OffBeat Magazine April 2011 Issue by OffBeat Magazine

AURORA NEALAND LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS TREME FLOW TRIBE REBIRTH BRASS BAND RENARD POCHÉ

Pete Fountain There’s nothing half-fast about him

LOUISIANA MUSIC, FOOD & CULTURE—APRIL 2011 Free In Metro New Orleans US $5.99 CAN $6.99 £UK 3.50

FRENCH QUARTER FEST COMPLETE GUIDE

Letters

Mojo Mouth

10 Photo Op with Ingrid Hertfelder

14 16

Obituary: John Berthelot

15 20

A Good Ear for the Roses

Zachary Young discovers how Aurora Nealand makes room for the saxophone in traditional jazz.

FQF IQ

Your guide to who’s where during the French Quarter Festival.

A Half-Fast Walk with Pete

John Swenson discovers how fame has taken a backseat to the way Pete Fountain has lived.

Alex Cook documents the meeting of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano.

Touched by Treme

32 42

Barbie Cure talks with Flow Tribe about being the next generation of New Orleans funk. Alex Rawls explores the impact of the HBO series on the eve of its second season.

From Séance Lounge to Jazz Brunch Peter Thriffiley traces the line from Muriel’s to its booth during French Quarter Festival.

FQF IQ 50 Magnetic Ear 52 The Pfister Sisters 54 New Orleans 56 58 60 62

BLAST FROM THE PAST “For Pete’s Sake” by Bunny Matthews, February 2002

Nightcrawlers Steve Pistorius Chubby Carrier Kourtney Heart Storyville Stompers

Reviews 68 Listings 76

www.OFFBEAT.com

Blister in Le Soleil

Funk in the Real World

Backtalk with David Simon

Obituaries: Herman Ernest, Sherman Washington

In the Kitchen with Renard Elsa Hahne discovers Renard Poché’s secret to better living through fruit juice.

Fresh

OffBeat Eats

Kristin Diable’s in the The Spot at Green Goddess, and Rene Louapre and Peter Thriffiley review Three Muses.

This month is not the first time OffBeat has recognized Pete Fountain with a cover—in 2002 he graced the Mardi Gras issue as that year’s Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. In the accompanying interview he shared his picks for best musicians, crawfish, snowball, and even stripper. To read this article and more from this issue online, go to offbeat.com/2002/02. A PRI L 2011

Letters SMOKE FREE

“You really don’t have to dig deep into the roots of music in New Orleans to see how miraculous it is. It’s in every neighborhood, in every school, every venue, and is visible to the nation and the rest of the world.”—Claude Flot, New Orleans, LA

It starts at a very young age down here. Before middle school, kids are introduced to music and that is the beginning of another generation for our city. You really don’t have to dig deep into the roots of music in New Orleans to see how miraculous it is. It’s in every neighborhood, in every school, every venue, and is visible to the nation and the rest of the world. It is so visible and so perfectly unique that it is taken for granted—even by our own people! —Claude Flot, New Orleans, LA

Although I’m thrilled with the new movement in town to ban smoking at more clubs (“A Breath of Fresh Air”—February 2011) and enjoyed the article about this in OffBeat, I take issue with the statement that “While the decision to go smoke-free doesn’t necessarily make a profit….” Simply stated, there are many people here who will not go to a club filled with smoke from people smoking cigarettes. Besides the health concerns, the most-often cited reason is returning home with clothes and hair totally smelling of smoke. So, when a club or bar decides to ban smoking, it indeed may profit from its decision because people who would otherwise not go to their establishment now will go there and spend their money. On the other hand, as proven in the large number of states that have long ago banned smoking in all their establishments, smokers still will patronize the bars and clubs and go outside to smoke. When legislation in California and New York was proposed long ago to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, owners of their establishments protested that this would hurt their businesses. They were proven wrong. —R. Dusk Lipton, New Orleans, LA

This is in response to Jan Ramsey’s blog post where she questions why the city “doesn’t have a place where locals and visitors can see why this city is important musically.” Thank you for your vigilance. And you’re absolutely right; New Orleans’ singular music heritage should be promoted, protected and supported by both local and state administrations. As a career music publisher with extensive global experience, I can state with confidence that few regions of the world enjoy the music legacy that belongs to New Orleans. HBO is investing millions of dollars in producing the Treme television series because its administrators are keenly aware of this fact. —Don Williams, Encino, CA

MIRACULOUS

SUBSCRIBER CD

I am spending my Saturday morning at a barber shop waiting for my turn to get in the chair. I am reading OffBeat Magazine and the article “Culture on a Pedestal” was right on! The creativity in this city is worshiped worldwide, and I think most of the people coming up with the “ideas” don’t even know how much of an impact they are having on society. In regards to music—music is a way of life, even a language in our city. We communicate through music. When I go to other cities, I realize how unique our culture is. When I come back home, I fall more deeply in love with the “sounds” of our streets. In any neighborhood you may hear a horn or a drum randomly out of nowhere. In the high tourist areas, you come across people playing music just to get by in life, to eat, to live! You hear music in our city as much as you hear taxis blowing horns in Manhattan.

Although I enjoy OffBeat immensely and renew my subscription every year, the last compilation CD I received was years ago. The subscription CDs I received have provided me with hours of enjoyment, opened my eyes and ears to artists I didn’t know, and have promoted the varied talents of New Orleans musicians. —Rick Nelson, Ipswich, MA

MUSIC LEGACY

We apologize for not producing an OffBeat subscriber CD for the last two years. It has become difficult to find sponsors for our annual CDs. In this economy, private industry and state and city governments lack the resources to finance these projects. We want to help our subscribers discover new music from Louisiana and are exploring downloading options for the future. In the meantime, we don’t plan to pursue further physical OffBeat CDs.—Ed.

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 2011

Louisiana Music & Culture

April 2011 Volume 24, Number 4 Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com Managing Editor Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com Associate Editor Alex Rawls, alexrawls@offbeat.com Consulting Editor John Swenson Listings Editor Katie Walenter, listings@offbeat.com Online Editor Ben Berman, benberman@offbeat.com Contributors Brian Boyles, Alex V. Cook, Barbie Cure, Herman Fuselier, Elsa Hahne, Andrew Hamlin, Jeff Hannusch, Ingrid Hertfelder, Aaron Lafont, Sam Levine, Rene Louapre, Stephen Maloney, Tom McDermott, Caitlyn Ridenour, Kate Russell, John Swenson, Peter Thriffiley, Michael Patrick Welch, Dan Willging, Zachary Young Cover Elsa Hahne Design/Art Direction Elsa Hahne, elsahahne@offbeat.com Advertising Sales Casey Boudreaux, caseyboudreaux@offbeat.com Melinda Johnson, melindajohnson@offbeat.com Aaron Lafont, aaronlafont@offbeat.com Advertising Design PressWorks, 504-944-4300 Business Manager Joseph L. Irrera Interns Barbie Cure, Chloe Curran, Dominique Minor, Cooper O’Bryan, Caitlyn Ridenour, Kate Russell, Margaret Quilter, Charley Steward, Zachary Young 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 Copyright © 2011, 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 at $39 per year ($45 Canada, $90 foreign airmail). Back issues available for $6, except the May issue for $10 (for foreign delivery add $2). Submission of photos and articles on Louisiana artists are welcome, but unfortunately material cannot be returned.

MOJO MOUTH

Quarter Time By Jan Ramsey, Publisher

have so enjoyed the weather lately, and the spring. In the past few weeks, we’ve celebrated Mardi Gras (can we make it late every year?), St. Paddy’s Day, St. Joseph’s Day and Super Sunday. I hope you’ve had a chance to check out OffBeat’s Flickr page because our “on the street” photographer Kim Welsh is out there, and she’s helping to document all the festivities in New Orleans. It’s almost like being there. Almost. There’s nothing like being here in person! Now we come to French Quarter Festival. Last year, estimated attendance at French Quarter Fest jumped ahead of Jazz Fest. You can never underestimate the power of “free” anything, and

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that’s what makes French Quarter Fest so wonderful. The festival is experiencing growing pains; in fact, it’s getting almost too big. This year, it has expanded to include 20 stages of music. Festival organizers also plan to expand the festival in future years outside the Quarter to Washington Square Park (to spread the crowd onto Frenchmen Street) and possibly to Armstrong Park, which would be a great thing for the festival and the park. Of course, the park will have to be completed. Right now, it’s in pitiful shape. We need an angel for Armstrong Park, someone who will consider all the factors that make it so fragile and unique, along with the factors that have

made it a political football for various mayoral administrations, the Treme neighborhood and the residents on the North Rampart side of the French Quarter. We’ve experienced quite a few passings in the past month: Herman Ernest, a wonderful drummer and a prince of a guy; John Berthelot, a true Renaissance music man; Zion Harmonizer Sherman Washington; and the second death of another beloved music venue, Donna’s (I wrote about this in my blog). Are we coming to the end of the golden years of New Orleans music? I wonder who will replace the musicians we today associate with New Orleans music: Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, Dr.

John, Pete Fountain, Germaine Bazzle, Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste and so many, many more. Who are our mainstay musical stars of the future? Kermit Ruffins, Irvin Mayfield, Trombone Shorty, Jon Cleary, Anders Osborne, Terence Blanchard, Tim Laughlin, Galactic, Sasha Masakowski, Shamarr Allen? (Don’t get mad at me for not mentioning your name; you know I love you all!) New Orleans music will never die, but it’s certainly changing, and hopefully being passed on to younger practitioners and appreciators of the art form. It’s a mission that we’re committed to, and we hope you are, as well. Enjoy the festival, and look forward to the next great one—Jazz Fest!

www.OFFBEAT.com

FRESH

iveset Goes Live

For 30 minutes on Friday afternoon, Ross Hinkle and Rachel Puckett patiently explained their business model. Liveset is a new, small business founded by Hinkle on the supposition that there is a market for quality, well-crafted streaming video of musicians. Think HBO. YouTube clips are the reality television to Liveset’s HBO. “Our inspiration from HBO is in terms of creating compelling content that people are willing to pay for,” says Hinkle. A lesser-known example is mlb.tv, a live baseball stream that lets fans stream every pitch in HD for a small fee. The third example Hinkle throws out is Netflix, which Liveset’s not-yetavailable subscription option will mirror. John Michael Rouchell But Liveset isn’t a household name yet. Its only full time employee is Puckett, whose enthusiasm bubbles over the speaker phone during their conference call. Like any new small business, Liveset has to establish itself. Its first videos have been in-house productions focusing on beautiful production values to attract a If you know Tony Green, you likely know him for musical base and cement a reputation before piggy-backing on his performances of gypsy jazz, or as the painter of scheduled shows at local venues. the mural in the Rock ‘n’ Bowl. In a new documentary, director Todd In short, Liveset creates HD-quality video available for Grove tries to answer the question, Who the Hell is Tony Green? He streaming online either live, pay-to-watch concerts, or through reveals another side to Green—Green the conspiracy theorist, who subscription. Liveset splits the revenue 50/50 with the artists, sees the dark hands of the Catholic Church and occultists (among after the relatively low production costs are covered. “We’re others) orchestrating the New World Order and such events as 9/11 partners with the artist,” says Hinkle. “We’re much more artistand the post-Katrina conditions. Green’s family and friends—including centric than venue-centric.” musicians John Rankin and Tom McDermott—are interviewed, and all To help introduce people to Liveset’s capabilities, it will offer struggle to reconcile the aesthetic classicist with the political radical. free access to new videos every Wednesday in April starting Grove is readying the film for the New Orleans Film Festival, but he’ll March 30 with Theresa Andersson and John Michael Rouchell. debut it April 21 at the Howlin’ Wolf. After that—April 6: Loren Murrell and Sun Hotel; April 13: —Alex Rawls spoken word artist Kataalyst Alcindor; April 20: Mark Adam Miller and the Craft Brothers with Alexis Marceaux; and April 27: Meschiya Lake’s Magnolia Beacon & Andrew Duhon. See them at Liveset.com. —Kate Russell

hat the Hell?

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FRESH

Photo: michael becker/fox

“To go from singing for a bunch of little girls in high school to singing in front of three of the most iconic figures in show business—there’s no comparison.” This was the experience of Jovany Barreto, the Cuban-American from Harvey who advanced to become one of the final 16 on this season of American Idol. He made a strong impression when he auditioned for Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, performing a version of Marc Anthony’s “Angel,” but he wasn’t necessarily looking to become a singer. He was, as Tyler made sure no one forgot, working in the Avondale Shipyards, and his singing experience was largely at the amateur level. “I used to watch American Idol and think, ‘I could do that one day,’” Barreto says. When it came time perform, “it was like tunnelvision. You get lost in time and space. You just do what you know how to do with your innate ability.” The experience left him physically and mentally exhausted. When they told him he was going to Hollywood, “it’s like they hit you with a defibrillator. It’s really cool.” The show’s time in Hollywood, Barreto says, is as hard to go through as it appears on camera. “It’s like boot camp. They toughen you up. You make it past one cut and boom, eight hours later you better get ready because you’re going at it again.” Group Week is traditionally a nightmare as singers who are accustomed to being front people and solo acts have to team up. “You’re very confident in your own abilities,” he says, “but when you’ve got to pick from 250 total strangers to be in your group, make choreography, make harmonies—it takes a toll. People were losing their voices, they were crying. It was really, really stressful.” He attributes his ability to get through it to the mental toughness he developed playing baseball. That toughness came through when he performed on the live show. “It’s not that bad,” he says. “You’re singing to cameras, and we’d done that already. The only difference was the in-studio crowd, which was 700-deep. That was the first time I’d ever sang to a crowd that big. I sang at my graduation, but that was just my peers.” On the show, he sang “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain, which prompted Tyler to say, “Holy shipyards! You brought it again.” Jennifer Lopez said, “I’m happy right now I think people got to see you for the first time,” but Randy Jackson wasn’t as appreciative: “For me, it felt very karaoke.” He didn’t think he’d bombed, but he didn’t think he’d hit a home run. Still, with three Louisiana artists in the running—Laplace’s Jordan Dorsey and Slidell’s Lauren Turner as well—“I thought at least one of us was going to make it for sure.” None did. “I thought the South would take one of us in, but it’s okay. We’re all winners. We got our names out there, we’ve been seen, and I’ve gotten opportunities that I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t been on the show.” Now, he’s contemplating what comes next. He’s exploring singing, acting and modeling—he impressed Lopez with his six-pack on audition week— focusing on the Latin American market. “I’m thinking of going the Latin route, doing some telenovelas and a Latin CD, and an English CD with Latin

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undertones. I’m co-writing right now with some of the Idol contestants who were eliminated in the top 40.” Despite being cut when he was, Barreto is proud of his time on American Idol. “Any shakeup of the top 40 could have made an awesome top 13 and an incredible show. To be recognized as a top 16 finalist is a great, great honor.” —Alex Rawls

el’s in the Hall

“I don’t think this has ever been done before and I’m hoping people come to just find out what it is,” says Del McCoury, one of the most respected figures in bluegrass today. “And if they come, they’re going to love it!” “It” is American Legacies, the joint venture of McCoury and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It’s the unlikely pairing of jazz and bluegrass. McCoury previously recorded a track on PHJB’s 2010 album, Preservation, and the experience of mixing the two genres intrigued the two groups and led to the 14-track album balanced equally between jazz and bluegrass. “They really do work well together,” McCoury says in his North Carolina twang. Improvisation is an obvious commonality, he says, though jazz favors solos and bluegrass favors harmonies. The sounds of a clarinet and fiddle are similar, and McCoury points out that a fiddle can do things that are impossible for the clarinet.

Photo: Shannon brinkman

dol Experience

“The fiddle’s double-stop gives it a little flavor,” he says. “Then put the banjo in with those horns, give it a threefinger roll and whew, I’ll tell ya, it’s a great sound.” American Legacies is due out April 12, and it’s only one of Preservation Hall’s April activities. On April 28, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art will open a new exhibition, “Preservation Hall Remembered: 50 Years of Jazz.” The show will be a retrospective looking at the hall’s music and musicians and will feature photographs, paintings, musical instruments and such ephemera as Sweet Emma Barrett’s megaphone. Watch OffBeat. com for news of events connected with the opening. —Kate Russell www.OFFBEAT.com

PHOTO OP

Photographer: INGRID HERTFELDER Rehearsal

captured this image of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra together with the Boys Choir of Harlem in December 2004 during my internship at Jazz at Lincoln Center, where part of my job was to document the rehearsals. I like this shot for a number of reasons. Some of which I was aware of while shooting, some I discovered later in printing. Wynton Marsalis is framed by his rhythm section and the sheet music that Herlin Riley, legendary drummer, is holding at just the right angle. To the right stands bassist Carlos Henriquez. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ingrid Hertfelder

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www.OFFBEAT.com

IN MEMORIAM

Sherman Washington

1952-2011

1925-2011 photoS: Nunu zomot (left), kim welsH (right)

Herman Ernest

uring the recording of Dr. John’s Tribal album, James Demaria videotaped Herman Ernest overdubbing rhythm tracks. “This is the updated version of New Orleans funk,” he explained, adding a pattern on a cowbell. “This separates the men from the sidemen.” He was partially talking trash for the camera, but he was also someone who’d know. Ernest, who passed away March 6 at age 50 after battling cancer, is best known for playing drums with Dr. John for 40 years. In that role and on sessions with the Neville Brothers and Kermit Ruffins among others, he demonstrated himself to be the quintessential New Orleans drummer. When Labelle cut 1975’s Nightbirds with Allen Toussaint, Ernest suggested that they change the feel of “Lady Marmalade” from disco to funk, explaining, “The purpose of them coming down here was to get a New Orleans groove.” Fans and friends wrote OffBeat.com to remember Ernest. Harold Brown, the original drummer for the funk group War, wrote, “When we had the

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Crescent City Drumming Camp, he was the one that the kids looked up to as there mentor and protector. Even though I was a drummer myself with major hits under my belt, he was a much better drummer than I was.” Jesse Moore remembered him as “a big bear of a funny, sweet man with a great laugh. He told me some of the best Booker stories I’ve ever heard.” Horn player Lou Marini wrote, “At the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Blues Brothers Band was getting ready to split. I spotted Herman outside and invited him in. He did five minutes in the doorway of the bus and just killed everyone.” Ernest’s last gig was December 30, 2010, and shortly before that he did a session with Paul Sanchez for the Nine Lives album. “I went to Herman and asked how he was and he said it only hurt when he wasn’t playing music,” Sanchez wrote. “We tracked one more song and I let him go home with a hug and much love. Before he left the studio, sweating in pain, he sang those lines for me, “Yes, boys, it hurts. It hurts bad, but it could have been worse.” —Alex Rawls

or 70 years, Sherman Washington, Jr. led the Zion Harmonizers, helping bring gospel music out of the churches and into the larger music community. Washington, who passed away on March 14 at the age of 85, joined the Zion Harmonizers shortly after they were organized in 1939 by the late Pastor Benjamin Maxon. Within two years, Washington had taken over the group to the center of the city’s dynamic gospel music community. New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Founder and Producer Quint Davis worked with Washington to start the Gospel Tent. “You had Mahalia Jackson, who was sort of the Louis Armstrong of the gospel world,” he says. “What Sherman did was bring the entire gospel community and the whole range of styles to the attention of the world. “I don’t think, going back into the ’70s, and ’80s, that there was any other festival that was featuring in a central role traditional gospel music out of the church,” Davis says. “We helped to produce the tent, but Sherman got the music.” But for Washington, the music always served a higher purpose. Brazella Briscoe, his successor as

President of the Zion Harmonizers, said his mentor had limitless energy when it came to spreading the good news through the music. “On his way into church or whatever function we attended, everything stopped and the people greeted him,” Briscoe says. Washington would play four or five shows per week with the Zion Harmonizers and put on church functions every weekend, Briscoe said, all while holding down a day job with Boh Brothers Construction for 36 years. Washington, who was born in Thibodeaux on December 13, 1925, is survived by his wife Shirley Mae Washington, and his children Sherman Washington, Byron Washington, Myron Boyd, Avery Boyd, Denise Washington Jolly, JaNice Scott, and Ardine Boyd. He also leaves behind 10 grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. The Zion Harmonizers are celebrating their 72nd anniversary this year. “I decided not to cancel anything or postpone anything,” Briscoe says. “We’re going to go straight on through, and the people will be able to enjoy his life in some form or another.” —Stephen Maloney www.OFFBEAT.com

IN MEMORIAM

John Berthelot 1942-2011

ohn Berthelot, composer, arranger and founder of Great Southern Records passed away on Wednesday, February 23. Funeral services were private. Born at Touro Infirmary, Berthelot began taking clarinet lessons in grade school and majored in music education at Loyola University in New Orleans. He became a member of the Contours, playing saxophone, and backing artists such as Smiley Lewis and Ernie K-Doe. After earning his masters degree in music composition, Berthelot published his Opus 1—Sonatina for French Horn and Piano. After finishing his military service, Berthelot started his own record label, Great Southern. Artists recording for Great Southern included Spencer

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Bohren and the Pfister Sisters. Berthelot’s success eventually led to running the Jazz Fest record tent for nine years. Berthelot’s compositions and arrangements of classical, jazz and popular music include his 1967 classical composition Essay for Orchestra recorded by the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra; his jazz composition “Cityscape: New Orleans” recorded by the Eastman Jazz Ensemble; and the swamp pop composition “I’m from the South.” The broad range of Berthelot’s interests as a composer, producer and label head are evident on last year’s CD Compositions, Arrangements and Productions of a New Orleans Musician. —Joseph Irrera www.OFFBEAT.com

LBR

The Lost Bayou Ramblers rethink the meaning of Cajun music with a little help from the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano.

still wasn’t convinced Gordon Gano, singer of my favorite band of my youth, Violent Femmes, was really going to play with my favorite Cajun group, Lost Bayou Ramblers, until the fiddles started playing the “Blister in the Sun” riff right there before me at the Blue Moon in Lafayette. Those quarter-century-old folk-punk tunes mix surprisingly well with the even deeper antiquity of Cajun music when filtered through the Lost Bayou Ramblers, now in their 12th year of rattling the preconceptions of how Cajun music can sound. Louis (fiddle) and Andre Michot (accordion) started the Lost Bayou Ramblers in 1999 after years of playing in their father and uncle’s group Les Freres Michot. “It was a thing we did, playing with the family band,” says Louis Michot. “I didn’t really know what Cajun music was or what kind of place it has until I was a teenager.” A prevalent notion is that Cajun music is a continuum that chugs along defiant to the times, but like anything else, it goes in and out of style. Michot explains, “We all played and knew Cajun music, but we didn’t necessarily like it or not like it. We all liked Metallica and Guns N’ Roses and that’s what we played when we played music. The Cajun music was a thing we did with the family and saw it as old people music. We’d kinda make fun of it.” An epiphany occurred when one of his rock drummer friends sat in with the band on triangle and then on the kit. “We saw how much rhythm it had and how it would make people dance,” he says. “We started to realize how powerful it was. “ That experience sent Michot into Cajun music’s past to find its feral side, citing a late-in-life recording of Joe Falcon, who recorded the first Cajun single “Allons a Lafayette” in 1928. Cajun Music Pioneer (Arhoolie) captures Falcon live in 1968 at the Triangle Club in Scott, Louisiana. “It’s

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one of the most nasty, awesome things you’ll ever hear,” offers Michot. “When we started listening to those old recordings, we wondered why no one was covering that old raw, throwdown music where you can tell they don’t give a shit about anything; they just throw it down. It’s not so clean or pretty. It doesn’t have that ‘folk music’ quality. It’s more like punk rock or rock ‘n’ roll.” Michot recalls, “We were at d.b.a. one night about three years ago, we had been doing ‘O Bye’ from our first album (Pillette Breakdown). When we’d get to the breakdown part we’d do different songs, like this one White Stripes song and sometimes ‘Blister in the Sun’. We were doin’ that, and suddenly this guy climbs up on stage and he’s like, ‘You mind?’ and I said, ‘I guess not.’” Enter Gordon Gano.

By Alex V. Cook

“I was in town and had played a show with the Ryans at Tipitina’s and I kept extending my stay,“ says Gano. “I definitely recognized his voice,” Michot says. “We did the first part and then we were lost. We’d never tried to play the whole song, and he goes ‘Okay, first thing, you’re in the wrong key. You gotta get in G.’ So we do that and he tells us the chords and we work through the whole song, right there, live. That’s how we met Gordon.” When Gano joined them at the Blue Moon Saloon, the packed house knew the numbered list in “Add it Up” as innately as they did the two-step. The rattling hormonal longing of the Violent Femmes’ early songs and the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ rambunctious take on their fathers’ music both

have that same nervous joy. The thing that stuck out the most that night at the Blue Moon was how well Gano hung in there on the fiddle. An orchestra student in high school, Gano’s fiddle made the occasional appearance throughout the Violent Femmes catalog. “Usually it was very specific to a couple of songs,” he says. “And then, through the years I was a member of an amateur chamber music group in NYC. I’d always hope I’d get that second violin part because I pretty much couldn’t really do the first violin part.” Michot has nothing but praise for his accidental band mate. “He’s one of my favorite fiddle players to play with because I don’t do much of the Cajun twin fiddle thing with all the harmonics and counterpoint and all that. He plays it so raw and plays exactly what he wants to play, which works great with me. It’s what I do.” Michot also waves off any suggestion of cultural dissonance in this phase of the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ development. “I’m a firm believer that Cajun music is not so much a manifestation of a bunch of people isolated out in the country but something that comes from a worldly people that are tapped into the times and are always renewing what they do to match what the rest of the world does. A lot of people want to romanticize and say that it’s some guy who can’t read and write up on his porch, which is nice and romantic, but the reality is much more interesting. It is American music, and when we play ‘American Music’ with Gordon, it hits the nail on the head.“ Michot does, however, point out concession to his heritage. “You know Gano is a French name,” he says. Gano’s family changed the spelling when they came to America, though his sister Cynthia Gayneau has reverted to the old spelling on her recordings. Gano says, “I was told if I just put an X on the end, it’d be perfect.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: KATE BOWIE

Blister in Le Soleil

SATURDAY, APRIL 9 2:15-3:45 P.M. CAPITAL ONE RIVERSIDE LEGACY STAGE

AURORA NEALAND

A Good Ear for the Roses

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1:30-2:30 P.M. & SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 6-7 P.M. AT PRESERVATION HALL SUNDAY, APRIL 10 1:15-3 P.M., FRENCH MARKET STAGE

How does Aurora Nealand fit a saxophone in a trad jazz band? Very carefully. Photo: ELSA HAHNE

he New Orleans Moonshiners, Meschiya Lake’s Little Big Horns, Panorama Jazz Band, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?— just a partial list of local groups to which Aurora Nealand claims membership. But the Royal Roses, whom Nealand will front at French Quarter Fest, are a first. “This is the first group that has my name on it, which I feel funny about,” she says. “It’s a trad group that is derived pretty heavily from the music of Sidney Bechet,” she says of the group, which also includes Dave Boswell on trumpet, Paul Thibodeaux on drums, Matt Bell on guitar, Nathan Lambertson on bass, and either Michael Watson or Charlie Halloran on trombone. The great multi-reedist Bechet is a frequent reference point for Nealand, who like him doubles on sax and clarinet with a focus on the former. “But I don’t want to sound like I’m comparing myself to him!” she adds. She has an affinity for some of the more remote regions of the Bechet oeuvre. “He had this one album called Haitian Moods; that kind of stuff really interests me, the Afro-Creole influence. The Caribbean influence on New Orleans jazz, which is also what Panorama plays.” It was Mardi Gras 2006 when Nealand first played with the Panorama Brass Band, the augmented, parade season-only incarnation of the Panorama Jazz Band. “I played in the Brass Band, and then after that Mardi Gras I kept going and hanging around the Jazz Band, saying, ‘You guys are really cool. Maybe I could sit in with you?’” She did, and three years later she appeared on Panorama’s 2009 album Come

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By Zachary Young

www.OFFBEAT.com

Out Swingin’. “Panorama’s been a really great training ground for me,” Nealand says. She adds that the Royal Roses are about “wanting to step out on your own and do the music in your own way.” “I started [The Royal Roses] because I love to play traditional jazz and no one else is going to hire me to do it,” she says. “I play a funny instrument.” Unlike just about every other style of jazz, trad can be unwelcoming to a saxophonist. “The stock instruments are trumpet, trombone and clarinet in the front line,” she says. “And each of those has a very, very specific role. The trumpet and the soprano [sax] have very similar ranges,” she notes. “That’s why you don’t find a whole lot of Bechet recordings that have trumpet players on them.” Nealand and her bandmates in the New Orleans Moonshiners

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Photo: ELSA HAHNE

AU RO RA N EAL AN D

had to figure out how the trumpet and sax can co-exist. “The saxophone is in between the ranges of the trumpet and the trombone, so you’re always in someone else’s sonic space,” she says. To get around the problem, the Moonshiners, who released their second record early last year, rely on careful arrangements in many of their tunes. That experience has helped her quite a bit in working out a sound for the Roses. “Me and [trumpeter] Dave [Boswell] are working to know who’s leading when and how to be respectful of each other’s sonic space,” she says. “The soprano is kind of a hybrid between trumpet and clarinet, in terms of tone.” Going to school at Oberlin College in Ohio, Nealand was involved in art installation and electronic composition. An interest in experimental theatre

led her to enroll at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris; at one point she was set on forming her own company and touring Europe. In the end, she decided to return to the U.S. and focus on composition and music. Nealand is also one of a handful of trad musicians who dabbles in the local free improv scene. She can be found many Tuesday evenings at ‘Open Ears’ upstairs at the Blue Nile alongside musicians such as Jeff Albert and Helen Gillet. “With my background as a more experimental composer, I do feel at home in that music. I’m not a purist, for better or for worse,” she says. “I don’t think that playing those two styles is in any way exclusive or that they are exclusive of each other. For me, playing at Open Ears is just a great chance to exercise a different part of your

musicianship. None of us make money at it. It’s for the love of music. It’s just, ‘Let’s get together and play’.” Nealand sees one quality in particular that unites the experimental and the traditional. “I think collective improvisation is one of the most beautiful things,” she says. “It’s people having a conversation. It’s as if two friends are really excited about something so they’re talking about it at the same time, but they’re also listening at the same time.” That emphasis on communal improvisation abounds in traditional music. “I think it’s very good to learn about traditions, but I don’t have any interest in being a museum piece. I don’t have any interest in playing the music exactly as the old recordings are, because I don’t live in 1930.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

FLOW TRIBE

Funk in the Real World

FRIDAY, APRIL 8 2-3:30 P.M. U.S. MINT COCA-COLA ESPLANADE IN THE SHADE STAGE

Flow Tribe’s funk roots are in MTV and New Orleans.

ery few bands make their audiences work. However, at the Maple Leaf Bar on March 5, local funk/rock band Flow Tribe had the audience earning its entertainment. The group opened with their brassy rendition of “Iko Iko” and the audience sang along for the whole number. Lead singer and trumpeter K.C. O’Rorke let the chorus slide through his southern drawl, and then prompted the audience to chant it back. The bar was packed and everyone seemed to dance as one unit; the audience clearly didn’t mind doing its share. “I think what makes us stand apart is our live shows are full of energy, and we try to get the crowd superinvolved,” O’Rorke says. “Once the crowd is with you, it’s almost like having a seventh member.” The guys of Flow Tribe were high school buddies at Brother Martin, and they started jamming on bassist Chad Penot’s back porch the summer after their graduation. Along with O’Rorke, Penot and drummer Russel Olschner were Blake Quick on guitar and vocals, Bryan Santos on guitar, and JohnMichael Early on harmonica. “We started playing and getting some different things together,” O’Rorke says. “Gradually we were like, ‘Okay, this has evolved. We’re actually making songs and stuff.’” Unfortunately, the band almost ceased to exist just as they were beginning to create their sound. After 2004, the group split up because they were attending different colleges. To add to that, Olschner was deployed to Iraq and left for boot camp in August 2004, made a brief return that November, and was deployed in January 2005 with the 141st Washington Artillery out of Jackson Barracks. “I didn’t have a [drum] set over there,” Olschner says, “so I missed playing for a year.”

