of Music, the only musician since Louis Armstrong to receive the title. Linnzi Zaorski, 4/9, FMS, 4:15p: Dubbed “the Ninth Ward’s torchiest torch singer” by OffBeat, the charismatic Zaorski mixes Betty Boop phrasing with a solid sense of ‘30s-style swing. Little Freddie King, 4/9, ABS, 3:45p: The Mississippi Delta-born King plays raw juke-joint blues with style, and he’s one of the best dressers you’ll see on any stage. His latest album, Messin’ Around Tha Livin’ Room, came out last spring. Little Maker, 4/8, WWL, 2p: Empress Hotel’s Micah McKee and friends delve

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into rock’s folk and jazz heritage to arrive at their violin and horn-driven orchestral pop sound; in 2016 they released two new singles, “Steady Smiling” and “Let’s Lose.” Liquid Time Jazz Club, 4/10, INT, 1:30p: An export from Canada, the Liquid Time Jazz Club performs its take on traditional New Orleans jazz. Los Po-Boy-Citos, 4/10, OUT, 3:50p: This party-friendly Latin band specializes in boogaloo versions of New Orleans favorites and funkified versions of Latin tunes. Lost Bayou Ramblers, 4/8, CHV, 3:45p: As their acclaimed Mammoth Waltz demonstrates, this young Cajun band celebrates its genre’s tradition while staying open to new technology and rock influences – including a recent collaboration with the Pogues’ Spider Stacy. Lynn Drury, 4/7, TRO, 2p: A singer/ songwriter steeped in both her Mississippi heritage and her adopted home of New Orleans, this frequent Best of the Beat Awards nominee teamed up with veteran British producer John Porter for her latest CD Come to My House. Lucien Barbarin, 4/9, PH, 1p: A regular feature of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, trombonist Barbarin comes from a long line of esteemed traditional New Orleans jazz performers and landed his first gig at age 6 with the prestigious Onward Brass Band. Luke Winslow King, 4/8, HOB, 8:30p: A Mississippi native who studied music at UNO, Winslow-King is both a performer and musicologist, combining the sound of early 20th century New Orleans with the street smarts of a modern songwriter. A PRI L 2016

FQF IQ

aggie Koerner, 4/10, BMI, 4:30p: This soulful, Louisianaborn singer’s powerful pipes fronted Galactic for multiple tours before leaving to embark on her solo career. Magnetic Ear, 4/10, HOB, 2p: A progressive brass band inspired by avant-garde jazz, second line funk and European brass music. Their spirited new album Live at Vaughan’s just came out this month. Mahala, 4/10, ROU, 3:30p: The accordion, drums and guitar trio Mahala brings Balkan and Bulgarian music to the Big Easy. Mahogany Brass Band, 4/9, WWL, 2:15p: Led by trumpeter, scholar and DJ Brice Miller, this young brass band stays true the old-time, swinging sound of traditional New Orleans brass bands. MainLine, 4/10, GE, 2p: Having dropped the “brass band” moniker in recent years, this eight-piece credits Soul Rebels sousaphonist Edward Lee with inspiring the funk, rock and jam bandstyle approach they layer onto their brass band horns instrumentation. Marc Adams Band, 4/10, GE, 11a: Adams’ Hammond B3 sound has accompanied Eric Lindell for the better part of two decades. Here, the in-demand organist struts his stuff as a leader. Marc Stone, 4/10, TRO, 11a: Blues rock singer, songwriter and slide guitarist Stone tktk … His latest release, Poison & Medicine features the Bonerama Horns, Mike Dillon, and members of the Dirty Dozen, Galactic and the Honey Island Swamp Band. Mark Brooks, 4/10, ZAP, 4p: An acoustic bassist specializing in the classic New Orleans jazz repertoire as well as blues, gospel and modern jazz, Brooks has worked with Dr. John, the Neville Brothers and Fats Domino. Mason Ruffner, 4/8, TRO, 5:45p: When he first came to New Orleans in the late ‘70s, this Texas-born, blues-obsessed guitarist backed the likes of John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim. He went on to work with Jimmy Page, Bon Dylan, Daniel Lanois and U2 while maintaining an acclaimed solo career. Mayumi Shara & New Orleans Jazz Letters, 4/9, OMN, 3:30p: This master of Japanese taiko drumming has become equally adept at historically New Orleanian music styles ranging from traditional jazz to blues to R&B. Melody Cloud Singers, 4/10, TRO, 11a: This family group was formed in 1965 and is now led by founder Leo Jackson’s son. It’s known for its rousing vocals and synchronized steps. Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns, 4/9, OMN, 1:45p: Once a Royal Street performer, now a marquee name in the local traditional jazz scene, Lake and friends are getting more attention worldwide thanks to her vintage sass, great storytelling and gorgeously raw New Orleans feel; their latest, Bad Kids Club, came out last year. Mia Borders, 4/8, OUT, 2:15p: A singer, songwriter, and guitarist from New Orleans, her newest release, Quarter-Life

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Miss Sophie Lee Crisis was produced by Anders Osborne and described by OffBeat Magazine as “a record of great music and great intensity.” Michael “Soulman” Baptiste, 4/9: Born in the Treme and raised on the sounds of New Orleans jazz and the church, Baptiste’s soul-based repertoire revolves around classics by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Bobby Womack. Michot Melody Makers, 4/8, HOB, 6:30p: Michot is a dynamic Cajun fiddler best known as the frontman of the Lost Bayou Ramblers. He performs here with his wife, Ashlee, and a slew of other popular musicians from the Lafayette scene. Miss Sophie Lee, 4/9, FMS, 11a: One of the proprietors of the restaurant Three Muses and the newly relocated Seoul Shack, Lee applies a sultry vocal style to her chosen mixture of swing and traditional jazz. Her CD Love Street Lullaby shows off her songwriting as well as interpretive skills. Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles, 4/8, ABS, 3:45p: Local legend and reggae aficionado Big Chief Monk Boudreaux plays some of the city’s most esteemed Mardi Gras Indian music with his tribe, the Golden Eagles.

Music for All Ages with the Red Hot Brass Band, 4/9, KID, 4p: The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park’s popular Music For All Ages program teaches kids about traditional New Orleans jazz with the help of the young Red Hots, who also perform on the Brass Band stage at 12:45pm that day. aughty Professor, 4/9, WWL, 3:45p: This New Orleans-based six-piece plays a blend of funk, soul and rock that’s earned them a solid following on Frenchmen Street’s jamband scene. New Birth Brass Band, 4/8, OUT, 12:45p: Featuring trumpeter Will Smith and other former students of the famed Olympia Brass Band, this long-running ensemble boasts Glen David Andrews and Trombone Shorty among its alumni. New Breed Brass Band, 4/9, BB, 4p: These high school marching band alums fold hip-hop, funk, and soul into the brass tradition in clubs and second lines around the city. New Bumpers Jazz Band, 4/9, INT, 12p: Fred Dupin leads this Francophone traditional jazz quintet. New Orleans Classic Jazz Orchestra, 4/9, ZAP, 11:30a: Led by Eddie Baynard, this septet performs the music of

influential ‘20s-era New Orleans bands like the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings, 4/8, FMS, 4p: Rulers of the lower French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny, the Cottonmouth Kings play a loose and fun style of traditional jazz. New Orleans Jazz Vipers, 4/9, FMS, 12:45p: This swinging drum-less quintet brings a mix of still-timely standards like “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and lesser known swing tunes to their longrunning weekly gigs at the Spotted Cat. New Orleans Moonshiners, 4/10, OMN, 12p: These young, traditional jazz players led by singer, composer and banjo player Chris Edmunds, the Moonshiners first got together with swing on the brain back in 2008. New Orleans Nightcrawlers, 4/8, BB, 4p: This funky brass-meets-rock outfit represents the genre’s adventurous edge and includes familiar faces from Bonerama and Galactic. Their last album, Slither Slice, combined funk, hip-hop, Indian chants and a general spirit of rejuvenation. The New Orleans Suspects, 4/7, ABS, 3:45p: Radiators bassist Reggie Scanlan and Neville Brothers drummer “Mean” Willie Green are the backbone of a funky all-star band that also includes Dirty Dozen guitarist Jake Eckert, keyboardist CR Gruver and saxophonist Jeff Watkins, who was James Brown’s late-career bandleader. New Orleans Swamp Donkeys, 4/9, COU, 5:30p: The Swamp Donkeys’ creative mix of traditional jazz, blues, vaudeville and modern jazz styles gained a worldwide legion of fans when a video of their rendition of the Game of Thrones theme went viral online. New Orleans Trombone Choir, 4/8, HOB, 12p: John Risey directs this trombone-focused ensemble through a series of jazz classics. New Orleans Volunteer Orchestra, 4/10, CLS, 11a: With a repertoire that ranges from symphonies to pops to video game theme songs, this free, community collective has as few musical boundaries as it has traditional admission rules. Expect a range of ages and performance levels delivering an interesting mix of music. NPS Centennial Band, 4/9, KID, 3p; and 4/10, KID, 3:30p: An official ensemble of musicians representing the 100-year-old National Park Service perform a kids’ program. On Saturday, the musicians include Sam Dusian, Kim Samaniego, Michael Harris and Matt Hampsey. On Sunday, they are Sam Kuslan, Kim Samaniego, Michael Harris and Lauralee Buchanan pera Creole, 4/9, CLS, 12:30p: Devoted to the history of contributions people of color have made to opera and classical music in New Orleans through history, these singers perform a mix of French language works, many of which were authored by Creole composers or have other roots in the city’s early heyday as a center for great opera in America.

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FQF FOCUS JAZZ FEST A-Z

Asylum Chorus ASYLUM CHORUS, 4/10, BMI, 3:45 PM

“W

e decided to go bust and do our regular set anyway,” Asylum Chorus founder and director Lucas Davenport recalls of the ensemble’s 2015 French Quarter Fest appearance. Rained out from their Sunday afternoon BMI Songwriter Stage set inside the Historic New Orleans Collection’s courtyard, the vanguard vocalists’ spontaneous, show-must-goon spirit paid dividends. “Allen Toussaint walked by, stopped, tipped us, left and then came right back to watch the rest of the show,” Davenport adds. “That’s an all-time highlight for us.” Davenport talks over coffee in the kitchen of the bright, cheerful Gentilly home of bandmate Amy Trail, whose husband and four-year-old son mill about the group’s standing weekly Tuesday lunch-hour(s) rehearsal with amicable ease. The gathering is another installment in what Trail jokingly describes as “a six-to-one rehearsal-to-gig ratio, an anomaly in New Orleans music.” Certainly the culmination of a unique artistic vision in a city brimming with them, the Asylum Chorus (the name recently abbreviated from St. Cecilia’s Asylum Chorus), began on November 11, 2011 (yep, 11/11/11) as “a oneoff performance of New Orleans musicians who don’t normally sing unaccompanied,” Davenport explains. “We were invited to do a Sunday show at Preservation Hall of some spirituals and some sing-alongs.

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That’s all we ever intended to do. But everyone loved it so much that we decided to keep on doing it.” The name change to simply Asylum Chorus came about not just because, as Davenport says with a laugh, “we were afraid of causing too much confusion in a town so heavily Catholic.” It marked a changing point for the band, now consisting of, in addition to Davenport and Trail, Sybil Shanell, Ashley Shabankareh, Melanie Gardner, Mike Cammarata, Roan Smith and Hannah KreigerBenson. With divergent influences from old-school funk to hip-hop to singer-songwriter to neo-soul, the re-branded, re-focused outfit is once again scheduled to appear on the BMI Songwriter Stage this French Quarter Fest. The Asylum Chorus’ eight singers will play musical chairs between their instrumentation of drums, bass, guitar and keys. While this 30-minute set will likely feature trademark a capella vocal harmonies floating behind the beat of classics such as “I’ll Fly Away” or “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?,” new songs recorded for a forthcoming EP could bring in the Quintron church-funk of “How Many More” to the dirty-blues field song of “In the Cane.” “We’ve become a lot more focused on original material, because that’s what reflects all our disparate styles and that’s what’s interesting to us,” Davenport says. “We’re an original band as opposed to a spiritual homage. We know who we are now.” —Frank Etheridge www.OFFBEAT.com

FQF IQ Orange Kellin’s New Orleans Deluxe Orchestra, 4/9, JD, 3:45p: Clarinetist Kellin has been helping to keep the traditional New Orleans jazz scene alive in the Crescent City since he moved here from Sweden in 1966. A longtime associate of pianist Lars Edegran, Kellin’s also known for his central involvement in the musical. One Mo’ Time Original Pinettes Brass Band, 4/10, BB, 5:45p: Billed as “The World’s Only All Female Brass Band,” the Pinettes were formed by a group of students at St. Mary’s Academy in 1991. They won the Red Bull Street Kings brass competition in 2013. Ovi G and the Froggies, 4/9, TRO, 12:30p: Ovidio Giron leads this third generation riff on the Guatemalan marimba band Los Ranas. Along with his three children, Giron performs a mix of soca, marimba and tropical styles of Central American music. Otra, 4/8, TRO, 7:20p: Led by bassist Sam Price, this local Afro-Cuban band stands out from the crowd with its strong, original compositions; they also do a heavily rearranged “Nature Boy.” almetto Bug Stompers, 4/10, FMS, 2:30p: Traditional jazz sextet with some familiar players, including the ubiquitous Washboard Chaz. They are a dance band staple on Frenchmen Street.

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Panorama Jazz Band, 4/7, GE, 11a: Influenced by styles from around the globe, this hip band comprised of top local instrumentalists blends New Orleans jazz traditions with klezmer, Latin and Balkan sounds. Partners N Crime & The Big Easy Bounce Band featuring DJ Jubilee, 4/9, TRO, 7:20p: Legendary local rap “partners” since their days growing up in the 17th Ward, Kango Slimm and Mr. Meana appear with an all-star bounce group featuring the self-professed “King of Bounce” DJ Jubilee. Pascal Valcasara Quarter, 4/8, INT, 3p: Saxophonist, vocalist (and cajon player) Valcasara mixes concepts from traditional French and American jazz. He’s performed with a variety of local swing, gypsy and trad bands in local years. Patrice Fisher and Arpa, 4/10, COU, 12:15p: This Latin jazz ensemble is led by versatile professional harpist Fisher, who has been performing and recording her original compositions since the early ’80s. Paul Sanchez, 4/10, JAC, 12:45p: Cowboy Mouth alum Sanchez has since been a friendly godfather to the local songwriter scene, and the co-writer of the post-Katrina musical Nine Lives. Paulin Brothers Jazz Band, 4/9, HER, 1:15p: Ernest “Doc” Paulin founded this band in the 1920s; his sons now perform strictly traditional

brass-band music, complete with the longstanding black-and-white uniforms and spiffy white caps. Peter Novelli, 4/10, BMI, 1:30p: OffBeat Magazine’s Dan Willging once wrote Novelli is “the master of searing tones and crunchy, mid-tempo grooves.” He has toured with accordionist Sammy Naquin and worked with Dr. John and Buckwheat Zydeco, among others. The Pfister Sisters, 4/10, JAC, 11:15a: Inspired by the close harmonies and lively personalities of New Orleans’ Boswell Sisters, these Spotted Cat regulars are all about the ‘30s in both sound and look. Pierre Querol, 4/10, CLS, 3:30p: The St. Louis Cathedral’s Young Artist in Residence performs. Playhouse Revue, 4/8, 4/9, 4/10, MAY, 8p: Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield’s modern jazz venue presents an assortment of the club’s popular performers. Plasma Beast Jazz Band, 4/10, INT, 12p: Plasma Beast brings its New Orleans style jazz southward from Canada. Pontchartrain Owls, 4/10, INT, 3p: This international multinational traditional jazz group has made regular appearances at French Quarter Fest. PresHall Brass, 4/7, JAC, 11:15a: Featuring bass drummer Tanio Hingle, snare drummer Kerry “Fat Man” Hunter and trumpeter Will Smith, plus a rotating

roster of players, Pres Hall Brass aims to serve as the Hall collective’s go-to brass band arm, like the Olympia Brass Band once did. The Preservation Hall Legacy Band with Gregg Stafford: 4/9, PH, 3p: The Legacy band is one of the handful of regular ensembles that perform regularly at the Hall under the direction of Stafford or Wendell Brunious, two of the city’s most acclaimed traditional jazz trumpeters. The Preservation Hall Legacy Band with Wendell Brunious: 4/9, PH, 3p: The Legacy band is one of the handful of regular ensembles that perform regularly at the Hall under the direction of Brunious or Gregg Stafford, two of the city’s most acclaimed traditional jazz trumpeters. achel Van Voorhees, 4/9, CLS, 3:30p: The principal harpist of the Louisiana Philharmonic, she performs sacred, Celtic pop and classical material and was once in a jazz group with Charles Neville. Raw Oyster Cult, 4/10, ABS, 2:10p: The closest thing at FQF to a Radiators reunion, featuring 3/5 of the Rads (Dave Malone, Camile Baudoin, and Frank Bua) plus Papa Grows Funk’s John Gros and Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes’ bassist Dave Pomerlau. Rebecca Roubion, 4/9, BMI, 2:15p: Singer songwriter and Mobile native, Roubion studied public relations at

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FQF IQ Louisiana State University, but it’s her music that has kept her busy recently. Roubion’s distinct creole roots are a product of her time spent in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Red Hot Brass Band, 4/9, BB, 12:45p: Student musicians from the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the Red Hots play standards from the traditional New Orleans jazz repertoire. Red Wolf Brass Band, 4/8, BB, 12:45p: Music teacher and band director Desmond Venable leads this energetic young band of music students who recently released their first album, 7th Period. Reed Alleman, 4/10, BMI, 12p: Original songs about Louisiana’s natural environment destruction thereof, the repercussions of the storm and great small-town personalities fill much of this folk rock-oriented guitarist and singer’s canon. The Revealers, 4/9, WWL, 12:30p: Long-running reggae band with a funkified New Orleans feel, the Revealers are known for the local hit, “I Like the Sound of That.” The Revelers, 4/7, CHV, 5:30p: This Grammy-nominated Lafayette supergroup brings together accordionist and Pine Leaf Boys founder Blake Miller, guitarist Chas Justus and violinist Daniel Coolik in a dance-inspiring blend of Southwest Louisiana’s most iconic music styles.