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What should have been a joyous return home for Olschner was instead one of heartbreak. He got back to New Orleans on September 16, 2005, a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina left devastation in his city. “Damn, it was hard to come home to that,” he says. “It was a rough time for all the guys in my unit and our city.” What could have ended Flow Tribe only inspired the guys to work harder. “It gave us renewed focus,” O’Rorke says. “It really just made us think about what our goals are going to be for the band and how hard we wanted to pursue it. Everything we’ve done since 2005 has been making sure the band was doing everything we could to get it off the ground.” The six friends picked up where they left off upon Olschner’s return. They started jamming again at his parents’ gutted house in Algiers. Flow Tribe then started playing at Friar Tuck’s on Sunday nights in Spring 2006. “It was such a relief to get that musical fix,” Olschner says. “From there, we never stopped.”

By Barbie Cure

“There’s the one kind of funk element that unites all of us,” O’Rorke says. The group sees itself as part of the New Orleans tradition, and they want to stand on the shoulders of that tradition. “We want to represent New Orleans, but at the same time, we don’t want to just be a ‘New Orleans’ band. We want people to enjoy the music for what it is, even if they’re not familiar with New Orleans.” The group acknowledges that standing out as a modern-day funk band is tricky, but they try to differentiate themselves through their influences, which include Sublime and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in addition to the Meters and Dr. John. “There’s a way to play funk by the numbers, and I think for us, everything originates in a jam,” O’Rorke says. “What we have to do differently is think about how is this going to affect people. What makes this song special?” One member of MTV’s The Real World considered Flow Tribe special in 2010 when the show

last filmed here. Sahar Dika of the New Orleans cast asked if she could sing a few songs with the group. After a jam session, the guys invited her to sing at their Tipitina’s show, which they parlayed into some national exposure on MTV. They recorded this show for their live album Now You Know, and Dika sings along for two songs on that album. Currently, the group is working on the challenge of capturing what they do in the studio. “We’re just such a live band, it’s difficult to bring that energy into the studio,” O’Rorke says. “But I think we’ve worked it out to where it’s going to be something really cool.” Flow Tribe is working with acclaimed producer John Snyder on the album, which they hope to release around May. In the meantime, they will be playing festivals and touring nonstop. “People in New Orleans get it, and it’s great. When we go other places, it’s cool because we get to show them our influences. It’s cool to share that with people.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

TREME

Touched by Treme

TOM MCDERMOTT W/ EVAN CHRISTOPHER SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1-3 P.M., 300-BLOCK OF BOURBON ST. INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL STAGE

“I

now have all the Facebook friends I’ll ever need.” Tom McDermott appeared in episode three of the television show Treme, starting a rift between Lucia Micarelli’s violin-playing Annie and Michiel Huisman’s Sonny when he asked her to accompany him on a gig. The appearance gave him the sort of exposure only television can give, but many of the results are intangible or of uncertain value, such as Facebook friends. He’s not aware of getting any gigs as a result of Treme, nor has he seen any change in his record sales. Still, time on the show has been valuable. “One day of filming covers my monthly house note,” McDermott says. “Having an original placed in the show (assuming I own all rights) pays my note for the whole year.” Discussions of money may seem crass, but in this city and this economy, money matters. Sweet Home New Orleans’ study of musicians’ income showed the average musicians’ income to be approximately $15,000 a year; admittedly, the number represents only a portion of New Orleans’ musical population, but the bigger picture is accurate enough—there’s no surfeit of money washing around the Crescent City, so when it comes as it has with the production of Treme, it merits attention not only for its dollar value but because of what it buys—security in McDermott’s case. Davis Rogan is a consultant, writer and performer on the show. Treme money has allowed him to make the album he wanted to make. Like many New Orleans artists, he’s used to recording on the cheap, cutting corners and settling for performances that are good enough. “For the past two records, I’ve had $5,000 and two weeks to go from start to it’s

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in the can and being shipped for 1,000 units,” Rogan says. “You’d do two takes and, ‘Well, we’re out of money; gotta go.’” He recently completed his new album, The Real Davis, and “this is a whole other plateau, where I had time to fool around and get things right,” he says. “Change the tempo of a song. Switch drummers. Explore in a way I hadn’t before.” John Boutte is also one of the more obvious Treme success stories. His “Treme Song” was chosen as the show’s theme song, which

By Alex Rawls

cancel this gig to play a benefit.” After Katrina, his mother moved to the Northshore; she’s on a fixed income, but Treme money made it possible for him to move her home, where he pays her bills. Boutte has been “touched by Treme,” according to the show’s music supervisor, Blake Leyh. It’s a phrase attributed to Alex McMurray (who acknowledges his role in popularizing the phrase, though he gives Henry Griffin credit for the “touched by” riff) that describes the phenomenon of a musician suddenly coming into money as a result of the show. There are stories of musicians buying new countertops with Treme money, while others bought cars. But Boutte got more than just money. The success of “Treme Song” has been good for his ego, “validating,” his friend Paul Sanchez says. Boutte recently heard the Roots of Music marching band perform the song, and “it freaks me out to see a two-year-old girl singing the ‘Treme Song’ on YouTube.” But the biggest benefit is freedom. “I could be working every night of the week,” he says. “I’m in better voice now because I’m not working as much. I don’t have to sing three, four times a week, three or four days Tom McDermott in a row. The show’s given me the opportunity to not have to say yes to any gig that popped up. Treme gave means he gets royalties for each me a big ol’ stack of ‘Hmmmmm, I airing and “a generous signing Don’t Think So’ cards.” bonus,” he says, one that goes up Paul Sanchez appeared in episode yearly. Still, he rides his bike around four, and for him, the value of the French Quarter and the Treme, and has an old car that he only drives money is what it says. “Money is real respect in the same way that getting when he has to. He still rents his heard is,” he says. “It’s not like you house and rarely buys new clothes. can retire, but you get to call yourself “I’m 5’2”,” he says. “It’s not like I a professional.” In a city where can buy things off the shelf.” playing for the tip jar remains sadly “Money is what it does,” he common, simple signs of respect and says. “Maybe I can get a better bottle of wine, some lights for my fundamental acknowledgements carry a lot of weight. Blake Leyh bike so I don’t get hit, a better believes that the show has earned cut of meat at the store. Or I can www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: HBO/Paul Schiraldi

The HBO series has been a windfall for area musicians. What does that mean?

TREM E

Savoy says he’s found that being associated with the show has garnered the band as much if not more credibility than three Grammy nominations. not just credibility but affection from the music community because it takes them seriously. “I feel that there’s been a genuine heartfelt response to the content of the show and the idea that someone finally got New Orleans right,” Leyh says. “I’ve spoken to other musicians in other places who really love that the show takes the time to talk about music and the lives of musicians.” Like Tom McDermott, Wilson Savoy of the Pine Leaf Boys hasn’t seen a spike in CD sales since the band’s appearance on the show but, he points out, “A Cajun band doesn’t sell a lot of albums.” Still, the Pine Leaf Boys’ time on the show paid off in other ways. “We spent so much time and effort recording those records and until Treme, we didn’t get much back from it,” Savoy says, and just as New Orleanians are aware of the momentousness of seeing their music community accurately depicted, Savoy understands the importance of the Pine Leaf Boys’ appearance. “A Cajun band typically would never have a chance to go on HBO,” he says. “This has been a great window for Cajun musicians.” The Pine Leaf Boys were also beneficiaries of the show’s desire to do one music video per show with an artist from each episode. In terms of business, the series was a mixed success—musically and visually exciting videos that commercially underperformed (they’re still on sale at the iTunes Store; search for “Treme Musical Performances”) due to a lack of promotion. But the Pine Leaf Boys are featured in one, joined onstage at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival by Lucia Micarelli. This makes them one of the few Cajun bands with a professionally shot video. “It’s something to send when you’re trying to get booked at a festival,” Savoy says, and he’s found that being associated with

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the show has garnered the band as much if not more credibility than three Grammy nominations. Treme helped Davis Rogan find an audience. “After the storm, I played Frank’s Cocktail Lounge in Ft. Greene (in New York) to a dozen, two dozen people,” he says. “Last summer, they billed me as ‘The Real Davis from HBO’s Treme’ and I thought that was cheesy until I walked into Sullivan Hall and 200 people had paid. To have ‘the real Davis from Treme’ means I can pack Three Muses-sized clubs and people will come up and want to talk about the show, or they heard about me from the show. It’s a way to expose yourself to a whole other audience.” His acceptance by the production has given him the ability to get press quotes from such buzzworthy names as David Simon, Jonathan Lethem and Sarah Silverman (“Davis Rogan is an idiot savant, I think they call them savants now. I’m a big fan,” she wrote), and it got labels to consider (and eventually reject) The Real Davis that never would have considered it before. But he’s satisfied that his association with Treme has helped him get a reputable manager and booking agent. As for the label: “Three million people watch the show,” he says. “One percent of three million is 30,000. If you own a hundred percent of your record and you sell 30,000 every time you put one out, you can have a comfortable, middleclass existence and not be beholden to corporate interests. That’s all any artist can ask for.” Paul Sanchez had a Sullivan Halllike experience last summer while on tour with Washboard Chaz, Matt Perrine and Alex McMurray, all of whom had appeared on the show with the exception of McMurray. “We walked into a packed nightclub and wondered who they were there to see,” Sanchez says, laughing. Throughout the tour, they had more

press and larger audiences than they’d received in previous trips, and much of it had to do with Treme. “I hope people who aren’t on the show realize how much this enhances their chances to get press, to get gigs in other towns. Instead of New Orleans meaning ‘Dixieland,’ the show’s got funk bands, brass bands, gypsy jazz bands in the streets. Instead of New Orleans being an old postcard or an old film that someone remembers, they’ve got, ‘Oh, I saw this on Treme. Did you ever play this bar?’ They know the names of the bars.” While most musicians who have appeared in person or in music on Treme say the appearance hasn’t sold CDs, Basin Street Records’ Mark Samuels says Kermit Ruffins’ sales are up due to the show. “There is an immediate effect when an episode airs and the HBO.com playlist points people to the songs in the episode,” Samuels says, and perhaps Ruffins’ success has to do with having machinery in place to make the most of the exposure. “There is also a secondary effect when more people show up at Kermit’s shows and further increase his exposure. We have leveraged his appearances on the show with blog entries and Facebook posts to further increase sales.” Samuels hired the national publicity firm Girlie Action to work Basin Street artists, and the publicists have the credibility that David Simon projects carry to help them further push the artists, including Ruffins. Like sales, some phenomena are subject to debate. Since the debut of the show, attendance at Ruffins’ Thursday night shows at Vaughan’s and John Boutte’s Saturday night d.b.a. shows has grown to the point of being unmanageable. Boutte sees that as part of a growing Treme tourism, but aside from anecdotes and unfamiliar faces in places such as Bullet’s and the Apple Barrel, it’s hard to be sure that’s happening. It similarly looks like business on

Frenchmen Street is doing better than ever, but d.b.a.’s Tom Thayer says his boom started in 2007 or 2008, and while business grew last year, it grew more slowly than it had in previous years. Those who want to be touched by Treme have become more business-conscious. One artist cut an album hoping to have a song licensed from it by the show. Others now have incentive to get their publishing in order, which represents a consciousness shift in a city that has treated albums like souvenirs to sell off the bandstand. This isn’t, however, a result that accompanies all television productions. It’s more likely that a show will use library music that it can get cheaply instead of find existing songs or commission new music by area musicians to accompany a scene. But, as Leyh says, “It’s not what they’re thinking about.” Treme is consciously trying to spread some money around. “How can we get some real people paid?” Leyh asks, but he tries not to think too much about what the money means to artists to avoid unnecessary pressure. One band told him that placing a song in the show made it possible for them to make another album. “Once people saw the show, that changed a lot of people’s attitudes about what we were doing,” Leyh says. “The level of justified mistrust and paranoia that was there in the beginning was proportional to the amount of love and respect that we got after we crossed that bridge.” At the same time, Leyh hopes that good experiences with Treme don’t cause musicians to let down their business guard. “I hate to think we might lull people into a false sense of trust,” he says. “Those people in Hollywood are motherfuckers.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

FQF IQ

ouisiana music comes to the Vieux Carre during the French Quarter Fest, April 7-10, this year adding music on Thursday. With so many musicians and 20 stages, it’s hard to keep track of who’s who and where they’re playing. Here’s some help. And when in doubt, stop by the Cajun/Zydeco Showcase. OffBeat Magazine is sponsoring it this year, and it has become so popular that it has outgrown the grounds at the Old Mint and moved to the Aquarium Plaza. See you there.

Stage Codes JSQ = Jackson Square ABS = Abita Beer Stage WPS = Woldenberg Park: Harrah’s Louis Louis Pavilion RLS = Riverside Legacy Stage CZS = Cajun/Zydeco Showcase FMS = French Market Stage IS = International Stage PH = Preservation Hall ESS = Esplanade in the Shade LWS = Latin/World Stage B300 = Bourbon 300 LPB = Legends Park B600 = Bourbon 600 B700 = Bourbon 700 R400 = 400 Royal R700 = 700 Royal HNOC = Historic New Orleans Collection HOB = House of Blues SMC = St. Mary’s Church CRH = Children’s Riverfront Headquarters

# 101 Runners, 4/10, ABS, 2p: Traditional Mardi Gras Indian sounds meet New Orleans funk and R&B complemented by an array of percussionists.

A Africa Brass Band, 4/10, LWS, 12:45p: Saxophonist Tim Green joins percussionists Jeff “Papafrog” Klein and Guinean Thierno Dioubate—among others—to combine styles from New Orleans and West Africa. Allen, Shamarr, and the Underdawgs, 4/8, ABS, 6:15p: The music of the Underdawgs has overtones of reggae, latin and hip-hop, but as trumpeter and leader Shamarr Allen says, “the predominant sound is funky rock.”

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Texas and brings a bluesy approach to modern zydeco. Big Sam’s Funky Nation, 4/10, ABS, 5:30p: Trombone player Big Sam Williams merges the brass band sound with electric funk, and he does it with style, energy and volume. His most recent disc, King Of The Party, was released in early 2010. Bonerama, 4/7, ABS, 5:45p: Mark Mullins and Craig Klein lead this trombone-centric jazz/funk/rock combo, as comfortable with James Brown as it is with Black Sabbath. Bone Tone Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 2:45p: The Bone Tone Brass Band is a solid, oldtime brass band famous for its martial rhythms and parade performances.

Who’s On First? Here’s your guide to who plays when this weekend. Andrews, Glen David w/special guest Amanda Shaw, 4/8, WPS, 7:30p; 4/10, B300, 2:30p: Trombonist Andrews is one of the most charismatic and dynamic performers in New Orleans and a veteran of many brass bands. Angelle, Donna, and the Zydeco Posse, 4/9, CZS, 5:30p: Angelle is one of few women to front a zydeco group. Her roots in blues and R&B give the Zydeco Posse a unique sound. Astral Project, 4/10, ESS, 5:30p: New Orleans’ most respected modern jazz group for more than 30 years. Saxophonist Tony Dagradi and guitarist Steve Masakowski may also walk the halls of academia, but they, along with Johnny Vidacovich on drums and James Singleton on bass, remain adventurous. Audacity Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 11:15a: This traditional group, which formed to play at French Quarter Fest 2008, includes talented locals Tom Fischer, Charlie Fardella and Freddie Lonzo. Autin, John, 4/10, R400, 3p: Pianist and Rabadash Records head John Autin has had a long-running gig at the Hotel Monteleone’s Carousel Bar, but his music is firmly rooted in New Orleans R&B.

B Baby Boyz Brass Band, 4/9, B300, 2:30p; 4/10, RLS, 4:15p: The Baby Boyz, founded in 2007, are at the forefront of a new generation of brass bands. Bag of Donuts, 4/7, WPS, 6p: 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, 4/10, R400, 12:15p: Bamboula 2000 fuses rhythmic music from around the planet, from the ancient Mali Empire to the Space Age. Leader Luther Gray was one of the cultural activists responsible for putting Congo Square on the National Register of Historic Places. Batiste, Russell, and Friends feat. Jason Neville, 4/9, ESS, 5:30p: A Funky Meter and a member of the Joe Krown Trio with Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Batiste is one of the giants of New Orleans drumming, and he steps out on his own here. Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr., and the Wild Magnolias, 4/8, ABS, 7:45p: The Wild Magnolias were among the originators of Mardi Gras Indian funk, and the great Bo Dollis’ son now leads the group. Big Red & the Playmakers, 4/9, CZS, 4p: Josef “Big Red” Arline hails from Hillister,

By Alex Rawls and Zachary Young

Boogieman’s Friend, 4/8, IS, 12p: This electric blues duo hails from Germany. Borderland Dixieband Austria, 4/8, IS, 6p: Founded in 2002 and hailing from Austria’s Waldviertel region, this group plays traditional jazz classics. Bosworth, Alex, 4/9, R400, 11a: Trained as a classical vocalist, Bosworth sang with a number of prestigious choirs before studying jazz at UNO. She now leads her own groups all over town. Boutté, Lillian & the Music Friends, 4/7, ABS, 3p: One of New Orleans’ most celebrated jazz singers, Boutté has performed with James Booker, Patti Labelle, the Neville Brothers, the Pointer Sisters and Dr. John over a long and storied career. Brass-a-Holics, 4/9, RLS, 4:30p: The Brass-a-Holics were created by former Soul Rebels trombonist Winston Turner with the goal of merging New Orleans brass music with Washington D.C.’s go-go funk style. Brother Tyrone, 4/9, ABS, 1:45p: Brother Tyrone is an R&B singer in the old-school vein, combining gospel influences with a soulful vocal style. Brown, Jane Harvey, Trad Jazz Stars, 4/9, FMS, 1:15p: When she’s not playing with Sugarbear and the Jazzcats or Grand Marshalling for the Storyville Stompers, singer Brown fronts this traditional jazz group. Brown, Leon “Kid Chocolate”, 4/8, B300, 8p: This acclaimed young New Orleans trumpeter has performed

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FQF IQ alongside Irvin Mayfield, Branford Marsalis and Lenny Kravitz. Bucktown All-Stars, 4/10, ABS, 12:15p: This nine-piece rhythm and blues band from Metairie covers the soul classics, adding their own funky grooves.

C Caillier, J. J., and the Zydeco Knockouts, 4/10, CZS, 1:15p: Caillier recorded his debut with Clifton Chenier back in the ‘80s. As leader of the Knockouts, he fuses traditional zydeco with elements of hip-hop and R&B. Canal Creepers, 4/9, IS, 10:45a: This Swedish traditional jazz group hails from Åkersberga, and plays in New Orleans whenever it gets the chance. Carrier, Chubby, and the Bayou Swamp Band, 4/8, CZS, 5:45p: One of the most energetic zydeco groups around, fresh off a Cajun/Zydeco Grammy win for their album Zydeco Junkie. Carson, Big Al, 4/10, JSQ, 5p: New Orleans’ biggest blues singer is best known for a long-time gig at the Funky Pirate on Bourbon Street. Carson, Kim, and the Enablers, 4/8, ABS, 11a: This country-roots fixture in New Orleans dubs her personal mix of honkytonk and rockabilly “Tonkabilly”. Casey, Pat, and the New Sound, 4/9, WPS, 12:45p: Bassist Casey leads this super-tight sextet specializing in modern-day bebop. Celebration of Modern Jazz Masters Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, and James Black with performances by Victor Atkins, Ed Petersen, and Steve Masakowski, 4/8, B300, 2:30p: A selection of New Orleans’ best musicians, including Astral Project guitarist Steve Masakowski, perform a toast to a generation of New Orleans jazz luminaries. Charles, Josh, 4/9, HNOC, 11a: Pianist and songwriter Charles recorded the post-Katrina song “Healing Time,” which benefited the Preservation Resource Center. He plays in a style he calls “Notown”—a blend of Motown and New Orleans blues. Coot, 4/8, PH, 3p; 4/9, PH, 3p: Fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Brian Rueb, this folksy rock group scored a coveted spot in 2010’s Voodoo Experience. They are currently producing their first album. Cowsill, Susan, and the Bonas Brothers, 4/10, WPS, 2:15p: Susan Cowsill was thrust into the limelight at age eight as the youngest member of the Cowsills, the pop group that inspired The Partridge Family. On last year’s Lighthouse, she lends her folksy roots rock to a contemplation of life in post-Katrina New Orleans.

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Creole String Beans, 4/10, ESS, 2p: The String Beans perform some of the best straight-up swamp pop and rock ‘n’ roll in New Orleans with soul and humor. Creole Syncopators, 4/10, LPB, 3:15p: This traditional jazz and swing group often collaborates with singer Jayna Morgan. Crescent City Winds, 4/10, SMC, 11a: This group of Louisiana classical musicians performs classics of the wind quintet repertoire. Crespo, Riccardo & Sol Brasil, 4/8, LWS, 12:45p: Crespo is a Brazilian guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter. In his compositions, he mixes “Musica Popular Brasileira” with folk Bossa Nova. Crochet, Adam & I Tell You What, 4/9, ESS, 11a: Guitarist and singer Crochet’s sound is electric blues at its core, with touches of funk and rock. Crossland, Jalan, 4/9, HNOC, 2p: Crossland, who hails from Ten Sleep, Wyoming (population 307) sings songs of small-town Rocky Mountain life backed up by a prodigious skill on the guitar.

D Daigrepont, Bruce, Cajun Band, 4/8, CZS, 4p: 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. Dailey, Will, 4/10, HNOC, 11a: Bostonbased singer-songwriter and guitarist who performs in a jangly, upbeat, classicrock inspired style. Davenport, Jeremy, 4/9, JSQ, 2p: Davenport is not merely the face of the Ritz-Carlton, but a fine swing and modern trumpet player who toured with Harry Connick, Jr. before striking out on his own to explore the songs and style of the Great American Songbook. Debauche, 4/8, ESS, 12:30p: In their own words, Debauche is “a Russian Mafia Band that plays great Punk Rock Hooligan Russian Street Songs.” Diable, Kristin, 4/9, HNOC, 4:15p: Diable hosts the monthly songwriters showcase at Three Muses and sings an electrictinged country blues style reminiscent of Lucinda Williams. Dopsie, Dwayne & the Zydeco Hellraisers, 4/9, CZS, 2:15p: Son of the late Rockin’ Dopsie, Dwayne and his band are the kings of Bourbon Street zydeco. Dopsie, Rockin’, Jr. and the Zydeco Twisters, 4/10, CZS, 5:15p: The other son of famed zydeco accordionist Rockin’ Dopsie, the leader of the Zydeco Twisters is known for his acrobatic antics and for being one of the few prominent washboard players to front a band. A PRI L 2011

Downing, Johnette, 4/10, CRH, 5p: Downing promotes literacy and cultural awareness among kids through original songs and children’s books.

Gibson, Banu & the New Orleans Hot Jazz, 4/8, JSQ 12:30p: Gibson is a skilled and versatile vocalist who specializes in the popular songs of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. Her repertoire includes the work of such composers as Ellington, Berlin, Gershwin and Porter.

Dr. Gonzeaux, 4/8, WPS, 12:45p: This native New Orleanian funk-rock group led by organist and singer “Mikey B3” Burkart has opened for acts such as Trombone Shorty and Rebirth Brass Band. Drury, Lynn, Band, 4/9, ESS, 2p: Singer, songwriter and guitarist Drury calls her style “Mississippi Grit/New Orleans Groove”. Her brand new record, Sugar on the Floor, features a host of guest performers including Ivan Neville, Alex McMurray and Matt Perrine.

Gillet, Helen’s, Wazozo, 4/9, R700, 1:45p: Cellist Helen Gillet is one of New Orleans’ most eclectic musicians. With Wazozo, an ensemble that incorporates harp, guitar and violin, she performs tuneful French chansons.

Duhon, Andrew, 4/9, HNOC, 3:30p: Duhon cultivates a rootsy and highly personal approach to songwriting, complemented by his band the Lonesome Crows. The Dukes Of Dixieland, 4/10, JSQ, 2p: The Dukes have a 30-plus-year history of weaving pop, gospel and country into their own brand of traditional jazz. The group is a staple on dinner cruises aboard the Steamboat Natchez.

E Edegran, Lars’, New Orleans Jazz Band, 4/9, B600, 3:30p: This traditional jazz pianist hails from Sweden and is a regular at Preservation Hall and the Palm Court. Enharmonic Souls, 4/10, HOB, 12p: The Souls play soulful electric funk with danceable backbeats and tight, swinging arrangements. Ensemble Fatien feat. Seguenon Kone, 4/10, LWS, 4p: This one-of-a-kind group, founded by percussionist and Ivory Coast native Kone, marries West African music to the various musical traditions of Louisiana. Other members include traditional jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White and zydeco accordionist Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes. Fatien released its debut record in 2010.

F Fats Jazz Cats, 4/8, IS, 3p: This German traditional jazz group was founded in New Orleans in 2000. They perform classics as well as the compositions of band members Greg Schulte and Fats von Gerolstein. Ferbos, Lionel, and Louisiana Shakers, 4/8, JSQ, 3:30p: Lionel Ferbos, who turns 100 this July, has played trumpet in New Orleans for over 70 years. Ferbos on Ferbos: “I stick close to the melody; I’m a melody man.” Fisher, Patrice & Arpa, 4/8, LWS, 11:15a; Fisher, Patrice & Garifuna Connection, 4/9, CRH, 2p: Fisher lends her talents on the harp to Latin jazz influenced by

APRIL 2011

Free Agents Brass Band the traditions of New Orleans, Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela and Bolivia. Flaherty, Mike’s Dixieland Direct Jazz Band, 4/9, R400, 5:30p; 4/10, IS, 11a: This D.C.-based ensemble specializes in traditional New Orleans jazz, but their repertoire encompasses swing and blues as well. Flow Tribe, 4/8, ESS, 2p: Flow Tribe is part of the next generation of New Orleans funk bands, this time owing as much to Sublime and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as the Meters. Ford, Louis and his New Orleans Flairs, 4/9, LPB, 3:15p: Clarinetist and saxophonist Ford is a disciple of traditional New Orleans jazz. Frank, Keith and the Soileau Zydeco Band, 4/8, CZS, 7:15p: Accordionist Frank and his band specialize in modern, energetic uptempo zydeco. Freddy Fred Show with the Round Pegs, 4/10, CRH, 4p: The Freddy Fred Show play a set of children’s music, joined by local alternative/folk rockers the Round Pegs. Free Agents Brass Band, 4/9, RLS, 7:30p: The Free Agents are an energetic young brass band that melds funk and hip-hop with traditional sounds.

Gravity A, 4/8, WPS, 3:45: Gravity A takes a jazz-funk base and mixes in elements of modern electronic styles.