Rhodes Spedale & Live Jazz Group, 4/9, ZAP, 1:45p: In addition to performing as a jazz pianist in and around New Orleans since the mid-‘60s, Spedale has worked as a jazz journalist, authoring a guide to New Orleansm jazz in the ‘80s and hosting numerous radio programs over the years. Riccardo Crespo and Sol Brasil, 4/9, ROU, 3:30p: New Orleans-based Brazilian guitarist Crespo blends Brasileira with folk, bossa nova and Latin jazz as well as a wide variety of Brazilian rhythms. Rick Trolsen’s New Orleans Po-Boys, 4/10, HER, 11a: Virtuoso trombonist Trolsen leads this band playing traditional New Orleans music and originals with conviction and a fiendish sense of humor. River Jazz & Blues Band, 4/10, INT, 6p: This Danish band plays a mix of traditional jazz, swing, jump, and Latin American rhythms. Robin Barnes, 4/8, GE, 3:45p: Steeped in R&B, this self-professed “soul pop” vocalist first sang in the choirs at St. Phillip and St. David Catholic Churches, and later with her family’s jazz band the Soul Heirs. Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters, 4/10, CHV, 5:30p: One of the few rubboard players to lead a zydeco band, Dopsie Jr. plays it wilder than his accordionist dad, and his sets are guaranteed party-starters.

Rick Trolsen

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photo: golden g. richard, iii

FQF IQ Shannon Powell

Roddie Romero and the Hub City All Stars, 4/10, OUT, 5:30p: Multitalented accordion player Romero adds roots rock energy to his indigenous South Louisiana sound. The Ronnie Kole Show featuring John Perkins, 4/9, JAC, 2:20p: This award-winning jazz pianist, old-school Bourbon Street staple and protégé of Al Hirt has been performing Great American Songbook classics and Big Band tunes in New Orleans for decades. Rory Danger & the Danger Dangers, 4/10, OUT, 2:15p: Danger is saxophonist and clarinetist Aurora Nealand’s alter ego. The rockabilly ensemble includes Spencer Bohren, his son, Andre Bohren, Marc Paradis, Casey Coleman, Bill Malchow and Scott Potts. Their relentless enthusiasm and dedication to their bizarre characters make their performances some of the most fun in town. alt Wives, the, 4/9, PAL, 2p: European cabaret and “radical Yiddish chamber folk” are the names of the game for this playful quintet, whose 2016 FQF debut marks your best chance to spot a euphonium sharing the stage with a toy piano. Sarah Quintana and the Miss River Band, 4/8, WWL, 11a: Water and the Louisiana region’s natural world fueled the inspiration for this ambitious, dreamy and innovative project from one of the city’s top vocalists. Seva Venet and the Storyville Stringband, 4/11, PH, 2p: Guitarist and banjo player Seva Venet moved to New Orleans from Los Angeles and performs with bands including Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band. The Storyville Stringband has recorded with guitarists Lars Edegran, Kerry Lewis, and Matt Rhodie.

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Shannon Powell’s Traditional All Star Band, 4/10, JAC, 5:30p: Billed as the “King of Treme,” Shannon Powell is a master drummer and Preservation Hall staple who began his career with Danny Barker and has since played with Wynton Marsalis, Dr. John and Harry Connick Jr. Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs, 4/8, OUT, 5:30p: Jazz-funk-hip-hop trumpeter Allen resists categorization, having performed with Willie Nelson and written the local anthem “Meet Me on Frenchmen Street.” Shotgun Jazz Band, 4/10, JD, 3:45p: Trumpeter Marla Dixon and sixstring banjoist John Dixon began as a busking duo before expanding to their current seven-piece, traditional New Orleans jazz incarnation. Smoke N Bones, 4/9, OUT, 2:15p: Guitarist Billy Frank leads this soul and funk-centric five-piece. Some of the band’s tunes veer into Afro-Cuban and reggae territory, while singer Mykia Jovan lends a gospel vibe to others. Smoking Time Jazz Club, 4/10, FMS, 11a: A regular on Frenchmen Street playing at Maison and Spotted Cat they have a deep knowledge and appreciation for early jazz. Their latest album, Everything Is Righteous, was released in 2014. Solid Harmony, 4/10, COU, 4:30p: Solid Harmony is the all-female group with a gospel-inspired vocal blend that has performed for many years with Topsy Chapman. Some Like It Hot Traditional Jazz Band, 4/9: Trumpeter Kaye Caldwell leads this traditional jazz group, which unlike most ensembles of its type features several female musicians. Sonny Landreth, 4/7, TRO, 3:50p: A thoughtful songwriter and scorching slide guitarist, Landreth can claim the A PRI L 2016

Stooges Brass Band

likes of Clapton, Buffett, Hiatt and John Mayall as collaborators and fans. Sons of Jazz Brass Band, 4/10, BB, 12:45p: Playing a range of brass band music that runs the gamut from traditional to contemporary, the Sons of Jazz hit the streets earlier this year with the new Femme Fatale Mardi Gras krewe. Soul Project NOLA, 4/8, OUT, 3:50p: Young devotees of old-school funk, inspired by vintage Nevilles and Meters. Guitarist/singer Jon Cristian Duque played for a time with Walter “Wolfman” Washington. Steve Pistorius & the Southern Syncopators 4/8, FMS, 2p: Pianist Steve Pistorius, who plays with a dexterous, ragtime piano style, is complemented by a crew of seasoned traditional jazz musicians in a band named after a song by Henry “Red” Allen. Their repertoire includes tunes by Sidney Bechet, Natty Dominique, Bill Whitmore, Tony Jackson and others. Stooges Brass Band, 4/9, BB, 5:45p: Formed in 1996, the Stooges are one of the busiest brass bands on the circuit. They frequently add unexpected elements like reggae to their tight sound, drawing high-profile devotees like Trombone Shorty to their fanbase. Storyville Stompers Brass Band, 4/9, BB, 11:15a: This long-running and prolific traditional New Orleans brass band has a knack for reinvigorating rare, vintage jazz songs. Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, 4/9, 5:30p: Accordionist and harmonica player Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, who grew up surrounded by blues masters like Sonny Boy Williamson in Arkansas,

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infuses plenty of R&B into his brand of contemporary Zydeco. Susan Cowsill, 4/8, WWL, 3:45p: The little sister of the ’60s group the Cowsills, Susan has recorded with Freedy Johnston and Jon Dee Graham as the Hobart Brothers & Li’l Sis, and with Vicki Peterson as the Psycho Sisters. The Cowsills documentary Family Band is a must see. Sweet Cecilia, 4/10, CHV, 12:30p: Sisters Laura Huval and Meagan Berard, along with their cousin Callie Guidry make up this trio of multi-instrumentalist Louisiana roots rockers from Acadiana. Sweet Crude, 4/8, ABS, 12:35p: New Orleans indie pop septet Sweet Crude plays an energetic brand of percussion-driven, sparkly rock, often sung in French. ank and the Bangas, 4/9, WWL, 5:30p: This high-energy and increasingly popular ensemble led by powerhouse singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball.combines elements of soul, R&B, hip hop and spoken word. T’Canaille, 4/7, CHV, 2p: One of the few New Orleans-based Cajun bands, this eight-piece ensemble holds down a weekend dance party with a devoted following at Tropicle Isle’s Bayou Club. Thais Clark and her JAZZsters, 4/10, HER, 1:15p: Hailing from New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, Clark often hews to the ribald, fun, old-school blues of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith and has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Dr. Michael White and the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. Tim Laughlin, 4/9, JAC, 11:15a: Clarinetist Laughlin’s compositions fit within the classic traditional jazz idiom,

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photo: golden g. richard, iii

FQF IQ

FQF IQ but his skill in bringing traditional New Orleans jazz into the 21st Century gives them a more modern feel. Tin Men, 4/7, GE, 2p: Stripped-down melodies, a wry sense of humor, deep funk sousaphone grooves and bluessoaked washboard scratches, strums and dings fuel Alex McMurray, Matt Perrine and Washboard Chaz’s long-running trio. Tom McDermott and His Jazz Hellions, 4/9, PAL, 12p: McDermott is a virtuoso pianist whose skill and deep knowledge of music history allow him to play everything from New Orleans jazz and blues to Caribbean and classical music. Tommy Sancton’s New Orleans Legacy Band, 4/10, JD, 1:30p: This clarinetist served as Time Magazine’s Paris bureau chief for 22 years. As a child, he took music lessons from Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s George Lewis, an experience he documents in the book Song for My Fathers. Tornado Brass Band, 4/10, PH, 12p: Originally formed as the Hurricane Brass Band in 1974, the group got a new name when saxophonist Darryl Adams took over as leader. They’re inspired by the sound of the Olympia Brass Band and other traditional marching groups. T-Ray the Violinist, 4/9, GE, 11a: T-Ray’s innovative explorations of experimental sound tend to fuse contemporary music like hip-hop and neo-soul with jazz and classical-based concepts. Treme Brass Band, 4/10, BB, 2:15p: Led by Benny Jones, the Treme Brass Band is one of the longest-running traditional brass bands in town. The Treme Brass Band contributed to the Carnival repertoire with “Gimme My Money Back.” Trumpet Summit, 4/10, MAY, 5p: Local trumpeters gather at Irvin Mayfield’s Playhouse for a closing day brass extravaganza. Tuba Skinny, 4/10, FMS, 4:15p: This band of New Orleans street musicians specialize in traditional jazz, Depressionera blues and spirituals. They recently released their seventh album, Blue Chime Stomp. Tyler Kinchen and the Right Pieces, 4/8, HOB, 2:30p: Hailing from Pontchatoula, this jazzed up big band performs with a heavy dose of R&B, courtesy of Kinchen’s voice. Tysson, 4/9, HOB, 9:15p: Bandleader and prolific songwriter John Michael Rouchell fronted the nationally popular alt rock band MyNameIsJohnMichael before transitioning to this new rock project comprised of local players. ic Shepherd with More Reverb, 4/8, GE, 11a: Surf rock, slide guitar and roots jams keep this trio’s crowds moving at venue’s like the Apple Barrel on Frenchmen Street. Vivaz!, 4/9, COU, 12:30p: This energetic and dance inspiring Caribbean/ Latin jazz fusion band led by the Bolivianborn guitarist Javier Gutierrez highlights the Cuban tres (a double three-stringed Cuban guitar).

alter “Wolfman” Washington & the Roadmasters, 4/8, ABS, 5:25p: A local institution, the Wolfman puts plenty of hot guitar and soulful horns into his funky brand of blues. Wanda Rouzan & A Taste of New Orleans, 4/10, JAC, 2:20p: A lifetime New Orleanian, Wanda cut her first single as part of the Rouzan Sisters and has since distinguished herself as a stage actress, educator and champion of the city’s R&B tradition. Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, 4/9, ROU, 1:45p: When not tackling Western swing with Washboard Rodeo,

rocking acoustically with the Tin Men or presiding over Chazfest, Washboard Chaz airs his blues roots with this group. Waylon Thibodeaux Band, 4/8, CHV, 12:30p: A Bourbon Street fixture for years, Waylon is an energetic fiddler who specializes in zydeco and Cajun music. He’s also a member of the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars. Wendell Brunious, 4/9, OMN, 12p: Trumpeter Brunious took over as the leader of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in 1987 and remained a Hall regular for many years (his nephew Mark Braud is the current leader). Brunious has played regularly with

Lionel Hampton, Linda Hopkins and Sammy Rimington. Wes Raymond & the SOUL Factory, 4/9, TRO, 4p: Raymond’s deep, silky vocals and strong horn section are the stars of this old-school soul act, which makes its festival debut this year. oung New Orleans Traditional Jazz Band featuring Doyle ‘Red’ Copper and graduates of the NPS Music for all Ages Program: The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park’s popular Music For All Ages program teaches kids about traditional New Orleans jazz with the help of trumpeter Copper.

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EATS

photos: Elsa Hahne

Anna Mangiardi/Cosimo's

This is the 32nd installment in our cocktail series In the Spirit, featuring local bartenders who create drinks in honor of Louisiana musicians. This month, we put fancy mixology aside for a moment and focus on a neighborhood staple as well as a customer favorite.

“I

chose Little Bob and the Lollipops. When I first heard their song "I Got Loaded" it was on WWOZ, during [bartender and DJ] Murf Reeves' show. I loved it, and I've been listening to it ever since. It's a great R&B song, a roll-yourwindows-down, have-a-goodtime song. I've been here at Cosimo's bar for about a year and a half. I'm only at Cosimo's because I need time for other stuff. I play music; I have a little gig over at Pearl Wine every other Thursday. I realize this isn't a mixed cocktail, but I wanted to do a beer and a shot special, because we don't really do fancy cocktails here—this is a real neighborhood bar. You get your shot and you get your PBR or Miller High Life, that's it. Basic. Who orders a beer and a shot? Almost everyone who walks through

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the door. Most of the people do PBR with Jameson, that's the go-to, but I like Wild Turkey 101. It has a nice burn. It warms you. Lost of service industry people drink here after their shifts. They get their shot, because you need a shot after your shift, and sip on their beer, and then they just sit down and don't talk to anybody sometimes. I know I like a shot after a shift. Most of the crowd here is either service industry people, or super-local neighbors. The point of having a shot and a beer instead of two beers is the need for that period at the end of the sentence, sort of. You've been on your feet, running around, talking to people all night, and then you need that shot that says 'done.' It's also nice in a bar when people do shots together. I'll take a shot with a customer, and there's a nice camaraderie there. You can build a

By Elsa Hahne

community with shots. It shouldn't be based on that, obviously, but if you have a lot of people in a bar that don't know each other and you line up some shots for everybody—cheers!—people start talking and become friends by the end of the night. Coors is my favorite domestic beer. I've always enjoyed it and I've always enjoyed the people who drink it. You get this fun crowd that goes along with it. I love a good stout, but sometimes you just need to quench your thirst and have something light and easy. We all know it's not the best quality product, but maybe you want something on the watery side. I learned to bartend in North Carolina. I was broke and lied my way into my first job at a wing shack, saying I had experience. The day before I practiced pouring water out of a wine bottle with

I Got Loaded 1 bottle Coors Original 2 ounces Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon Whiskey Serve side by side. Enjoy! a pour spout on it. There's an ambulance sound you can make and it's the perfect four count. 'Dee-do, dee-do.' That's still in my head. If I'm busy, there are always ambulances in my head." www.OFFBEAT.com

899-8221 Kingfish: 337 Chartres St., 598-5005 Mr. B’s Bistro: 201 Royal St. 523-2078 Restaurant R’evolution: 777 Bienville St., 553-2277

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

FRENCH

NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS

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 Gelateria: 3005 Magazine St., 3422634; 621 St. Peter St., 302-2692 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

IRISH The Irish House: 1432 Saint Charles Ave., 595-6755

ITALIAN

JAPANESE/KOREAN/SUSHI/THAI

The Joint: 701 Mazant St., 949-3232 Whoodoo BBQ: 2660 St Philip St., 230-2070

COFFEE HOUSE

LOUISIANA / SOUTHERN

Café du Monde: 800 Decatur St., 525-4544 Morning Call Coffee Stand: 56 Dreyfous Dr., (504) 300-1157, 3325 Severn Ave., Metairie, 885-4068

Fulton Alley: 600 Fulton St., 208-5593 Mondo: 900 Harrison Ave., 224-2633 Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934

CREOLE/CAJUN

MEDITERRANEAN

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.,

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Byblos: 3218 Magazine St., 894-1233 Mona’s Café: 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115

MEXICAN/CARIBBEAN/SPANISH Barú Bistro & Tapas: 3700 Magazine St., 895-2225 Juan’s Flying Burrito: 2018 Magazine St., 569-0000 El Gato Negro: 81 French Market Place, 525-9846

MUSIC ON THE MENU Banks Street Bar & Grill: 4401 Banks St., 486-0258 Buffa’s: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Chickie Wah Wah: 2828 Canal St., 304-4714 Dmac’s Bar & Grill: 542 S Jefferson Davis Pkwy, 304-5757 Gattuso’s: 435 Huey P Long Ave., Gretna, 368-1114 Hard Rock Café: 125 Bourbon St., 529-5617 House of Blues: 225 Decatur St., 412-8068

Midway Pizza: 4725 Freret St., 322-2815 Pizza Delicious: 617 Piety St., 676-8482 Slice Pizzeria: 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437 Theo’s Pizza: 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554; 4024 Canal St., 302-1133; 1212 S Clearview, 733-3803

SEAFOOD Basin Seafood and Spirits: 3222 Magazine St., 302-7391 Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St. 569-3380 LeBayou Restaurant: 208 Bourbon St., 525-4755 Pier 424 Seafood Market: 424 Bourbon St., 309-1574 Royal House Oyster Bar: 441 Royal St., 528-2601

SOUL Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934

STEAKHOUSE La Boca: 870 Tchoupitoulas St., 525-8205

VIETNAMESE Namese: 4077 Tulane Ave., 483-8899

WEE HOURS Buffa’s Restaurant & Lounge: 1001 Esplanade Ave., 949-0038 Clover Grill: 900 Bourbon St., 523-0904 Mimi’s in the Marigny: 2601 Royal St., 872-9868

Charlie Halloran hits the

Adolfo’s: 611 Frenchmen St., 948-3800 Little Vic’s: 719 Toulouse St., 304-1238 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; 1913 Royal St., 948-9309 Wasabi: 900 Frenchmen St., 943-9433

BARBECUE

Biscuits and Buns on Banks: 4337 Banks St., 273-4600 Cake Café: 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010 City Diner: 3116 S I-10 Service Rd E, 8311030; 5708 Citrus Blvd., 309-7614 Cowbell: 8801 Oak St., 298-8689 Dat Dog: 601 Frenchmen St., 309-3362; 5030 Freret St., 899-6883; 3336 Magazine St., 324-2226 Live Oak Cafe: 8140 Oak St., 265-0050 Parkway Bakery and Tavern: 538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047 Phil’s Grill: 3020 Severn Ave., Metairie, 324-9080; 1640 Hickory Ave., Harahan, 305-1705 Sammy’s Food Services: 3000 Elysian Fields Ave., 948-7361 Tracey’s: 2604 Magazine St., 897-5413 Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683

PIZZA

Spot

Nice shirt. I've always been into Caribbean stuff. I like the music, the food and the drinks, too. I've heard you're so much into tiki bars, you have one at home? My wife and I built it. It was a lot more work than I thought. I was out in the backyard with a machete and a brick, splitting bamboo. What are you drinking? The Espresso Bongo with coffee syrup—I haven't found it, don't know where to buy it, so I can't make it at home.

During French Quarter Fest, will you come here in-between sets? Absolutely! —Elsa Hahne This is Charlie Halloran's first year band-leading Beachbum Berry's at French Quarter Fest, but he'll also perform Latitude 29 with Tuba Skinny, Steve Pistorius, Tim Laughlin, 321 N Peters St. Connie Jones, Panorama, Lars Edegran, the (504) 609-3811 Palmetto Bug Stompers, and Shotgun Jazz Band. www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: ELSA HAHNE

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

Warehouse Grille: 869 Magazine St., 322-2188

Photo: renee bienvenu

EATS

DINING OUT

Roux Carré Good Work Network fosters the endeavors of local minority-owned and women-owned businesses. The non-profit’s most recent investment is Roux Carré, an open-air food court on the blossoming Oretha Castle Haley commercial corridor. Opened during the first week of December, Roux Carré features a central outdoor dining area surrounded on four sides by brightly colored food stalls, which at first appear to be repurposed shipping containers connected like Legos. Each vendor sells and serves their own individual menus from their respective stalls, but they also collectively share a common commissary kitchen. Exposed to the elements, the dining area is an ideal setting for a casual lunch or weekend dinner on a nice day. The first set of “food-preneurs” represents the city’s African American, Caribbean and Latin American influences. Estralita Soniat runs an express version of her eponymous restaurant in

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Westwego, well known for its red beans and rice, daily plate lunch specials and traditional po-boys. Clinton “Johnny” Haughton opened Johnny’s Jamaican Grill after a successful stint serving up jerk chicken from a food truck. His expansion to Roux Carré has allowed him to grow the audience for his bold curry goat and stewed oxtail, two weekend specials served with rice and peas, caramelized plantains and slow-cooked greens. Miriam Rodriguez, better known as the Pupusa Lady, serves an assortment of corn meal cakes with a variety of fillings, as well as ceviche, which she learned to make under the tutelage of Adolfo Garcia at the now shuttered Rio Mar. Meanwhile,

the Splendid Pig extols the deliciousness of pork in all forms, including a candidate for the best cochon de lait po-boy in the city. Rounding out the list of vendors is the Juice Box, operated by the Youth Empowerment Project. Comparisons between Roux Carré and St. Roch Market are inevitable. While both food halls are located in areas rapidly undergoing revitalization, Roux Carré has a certain spartan funkiness that meshes well with the surrounding neighborhood. —Peter Thriffiley 2000 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.; Sun–Thu: 11a–4p, Fri–Sat: 11a–8p; rouxcarre.com

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Reviews When submitting CDs for consideration, please send two copies to OffBeat Reviews, 421 Frenchmen Street, Suite 200, New Orleans, LA 70116

REVIEWS CDs reviewed are available now at 421 Frenchmen Street in the Marigny 504-586-1094 or online at LouisianaMusicFactory.com

Pushing the Envelope

Magnetic Ear Live at Vaughan’s (Independent) A decade ago, Martin Krusche was using his pocket brass band Magnetic Ear as a small-combo platform for his complex, brassbased jazz compositions and electric tenor sax experiments. In recent years, the ensemble has

expanded to a more traditional brass band lineup, a change that’s moved their sound squarely into cerebral dance-floor material. Recorded in October 2015, Live at Vaughan’s sees the current lineup—which features Krusche’s tenor and soprano saxes alongside Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax, Wes Anderson and Jon RammGramenz on trombone, Steven Glenn on sousaphone and Paul Thibodeaux on drums—full of fire and playfulness. And they need those ingredients in large doses to pull off shifts from Cuban motifs (“587 Miles”) to Balkan brass jams (“Zivilkonttrolle”) to Nirvana and Prince covers as seamlessly as they do. The loose vibe associated with contemporary parading New Orleans

Poet Provocateur John Sinclair It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader (SinclairReader.com)

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New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings Still Thirsty (Independent)

The Hot Club of New Orleans Destination: Live! At St. Louis Cathedral (Independent) These two records show how vibrant the swing tradition remains in New Orleans music. The Cotton Mouth Kings play a combination of hot classics ranging from traditional New Orleans jazz to big band–era swing. Their main players are all superb soloists with a great collective sound, taking cues from the small group subdivisions of the Goodman, Shaw and Dorsey bands.

A representative cross-section of Sinclair’s writings covering 50 years is included in his latest book, It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader. New Orleans music aficionados will find the two pieces on Dr. John included here to be essential history; likewise his pieces on Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Irma Thomas are important profiles of these New Orleans icons. But the book also contains fascinating reading about Sinclair’s attempts to form an arts collective in Detroit during the 1960s, as well as his writings as the leader of the White Panther Party and his crusade for the legalization of marijuana. Sinclair was arrested for giving two joints to an undercover police officer in the late ’60s. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and released only after a benefit concert in support of his release was held in Detroit. The concert featured performances by Stevie Wonder and John Lennon, who wrote the song “John Sinclair” in support of his release. The itinerant Sinclair now spends his time traveling, mostly between New Orleans, Detroit and Amsterdam. His bohemian lifestyle is poignantly described in one of the poems from this collection, “everything happens to me”: “a man without a country & a post office box in New Orleans for a permanent address, a pre-pay vodaphone & a laptop computer, one suitcase stuffed with clothing & a bag full of manuscripts & handburnt CDs—to keep my head straight & my heart right to keep up my travels & carry on the struggle into another new year, taking my little verses & a great big world outlook everywhere people will have me.” —John Swenson

bookmark

The pioneering music journalist, poet and activist John Sinclair had already accomplished the work of a lifetime when he came to live in New Orleans in the early 1990s. During his time in New Orleans Sinclair left an indelible impression on the city though his work as a journalist, historian, poet, performance artist and radio host. Sinclair’s stint as a DJ on WWOZ helped codify what we know of the history of the Mardi Gras Indians. Many of the Indian gang members listened to and studied his broadcasts to help understand their own tradition. Sinclair wrote inspired stories of blues and jazz heroes who were still contemporary in various local publications, including OffBeat. As a poet and storytelling bard, Sinclair employed various groups of local musicians in what he called the Blues Scholars to improvise music behind his elaborate tales about the legends and myths of blues and jazz greats from the past, from John Coltrane to Big Chief Bo Dollis, from Robert Johnson to R.L. Burnside.

brass bands shines through on tracks like “Uncle Roger,” their funk-laced tribute to the Dirty Dozen’s Roger Lewis. But more often than not, it gets juxtaposed against something like the mid-song breakdown on “Virgin Murder” where the saxophones veer off from their original, tight and clean motif to something skittering and woozy that flies around driving sousaphone blasts. The horns take unexpected routes in and out of the Latin theme on “Samba 7 4 Now,” too; although Thibodeaux’s dynamic soloing on that track makes it tough to focus elsewhere. There’s a thrill that comes with pushing the envelope as far as possible without compromising the groove. This album nails it. —Jennifer Odell

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REVIEWS The Kings’ secret weapon is a great vocal arrangement strategy featuring three strong lead vocalists and solid call-and-response harmonies from the rest of the band. The drummerless sextet skims through its crisp arrangements like a hovercraft bouncing across waves of rhythm. In addition to evergreens like “I’ve Got the World On a String,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and “I Never Knew You,” the band chooses great vehicles, like a rocking “Everybody Loves My Baby,” the traditional “Frankie and Johnnie” and Duke Ellington’s “Just Squeeze Me.” The Kings play these songs with contemporary elan yet total fidelity

to the integrity of the compositions. Bruce Brackman really fires up the melody on clarinet. Charlie Fardella’s soaring trumpet and gruff vocals push the action, balanced by Tom Saunders on vocals and bass saxophone. Violinist Matt Rhody

Tasty Finesse Herlin Riley New Direction (Mack Avenue) The African diaspora is Herlin Riley’s realm, from New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward to the heart of New York City. As heard on one of New Direction’s most provocative cuts, “Connection to Congo Square,” the drummer tonally and rhythmically draws inspiration from the percussive heritage of those who, unwillingly, arrived from the far-off continent onto these shores. In New Orleans, their syncopated beats were fortunately allowed to fill the air on Sunday afternoons. They remain present in the tradition of the Mardi Gras Indians and became the backbone of jazz. “Connection to Congo Square,” one of seven Riley originals on the disc, wondrously represents the past and present, here and there and in and out of the evolution of jazz music. Saxophonist Godwin Louis truly takes it around the world in a dynamically and spiritually uplifting manner. Cubaborn guest percussionist Pedrito Martinez reinforces the international flavor with his congas in a call-and-response mode with Riley’s powerful trap set. Riley strikes a cowbell to open another percussion-driven number, “The Crossbar.” The excellent piano of Emmet Cohen gets into the act, reminding one of the instrument’s rhythmic strength. He and Riley make for some excellent foils in creating excitement. Bruce Harris’ trumpet then strongly calls out to, it seems, gather the tribe. The album holds sophisticated moments, as on the gentle “Shake off the Dust.” It’s played warmly in a straight-up jazz style with the horns working in unison followed by distinctive saxophone, trumpet and piano solos. Riley, as always, displays his tasty finesse as a drummer and a melodic composer in quieter situations. Riley grabs the tambourine, as he often does on initially taking a stage, for the disc’s closer, the legendary guitarist/banjoist/vocalist Danny Barker’s whimsical “Tootie Ma,” which is New Orleans second linin’ all the way. On New Direction, Riley, who stands as a link in the historic lineage of outstanding New Orleans drummers, brings it all just as he has throughout his entire career. A hugely talented artist with a diverse musical background, Herlin Riley obviously has fun doing just that. —Geraldine Wyckoff

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REVIEWS offers additional contrast with his sweet tenor vocals and virtuoso violin playing. Rhody is also the swingman in the Hot Club of New Orleans, which relies on the fluid intensity of his violin playing for this mostly instrumental set and his sentimental vocal on the one original tune, “Crescent City Moonwalk.” Rhody’s violin takes magnificent flight in formations with the lead guitars of Todd Duke and John Rodli and Christopher Kohl’s clarinet as Nathan Lambertson keeps it all connected to the rhythm with his powerful bass playing. Kohl excels on two Benny Goodman tunes, “Till Tom Special” and “Air Mail Special,” while the guitars take over on Barney Kessel’s “A Happy Feeling.” The ensemble gives an almost soul jazz feel to Django Reinhardt’s “Fleur D’Ennui.” “Czardas” is a real showcase for Rhody, who is one of the many subtle treasures regularly available in this city of seemingly endless musical variety. —John Swenson

year later. Ghanaian-American percussionist Weedie Braimah was later added. He and Hall, a recent New Orleans transplant who has since left the group, are both heard on Abundance, the Nth Power’s debut release. Stylistically, the disc is as much of a hybrid as the band itself. It opens with a pared-down instrumental that hits in a funky mode. Next up is a soulful number, “Only Love,” that combines old school roots

with modern sensibilities. Like much of the material here, it offers a spiritual and/or socially conscious message. All of the tunes come from the pens of the members, often working in collaboration. Rather surprisingly, guitarist Cassarino’s original, “Walk on Water,” is quite folky, or what could be described as “singer/ songwriter.” Bassist Edgar’s “Right Now” follows a similar stylistic pattern—poetry in musical motion.

Drummer Glaspie, recently of Dumpstaphunk and previously hitting behind Beyoncé, takes on lead vocal duties on “Soul Survivor,” which adds a rock element to the mix. Throughout the album, vocal harmonies play an important part in the Nth Power’s sound. They are often used to create drama in a band that takes on varied musical roles supported by its talented cast of characters. —Geraldine Wyckoff

The Nth Power Abundance (Independent) The Nth Power boasts many New Orleans connections, particularly for a band that is not based in the Crescent City (though it was born here). The members of the collective initially came together at a gig at the Maple Leaf during Jazz Fest 2012. The band, which got its moniker from the first letter of the original members’ names—Nikki Glaspie (drummer/vocalist), Nick Cassarino (guitarist/vocalist), Nate Edgar (bassist) and Nigel Hall (keyboardist/ vocalist)—officially formed a www.OFFBEAT.com

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Singer songwriter Caleb Guillotte presses rewind on Deadeye Dick’s gold-selling 1995 release A Different Story.

Becky Shaw

Deadeye Dick

Shut Down, Jump In (Independent)

A Different Story (Ichiban)

“B

illy Landry had just joined on drums and his straight-ahead style fit well with the pop tastes I shared with Mark Miller, who played bass. Our initial intent was to make a high-quality demo we could sell at shows and, you know, ‘get people to like you.’ We recorded at a studio called Hart Sounds in a little subdivision in Belle Chasse. It was three ADAT recorders linked together. I think the total expenditure for three days of recording and one day of mixing was something like $2,300. Fred LeBlanc, from Cowboy Mouth, produced the session and kept the pace going so we would get all of the songs recorded. Billy Landry had only been with the band a few weeks and was still learning material. Mark had to cue him on starts and stops while we were recording some of the basic tracks. The studio experience is a blur because we did it so quickly. We did all the basics in one day, all the musical overdubs the second day and vocals all on the third day. I think my favorite studio memories are that third day, singing all the lead vocals and most of the backing vocals. It was the greatest feeling in the world to sing over these tracks and hear my songs the way I really wanted to hear them for the first time. Doing it all in one day never even felt daunting to me because I was so excited. What kept me energized was not just doing the lead vocals but having the chance to layer vocals, channeling my love of the Beatles and the Beach Boys. I was excited that entire day, there was great energy. Everybody was really pumped up and it was infectious. There was so little time we just did the same arrangements we had been playing live. Whenever I would have a song I would do my best not to make any suggestion to what the bass or drum part should be, I always had something in mind but I felt like nine times out of ten Billy or Mark would come up with a better thing. I would just play guitar and

they would jump up and start making something happen. Even though Billy had been in the band a really short time he’s got incredible instincts. He always did have that ‘session drummer’ vibe about him where he only served the song. In the ’90s it was an exciting time to be unsigned because alternative radio stations still had local music shows that played local alternative bands. The Zephyr was a local station that started playing us and it was at a time when the DJs still had some flexibility and could play what tracks they wanted—so they weren’t just playing ‘New Age Girl.’ What really broke everything open was we hired an independent radio promoter whose company owned a couple of music magazines, Creem and Hit Parader. He put articles in his magazines and was buddies with a programmer at 99X in Atlanta and got him to spin the single. Our manager was Stephen Klein who was based out of Atlanta at the time and one of the most social guys ever, so he expected a reaction, but the reaction went way beyond anything he expected. Literally thousands of people reacted to ‘New Age Girl’ the first time they played it. They started spinning the song and as soon as that happened record labels started calling. We signed with Ichiban and the record went gold. Of course the sad, cynical post-script is that after Ichiban went bankrupt, our bass player Mark got an accountant friend to look at their books. He discovered they were listing sales as returns so they wouldn’t have to pay us royalties but in doing so kept us from getting a platinum record for both ‘New Age Girl’ as a single and Different Story as an album. Both had sold in excess of a million copies but because they were listed as returns we didn’t get credit for it. I could have had money and notoriety. but I like the life I have now.” —Paul Sanchez

"It was the greatest feeling in the world to sing over these tracks and hear my songs the way I really wanted to hear them for the first time."

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Becky Shaw has released her first solo CD, Shut Down, Jump In, and it’s a stunner. A member of Atlanta based alternabluegrass band Roxie Watson— along with New Orleanian Sonia Tetlow—Shaw has long been part of the Atlanta musical community and has begun making inroads into the New Orleans music scene over the last few years. From the first moment of the first song what is immediately striking is her singing. It is hypnotically beautiful, present in every word she delivers, her voice emanating strength one moment and fragility the next. Shaw’s singing is expressive, emotive and intelligent, a classic sounding voice that welcomes you into her musical world. The songs she has written for Shut Down, Jump In are as strong as her performance of them. It is hard to believe this is a first release; such is the power and confidence that runs through the entire production. She begins with “Wishin’ Anyway,” a dreamy rocker that seems to fall together as it kicks off. This powerful opening number is in keeping with the understated approach of the whole production. Songs range from the beautiful elegance of “The Veil,” where Shaw is accompanied by violin and cello, to the infectious rock goofiness of “All Day (We Could Do This)” a track filled with fun that spills right out of the speakers. You can almost see her and her bandmates smiling as they rock on. www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS The final track, “Red River Valley,” was recorded in the parking lot of Swedish Hospital in Seattle in a poignant goodbye to a lost friend. It is simple, powerful and gorgeous as Shaw sings unaccompanied, with heartbreaking directness. The track illustrates her folk roots as well as the utter confidence she has in her voice. While she has plenty of help from her bandmates in Roxie Watson, as well as other notable Atlanta musicians, Shaw is a multiinstrumentalist and displays her abilities throughout the recording by playing acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, harmonica, flute, ukulele and drums. It is a record of quiet triumph. The songs and performances are passionate but understated. Her singing is never overly ornate; she goes to the heart of the matter in voice and song. Becky Shaw has made a record that can live in your CD player for weeks and your heart for much longer. —Paul Sanchez

Jon Hatchett Band Jon Hatchett Band (Independent) These local honky-tonkers’ debut CD opens with a song about a girl who is, as Pete Townshend would say, bleedin’ quadrophenic: “Four in One Woman” is a sprightly, NRBQ-styled rocker about a lady with a four-way split personality; it’s funny and catchy and the lyric’s basic premise—if your partner’s really confusing, you need to go drinking—is a hard one to refute. It’s clear that Hatchett (who used to play in town as Jonny Kashner) knows how to write ’em; honkytonk stompers are his specialty (and the above song isn’t the only one with booze references), but he’s versatile enough to pull off a few character songs, a broken-hearted rocker (“The Wind and Me”) and a more existential lyric on “Living Day to Day.” The one cover, the ’40s swing tune “RaggMopp,” features some hot guitar by Izzy Zaldman—a Bill Kirchen–type player www.OFFBEAT.com

who combines fast fingers with a fluid touch. Hatchett’s nasal twang of a voice takes a little getting used to, and there are times when his band could really use a harmony voice—notably on “Sometimes You’re Wrong,” a honey of a ballad that calls for a Yoakam-type singer. But if a debut CD is supposed to get you to make a point of seeing the band live, this one worked. —Brett Milano