Gravy, 4/9, ABS, 11a: Gravy serves up a funk-rock mix in the traditional New Orleans style. Their 2008 debut, Said & Done, saw them joined by Ben Ellman of Galactic and Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band. Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, 4/9, SMC, 11a: This program, which educates musicians between the ages of 7 and 16 in orchestral performance, is in its 17th year. Green, Tony, and Gypsy Jazz, 4/9, R700, 12p: Green is not only a popular gypsy jazz guitarist but one of New Orleans’ best known painters and the subject of an upcoming documentary, Who the Hell is Tony Green?. Grunch, Benny, and the Bunch, 4/7, JSQ, 3:30p: This local trio is known for their Christmas and/or Louisianathemed novelty songs including “The 12 Yats of Christmas” and “Norris the Nocturnal Nutria.”

H Hall, Andrew’s, Memories of New Orleans, 4/9, R400, 5:30p: 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.

Les Freres Michot, 4/8, CZS, 12:30p: The Michots hail from Lafayette and play in the traditional “Bal de Maison” (“house dance”) style that characterized Cajun music before the rise of amplification.

Hansen, David’s Garden District Trio & the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, 4/9, B600, 1:15p: Drummer Hansen’s trio plays traditional and Latin jazz along with standards from the great American songbook.

Fritzel’s New Orleans Band, 4/10, B700, 3:45p: 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.

Happy Pals, 4/9, IS, 5:15p: This Toronto-based seven-piece jazz band plays tunes by Kid Thomas, George Lewis—even adaptations of Hank Williams and Fats Domino.

Hayes, Jamie and the Pianoeaters, 4/10, R400, 1:30p: Singer and guitarist Hayes is best known as an artist and the proprietor of one of Royal Street’s funkiest galleries. On his recent debut album Signatures he’s joined by New Orleans A-listers from John Gros to Kristin Diable. Heart, Kourtney, 4/9, HNOC, 2:45p: Heart is a promising young New Orleans R&B singer whose first record, Eye Dee Kay, hit shelves in September. That led to her being signed by Jive Records, and she’s working on her debut for them. Heritage School of Music, 4/10, R400, 11a: Legendary educator and musician Kidd Jordan directs this high school-aged jazz band full of rising talents. Higher Heights Reggae, 4/8, LWS, 4p: Higher Heights combines reggae, dancehall and rocksteady into a heady mix of Jamaican sounds. Holiday, Gal, and the Honky Tonk Revue, 4/8, WPS, 2:15p: One of New Orleans’ most accomplished country crooners, Holiday and her band picked up two Best of the Beat awards this year: Best Country/Folk Band and Best Country/Folk Album for their 2010 release Set Two. Honey Island Swamp Band, 4/9, WPS, 3:45: The Honey Island Swamp Band built their roots-rock barroom sound during years spent backing Eric Lindell. Hot Club of New Orleans, 4/10, R700, 3:30p: Fronted by skilled and versatile clarinetist Chris Kohl, the Hot Club performs classics of the gypsy jazz songbook. These guys swing like mad. Hot Rod Lincoln, 4/9, WPS, 2:15p: This band of New Orleans CEOs, big wigs and captains of industry plays their favorite oldies, and they’re not afraid to put on a show. Hurricane Brass Band, 4/10, IS, 6:30p: The repertoire of this brass group from the Netherlands spans the traditional as well as the funky and modern.

I Iris May Tango, 4/7, WPS, 3p: Iris May Tango plays straight New Orleans funk, with nods to the Meters and traditional brass band sounds. Iuso, Billy & Restless Natives, 4/9, HOB, 4:35p: Acclaimed guitarist Billy Iuso leads this rockin’ jam band that keeps that nasty New Orleans funk alive.

J Jackson, Leo, and the Melody Clouds, 4/10, B300, 12p: Led by Leo Jackson, Jr. (son of the group’s late founder, Leo Jackson, Sr.), this gospel group has five albums and nearly a half century of history behind them.

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Photo: kim welsh

FQF IQ

FQF IQ J.C. and Company, 4/10, WPS, 11a: This traditional, family-oriented gospel group formed in 1994. Their latest record, He’s So Wonderful, was released in February. Jones, Connie, and FQF All-Stars, 4/8, JSQ, 11a: 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 Pete Fountain’s band, departing seven years later to lead the reincarnation of the Dukes of Dixieland. Both Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin will perform with Jones. Jones, Leroy’s, Original Hurricane Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 1p: Trumpeter Jones moves easily from his roots in traditional jazz to modern styles. A protégé of the legendary Danny Barker, Jones is joined for this set by a group of talented local players. Jonno and Bayou Deville, 4/9, CZS, 11a: This fiddler blends Americana and blues with a classic Cajun feel. His résumé includes performances at the Kennedy Center and the White House. Joseph, Kirk’s, 504 Brass Band, 4/10, RLS, 5:45p: Joseph was first known as sousaphonist for the legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but he’s played in numerous horn-based funk bands since. Here he leads his own funky brass ensemble.

K K College Band, 4/10, IS, 2p: One of New Orleans’ most celebrated jazz singers fronts an ensemble from England. Kellin, Orange’s New Orleans Deluxe Orchestra, 4/10, LPB, 1p: Originally from Sweden, clarinetist Kellin fell under the spell of New Orleans traditional jazz and moved here decades ago to learn from the source. Kess, Rosita, 4/9, HNOC, 12:30p: Singer Kess has traveled and performed in Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and London before settling in NYC. As a result, she lends her soulful alto to styles ranging from Bossa Nova to American pop. Kid Merv and All That Jazz, 4/9, R400, 3:45p: In 1981, Merv became the youngest-ever member of the Olympia Brass Band. Since then he has played brass music with some of New Orleans’ best known groups, including the Soul Rebels and the Treme Brass Band. King, Little Freddie, 4/9, ABS, 4:45p: One of New Orleans’ most reliable blues performers, King delivers classic electric blues with a Mississippi twang. His 2010 release Gotta Walk With Da King captures him live in New Mexico. Kole, Ronnie, Show featuring John Perkins, 4/9, JSQ, 3:30p: Kole is a renowned New Orleans jazz piano player whose set harkens back to the Bourbon Street of yore.

APRIL 2011

Kora Konnection, 4/9, CRH, 1p; 4/9, LWS, 4p: Kora Konnection brings the spirit of jazz improvisation to West African Mandlinka music. Fronting the band are Morikeba Kouyate, a kora (African harp) master from Senegal and Thierno Dioubate, a balafon and djembe master from Guinea. Krown, Joe, Trio w/ Walter Wolfman Washington & Russell Batiste, Jr., 4/10, WPS, 5:45p: The hardest working keyboard and organ player in the Big Easy, Krown does classic organ trio with a New Orleans twist alongside two of the city’s best: drummer Batiste and guitarist Washington.

L Lake, Colin, 4/10, HNOC, 1:15p: An accomplished lap steel guitarist and songwriter, Lake was the winner of the 2007 Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition. Lake, Meschiya, and Dem Little Big Horns, 4/10, FMS, 3:30p: Lake is a soulful vocalist who leads a troupe of traditional jazz players from the Frenchmen Street scene. Lagniappe Brass Band, 4/9, RLS, 1p: A fixture on Frenchmen Street, this ninepiece group plays brass music of the modern, super-funky variety. Last Straws, the, 4/9, B600, 11a: This traditional New Orleans jazz band has been playing together for half a century. Laughlin, Tim, 4/9, JSQ, 11a: Boasting an extreme technical facility and fluency in traditional jazz, this protégé of Pete Fountain is one of New Orleans’ most acclaimed clarinetists. Lee, Miss Sophie, 4/8, FMS, 3:30p: Lee applies a sultry vocal style to her chosen mixture of swing and traditional jazz. She is a frequent collaborator with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers/Cottonmouth Kings. Lisi, John, and Delta Funk, 4/9, HOB, 1:30p: As his band’s name suggests, Mr. Lisi’s style resides between funk and blues. He tosses in a bit of electric rock for good measure. Los Hombres Calientes, 4/7, ABS, 4:15p: Founded by trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and percussionist Bill Summers, this musical collective incorporates Latin and Caribbean sounds into a funky approach to New Orleans jazz. Los Po-Boy-Citos, 4/10, LWS, 2:15p: Los Po-Boy-Citos bring Latin Soul to New Orleans, playing boogaloo classics by Tito Puente and Willie Bobo and Latinizing Earl King and Ernie K-Doe. Lost Bayou Ramblers, 4/8, CZS, 2:15p: The Lost Bayou Ramblers were among the first bands nominated for the Best Cajun or Zydeco Album Grammy, receiving the nomination for Live a la Blue Moon, a live

album that demonstrates their youthful energy and unpolished rawness. Lucia, Ingrid, 4/9, ESS, 3:45p: Vocalist Ingrid Lucia offers a stylish and stylized take on the jazz diva. Her 2010 record Midnight Rendezvous saw her joined by Anders Osborne (who produced the album) and John Fohl. Lyric String Quartet, 4/9, SMC, 2p: The Lyric Quartet is an-all female ensemble performing music of the late Baroque and early Classical periods.

M Mae, Kelcy, 4/8, ESS, 11a: Hailing from Shreveport, singer/songwriter Mae combines poetic lyricism with melodic roots rock. Magnetic Ear, 4/9, RLS, 2:45p: A danceable, trombone-heavy “pocket brass band” inspired by New Orleans jazz, second line, funk and European brass music. Magnolia Brass Band, 4/9, IS, 6:45p: Started in 1972, this Canadian brass band plays in a style known as “Revival Jazz”, which blends classic jazz with rhythm and blues. Malone, Tommy and the Mystik Drone, 4/8, ABS, 4:45p: Country-rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Malone is known for his time with the Percolators and the subdudes. This is his new band. Mardi Gras Jazz Band, 4/9, IS, 4p: A traditional jazz band made up of various international performers. Mas Mamones, 4/9, LWS, 12:45p: Founded by bassist Andrew Wolf, this Afro-Cuban ensemble performs loose, descarga-style music alongside tight arrangements. Mayfield, Irvin’s Jazz Playhouse Review, 4/9, JSQ, 5p; 4/9, B300, 8p: Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra as well as New Orleans’ official Cultural Ambassador, Mayfield is one of the city’s most acclaimed trumpeters and ambitious artists. Mayon, Adam, 4/10, SMC, 2p: A piano student at Loyola University, Mayon recently won first prize in the piano division of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Performance Competition. McAlister Drive, 4/10, HNOC, 2:45p: McAlister Drive performs in a hookheavy, pop-rock style characterized by bright vocal harmonies. McDermott, Tom, and Evan Christopher, 4/9, LPB, 1p: Pianist McDermott and clarinetist Christopher are virtuosi, and each brings a personal approach to the musical traditions of New Orleans. McMurray, Alex, 4/9, WPS, 5:30p: McMurray combines bluesy guitar and a

gritty vocal style with one of New Orleans’ most distinctive songwriting voices. Mendez, Lindsay, 4/10, ESS, 11a: This singing prodigy lends her vocal talents to upbeat country and blues-tinged rock. At 13, she became the youngest artist to sign with Rabadash Records. Miley, Erin, 4/9, HNOC, 11:45a: Miley’s haunting approach to songwriting is complemented by a band that incorporates violin, organ and banjo. Her first release, the Ardent Sessions EP, was released in ’09. Mu Lambda Kappa Mentoring Fraternity Performance & Workshop, 4/10, CRH, 12p: In conjunction with area high schools this mentoring program will perform dance steps and conduct a workshop for students. MyNameIsJohnMichael, 4/8, ESS, 3:45p: MNIJM began when John Michael Rouchell set out to write, record and produce one song a week for the entirety of 2008. The project blossomed into one of New Orleans most talked-about indie bands.

N Nealand, Aurora, and the Royal Roses, 4/8, PH, 1:30p; 4/9, PH, 6p; 4/10, FMS, 1:15p: Saxophonist Nealand leads this traditional jazz group, influenced heavily by the music of Sidney Bechet. Neslort, 4/9, ABS, 12:15p: Founded by trombonist Rick Trolsen, Neslort brings top-notch musicianship to dense, finely crafted jazz-rock arrangements. Neville, Charmaine, 4/8, JSQ, 5p: Charmaine is the vocalist daughter of saxophonist Charles Neville. She traverses the spectrum of New Orleans music from jazz to Mardi Gras music with a little diva sass. New Bumpers Revival Jazz Band, 4/8, IS, 4:30p; 4/9, PH, 1:30p; 4/10, PH, 6p: One of France’s foremost traditional jazz groups specializes in the classic Hot 5s and 7s repertoire. New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, 4/7, JSQ, 1:45p: This group performs popular jazz and ragtime numbers from the 1890s through the 1930s. They specialize in the music of composers like Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake and Fletcher Henderson. New Orleans Classic Jazz Orchestra, 4/9, B700, 3:45p: Eddie Baynard leads this group that revives the repertoires of important New Orleans bands from the ’20s, including the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. New Orleans Feetwarmers, 4/9, IS, 2:45; feat. Helge Sachs, 4/10, PH, 2:30p: This traditional jazz band from Germany shares its name with a Sidney Bechet-led group from the 1930s. They are regulars on the European jazz circuit.

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New Orleans Helsinki Connection, 4/10, B700, 1:30p: This Finnish traditional jazz group plays frequently with New Orleans trumpeter Leroy Jones.

Rebeck, Dave & Caroline Hixson Duo, 4/10, SMC, 12:30p: Violin and viola player Dave Rebeck performs with pianist Caroline Hixson at the classical music stage.

New Orleans Jazz Institute Saturday Music School, 4/9, CRH, 4p: This band is made up of students from the NOJI’s “Saturday Music School,” a partnership between the University of New Orleans and the public school system.

Red Hot Brass Band plus the Saturday Morning All-Stars, 4/9, CRH, 12p: One of the youngest brass bands in town, the Red Hots play standards. Revealers, the, 4/9, LWS, 2:15p: The Revealers’ raspy vocals and deep skank rhythms keep the sounds of reggae alive in New Orleans. These regulars on the Frenchmen Street Scene have been playing since before the Blue Nile was Café Istanbul.

New Orleans Moonshiners, 4/8, PH, 11a; 4/9, FMS, 3:30p; 4/10, PH, 4:30p: The Moonshiners are a pack of young traditional jazz players who got together in 2008. They have since become a fixture in local clubs. Their second record, I’m Coming Home, hit shelves last Spring. New Orleans Nightcrawlers, 4/7, Opening Parade, 9:30a: The Nightcrawlers incorporate bop and big-band sounds into the second line tradition through intricate arrangements and unique harmonies. New Orleans String Project, 4/10, CRH, 11a: The NOSP is a non-profit organization that teaches viola, violin, cello and bass to students of ages 6-14. Next Generation Brass Band, 4/9, HOB, 3p: This seven-piece group plays funky brass music of the modern variety; they even toss in a tenor sax. N’Fungola Sibo African Dance & Drum Co., 4/9, LWS, 11:15a: This West African music collective brings traditional dance, song, drumming, and intense musical enthusiasm to their performances.

O OakCity Jazz Band Maaseik, 4/9, IS, 1:30p: Traditional jazz all the way from Maaseik, Belgium. Omar, Fredy, Con Su Banda, 4/8, LWS, 5:45p: Omar will take you through a danceable mix of merengue, mambo, salsa and cha-cha. One Mind Brass Band, 4/7, RLS, 5:15p: One Mind plays funky, modern brass music in the vein of Rebirth or the Soul Rebels. Onward Brass Band, 4/9, RLS, 11:15a: Drummer Paul Barbarin formed this brass band around 1960, and patterned it on the famed group of the same name that existed from around 1880 until 1930. Tradition is the name of the game. Open Jam Session, 4/8, PH, 8p; 4/9, PH, 8p: Some Preservation Hall regulars play a casual set. Opera On Tap, 4/9, SMC, 12:30p: Presented by the New Orleans Opera, “On Tap” features young local and regional singers in casual concerts of opera arias, showtunes and more. Orleans Brass Band, 4/10, RLS, 1p: Lead by music teacher and band director

APRIL 2011

Panorama Brass Band Desmond Venable, this is a second appearance at French Quarter Festival. Osaka Hot Cats, 4/8, IS, 1:30p: This traditional jazz group hails from Osaka, Japan. Otra, 4/9, LWS, 5:45p: Otra brings rock ‘n’ roll excitement to an Afro-Cuban repertoire. The group was founded by bassist Sam Price and features Cuban conguero “Pupi” Menes. Ovi-G and the Froggies, 4/10, WPS, 12:45p: The Froggies perform soca and Guatemalan marimba styles, while assimilating the musical influences of New Orleans and Louisiana.

P Palmetto Bug Stompers, 4/8, FMS, 1:15p: The Stompers, fronted by Washboard Chaz, serve up a toe-tapping mix of traditional jazz. Panorama Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 4:30p: For a few weeks every year, the ranks of the Panorama Jazz Band swell to form the Brass Band. The group juxtaposes traditional second line sounds with Panorama’s distinctively global repertoire, and it recently released its debut album, 17 Days. Panorama Jazz Band, 4/10, JSQ, 11a: The music of the Balkans, the Caribbean, Mexico and New Orleans live sideby-side during a Panorama Jazz Band performance. Pedersen, Leif, 1944 Big Band, 4/10, JSQ, 3:30p: Pedersen leads his group through selections from the great American songbook, with a focus on the swing era. The Pfister Sisters, 4/10, JSQ, 12:30p: The Pfister Sisters carry on the jazz harmony vocal tradition the Boswell Sisters created in New Orleans in the ’20s and ’30s. They have sass and class and a great sense of humor. Piano Tribute to James Booker featuring Joe Krown, 4/9, B300, 5p: New Orleans’ resident organ virtuoso pays tribute to the city’s “Piano Prince”.

Piano Tribute to Professor Longhair featuring Tom Worrell, 4/8, B300, 5p: R&B and blues pianist Worrell leads a tribute to a New Orleans piano legend. Pinettes Brass Band, 4/9, RLS, 6p: 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’re funky as ever. Pistorius, Steve, and the Southern Syncopators, 4/9, FMS, 11a: Jelly Roll Morton is a big influence on Pistorius, whose dexterous, ragtime piano style is complemented by a crew of seasoned traditional jazz musicians.

Revivalists, the, 4/9, ESS, 12:30p: Combining danceable rock with soulful songwriting, the Revivalists (who formed in 2007) have become an important presence in New Orleans’ modern rock scene. Rhodes Spedale & Jazz from Congo Square, 4/10, B700, 11:15p: Spedale is a jazz pianist with a long history of performing in New Orleans clubs, hotels and restaurants. He has hosted a number of popular jazz radio programs over the years. Ritmo Calypso, 4/8, LWS, 2:15p: Ritmo fuses calypso, Jamaican mento, and New Orleans jazz. Their repertoire includes traditional Caribbean songs of the ’50s and ’60s, as well as originals.

Poché, Renard, Band, 4/9, WPS, 7:30p: Renard Poché plays many instruments, but he’s known for his dirty funk while playing guitar for Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Zigaboo Modeliste, and the original Uptown All Stars.

Robicheaux, Coco, and the Swamp Monsters, 4/8, ABS, 3:15p: This legendary New Orleans blues guitarist is native to the Louisiana swamps, and his music pulls together the city’s soul and mystery.

Pontchartrain Owls, 4/10, IS, 5p: This multi-national traditional jazz group is a regular presence on the Bourbon Street stages at French Quarter Fest.

Rocky’s Hot Fox Trot Orchestra, “Dancing at Dusk w/,” 4/10, R400, 6p: This big band plays jazz classics from the 1940s.

PorcheVide Playboys, 4/10, CZS, 11:15a: This zydeco group plays the French Quarter Fest for the second year in a row. Powell, Shannon Trio, 4/10, B300, 7p: One of New Orleans’ most acclaimed drummers, Powell got his start in Danny Barker’s Jazzhounds in his early teens. Today he can be heard with many local jazz greats. Preservation HallStars, 4/7, JSQ, 12p: This collective of regulars from Preservation Hall includes some of the city’s finest traditional musicians. Prima, Lena, 4/9, R400, 12:30p: Daughter of the legendary Louis Prima, Lena is an award-winning jazz singer and songwriter who has performed all over the U.S. and Europe.

Rogan, Davis, and Kids Sing Along, 4/10, CRH, 1p: Rogan (who inspired Steve Zahn’s character in HBO’s Treme) seems like an unlikely choice to lead a sing-along for children, but his background in teaching and sense of humor makes this idea more successful than it sounds at first. Roniger, Jon, 4/9, HNOC, 1:15p: Singer/ songwriter Roniger explores melodic roots rock in both quiet acoustic and up-tempo electric modes. Rouchell, John Michael, 4/10, HNOC, 4:15: Rouchell fronts MyNameIsJohnMichael, considered a rising star in the New Orleans indie scene. Here he performs solo.

Rouzan, Wanda and A Taste of New Orleans, 4/10, WPS, 4p: This talented ambassador of New Orleans R&B covers all the bases.

Rankin, John, 4/10, SMC, 3:30p: Rankin is a prodigious finger-style guitarist, and can play everything from New Orleans jazz to classical and folk styles.

Royal, Khris & Dark Matter, 4/10, HOB, 3p: Saxophonist Royal has shared the stage with Erykah Badu, George Porter, Jr., and Trombone Shorty, among others.

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Photo: MARC PAGANI

FQF IQ

FQF IQ His preferred style is a mixture of New Orleans funk and jazz. Royen, John’s New Orleans Rhythm, 4/10, B600, 3:30p: Royen moved to New Orleans from D.C. in 1976, and learned the piano from the great stride player Don Ewell. Ruffins, Kermit & the Barbecue Swingers, 4/9, ABS, 3:15p: A co-founder of the nowlegendary Rebirth Brass Band, trumpeter Ruffins is one of New Orleans’ most recognizable musical faces, a top-notch performer and pure entertainer.

S Sage, Irene, Band, 4/8, ABS, 1:45p: Irene Sage has a raging, powerful voice to go with her passionate original songs. Sage is a veteran of French Quarter stages, and it shows in her live performances. Sanchez, Paul, and the Rolling Road Show, 4/8, WPS, 5:30p: Sanchez was OffBeat’s 2009 Songwriter of the Year, and he has dedicated much of the last two years to working on Nine Lives, a musical adaptation of Dan Baum’s book. He describes Rolling Road Show as “a conceptual band of whoever’s available and wants to have some fun.” Sancton, Tommy’s Black Eagle Reunion Band, 4/8, PH, 6p; 4/9, PH, 4:30p;

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4/10, B600, 1:15p: Sancton, who learned the clarinet from the great George Lewis in the ’60s, reunites a traditional jazz group he formed forty years ago while studying at Harvard.

Smitty Dee’s Jazz Band feat. Dimitri Smith, 4/10, PH, 3p: “Smitty Dee” is tuba player and bandleader Dimitri Smith. His band plays brass music in a mixture of modern and traditional styles.

Stoltz, Brian, 4/10, ABS, 3:45p: One of New Orleans’ most talented guitarists, Stoltz toured with the Neville Brothers throughout the ’80s, PBS in recent years, and is once again back with the Funky Meters.

Sekhani, Kevin, 4/9, HOB, 12p: This Lafayette native singer/guitarist mixes country, rock and soul.

Some Like it Hot, 4/8, PH, 4:30p, 4/9, B700, 1:30p: Trumpeter Kaye Caldwell leads this traditional jazz group, which unlike most ensembles of its type features several female musicians.

Stone, Marc, 4/8, WPS, 11a: Blues guitarist Marc Stone and his sizzling slide mix traditional blues with gospel, R&B and rock. Stone captivates crowds whether playing solo or with his band.

Son Como Son, 4/10, LWS, 11:15a: This Cuban-style salsa group hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Stooges Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 7:30p: One of the hottest names among modern New Orleans brass bands, the Stooges won Red Bull’s Street Kings competition last year.

Serpas, Christian, and Ghost Town, 4/9, WPS, 11a: With their revvedup take on country and rockabilly, this group has been likened to Led Zeppelin playing Johnny Cash. Shaw, Amanda, and the Cute Guys, 4/9, CZS, 7:15p: This Cajun fiddle prodigy has been in the spotlight since age 10. Her most recent record, 2010’s Good Southern Girl, showcases her undeniable instrumental skill and poptinged approach to Louisiana tradition. Simmons, Kid, New Orleans Jazz Band, 4/10, B600, 11a: This traditional jazz band is led by trumpeter Kid Simmons, who patterns his style on that of the legendary “Kid Sheik” Cola. Sketch, Johnny, and The Dirty Notes, 4/8, ESS, 5:30p: Sketch sports a degree in classical cello, but with the Dirty Notes he picks up the guitar to dish out some snarling rock ‘n’ roll with a touch of brass funk.

Soul Project, 4/8, ABS, 12:15p: Leader Christian Duque takes the lessons he learned from playing with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and combines it with Meters-esque funk. Sound of Vespers, 4/10, IS, 12p: This traditional jazz group from Japan plays classics from the New Orleans songbook. Spirit of New Orleans Brass Band, 4/7, RLS, 3:15p: The name says it all—traditional brass band jazz. St. Martin, Armand, 4/10, HNOC, 12:30p: Known for his devotion to Mardi Gras music (as well as his crusade to make the day a national holiday), pianist St. Martin brings a bluesy approach to the piano as he sings of his beloved home state.

Storyville Stompers Brass Band, 4/10, RLS, 11:15a: The Stompers, founded in 1981, are staples for celebrations of all kinds, particularly in the French Quarter. Tuba Man Woody Penouilh leads the parade. Summers, Bill & Orchestra Yoruba Afro America, 4/10, B300, 5p: Percussionist Summers and his big band play jazz in Afro-Cuban and Latin styles. “Sun Chief Sounds” of Faulkner State University, 4/9, CRH, 11a: This group of University musicians plays standards and big band arrangements. Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, 4/10, CZS, 3:15p: The charismatic Bruce

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FQF IQ “Sunpie” Barnes is a fixture in the French Quarter, where he works as a park ranger, but he brings a knowledge of blues and Caribbean music to his contemporary take on zydeco. Swingaroux, 4/8, JSQ, 2p: Swingaroux is a local big band that specializes in traditional jazz and swing, occasionally giving the 1930s treatment to songs by Norah Jones or Aretha Franklin.

T Tank and the Zydeco Codebreakers, 4/7, CZS, 5p: Led by accordionist Tank

Delafoisse, this group incorporates R&B sounds into the zydeco tradition. TBC Brass Band, 4/8, RLS, 6p: Known for holding musical court at the corner of Bourbon and Canal, TBC is among the funkiest of the younger generation of New Orleans brass bands. Thelonious Monk Institute Ensemble, 4/10, ABS, 11a: In 2007, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz moved to the campus of Loyola University New Orleans where the program has been flourishing ever since. Its graduate students now perform regularly as a jazz ensemble.

Thibodeaux, Jimmy Band, 4/9, CZS, 12:30p: Jimmy began playing accordion at the age of 8 and now performs with his rockin’ zydeco band all across Louisiana. Thibodeaux, Waylon, 4/8, CZS, 11a: 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 when they perform. Tin Men, 4/10, ESS, 3:45p: Alex McMurray, Washboard Chaz and Matt Perrine use the Tin Men to explore their most unlikely ideas, whether it’s trad jazz, blues, funk, folk or metal, all adapted for guitar,

washboard and sousaphone. The New Orleans version of a power trio. Tornado Brass Band feat. Darryl Adams, 4/8, PH, 12p; 4/9, PH, 12p; 4/10, PH, 12p: The Tornado Brass Band emerged from the famed Hurricane Brass Band under Darryl Adams’ leadership. Members of the Tornado Brass Band went on to start the Dirty Dozen. Traditional Cody Clan, the, 4/9, IS, 12:15p: Traditional jazz band from France are regulars on the international stage. Trail, Amy, 4/10, HNOC, 3:30p: This soulful singer-songwriter has maintained a full band since the age of 16, while performing regularly at Pat O’Brien’s piano bar in the Quarter. Treme Brass Band, 4/10, RLS, 2:45p: Led by snareman Benny Jones and sparkling with the rhythm and charm of beloved bass drummer “Uncle” Lionel Batiste, the Treme Brass Band hits on both traditional and modern styles. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, 4/9, ABS, 7:45p: 2010 was a big year for Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, whose major label debut Backatown hasn’t strayed far from the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz charts since its release. He brings arena-rock intensity to music deeply rooted in the New Orleans brass and funk traditions, and was voted Artist of the Year by OffBeat readers. Tuba Skinny, feat. Erika Lewis, 4/10, FMS, 11a: Tuba Skinny is a band that takes its listeners back in time to the traditional jazz and old blues of the ’20s and ’30s. Tuxedo Jazz Band, 4/10, IS, 3:30p: This sextet from Denmark plays the classics of New Orleans traditional jazz.

V Vagabond Swing, 4/10, HOB, 4:35p: This Lafayette-based gypsy jazz group mixes ragtime, bluegrass and afrobeat over ska and Latin rhythms. Van Voorhees, Rachel, 4/9, SMC, 3:30p: Van Voorhees is the principal harpist for the Louisiana Philharmonic. Her repertoire spans classical, jazz and Celtic music. Victory Belles with the Victory Six, 4/9, JSQ, 12:30p: The resident musical act at New Orleans’ National World War II Museum, this vocal trio performs popular tunes from the WWII era.

W Walters, Bob’s, Good Time Jazz Band, 4/9, R400, 5:30p: Local drummer will participate in the French Quarter Festival’s “battle of the bands.” Walker, Amanda Band, 4/10, HOB, 1:30p: Born and raised in rural Missouri, Walker

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FQF IQ is a rising New Orleans singer/songwriter influenced by rock, jazz, folk and gospel. Washington, Walter ‘Wolfman’, 4/9, ABS, 6:15p: Washington is one of the city’s premier blues guitarists. With skills honed over the years at dens of iniquity such as the Dew Drop Inn, Dorothy’s Medallion and the Maple Leaf Bar, the Wolfman’s act is old school soul. Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, 4/9, R700, 3:30p: Washboard Chaz is one of the busiest performers in New Orleans, and his take on Mississippi blues is always lively and entertaining. Wilhelmine, Olga, 4/10, HNOC, 11:45a: A soulful singer who once apprenticed with Los Lobos, Olga’s sound is steeped in the traditions of the Mississippi hill country. Wilson, Clive’s, New Orleans Serenaders, 4/9, B700, 11:15a: Wilson moved to New Orleans from London in the early ’70s and studied music at Loyola by day while playing on Bourbon Street by night. He’s one of the city’s best traditional trumpeters. Wilson & Moore, 4/10, R700, 12p: Chip Wilson and Jesse Moore share a love of Motown, funk, folk and the traditional sounds of New Orleans. Winslow-King, Luke, 4/10, HNOC, 2p: Guitarist, singer and songwriter WinslowKing’s sound emanates from New Orleans jazz, delta blues, gospel and ragtime. Woods, Kipori, 4/7, WPS, 4:30p: This “Blues Man From Down South” was schooled under Ellis Marsalis and cut his teeth with gospel artists such as the Zion Harmonizers and Raymond Myles.

Z Zaorski, Linnzi, 4/10, R400, 4:30p: Zaorski is a torch singer of the 1930s-retro variety who performs with grace and charm. Zazou City, 4/10, R700, 1:45: Based around the nimble musicality of guitarists Matt Bell and Raphaël Bas, this group performs the classics of gypsy jazz alongside their own compositions. Zion Trinity, 4/10, LWS, 5:45p: This trio, established in 1997 as a prayer group, lends powerful vocal harmonies to reggae, jazz, funk and African ritual music. Zohar & the Free Spirit Dancers, 4/9, CRH, 3p: The Spirit Dancers perform traditional West African stiltdancing under to leadership of Zohar Israel. Zydecosis, 4/7, CZS, 3p: What would Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith have sounded like if they had formed in South Louisiana? Zydecosis gives the accordion treatment to rock classics. Zydepunks, 4/10, ESS, 12:30p: The Zydepunks play traditional and European folk tunes at whirlwind speed with a punk-rock backbeat.

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FQF IQ

From Séance Lounge to Jazz Brunch

For Muriel’s, it’s a straight line from the restaurant to the Jackson Square booth in more ways than one. to crawfish in February. Last year with the cold snap during the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, we had to use shrimp for longer than we usually do.” Beginning with its first year as a vendor at French Quarter Fest in 2002, Muriel’s has served the same two items—crawfish and goat cheese crêpes and eggplant dressing. “I think there would be a riot if we tried something else,” says Gratia. While he is happy to serve what the people love, he is aware that the high demand can create a bit of a traffic jam at the booth located just across a stone’s throw from the restaurant’s front door on the corner of Jackson Square. “I hate the long lines. But they won’t give me a double booth, and we like being close to our kitchen. So we just move as fast we can.” As for his personal plan during French Quarter Fest, Gratia says that he will move back and forth between the booth and the restaurant throughout the four-day event. But he will take a few hours for himself to enjoy the music and festival dish from his French Quarter neighbor. “I’m from Bucktown, so I like dressing. I usually walk over to Tujague’s booth and grab an order of shrimp and crabmeat stuffed mirliton.” Perhaps he will kindly leave an order of mirliton at the place setting of Pierre Jourdan. Not even ghosts can live on bread and wine alone.

hen Muriel’s opened in March 2001, the goal was to deliver the ultimate New Orleans experience, complete with a nightly soiree on the upstairs level. But with the events of 9/11, a shift in dining proclivities forced restaurateurs to rely less on pomp and circumstance. The Muriel’s hospitality family was not spared from the downturn, with the abandoning of a theater project in San Francisco and the eventual shuttering of the original Muriel’s Supper Club in Palm Springs. But 10 years later, Muriel’s in the French Quarter lives on, much like the spirit of Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, the building’s former owner whose ghost is believed to roam the Séance Lounges on the second floor. While Mr. Jourdan is said to subsist on the fresh bread and glass of cabernet that the staff sets out at his place setting every night, the living and breathing patrons of Muriel’s have their own favorites. One of the most popular is the crawfish and goat cheese crêpes, a dish created by former Chef Erik Veney. While the crepes are filled with a smooth mixture of goat cheese and cream cheese year-round, the buttery rich cream sauce is fortified with either shrimp or crawfish depending on the season. “We only use fresh Louisiana crawfish tails,” says managing partner Rick Gratia. “We just switched over

Jackson Square Begue's French Quarter Pasta; Grilled Alligator Po-boy w/Spicy Coleslaw Amaretto Strawberry Shortcake w/ Whipped Cream Ted's Frostop /Mrs. Wheat's Pies Cajun Meat Pies; Crawfish Pies Muriel's Jackson Square Crawfish and Goat Cheese Crepe; Eggplant Stuffing; Dual Plate (Eggplant & Crepes) Saltwater Grill Crawfish and Spinach Boat; Shrimp and Cheddar Bacon Grits Bombay Club Beef Brisket Sandwich; Gulf Fish Shrimp Escabeche; Homemade Cookies (Chocolate & Oatmeal) The Court of Two Sisters Turtle Soup au Sherry; Crawfish Louise Crepes a la Cart Nutella Crepe; Strawberry Crepe

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Old U.S. Mint Jacques-Imo's Slow Roasted Duck Po Boy; Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake; Smoked Turkey Leg Trey Yuen Cuisine of China Crawfish w/ Lobster Sauce; Shrimp Fried Rice; Egg Rolls; Combo Plate Bywater Bar-B-Que Oyster and Artichoke Florentine; Shrimp Remoulade; BBQ Ribs; BBQ Hamburger Tujague's Shrimp and Crabmeat Stuffed Mirliton w/Creole Sauce; Brisket of Beef w/ Horseradish Sauce Pat O’Brien's Bar, Inc Hurricane; Screwdriver; Category; Bloody Mary Creole Delicacies Creole Jambalaya; Gator Burger w/ Cajun Coleslaw; Grilled Fish Tacos w/Cajun Coleslaw; Pralines

By Peter Thriffiley

The Alpine Blackened Catfish Sandwich Vaucresson Sausage Co., Inc Creole Hot Sausage Po-boy; Creole Crawfish Sausage Po-boy; Chicken Sausage Po-boy Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse Bourbon House's Bourbon BBQ Shrimp Po-boy Prime Beef Debris Po-boy Ristorante Carmelo Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich; Crabmeat Ravioli; Pizza by the Slice; Calzone Antoine's Restaurant Oyster Bonne Femme over Bow Tie Pasta; Shrimp Regua Desire Oyster Bar Shrimp & Grits; New Orleans Bread Pudding w/Whiskey Sauce New Orleans Original Daiquiris Jungle Juice; 190 Octane

Pat O’Brien's Bar, Inc Hurricane; Screwdriver; Category – 5; Bloody Mary The Joint Pulled Pork Sandwich; Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich; Smoked Chaurice Sausage Sandwich Between the Bread/EAT New Orleans Gulf Shrimp & Mushroom Puff Pastry; BBQ Pork & Slaw Po-boy; White Beans & Rice; Jumbo Cookie (Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip) Amy's Vietnamese Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls; Grilled Lemongrass Chicken w/Vermicelli Noodles ; Grilled Salmon w/Spring Mix and Jasmine Rice; Crawfish Egg Roll Boswell’s Jamaican Grill Jerk Chicken, Rice and Peas, Callaloo; Rice and Peas, Callaloo (vegan); Beef or Veggie Patties

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FQF IQ Dunbar's Creole Kitchen Catfish and Potato Salad; Sweet Potato Pie; Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice; Bread Pudding Rouses Crawfish Boil Hot Boiled Crawfish with all the fixings The Alibi BBQ Shrimp Pasta; BBQ Shrimp Po-boy Oceana Grill Tempura Battered Softshell Crab Po-boy; Chargrilled Oysters Oceana Plum Street Snoballs Snoballs in 12 flavors

Woldenberg Riverfront Park Community Coffee Coffee of the Day; Sweetened Iced Tea; Mochasippi; Chocolate Chip Cookie Lakeview Harbor Crawfish Bread; Alligator Sausage Kebab Serrano’s Grilled Fish Tacos; Crab Cake Sliders with Jicama Slaw and Jalapeno Remoulade; Ecuadorian Ceviche Ralph and Kacoo's Crawfish Jambalaya; Cajun Pasta Crescent Pie and Sausage Company Bad Bart's Black Jambalaya; Cajun Boudin "on a Stick"; Creole Hot Sausage "on a Stick"; Combo - Jambalaya & Link Superior Grill Shrimp Tacos w/Cholula Hot Sauce ; Brisket Tacos w/Cholula Hot Sauce; Pork Tacos w/Cholula Hot Sauce Clock Bar at The Chateau Bourbon Hotel Smothered Okra & Andouille Sausage Gumbo Red Fish Grill Alligator Sausage and Seafood Gumbo; Smoked Crawfish Poboy Corky's BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich; Grilled Hamburger; Grilled Chicken Breast; Pork Nachos Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Cafe Macaroni and Cheese; Stuffed Bell Pepper (w/Ground Meat & Shrimp); Buttermilk Drops; Assorted Donuts House of Blues Baby Back Ribs with BBQ Sauce; White Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding Little Tokyo Yakisoba Vegetable; Hibachi Rice; Yakitori (Grilled Chicken on Stick); Sushi Rolls (Spicy Tuna, Crawfish, Crunchy); Combo (Hibachi w/ Yakitori) Mona's Gyro Combo Plate; Veggie Combo Plate; Gyro or Falafel Sandwich; Tabouli or Hummus Boucherie 12-Hour Roast Beef Poboy with Pickled Red Onions and Horseradish Cream; Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding New Orleans Original Daiquiris Jungle Juice; Pina Colada Crabby Jack's Duck Po-boy; Boudin; Shrimp & Alligator Sausage Cheesecake; Smoked Turkey Leg Quintin's Ice Cream Local Fresh Sorbets (Mango, Strawberry, Blackberry); Local Flavor Ice Cream (Vanilla Bean, Mississippi Chocolate, Creole Cream Cheese, Cafe au Lait); Brandy Milk Punch Ice Cream w/ House Made Chocolate Sauce; Vanilla Bean Ice Cream/Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

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Pat O’Brien's Bar, Inc Hurricane; Screw Driver; Category – 5; Bloody Mary Ted's Frostop/Mrs. Wheat's Pies Cajun Meat Pies; Crawfish Pies Gumbo Shop Chicken and Andouille Gumbo; Red Beans and Rice w/ Andouille Sausage; Spinach and Artichoke Dip Barreca's Crawfish Etouffee over Rice; Crawfish Remoulade over Lettuce; Chicken & Andouille Jambalaya; Alligator Sausage Po-boy The Praline Connection Grilled Chicken Livers w/Sweet Hot Pepper Jelly Sauce; Mustard Greens w/Rice (Vegetarian); Combo Meal - Greens w/Livers or Wings; Cheesecake w/Praline Sauce; Praline Audubon Institute Crawfish Bread Bubba Gump Shrimp Cajun Shrimp Bowl; Fried Seafood Cakes; Combo Hard Rock Cafe Angus Burger w/Chips; BBQ Shrimp Po-boy Love At First Bite Cochon de Lait Po Boys; Crawfish Pasta Bennachin Restaurant Jamaican Jerk Chicken w/Rice & Veggies; Caribbean Fish; Curry Chicken Patties; Homemade Fresh Sweet Potato Pie Flour Power Confectionery Strawberry Creole Cream Cheese Bavarian; Praline Crème Brulee Plum Street Snoballs Snoballs in 12 flavors The Harbor/2 Guys Sausage Boiled Shrimp Sausage; Roast Beef Po-boy Sausage; BBQ Shrimp Sausage; Red Beans and Rice Sausage NOLA Miss Hay's Stuffed Chicken Wings w/Homemade Hoisin Dipping Sauce GW Fins Gulf Fish Tacos; Bananas Foster The Original New Orleans Po-boys Meatball Po-boy; Shrimp and Okra Stew; Jambalaya, Hot Sausage Patty Po-Boy Crazy Johnnie's Hot Tamale Cone; Crazy Potatoes with Tenderloin; Stuffed Crab; Baked Macaroni and Cheese Royal House Cafe Crawfish Cakes with Crawfish Cream Sauce; BBQ Shrimp w/ Roasted Garlic Bread Pudding, Shrimp Ya Ya Pasta; Bananas Foster Cheesecake Tropical Isle Hand Grenade; Happy Gator; Tropical Itch Daiquiri Delight Shop Cajun Storm Daiquiri; Stawberry Daiquiri

French Quarter Festival Beverages (available at every site) Abita Amber, Jacques-imo, Purple Haze, Light Coca-Cola Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dasani Absolut Absolut Mango Daiquiri, Absolut Cosmopolitan Cocktail Malibu Rum Malibu Pina Colada Daiquiri Jameson Irish Whiskey jameson Irish Coffee Daiquiri Jacob’s Creek Reserve (wines) Merlot, Chardonnay, Sparkling Rose (750 ml full-size bottle, with souvenir bottle) A PRI L 2011

TRUMPET PLAYERS

A Half-Fast Walk with Pete

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COVER STORY PETE FOUNTAIN PERFORMS WITH CONNIE JONES FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 11-12:15 P.M. WWL-TV JACKSON SQUARE STAGE

For Pete Fountain, the fame has taken a back seat to the way he’s lived.

awn arrived on Fat Tuesday 2011 with a gray, windy bluster and a forecast of heavy rain. But nature could not throw a wet blanket on the smoldering fire of revelers gathering along St. Charles Avenue waiting for the parades to roll. Outside of Commander’s Palace, Pete Fountain readied himself to lead those parades downtown, just as he had for the previous 50 years (he missed 2006 due to illness). Most of those years Fountain and his friends in the Half-Fast Walking Club walked into town, playing as they went and scattering doubloons By John Swenson Photography by Elsa Hahne adorned with Pete’s cherubic face. The crowds who’d been waiting for hours to see Zulu roll always greeted Fountain’s appearance with a joyous response, knowing that Mardi Gras had officially begin. But the 80-year-old Fountain has been slowed by strokes and now rides downtown on a streetcar float. “I used to walk,” he says with a smile. “Now I have to ride in the truck. But I love it. Just have a good time. This is our 51st year. Now I’m on a trolley car that we put the 14-piece band on. I just sit there and play with them. It started with just the wives, couples walking, and it built from there. When I was a kid, they had all the walking clubs in the neighborhoods with brass bands and everything just like they are today. So that’s what happens; you grow up with it.” Fountain took his place at the front of the streetcar, resplendent in a dark blue suit festooned with embroidered white detail and wearing a feathered blue top hat. A group of club members walked ahead of him dressed in lighter purple suits and top hats tossing blue beads with medallions bearing the inscription “Pete Fountain” on one side and “Half-Fast Walking Club” on the other. The entourage turned onto St. Charles at Washington Avenue and the crowd cheered. Fountain’s band was in high gear and Pete brought his clarinet to his lips to play a few bars. But for the most part, he held on to his instrument and waved at the people, smiling and at times appearing overwhelmed with emotion. A television reporter approached the streetcar and asked Fountain a couple of questions about the weather and the music. Pete answered him, and when the reporter finished, Pete turned his gaze directly into the camera and said, “Thank you. I love you.” Fountain has difficulty talking since the strokes, but he is still adept at communication. His message comes from deep inside those merry, watery blue eyes: “I love you.” The message is to all New Orleanians, a humble, simple expression of how much this city’s music and its people mean to him. www.OFFBEAT.com

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espite his infirmities, Pierre Dewey Fountain, Jr. gives the impression of savoring every moment of his life in his hometown. When he arrived at the Court of Two Sisters to sit down with OffBeat for this story, he chatted with French Quarter Fest board member Aynsley Fein, the daughter of a close friend. She took him by the arm and brought him into the garden, where a jazz trio was playing “Basin Street Blues.” Fountain stopped and greeted each of them warmly. If you play traditional jazz in New Orleans, chances are you know Pete personally. When we sat down, talk turned immediately to French Quarter Fest. Fountain is the subject of this year’s poster. “The poster looks nice,” offers Fountain. “I’ve played every French Quarter Fest, every year since the beginning. The first year was ‘84, ‘85. We played in Jackson Square. We always played in Jackson Square. My club (Pete Fountain’s, on Bourbon Street) was open back then. My club was separate from the French Quarter Fest, but we did some special events with them. Connie Jones and them were very influential in getting the French Quarter Festival started, and we did a lot of things with the festival.” Fountain speaks in short bursts interspersed with pauses. As he tries to remember details or formulate his words, he drums his fingers on the table.

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If he grows frustrated about not being able to express himself, he places his hand on the table palm down. But in general, he is able to talk without much prompting. And though his smile falters, it never fully disappears. That smile bespeaks a lifetime of living in New Orleans playing jazz and reflects the satisfaction of a man who’s seen his music grow from infancy. When Pete Fountain was a boy growing up in the 1930s, jazz was the popular music of its day, and Fountain knew he wanted to play it as soon as he picked up the clarinet at age nine. “My father played a little fiddle and drums,” he says. “It was more country what he played.” Though Fountain grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, he doesn’t remember his childhood days as hard times. “It was easy because my daddy drove a beer truck,” he says. “We had all we wanted.” His eyes twinkle with the implied joke. His dad, Pierre (Red) Fountain, was a naturally gifted musician. Pete remembers his father playing his first clarinet before Pete himself could get a grasp on the instrument. But Fountain inherited his father’s instinct to play music without practice. “I always had a good ear,” he says. That instinct is responsible for the relaxed, easy swing in Fountain’s delivery, a talent that allowed him to excel at school without being a disciplined chart player. Once he heard an arrangement, he could play it by heart. Fountain was a star player at McDonogh 28 Elementary School and Warren Easton High School. On the side, he listened to and played with anyone he could. He idolized Irving Fazola, whose broad tone he emulated, and played popular jazz tunes at football games with the Assunto Brothers, who later hired him to play with the Dukes of Dixieland. “When I was growing up, what is now called New Orleans traditional jazz was contemporary music,” he says. “The Assunto brothers—I used to go to the football games and they would be playing there. It was at City Park Stadium. I asked them if they needed a clarinet player and they said okay, so I used to play with them at the football games. We’d be playing ‘Saints;’ it’s the same now when I play it at Saints games. No difference. Just different guys, same tunes.” Fountain had bigger ambitions. He wanted to make it on Bourbon Street. “There was a lot more music on Bourbon Street then, especially when I was growing up it was all live music, traditional New Orleans jazz. I would go to various clubs where musicians would all be sitting in with each other. I’d go walking down to Jumbo’s (Al Hirt’s) club. I went to the Mardi Gras parades on Bourbon Street when I was a kid. I used to go see Irving Fazola on Bourbon Street. I was too young to get into the clubs then, but I would sit outside and listen. When I was 15 years old, they called me up the night Irving died to sit in in his place at the club.” Fountain realized his life’s ambition as a teenager and never looked back. “I always thought I would be doing this,” he says. “I played through grammar school and high school. Just played the clarinet, that was it. I knew everybody through playing the music. That was my whole life. I used to go to places and try to play with people as a kid. That’s how I met Jumbo. I always called him Jumbo. We go back all the way. I met him when I was a kid. He was a few years older than me. I used to go see him play. He was unbelievable back then. He invited me up one night and he liked how I played. People would know what you could do once they heard you. Everybody used to play the same thing—‘Saints,’ ‘Muskrat Ramble,’ we all knew the same songs. I was a professional musician, supporting myself playing music, when I was 18 or 19 years old. Jumbo and I were together for a while. It was just www.OFFBEAT.com

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He could have easily arranged for his own television show or toured behind his sudden mass appeal. But all this true son of New Orleans wanted to do was come home. friendship, music, you know. I enjoyed being around him because he was a good player.” In addition to playing with Hirt and others, Fountain had his own group, the Basin Street Six, in the 1950s. He also started a family, marrying Beverly Lang. “I was in the Louisiana National Guard through the whole time, with the band here in New Orleans. So that kept us all out of the [Korean] War. We played for everybody. Everything. I’ve been very lucky to toot the horn.” Fountain began a recording career during the ‘50s that led to more than 100 albums appearing under his name over the years. “I started out with Joe Mares and Southland Records,” he recalls. “He had a studio. It was funny; he was selling fur pelts so he had this big space and he loved jazz. His brother Paul played trumpet years back in the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. He loved jazz. We would go in there and he would set up one microphone in the middle of the room and tape it. That was all you had.” One of those recordings led to the biggest break in Fountain’s career, a two-year stint with the nationally-televised Lawrence Welk Show. Once a week, the whole country heard Fountain play a piece of New Orleans traditional jazz on Welk’s program. “[Welk’s] son heard one of the records I did and they called me,” says Fountain. “They asked me to come up and play. I was very surprised, and then all of a sudden I’m on television and living out in California. I lived there for two years with them.” Though Fountain was a telegenic presence who provided a needed spark to the somnambulant pace of Welk’s programs, he chafed at the Hollywood lifestyle. Eventually, musical differences led to a parting of the ways with Welk. Fountain was at a crossroad. He was a huge TV star at the dawn of the 1960s. He could have easily arranged for his own television show or toured behind his sudden mass appeal. But all this true son of New Orleans wanted to do was come home. “I just wanted to,” he explains. “My wife and three kids, they all moved out to L.A. with me. I don’t think she liked it too much. She put up with it for two years and then we came home. I missed the parties and the crawfish boils and all the parts of living your life here. “I came back in 1960 and opened up 800 Bourbon St., the jazz club Pete Fountain’s. The city hadn’t changed. I came back and it was the same difference. My name was bigger from playing on TV, but I wanted to come back to what I did here. The stardom, it never did catch up to me maybe. Maybe Jack Daniels helped. The quality of life was more important than being a celebrity. I just pushed all that aside.” As far as he was concerned, Fountain traded in Hollywood for his lifelong dream, his own Bourbon Street club. “I had my place 31 years, back when I was taller,” he says, smiling at his own joke. “It was 1960 when we opened the club. And then I went to 231 Bourbon. Jumbo was down the street in the 500 block. We used to go back and forth between clubs. Once I’d get off, I’d go down and see him. He’d come to my place. It depends on how drunk we got. I think Jumbo stayed open the latest of the two of us.” Fountain celebrated his homecoming with an album, Pete Fountain’s New Orleans, that many consider his best record. Fountain’s hit version of the gospel song “A Closer Walk” comes from that record. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, Fountain turned down offers to tour so he could

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play in New Orleans. He could have traveled all over the world, but he stayed in his club and played his music there. “We did some touring, but not much,” he says. “It depends on the money. Of course I did go to do The Tonight Show. I liked Johnny Carson. I did that show 59 times. I knew all the guys in the band. Still do.” Carson had a great rapport with his band. He would often use them to make hip jokes about partying, and Fountain has a wry comment about Carson’s frequent references to band members being high on marijuana. “I wonder why he said that?” he asks impishly. Popular music was changing dramatically while Fountain and Hirt ruled Bourbon Street. Fountain knew that his role had changed to being one of the guardians of a tradition. “I was aware that we were keeping a tradition going,” he says. “I think that Jumbo, myself and the Dukes of Dixieland, there was all kinds of jazz coming out at the same time so it was lucky for us that we could make a living here without going out of town too much. I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown.”

hough Fountain has slowed his pace, he hasn’t stopped playing and has no plans to retire. “I still play out at some private gigs,” he says. “I’m playing French Quarter Festival and at a benefit for the Christian Brothers School. Two of my boys went to the Christian Brothers. We do a golf benefit for them. We do Jazz Fest, too.” As for his legacy, Fountain says he’s not looking that far ahead. “I don’t know. Just keep playing the clarinet as long as I can. I have a lot of protégés, but the best of them is Tim Laughlin. Tim showed up on our doorstep when he was 15 years old. We let him listen to the music and he took it from there. He’s a good player. Sometimes I think about all the things I’ve done with the records. You know, I mean, it was good. A good life. And here I am. I’m still tootin’ as much as I can. I’m not thinking about the future. I’m taking it one day at a time as much as I can.” Fountain is more concerned about the future of traditional jazz than he is about his own legacy. He’s pleased to see that traditional New Orleans jazz is enjoying a revival with a younger audience. “When it’s good, you see a lot of jazz out there,” he says, “and then it will back off for a little while and now it looks like it’s coming back. You notice that when the younger players pick it up, like out in the yard there, those younger players. The music is timeless.” Pete Fountain’s passion for jazz and the people of New Orleans has never wavered. Unlike so many other talented musicians who left New Orleans to pursue stardom on bigger stages, Fountain has never let celebrity make him forget who he is. “I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown,” he insists. Nevertheless, even at 80 Fountain’s celebrity shadows his every step. He is greeted joyfully everywhere he goes in New Orleans and every person he meets gets a warm smile and a heartfelt gesture, a handclasp or pat on the shoulder. He never seems to tire of this role, and even though he has difficulty conversing, his wry sense of humor still animates his statements. The HBO series Treme filmed him leading the Half-Fast Walking Club on Mardi Gras morning. He has seen the show, yes. Did he like it? “I like that,” he says matter-of-factly. “If they play jazz I love it. I don’t care who, what, why or where.” O www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: elsa ahhne

FQF IQ

Magnetic Ear SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2:45-4:15 P.M. CAPITAL ONE RIVERSIDE LEGACY STAGE

ver the years, brassdriven band the Magnetic Ear has marched so far from its point of origin that it’s a wonder bandleader saxophonist Martin Krusche doesn’t change the group’s name. “At first we were known as sort of a jazz freakout band,” admits Krusche. But even then, the Magnetic Ear’s music was much more composed and arrangedseeming than the average jazz group. The band followed Krusche’s long, wild melody lines so tightly you could tell they weren’t just improvising. More recently, Krusche—who moved to New York from Munich, Germany in 1993 and then to New Orleans two years later—totally re-imagined and re-shaped his group into a dance-oriented “six piece pocket brass ensemble,” inspired by New Orleans-style second-line and funk, as well as African brass music, and the brass of Krusche’s European roots. Yet the Magnetic Ear avoids heavy-handed genrehopping, instead bringing its varied brass interests together in unique original compositions. “Coming from Germany means that, unlike most New Orleans jazz musicians who grew up here, I have no musical

APRIL 2011

By Michael Patrick Welch

heritage,” he explains, almost proudly. “Because of it, I am a blank slate. It would never be my goal to move somewhere that has a rich musical heritage and learn all the standards and get lost in that type of music. Doing that is fun, but it’s not the ticket to anywhere. I have let New Orleans music influence me, but without playing ‘Lil Liza Jane.’ I can play with a trio and improvise jazz for hours and enjoy it, but enough people do that well enough that no one would need me to do it too. So I have stayed true to the idea of myself as a blank slate in order to do something unique.” Aside from the band’s upcoming French Quarter Fest appearance, the new, danceable Magnetic Ear is best experienced on the band’s 2010 album Alien of Extraordinary Ability. While the original song ‘Uncle Roger’ does feature— and is dedicated to—Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Magnetic Ear also goes way outside the New Orleans box for interpretations of Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” Radiohead’s “Everything in its Right Place,” and an original tango tribute to recently deceased Big Star frontman and beloved New Orleanian, Alex Chilton. www.OFFBEAT.com

Pfister Sisters

SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 12:30-1:45 P.M. WWL-TV JACKSON SQUARE STAGE

azz harmonizers the Pfister Sisters have existed long enough to be considered a tradition, singing with everyone from the Neville Brothers to Jimmy Buffett to Linda Ronstadt. They sang on the wing of a plane with their hero Maxene Andrews of the swinging Andrews Sisters, and more recently were featured on the HBO series Treme, singing “Shame, Shame, Shame” with the show’s Davis McAlary. Their albums have tackled genres from cabaret to country. But since 1979, the Pfister Sisters (who aren’t really related) have become world renowned primarily for replicating beautifully complex classics by the famous singing Boswell Sisters. Which is no easy task. “It’s musicians’ music, very complex and actually weird,” says sister Yvette Voelker. “It requires a huge time investment to learn those songs. Which is why there aren’t many jazz harmony vocalists in the world now, and no one else in the city of New Orleans.” Normally, because of budgetary constraints, the Pfisters’ performances consist of just the three ladies—Voelker, plus founder Holley Bendtsen, and “new girl”

APRIL 2011

By Michael Patrick Welch

Debbie Davis, who joined the Pfisters in 1999 and graced February’s OffBeat cover—plus their piano player Amasa Miller. But for French Quarter Fest they’ll bring along a big band. “This is a great chance to get to really recreate some of the wilder Boswell songs,” beams Voelker. “They were known for these small, nimble jazz combos, but also big groups where each person played one drum and whatnot, and they specialized in an anarchy that was nonetheless very well-arranged.” Though performing cover tunes, the Pfisters find more than enough room within the Boswells’ amazing songs to experiment. “I am very impressed with the fact that after 30 years of doing this, I am not tired of it at all,” Voelker says. “The Boswells were in their teens during Louis Armstrong’s heyday, so they were influenced by the joyful noise of jazz. They applied jazz concepts, harmonizing their three voices like the average band would with three horns, so while it’s pretty tightly arranged, it was also set up to always go somewhere new. And we’ve been doing it long enough that when someone wanders off somewhere, we all have a fun time following them!” www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: KIM WELSH

FQF IQ

Photo: CLAYTON CALL

FQF IQ

New Orleans Nightcrawlers FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 9:30-11 A.M. OPENING PARADE IN JACKSON SQUARE

he New Orleans Nightcrawlers brass band began innocently enough in 1994 as a writer’s workshop founded by pianist Tom McDermott, sousaphonist Matt Perrine and trumpeter Kevin Clark. “We really just wanted to practice writing and arranging for a more modern, harmonically complex jazz band,” recalls Clark. Now, after 17 years of albums and gigs all around the world playing mostly original material that pairs advanced harmonies with the beloved New Orleans street beat (think Dirty Dozen more than Soul Rebels), the Nightcrawlers are at the peak of their game for French Quarter Fest. Though the lineup has shifted around over the group’s relatively long tenure, this particular show will feature five original Nightcrawlers members. “I’m back, plus we have Rick Trolsen on trombone,” says Clark. “And Snakebite (Ken Jacobs) is flying in from San Francisco. So French Quarter Fest will pretty much feature the original band from years ago.” While the members have individually served as sidemen for everyone from Harry

APRIL 2011

By Michael Patrick Welch

Connick, Jr. to Clint Black, Dr. John to Aretha Franklin, all of them play top dog here in the city. “Everyone in the band is a bandleader,” says Clark. “So when we first started playing out in our 20s, we were admittedly all jockeying to be out front. But now we’re all older, each established in our own ways and no one is trying to flex. We all realize that the music is what’s most important. It’s a lot looser and more fun now.” After a long period of infrequent gigs, the Nightcrawlers have taken up a Tuesday night residency at Chickie Wah Wah. “We were always about the writing mainly, and have remained very prolific with new material,” says Clark. “Threadhead Records released our album Slither Slice in 2009, but we are pretty much ready for our next record.” Meaning the band will play more than a few new songs for French Quarter Fest. “Most of the other brass bands there will play the top 40 Dixieland tunes,” says Clark. “But we always try to stay modern and innovative, so we’ll serve as sort of a diversion from the rest of the fest.” www.OFFBEAT.com

Steve Pistorius

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 11-12:45 P.M. FRENCH MARKET STAGE

ou won’t find pianist Steve Pistorius on any of the Bourbon Street stages at this year’s French Quarter Fest, and that suits him just fine. “Three years ago I was on Bourbon Street and it was pretty noisy,” he recalls. “Terrible smells, motorcycles going by, noise from the clubs,” he says. “I’ve seen it all my life on that street and it’s just tiring after a while.” Pistorius has been playing long enough to remember a different Bourbon. At 19, he got his first gig at the Gateway Lounge at Bourbon and Iberville. “This was in the early ‘70s,” he remembers. “There were jazz bands up and down the street. Not necessarily great bands, but they were jazz bands, playing in the New Orleans style. What sets Pistorius apart is his strong allegiance to ragtime; his music emphasizes the genre’s continuity with early jazz. On his 2008 release Rags and Stomps, Pistorius tackled—among others—the compositions of Eubie Blake and Joseph Lamb. But there is one particular pianist who looms largest in his playing.