Travis Matte and the Kingpins Highly Influenced (Mhat Productions) A few months ago, Travis Matte’s single “He Don’t Know You Like I Do” was burning up the KBON airwaves, sometimes being spun twice in a four-hour period. The slow, dreamy swamp pop ballad was so good, in fact, that the King of Swamp Pop, Johnnie Allan, personally visited Matte to buy the single. Another song released around the same time, the rockin’ “Bye Felicia,” was also a crowd favorite but certainly didn’t match the magic of “Like I Do.” The aforementioned, plus a dozen others (ten originals and two covers), are found here on the Kingpins’ 11th disc. Like the title suggests, there’s a fair amount of genre-hopping, indicating that the Kingpins operate under myriad styles and influences. A lot of these are various hues of rock: ’50s sock-hoppers (“Run Around Sue”), bolting outlaw rockers (“61”) and metal-esque mashups (“Did You Ever Love Me”). “I Like Me Some of You” infectiously blends zydeco and rattling rock together. The tunes are sequenced so there are surprises in the flow, like “Turtle” Cormier’s nimbleA PRI L 2016

REVIEWS fingered Nashville-ish guitar riffs on “Drinking Moonshine,” which seemingly blaze out of nowhere. And speaking of Cormier, his varied, hook-filled solos usually seal the deal for the song on hand. “Devils Cut” is another surprise—a galaxy-transporting, Celtic-tinged fiddle line that bursts into a rocky verse and chorus before shifting back to a spacey, sparks-flying ride. There’s even humor. When Matte tells his boss to kiss it on “Get Rich,” he sings that he’s not going to eat at Burger King but will still have it his way. From the sounds of it, Matte and the Kingpins wouldn’t have it any other way. —Dan Willging

Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma Southern Discomfort (Independent) Calling yourself the “Jew of Oklahoma,” not just in your album titles or songs but right there in your very stage name, is an attention grabber of positively Trumpian proportions. Yet Rubin, whose personal politics seem a lot more like he’s Feeling the Bern, isn’t dropping a hard J on us for shock value alone: His mixture of folk, country, blues and klezmer serves as a way for him to assimilate himself into the deep South in much the same way African-Americans use it to get in where they don’t fit in. And though he’s possessed with a fine wit, Rubin’s very serious about that mixture on this, his solo debut: the former (current?) member of Austin trio Bad Livers and the appropriately named folk activists Atomic Duo opens with a hard blues called “Blues Rides a Mule” that features what sounds like a very Semitic mandolin solo, but he also does a tribute to “Cajun country” outlaw Jesse Lége, closes with Titus Turner’s “Goin’ Down to Big Mary’s” done as ’50s action jazz, and drops a klezmer doina instrumental whose violin sounds as at home as it does when it’s just a fiddle. His murder ballad is a semi-talking blues about Leo Frank and Mary

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Phagan. He covers Gil ScottHeron’s “Whitey on the Moon” as if it was a I-IV-V (it kinda is). Fortunately, he’s only improved as a songwriter, which means there are no seams showing between his many influences and his own muse. Simplifying the post-collapse economy by focusing on a slowly disappearing keychain, as he does on “Key Chain Blues,” is the kind of old-fashioned handcrafted commentary you can only learn by apprenticing real Americana, but he also explores the black comedy of the workingman’s various opiates with “Seriously (a.k.a. Too Much Weed)” and “Why Am I Trying to Kill Myself?” If you’re gonna be caught between two cultures, it always helps to have a sense of humor. —Robert Fontenot

Vicky P Can’t Hold Me Back (Independent) If only everyone’s best intentions were enough when it came to The Children. You may have heard of Victoria Pike, a.k.a. Vicky P, from her YouTube video “No Bullying,” a short but effective look at the issue from a child’s-eye view and one that actually lightens the heaviness of the kiddie-trap beat by allowing Vicky to try and understand her tormentor: “His shoes even got a hole, you can see his feet/ They probably starvin’ when he’s home, you should see him eat!” The rest of her debut more or less works off the same formula, right down to the verbal hooks that sound like they were sung by

Vicky’s mom (and if they aren’t, they should be). As an experiment in middleschool rap, it’s fairly successful, definitely earwormy enough to crawl onto the radio. The overwhelming life-coach motivation of the lyrics can get a little oppressive at times— songs titled “Unstoppable,” “Successful” and “Dreams” are all over this one—but when it backs off a little and just has fun it goes down a lot easier: “No Bullying” is naturally bookended with a Pt. II “bonus track,” and “Simon Says” takes the schoolyard game and turns it into a pep talk, if not exactly a TED Talk. Oddly, it’s Vicky herself who comes out underserved on Can’t Hold Me Back: It’s not that she can’t sing, but she’s Auto-Tuned so heavily it’s impossible to tell. In the end, “Dear Parents” is the one song that seems like it comes from her own life, ironic because she spends most of it thanking Mom and Dad; nevertheless, a little less stage mothering and studio fathering would probably go a long way towards making her the juvenile Beyoncé she’s having all those unstoppable success dreams about. —Robert Fontenot

Les White Forty-Five Shades of White (Independent) New Orleans’ Les White is a unique mix. A brilliant, even groundbreaking guitarist, he also has a satiric bent which he showcases—at least on this recording—more than his musical virtuosity. “Les White” gives voice to hilarious, nihilistic, politically incorrect (and how), parodistic ditties that no one else in town would think of writing. Forty-Five Shades of White comprises 45 tracks, many of them familiar tunes with twisted new lyrics. Most of them hit the mark, and even the ones that don’t are over before you know it. At a time when there’s so little political music made in town, this is one you might want to pay attention to. —Tom McDermott

Joey van Leeuwen Reflection (Independent) “Reflection” can mean a shimmering surface you can see yourself in, but it can describe the act of looking inside oneself as well, and it’s a dichotomy that free-form jazz drummer Joey van Leeuwen no doubt recognizes as the mission statement of his five-song debut. Assisted by a stellar group featuring two Alexes—the saxophones of Alex Geddes, who holds down the Balcony Music Club on Decatur with his Quartet, and the guitar stylings of Alex D’Onofrio, who has done likewise with Mario Abney & The Abney Effect—he explores the fecund musical fields stretching out between Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane, real hardcore jazz fusion for all the true heads out there. They’re not quite dwelling in each other’s heads yet, but this makeshift quintet still creates a fascinating natural mirror for your journey into yourself: van Leeuwen subtly (almost too subtly) controls the beat and therefore the mood way down in the depths, Sam Albright’s bass bubbles up around him, Andrew Yanovski’s vibe glissandos catch the rays of the sun shimmering off the top, and the dual Alexes spend most of their time skipping stones across the top to see what sort of ripples they can make. It all works on “Forgiveness” and “Just You And I”—the former feels like a couple’s first fight, the torrid makeup sex, then another fight again, while the latter is a stroll through the park that burbles with nature’s many little contradictions—and while it’s still a little too splashy for van Leeuwen’s first solo dive into the depths of fusion, you’ve got to admire that degree of difficulty. —Robert Fontenot www.OFFBEAT.com

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Ernest James Zydeco Automatic Harvester (Jam Rat Records) On the chaotic opening seconds of “Automatic”—Automatic Harvester’s standout leadoff track—it sounds as if Ernest James Zydeco (EJZ) is trying to summon up the ghost of Clifton Chenier. But when the Kansas City quintet quickly launches into its own smack-down, infectious groove with Tony LaCroix’s scraping guitar rhythms, it becomes apparent that EJZ would rather do things its way than be a note-for-note copycat stylist. Since James plays the piano note accordion, the same variety Chenier did, it’s only natural that some first generation-type riffs are reminiscent of the King of Zydeco. But EJZ knows it’d be impossible to be a Chenier knockoff—hence the cultivation of its own personality on this all-original affair. “Cry Baby”

features bursting island beats, squelchy reggae keys, Sacred Steelish notes and gospel harmonies. “Eh Catin,” a traditional waltz, finds the group sinking its teeth into the first syllable “Eh-h-h-h-h” and then chomping off “Catin” for a resounding affect. “Bulldog” deviates from the accordion-centric fare; it’s a slide guitar–driven, banjopropelled blues rocker with funky fat bottom end. “Yj’s,” a raucous live cut, blends zydeco, Meters riffs, blaring horns and a struttin’ second line that’s Mardi Gras worthy anywhere in the world. Compared to its previous effort, 3 Steps From La La, EJZ has made strides in songwriting and vocals, not to mention a tighter band chemistry. Only now does it seem like EJZ has found its niche between the “Paris of the Plains” and the southwest prairies of Louisiana. —Dan Willging

Mardi Gras Forever Victor Goines A Dance at the Mardi Gras Ball (Rosemary Joseph Records) As the director of jazz studies for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University since 2008, New Orleans native Victor Goines has had the opportunity to hang in nearby Chicago. And it shows! The saxophonist and clarinetist, who is best recognized for his work with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, grabs his tenor for some hard blowing on “Stoit,” the post-bop opener of A Dance at the Mardi Gras Ball. Known as a mild-mannered gentlemen, Goines really lets go and takes it out, enabled by a loaded rhythm section made up of excellent Chicago-based musicians. They include drummer Gregory Artry, Jr., pianist Ron Perrillo and bassist Dennis Carroll. The latter two are also fellow educators who teach at Chicago’s DePaul School of Music. Naturally, Goines also reveals his romantic side, and for ballads such as “Her Eyes Smile,” the soprano sax is often his instrument of choice. It’s a quiet, lovely tune, the mood lightly accented by Perrillo’s fluttering piano notes and the occasional splash of cymbals. The music starts swinging on the blues-laden “Mississippi Mud Shuffle,” on which Goines starts honkin’ in a rougher, more swaggering style than many would consider his norm. Think of him blowing in a small, old-school Chicago jazz and rhythm and blues club. Victor Goines—who wrote all of these varied compositions—lives jazz, and his knowledge and ability to perform the music’s full spectrum are proven again on A Dance at the Mardi Gras Ball. —Geraldine Wyckoff www.OFFBEAT.com

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5 Card Stud 5 Card Stud (Independent)

Clifton Chenier Clifton Chenier’s Rockin’ Accordion (Jasmine) Instead of featuring selected tracks spanning an entire recording career, Clifton Chenier’s Rockin’ Accordion focuses on his first six years recording for a variety of labels from 1955 to 1960. This 27-track anthology is arranged chronologically, starting with Los Angeles record man JR Fulbright who recorded Chenier for Elko/ Imperial at a Lake Charles radio station. Though the first half-dozen tracks are understandably raw, the future king of zydeco still tears it up in epic fashion. The remaining 21-tracks are easier on the ears, starting with Chenier’s breakout hit “Ay Tete Fee,” a cover of Professor Longhair’s “Hey Little Girl,” that was waxed on Specialty Records. Tracks from Chess (“Big Wheel”) and JD Miller’s Crowley-based Zynn Records round out the collection. Nine tracks not originally issued are included, giving the listener an idea of what Chenier sounded like during this era. But if there was ever truth in advertising, this disc’s title would be it. The majority of these tracks are back-to-back up-tempo rompers, stompers, rockers and boogies with an occasional bluesy slow drag where Chenier’s vocals are painful enough to touch you emotionally, if not make your skin crawl. Some tracks include a piano in the arrangement; four of the Zynn tracks list piano-pounder Katie Webster who was a mainstay in Miller’s studio at that time. After 1960, Chenier would not record again until 1964 but that’s a story for another time. —Dan Willging

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These suburban cowboys are the type whose Country comes naturally filtered through classic rock, but in this case that’s a good thing—the shades of soul, rock and blues in this quartet’s sound are subtle, adding nuance rather than taking away cred. You can usually find them mixing covers and originals at Gattuso’s in Gretna, but those covers have done wonders for their development, if these six originals are any indication: “Company Man” is an authentic Texas shuffle, led by Daniel Rongey’s twangy tenor, that takes a wry and only slightly sexist take on not shitting where you eat. But then these guys downshift into the tender ballad “You Just Didn’t Know Me Yet,” chock full of real soul that sounds like it was filtered through classic Hendrix. Likewise, the melody of “Home Grown” has got Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers written all over it, but the songwriting’s pure Skynyrd—they even drop in the phrase “Tuesday’s gone” as a cultural touchstone. And while “Bad Day Fishing” isn’t any less of a bumper sticker than its title, “Lost Me at Goodbye” has all the genuine heartbreak it needs to back up that devastating twist of phrase endemic to country. They no doubt pull off an excellent “Amarillo by Morning” and “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” live—Rongey’s got just the voice for it—but it looks like they may be only a few years away from crafting classic weepers and singalongs of their own. —Robert Fontenot

Various Artists Rare Soul Groove & Grind 1963–1973 (Rock Beat) This sure was the year for R&B CD box sets. However, despite the Rare Soul moniker here, the quality of rarity doesn’t always translate to it being very good. While there are some quality

tracks among the 114 soul sides recorded here between 1963 and 1973, there’s a moderate percentage of fodder in the mix. Disc one bills itself as Urban Soul from so-called R&B capitals New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, but it occasionally goes beyond that. It gets off to a decent start with Don Gardner’s frantic “My Baby Likes To Boogaloo,” but for the rest of the 26 tracks the flame only flickers. Disc two is dominated by groups, and it starts nicely with the Tempos’ “(Countdown) Here I Come,” a Motown-inspired single. It then levels off, with the better tracks being recorded by the Sounds Four (“A Memory Best Forgotten”), the Dynamics’ (“Bingo!”), the Sweet Things’ (the wonderful “I’m In A World of Trouble”), the Pace Setters (“Victim of Loneliness”) and the Profiles (“Got to Be Your Lover”). The third CD—Southern Soul—is by far the strongest, and is dominated by emotive performances. One track we’ll admit is rare (didn’t even know it existed) and extremely good is Candi Staton’s first secular recording (pre-Fame): “Now You’ve Got the Upper Hand.” Among the Stax sides, Eddie Floyd’s “Hey Now” has that Memphis groove above all others. There are two remarkable uptempo Houston (Peacock Records) releases by Little Frankie Lee “I Gotta Come Back” and Al “TNT” Braggs’ “I’m a Good Man,” with its brassy flourishes. There’s a sprinkling of New Orleans recordings, the best perhaps the Earl King production of “Understanding” by the obscure Jackie Avery.

In the final installment, billed Funky Soul, there’s a plethora of rare New Orleans soul. Check off Jessie Hill’s “Free and Easy” with its scrounge beat, Rockie Charles’ frantic “Riccasha” and Ironing Board Sam’s trippy “Original Funky Bell Bottoms.” Bobby Rush’s “Wake Up” and Magic Sam’s “I’ll Pay You Back” were strong neighborhood hits. Pushing six hours of listening, best to go slowly with Grove & Grind or you might get a bad case of sensory overload and overdose on soul—to the point where you might overlook a track you might well dig. A lot of hard work went into this package and it’s certainly first class. Quite a remarkable temptation and release. —Jeff Hannusch

Various Artists Beef Ball Baby! The New Orleans R&B Sessions (Ace) If New Orleans R&B could be compared to the Holy Bible, this CD would be considered the Book of Genesis—as in, “In the beginning, God created rhythm and blues.” Dating from the late 1940s, these sides appeared on the New Jersey–based DeLuxe label, predating Imperial, eventually the dominant New Orleans R&B label for the duration of the 1950s. The first artist presented here, vocalist Eddie Gorman, wound up a mere blip on the city’s entertainment scene. Backed by Paul Gayten’s band, his lyrics were clever and occasionally risqué—especially the title track—but the arrangements were still standard, or rather conservative for the late 1940s. Gorman possessed a smooth bass voice and a delivery close to Billy Eckstine; with your eyes closed you’d imagine him crooning in a tux with a manicure. Not so for the revered Smiley Lewis, who on his four tracks sang like he was wearing worn dungarees and had dirt under his fingernails. His earliest tracks, “Swimming Blues” and “Love www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS Is Like a Gamble,” haven’t seen the light of day since 1947! The arrangements here are playful, thanks to Tuts Washington’s sparkling piano, and Smiley’s booming tenor is a harbinger for his harder Imperial recordings. Cousin Joe’s humorous DeLuxe material (“It’s Dangerous to Be a Husband”), again with Gayten backing, actually owes more to the New York brand of “race music” he previously popularized than to New Orleans. But they’re definitely worth a second listen. Chubby Newsome was a popular female club act who Paul Gayten tapped for DeLuxe. Her initial release “Hip Shakin’ Mama” was a national number one hit, but unfortunately the acetate has been lost and is unavailable here. Nevertheless, “Back Bitin’ Woman” and “Bed Room Blues” were just as satisfying, as Gayten seems to have finally tapped the flavor of New Orleans. Interestingly, Newsome’s last DeLuxe session from 1949 was put in the hands of the up-andcoming Dave Bartholomew, and her two sides very much flaunted the Crescent City beat. Newsome wasn’t the first female to record for Bartholomew as Jewel King recorded a year earlier, but her sultry tracks were initially shelved. King and Bartholomew would break through once they transferred to Imperial and struck with the hit “3 x 7 = 21.” Bartholomew has a couple solo tracks here (with the nucleus of his phenomenal New Orleans band) which would signal greater things to come, especially “She’s Got Great Big Eyes (and Great Big Thighs).” Mastered from original acetates, the sound here is to die for. Highly enjoyable and historically important. Musically, this was the initial invitation to the New Orleans party. —Jeff Hannusch

Winfield Parker Mr. Clean: Winfield Parker at Ru-Jac (Omnivore) Winfield Parker was a Washington/Baltimore–based www.OFFBEAT.com

soul singer who—hauntingly— had a sound both vocally and stylistically similar to Danny White. (Fast forward: White was a native of Washington who moved to New Orleans and waxed several regional hits here during the early 1960s.) Parker too would record a clutch of well-crafted singles in the 1960s that are now pricey collectors’ items, particularly overseas. This is the first time these singles have been assembled in one place. The 23-track anthology is split between dance floor grooves and well-paced ballads. The two-part title track, “Mr. Clean,” is an especially boisterous declaration, where Parker explains to the girls “there’s no place I can’t come back, ’cause I’m clean and I know how to act!” As stated, several of the tracks in the mix have New Orleans–flavored arrangements, à la White, K-Doe and Johnny Adams sides. Included in that batch are “My Love For You,” “Oh My Love” and “When I’m Alone.” Other highlights include “Go Away Playgirl,” “Rockin’ In the Barnyard,” “She’s So Pretty” and especially “Funkey Party”—strongly influenced by his old running buddy Arthur Conley. But again the similarities between these Ru-Jac recordings and White are simply uncanny. Not really a bad track on here and most of it is available in glorious mono (and vinyl) inside a superlative package. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into early soul—one of the best reissues I’ve heard in some time. Surely this guy was one of the great unknowns. —Jeff Hannusch A PRI L 2016

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These listings are abbreviated. For complete daily listings, go to offbeat.com. These listings were verified at the time of publication, but are of course subject to change. To get your event listed, go to offbeat.com/add-new-listings or send an email to listings@offbeat.com.

AF African AM Americana BL Blues BU Bluegrass BO Bounce BB Brass Band BQ Burlesque KJ Cajun CL Classical CR Classic Rock CO Comedy CW Country CB Cover Band DN Dance DX Dixieland DB Dubstep EL Electro FO Folk FK Funk GS Gospel GY Gypsy HH Hip-Hop HS House IN Indian Classical ID Indie Rock IL Industrial IR Irish JB Jam Band

MJ Jazz Contemporary TJ Jazz Traditional JV Jazz Variety KR Karaoke KZ Klezmer LT Latin MG Mardi Gras Indian ME Metal RB Modern R&B PO Pop PK Punk RE Reggae RC Rockabilly RK Rock RR Roots Rock SS Singer/ Songwriter SK Ska PI Solo Piano SO Soul SW Spoken Word SP Swamp Pop SI Swing VR Variety ZY Zydeco

FRIDAY APRIL 1

30/90: James Martin Band (JV) 1p, Soul Revue (SO) 5p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 8p, Chegadao (LT) 11p Ace Hotel: DJ Ruby (VR) 6p, Erica Falls (SO) 9p Banks Street Bar: Ocean Disco, Organized Crime (RK) 9p Blue Nile: Cha Wa (MG) 10p Bombay Club: Danny Tobias Quartet (SI) 8:30p Buffa’s: Chip Wilson (VR) 5p, Camile Baudoin and Papa Mali WWOZ Live Broadcast (VR) 8p, Shynola Jazz Band (JV) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Lonely Lonely Knights (RK) 9p, Brint Anderson’s Earl King Tribute (VR) 10p Civic Theater: Iliza Shlesinger (CO) 9p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, the Iguanas (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles, All For One Brass Band, DJ Doug Funnie (VR) 6p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Gentlemen Commoners (VR) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Tank and the Bangas, Hildegard (VR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Quinn DeVeaux Band, Alex McMurray, the Deslondes (VR) 10p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, One Tailed Three (FO) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Mike Berger (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Shan Kenner (MJ) 10a Maison: Kala’s Swing Band, Roamin’ Jasmine, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 1p, the Business, Big Easy Brawlers (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Dave Jordan and the NIA CD-release party, Wolf feat. Cornell Williams, Big D and Jamison Ross (VR) 11p

APRIL 2016

Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Old U.S. Mint: Armand St. Martin (JV) 2p, Ron Hacker with Johnny Sansone (BL) 7p One Eyed Jacks: Andrew Duhon, Dylan Leblanc (VR) 10p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Palm Court Jazz Band with Kevin Louis (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 6p, Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Soul Track Mind, Jarekus Singleton (BB) 8:30p Saint Hotel: Creole Sweet Tease Burlesque Show (BQ) 9p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Sabotage: New Orleans Beastie Boys Tribute (VR) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (RK) 1p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SATURDAY APRIL 2

30/90: Sunshine Brass Band (BB) 1p, Keith Stone (VR) 5p, Nawlins Johnnys (VR) 8p, Barry’s Pocket (JV) 11p Banks Street Bar: Hazy Ray (BB) 10p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p Bombay Club: David Torkanowsky Trio (MJ) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11am, Suzy Malone and friends (JV) 5p, If I were a King or a Carpenter (VR) 8p, Cole Williams (VR) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Sam Doores (SS) 9p, Will Kimbrough and Papa Mali (VR) 10p Crazy Lobster: Reggae Band (RE) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Mark Weliky Trio (JV) 11a d.b.a.: Swing Soiree (SI) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, R. Scully and the Rough 7, the Lonely Lonely Knights (RK) 11p Dragon’s Den: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 7p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sadder Days (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Ryley Walker (SS) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Brown Improv (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: They Might Be Giants (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Spare Change, Chopped Up Tulips (VR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Pack the Wolf III feat. Cakewalk, Organized Crime, Aaron Cohen Band (VR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Leroy Jones Quintet (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FO) 5p, Mark Hessler and Harold Vivien (FO) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Margi Cates (TJ) 10a Louisiana Music Factory: Keith Stone (VR) 2p, 5-Card Stud (VR) 3p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Royal Street Winding Boys, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Fat Ballerina, Street Legends (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Cyril Neville’s Royal Southern Brotherhood (FK) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old U.S. Mint: New Orleans Ragtime Festival (JV) 11a One Eyed Jacks: Melvins, Napalm Death, Melt Banana (VR) 10p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lars Edegran’s New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra (JV) 8p Pontchartrain Vineyards: Jazz’n the Vines feat. Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys (KJ) 6:30p

Preservation Hall: Joint Chiefs of Jazz feat. Frank Oxley (TJ) 6p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Will Smith (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Supercharger (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez/Bill Summers Ensemble (BL) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Time Out: Andre Bohren (RR) 11a Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 1p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SUNDAY APRIL 3

30/90: Texas Pete (VR) 1p, Revival (VR) 5p, Jamey St. Pierre and the Honeycreepers (VR) 9p Banks Street Bar: Ron Hotstream and Mid-City Drifters (CW) 7p Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Jazz Youth showcase with Thomas Wiggins (JV) 4p, Swamp Donkeys (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Les White (VR) 8p, David Lindley (VR) 9p Crazy Lobster: Reggae Band (RE) 11a, Poppy’s All-Stars (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Soul Brass Band (BB) 3p, Palmetto Bugs Stompers (JV) 6p, Calvin Johnson and Kirk Joseph’s Chapter Soul (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Jazz Jam with Anuraag Penyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: the Pentones (BL) 6p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour Open Mic (CO) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Dance Music Reunion Tour feat. Stevie B., Lisa Lisa, Debbie Deb, Money B and V-I-C (VR) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Mark Parson (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Dave Easley (FO) 10a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Royal Street Winding Boys, Asylum Chorus (VR) 10a, Too Darn Hot, Soul Project (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (FK) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Club: Tennessee Williams Festival’s Drummer and Smoke (JV) 11a, Lucien Barbarin and Sunday Night Swingsters with Gerald French (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: John Rankin’s NeoClassic Jazz Trio (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Raphael Bas (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Sunday Youth Music Showcase (VR) 1p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 4p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 11a

MONDAY APRIL 4

30/90: Perdido Jazz Band (JV) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam (VR) 9p Banks Street Bar: Lauren Sturm’s Piano Showcase (JV) 7p, South Jones (RK) 10p

Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Alex Pianovich (VR) 6p, Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Luke Winslow King (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: the Manouche Masters (GY) 7p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 8:30p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Anuraag Pendyal (SS) 10a Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Crooked Vines (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: George Porter Jr. Trio (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Ooh Poo Pah Doo: James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars, Bobby Love (VR) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 8p the Saint: Motown Mondays with DJ Shane Love (SO) 10p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 & 10p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Way Too Early (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5p, Whiskey Bar (RK) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 5

30/90: Bayou Saints (RR) 5p, Mem Shannon (BL) 9p Banks Street Bar: Simple Sound Retreat (RE) 9p Blue Nile: Open Ears Music Series feat. Shan Kenner’s Grand Scope Vibrations (MJ) 10:30p Bombay Club: Tom McDermott (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Lynn Drury (VR) 8p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Marshland (FO) 10p House of Blues (Voodoo Garden): Singer-Songwriter Night hosted by Michael Hayes (SS) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Adonis Rose (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Katarina Boudreaux (JV) 10a Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Gregory Agid, the Resident Aliens (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Brian Quezergue Quintet (MJ) 8 & 10p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 6

30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Huntertones (VR) 9p Ace Hotel: Michael Watson (JV) 8p Banks Street Bar: Major Bacon (BL) 10p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lawrence Cotton (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p Civic Theater: M83, Yacht (VR) 8p Columns Hotel: Andy Rogers (FO) 8p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Dragon’s Den: Reggae Night (RE) 10p Eiffel Society: Society Salsa (LT) 7p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Shamarr Allen, DJ Chicken (FK) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Dana Abbott (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Vincent Marini (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Amanda Shaw, the Vettes (VR) 5p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Albanie and her Fellas, Jazz Vipers, Willfunk (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Pat Casey and the New Sound feat. Robin Barnes (VR) 9p Morning Call:Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lars Edegran and Gregg Stafford with Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Mark Braud (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Boogie Men (SI) 8p Sandbar at UNO: Todd Duke (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: Victory Belles present SongsTthat Won the War (VR) 11:45a

THURSDAY APRIL 7

30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 9p Ace Hotel: Honor Thy Mother (VR) 9p Banks Street Bar: Andrew Mills and the 5 a.m. (BU) 9p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo with Meryl Zimmerman (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Alexandra Scott and Josh Paxton (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Chiba: Keiki Komaki (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 6p, Sam Price and True Believers (VR) 8p, Billy Iuso Acoustic Trio (VR) 9p d.b.a.: Happy Talk Band, Helen Gillet (VR) 10p Dragon’s Den: Dave Easley (VR) 3p, the Ill Vibe with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p Eiffel Society: For Show: Pop-Up Art Showcase (VR) 6p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p House of Blues: the Fighter and the Kid (CO) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: My Spilt Milk NOLA Music Awards feat. Soul Rebels, Tank and the Bangas, AF the Naysayer (VR) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, the James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Beth Patterson (FO) 8:30p Maison: Shynola Jazz Band, Jon Roniger, Sweet Substitute, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 1p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and special guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Spencer Bohren (FO) 6p Palm Court Jazz Club: Duke Heitger and Hal Smith with Crescent City Joymakers (JV) 8p the Rat (Tulane University): Jazz at the Rat feat. Steve Masakowski (JV) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Horace Trahan and Zydeco Express (ZY) 8:30p Saint Hotel: the Yat Pack (VR) 7p Snug Harbor: Dr. Michael White Jazz Quartet (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 7:30p Tipitina’s: Eric Bolivar’s It’s a Family Affair Drumming for Love Show feat. Eric Bolivar, Nigel Hall, Eric “Benny” Bloom, Donnie Sundal, Khris Royal, Andrew Block and Eric Vogel (VR) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Miss Maggie Trio (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 8

30/90: Dapper Dandies (JV) 2p, Jon Roniger Gypsy Land (GY) 5p, Lynn Drury (VR) 8p, Otra (LT) 11p

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Ace Hotel: Country Sing-a-long (CW) 9p Banks Street Bar: Chris Zonada (SS) 7p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 10p Bombay Club: Larry Scala Quartet (SI) 8:30p Buffa’s: Warren Battiste (JV) 5p, Margie Perez (VR) 8p, Ben Fox Trio (JV) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Minos the Saint (VR) 9p, Maggie Koerner Band (VR) 10p Civic Theater: DigiTour Spring Break feat. 5Quad, Crawford Collins, DuhltzMark, Loren Gray and Weston Koury (VR) 6:30p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Soul Rebels (BB) 10p Dragon’s Den: Broadmoor Jazz Band, Emily Estrella, Loose Marbles, DJ Doug Funnie (VR) 1p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Frenchy’s Gallery: Tom McDermott (PI) 8p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Thomas and Theresa (SS) 6p, KP and the Boom Booms, Crooked Vines (FK) 10p House of Blues: Tribute to Toussaint (RB) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: David Torkanowsky’s Tribute to Allen Touissant (JV) 2:30p, Don Vappie and Steve Masakowski Duo (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the Playhouse Revue feat. Germaine Bazzle, James Rivers, Gerald French, Glen David Andrews and Trixie Minx (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Crossing Canal with Ruby Ross and Patrick Cooper (FO) 4p, Rubin/Wilson Folk-Blues Explosion (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Mike Berger (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Tom McDermott (PI) 10a Maison: Eight Dice Cloth, Ramblin’ Letters, Shotgun Jazz Band (VR) 1p, Zena Moses and Rue Fiya, Soul Company (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band (VR) 8p, Brint Anderson’s NOLA Guitar Heroes (VR) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Palm Court Jazz Band with James Evans (JV) 8p Rivershack Tavern: Big Al and the Heavyweights (BL) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Sledgehammer (RK) 9:30p Saint Hotel: Creole Sweet Tease Burlesque Show (BQ) 9p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Roamin’ Jasmine (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Dave Jordan and the NIA (VR) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (RK) 1p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SATURDAY APRIL 9

30/90: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 1p, Marc Stone (BL) 5p, Dave Jordan and the NIA (RR) 8p, Soul Project (FK) 11p Ace Hotel: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (TJ) 9p Banks Street Bar: Don Paris Schlottman (VR) 10p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p Bombay Club: Banu Gibson (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11am, Molly Reeves (JV) 2p, Dapper Dandies (JV) 5p, Davis Rogan (VR) 8p, Keith Bernstein and Kettle Black (VR) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Colin Lake Acoustic (VR) 9p, Bobby Rush Acoustic (VR) 10p Crazy Lobster: Reggae Band (RE) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Mark Weliky Trio (JV) 11a d.b.a.: Swing Soiree (SI) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Dragon’s Den: Kala and the Hot Cats, Royal Street Winding Boys, Crooked Vines, Warheadz (VR) 4p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sadder Days (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Close Me Out (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: Ezra Open (RK) 7:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Stevie Wonder Tribute feat. Ed “Sweetbread” Petersen and Victor “Red” Atkins (JV) 2:30p, Bill Summers and Amber Matthews (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the Playhouse Revue feat. Germaine Bazzle, James Rivers, Gerald French, Glen David Andrews and Trixie Minx (JV) 8p

A PRI L 2016

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Kerry Irish Pub: Hurricane Refugees (FO) 4p, Roux the Day (FO) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: David Symmons and Jennie Levine (VR) 10a Louisiana Music Factory: Alexandra Scott (VR) 2p, Dave Jordan (RR) 3p, Tanya Boyd-Cannon (VR) 4p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Leah Rucker, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 1p, Big Easy Brawlers, TK Groove (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Darcy Malone and the Tangle (VR) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Club: French Quarter Fest Cabaret Stage (JV) 12p, Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band with Fred Lonzo (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Contraflow (RK) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Evan Christopher and Clarinet Road (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, the Bella Donnas (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Lagniappe feat. DJ RQ Away, Artsoulife, Preach, Baron Amato (VR) 11p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 1p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p Zephyr Field: Mumford and Sons (FO) 8p

SUNDAY APRIL 10

30/90: Revival (RR) 1p, Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires (BL) 5p, MainLine Brass Band (BB) 9p Ace Hotel: Ernie Vincent and friends (BL) 9p Banks Street Bar: Marshland (FO) 7p Bombay Club: Tom Hook (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Swamp Kitchen (JV) 2p, Jenna Guidry (VR) 4p, Spike Perkins (JV) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Honey Island Swamp Band Acoustic (RR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Reggae Band (RE) 11a, Poppy’s All-Stars (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Soul Brass Band (BB) 3p, Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Cha Wa (MG) 10p Dragon’s Den: Kala and the Hot Cats (JV) 4p, Jazz Jam with Anuraag Penyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: the Pentones (BL) 6p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour Open Mic (CO) 8p House of Blues: the Church (RK) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Glen David Andrews Gospel Tribute (JV) 2:30p, Irvin Mayfield, Jamil Sharif, Ashlin Parker, Andrew Baham, Eric Bloom and Glenn Hall (JV) 6p, Irvin Mayfield and the Playhouse Revue feat. Germaine Bazzle, James Rivers, Gerald French, Glen David Andrews and Trixie Minx (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 4p, One Tailed Three (FO) 8p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Royal Street Winding Boys, Loose Marbles (JV) 10a, Swinging Gypsies, Corporate America (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (FK) 10p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Palm Court Jazz Club: French Quarter Fest Cabaret Stage (JV) 12p, Lucien Barbarin and Sunday Night Swingsters with Tom Fischer (JV) 8p Snug Harbor: Craig Klein Jazz Band (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Raphael Bas (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 Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 11a

MONDAY APRIL 11

APRIL 2016

Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Luke Winslow King (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: Kala Bazaar Swing Club (GY) 7p Gasa Gasa: Acid Mothers Temple, Mounds, Druids (VR) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 8:30p Live Oak Café: Alex D’Onofrio (MJ) 10a Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Jesse Smith Project (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: George Porter Jr. Trio (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Ooh Poo Pah Doo: James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars, Bobby Love (VR) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 8p the Saint: Motown Mondays with DJ Shane Love (SO) 10p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Joe Cabral (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Way Too Early (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5p, Whiskey Bar (RK) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 12

30/90: Bayou Saints (RR) 5p, Blues4Sale (BL) 9p Banks Street Bar: Bronze Comet (VR) 9p Blue Nile: Open Ears Music Series feat. redrawblak, Matt Booth Quartet (MJ) 10:30p Bombay Club: Tom McDermott (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Albanie Falletta (VR) 6p, Kristin Diable (VR) 8p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Blackbird Blackbird, Chad Valley (EL) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Adonis Rose (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Live Oak Café: Katarina Boudreaux (JV) 10a Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Gregory Agid, Ainsley Matich and the Broken Blues (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Nekrogoblikon, Pyschostick, Urizen, Twinspan (ME) 8p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 13

30/90: Justin Donovan Trio (BL) 5p, Khris Royal and friends (FK) 9p Ace Hotel: Helen Gillet (MJ) 8p Banks Street Bar: Major Bacon (BL) 10p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Lawrence Cotton (VR) 6p, Meschiya Lake and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Reggae Night (RE) 10p Eiffel Society: Society Salsa (LT) 7p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Shamarr Allen, DJ Chicken (FK) 9p House of Blues: the Divas of Drag (VR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Dana Abbott (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Flow Tribe, the Breton Sound (VR) 5p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Broadmoor Jazz Band, Jazz Vipers, Mutiny Squad (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Pat Casey and the New Sound feat. Robin Barnes (VR) 9p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lars Edegran and Tom Sancton with Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Mark Braud (TJ) 8p