APRIL 2011

By Zachary Young

“[I’m] heavily influenced by Jelly Roll Morton,” he says. “I think [he] put it all together the best. The style is not heard a lot or understood a lot.” He notes a paucity of native New Orleanian pianists engaged in the genre. “There are lots of people in New Orleans that play the music, they’re just not from here,” he observes. “I think I’m the only guy from New Orleans that specializes in that sort of piano style.” Pistorius is a frequent sideman in local trad circles. He can be heard behind clarinetist Dr. Michael White on 2008’s Blue Crescent, or alongside Rick Trolsen on 2007’s Sunrise on Bourbon Street. But at the Fest he will lead a group of his own assemblage, the Southern Syncopators. “I’ll sing a couple of Fats Waller tunes just for kicks. Play some Jelly Roll stuff, play a couple of ragtime numbers with (clarinetist) Orange Kellin,” says Pistorius. He appreciates the festival setting for the freedom it gives him with his repertoire. “Anytime I get to put together my own band—especially this one—I make a list of stuff I really enjoy doing and don’t get to do too often.” www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: KIM WELSH

FQF IQ

Photo: zack smith

FQF IQ

Chubby Carrier FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 5:45-7 P.M. OFFBEAT CAJUN/ZYDECO SHOWCASE AT THE AQUARIUM PLAZA

Grammy Award has unexpected perks. Just ask Chubby Carrier, winner of this year’s Grammy for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album for his CD, Zydeco Junkie. Carrier, who lives just outside of Lafayette, will soon get a key to the city. He’s already received a certificate of recognition from the Louisiana House of Representatives. He is even saving on his food bill. “Everywhere I go, people want to buy me lunch,” said Carrier, 43. “I go to restaurants and get free lunches, free drinks. I’m feeling quite the special guy right now.” Carrier and his Bayou Swamp Band share their Grammy success and newfound celebrity April 8 at the French Quarter Festival. The show is one of two dozen performances in March and April inside the state of Louisiana for Carrier and band. Home shows have been rare in the band’s 22-year history. Since 1989, Carrier and crew have logged as many as 200 road dates a year, playing a regular club and festival circuit along Gulf Coast and throughout the Midwest. When they came home, band members would literally put their instruments in storage for lack of activity.

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By Herman Fuselier

It’s ironic treatment for a member of one of the founding families of Southwest Louisiana’s zydeco music. The Carrier Brothers, Chubby’s cousins, played “La La,” the acoustic, accordion and fiddle house party music popular in rural Creole homes before World War II. Chubby’s grandfather Warren was an early zydeco musician. Chubby’s father Roy, who died last May, led the legendary Night Rockers Band and held weekly jam sessions at the Offshore Lounge in Lawtell. Those jams gave many of today’s top zydeco players their first stage performance or paying gig. In zydeco’s homeland, those stars have been more familiar than the well-traveled Carrier. “When I’d call a festival at home, they’d say, ‘We haven’t heard of you’ or ‘I don’t know who you are’,” said Carrier. “Since I won the Grammy, it’s like ‘Oh my goodness. You called me last year to play my festival.’ “I was only playing in (my hometown of) Church Point once every 10 years. With the Grammy, I played the Mardi Gras this year and I’m pretty sure that’s how I got in. A lot of people that didn’t know me before, they know me now.” www.OFFBEAT.com

FQF IQ

Kourtney Heart

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2:45-3:15 P.M.— ROYAL STREET (500 BLOCK), BMI SONGWRITER STAGE AT THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

ix years before Kourtney Heart’s bouncy club jam “My Boy” caught the attention of radio stations and record executives, the pop-princess-in-waiting admits to having had a “huge crush” on thenteen R&B sensation Chris Brown: “I had his first CD, and it said Jive Records on it. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get signed to Jive.’” Fast-forward to 2011 and the 17-year-old Edna Karr High School senior’s adolescent wish has come true. In 2010, building on the buzz of “My Boy,” which features the late Magnolia Shorty, Heart released her debut EP, Eye Dee Kay, a catchy, coming-of-age collection of R&B pop. It wasn’t long before she found herself in New York, prepping for what she describes as the “showcase of my life.” Standing in front of a roundtable of onlookers at Jive headquarters, she delivered her entire album. Five minutes later, she had a record deal. In 2006, a 13-year-old Kourtney faced a similar situation, performing as her idol, Beyoncé, in a celebritylook-alike contest at a teen center in Gretna. There, she wowed producer/ DJ extraordinaire Raj Smoove en route to taking home the night’s top

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By Aaron Lafont

honors. Since then, the Cash Money/ Young Money conspirator has taken the teenage phenom under his wing, guiding her talent, fueling her creativity, and teaching her the ins and outs of the music business. “Raj is as big on education as he is on knowing your music,” says Heart. “He would give me books and say, ‘I know you can sing, but to succeed, you need to know the industry.’” It was their work ethic that sparked Heart’s breakthrough single, “My Boy.” Near the end of a long session at Smoove’s Gentilly studio, Heart and her cousin began free-styling to an unfinished beat that he had been tinkering with for hours. “That’s it! Keep singing what you’re singing,” Smoove said, and by the end of the night the chorus and verses were complete. After Raj brought in Magnolia Shorty to add some sass to the kittenish bounce track, Kourtney had a single that, in her words, “really grew legs.” On her time spent performing and recording with the late New Orleans icon, Heart says, “She had such a great spirit. She gave a lot of personality to my song. I was honored for her to be on the track.” www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: JEFFREY DUPUIS

FQF IQ

Storyville Stompers SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 11:15-12:45 P.M. CAPITAL ONE RIVERSIDE LEGACY STAGE

ne of the many things that gives New Orleans her flair is her people’s sense of tradition. The Storyville Stompers exemplifies this pride in tradition. The Storyville Stompers are considered by many to be the go-to second line band, playing everything from parties and festivals, to weddings and conventions. They participate in New Orleans traditions such as Mardi Gras parades and jazz funerals, and have played French Quarter Fest every year since its inception. Established in 1981, the group has kept most of its original members. Tuba-player Woody Penouilh says that out of the current lineup, “five were with the original band in 1981 and the rest have been with [it] for over 10 years. Others in the original band still perform on occasion.” Trombonist Craig Klein says the Storyville Stompers drew their inspiration from the Olympia Brass Band. “We do funk it up some like Olympia did, but there are so many great, traditional songs with

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By Barbie Cure

forms and melodies that we love to play,” he says. Doing so makes him feel like they are continuing a “serious New Orleans tradition that sometimes gets overlooked.” One yearly gig for the band is the St. Anne Parade on Fat Tuesday. Penouilh loves this event because “the music, the costumes and general sensual overdose are fantastic.” The band is also fortunate enough to play all over the world, and have even brought a taste of New Orleans to the Regis and Kelly Show. The Storyville Stompers exude New Orleans tradition through their music, their events, and their sense of community among the members. “We have a deep respect for the music and the tradition,” Penouilh says. For Klein, playing with the Stompers is playing with family. “I love playing with the Stompers because I get to play with guys I’ve played with for over 30 years. It’s good to play music with friends that started from humble beginnings, and it’s still going strong.” www.OFFBEAT.com

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Y AV GR

In the Kitchen with Renard

SATURDAY, APRIL 9 7:30-9 P.M. HARRAH’S LOUIS LOUIS PAVILLION

“I

don’t exactly have a name for this, but I guess we can call it a citrus fruit cocktail. How this came about is, I’ve always liked lemonade, and a few years ago I went through a really bad time, so I was looking online for natural anti-depressants. Citrus fruit was high on the list: citrus, salmon—even salt. I thought salt and sugar were depressants, but according to the research I did more recently, I found that a little salt can lift you. And actually, this has worked. I don’t know if it’s the power of suggestion, but it does. I had a few losses: my mother had passed, my daddy had passed, my brother had passed. Just a whole lot of stuff. When it rains it pours and this was soon after Katrina. Hard times. So that’s what led me to this. I’ve been doing it for over a year now and I think it’s fruitful—eh, I didn’t intend that. I keep a supply. I fill this container, which is probably 64 ounces. When it runs out, I do it again. I’ll go through it in two days, three days sometimes, depending on what’s going on. Then I make another one. If I’m too lazy, or just don’t have time to do it, then I’ll just eat an orange straight up. So I’m consuming citrus fruit just about every day. This is like a pleasure food for me. If I’m in the studio practicing, I’ll have a 16-ounce glass like this and sip on it., might do two of them. I’m kind of an old-school guy in a lot of ways, I had the manual citrus juicer. But when I lost it, I got this electric one, and I get a lot more juice out of the fruit now. My sister has tasted this, and the keyboard player in my group, Keiko. She came over, we were rehearsing, or as Dr. John would say, ‘We was rehearsalin’,’ and she liked it a lot. This is nothing fancy,

APRIL 2011

just a version of lemonade. I’m still vacillating, kind of experimenting, with what I prefer. It’s a little smoother with more orange balancing out the bite of the lime and lemon. Makes sense, right? I want to get the perfect mixture. I write it down sometimes. Sometimes I do two oranges, one lemon and one lime, depending on availability. I’m going to sweeten this with stevia extract in the liquid form. My sister and my brotherin-law thought it was too sweet, so I backed off the stevia and found that I really enjoyed it more because now I’m getting more the

By Elsa Hahne

taste of the fruit. Stevia extract has alcohol in it, 11 percent. I mention that to anybody who’s going to try it because maybe they can’t do alcohol for some reason. It’s not much, but I still feel like I should mention it. I saw an acupuncturist once and he said you shouldn’t use ice, and I didn’t ask why because I assumed it was for your heart. My mother had a heart attack once and she said they told her not to drink anything too cold. So I try not to use ice, if I can. I try to have the state of mind to keep everything in the refrigerator.

I eat simple. I don’t have many guests. Like my sister visiting, she said, ‘Renard, all you eat is nuts and berries.’ Breakfast, five or six days out of the week, this is what I eat [taking packets of frozen fruit out of the freezer]. Dark cherries, blueberries, all these dark things are high in anti-oxidants. And it’s good to have fruit on an empty stomach, otherwise it ends up fermenting in the tract somewhere. It’s always fruit for breakfast. If I don’t do the berries, I’m doing peaches or apples or banana, that kind of thing. But two hours later, I’m eating real food. I have a fast metabolism, so I eat five or six times a day. I eat a lot of whole wheat pasta, or spinach pasta, and salmon. Also, I’m a bachelor and I like sardines. I bought seven packets last night and in two weeks, they’ll be gone. I eat salad, with the yellow, orange and red peppers, grape tomatoes and spinach, romaine and assorted greens, then I’ll add walnuts and dried cranberries, olives and I’ll pour some of the olive juice on it. Quick and easy. I always like the dark vegetables because they have more nutrients. My parents cooked, but it was more like soul food. Occasionally now, I’ll eat soul food. Fried chicken, that might happen once or twice a month. The philosophy I follow is that 85 percent of what I eat is good. The other 15 can be bad.”

Renard’s Citrus Cocktail 2 large lemons 1 large orange 4 large key limes (or 1 lime) 1 1/2 quart water 1/2 tsp stevia extract (or 6 envelopes stevia powder) Juice citrus. Add juice to water along with some pulp. Sweeten with stevia. Enjoy cold in a tall glass. www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: ELSA HAHNE

Renard Poché is still in the process of perfectionatin’ lemonade.

EATS

AMERICAN Feast: 200 Julia St., 304-6318 O’Henry’s Food & Spirits: 634 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-9741; 8859 Veterans Blvd., 461-9840; 710 Terry Pkwy., 433-4111 Port of Call: 838 Esplanade Ave., 523-0120 BARBECUE The Joint: 801 Poland Ave., 949-3232 Squeal Bar-B-Q: 8400 Oak St., 302-7370 Voodoo BBQ: 1501 St Charles Ave., 5224647 BREAKFAST Daisy Dukes: 121 Chartres St., 561-5171 Lil’ Dizzy’s Café: 1500 Esplanade Ave., 569-8997 New Orleans Cake Cafe & Bakery: 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010 COFFEE HOUSE Café du Monde: 800 Decatur St., 525-4544 Café Rose Nicaud: 632 Frenchmen St., 949-3300 CREOLE/CAJUN Le Citron Bistro: 601 Orange St., 566-9051 Clancy’s: 6100 Annunciation, 895-1111 Cochon: 930 Tchoupitoulas St., 588-2123 Dick & Jenny’s: 4501 Tchoupitoulas, 894-9880 Fiorella’s: 1136 Decatur St., 553-2155 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 Olivier’s Creole Restaurant: 204 Decatur St., 525-7734. DELI Mardi Gras Zone: 2706 Royal St., 947-8787 Stein’s Market and Deli: 2207 Magazine St., 527-0771 FINE DINING Antoine’s: 701 St. Louis St., 581-4422 Arnaud’s Remoulade: 309 Bourbon St., 523-0377 Besh Steakhouse: 8 Canal St., 533-6111 Bistreaux at Maison Dupuy: 1001 Toulouse St., 586-8000 Café Adelaide: 300 Poydras St., 595-3305 Commander’s Palace: 1403 Washington Ave., 899-8221 Emeril’s: 800 Tchoupitoulas, 528-9393 Galvez Restaurant: 914 N Peters St., 595-3400 Iris Restaurant: 321 N Peters St., 299-3944 Lüke: 333 St. Charles Ave., 378-2840

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Mat and Naddie’s: 937 Leonidas St., 861-9600 Mr. B’s Bistro: 201 Royal St. 523-2078 7 on Fulton: 701 Convention Center Blvd., 525-7555 Stella!: 1032 Chartres St., 587-0091 FRENCH Café Degas: 3127 Esplanade Ave., 945-5635 La Crepe Nanou: 1410 Robert St., 899-2670 Crepes à la Cart: 1039 Broadway St., 866-2362 The Flaming Torch: 737 Octavia St., 895-0900 Martinique Bistro: 5908 Magazine St., 891-8495 Restaurant August: 301 Tchoupitoulas St., 299-9777 GREEN EATS Eco Café & Bistro: 3903 Canal St., 561-6585 Green Goddess: 307 Exchange Pl., 301-3347 ICE CREAM/GELATO/CANDY Creole Creamery: 4924 Prytania St., 894-8680 La Divina Gelateria: 3005 Magazine St., 342-2634; 621 St. Peter St., 302-2692 Sucré: 3025 Magazine St., 520-8311 Southern Candymakers: 334 Decatur St., 523-5544 Tee-Eva’s Praline Shop: 4430 Magazine St., 899-8350 INDIAN Nirvana: 4308 Magazine St., 894-9797 ITALIAN Domenica: 123 Baronne St., 648-1200 Eleven 79: 1179 Annunciation St., 299-1179 Irene’s Cuisine: 539 St. Philip St., 529-8811 Maximo’s: 1117 Decatur St., 586-8883 Tommy’s: 746 Tchoupitoulas St., 581-1103 JAPANESE/KOREAN/SUSHI Kyoto: 4920 Prytania St., 891-3644 Mikimoto: 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., 488-1881 Miyako Japanese Seafood & Steak House: 1403 St. Charles Ave., 410-9997 Wasabi: 900 Frenchmen St., 943-9433 MEDITERRANEAN Byblos: 3218 Magazine St., 894-1233 Jamila’s Café: 7808 Maple St., 866-4366 Mona’s Café: 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115 MEXICAN/CARIBBEAN/SPANISH Juan’s Flying Burrito: 2018 Magazine St., 569-0000 El Gato Negro: 81 French Market Place, 525-9846 Nacho Mama’s: 3240 Magazine St., 899-0031 RioMar: 800 S. Peters St., 525-3474 Taqueros Coyoacan: 1432 Saint Charles Ave., 267-3028

NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS Café Reconcile: 1631 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 568-1157 CG’s Café at the Nail: 1100 Constance St., 525-5515 Parkway Bakery and Tavern: 538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047 Sammy’s Food Services: 3000 Elysian Fields Ave., 948-7361 Sports Vue: 1400 Esplanade Ave., 940-1111 Ye Olde College Inn: 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683 Wit’s Inn: 141 N Carrollton Ave., 486-1600 SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 4:15-5 P.M. 500-BLOCK OF ROYAL ST. BMI SONGWRITER STAGE AT THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

SEAFOOD Acme Oyster & Seafood House: 724 Iberville, 522-5973 Casamento’s Restaurant: 4330 Magazine St. 895-9761. Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill: 1 Poydras St. 569-3380 Drago’s Restaurant: 2 Poydras St. (Hilton Hotel), 584-3911; 3232 N. Arnoult St., Metairie, 888-9254 Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar: 739 Iberville St. 522-4440 Oceana Grill: 739 Conti St., 525-6002 SOUL Dunbar’s: 501 Pine St., 861-5451 Praline Connection: 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934 Willie Mae’s Scotch House: 2401 St. Ann St., 822-9503 WEE HOURS Clover Grill: 900 Bourbon St., 523-0904 Mimi’s in the Marigny: 2601 Royal St., 872-9868. WINE BAR & BISTRO Orleans Grapevine: 720 Orleans Ave., 523-1930

Kristin Diable hits the

How did you first hear about Green Goddess? I usually go to a restaurant if a lot of my friends recommend it. Also, my friend Jeff lives above it and it’s three blocks from my house.

Photo: CAITLYN RIDENOUR

AFRICAN Bennachin: 1212 Royal St., 522-1230

MUSIC ON THE MENU Carrollton Station Bar and Grill: 140 Willow St., 865-9190 Chickie Wah Wah: 2828 Canal St., 304-4714 House of Blues: 225 Decatur St., 412-8068 Le Bon Temps Roule: 4801 Magazine St., 895-8117 Maison: 508 Frenchmen St., 289-5648. Mid City Lanes Rock ‘N’ Bowl: 4133 S. Carrollton Ave., 482-3133 Palm Court Jazz Café: 1204 Decatur St., 525-0200 Rivershack Tavern: 3449 River Rd., 834-4938 Southport Hall: 200 Monticello Ave., 8352903 Snug Harbor: 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 Three Muses: 536 Frenchmen St., 298-8746

PIZZA Slice Pizzeria: 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437 Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza: 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554 Turtle Bay: 1119 Decatur St., 586-0563

What do you tend to order? When it’s in season, I’ll get the Bahn Xeo, which is their take on a Vietnamese crepe. It has fresh crabmeat, avocado and a lot of other stuff I can’t remember. It has one of the best flavors I’ve ever tasted. Also, the amber jack is one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever had.

Green Goddess 307 Exchange Place (504) 301-3347

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Tomatillo’s: 437 Esplanade Ave., 945-9997 Vaso: 500 Frenchman St., 272-0929

What makes you enjoy Green Goddess so much? The menu is very exotic and they take so many unfamiliar elements and put them together in a dish that makes perfect sense.—Caitlyn Ridenour www.OFFBEAT.com

DINING OUT Three Muses It could be the start of a joke: “A jazz singer, bartender and a chef take over an abandoned building in the Marigny...” Such was the scenario when Sophie Lee, Christopher Starnes and Dan Esses partnered up last spring to start building a hybrid restaurant, bar and jazz club. In fact, perhaps the best recognition of the Three Muses experience is every patron’s internal debate of which aspect shines best. As you walk into Three Muses, tucked in the corner on your left is a small stage which hosts a variety of musicians and vocalists. There will almost always be music playing, but nothing loud or obtrusive unless the mood calls for it. Past the stage is a bar, stocked with only what is necessary to serve cold beer, interesting wines, and creative—yet simple—cocktails. In between and all around are tables, some high, some low. There is no waiting list and no reservation system. Find a table, look over a menu, and order your drinks and food at the bar. Bar snacks are presented with a gourmet twist, beginning with the complimentary

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bowl of curry-spiced popcorn. Sliders have a Mediterranean flair and are filled with either falafel or miniature lamb burgers topped with tomato chutney. The daily preparation of bruschetta is built on soft, thick cut, grilled bread which is the perfect foundation for vegetarian delights like smooth butternut squash or roasted eggplant. For those craving meat in the Lenten doldrums, try the meatball flatbread or rabbit satay. While the menu reaches beyond Chef Esses’ handmade pastas and sauces, these are still not to be overlooked. Soft pillows of basil gnocchi and dabs of housemade ricotta are sauced with a tomato-caper-olive ragout that tastes of springtime in Provence. Stuffed pastas abound in combinations like crab cannelloni and mushroom ravioli, available in both small and large portions. Other fork-andknife fare include head-on jumbo Gulf Shrimp in a puddle of mellow romesco sauce, and an arugula salad starring roasted baby beets and crunchy balls of hazelnut-crusted goat cheese. The finale is punctuated by a banana mascarpone strudel in a buttery rum sauce and a scoop of slowly-melting Mexican chocolate ice cream. And after you finish your meal, you might find yourself staying to listen for the encore from the stage. 536 Frenchmen St. 298-8746. Kitchen

Photo: CAITLYN RIDENOUR

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open 5-10 Sun, Mon, Wed; 5-12 Thur-Sat. Closed Tues. —Rene Louapre and Peter Thriffiley

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Reviews

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

CDs reviewed are available now at In the French Quarter 210 Decatur Street 504-586-1094 or online at LouisianaMusicFactory.com

Swords in the Street

Rebirth Brass Band Rebirth of New Orleans (Basin Street) We live in an era of great brass bands, a time when people argue over who’s the best and global brands sponsor grand competitions. New kids use horns to escape violence while old heads lead protest marches and school programs. As successful as any outfit in the last 30 years, the Rebirth charge forward through this landscape armed with their signature mix of power and filth. The new record begins with “Exactly Like You,” a standard and the opposite of your typical brass band boast. Then things get grimy, with the songwriting team of Phil Frazier and Glen Andrews telling us how a certain somebody likes it (front and back) over speeding horns and snare. “The Dilemma” gives us that Rebirth swagger and shadow, a missive from a Tuesday night second set. That’s a compliment to producer Tracey Freeman. We get short doses without the meandering or filler of a live album, but with a balanced fullness that never sounds overly brightened or packaged. The Troy Andrews-penned “AP Touro” allows the fellas to ascend, cut and pound. At their best, the Rebirth sound like martial swordsmen who group into unison when needed, then race out to new vistas or broaden

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shoulders to hold down the fort (and of course, taking time to stop at the corner bar). We are rarely in unknown territory on Rebirth of New Orleans, but the album transmits the ferocity that defines the contemporary lineup, with fewer words and more minor keys. They test themselves in “Feelin’ Free,” the crossflows of the horns working in sunny contrasts with wild percussion, sounding Caribbean. Overall, the band resists experimentation with new forms, seemingly more interested in blowing the doors off than opening new ones. And, as this record attests, the Rebirth still blows doors off quite nicely. —Brian Boyles

Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury Band American Legacies (McCoury Music) The evolution of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band into a conveyer of hip is one of the musical successes of post-K culture. We can no longer point to the band (or the hall) as simply a bastion of tradition; we must recognize it as an innovator of tradition. As invaluable as his father’s contributions were to our culture, Ben Jaffe is quite important to the now. On their new collaboration with the Del McCoury Band, we find the band swinging with and around McCoury’s silky tenor. Though it’s doubtful anyone in the world was losing sleep over the dangers of mixing bluegrass with trad, this isn’t a simple suture job. Wicked mandolin runs, clarinets in skyward races with fiddles, percussive banjoes and snares—this is one mean band. Check out “Banjo Frisco” for some very new/old music.