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Johnny J. and the Hitmen with Derek Huston (SI) 8p Sandbar at UNO: Kermit Ruffins (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: Victory Belles present SongsTthat Won the War (VR) 11:45a

THURSDAY APRIL 14

30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 9p Ace Hotel: Bouffant Bouffant (VR) 10p Armstrong Park: Jazz in the Park feat. Amanda Shaw, Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots (VR) 4p Banks Street Bar: Zac Maras Band (BU) 9p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo with Duke Heitger (JV) 8p Buffa’s: JC Jazz Crew (JV) 5p, Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p Chiba: Monty Banks (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 6p, Speed Bumps (VR) 9p, Ship of Fools (VR) 10p d.b.a.: Seth Walker (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: Dave Easley (VR) 6p, the Ill Vibe with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Soundclash (HH) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Simple Sound Retreat (FK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, the James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Umphrey’s McGee, TAUK (VR) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Parsons (FO) 8:30p Maison: Jon Roniger, Roamin’ Jasmine, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and special guests (FK) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Sarah Quintana (FO) 6p Palm Court Jazz Club: Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford (TJ) 6p, Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Wayne Singleton and Same Ol’ 2 Step (ZY) 8:30p Saint Hotel: the Yat Pack (VR) 7p Snug Harbor: Dave Stryker Quartet (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 7:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Miss Maggie Trio (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 15

30/90: James Martin Band (JV) 2p, Ole Man River Band (JV) 5p, Waterseed (FK) 8p Ace Hotel: the Monocle feat. Aurora Nealand (JV) 9p Banks Street Bar: Honey Tangerine (BQ) 9p Bombay Club: Steve Pistorius Trio (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Sweetwater and Company (VR) 5p, Swamp Donkeys (JV) 8p, Ashley Blume’s Time Machine (JV) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Michael Pearce (BL) 6p, Daria and the Hip Drops (VR) 9p, Tank and the Bangas (VR) 10p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6p, the Deslondes, the Kid Carsons (FO) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles (JV) 6p, Studio 504 (VR) 11p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Escondido (CW) 9p Gattuso’s: Paul Molinario Project (RK) 7p Hi-Ho Lounge: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 7p, Yarr-lesque: A Pirate Strip Adventure (BQ) 9p Historic New Orleans Collection: Concerts in the Courtyard feat. Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars (VR) 6p House of Blues (The Parish): the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (FO) 10p House of Blues: William Singe (PO) 8p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Levi Parham, Rachel Dean, Tim Paul Grey (VR) 10p

Howlin’ Wolf: Slow Burn Burlesque (BQ) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series: Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton feat. Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx with Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11:59p Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Van Hudson and friends (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Piano Bob (PI) 7p, COOT (VR) 10:30p Little Tropical Isle: Reed Lightfoot (RK) 5p, Mike Berger (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Trey Boudreaux (MJ) 10a Maison: Dinosaurchestra, Loose Marbles, Asylum Chorus (VR) 1p, Soul Project, Street Legends (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Cha Wa (MG) 11p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Boyfriend (HH) 10p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Palm Court Jazz Band with Kevin Louis (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Bucktown All-Stars (VR) 9:30p Saint Hotel: Creole Sweet Tease Burlesque Show (BQ) 9p Snug Harbor: Larry Sieberth’s Estrella Banda (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Royal Roses (JV) 5:30p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (CW) 1p, Jay B. Elston Band (CW) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SATURDAY APRIL 16

30/90: Sunshine Brass Band (BB) 1p, Organ Donors (JV) 5p, Jason Neville (FK) 8p, Dana Abbott Band (RR) 11p Abita Springs Town Hall: Abita Springs Opry feat. Three Rivers Cooperative, Crispin Schroeder, the Deslondes, Tuba Skinny (FO) 7p Banks Street Bar: Caffetiene, Switchblade Kid (EL) 10p Bombay Club: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11am, Offensive Jazz Quartet (JV) 11p Buffa’s: Marc Stone (BL) 5p, Royal Rounders (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the River Gang (VR) 11a, the Neon Shadows (VR) 4p Creole Cookery: Mark Weliky Trio (JV) 11a d.b.a.: Swing Soiree (SI) 4p, John Boutte (JV) 8p, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 11p Dragon’s Den: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 7p, Baby Bats, Yrs Truly, Garbage Boy (ID) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sadder Days (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Operators, Bogan Via, Skelatin (ID) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Drunktoons (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues: Amon Amarth, Entombed A.D., Exmortus (ME) 7:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Irvin Mayfield (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave Hickey (FO) 5p, Lonestar Stout (FO) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Vivaz (VR) 2p, Warren Battiste (VR) 3p, Junko Beat (VR) 4p Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Fais Do Do with T’Canaille, Royal Street Winding Boys (VR) 1p, Kumasi, Big Easy Brawlers (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Cole Williams Band (VR) 11p Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Lost Bayou Ramblers, Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers (RK) 10p Orpheum Theater: Chick Corea and Bela Flek (BU) 8p Palm Court Jazz Club: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band with Chuck Badie (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Iguanas (VR) 9:30p Snug Harbor: the Headhunters with Michael Clark and Bill Summers (MJ) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Russell Welch’s Mississippi Gypsy (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 1p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SUNDAY APRIL 17

30/90: Texas Pete (VR) 1p, Revival (VR) 5p, T’Canaille (KJ) 9p Abita Springs Trailhead: Abita Springs Busker Festival feat. Tuba Skinny, the Deslondes, Shotgun Jazz Band, Sluetown Strutters, Loose Marbles, Bad Pennies Pleasuremakers (TJ) 7p Ace Hotel: Ernie Vincent and friends (BL) 9p Banks Street Bar: Hill County Hounds (CW) 7p Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Jazz Youth Showcase with Mission Bay High School (JV) 4p, Nattie Sanchez’s Songwriter Circle (VR) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Sweet Olive Duo (VR) 6p, Meschyia Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Gator Baits (VR) 11a, Poppy’s All-Stars (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Soul Brass Band (BB) 3p, Palmetto Bugs Stompers (SI) 6p, Funk Monkey (FK) 10p Dragon’s Den: Jazz Jam with Anuraag Penyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: the Pentones (BL) 6p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour Open Mic (CO) 7p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Traditional Irish Session (FO) 5p, Patrick Cooper (FO) 8p Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Swinging Gypsies, Luneta Jazz Band (JV) 10a; Leah Rucker, Higher Heights (VR) 7p 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: Isla Nola (LT) 3:30p, Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (JV) 7p

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Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Sunday Night Swingsters with Mark Braud (JV) 8p Snug Harbor: Jason Marsalis (MJ) 8 & 10pp Three Muses: Raphael Bas (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Sunday Youth Music Showcase feat. Imani Winds Woodwind Quintet (VR) 1p, Dawes, Hiss Golden Messenger (VR) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 4p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Freedom Pavilion: Tulane Concert Band presents Remembrance, Resilience, Rebirth (VR) 12p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 11a

MONDAY APRIL 18

30/90: Perdido Jazz Band (JV) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam (VR) 9p Banks Street Bar: Lauren Sturm’s Piano Showcase (JV) 7p, South Jones (RK) 10p Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Alex Pianovich (VR) 6p, Alexis and the Samurai (ID) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Insta-Gators (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Luke Winslow King (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Dragon’s Den: Shine Delphi Orchestra (GY) 7p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Lauren Desberg (PO) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Ben Folds, yMusic, Dotan (VR) 7:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Claire Cannon and Kenna Mae (FO) 8p

Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Crooked Vines (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: George Porter Jr. Trio (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 8p Saenger Theatre: A Night with Janis Joplin starring Mary Bridget Davies (VR) 8p the Saint: Motown Mondays with DJ Shane Love (SO) 10p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Pete Lanctot and the Stray Dogs (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass Duo (KJ) 4p, Cajun Drifters (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5p, Whiskey Bar (RK) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 19

30/90: Bayou Saints (RR) 5p, Mem Shannon (BL) 9p Banks Street Bar: Simple Sound Retreat (RE) 9p Blue Nile: Open Ears Music Series feat. Trapper Keeper feat. Mike Dillon and Rex Gregory (MJ) 10:30p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Paul Slayvens (VR) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Stephen Malinowski (PI) 6p, Jon Cleary (VR) 8p, Herringbone Orchestra feat. Meschiya Lake (JV) 11p Crazy Lobster: AC and the Heat (VR) 5p d.b.a.: DinosAurchestra (JV) 7p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 9p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Marshland (FO) 10p House of Blues: Curren$y (HH) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Adonis Rose (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Little Tropical Isle: Mark Pentone (RK) 5p, Frank Fairbanks (RK) 9p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Gregory Agid,TK Groove (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p

Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (MJ) 8 & 10p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass Duo (KJ) 4p, Cajun Drifters (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Original: the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 20

30/90: Justin Donovan (BL) 5p, Mutiny Squad (RB) 9p Ace Hotel: Tulsa Music Showcase feat. Paul Benjamin, Dustin Pittsley and Jesse Aycock (RR) 8p Banks Street Bar: Major Bacon (BL) 10p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Bluerunners (VR) 6p, Bandicoot 4 (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Tin Men (BL) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Reggae Night (RE) 10p Eiffel Society: Society Salsa (LT) 7p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Shamarr Allen, DJ Chicken (FK) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Dana Abbott (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Honey Island Swamp Band, Alexis and the Samurai (VR) 5p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Eight Dice Cloth, Jazz Vipers, Willfunk (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Hook Line and Dine (VR) 8p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p One Eyed Jacks: the Joy Formidable, the Helio Sequence (VR) 10p Palm Court Jazz Club: Gregg Staffford and Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Mitch Woods and the Delta 88s (SI) 8p Sandbar at UNO: Henry Butler (JV) 7p

A PRI L 2016

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Snug Harbor: Terrance Taplin and Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Schatzy (JV) 7p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: Victory Belles present SongsTthat Won the War (VR) 11:45a

THURSDAY APRIL 21

30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 5p, Smoke N Bones (FK) 9p, Pirates Choice (AF) 1a Ace Hotel: Soundbytes Jam Session hosted by PJ Morton (RB) 8p Armstrong Park: Jazz in the Park feat. Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, King James and the Special Men (VR) 4p Banks Street Bar: Dave Jordan and the NIA (RR) 10p Blue Nile: Tank and the Bangas, Stooges Brass Band (VR) 10p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Duo with Hal Smith (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Alexandra Scott and Josh Paxton (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 9p, Greg Schatz (VR) 11p Carrollton Station: John Mooney and Bluesiana (BL) 10p Chiba: Charlie Dennard (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Phil DeGruy and Emily Robertson (VR) 6p, Smoke-Free Nola Anniversary Show (VR) 8p City Park Botanical Garden: Threadhead Thursday feat. George Porter Jr. and his Runnin’ Pardners, Soul Brass Band, Lynn Drury (VR) 6p Civic Theater: Lucero, Morning 40 Federation (RK) 8p Columns Hotel: Naydja Cojoe (JV) 8p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary (VR) 7p, Little Freddie King, Baby Bee (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Dave Easley (VR) 6p, the Ill Vibe with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Helen Gillet Quartet with Skerik, Nikki Glaspie and Brian Haas (MJ) 9p Hi-Ho Lounge: Stripped Into Submission (BQ) 8p House of Blues (Foundation Room): Colin Lake (VR) 6p House of Blues: the Darkness, RavenEye (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Nigel Hall, Derwin Perkins, Donnie Sundal, Eric Vogel, Jamison Ross, Weedie Braimah and others (RB) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, the James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Jim Norton (CO) 7:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Foot and friends (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Little Gem Saloon: Orleans Records’ Jazz Fest Celebration with Junko Beat (VR) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Allen Hebert (RK) 5p, Mike Berger (RK) 9p Maison: Jon Roniger, Dinosaurchestra (VR) 4p, Stanton Moore Trio, DJ Kevvy Kev (FK) 9:30p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich and Charlie Hunter Duo (VR) 8p, Eric Krasno, Oteil Burbridge and Johnny Vidacovich (VR) 11p Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Cha Wa Mardi Gras Indians (MG) 6p Palm Court Jazz Club: Butch Thompson and Clive Wilson with New Orleans Serenaders (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Chris Ardoin, Beau Jocque’s High Rollers, Geno Delafose, Chubby Carrier (ZY) 8p Saint Hotel: the Yat Pack (VR) 7p Snug Harbor: Dr. Lonnie Smith and Donald Harrison Trio (MJ) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 7:30p Tipitina’s: Anders Osborne (RR) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Miss Maggie Trio (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 22

30/90: Dapper Dandies (JV) 1p, Jon Roniger Gypsy Land (GY) 4p, Mem Shannon (BL) 7p, Space and Harmony, Rumpelsteelskin (VR) 10p, Beast Mode feat. James Casey, John Staten and Dave Bailas (VR) 1:30a Ace Hotel: Daniel Lanois and Brian Blade (VR) 9p

APRIL 2016

Banks Street Bar: Hazy Ray (VR) 10p Blue Nile: Soul Rebels (FK) 10p, Gravity A (VR) 1a Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski Trio with Jon-Erik Kellso (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Debbie Davis and Josh Paxton (VR) 5p, Banu Gibson (JV) 8p, Rebecca Leigh and Crocodile Tears (VR) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Chris Smither with Seth Walker (VR) 8p, Happy Talk Band, Morning 40 Federation (VR) 11p Crazy Lobster: Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 10p, Colin Lake (VR) 2a Dos Jefes: Mitch Woods and Club 88 (BL) 10p Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles, Loose Willis, DJ Doug Funnie (VR) 6p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Frenchy’s Gallery: Steve Malinowski (PI) 8p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Wait, What? Comedy (CO) 8p House of Blues (The Parish): Bonerama (FK) 10p House of Blues: Dave Rawlings Machine (FO) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Dumpstaphunk, Chali 2na, the London Souls, the Nth Power (FK) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series: Tribute to Professor Longhair feat. Tom Worrell (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx with Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11:59p Joy Theater: Greyboy All-Stars, Vulfpeck, Pimps of Joytime (FK) 10p Kerry Irish Pub: Paul Ferguson (FO) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (FO) 9p Maison: Kala’s Swing Band, Hokum High Rollers, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 1p, Organized Crime, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (BB) 10p Maple Leaf: Skerik, Marco Benevento, Johnny Vidacovich and Oteil Burbridge (VR) 11p, Johnny Vidacovich, Oteil Burbridge and Eric “Benny” Bloom (VR) 3a Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a New Orleans Jazz Market: Big Beat Gala (VR) 8p Old Point Bar: Rick Trolsen (PI) 5p, Jamie Lynn Vessels (RK) 9:30p Old U.S. Mint: Armand St. Martin (JV) 2p, Ron Hacker with John Fohl (BL) 7p One Eyed Jacks: Leftover Salmon with Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers (VR) 8p, Leftover Salmon with Walter “Wolfman” Washington (VR) 11:30p Orpheum Theater: the Meters (FK) 10p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Eric Lindell, Tab Benoit (BL) 9:30p Saenger Theatre: Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair (RK) 9p Saint Hotel: Creole Sweet Tease Burlesque Show (BQ) 9p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Snug Harbor: Herlin Riley CD-release party (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Where Y’acht (RK) 9:30p Three Muses: Matt Johnson (JV) 5:30p, Davis Rogan (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Galactic, Turkuaz (FK) 9p, the Floozies (VR) 2a Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SATURDAY APRIL 23

30/90: Chris Klein and the Boulevards (VR) 1p, Organ Donors (JV) 4p, Kid Merv (JV) 7p, Billy Iuso and Restless Natives (RR) 10p, Angelo Moore and guests (VR) 1:30a Ace Hotel: Roots of Music Benefit feat. Nick Waterhouse (SO) 9p Banks Street Bar: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (FK) 10p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p, Marco Benevento (VR) 10:30p, Naughty Professor, Chali 2na (FK) 1a Bombay Club: Jason Marsalis (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11am, Michael Pellera and Miles Berry (JV) 5p, Paul Sanchez and Alex McMurray (RR) 8p, Davis Rogan (VR) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Helen Gillet Quartet with Skerik, Nikki Glaspie and Brian Haas (MJ) 8p, Charlie Hunter with Scott Amendola (VR) 11p

d.b.a.: John Boutte (JV) 7p, Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p, Royal Fingerbowl (VR) 2a Dragon’s Den: Eight Dice Cloth, Elysian Feel (VR) 7p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p, Sadder Days (VR) 10p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: the Rip Off Show (CO) 7p, Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues (The Parish): Danny Wood (PO) 5:30p, Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (FK) 10p House of Blues: Brothers Osborne (CW) 9p, Foundation of Funk feat. George Porter Jr., Zigaboo Modeliste, Ivan Neville, Tony Hall (FK) 11:59p Howlin’ Wolf: Dead Feat with Anders Osborne, Paul Barrere, Fred Tackett, Jackie Greene, Brady Blade, Carl Dufrene (RR) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson Quartet feat. Kengo Nakamura (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Ghostland Observatory, Michal Menert and the Pretty Fantastics (VR) 10p Kerry Irish Pub: Mark Parsons (FO) 5p, Roux the Day (FO) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Live Oak Café: Cassidy and the Nola Kids (TJ) 10a Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Swinging Gypsies (JV) 1p, Greyboy All-Stars feat. Karl Denson and Robert Walter, Big Easy Brawlers (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: New Orleans Suspects’ 3rd annual Leafopotumus with Al Shiner, Chief Juan Pardo, Oteil Burbridge, Papa Mali, Eric McFadden, Natalie Grossman, Charlie Wooten (VR) 11p, Maggot Brain performed by Terence Higgins, Eric McFadden, Doug Wimbish, Big Sam & more (VR) 3a Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a New Orleans Jazz Market: Dee Dee Bridgewater Stage Dedication (JV) 8p Old U.S. Mint: Little Freddie King (BL) 7p One Eyed Jacks: the Heat feat. Ivan Nevile, Oteil Burbridge, Stanton Moore and Eric Krasno (VR) 10p Orpheum Theater: the Revivalists, Vulfpeck, Soul Rebels (VR) 10p Palm Court Jazz Club: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band with Ernie Elly (JV) 8p Pontchartrain Vineyards: Jazz’n the Vines feat. Pine Leaf Boys (KJ) 6:30p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Will Smith (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Honey Island Swamp Band, the Magnificent 7 (RR) 8:30p Saenger Theatre: Treme Threauxdown feat. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (FK) 8p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Snug Harbor: Bria Skonberg Quintet (BL) 8 & 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: Cypress Hill, Jelly Roll (HH) 9p, Garage A Trois (FK) 2a Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SUNDAY APRIL 24