McCoury and family have shared the stage with Phish and recorded with Steve Earle, making them as accustomed to crossover as the current Pres Hall. More importantly, we’re listening to two types of traditional music that blossomed alongside each other in the first half of the 20th Century, nurtured by two different sets of poor folks—urban African Americans and rural whites—who shared a talent to swing and a fondness for celebration and mourning. Everything comes down to blues and banjoes, after all. The wise move here was to allow Mark Braud and Clint Maedgen to sing lead almost as often as McCoury, and thus really test out the conflagration. “The Sugar Blues” hands you a what-if question involving Bob Wills and Fats Waller, Grand Ole Opry and Preservation Hall, 1931 and 2011. Good answers abound. —Brian Boyles

Horace Trahan Keep Walking (Independent) If everyone were like Horace Trahan, there would be no mold to break. As a teenager, he was heralded as the Second Coming of Iry LeJeune, the accordionist responsible for reviving post-World War II Cajun music. A few years later Trahan crossed over into zydeco, scoring hits with “The Butt Thing” and “High School Breakdown” (reprised here as a lagniappe live cut) and then quit playing publicly with his band. He never quit writing songs, however, and eventually began playing out again, which ultimately led to this, his first disc in 11 years. It’s best described as uninhibited since Trahan’s approach couldn’t be more honest. A few old-style Cajun-Creole originals emphasize

how grounded and technically skilled Trahan is. But at this stage of his career, he’s more about creating a thinking man’s zydeco than succumbing to perceived popular trends. At times, the listen is a personal one with heartfelt messages about love and relationships. Other times it’s quite heady with spiritual and moralistic overtones. Doug Garb’s flute playing gives the otherwise hard-driving “Guilty Till Proven Innocent” an African edge while Trahan delivers such provocative lines as “Well, all of their power, ain’t nothing but a flower / That the lamb will devour.” “Same Knife Cut the Sheep Cut the Goat” (“what are you going to do with that knife at your throat”) comes from an African proverb. Whether it’s the artistically arranged “King of Sand” that features hip-hop beats and angelic background voices or the funny rapper “H.D.T.V.,” it’s a safe bet that this time he only had himself to answer to in the studio. Welcome back, Trahan. —Dan Willging

Washboard Chaz Blues Trio On The Street (Independent) “The bank today turned down my loan/they say money’s too tight.” Now that’s a way to start an album these days. On their latest, the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio gives us more reasons to blame the banks: who wouldn’t bet on this trio? The album features a balanced mix of originals and covers. Little Walter’s “Just Your Fool” is a wise choice for the band, while the cover of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Louis Collins” wraps accordion and washboard around St. Louis Slim’s dead-on picking with a warm precision that does the creator justice. www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS The originals offer some variety within the band’s near-seamless unity. “Pick Yourself Up” features Andy J. Forest on vocals, with backing that echoes contemporary downtown’s foreboding carny aesthetic. Same, in a way, for Slim’s turn on “Thank the Lord.” This minor-key busking is what you hear in the Quarter and below today, and it fits nicely into this collection with Chaz’s brighter, more Taj Mahal-influenced blues. “Fire Once Again” is a great report on a blaze, with each instrumentalist’s talents weaving the tale. One cannot say enough about Forest’s harmonica, Slim’s slide guitar, or Chaz’s inventive washboard, but, most of all, how they’ve made the sum into a sound. Do we need more versions of “I’ll Fly Away?” Well, people keep dying, or at least threatening to, and Chaz leaves it poignant—no joyous ruckus, just gentle promise. This band has a talent for keeping within themselves and their songs while absolutely swinging, producing a sound authentic to themselves, their influences, and to the streets. —Brian Boyles

Empress Hotel Empress Hotel (Park the Van) Indie folkish rock band Silent Cinema broke up some time last year, and the resulting splinter bands are all more adventurous and modern sounding. The pallet of guitarist Matt Glynn’s new Big History relies heavily on electronic drums and synths. And now Empress Hotel—Cinema singer Micah McKee’s new band with brothers Eric and Ryan Rogers— has also made great strides into the present on their new selftitled, five-song EP. “Bells Ring,” the kickoff track to this inaugural record, features a vocal melody that would’ve fit perfectly into Silent Cinema, a guitar intro channeling Paul Simon via Vampire Weekend, overdriven synth stabs, a thick layer of high-end backing vocals, and deconstructed drums that stylishly stop and start at will, not unlike some of the best songs from www.OFFBEAT.com

Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Near song’s end, ecstatic vocal yelping echoes Animal Collective or early Mercury Rev. Despite remaining listenable, the second song, “Mach Bach,” with its cool faux-Caribbean guitar line, isn’t as strong, or wellformed, or as catchy. Luckily, this is one of the only moments where it might have benefited the band to figure out who really they are before officially releasing anything. The third song shares a name with the band and recalls Flaming Lips with nicely repetitive, classily bland female backing vox. A big silvery wave of keyboards slowly washes over the breakdown vocal bridge, almost drowning it in a beautiful way before the whole thing turns back into a pop song. “Search Lights” is the EP’s best track: a badass, string-driven R&B song with an ambitious bridge pairing acoustic guitar and melodic bleeps and blips. The song is so strong (aside from the line, “Put it on me.” If you find yourself sharing any lyrics with rapper Ja Rule, turn and head the other direction) that once again, you can’t help wishing all these songs were as fleshed out and perfect. Closer “Here Comes the New Challenger,” could also be an upbeat Silent Cinema song, but featuring layered feminine backing vox, electronic drums and other modern trappings. Well done trappings, to be sure. The group’s first EP is thoroughly enjoyable and artistic, if a little green-sounding. Either way, we—especially those of us who love New Orleans music that sounds more like the year we live in—should all celebrate the arrival of Empress Hotel. —Sam Levine A PRI L 2011

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Country Fried Life Is Fine (Independent) Country Fried falls somewhere between ’70s country rock and late ’50s folk, especially given the hearty vocals of Brian Ayres, Taylor Garrett and Todd McNulty. Whether it’s lazy shuffles, gospel-like testimonies (“Faithful Man Woes”) or intros that recall the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” (“That Rainy Weekend”), there’s a certain quirkiness here, which is appealing in its own right since it’s the antithesis of being commercially slick. McNulty’s co-authored “Running Lights” is

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catchy enough—a jilted groom is continuously haunted by sightings of his gold-glittery bride-to-be. Interestingly, the title track comes from a Langston Hughes poem that Garrett astutely adapted into a country song. Initially, the live crowd pleaser “Me & Johnny Cash” seems odd with Garrett’s novelty Johnny Cash character yearning to sing Neil Young’s “Cowgirl in the Sand.” But the concept makes sense given how Cash covered a wide expanse of unlikely material on the Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings. Life is Fine may be fried but it’s far from being burnt. —Dan Willging

The White Bitch The White Bitch’s Brass Balls (Independent) The White Bitch, the brainchild, alter-ego, and band of writer Michael Patrick Welch is one of the most bewildering and obscure creations to come out of

the Crescent City. While Welch’s debut, The White Bitch’s Prey Drive, culled together a decade’s worth of musings and misgivings, his follow-up, The White Bitch’s Brass Balls, makes a statement— one as unapologetic and astute as it is unhinged and alienating. Unlike Prey Drive, the songs on Brass Balls are fully realized, and the album is conceptually congealed. Still, what unfolds isn’t any less eccentric or easy to listen to. Set in a post-Katrina wasteland, Welch strings together stories stemming from substance abuse and a sinking relationship. The music is extravagantly lofi, peppered with paranoid psychedelia, reckless retro-rock, and obtuse, analog fuzz courtesy of co-conspirator Ray Bong. Along the way, Welch’s careening falsetto crashes through a menacing and majestic amalgamation of cosmic garage riffage while streaming horn melodies and punchy shifts enliven the album’s deflating sense of euphoria.

Guided by Welch’s winding guitar, “Hurricane Party’s” grinding groove gives way to the surge of “Car Cute” as the singer bemoans life in a fool’s paradise and begins to grapple with his own misapprehensions. An eerie, unsettling air creeps into the cloying bitterness of “Weekly,” which spills over into the deranged, despondency of “N.O. Unknown.” Elsewhere, flashes of clairvoyance flicker amidst the whimsical torture of “Never Go Anywhere,” only to linger in the acidity of “Feeding Time” before succumbing to the reckless outbursts of “No More Parties.” By the time Welch arrives at the dismal catharsis of “Hold My Attn.,” the icy breakthrough has already slipped through the confusion of “Song to a Bong (Plus Song from a Bong)” as it washes up on a shore of repetition. It takes a real musical misanthrope to concoct such perverse pop mockery, and in the White Bitch’s case, a pair of brass balls. —Aaron Lafont

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Louisiana Red Sweet Blood Call (Fat Possum) I was fine with this until the sortof title track—“Sweetblood Call,” two words, versus the album title above—and then I couldn’t carry it anymore. That’s the song about sticking a gun in a woman’s mouth and threatening to pull the trigger. I thought about it, but I just can’t carry that. Damn shame too since elsewhere on this 1975 set (reissued early this year), Louisiana Red’s everything I’d want in a down-home

blues guitarist: riffs lie languid, single or doubled notes shoot out springloaded to punch through any listener resistance. Red’s red-meat howling compliments his aw-shucks crooning and his bitter, bitten-off asides. But I just can’t carry “Sweetblood Call.” An old friend of mine said Robert Johnson sucked because he sang, “I’m going to beat my woman / Until I get satisfied” and I thought about saying, well, the Velvet Underground sings, “There she goes again. / You better hit her,” and besides, a man like Robert Johnson walking “side by side” with the devil might

Eyewitness to Heaven Michael Oliver-Goodwin Heaven Before I Die (Black Shadow)

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In the year 2011, there are still plenty of people around who saw James Booker and Professor Longhair perform on multiple occasions, or who caught the Dirty Dozen 20 times at the Glass House. But not many in this group has the writing chops to equal Michael Oliver-Goodwin. Oliver-Goodwin has been an accomplished journalist for 40 years, and along the way has written on film and music for The Village Voice, Rolling Stone (where he was the mag’s first film critic), Creem, The New York Times Magazine and so on. This kind of resume requires deep life experiences, and he’s paved the way for this by living his entire life in the three capitals of American Bohemia: first New York, then San Francisco and finally New Orleans (he currently splits his time between NOLA and Oakland). Heaven Before I Die deals almost entirely with his time in New Orleans. He first visited in 1977, and almost immediately became part of the city’s pool of cultural explicators by assisting Les Blank as an interviewer on the film classic, Always for Pleasure. A Jew from Queens, he writes at length about race relations, and these self-conscious moments are sure to make some people squirm as he intended. Nonetheless, most of this 475-page book is an apolitical account of the hundreds of music events—Mardi Gras Indian practices, trad and modern jazz performances, church services, parades— that have made him and the rest of us love New Orleans like no other city. My faves here are the James Booker obit first published in The Village Voice, and a piece comparing the Mardi Gras Indian rituals to traditional practices in Trinidad (Oliver-Goodwin is a Trini obsessive as well, with an encyclopedic knowledge of calypso and a Trini wife). I’ve known Michael for 25 years, and must mention as a conflict of interest issue that one of the book’s 42 chapters deals with my music. Nevertheless, I think I can be objective here and say that this work is on the very short list of great books about New Orleans music. Oliver-Goodwin simply was present to write about too much good epochal stuff to be ignored. —Tom McDermott www.OFFBEAT.com

do horrible things from madness, and damnation. Red shows an overflow of abjection, but neither madness nor damnation. Indeed, he elsewhere on this set hangs out the widespread bluesman conceit about how he’s got a whole lotta fish in his sea, and yes indeed he’s going to catch every single one of them. This doesn’t sit well next to a harrowing account of watching your wife die. Let alone sticking a gun in a woman’s mouth. —Andrew Hamlin

Know One and DamNathan Soundtrack: The Ballad of Know One & DamNathan (Media Darling) Local progressive rapper Know One and producer DamNathan have shared a 10-year working relationship that helped beget the Media Darling Records indie hip-hop collective. For the last five years, they’ve bobbed and weaved between various other projects while continuously working on Soundtrack: The Ballad of Know One & DamNathan, a deep and adventurous record. The fact that stylistic tastes didn’t outrun the album and make it sound dated in that time is a testament to the music’s uniqueness. Know One is as much a vocalist as a rapper. Moving at the pace of OutKast—or, with his high, smooth voice, Bones from Bone Thugs—Know One’s flow would be a great counterargument to anyone complaining that rap lacks melody. Almost every lightning-fast word is sung as much as spoken. It wouldn’t be blowing smoke to call Know One a cross between Big Boi and Drake, though Drake only toys with ideas that Know One takes to mindbending conclusions. In little more than two minutes, the opening Saul Williams-esque song,“Soundtrack,” explores an elaborate analogy between moviemaking and life, ending with the odd and compelling line, “Developed the character that makes the audience care.” “Dumb 4 Dances” is the first of several ultra-poppy songs featuring hooks by singer Rita LaGrange, wife of local staple MC Impulss (who also A PRI L 2011

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guests on several tracks, keeping the fast verbal pace set by Know One). The pop moments could turn off some hardcore rap fans—some songs even sound like Black Eyed Peas, if that group had brains, talent and pathos—but the musical scenes change so quickly you’d never get stuck too long with something you don’t like. Other guests include rapper Able Chris (who, on “Suits and Ties,” skewers the rat race and succeeds in touching on every office cliché ever, while also creating many new surreal ones), deft turntable scratching by DJ Quickie Mart and even acoustic

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touches by Kelly Carlisle and Anthony Cuccia of psychedelic jazz-rock band the Other Planets. But Know One’s most valuable conspirator remains DamNathan, who keeps pace with his partner, providing fast beats ranging in style from complex disco pop to skittery, OutKast-esque bangers. Certain moments approach techno music and even electro rock, with ‘80s synths. While Soundtrack may fly over the heads of some rap fans, many others might consider it the best, most adventurous and yet accessible hip-hop to ever come out of New Orleans. Or any other city. Popular rap could definitely sound like this, if only the corporations would let it. —Sam Levine

You Can’t Keep a Big Man Down Big Joe & the Dynaflows (Severn) Big Joe is a rarity in the blues world. He’s a drummer who doubles as a vocalist. That’s about as rare

as a left-handed baseball catcher. His sound is akin to Roomful of Blues, but more stripped down (less horny, you can say). He relies on well-chosen vintage material, but he’s also capable of writing first-class originals. The title track is one of those originals, as it shuffles along a la mid-1950s B.B. King. Ironically, he covers a couple mid-1950s B.B. King tracks—”Bad Case of Love” and the Jay McShann-penned “Confessin’ the Blues.” The track here that’s an absolute jaw-dropper—especially if you’re from these parts—is the swamp-pop weeper “Evangeline.” You’ll swear you’ve heard this song on an old Guitar Gable or Cookie and the Cupcakes 45, but you haven’t. It’s a Big Joe original. Another witty original is “Property Line,” which “borrows” the arrangement from Israel “Popper Topper” Tolbert’s “Big Leg Woman.” So is the telling lament of the nineto-five grind “Face the Facts.” Definitely recommended to those with a taste for the blues. —Jeff Hannusch

Goldman & Guyland Teaching the Young (Shrimpo) The concept is novel: the seasoned journeyman teaching the budding, young apprentice. But when it comes to accordions, it’s hard to imagine 12-year-old whiz kid Guyland Leday needing any more instruction. Instead, what the septuagenarian Goldman Thibodeaux imparts on three cuts is the older, rough-hewn Creole style that falls somewhere between zydeco and la-la. Leday has no trouble in adapting to Goldman’s emotionally-driven, non-structured technique as evidenced by how his lightning-quick, triple-row runs fit neatly inside Thibodeaux’s single-row playing. Even though Thibodeaux isn’t featured on the remaining selections, bassist/producer Robby Robinson manages to keeps the proceedings in an unadulterated, old-style boom-and-clang fashion rather than straying into anything contemporary. Additionally, Leday’s confidence in

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REVIEWS his vocals has grown immensely; he sings more here than all previous projects combined. Yet given his youth, his voice understandably remains volatile. Regrettably, the overly prominent bass and kick drum are somewhat distracting and interfere with Leday’s vocals on “Birthday Song.” The evolution continues. —Dan Willging

Various Artists Louisiana Cajun & Creole Music: The Newport Field Recordings (Rounder) The Newport Folk Foundation played a pivotal role in the resurgence of Cajun-Creole music when its future looked bleak. At the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, a performance by a Cajun trio that included Dewey Balfa turned out to be a turning

point when an audience of 17,000 gave them a thunderous, standing ovation. Since local popular opinion had scoffed at the idea of Cajun musicians playing out-of-state beforehand, the response came as a welcome surprise. Balfa would go on to become a cultural spokesperson, urging his fellow Cajuns to be proud of their music. Cajun-Creole bands were booked in successive years; Adam and Cyprien Landreneau in ’65, “Bois Sec” Ardoin and Canray Fontenot in ’66 and Les Frères Balfa in ’67. Between 1964 and 1967, the Foundation’s folklorist emeritus Ralph Rinzler visited Louisiana and made these field recordings of the aforementioned plus Austin Pitre and the Evangeline Playboys, ballad singer/fiddler Edius Naquin, and a trio consisting of Isom Fontenot, Preston Manuel and Aubrey DeVille.

Sunday Night Live Various Artists Treme: Music from the HBO Original Series, Season One (Geffen) When we heard live music during the first season of HBO’s Treme, we heard the same thing the cast and crew heard when they shot the scene—a live performance. The numbers weren’t cut in the studio then lip synched for the camera, and those performances dominate the Treme soundtrack. The versions represent the artists as you’d find them on any given night; it’s the version of “Feel Like Funkin’ it Up” you’d hear the Rebirth Brass Band play at a second line or “I Hope You’re Coming Back to New Orleans” that the New Orleans Jazz Vipers would have played nightly at the Spotted Cat. That doesn’t mean the music of the show is strictly true to life. There are moments that never happened such as Davis McAlary/Steve Zahn’s irreverent rewrite of Smiley Lewis’ “Shame Shame Shame” (including additional verses too pointed for television) and the exciting version of “Drinka Little Poison (4 U Die).” It’s the product of a collaboration that had never happened between John Mooney and the Soul Rebels, a moment of creative license that produced a great track and is true in the big picture if not the details. In that way, the album mirrors the show, presenting the trueto-life and the broadly true. It reflects Treme’s larger concern with reinvention, presenting three versions of “Indian Red.” The Treme soundtrack doesn’t try to be the definitive argument for New Orleans music; it simply suggests how good it can be on any given night. —Alex Rawls www.OFFBEAT.com

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Ellington the Blueprint Delfeayo Marsalis Sweet Thunder (Troubadour Jass) Duke Ellington composed music covering an extraordinary range of themes. His 12-song suite Such Sweet Thunder is not among his better-known works, but it is a beautiful and thoughtful piece of music that possesses all the coloration, dynamics and swing that Ellington is known for. Delfeayo Marsalis has been fascinated with this work for years and his interpretation of the work, Sweet Thunder, is the result of meticulous scholarship and practice, including a live performance of the suite that helped him understand the ways it could be shaped. The impressive packaging of this album contains detailed annotation and commentary, the most provocative of which comes from jazz theorist and composer Gunther Schuller, who argues that Ellington is beyond interpretation. Schuller suggests that any interpretation of Ellington’s music cheapens it, yet Marsalis answers this challenge with the equally convincing argument that Such Sweet Thunder was designed by Ellington as a kind of blueprint to be explored by others. In his research, Marsalis discovered that Ellington’s original score was different from the final recording, so he adapted his version from both sources. Marsalis achieves the remarkable feat of maintaining fidelity to Ellington’s creation while altering it in subtle and wonderful ways. Several pieces, particularly the sonnets, are organized very closely to the original arrangements, but others are opened up dramatically. “Circle of Fourths” is expanded in scope to the point where it becomes the finale of the suite in the Marsalis version. Delfeayo is mindful of the players he’s working with, taking a cue from Ellington, who wrote parts with the strengths of his band members in mind. “Up & Down, Up & Down” was originally a vehicle for Clark Terry’s trumpet, but here Marsalis uses Victor Goines on soprano sax to portray the impish Puck. On “Madness in Great Ones,” Delfeayo’s trombone is the “voice of reason” arguing with the increasingly unhinged Goines on sopranino sax. On “Sonnet for Sister Kate,” Ellington’s piano intro is replaced by Jason Marshall’s bass clarinet. Marsalis gets top performances out of two of his siblings on the set. Jason’s drumming is superb, particularly in setting the mood on “Sonnet for Sister Kate” and on his “Sonnet in Search of a Moor” solo. Branford Marsalis is outstanding on soprano, putting his unique, improvisational stamp on the defining solos in “Sonnet for Caesar” and the Cleopatra piece, “Half the Fun.” Delfeayo himself is key to the proceedings, of course, playing strategic parts that don’t always call attention to themselves but flourish when the dynamics of the piece call for it. His ability to move easily and out of Ellington’s framework by following the clues Ellington left is the key to Sweet Thunder’s success. —John Swenson Now, in its third generation of reissue, both volumes of Rounder’s historical Louisiana Cajun French Music are combined into one epic, 27-track disc. Though that fact is omitted from the physical packaging, it is mentioned in the vastly expanded liner notes, an 84page PDF document embedded in

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the disc. Incidentally, be prepared to spend some time digesting the document’s articles, interviews and lyric translations. Many of the tunes heard here are sonic signatures of their respective performers, such as the Balfa Brothers’ “Parlez-nous à boire,” Canray Fontenot’s “Bonsoir,

Moreau” and Austin Pitre’s “Les flames d’Enfer.” Armed with quality equipment, Rinzler certainly captured the best of his subjects. The performances are often gutwrenchingly powerful and highly emotive, causing them to resonate within the soul some six decades later. —Dan Willging

Ben Kono Crossings (19/8) Double reeds have the potential to sound terribly out of place on a jazz record (take Daniel Smith’s dubious Blue Bassoon project), but on Crossings Ben Kono makes a good case for the English horn. As the record opens, it settles lightly between Pete McCann’s guitar and Henry Hey’s piano, sounding almost like a soprano sax. But when it goes into parallel with Heather Laws’ French horn the effect is something quite different. Kono is a formidable multi-instrumentalist, tackling clarinets, oboes, flutes, even the shakuhachi. But he admirably avoids shoehorning them into inappropriate contexts. When things start to swing, he picks up the sax. Kono’s compositional style resembles that of John Hollenbeck (who joins Kono on drums), even if it doesn’t reach the same level of complexity. As in Hollenbeck’s work, the influence of contemporary classical music is everywhere. Kono admits an interest in the New York-based Bang on a Can collective, and minimalist touches abound— particularly in the swirling winds that open “Castles and Daffodils” and “The Crossing”. Yet he continually tempers his more experimental inclinations, alternating with tracks that would sound right at home on most contemporary jazz stations. On “Castles and Daffodils” the aforementioned introductory fanfare breaks down after two or three minutes and transitions into a straight-ahead jam. The result is that Kono’s most interesting ideas never get taken to their logical conclusions. —Zachary Young

Barrence Whitfield & the Savages Barrence Whitfield & the Savages (Ace UK) Lookie, lookie—this here’s a real cookie. While the early 1980s spawned such musical atrocities as Ratt, Milli Vanilli and Bananarama, it was also an era that produced several great “retro roots” bands, including Los Lobos, the Blasters, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Rockpile, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the LeRoi Brothers. It was also a period when the Rounder, Alligator and Black Top labels were mining the music of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Amidst this period of great music, Boston’s Barrence Whitfield and the Savages unexpectedly appeared, and this reissue of their first vinyl LP is hands down one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums of the 1980s. This CD still sounds like it’s really a recording session with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ grandson singing with Lee Allen on sax, and the Stray Cats, after a week-long binge of Red Bulls. Like all great rock ‘n’ roll records, most of these songs max out at around two minutes, so the original 13-track LP was quite short. The CD version has been embellished by 10 outtakes, live tracks and rehearsal tapes. Of the previously issued tracks, most are obscure covers and are played at a torrid tempo. Whitfield screams, shouts and testifies through the likes of “Bip Bop Bip,” “Miss Shake It,” “Walkin’ With Barrence” “Mama Get the Hammer” and the ridiculous “Georgia Slop.” Of the originals, “Whiskey Wagon,” “Savage Sax” and “Walk Out” border on sheer insanity. There are several unexpected treats among the unissued tracks, including a ballad, “These Arms of Mine,” and several tracks with ties to these parts. There’s a rough stab at Hop Wilson’s “Rockin’ in the Coconut Top,” a live Smiley Lewis medley that’s to die for, and our own John Swenson wrote the informative liner notes. This one’s not for the faint hearted. But if you want to be savaged, Barrence Whitfield is the ticket. —Jeff Hannusch www.OFFBEAT.com

REVIEWS

Koray Broussard & the Zydeco Unit Trapped (MTE) Just because you hail from healthy zydeco bloodlines doesn’t guarantee overnight success. Koray Broussard’s grandfather was the venerable Delton Broussard, honcho of the Lawtell Playboys, and uncle Jeffery practically ignited the nouveau zydeco movement with Zydeco Force. But the sounds from this envelopepushing Broussard draw stronger parallels to former bandleader Curley Taylor than any family legacy. Broussard’s predominantly original affair offers surprising maturity and unexpected veteran seasoning that’s fairly remarkable considering that he was only 20 at the time of this recording. His lyrics unravel honest story lines (“Trapped”), while his singing emotes tenderness and sincerity (“Roll with Me”). Additionally, he’s a skilled multiinstrumentalist, showcasing spot-on single/triple-row accordion playing, a relentless rhythm guitar attack and strong, pulsing bass lines that indicate a solid rhythmic foundation. With contemporary R&B and gospel influences permeating throughout, most of this is modern 21st-Century zydeco, with the exception of “My Woman Wanna Zydeco” and “Don’t Bother Me.” Instead, they have a distinct mid-’90s flavor since they were written by pops Lappy of Zydeco Blazers fame. But family ties aside, Broussard has plenty to say on his own with material that stylistically ranges from breezy R&B to hard-charging crunk. An artist worth taking note of. —Dan Willging

Green Demons Outer Sex (Independent) The Green Demons’ debut album, Outer Sex, introduces us to the dual guitar and vocals of Todd Voltz and Gwendolyn Knapp. Voltz is a long-haired actor who has appeared in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, and the Comedy Central staple Waiting among other movies (he played the cook who spit in the www.OFFBEAT.com

food). He also fronted the hammy but heavy metal-esque band Hands of Nero. Voltz enjoys creating fiction and characters, here embodying a slightly less over-the-top persona than in Hands of Nero when he sings double entendres such as, “Tight spot! / You know I’m looking for one / every day and every night” on the song “Tight Spot.” One could probably assume Voltz also wrote the song “Life is Rich,” which he relates from the point of view of a pirate. And he surely came up with the title of the album—the cover of which features an amazing, naturalistic painting by renowned New Orleans artist Scott Guion, depicting the band being beamed up into a spaceship. Miss Knapp, for her part, is more of a cool rock singer with a voice anyone would recognize as good, and lyrics that sometimes touch on her actual life here on Earth (“My momma never loved me until I was grown”). She met Voltz in an improv comedy troupe, so they share a strong sense of humor, and an attraction to horror movies, aliens and the surf rock that permeates their album. The music they create with their talented, surprisingly solid band veers from goofy to something almost as serious as Bad Brains, with some of the Brains’ pummel traded out for twangy reverb, and all reggae purged in favor of Southern/country rock flourishes. The drums are pounding and flawless. Little bits of ear candy, like synth lines, and guitar solos with ’80s hair-metal personality pop in and out, giving the listener respite from the equally pounding guitars. In the end, one could focus on the goofiness inherent in Outer Sex, but most are likely to dig the tight production, musicianship and creativity. Or just pump their fists and bang their stoned heads. —Sam Levine

pat obriens

A PRI L 2011

When you’re out, text the word ‘offbeat’ to 33669 for daily listings. For complete listings, go to www.offbeat.com

Listings

EXPRESS

Here are OffBeat’s highlights of music and entertainment in New Orleans and the surrounding area for the current month. Each day’s events are listed in alphabetical order by club or venue. Listings are compiled based on information provided by clubs, bands and promoters up to our deadlines. Unfortunately, some information was not available at press time and listings are subject to change. Special events, concerts, festivals and theater listings follow the daily listings. For up-to-theminute, complete music listings, check OffBeat’s web page at www.offbeat.com. For more details on a show, call the club directly. Phone numbers of clubs are shown in this section and/or at www.offbeat.com. To include your date or event, please email information to our listings editor, Craig Guillot at craigguillot@offbeat.com or call 504-944-4300. Mr. Guillot can also provide listing deadlines for upcoming issues.