30/90: Revival (RR) 1p, Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires (BL) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 7p, Gov’t Majik (FK) 10p, Full Orangutan (FK) 1:30a Ace Hotel: Stumptown Q&A Brunch with George Clinton (VR) 11a, Daniel Lanois and Brian Blade, Theresa Andersson, Quintet feat. Steve Masakowski, Nicholas Payton, Roland Guerin, Dave Easley and Brian Blade. (MJ) 9p Banks Street Bar: Ron Hotstream and Mid-City Drifters (CW) 7p Blue Nile: Dr. Lonnie Smith (VR) 10:30p, Brass-A-Holics (BB) 11:59p Bombay Club: David Boeddinghaus (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Some Like It Hot! (TJ) 10:30a, Jazz Youth Showcase with Crescent City Combo (JV) 4p, Bayou Saints with Arsene DeLay (VR) 7p, Gettin’ It! feat. Sam Cammarata (BL) 11p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunpie Barnes, Leyla McCalla, Cedric Watson and Pascal Danae (VR) 8p, Chic Gamine (VR) 10p

Crazy Lobster: the Gator Baits (VR) 11a, Poppy’s All-Stars (VR) 4p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (FK) 7p, Funk and Chant with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and John “Papa” Gros (MG) 10p, George Porter Jr. and his Runnin’ Pardners (FK) 2a Dragon’s Den: Jazz Jam with Anuraag Penyal (JV) 7p, Church (EL) 10p Funky Pirate: the Pentones (BL) 6p Hi-Ho Lounge: NOLA Comedy Hour Open Mic (CO) 7p, the Grid (VR) 10p House of Blues: the Subdudes (RR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Dead Feat with Anders Osborne, Paul Barrere, Fred Tackett, Jackie Greene, Brady Blade, Carl Dufrene (RR) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Germaine Bazzle (JV) 8p Joy Theater: the Word feat. Robert Randolph and John Medeski, North Mississippi All-Stars, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (VR) 9p Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 5:30p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (FO) 8p Live Oak Café: Charlie Wooton (JV) 10a Maison: Chance Bushman and the NOLA Jitterbugs, Swinging Gypsies, Dinosaurchestra (JV) 10a, Brad Walker, Pinettes Brass Band, Soul Project (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio feat. Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (VR) 10p, Maple Leaf All-Stars feat. Jon Cleary, Tony Hall, Ivan Neville, Raymond Weber, Derwin “Big D” Perkins (VR) 11:59p, Marco Benevento (VR) 3a Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Old Point Bar: Amanda Walker (PI) 3:30p, Jean Marie Harris (JV) 7p One Eyed Jacks: Worship My Organ feat. Marco Benevento, Robert Walter, Simon Lott, DJ Logic (VR) 8:30p, Karl Denson, Stanton Moore, Eric Krasno, Will Blades (VR) 1a Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Sunday Night Swingsters with Gerald French (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Kevin Louis (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Republic: George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic (FK) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Sonny Landreth, Tab Benoit, Little Freddie King (BL) 8p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Siberia: the Asylum Chorus (FO) 6p, Cauche Mar, Meschiya Lake, Fever Dreams (VR) 9p Smoothie King Center: Duran Duran, Chic feat. Nile Rodgers (RK) 7p Snug Harbor: Stanton Moore Trio (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Stones Fest feat. Marc Broussard, Jonny Lang, Kevin Griffin, Travis Thibodeaux (BL) 8p Spotted Cat: Sweetwater and Company (JV) 2p, Kristina Morales and Bayou Shufflers (JV) 6p, Pat Casey and the New Sound (JV) 10p Three Muses: Raphael Bas (JV) 5p, Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 8p Tipitina’s: Lettuce, Vulfpeck (FK) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 4p, Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: BC and Company (RK) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 11a

MONDAY APRIL 25

30/90: Perdido Jazz Band (JV) 5p, New Orleans Super Jam (VR) 9p Ace Hotel: Les Artistes: Denizens of Drag and Burlesque (BQ) 9p Banks Street Bar: Lauren Sturm’s Piano Showcase (JV) 7p, South Jones (RK) 10p Blue Nile: Marco Benevento James Booker Tribute (VR) 10p Bombay Club: Josh Paxton (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Arsene DeLay (VR) 5p, Antoine Diel (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Luther Dickenson, Terrance Higgins, Roosevelt Collier and Eric Vogel (VR) 8p, Les McCann Tribute feat. Nigel Hall, Eric Bloom, Cochemea Gastelum (VR) 10:30p Civic Theater: Painting a New Now: A Tribute to the Art and Music of David Bowie (VR) 8p d.b.a.: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 2p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 5p, Johnny Vidacovich Trio with Oteil

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Burbridge and Karl Denson (VR) 8p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 11p, Free Weed feat. Derrick Freeman and Weedie Braimah (FK) 2a Dragon’s Den: Le Hot Club de Cosmos (GY) 7p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Bluegrass Pickin’ Party (BU) 8p, Instant Opus Improvised Series (MJ) 9p House of Blues: WWOZ’s Piano Night (PI) 7p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (FO) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Chicken and Waffles, Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, Fat Ballerina, TK Groove (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: the London Souls (FK) 10p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a One Eyed Jacks: Frequinox, Orgone (VR) 9p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Jazz Masters feat. Leroy Jones (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys (KJ) 8p the Saint: Motown Mondays with DJ Shane Love (SO) 10p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Soulfly, Battlecross, Lady Kong, Abnormality, Cain Resurrection (ME) 5p Spotted Cat: Up Up We Go (JV) 4p, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen St. All-Stars (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Washboard Rodeo (JV) 7p Tipitina’s: Instruments A Comin’ (VR) 8:30p Tropical Isle Original: Graham Robertson (RK) 5p, Whiskey Bar (RK) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 26

30/90: Bayou Saints (RR) 4p, Ed Wills and Blues4Sale (BL) 7p, Frenchwoman Street Starlets (VR) 10p Ace Hotel: Preservation Hall Hot 4 with CMradio (JV) 10p Banks Street Bar: Nicole Ockman Band (VR) 9p Blue Nile: the Creator Ensemble (VR) 8p, Adam Deitch Birthday Bash feat. Adam Deitch Quartet (VR) 11p; Upstairs: Open Ears Music Series feat. Diesel Combustion Orchestra Jazz Fest Party (MJ) 9p Bombay Club: Matt Lemmler (PI) 8p Buffa’s: Steve DeTroy (JV) 5p, Catie Rodgers (JV) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Anders Osborne, John Fohl and Johnny Sansone (VR) 8 & 10p d.b.a.: Tin Men (RK) 2p, Palmetto Bugs Stompers (JV) 5p, Treme Brass Band (BB) 8p, Luther Dickinson and Lightnin’ Malcolm (BL) 11p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Marshland (FO) 10p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Beast (CO) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Amy Winehouse Tribute (VR) 10:30p, Turkuaz, Jazz is Phish (VR) 11:59p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Adonis Rose (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Jason Bishop (FO) 8:30p Maison: Swinging Gypsies, Gregory Agid, Street Legends (VR) 4p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (FK) 11p Old Ironworks: Threadhead Patry feat. Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, Royal Fingerbowl, Roddie Romero and the Hub City Allstars, Johnny Sansone, Cha Wa, Iron Funk All-Stars (VR) 11a One Eyed Jacks: Dragon Smoke (VR) 8p, the Whip (VR) 2a Orpheum Theater: Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. (JV) 7:30p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall-Stars feat. Shannon Powell (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Creole Stringbeans (KJ) 8p Snug Harbor: Henry Butler Quartet (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Marc Broussard, Nigel Hall (VR) 8p Spotted Cat:Andy J. Forest (JV) 4p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV) 6p, Smoking Time Jazz Club (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Bunny Wailer, DJ T-Roy (VR) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajungrass Duo (KJ) 4p, Cajun Drifters (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Jezebels Chill’n (RK) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 27

30/90: Justin Donovan Trio (BL) 4p, Adam Crochet (BL) 7p, Khris Royal and Dark Matter (FK) 10p, Eric McFadden, Doug Wimbish, Joey Peebles and guest (VR) 1a Banks Street Bar: Major Bacon (BL) 10p Blue Nile: Ivan Neville Piano Sessions Vol. 6 (PI) 9p, RopeA-Dope Live in NOLA (VR) 10p Bombay Club: Kris Tokarski (PI) 8p

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Buffa’s: Open Mic Night with Nattie Sanchez (SS) 7p Chiba: Brint Anderson (BL) 7p Chickie Wah Wah: Vermillionaires feat. Andre Michot, Louie Michot, Luther Dickenson and Alvin Youngblood Hart (KJ) 8p, Lost Bayou Ramblers with Luther Dickerson and Spider Stacy (KJ) 11p d.b.a.: Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 4p, the Iguanas (VR) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p, Bayou Gypsies feat. Luther Dickinson (VR) 2a Dragon’s Den: Reggae Night (RE) 10p Eiffel Society: Society Salsa (LT) 7p Funky Pirate: Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Boogarins (VR) 10p Hi-Ho Lounge: Shamarr Allen, DJ Chicken (FK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Megalomaniac’s Ball feat. Dean Ween Group, Mike Dillon’s New Orleans Punk Rock Percussion Consortium, Stanton Moore Trio, the Illuminaughty Trio (VR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Dana Abbott (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Tim Robertson (FO) 8:30p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Kermit Ruffins, Trumpet Mafia (VR) 5p Little Tropical Isle: Jay B. Elston (RK) 5p, Reed Lightfoot (RK) 9p Maison: Loose Marbles, Jazz Vipers (VR) 4p, Derek Freeman’s Pirates Choice, Big Soul Brass Band (VR) 10p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr., June Yamagishi and Ivan Neville (VR) 11p Mardi Gras World: Fiya Fest (VR) 1p Morning Call: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 10a, Krewe du Two (VR) 1p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman with Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious (TJ) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters (ZY) 8p Sandbar at UNO: Maurice Brown (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Piano Summit feat. Marcia Ball, Tom McDermott and Joe Krown (MJ) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Chris Christy (JV) 4p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Power Misfits (JV) 10p Three Muses: Leslie Martin (JV) 5p, Sarah McCoy (JV) 7p Tipitina’s: St. Paul and the Broken Bones, King James and the Special Men (VR) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: La Maniere des Cadiens (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Original: Debi and the Deacons (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: Victory Belles present SongsTthat Won the War (VR) 11:45a, USAF Airmen of Note Concert (VR) 1:30p

THURSDAY APRIL 28

30/90: Andy J. Forest (BL) 4p, Kettle Black (VR) 7p, Naughty Professor (FK) 10p, Smoke N Bones (VR) 1:30a Ace Hotel: Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson, Vetiver (BL) 10p Armstrong Park: Jazz in the Park feat. Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO, N’awlins Johnnys (VR) 4p Banks Street Bar: Valerie Sassyfras (VR) 7p, Dave Jordan and the NIA (RR) 10p Blue Nile: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (FK) 11:59p Bombay Club: Rex Gregory and Oscar Rossignoli (JV) 8p Buffa’s: Alexandra Scott and Josh Paxton (VR) 5p, Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (JV) 8p, Dayna Kurtz (VR) 11p Carrollton Station: Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone (BL) 10p Chiba: Tom Worrell (PI) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Austin de Lone and Bill Kirchen (VR) 6p, Alejandro Escovedo (VR) 8p Crazy Lobster: the Spanish Plaza 3 (VR) 5p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary (VR) 7p, New Breed Brass Band (BB) 10p, Cedric Burnside Project (VR) 2a Dragon’s Den: the Ill Vibe with DJ Matt Scott (VR) 10p, Sasha Masakowski and Brian J. Cosmic Dance Jubilee (VR) 11:59p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Gasa Gasa: Delicate Steve (VR) 10p House of Blues: Trombone Shorty Foundation’s Shorty Fest (JV) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Comedy Gumbeaux (CO) 8:30p, the Heavy Pets (VR) 10p

Howlin’ Wolf: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, the Motet (MJ) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Ashlin Parker Trio (JV) 5p, the James Rivers Movement (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Rage Fest feat. Lettuce, Oteil Burbridge, Cyril Neville, Break Science, Nigel Hall Band (VR) 10p Kerry Irish Pub: Paintbox with Dave James and Tim Robertson (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels (FK) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Allen Hebert (RK) 5p, Mike Berger (RK) 9p Maison: Jon Roniger, Roamin’ Jasmine, Dysfunktional Bone (VR) 4p, Fiya Powa feat. Maceo Parker, George Parker Jr., Ivan Neville, Stanton Moore and others (VR) 2a Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr. and Sonny Landreth (VR) 10p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (VR) 2am Ogden Museum of Southern Art: After Hours feat. Aurora Nealand and LADAMA (VR) 6p One Eyed Jacks: M&Ms feat. John Medeski, Stanton Moore, Papa Mali and Robert Mercurio (VR) 8p, Fast Times ‘80s and ‘90s Night (VR) 10p, Earth, Wind and Power: the Music of Earth, Wind and Fire (VR) 1a Palm Court Jazz Club: Tim Laughlin and Connie Jones with Crescent City Joymakers (JV) 8p Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Lucien Barbarin (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: C.J. Chenier, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, L’il Nathan and the Big Tymers (ZY) 8p Saint Hotel: the Yat Pack (VR) 7p Saturn Bar: Alex McMurray and Glenn Hartman (FO) 10p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quintet (MJ) 8 & 10p Southport Hall: Marc Stone performs Layla feat. Brint Anderson, Camile Baudoin, Joe Krown, Roosevelt Collier, Benny Turner (VR) 8:30p Spotted Cat: Monty Banks presents Fats $inatra (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Tom McDermott (JV) 5p, Luke Winslow King (JV) 7:30p Tipitina’s: St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Chad Fisher (VR) 9p, Black Joe Lewis (VR) 2a Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Cajun Drifters (KJ) 4p, Brandon Moreau and Cajungrass (KJ) 8:30p

FRIDAY APRIL 29

30/90: Pink Magnolias (BL) 1p, Jamie Lynn Vessels (BL) 4p, the Business (FK) 7p Ace Hotel: Third Man Records Presents (RK) 10p, Roosevelt Collier’s Frenchmen Street Get Down (FK) 10:30p, Freeman and Weedie present I Can Play Drum (VR) 1:30a Banks Street Bar: Dirty Bourbon River Show (VR) 10p Blue Nile: Kermit Ruffins (JV) 10:30p, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 1a Bombay Club: Leroy Jones Quartet (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Sherman Bernard and the Ole Man River Band (VR) 5p, the Asylum Chorus (VR) 8p, Marc Stone (BL) 11p Carrollton Station: John Mooney and Bluesiana (BL) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott (JV) 8p, Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (VR) 11p d.b.a.: Tuba Skinny (JV) 6p, Soul Rebels (BB) 10p, Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 2a Dragon’s Den: Loose Marbles, Warheads, Brass Lightning (VR) 6p; Upstairs: Comedy Fuck Yeah (CO) 7p, Latin Night (LT) 11p Frenchy’s Gallery: Josh Paxton Tribute to James Booker (PI) 8p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p House of Blues: Lucinda Williams, Buick 6 (RR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Good Enough for Good Times, Magic Gravy, Moon Hooch, Sophistafunk, Disco DJ E and DJ Rippin’ Riff, Sunrise Breakfast Jam (VR) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Bayou Rendezvous feat. Dr. Klaw, Bayou Rendezvous All-Stars, Night People Tribute to Allen Toussaint, Polyrhythmics feat. Dead Beat (VR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Piano Professor Series: Tribute to James Booker feat. Joe Krown (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx with Romy Kaye and the Mercy Buckets (BQ) 11:59 Joy Theater: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (VR) 10p, the New Mastersounds (FK) 2a

A PRI L 2016

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Kerry Irish Pub: Patrick Cooper (FO) 5p, Lynn Drury (FO) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Jeff “Snake” Greenberg (PI) 7p Maison: Broadmoor Jazz Band, Shotgun Jazz Band, Brass-AHolics (JV) 4p,Worship My Organ II feat. John Medeski, Skerik, Robert Walter,Adam Deitch and DJ Logic (VR) 1a Maple Leaf: 10th Annual James Brown Birthday Tribute feat. members of the James Brown Band, Dumpstaphunk and others (VR) 11p Maple Leaf: Jennifer Hartswick Band (VR) 3a Orpheum Theater: Soul Slaughter: In Memory of Clarence Slaughter feat. the Roots and guests (SO) 11p Palm Court Jazz Club: Lucien Barbarin and Palm Court Jazz Band with Tim Paco (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall Brass Band feat. Daniel Farrow (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Republic: Los Lobos, Tab Benoit (VR) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Sonny Landreth, Bonerama, Terrance Simien and Zydeco Experience (VR) 8:30p Saint Hotel: Creole Sweet Tease Burlesque Show (BQ) 9p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Snug Harbor: Davell Crawford (MJ) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Andy J. Forest (JV) 4p, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (JV) 6p, New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Funky Meters (FK) 9p, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe (FK) 2a Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Brandon Miller and Louisiana Inferno (KJ) 4p, T’Canaille (KJ) 8:30p Tropical Isle Bourbon: Way Too Early (RK) 1p, Jay B. Elston Band (RK) 5p, Debi and the Deacons feat. Maggie Havens (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

SATURDAY APRIL 30

30/90: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 1p, the Asylum Chorus (VR) 4p, Margie Perez (VR) 7p, Russell Batiste and friends (FK) 10p, Tony Hall, Brandon”Taz” Niederauer, Eric McFadden and Pete Levin (VR) 1a Ace Hotel: Hurray for the Riff Raff (FO) 10p