AC AU BL BU BB SH KJ KS CL CO CW DN FE FK GS IR IN MJ TJ JV LT ME PK PP RG RH RB RR SI SW TC VO ZY

A Cappella Acoustic Blues Bluegrass Brass Band Cabaret/Show Cajun Christian Classical Comedy Country Dance Folk Funk Gospel Indie Rock International/World Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Trad Jazz, Variety Latin Metal Piano/Keyboards Pop/Top 40/Covers Reggae Rap/Hip Hop Rhythm & Blues Rock Swing/Gypsy Spoken Word Techno/Dance/Electronica Vocals Zydeco

SMOKE-FREE SHOW

FRIDAY APRIL 1

AllWays Lounge: Six solo acoustic acts (AU) 10p Apple Barrel: John Maxwell (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Hood (BL) 11p BMC: Moonshine and Caroline (OR) 7p, Rue Fiya (FK) 10p, One Mind Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Blue Nile: Mykia Jovan and Jason Butler (JV) 8p, Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 10:30p; Balcony Room: Bottoms Up Blues Gang (BL) 10p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p

APRIL 2011

Chickie Wah Wah: Amy Trail (OR) 5p, Paul Sanchez (RR FE OR) 8p, Paul Eason (CW) 10p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6p, Happy Talk Band, R. Scully and the Rough 7 (RR) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: DMC NOLA DJ Battle (TC) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Professor Piano Series feat. David Reis (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Jazz Quarter: Grand Opening with John Rankin (JV) 5p, Fredrick Sanders and Funksion (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Damien Louviere (BL) 5p, Surf Chixxx (IR) 9p Maple Leaf: Radiators (RR FK RB) 10p Margaritaville: Colin Lake (BL) 3p, Irving Bannister’s Allstars (RB) 6p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 9p New Orleans Museum of Art: Laptop Orchestra (OR) 5:30p Republic New Orleans: Damion Yancy (RH) 10p Rivershack: Broken Heart Pharoahs (BL) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: the Mixed Nuts (PP RR RB) 9:30p Rusty Nail: Mia Borders (FK RR) 10p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: the Mumbles (RB) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Brass Band Blowout Weekend (BB) 10p # Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mojo Trio (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SATURDAY APRIL 2

AllWays Lounge: Ritmo Calypso (RG RR) 10p Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p; CDrelease party feat. Dirty Bourbon River, Tin Men, Holy Ghost Tent Revival (RR) 10p; Balcony Room: Enharmonic Souls (RR RB) 10p; DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a BMC: New Orleans Jazz Series (JV) 3p, Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p, Shamarr Allen (JV) 9:30p, Ashton and the Big Easy Brawlers Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Shannon McNally (RR OR FE) 9p d.b.a.: John Boutté (JV) 8p, Eric Lindell CD-release party (FK RR BL) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Honeyboy Carencro CD-release party, Khris Royal and Dark Matter (RH BL) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Don Vappie (JV) 8p, Brass Band Jam feat. Brass-AHolics (BB) 12a Jazz Quarter: Cristina Perez Trio (JV) 5p, Chris Adkins (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Heidi Campbell and Paul Tobin (FE) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (RR) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Michael Liuzza (OR) 2p, Honeyboy Carencro (OR) 3p, New Orleans Moonshiners (OR) 4p

Maison: Kelcy Mae (FE RR) 5p, Kristina Morales (JV) 7p, Yojimbo (RB FK) 10p and 12a Maple Leaf: Radiators (RR FK RB) 10p Margaritaville: Joe Bennett (RR) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p Republic New Orleans: Men (Le Tigre side project), ROMY, Big Freedia (IN DN RH) 8:30p Rivershack: Mustard Brothers (RR) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 9:30p Ruby’s Roadhouse: Big Al and the Heavyweights (BL) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Astral Project (MJ) 8 and 10p Southport Hall: 5 Finger Discount, Kyle Turley Band (RR) 5p Spotted Cat: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 3p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Davis Rogan Band (JV) 10p Three Muses: The Mission Three (JV) 7p, Andy J Forest and the N.O. Town Band (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Brass Band Blowout Weekend (BB) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SUNDAY APRIL 3

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Ivoire Spectacle (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Sunday Night Brass with MAINLINE (BB) 10p BMC: NOLA Music Series (VR) 1p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW FE) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9:30p Club Caribbean: Sister Carol with the Yellow Wall Dub Squad (RG) 11p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (TJ) 6p, Mas Mamones (IN LT) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Tyler’s Revisited feat. Germaine Bazzle and Paul Longstreth (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Traditional Irish Session (FE) 5p, Fidgety Rabbit with Beth Patterson (FE) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Sunday Brass (BB) 9p Maison: Nickel-A-Dance feat. Benny Grunch and the Bunch (JV TJ) 4p, Rhythm Jesters (BL JV SI) 7p, Margie Perez (BL FK LT) 10p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio with Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (JV BL) 10p Margaritaville: Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 3p, Cindy Chen (RR RB) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: The Boogie Men, Wise Guys (PP) 5p Snug Harbor: John Mahoney Big Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Debbie Davis (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

MONDAY APRIL 4

Apple Barrel: Sam Camaratta (BL) 8p, I Tell You What with Adam Crochet (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Big Pearl and the Fugitives of Funk (FK) 9p BMC: Fun in the Pocket feat. Mayumi Shara (BL) 5p, Smoky Greenwell’s Blues Jam (BL) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: call club d.b.a.: Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Fritzel’s: Tim Laughlin Quartet (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Bob French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (OR CW) 9p Mahalia Jackson Theater: Harry Connick, Jr. and Orchestra (JV) 7:30p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Truman Holland (RR CW) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Rivershack: Dave Jordan (RR) 7p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Speakeasy Songwriters Revue w. Kristin Diable (SS) 7p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 5p, Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Damien Louviere (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 5

AllWays Lounge: Zoe Boekbinder (RR) 10p Apple Barrel: Luke Winslow-King (BL) 8p, Kenny Schwartz and Palace of Sin (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Balcony Room: Open Ears Music Series with Bodhi3 (JV) 10p BMC: Dana Abbott Band (OR) 6p, Royal Rounders (BL) 8:30p, Lagniappe Brass Band (BB) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Grayson Capps (RR) 8p d.b.a.: New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Jason Marsalis (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Honky Tonk open mic feat. Jason Bishop (RR CW) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jay B. Elston (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p Margaritaville: Ched Reeves (RR) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Truman Holland (RR CW) 9p Republic New Orleans: the Residents, C.O.G. (OR) 9p Snug Harbor: Rob Wagner Trio (MJ) 8p, Rob Wagner Trio (MJ) 10p Tipitina’s: The Wailers perform Uprising, Duane Stephenson (RG) 9p Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Two Fools on Stools (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Mojo Trio (PP) 9p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC

WEDNESDAY APRIL 6

Apple Barrel: Wendy Darling (BL) 8p, Bottoms Up Blues Gang (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: United Postal Project (JV) 8p, Snarky Puppy and Eastern Blok (JV SI) 10:30p BMC: Geb Rault Band (OR) 6p, Lynn Drury (BL) 8:30p, Blues4Sale (BL) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p d.b.a.: Tin Men (JV) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield’s NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter:Alex Bosworth (JV) 6p, Chris Alford (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson and Mark McGrain (OR BL RR) 9p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Soul Rebels (JV BB) 5p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 10p Margaritaville: Lisa Lynn (RR CW) 3p, Joe Bennett (RR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Johhny J. and the Hit Men with Derek Huston (JV) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Jenn Howard’s Jazz Set (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8and 10p Three Muses: Monty Banks Trio (JV) 7p Tipitina’s: Band of Horses, Tyler Ramsey (RR) 9p Tropical Isle: Damien Louviere (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

THURSDAY APRIL 7

AllWays Lounge: NOLA Country (CW) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 8p, Andy J Forest (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Bottoms Up Blues Gang (BL) 7p, DJ T-Roy presents Reggae Night with Bayou International (RG) 10p; Balcony Room: Gravity A (FK RH) 11p BMC: Ramblin’ Letters (BL GS) 6p, Cha Wa (BL) 8:30p, the Low-Stress Quintet (JV) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Social Dance (SI TJ) 8p d.b.a.: Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs (JV) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Mission Honduras Benefit with Benjy Davis Project (RR FK) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha and Steve Masakowski (JV) 2:30p, Piano Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton feat. Tom McDermott and Evan Christopher (JV) 5p, Los Hombres Calientes (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Matt Bell (JV) 6p, Joshua Gouzy Trio (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Buddy Francioni and Home Grown (FE) 8p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p Maple Leaf: The Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter, Jr. and guest (JV FK) 10p Margaritaville: Jimmy James (RR) 3p, Colin Lake (BL) 6p, Captain Leo (RR) 9p Ogden Museum: Ogden After Hours feat. An Evening of Classics with members of the LPO (CL) 6p Republic New Orleans: Warpaint, PVT, Family Band (RR) 9p Rivershack: Christian George (RR BL) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Rosie Ledet (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Larry Willis with Jason Marsalis and Jesse Boyd (MJ) 8 and 10p

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Spotted Cat: Brett Richardson (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, New Orleans Moonshiners (JV) 10p Three Muses: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 7p, Jayna Morgan (JV) 10p Tropical Isle: TBA (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 8

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Mykia Jovan and Jason Butler (JV) 8p, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 10p; Balcony Room: Bottoms Up Blues Gang, the Mumbles (BL RB) 9p; DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a BMC: Moonshine and Caroline (OR) 7p, Rue Fiya (FK) 10p, One Mind Brass Band (BB) 1a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Vaud and the Villains, Paul Sanchez and Debbie Davis (ZY RR JV) 8p d.b.a.: Linnzi Zaorski (TJ JV) 6p, Joe Krown Trio with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (JV BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Jermaine Quiz with Derrick Freeman, Kirk Joseph (FK RH) 10p Howlin’ Wolf: Lillian Axe (ME) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Modern Jazz Masters Celebration feat. Victor Atkins, Ed Petersen and Steve Masakowski (JV) 2:30p, Piano Tribute to Professor Longhair feat. Tom Worrell (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Jazz Quarter: Sasha Masakowski Trio (JV) 5p, Fredrick Sanders and Funksion (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson Band (FE) 4p, Foot and friends (RR BL) 8p Maple Leaf: Good Enough for Good Times, Andrew Hall (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Colin Lake (BL) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p New Orleans Museum of Art: Harpist Cathy Anderson (TC) 5:30p One Eyed Jacks: Billy Iuso and the Restless Natives with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (FK) 10p Palm Court: Ernie Buscio Jazz Band (JV) 7p, Clive Wilson and the Palm Court Jazz Band with Bob Havens, David Boeddinghaus, Otis Bazoon, Gerald Adams and Hal Smith (JV) 8:15p Republic New Orleans: Jean-Eric (RR) 11p Rivershack: Broken Heart Pharoahs (BL) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 9:30p Rusty Nail: Cha Wa (FK) 7p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Southport Hall: Know Your Enemy (RR) 10p Three Muses: Davis Rogan (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Break Science, Chali2na feat. Eric Krasno and Kirk Joseph, Gypsyphonic Disko, Gravity A (TC) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mojo Trio (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 1p, Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SATURDAY APRIL 9

AllWays Lounge: Silver Apples, Automata Afterparty (RR) 10p Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p A PRI L 2011

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p, call club 10p; Balcony Room: Jamie Hayes’ CDrelease party (JV) 7p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a BMC: New Orleans Jazz Series (JV) 3p, Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p, Shamarr Allen (JV) 9:30p, Ashton and the Big Easy Brawlers Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Sunpie Barnes and Buckwheat Zydeco (ZY) 9p d.b.a.: John Boutté (JV) 8p, Little Freddie King (BL) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Baby Boyz Brass Band (BB) 2:30p, Piano Tribute to James Booker feat. Joe Krown (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the Playhouse Revue (JV) 8p, Brass Band Jam feat. Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 12a Jazz Quarter: Cristina Perez Trio (JV) 5p, Matt Marantz (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FE) 4p, Rites of Passage (RR FE) 8p Maple Leaf: Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Joe Bennett (RR) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p New Orleans Arena: Lady Gaga (PP) 7p One Eyed Jacks: Vaud and the Villains (ZY RR) 8p, Fleur de Lindy Party with Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV SI) 12a Palm Court: Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band with John Parker (JV) 8p Rivershack: Austin Sicard (RR BL) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Spotted Cat: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 3p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Jazz Vipers (JV) 10p Three Muses: Bottoms Up Blues Gang (BL) 7p, Frenchmen St. Jug Band (JV) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, TBA (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SUNDAY APRIL 10

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Reddy Teddy (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Sunday Night Brass with MAINLINE (BB) 10p BMC: NOLA Music Series (VR) 1p, Cristina Perez (OR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9:30p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (TJ) 6p, Iris May Tango (FK JV) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Leo Jackson and the Melody Clouds (JV) 12p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 2:30p, Bill Summers and Orchestra Yoruba Afro America (JV IN) 5p, Shannon Powell Trio (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Lynn Drury Trio (OR RR) 8p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio with Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (JV BL) 10p Margaritaville: Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 3p, Cindy Chen (RR RB) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Snug Harbor: Tom McDermott and Evan Christopher CD-release party (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

APRIL 2011

MONDAY APRIL 11

Apple Barrel: Sam Camaratta (BL) 8p, call club (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Big Pearl and the Fugitives of Funk (FK) 9p BMC: Fun in the Pocket feat. Mayumi Shara (BL) 6p, Smoky Greenwell’s Blues Jam (BL) 9:30p Chickie Wah Wah: Evan Christopher’s International Jazz Jam (JV) 7p d.b.a.: Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Fritzel’s: Tim Laughlin Quartet (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Bob French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Mike Ryan (OR FE) 5p, Kim Carson (OR CW) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jason Bishop (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Truman Holland (RR CW) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Rivershack: Dave Jordan (RR) 7p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Debbie Davis (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 5p, Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Damien Louviere (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 12

Apple Barrel: Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Kenny Schwartz and Palace of Sin (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Balcony Room: Open Ears Music Series with Justin Peake (JV) 10p BMC: Dana Abbott Band (OR) 6p, Royal Rounders (BL) 8:30p, Lagniappe Brass Band (BB) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Grayson Capps (RR) 8p d.b.a.: New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Fair to Midland, Periphery, Scale the Summit (ME RR) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Jason Marsalis (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Honky Tonk open mic feat. Jason Bishop (RR CW) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jay B Elston (PP) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Ken Colyer Trust Party feat. Kid Simmons’ New Orleans Band (OR) 6p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p Margaritaville: Ched Reeves (RR) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Truman Holland (RR CW) 9p Snug Harbor: Thelonious Monk Institute Ensemble (MJ) 8 and 10p Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Two Fools on Stools (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Mojo Trio (PP) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 13

Apple Barrel: Wendy Darling (BL) 8p, I Tell You What with Adam Crochet (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: United Postal Project, the Mumbles (JV RB) 8p BMC: Geb Rault Band (OR) 6p, Lynn Drury (BL) 8:30p, Blues4Sale (BL) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p d.b.a.: Tin Men (JV) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p

Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield’s NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Alex Bosworth (JV) 6p, Joshua Gouzy Trio (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (OR BL RR) 9p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Kermit Ruffins, COOT (JV) 5p Maple Leaf: Khris Royal and Dark Matter (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Lisa Lynn (RR CW) 3p, Joe Bennett (RR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9p Palm Court: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman and the Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Joe Krown (SI) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Jenn Howard’s Jazz Set (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Schatzy (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Damien Louviere (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

THURSDAY APRIL 14

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 8p, Mike Darby and the House of Cards (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: DJ T-Roy presents Reggae Night with Bayou International (RG) 10p; Balcony Room: Gravity A (FK RH) 11p BMC: The Ramblin’ Letters (BL) 6p, Space Heaters (OR) 8:30p, Low-Stress Quintet (JV) 10p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Social Dance (SI TJ) 8p d.b.a.: Paul Sanchez (RR FE OR) 7p, Ernie Vincent and the Top Notes (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Roman Skakun (BL JV) 5p, Little Freddie King (BL) 8p Jazz Quarter: Matt Bell (JV) 6p, Ed Barrett Trio (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Crescent City Celtic Band (FE) 8p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Al Hebert (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: The Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich and guests (JV FK) 10p Margaritaville: Jimmy James (RR) 3p, Colin Lake (BL) 6p, Captain Leo (RR) 9p New Orleans Arena: Lil Wayne (RH) 7p Ogden Museum: Ogden After Hours feat. David Torkanowsky and friends (JV) 6p Palm Court: Leroy Jones and Katja Toivola and Crescent City Joymakers (JV) 8p Republic New Orleans: The Raveonettes, Tamaryn (RR PP) 10p Rivershack: Home Grown (RR BL) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Curley Taylor (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Carlos Malta (MJ) 8 and 10p Spotted Cat: Brett Richardson (JV) 4p, Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 6p, New Orleans Moonshiners (JV) 10p Three Muses: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 7p, Washboard Rodeo (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: The Bridge, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 9p Tropical Isle: Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 15

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Blue Nile: Mykia Jovan and Jason Butler (JV) 8p, Feufollet, Brass Bed (KJ PP) 10:30p; Balcony Room: Balcony Room: call club 10p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a BMC: Moonshine and Caroline (OR) 7p, Rue Fiya (FK) 10p; One Mind Brass Band (BB) 1a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carrolton Station: Kelcy Mae CD-release party with the Ramblin’ Letters and Joe Adragna (FE RR) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Pfister Sisters (JV) 5p, Phil Lee with Tom Mason and Eric Brace (OR FE) 8p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 6p, call club 10p COMPLETE LISTINGS ON THE GO at offbeat.com/mobile. Check from any cellphone, or add to your iPhone, Android, Blackberry home screen.

Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Historic New Orleans Collection: Glen David Andrews (JV) 6p House of Blues (the Parish): Sugar Hill Gang (RH) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Zoogma, Greenhouse Lounge, Earphunk (FK) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Professor Piano Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Jazz Quarter: Sasha Masakowski Trio (JV) 5p, Fredrick Sanders and Funksion (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Damien Louviere (BL) 5p, Fidgety Rabbit with Beth Patterson (FE) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Rok Boms (RR) 11p Maple Leaf: Gravy (RR) 10p Margaritaville: Colin Lake (BL) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p New Orleans Museum of Art: the Acadias (CL) 5:30p Republic New Orleans: Big History (RR) 11p Rivershack: Broken Heart Pharoahs (BL) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Top Cats (PP) 9:30p Snug Harbor: Carlos Malta (MJ) 8 and 10p Southport Hall: The Molly Ringwalds (RR) 10p Three Muses: Margie Perez (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Smoke Dogg: A Tribute to Nate Dogg feat. Derrick Freeman’s Smoker’s World, with Johnny Sketch, Corey Henry, Koan and M@ Peoples (RR RH) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mojo Trio (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SATURDAY APRIL 16

Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p, Soul Rebels with Dr. Gonzeaux (BB) 10p; Balcony Room: call club 10p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 1a BMC: New Orleans Jazz Series (JV) 3p, Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p, Sasha Masakowski (JV) 9:30p, Ashton and the Big Easy Brawlers Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Mem Shannon (BL) 9p d.b.a.: John Boutté (JV) 8p, call club 11p Euclid Records: Record Store Day Party feat. Generationals, Felix and others (OR) 11:30a Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues: Root of Life Tour feat. Stephen Marley (RG) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Shannon Powell (JV) 8p, Brass Band Jam feat. Brass-A-Holics (BB) 12a

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Jazz Quarter: Moonshine and Caroline (JV) 5p, the Session (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FE) 5p, Invisible Cowboy Band (OR CW) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Tarik Hassan Quintet (JV) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Jason Bishop (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Kelcy Mae (OR) 2p, Lynn Drury (OR) 3p, Ken Swartz (OR) 4p Maple Leaf: Bonerama (FK BB) 10p Margaritaville: Joe Bennett (RR) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p One Eyed Jacks: Lost Bayou Ramblers (KJ) 10p Palm Court: Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band with Seva Venet (JV) 8p Rivershack: Truman Holland (RR BL) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Mike Zito, Amanda Shaw (BL KJ) 9p Rusty Nail: The N’awlins Johnnys (RR SI) 10p Snug Harbor: Topsy Chapman and Solid Harmony (MJ) 8 and 10p Spotted Cat: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 3p, Panorama Jazz Band (JV) 6p, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV TJ) 10p Three Muses: Young Spodie (JV) 7p, Frenchmen St. Jug Band (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: “Trumpets Not Guns” feat. Glen David Andrews, Cyril and Gaynielle Neville, and others (JV) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SUNDAY APRIL 17

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Ivoire Spectacle (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Bill Summers’ International Market (JV) 12p, Sunday Night Brass with MAINLINE (BB) 10p; Balcony Room: Voices of New Orleans Songwriters Night and Open Mic (SS) 7p BMC: NOLA Music Series (VR) 1p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW FE) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9:30p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (TJ) 6p, Andrew Duhon and Kristin Diable (AU OR) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Tyler’s Revisited feat. Germaine Bazzle and Paul Longstreth (JV) 7p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Kerry Irish Pub: The Bloomin’ Onions (FE) 8p Le Bon Temps Roule: Sunday Brass (BB) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Jason Bishop (PP) 4:30p, Lacy Blackledge (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio with Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (JV BL) 10p Margaritaville: Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 3p, Cindy Chen (RR RB) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p One Eyed Jacks: Fleur de Tease (SH) 10p Palm Court: Wendell Brunious and Sunday Night Swingsters (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Paul Varisco (PP RR) 5p Snug Harbor: Vadim Neselovskyi (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Sarah Quintana (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

MONDAY APRIL 18

Apple Barrel: Sam Camaratta (BL) 8p, Johnny Jay and Benny Maygarten (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Big Pearl and the Fugitives of Funk (FK) 9p

BMC: Fun in the Pocket feat. Mayumi Shara (BL) 6p, Smoky Greenwell’s Blues Jam (BL) 9:30p d.b.a.: Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Fritzel’s: Tim Laughlin Quartet (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Bob French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Kim Carson (OR CW) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jason Bishop (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Truman Holland (RR CW) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Rivershack: Dave Jordan (RR) 7p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Speakeasy Songwriters Revue w. Kristin Diable (SS) 7p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 5p, Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Damien Louviere (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 19

Apple Barrel: Luke Winslow-King (BL) 8p, Kenny Schwartz and Palace of Sin (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Balcony Room: Open Ears Music Series with Mike Jenner Group (MJ) 10p BMC: Dana Abbott Band (OR) 6p, Royal Rounders (BL) 8:30p, Lagniappe Brass Band (BB) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Grayson Capps (RR) 8p d.b.a.: New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Pete Yorn, Ben Kweller, the Wellspring (RR) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Jason Marsalis (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Schatzy and friends (OR BL) 8p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jay B Elston (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p Margaritaville: Ched Reeves (RR) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Truman Holland (RR CW) 9p Snug Harbor: Tony Green and Gypsy Jazz (MJ) 8 and 10p Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Two Fools on Stools (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Mojo Trio (PP) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 20

Apple Barrel: Wendy Darling (BL) 8p, Rockin’ Jake (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: United Postal Project (JV) 8p, Khris Royal and Dark Matter (JV FK) 10p BMC: Geb Rault Band (OR) 6p, Lynn Drury (BL) 8:30p, Blues4Sale (BL) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p d.b.a.: Tin Men (JV RR) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (MJ) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse 2nd Anniversary Celebration and book-release party (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Alex Bosworth (JV) 6p, Chris Alford (JV) 9p A PRI L 2011

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson (OR BL RR) 9p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Anders Osborne, Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 5p Louisiana Music Factory: Drew Landry (OR) 5p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 10p Margaritaville: Lisa Lynn (RR CW) 3p, Joe Bennett (RR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9p Palm Court: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman and the Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Jerry Embree (SI) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Jenn Howard’s Jazz Set (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Jeremy Lyons and the Deltabilly Boys (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Damien Louviere (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

THURSDAY APRIL 21

AllWays Lounge: Lake, Ages and Ages (RR) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 8p, Andy J Forest (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: DJ T-Roy presents Reggae Night with Bayou International (RG) 10p; Balcony Room: Gravity A (FK RH) 11p BMC: The Ramblin’ Letters (BL) 6p, the Mambles (OR) 8:30p, Low-Stress Quintet (JV) 10p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Social Dance (SI TJ) 8p d.b.a.: Jimbo Mathus and Tri-State Coalition (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Jessica Lea Mayfield, Nathaniel Rateliff (RR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Roman Skakun (BL JV) 5p, Shannon Powell (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Matt Bell (JV) 6p, Rex Gregory (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Lynn Drury (OR RR) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Al Hebert (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: The Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich, James Singleton and Robert Walter (JV FK) 10p Margaritaville: Jimmy James (RR) 3p, Colin Lake (BL) 6p, Captain Leo (RR) 9p Ogden Museum: Ogden After Hours feat. Jimbo Mathus (BL CW) 6p Palm Court: Tim Laughlin and Crescent City Joymakers with Duke Heitger (JV) 8p Rivershack: Blackened Blues unplugged (BL) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Sasha Masakowski and Musical Playground CD-release party (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 7p, Aurora Nealand (JV) 10p Tropical Isle: Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 22

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Brass-A-Holics (BB) 10p; Balcony Room: the Mumbles (RB) 10p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 12a

APRIL 2011

BMC: Moonshine and Caroline (OR) 7p, Rue Fiya (FK) 10p, One Mind Brass Band (BB) 1a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: The Geraniums (RR OR) 10p d.b.a.: call club (OR) 6p, Elastic Waistband feat. members of Morphine (BL JV RR) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues: Jonny Lang (BL) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Professor Piano Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Jazz Quarter: Sasha Masakowski Trio (JV) 5p, Fredrick Sanders and Funksion (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Steve Keith (FE) 5p, Hurricane Refugees (RR) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Los Po-Boy-Citos (LT) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Dwight Breland (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Good Enough for Good Times, Gravy (FK RR) 10p Margaritaville: Colin Lake (BL) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p New Orleans Museum of Art: call museum 5:30p One Eyed Jacks: Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns (JV TJ) 10p Palm Court: Clive Wilson and the Palm Court Jazz Band with Butch Thompson (JV) 8p Republic New Orleans: Force Feed Radio (TC DN RB) 11p Rivershack: Broken Heart Pharoahs (BL) 9p Rusty Nail: Country Fried (BU CW) 10p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Pfister Sisters (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Eric Lindell (RR) 10p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mojo Trio (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 1p, Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Brandon Giles (PP) 10p

SATURDAY APRIL 23

Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Washboard Chaz Blues Trio (BL) 7p, Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 10:30p; Balcony Room: Soul Project (JV FK) 10p, DJ Real and Black Pearl (FK RH) 1a BMC: New Orleans Jazz Series (JV) 3p, Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p, Creole Syncopators CD-release party (JV) 9:30p, Ashton and the Big Easy Brawlers Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Mark Mullins with June Yamagishi, Nori Naraoka and Alvin Ford (JV FK RR) 9p d.b.a.: John Boutté (JV) 8p, Tommy Malone and the Mystik Drone (RR OR) 11p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Glen David Andrews (JV) 8p, Brass Band Jam feat. Hot 8 Brass Band (BB) 12a Jazz Quarter: Cristina Perez Trio (JV) 5p, James Westfall (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Mike Ryan and friends (OR FE) 5p, Rites of Passage (RR FE) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Country Fried (BU CW) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Jason Bishop (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Louisiana Music Factory: Creole Syncopators (OR) 3p, Big Chief Juan Pardo (OR) 4p, Tony Green (OR) 5p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Maple Leaf: Jonathan Tyler and Northern Lights (RR) 10p Margaritaville: Joe Bennett (RR) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 9p New Orleans Lakefront Arena: Brian McKnight (RB) 8p Republic New Orleans: Cut Copy, Holy Ghost! (TC RR) 10p Rivershack: Ghost Town (RR BL) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 9:30p Rusty Nail: Jesse Moore Band (BL Fk) 10p Snug Harbor: Germaine Bazzle with Larry Sieberth Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Young Spodie (JV) 7p, Frenchmen St. Jug Band (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: Egg the Homeless feat. Jake Smith, CheeWeez (RR PP) 9p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Late As Usual (PP) 5p, Brandon Giles (PP) 10p

SUNDAY APRIL 24

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Dave Easley (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Bill Summers’ International Market (JV) 12p, Sunday Night Brass with MAINLINE (BB) 10p BMC: NOLA Music Series (VR) 1p, Cristina Perez (OR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (TJ) 6p, Jeremy Lyons and the Deltabilly Boys (FK BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Tyler’s Revisited feat. Germaine Bazzle and Paul Longstreth (JV) 7p Kerry Irish Pub: Steve Keith (FE) 8p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio with Russell Batiste and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (JV BL) 10p Margaritaville: Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 3p, Cindy Chen (RR RB) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Snug Harbor: Wendell Brunious Quintet (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Linnzi Zaorski (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

MONDAY APRIL 25

Apple Barrel: Sam Camaratta (BL) 8p, Butch Trivette (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Big Pearl and the Fugitives of Funk (FK) 9p BMC: Fun in the Pocket feat. Mayumi Shara (BL) 6p, Smoky Greenwell’s Blues Jam (BL) 9:30p d.b.a.: Glen David Andrews (JV) 9p Fritzel’s: Tim Laughlin Quartet (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Willie Lockett and the All-Purpose Blues Band (PP) 8:30p House of Blues (the Parish): Kina Grannis (PP AU) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Bob French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Lynn Drury (OR RR) 9p Little Tropical Isle: Marc Stone (PP) 4:30p, Jason Bishop (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p Margaritaville: Truman Holland (RR CW) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Ched Reeves (RR) 9p Rivershack: Dave Jordan (RR) 7p

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Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Jeremy Lyons (JV) 7p Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 5p, Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Damien Louviere (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 9p

TUESDAY APRIL 26

Apple Barrel: Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Blue Max (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Open Ears Music Series with Jeff Albert’s Instigation Quartet (JV) 10p BMC: Dana Abbott Band (OR) 6p, Royal Rounders (BL) 8:30p, Lagniappe Brass Band (BB) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Grayson Capps (RR) 8p d.b.a.: New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings (JV) 9p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues: Interpol, School of Seven Bells (RR) 8p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Ashlin Parker (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Honky Tonk open mic feat. Jason Bishop (RR CW) 9p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p Margaritaville: Ched Reeves (RR) 3p, Brint Anderson (BL) 6p, Truman Holland (RR CW) 9p Snug Harbor: Thelonious Monk Institute Ensemble (MJ) 8 and 10p Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Two Fools on Stools (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Mojo Trio (PP) 9p

WEDNESDAY APRIL 27

Apple Barrel: Wendy Darling (BL) 8p, call club (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: United Postal Project (JV) 8p, Khris Royal and Dark Matter (JV FK) 10p BMC: Geb Rault Band (OR) 6p, Lynn Drury (BL) 8:30p, Blues4Sale (BL) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): John Autin CDrelease party (JV) 9p Chickie Wah Wah: Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake (JV) 8p, the Iguanas (RR OR LT) 10p d.b.a.: Tin Men (JV RR) 7p, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (BL) 10p Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield and the Playhouse Revue (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Alex Bosworth (JV) 6p, Gregory Agid (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson and Mark McGrain (OR BL RR) 9p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Irvin Mayfield and the Jazz Playhouse Revue (JV) 5p Little Tropical Isle: Frank Fairbanks (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Mahalia Jackson Theater: Moody Blues (BL) 8p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 10p Margaritaville: Lisa Lynn (RR CW) 3p, Joe Bennett (RR) 6p, Andy J Forest (BL) 9p Palm Court: Lars Edegran and Topsy Chapman and the Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Swing-A-Roux (SI) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Jenn Howard’s Jazz Set (JV) 7p Snug Harbor: Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Paul Kemnetz Group (JV) 7p

Tropical Isle: Damien Louviere (PP) 5p, Damien Louviere Band (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

THURSDAY APRIL 28

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 8p, Hellbenders (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Stanton Moore Trio with Anders Osborne and Honeyboy Carencro (JV) 9:30p; Balcony Room: DJ T-Roy presents Reggae Night with Bayou International (RG) 10p BMC: The Ramblin’ Letters (BL) 6p, Peter Novelli (OR) 8:30p, Low-Stress Quintet (JV) 11p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Ruby Moon (JV) 10:30p Chickie Wah Wah: Pfister Sisters (JV) 5p, call club 9p d.b.a.: Colin Lake Trio (BL) 7p, Chris Thomas King (BL) 10p, Good Enough for Good Times (FK) 1a Funky Pirate: Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Roman Skakun (BL JV) 5p, Shannon Powell (JV) 8p Jazz Quarter: Matt Bell (JV) 6p, Ed Barrett Trio (JV) 9p Kerry Irish Pub: Dave James and Tim Robertson (OR RR) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p Little Tropical Isle: Al Hebert (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: The Trio feat. Johnny Vidacovich, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Luther Dickinson (JV FK) 10p Margaritaville: Jimmy James (RR) 3p, Colin Lake (BL) 6p, Captain Leo (RR) 9p Ogden Museum: Ogden After Hours feat. Preservation Hall Jazz Band (TJ) 6p One Eyed Jacks: ‘80s Night (DN) 10p Palm Court: New Orleans Serenaders feat. Clive Wilson, Butch Thompson and Tom Sancton (JV) 8p Riverboat Creole Queen: Galactic, Kirk Joseph’s 504 Band (FK) 8p Rivershack: Gypsy Bliss and Ryan Way (RR BL) 7p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Geno Delafose, Buckwheat Zydeco (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Donald Harrison and Congo Nation (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 7p, Washboard Rodeo (JV) 10p Tipitina’s: JJ Grey and Mofro, Pimps of Joytime (RB FK) 10p Tropical Isle: Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Mark Penton and Frank Fairbanks (PP) 1p, Butch Fields Band (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

FRIDAY APRIL 29

AllWays Lounge: WATIV (JV) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 10p, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (JV) 2a; Balcony Room: McTuff (JV FK) 10p, Pimps of Joytime, Juno What?! (FK) 2a BMC: Moonshine and Caroline (OR) 7p, Rue Fiya (FK) 10p, One Mind Brass Band (BB) 12:30a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Mitch Woods (JV) 10:30p A PRI L 2011

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Chickie Wah Wah: Paul Sanchez’s Rolling Road Show feat. Michael Cerveris, Matt Perrine, Alex McMurray and Debbie Davis (RR FE OR) 8p Chickie Wah Wah: Jon Cleary, Piano, Bass and Drums (FK JV) 10p d.b.a.: Linnzi Zaorski (JV TJ) 6p, Pine Leaf Boys (KJ) 10p, Zydepunks (ZY RR) 1a French Market: Kelcy Mae (JV) 4p, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 5p Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p Howlin’ Wolf: Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, the Meters Experience feat. Leo Nocentelli, Rebirth Brass Band (FK BB) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Professor Piano Series feat. Josh Paxton (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Angela Eve and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Jazz Quarter: Sasha Masakowski Trio (JV) 5p, Fredrick Sanders and Funksion (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Damien Louviere (BL) 5p, Foot and friends (RR BL) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Hairy Apes BMX (RR JV RB) 11p Le Petit Theatre: the Wood Brothers feat. Oliver Wood and Chris Wood (BL FK RR) 10p, Marco Benevento, Billy Martin and Reed Mathis, 1:30a Little Tropical Isle: Dwight Breland (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p, Dead Kenny Vidacoviches feat. Skerik, Mike Dillon and Brian Hauser (FK JV) 1a Margaritaville: Colin Lake (BL) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p New Orleans Museum of Art: The Ramblin’ Letters (GS BU) 5:30p One Eyed Jacks: The New Orleans Bingo! Show, Terry Reid (SH RR) 10p Republic New Orleans: Crocodiles, Fresh and Onlys, Young Prisms (RR) 9p, Big Gigantic, MartyParty (TC DN) 2a Riverboat Creole Queen: North Mississippi Allstars, 8p Rivershack: Broken Heart Pharoahs (BL) 9p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Eric Lindell, Joe Krown Trio (JV) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (CW) 10p Scottish Rite Temple: The Radiators 10p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Davis Rogan (JV) 7p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 10p Tipitina’s French Quarter: Anders Osborne (RR BL) 10p, Bonerama (FK RR) 12:30a Tipitina’s: Bruce Hornsby (JV RR FK) 9p, Galactic (FK) 2a Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mojo Trio (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Can’t Hardly Playboys (PP) 1p, Waylon Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Big Feets (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SATURDAY APRIL 30

AllWays Lounge: Hurray for the Riff Raff (RR) 10p Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Andre Bouvier and the Royal Bohemians (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Bill Martin and Wil Blades Band, Some Cat from Japan Jimi Hendrix Tribute (RR) 9p, Katdelic with Ivan Neville and Adam Deitch (FK) 2a BMC: New Orleans Jazz Series (JV) 3p, Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Jazz Band (JV) 6:30p, Shamarr Allen (JV) 9:30p, Ashton and the Big Easy Brawlers Brass Band (BB) 12:30a

APRIL 2011

Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Lindsay Mendez (JV) 10:30p Chickie Wah Wah: Shannon McNally (RR OR FE) 10p d.b.a.: John Boutté (JV) 8p, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (BB) 11p, Little Freddie King (BL) 2a Funky Pirate: Mark and the Pentones (PP) 4:30p, Al Carson and the Blues Masters (PP) 8:30p House of Blues: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (JV) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Mos Def with the Hot 8 Brass Band and others (RH BB) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Irvin Mayfield’s “A Love Letter to New Orleans” book- and CD-release party (JV) 8p; Brass Band Jam feat. Brass-A-Holics (BB) 12a Jazz Quarter: Cristina Perez Trio (JV) 5p, Brian Seeger and Adam Bellard (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Chip Wilson and friends (OR BL RR) 5p, Rites of Passage (FE) 9p Le Bon Temps Roule: Tin Men (JV RR) 11p Le Petit Theatre:A (Mostly) Acoustic Evening with Radiators (RR) 10p, Reunion of Jon Cleary and the Original Absolute Monster Gentlemen (FK RB) 1:30a Little Tropical Isle: Jason Bishop (PP) 4:30p, Frank Fairbanks Duo (PP) 9p Maple Leaf: Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes (RR) 10p, Jacob Vidacovich Jazz Odyssey (JV) 1a Margaritaville: Joe Bennett (RR) 3p, Irving Bannister’s All-stars (RB) 6p and 9p Ogden Museum: Marcia Ball, Matt Perrine and Sunflower City (BL JV) 8:30p One Eyed Jacks: Morning 40 Federation (RR) 10p Palm Court: Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band (JV) 8p Republic New Orleans: Cowboy Mouth (RR) 9p Rivershack: Meanies (RR BL) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr., Amanda Shaw (ZY) 8:30p Scottish Rite Temple: Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers (JV) 10p, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 12a Snug Harbor: Terence Blanchard (MJ) 8 and 10p Three Muses: Miss Sophie Lee (JV) 7p, Frenchmen St. Jug Band (JV) 10p Tipitina’s French Quarter: Tea Leaf Green (RR FK) 1a, ALO (FK) 3:15a Tipitina’s: Dr. John and the Lower 911 (BL RR RB) 9p, call club 2a Tropical Isle: Captain Leo (PP) 1p, Mark Barrett (PP) 5p, Debi and the Deacons (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Bayou Club: Sammy Naquin (PP) 1p, Jimmy Thibodeaux (PP) 5p, T’Canaille (PP) 9p Tropical Isle Original: Butch Fields Band (PP) 1p, Rhythm and Rain (PP) 5p, Late As Usual (PP) 9p

SUNDAY MAY 1

AllWays Lounge: Helen Gillet hosts an evening of jazz (JV) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Margie Perez (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Worship My Organ (FK) 9p, Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 2a Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Cherie Mannino (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: Palmetto Bug Stompers (TJ JV) 5p, Jon Cleary Trio (JV) 9p, Papa Grows Funk (FK) 12a House of Blues: Radiators (RR) 10p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Tyler’s Revisited feat. Germaine Bazzle and Paul Longstreth (JV) 7p Le Bon Temps Roule: Sunday Brass (BB) 9p Le Petit Theatre: Ivan Neville and Friends (FK) 10p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio featuring Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (JV) 10:30p, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 11:45p, Sunrise Jam Show with Eric Lindell, John Gros, Terence Higgins and Nick Daniels (RR) 3a

Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Tab Benoit, Sonny Landreth (KJ BL) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Herlin Riley and the New Orleans All-Stars (MJ) 8 and10p Southport Hall: Jimmy’s 2011 Reunion Concert with the Legendary Texas All-Stars feat. Johnny Nicholas, Marcia Ball and Delbert McClinton (JV RR FK) 9:30p Tipitina’s: Funky Meters (FK) 9p

MONDAY MAY 2

Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Sam Camaratta (BL) 8p, I Tell You What with Adam Crochet (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Frequinox (JV) 9:30p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Tom McDermott (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: Luke Winslow-King (JV) 5p, the Tin Men (JV RR) 8p, Glen David Andrews (JV) 11p House of Blues: WWOZ Piano Night (JV) 7:30p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Bob French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Foot and Friends (RR BL) 4p, Kim Carson Band (OR CW) 8p Maple Leaf: Papa Grows Funk (FK) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Kermit Ruffins, Tribute to Snooks Eaglin feat. Brint Anderson’s Cosimo Effect (JV BL) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Charmaine Neville Band (MJ) 8 and 10p Tipitina’s: Instruments A Comin’ feat. Galactic, Honey Island Swamp Band, Renard Poche, Ivan Neville and many others (VR FK) 9p

TUESDAY MAY 3

Apple Barrel: call club 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Kenny Schwartz and Palace of Sin (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Dr. Lonnie Smith, Shannon Powell, Donald Harrison and Will Bernard (JV) 8:30p, the WHIP! Feat. Stanton Moore, Eric McFadden, Robert Walter, Rob Mercurio, Corey Henry and Brian J (JV) 2a; Balcony Room: Open Ears Music Series with WATIV (JV) 10p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Big Daddy O (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: New Orleans Cotton Mouth Kings (JV) 6p, Johnny Vidacovich Trio (JV) 10p, Karl Denson and Spyboy (JV FK) 1a Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski and Musical Playground’s CD-Release Party (JV) 8p Maple Leaf: Rebirth Brass Band (BB) 10p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Amanda Shaw, Glen David Andrews (KJ JV) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Charles Neville Jazz Ensemble (MJ) 8 and 10p

WEDNESDAY MAY 4

Apple Barrel: call club 4p, Wendy Darling (BL) 8p, Dave Easley (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Dream Palace Reincarnation with the Radiators (RR) 10p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Jon Cleary (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: call club 5p, Iguanas (FK) 8p,Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (JV) 11p House of Blues: Greg Allman (RR) 8p Howlin’ Wolf: Megalomaniacs Ball feat. Garage A Trois, Illuminasti Trio, Stanton Moore Trio (JV FK) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Sasha Masakowski (JV) 5p, Irvin Mayfield’s NOJO Jam (JV) 8p Lafayette Square: Wednesday at the Square feat. Marcia Ball, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue (BL CW) 5p

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LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Le Bon Temps Roule: Karl Denson and Spyboy (JV FK) 11p Maple Leaf: Maple Leaf JazzFest Jam Series (JV) 10p One Eyed Jacks: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (BL) 10p Palm Court: Swing with the Strings feat. Lars Edegran, Sammy Rimington, Seva Venet, John Parker and Jesse Boyd (JV) 7p, Satchmo Songbook feat. Wendell Brunious and Topsy Chapman, Jesse Boyd, Lars Edegran, Sammy Rimington, Ronell Johnson and Shannon Powell (JV) 8:15p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Kermit Ruffins (JV) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Piano Summit with Marcia Ball, Tom McDermott and Joe Krown (MJ BL) 8 and10p Tipitina’s: Lil Band O’ Gold (PP KJ) 9p

THURSDAY MAY 5

12 Bar: The Iguanas 10p AllWays Lounge: Simon Lott Presents (JV) 10p Apple Barrel: call club 4p, John William (BL) 8p, Mike Darby and House of Cards (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: call club Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Mac Potts (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: Jon Cleary (JV) 7p, Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 10p, Cedric Burnside Project (JV) 1a House of Blues: Femi Kuti and the Positive Force (MJ) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Down on the Bayou III with JoJo’s Mardi Gras Band (JV FK) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Roman Skakun (BL JV) 5p, Shamarr Allen (JV) 8p Le Bon Temps Roule: Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p Le Petit Theatre: Southern Troubadors feat. Tab Benoit, Anders Osborne, Grayson Capps and Devon Allman (BL RR) 10p Mahalia Jackson Theater: Warren Haynes Band (BL RR) 8p Maple Leaf: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter, Jr, Marco Benevento and Skerik (JV) 11p One Eyed Jacks: Smith Westerns (RR) 8p, ‘80s Night (DN) 10p Palm Court: Crescent City Joymakers (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Buckwheat Zydeco, Rosie Ledet, Sunpie Barnes and Clayton Sampy (ZY) 8:30p Snug Harbor: Allen Toussaint (JV) 8 and10p Tipitina’s French Quarter: Cyril Neville’s NEVILLUTION (FK) 10p Tipitina’s: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe (JV FK) 2a

FRIDAY MAY 6

AllWays Lounge: WATIV (JV) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Rick Westin (BL) 8p, Mike Hood (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Gene Ween and special guests (RR) 10p, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (FK) 2a; Balcony Room: Illuminasti with Mike Dillon, Skerik, James Singleton and guests (JV FK) 10p Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Cindy Scott (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: Hot Club of New Orleans (JV) 5p, Grayson Capps (BL RR) 8p, Soul Rebels Brass Band (BB) 11p, Joe Krown Trio (JV) 1a House of Blues: Lucinda Williams (RR BL) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Bayou Rendezvous feat. Papa Grows Funk, Rebirth, New Orleans All-Stars and many others (FK BB) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): the Professor Piano Series feat. Joe Krown (JV) 5p, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown (JV) 8p, Burlesque Ballroom feat. Trixie Minx’s Birthday Toast-aRama and Linnzi Zaorski (SH JV) 12a Kerry Irish Pub: Damien Louviere (BL) 5p Le Bon Temps Roule: Grayson Capps, Alex McMurray Band (RR BL) 10p Le Petit Theatre: An Intimate Evening with Aaron Neville (FK) 10p

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Mahalia Jackson Theater: Galactic, Funky Meters (FK) 8p Maple Leaf: Marcia Ball (BL) 11p, Sunrise Jam Show (RR JV) 3a Palm Court: Clive Wilson and the Palm Court Jazz Band with Lucien Barbarin (JV) 8p Republic New Orleans: MiM0SA, Nasty Nasty (TC RH) 2a Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Eric Lindell, Sonny Landreth, Bonerama (BL RR) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Cha Wa (FK) 7p Snug Harbor: Ellis Marsalis Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Tipitina’s French Quarter: Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam (BL KJ) 10p Tipitina’s: The Radiators (RR) 9p, Greyboy All-Stars (FK) 2a

SATURDAY MAY 7

AllWays Lounge: Zydepunks (ZY RR) 10p Apple Barrel: Maxwell Eaton (BL) 4p, Sneaky Pete (BL) 8p, Mike Sklar and the Hipshakers (BL) 11p Blue Nile: Punch Brothers feat. Chris Thile and guests (BU) 10p, Orgone (FK) 2a Bourbon Saloon: Bryan Lee (BL) 8p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): Marcelle Gauvin (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: call club 6p, New Orleans Klezmer AllStars (JV) 9p, Eric Lindell (RR) 12a House of Blues: Ani DiFranco (RR) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Irvin Mayfield and the Jazz Playhouse Revue (JV) 8p Kerry Irish Pub: Speed the Mule (FE) 5p Le Bon Temps Roule: Rotary Downs, Happy Talk Band (RR) 10p Le Petit Theatre: Paul Barrere and Fred Tacket of Little Feat (AU) 10p Maple Leaf: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (FK RB) 11p, Vinyl (FK JV) 3a Republic New Orleans: Edie Brickell (RR PP) 9p Riverboat Creole Queen: Greyboy All-Stars (FK) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Voice of the Wetlands Allstars, Kermit Ruffins, Big Sam’s Funky Nation (BL JV) 8:30p Rusty Nail: Lynn Drury (FE RR) 7p Snug Harbor: Bill Frissell Quartet (MJ) 8 and 10p Tipitina’s French Quarter: Gene Ween, Alex McMurray (RR) 10p, George Porter, Jr. and Runnin’ Pardners (JV FK) 2a Tipitina’s: Soul Rebels, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (BB) 9p, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (MJ) 2a

SUNDAY MAY 8

AllWays Lounge: Magnetic Ear (JV) 10p Apple Barrel: John William (BL) 4p, Kenny Claiborne and Blood from a Stone (BL) 8p, Eve’s Lucky Planet (BL) 10:30p Blue Nile: Funky Butt Revisited feat. “Big Sam” Willams and special guests (FK) 10p Carousel Bar (Hotel Monteleone): John “Papa Gros (JV) 10:30p d.b.a.: call club 6p, Stanton Moore Trio (JV) 9p, Garage A Trois (JV FK) 12a House of Blues: Steel Pulse (RG) 9p Howlin’ Wolf: Dr. John and the Lower 911, Zigaboo’s Funk Revue, George Porter, Jr. and His Runnin’ Pardners (FK) 9p Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta): Tyler’s Revisited feat. Germaine Bazzle and Paul Longstreth (JV) 7p Maple Leaf: Joe Krown Trio featuring Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste (JV) 10:30p, Bonerama (FK BB) 11:45p, Honey Island Swamp Band (RR) 3a Palm Court: Lucien Barbarin and Crescent City Joymakers with Mark Braud (JV) 8p Rock ‘n’ Bowl: Tab Benoit, Sonny Landreth (KJ BL) 8:30p A PRI L 2011

LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Snug Harbor: Astral Project (MJ) 8 and 10p Tipitina’s: Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk with Skerik, Orgone, DJ Quickie Mart (FK) 10p

LOUISIANA MUSIC ON TOUR Complete listings are available at OffBeat. com. Weekly listings are available with a free subscription to OffBeat’s Weekly Beat email newsletter.

CLASSICAL APRIL 1 and 3 New Orleans Opera Association presents Verdi’s Il Trovatore at 8 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Mahalia Jackson Theater. Visit NewOrleansOpera.org/opera-season.html for tickets. APRIL 16 The New Orleans Ballet Association presents Parsons Dance with East Village Opera Company at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Visit NOBADance.com for tickets.

FESTIVALS APRIL 2 Freret Street Fest, now hosted by Freret Market, features more than 200 vendors, four stages of live music, kids activities, and more from noon to 5 p.m. at Freret Street and Napoleon Avenue. FreretStreetFestival.com. APRIL 2-3 Old Algiers RiverFest features performances by some of the top names in traditional jazz, Gospel choirs, brass bands and Mardi Gras Indians, as well as local cuisine, arts and crafts and kids’ activities at Mardi Gras World in Algiers. OldAlgiersRiverfest.com. APRIL 7-10 French Quarter Festival added an extra day this year due to its overwhelming popularity. Check out the music and food all over the French Quarter. FQFI.org/frenchquarterfest. APRIL 27-MAY 1 Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette features more than 100 musical acts on multiple stages. Visit FestivalInternational.com for a complete schedule. APRIL 29-MAY 8 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. MAY 4 The 6th annual Chaz Fest takes place at The Truck Farm, 3020 St. Claude Ave., in Bywater and features 10 hours of nonstop music, culture and good times on two stages. Advance tickets $25, $30 day of show. ChazFestival.com. MAY 7 Baton Rouge Blues Festival is one of the oldest blues fests in the country and features traditional southern food and performances by musical legends as well as local high school blues bands. Noon to 10 p.m. Saturday. Free admission. BatonRougeBluesFestival.org.

APRIL 2011

SPECIAL EVENTS APRIL 1—ONGOING Ogden After Hours presents live entertainment almost every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Check OffBeat’s daily listings or visit Ogdenuseum.org for a complete schedule. (There will be no Ogden After Hours on May 5.) APRIL 1—ONGOING New Orleans Museum of Art hosts “Where Y’Art,” a weekly Friday evening party featuring musical entertainment, performances and gallery walkthroughs. Visit noma.org for details. Check OffBeat’s daily listings for musical performance schedule. APRIL 8 The Historic New Orleans Collection’s 12th annual Bill Russell Lecture will be given by Tom Sancton with a performance by the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra. 6:30 p.m. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St. hnoc.org. APRIL 15 The Historic New Orleans Collections continues its spring Concerts in the Courtyard series with a performance by Glen David Andrews from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. 533 Royal St. hnoc.org. APRIL 15-22 The annual Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week offers the opportunity to learn first-hand from Cajun and Creole masters of music, dance, language, cuisine, and culture. The week also features nightly dances and late-night jam sessions. Chicot State Park near Ville Platt in Evangeline Parish. LAFolkRoots.org. APRIL 28 Threadheads presents “Threadhead Thursday” at City Park’s Botanical Garden, a pre-Jazz Fest concert from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. featuring Chip Wilson, Jesse Moore, Ensemble Fatien, New Orleans Night Crawlers, Alex McMurray, Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs, and Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show. Threadheads.org. APRIL 29 Audubon Institute hosts its annual Zoo-to-Do for Kids from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m, featuring live entertainment, games, face painters, food and more. AudubonInstitute.org/ztdk. MAY 3 The Annual Threadhead “Patry” features music by Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show, Honey Island Swamp Band, Eric Lindell, Tommy Malone and Blvd., Jr., The New Orleans Nightcrawlers, and George Porter, Jr. and Runnin’ Pardners. Noon to 11 p.m. at River City Plaza, Mardi Gras World. Tickets include music, food, soft drinks and beer. Advance tickets required. Threadheads.org. MAY 6 Audubon Institute hosts its annual Zoo-to-Do patron party and gala from 7 p.m. to midnight, featuring live music, local cuisine and a silent auction. AudubonInstitute.org/ztd. THROUGH JUNE 15 Wednesday at the Square: The weekly concert series brings Louisiana musicians to Lafayette Square every Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Check the OffBeat daily listings or visit WednesdayAtTheSquare.com for a schedule of performers.

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BACKTALK

David Simon

talks back

Now that you’ve had time to live with it, how does season one sit with you? I never look back. The last time I look at most episodes unless I’m obliged to sit on a panel or something is when we finish with the post-production and send it off. Looking back can be really debilitating because nothing is perfect. The Wire wasn’t, The Corner was not, Generation Kill was not. Overall, when we finished the season we were happy with what we conveyed. We were not in agreement that there was no plot; we were just aware that the plot wasn’t rooted in the usual tropes of television. What was at stake www.OFFBEAT.com

Photo: aaron lafont

he second floor of the bus and train station is doubling for City Hall offices today. Down a hallway crowded with equipment and crew, past Oliver Thomas—who’s playing himself—is a room where Treme coproducer David Simon is watching a monitor. The show is readying its second season, which will debut Sunday, April 24 at 8 CDT. This season covers the period from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007, and teasers for the season suggest that David Morse’s police lieutenant will be a bigger part of the story as crime returns, and Kim Dickens’ Janette Desautel returns in some capacity, despite leaving at the end of season one. Simon is a passionate spokesperson for his work, but he’s had to be. The shows he has made are novelistic in the sense that each season is a story, and they confound those used to television as a series of half-hour and hour-long diversions. “I didn’t have a hit with The Wire,” he says. “It was hard to keep it on the air. I had to be a pitchman for the show. If the show had been The Sopranos from the jump, I could have laid back and said, ‘It is what it is. I’m not doing interviews.’ If I’d done that, though, there would have been 13 or 25 episodes of The Wire and not five seasons.” But it’s come with a cost as viewers and critics assign characters’ views to him—particularly those of John Goodman’s Creighton Bernette in season one—whether they’re his or not. “That’s Eric’s dialogue, not mine. It’s influenced by a variety of voices—the work of Chris Rose, Ashley Morris, and some things that were as mainstream as The Times-Picayune editorial stance—which, to other ears, might sound a little radical but was indicative of what people in New Orleans were saying on a routine basis.”

was, by standards of culture and community in New Orleans, very important to us, and that’s why we told the story. We would watch something profound happening in our minds— someone’s going to lose the restaurant they love or someone’s going to create something musically that is going have deep meaning for them, and these things were important to us. Have there been other shows about culture? Frank’s Place? It was the first thing that argued for New Orleans intelligently. It was the first thing to argue for culture intelligently. [Treme] is a very patriotic piece in a weird way. It’s about as close as I can get to overt patriotism, not because I don’t feel very American or connected to the American experience, but the things that cause other

By Alex Rawls

people to wave a flag and speak well of America are not the things that cause me to do that. I think if you watch New Orleans attempt to restore itself after a near-death experience, and you saw what was at stake and how many, many people reacted and what they put up with and what they endured, it brought out a sense of community and a peoplehood that couldn’t help but touch on something vaguely patriotic. That experience made me believe in people in a way that I didn’t. I felt the same way watching it. I became more convinced than ever after watching New Orleans after Katrina that our institutional imperatives, political leadership, our economic—all that, were incredibly hollow. Even more hollow than I thought when I started The Wire. I’m really writing these shows about the end of empire and A PRI L 2011

BAC

KTA

By season five, if they had come to me and said, “Give us another season,” I’d have said no. There is no other season. The same thing will hold true here. about the end of any sort of politically charged community. And yet, there are still Americans who are enduring as Americans, and it still matters. Were there certain things that had to happen in season one to establish this as a television show? We need to make viewers care about New Orleans, and make them wonder whether or not there’s a place that trades in this kind of magic realism. We had to introduce the characters. With every show, you have to train viewers to the rhythms of the new show. Doesn’t matter how many seasons we did of The Wire, people who were used to watching TV said, “It starts so slow; nothing happened.” I’ve been through this now with The Corner, The Wire, Generation Kill. I no longer believe anything a critic or viewer tells me about the show I’m making, good or bad. If they tell me they love it, if they like certain moments, they like certain acting, they don’t like this guy if they hated this scene, if they liked that song, if they thought this was well done or well executed, that makes sense. If they start telling me about the story they think I should be telling at the rate I should be telling it, I tune it right out. I don’t believe they have the context to evaluate that. I was unsure all season if I was supposed to like Antoine Batiste or not. If you like a character unequivocally, we’ve probably done something wrong. I don’t believe in perfect heroes and I don’t believe in perfect villains, but there are characters that you know are not capable, at the point of which you encounter them, of doing any good. But multitudes of characters go the other way. They are capable of having great moments followed by human pratfall or selfishness. We’re always trying to find our way to people who can do both. Sometimes, we’re playing the long game and we have it in mind that somebody isn’t perfect, but their flaw hasn’t shown up yet. It will show up in season two or season three because that is when we will encounter a dynamic, a predicament that would bring out maybe the worst in that person. Conversely, someone that’s been disappointing throughout the run might come to a later point where it is their time to shine. They reach a crossroads and do the right thing. It’s not about giving the villains a puppy or about giving the heroes a quick addiction.

APRIL 2011

Were you surprised by the reaction to John Goodman’s Creighton Bernette? I was not surprised that in the quote-unquote cultural centers of our country there was an almost immediate resentment at being placed as outsiders to other people’s anger and other people’s insistence on the validity of their culture. We’re also playing what we knew nobody else knew when they’re watching the first episode, which is that we’re playing a flawed character. We know where he’s going at the end of season one. We’re building in the notion that he is an all-or-nothing, didactic, angry and self-doubting intellectual who feels as if he shot his bolt in terms of his own creative impulses. He has things driving his anger that have nothing to do with Katrina. Am I wrong to see Creighton as Davis McAlary 30 years down the line when he no longer gets the same buzz off the city? I think there was something of age there. It was somebody who is feeling creatively void and unable to execute. Davis doesn’t have that problem; if anything, Davis has the confidence in his ability to execute that at times may exceed his talent. But what he does have is verve and wit and the desire to try. And we were certainly putting somebody in a different point in life. We went to John knowing we were doing that with the character and pitched that to him as the arc. Once we were working with John, he was a delight. Eric and I joked, “Eh, maybe we don’t have to….” But we knew we had to. It wasn’t because we were going to lose John; it was what the story required. How far ahead are you thinking? It would be bad if we didn’t get a third season, I’ll say that. We see arcs that go to the end of three that can’t possibly be resolved before the end of three. After we execute the season, we see what we’ve done, how much we’ve said about New Orleans and what’s left to say. I’m not interested in running a story out in order to sustain a franchise. That’s not what HBO expects of me; that’s not what I expect of them, and Eric feels the same way. We’re here to tell a story. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. When you pitched the show, did you have a projected length in mind? Vaguely. We joked after we saw the BP thing and the Super Bowl happened in the same season,

“Oh, Christ, can’t wait to get to season five!” But that was a joke and we hadn’t thought about it in any intelligent way. I would be as ashamed to go to HBO with any incremental argument as I would be to not finish when I know there’s more to say. No one says to you when you get to chapter 18, “Listen, we’re not going to do the last six chapters,” but television is its own beast. I find that to be the most debilitating thing, to do these things with the constant fear that you will be thwarted before you can say everything you want to say. I just had a conversation with HBO and said, “It’s my job to tell you what the plan is, and to have a plan, and have it be the best plan. I don’t know if it’s three, four or five [seasons] and neither does Eric. But we will know somewhere between the end of this season and beginning of the next one. And it’s my hope there will be a next one.” My irritation with television shows without endings are their tendency towards soap opera,when they become about the configuring and reconfiguring of characters to no particular purpose. If two characters sleep together, if they break up, that has to mean something in terms of the theme. If at any point you’re basically repeating the idea, “Isn’t it interesting what’s happening to this person?”—what a horror show. I think that’s the case with television because there’s just too much money. Fortunately, I’ve gone a long way without actually having a large audience, so there’s never been too much money. No one’s ever wheeled a truck up to my driveway and said, “Can you give us a sixth season of The Wire?” If they had, the moment where they had to make the argument for another season of The Wire was after season three. There could never have been a season six after we ran the season four and season five arcs because those arcs were about McNulty losing himself in the pursuit and anger and walking away. We can’t have him walk back. By season five, if they had come to me and said, “Give us another season,” I’d have said no. There is no other season. The same thing will hold true here. To have them give us another wheelbarrow full of money and hand them something incremental, that insults them. It’s us not being honest as writers, or fair with them as producers. Either it’s enough or not enough, and we’ll explain why. For more with Simon, go to OffBeat.com. www.OFFBEAT.com