APRIL 2016

Banks Street Bar: N’awlins Johnnys (VR) 10p Blue Nile: Break Science (FK) 10:30p, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress (FK) 1a Bombay Club: Tim Laughlin Quartet with Jon-Erik Kellso (JV) 8:30p Buffa’s: Red Hot Jazz Band (JV) 11am, Jenna Guidry (VR) 5p, Davis Rogan (VR) 8p, the Royal Rounders (VR) 11p Carrollton Station: Debauche, the Underhill Family Orchestra (GY) 10p Chickie Wah Wah: Paul “Springsteen” Sanchez (RK) 7p, Susan Cowsill presents Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness at the Edge of Town (RK) 8p, Erica Falls and the Heard (VR) 11p Civic Theater: Jon Batiste and Stay Human (JV) 10p d.b.a.: Dirty Dozen Brass Band (BB) 10p, S&M Squared feat. John Medeski, Stanton Moore, Skerik and James Singleton (FK) 2a Dragon’s Den: Swinging Gypsies (JV) 7p, Kompression (VR) 10p; Upstairs: Talk Nerdy to Me (BQ) 8p Funky Pirate: Marc Stone Duo (BL) 12p, Mark and the Pentones (BL) 4p, Blues Masters feat. Big Al (BL) 8:30p Hi-Ho Lounge: Hustle feat. DJ Soul Sister (FK) 11p House of Blues (The Parish): the California Honeydrops (SO) 10p House of Blues: the Arcs, Mariachi Flor de Toloache (RK) 9p Howlin’ Wolf (the Den): Mike Dillon (MJ) 9:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Anders Osborne, New Orleans Suspects, Soulive (VR) 9:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse: Irvin Mayfield (JV) 8p Joy Theater: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (VR) 10p, the New Mastersounds (FK) 2a Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FO) 5p, Invisible Cowboy Band (FO) 9p Live Oak Café: Aaron Walker Trio (FK) 10a Maison: Chance Bushman and the Ibervillainaires, Leah Rucker (JV) 1p, Smoking Time Jazz Club, Rebirth Brass Band (VR) 7p Maple Leaf: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (VR) 11p, Lil Baby Jesus Peasant Party (VR) 3a Morning Call City Park: Billy D. Chapman (JV) 10a Orpheum Theater: Galactic, JJ Grey and Mofro, Moon Hooch (FK) 8:30p

Palm Court Jazz Club: Brian O’Connell and Palm Court Jazz Band with Lester Caliste (JV) 8p Preservation Hall: Preservation Hall All-Stars feat. Will Smith (TJ) 8p, Midnight Preserves (TJ) 11:59p Republic: Big Freedia, Soul Rebels, Tank and the Bangas (VR) 8p, Voodoo Dead II (VR) 2am Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Tab Benoit, the Iguanas (VR) 8:30p Seahorse Saloon: Po Boyz Organ Group with Simon Lott (VR) 10a & 5:30p Siberia: Alexandra Scott, Darrin Bradbury, Esther Rose (SS) 6p, Feufollet, King James and the Special Men, the Revelers (VR) 9p Snug Harbor: Chris Thomas King and his Blues Orchestra (MJ) 8 & 10p Spotted Cat: Jazz Band Ballers (JV) 2p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Jumbo Shrimp (JV) 10p Three Muses: Chris Christy (JV) 5p, Debbie Davis (JV) 6p, Shotgun Jazz Band (JV) 9p Tipitina’s: the Motet, Pimps of Joytime (VR) 9p, Earphunk (FK) 2a Tropical Isle Original: Down River (RK) 1p, the Hangovers (RK) 5p, Late As Usual (RK) 9p WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (VR) 6p

FESTIVALS APRIL 1-2 Hogs for the Cause holds its annual barbecue cook-off, which features two days of live music with performances by Greensky Bluegrass, Shovels and Rope, Deer Tick and many others. HogsForTheCause.org APRIL 7-10 At the French Quarter Festival, check out music on multiple stages throughout the Quarter and regional food vendors. FQFI.org APRIL 9-10 The Baton Rouge Blues features performances by

musical legends as well as local high school blues bands. BatonRougeBluesFestival.org APRIL 14-17 The inaugural InFringe Fest is a four-day independent theater and performance festival at multiple venues in the Marigny and Bywater. InFringeFest.org APRIL 20-24 Festival International de Louisiane in downtown Lafayette features musical acts on multiple stages, regional cuisine and arts and crafts. FestivalInternational.com APRIL 22-24, 28-MAY 1 The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is seven days of exciting music, food, art and culture at the Fairgrounds. Look for OffBeat’s Jazz Fest Bible at the gates. NOJazzFest.com

SPECIAL EVENTS APRIL 7, 14, 21, 28 Covington Trailhead hosts Rockin’ the Rails concerts every Thursday in April at 5 p.m. Covla.com APRIL 25 Tipitina’s hosts its 15th annual Instruments A Comin’ celebration. This year’s honorees are Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Donald Harrison Jr. Tipitinas.com APRIL 26 The annual Threadhead Patry takes place in Bywater at the Old Iron Works, with performances by Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, Royal Fingerbowl, Roddie Romero and others. THCFNola.org APRIL 29 The annual Zoo-to-Do for Kids at Audubon Zoo features live music, inflatables, kids’ entertainment and food. AudubonInstitute.org

www.OFFBEAT.com

BACKTALK

talks back

very spring, Sonny Landreth, master of the slide guitar and co-composer of the classic “Congo Square,” plays his annual marathon of South Louisiana festival and club gigs. Landreth’s evocative hybrid of slide and finger-style guitar technique supersedes the instrument. Contrasting plucked percussive notes with lyrical phrases produced by his smooth glass slide, he makes his guitar strings sting and scream, rage and weep. A Mississippi native whose family moved to Lafayette when he was 7, Landreth can recall black grounds workers singing blues songs on the golf course overseen by his greenskeeper grandfather. And he heard Fats Domino hits and rhythm-and-blues and country records spinning on the jukebox in his grandfather’s drive-in restaurant, The Pig Stand. Landreth’s exposure to music accelerated dramatically after he moved to Louisiana in 1958. Cajun music, country and swamp pop surrounded him. The national acts he heard on the radio and TV included Elvis Presley, instrumental pop band the Ventures, British invasion groups and, most importantly, fingerpicking country guitar great Chet Atkins. Although trumpet was Landreth’s first instrument, guitar was his first love. His parents gave him one for his 13th birthday. He had carefully pre-selected the instrument at Prof Erny’s Music store. Landreth ultimately fused Atkins’ intricate finger-style technique with the Delta blues masters’ blend of finger-style and slide playing. In the late 1970s, Clifton Chenier, king of zydeco, invited Landreth to join his Red Hot Louisiana Band. Landreth’s sideman career includes Cajun singer-songwriter Zachary Richard, British blues pioneer John Mayall, singer-songwriters John Hiatt and Jimmy Buffett and many others. His solo career ascended via a trilogy of southwest Louisiana-inspired albums released between 1992 and 2000. Outward Bound, South of I-10 and Levee Town all distill the region’s distinctive flavor. For his latest album (and OffBeat’s Best Blues Album), Bound by the Blues, Landreth returned to his roots. The recording features blues classics he’s known for decades and original songs inspired by his blues heroes. Your all-instrumental 2012 album, Elemental Journey, features the Acadiana

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Symphony Orchestra, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. Did you simply want to get back to your roots with Bound by the Blues? A few years ago, before I sat in with Roy Rogers at the King Biscuit Blues Festival, we were on the phone talking about songs I could do with him. Roy said, ‘Well, we’ll just do some Elmore James, Robert Johnson.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but we won’t do ‘Dust My Broom.’ Everybody’s done that.’ But then a couple of weeks later I started thinking about what it would take to do ‘Dust My Broom.’ You have to bring something new to the table. That intrigued me, so I had to go for it. But anytime to you go back to the well, you want to do something that both pays homage and brings something personal to it. And I always look for the element of surprise. Then I realized how much the way I play these songs has changed over the years. As I developed new techniques and ideas, I added them to these old songs. And then the songs pushed back, in a good way. So that added another layer. Can you tell me about the album’s title song, “Bound by the Blues,” one of your compositions? By John Wirt

I wanted to pay tribute to my heroes. As I got into writing that song, I knew it had to be the title track. I always know which song will be the title track, and that helps set the direction for the whole album. Even though you’ve performed blues music for decades, did your perspective on the genre change during the making of Bound by the Blues? I came away with more respect than I ever had for the songs and the genre. Blues is such a powerful thing to people all over the world. It doesn’t matter where you live or what language you speak. Blues music speaks to people because they have shared experiences, in particular with facing challenges. So those are some of the themes that made this project really special. Growing up in Mississippi and later in Lafayette, did you hear a lot of regional roots music? I heard it in Mississippi, but not to the extent I heard it after we moved here. I was in culture shock at first. It was like coming to another country. There was always a band playing for a function—maybe at a new Western Auto store www.OFFBEAT.com

photo: clayton call

Sonny Landreth

My dad’s job for State Farm Insurance brought us to Lafayette. As the years have gone by, I’ve thanked him many times for making that move. Some of my family in Mississippi lamented that we left there. Not me. No way. on a flatbed truck in the parking lot. Cajun bands played on Saturday mornings. It was part of the community. That became even more prevalent when some friends of mine jumpstarted the Cajun and zydeco movements here. And there was Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. There was so much music in the area. Did you also experience music elsewhere in Louisiana? When I was growing up, we’d go to New Orleans. That’s the first time I heard jazz, R&B and the second line rhythms. It was a rich experience. There is something uniquely soulful about our area that I have not found anywhere else. Either via osmosis or the food, you just get it in you. Do you think you’d be the artist you are today are if you’d grown up somewhere other than Louisiana? No. My dad’s job for State Farm Insurance brought us to Lafayette. As the years have gone by, I’ve thanked him many times for making that move. Some of my family in Mississippi lamented that we left there. Not me. No way. When did your interest in guitar begin? Elvis Presley’s guitarist, Scotty Moore, really caught my ear. I was freaking out about Elvis, too, but then there was also this guy in the background with the big electric guitar. I liked that sound. I thought, ‘Wow. What is that? I want to do that.’ When did you begin developing your finger-style approach? The Ventures were the big thing in electric guitar back in the day. But I also saw Andrés Segovia and José Feliciano on TV. And then I discovered Chet Atkins. That was a game changer for me. That’s when I began thinking of the guitar as a solo instrument that produced melody, rhythm and a bass line, all at the same time. I also discovered the Delta blues and slide guitar. I began to put the two together. That’s really what set me on my path. When you were 16 and 17 years old, you met B.B. King, Clifton Chenier and Jimi Hendrix. What do recall of those encounters? www.OFFBEAT.com

I’d read about B.B. King in interviews with Eric Clapton and others. I saw that he was playing at Leo’s Rendezvous in New Iberia. Me and a buddy went down to that. B.B. King was still doing the Chitlin’ Circuit. It was a small club. There weren’t many people there, but he played like he was playing for thousands. When he took a break, I talked to him. He was as sweet as he could be and down to earth. A while later I heard about this guy who plays blues on accordion. I couldn’t even imagine that. So I saw that Clifton Chenier was playing at the Blue Angel in Lafayette. Me and another buddy of mine braved our way over there. Clifton saw us at the door and invited us in. He put us right in front of the bandstand. When Clifton got on the stage and played, I felt like I’d been propelled to another planet. It was blues, all right, but it was more than that. I’d never heard anything like that. A bit later, Jimi Hendrix played in Baton Rouge. Me and my friends piled into a car and went over there early, to try to find Hendrix. A bunch of kids were already at the hotel when we got there. Hendrix was in his room listening to reel-to-reel tapes. I realized later it was Electric Ladyland. Anyway, this big English road manager ran us all off. Me and a friend were hiding from the road manager in the hotel gift shop and then in walks Hendrix. I’d already met B.B. King and Clifton Chenier. So I figured I’d meet Hendrix. He was in the gift shop to get a toothbrush and toothpaste. I could see the road wear on him. I could see that being a musician wasn’t all that easy. About a decade after you met Chenier at the Blue Angel, you joined his band. The members of the Red Beans and Rice Revue were good friends of mine. Clifton got to be friends with the Red Beans and Rice Revue. One night when I was sitting in with them, Clifton heard me play. He invited me to go play with him at La Grande Boucherie in St. Martinville. And then he invited me to sit in with them in New Orleans the next weekend. That’s when he invited me to join the band. What was your reaction to the invitation? That was the height of my musical career. I could never surpass that. And that was a real lesson. I became keenly aware that if you open up to things, one thing can lead to another. At that point I got a strong sense that anything is possible.

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TALK

I’ve heard that Chenier was an extraordinary performer. What were the shows you played with Chenier and the Louisiana Red Hot Band like? Clifton totally commanded the audience and the show. And he had such a vast repertoire of songs. He changed the keys of the songs, so he really kept you on your toes. And if he didn’t like what you were playing, you’d know it. One night at Tipitina’s, our first set was flopping all around. The sound on stage was horrible. But by the time we got midway through the show it became magic. The magic was happening during ‘Got My Mojo Working.’ Clifton grabbed me by my belt buckle and pulled me out to the front of the stage. I’m right in the middle of a solo. He says ‘Young man! Go!’ The crowd started screaming. It was one of those moments. Was race still a factor when you played clubs in Louisiana with Chenier? Clifton played in white clubs where other black bands weren’t even allowed. Clifton was the king. They revered him. It was amazing to see how the music and people’s appreciation for him overcame all that. Clifton said, ‘When you play for the white folks, you wanna take a break—especially with the hippies, because they all want to go outside and smoke pot. But, now, for the black clubs out there in the country, you can’t take a break. Because if you do, they’ll all get up and leave.’ So we played four hours straight at black clubs. Sometimes he would break it down to just him and his brother, Cleveland, on rubboard, and ‘Big’ Robert (Peter) on drums, the greatest drummer of all time. It was hardcore zydeco and amazing. Slide guitar is so essential to your signature sound. What first attracted you the slide? The vocal quality and the haunting element in it. Also, the effect it has in songs. The Delta cats were all about story songs. The guitar reinforces the lyrics that tell the story. And in the blues tradition, there’s call and response. You sing a line and then you respond to it with your instrument. B.B. King did that. He didn’t play slide, but he was influenced by his cousin, Bukka White, a slide player. The slide works like a second voice. Why do you use a glass slide rather than a metal slide? A PRI L 2016

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You want to keep your antenna up and take it all in.

Once I used a glass slide, I preferred the feel of that. It’s smoother and I like the harmonics it creates. Your playing is so distinctive. What part of your technique is most responsible for that? Honestly, the finger-picking is the thing. There’s just so much more you can do with it. Again, it gets back to thinking in multiple parts, like Chet Atkins. Finger-picking offered a lot more harmonically, melodically and rhythmically, that you can’t do any other way. Through the years, you’ve been both a solo artist and sideman. Was working with artists such as Zachary Richard, John Hiatt, John Mayall and Jimmy Buffett both artistically and financially rewarding? I’ve learned so much from working with other people. You want to keep your antenna

up and take it all in. Everyone has something to show you. They may not be as technically proficient as you are. They may be way more technically proficient. They may be all points between. But everyone finds their own voice. It may be as simple as a chord change or the way they approach a melodic phrase—or their sense of rhythm. All these things add up to a greater whole. And when you take all that in, you can interpret it through your own filtering process. That’s all part of having your own voice on your own instrument. That was the thing I started out wanting to do in the first place. And working with my heroes has been one the greatest affirmations for me. That is its own reward. When you get to know them up close, that cosmic dust rubs off on you. You’re about to play your annual spring festival

marathon of Louisiana gigs. How does it feel? Yeah, there’s quite a few. But, honestly, it’s not as many as we used to do. I guess at my height of popularity in the area, we would play every night for two weeks. Sometimes two shows a day. But I always look forward to the season. My connection with Jazz Fest goes way, way back. When I run into people anywhere in the country and in other parts of the world, they say they saw us at Jazz Fest. That festival brings so many people from so many parts of the world together. Between Jazz Fest and Festival International in Lafayette and the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, it’s an amazing cultural experience. O Sonny Landreth performs at French Quarter Festival April 7; Festival International de Lousiane in Lafayette April 23; The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 28.

photo: elsa hahne

Sonny, Sonny, Sonny OffBeat’s April cover artist, local painter Dona Simons, has painted Sonny Landreth more than 30 times.

er Lakeview house is full of him: Sonny standing on a bed of sea coral surrounded by floating guitars; Sonny jamming with a friend on a festival stage; Sonny playing a naked woman in front of Gallier Hall. She also has a series of paintings of just his hands. “Why would you need to do that many portraits of one person?” Simons asks rhetorically. “Well, you wouldn’t. [laughs] But I don’t see them as portraits. To me, getting a likeness is just the beginning. It’s two things at once, an ephemeral transitory moment, like a photograph, filtered through me, but a document of my experience of his performance rather than a document of physical reality. It’s one moment, but years condensed into that moment, if that makes any sense at all.” Simons realizes her realistic painting style can lead viewers to misunderstand her work. Hers is not the oil paint version of music photography, but a subconscious interpretation of Landreth’s music as it is being performed. She doesn’t do drawings or studies. She just starts painting. “I’m not interested in the Sonny who sits at his breakfast table eating Cheerios,” Simons says. “It’s not personal. And this is the reason I don’t make paintings of my husband, because in order to paint I need detachment. My conscious mind doesn’t know what I’m doing. I can take one of my own paintings and analyze it like I would analyze a painting by someone else.” Sonny Landreth is not the only musician Simons has put on canvas. But overall she favors songwriters and guitarists who perform their own music. “To me, the songwriting is key,” she says. “With Sonny’s level of skill, if he didn’t write his own songs, he wouldn’t be able to express

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his ability. Songwriting and painting is the same in that you’re creating your own reality rather than interpreting someone else’s.” Simons first saw Landreth perform at Jazz Fest is 2002. She’d gone on a lark by herself and ended up in the Blues Tent. She remembers being utterly beside herself, pulling on the sleeve of the stranger sitting next to her (“he thought I was nuts, of course”) because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “From seeing Sonny that first time, I’ve had this inspiration that’s lasted for years," she says. "He’s been my influence, more than anyone else.” Sonny Landreth was stunned when he first saw Simons' paintings of him. “They're so detailed, I almost couldn't look," he says. "When your music touches other artists, to have it show up in other mediums, that's an honor. There's no end to creativity; there's always a give and take." —Elsa Hahne www.OFFBEAT.com