Thursday, 8/26/10
When I die, I’m moving to New Orleans for the funeral.
Funeral, Trumpeter John Brunious, New Orleans, 2/23/08
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: trombone
2010
Saturday, 8/21/10
replay: a clip too good for just one day
If spirit could be sold, New Orleans would be rich.
Rebirth Brass Band, live, New Orleans, 2009
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lagniappe
Brass band musicians are a wild bunch. They’re hard to control. The street funk that the Rebirth Brass Band plays definitely isn’t traditional—it might be in thirty years time.
—Lajoie “Butch” Gomez (in Mick Burns, Keeping the Beat on the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance [2006])
(Originally posted on 9/11/09.)
2010
Thursday, 8/12/10
my new mantra
Say ‘bye bye, bogeyman.’
—Whispering Jack Smith
Whispering Jack Smith, “Happy Days” (Happy Days [shot in 1929, released in 1930])
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lagniappe
more music to chase away the bogeyman
Sidney Bechet (clarinet, with Henry “Red” Allen, trumpet; J.C. Higginbotham, trombone; James Tolliver, piano; Wellman Braud, bass; J.C. Heard, drums), “Egyptian Fantasy” (1941)
2010
Tuesday, 7/6/10
What the world needs now?
Nah, not love.
What the world needs now—what it cries out for, daily—is inspired silliness.
Brave Combo, live
“The Denton Polka,” Texas (Denton), 2007
*****
“Louie, Louie,” Illinois (Berwyn [FitzGerald’s]), 2008
Brave Combo played a wild set Sunday night (the 4th) at FitzGerald’s American Music Festival—everything from “Beer Barrel Polka” to a hard-rockin’ “Hokey Pokey” to a polka-inflected “Ode to Joy” (“Any Beethoven fans in the house?”) to a Tejano-style “America the Beautiful.” By the end of the 90-minute set, everybody’s IQ, it seemed, had gone up 15 points. Or was it down?
2010
Wednesday, 6/16/10
movies/part 3
Once upon a time, before the Gulf oil spill, before Katrina, there was a city . . .
*****
*****
New Orleans (1947)
Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong
“Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?”
Want more Billie Holiday? Here. Here.
More Louis Armstrong? Here.
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lagniappe
The impact of the oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill now soiling the Louisiana shoreline was felt far inland on Thursday as P&J Oyster Company, the country’s oldest oyster processor and distributor, ceased its shucking operations.
“The bottom line is that the guys that we purchase from are not working,” said Sal Sunseri, referring to the oyster harvesters who’ve been idled by the mass closure of harvesting areas and freshwater diversions. “Today’s our last day of shucking.”
***
“Having the guy down the street deliver oysters that were shucked just that morning to our doorstep is an amazing thing,” said John Besh, who featured P&J Oysters at his five New Orleans area restaurants. “The relationship is so valuable, knowing that I can count on them to source the best oysters from the saltiest areas and deliver them in a consistent, uniform manner.”
“They provide wonderful oysters,” said Darin Nesbit, chef at the Bourbon House, whose relationship with P&J is so tight Sal Sunseri helped shuck oysters the first night the restaurant opened following Hurricane Katrina. “Even in times of trouble, they’ve always taken care of us.”
P&J was started in 1876 by John Popich, a Croatian immigrant who took on partner Joseph Jurisich at the turn of the century. In 1921, Popich and Jurisich purchased a shucking house at the corner of Toulouse and North Rampart streets. Alfred Sunseri, the current owners’ grandfather, who was married to Popich’s cousin, joined the company soon after.
—Brett Anderson, “P&J looks to bring oysters in from the West Coast for the first time In its 134 years,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/10/10
*****
You’re right, not only can’t you lip-synch this stuff; you can’t really sing it if you don’t know it in your heart. That’s why it’s sooooo good. [The Pilgrim Jubilees, 6/13/10]
2010
Tuesday, 6/15/10
movies/part 2
*****
Stormy Weather (1943)
Cab Calloway and His Orchestra; Nicholas Brothers, dancers; “Jumpin’ Jive”
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lagniappe
Fred Astaire told the [Nicholas] brothers that the “Jumpin’ Jive” number in Stormy Weather was the greatest number he had ever seen on film. He would have been more impressed had he known that the choreography was filmed all in one take.
—Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History (2010)
*****
Want more tap-dancing?
2010
Monday, 6/14/10
movies/part 1
I feel a rhythmic brainstorm comin’ on . . .
—Slim Gaillard
Hellzapoppin’ (1941)
Slim Gaillard, piano, guitar; Slam Stewart, bass; Rex Stewart, drums; Elmer Fane, clarinet; Jap Jones, trombone; C.P. Johnston, drums; Harlem Congeroos, dancers
2010
Saturday, 5/8/10
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 2
Scene 1: Parade of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club
*****
Scene 2: Chouval Bwa
*****
Scene 3: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Backatown” (record-store performance)
*****
Scene 4: Pinettes Brass Band (outside another record store)
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lagniappe
2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Happy (111th) Birthday, Duke!
At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.
—Miles Davis
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
“C Jam Blues,” 1942
*****
“Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” 1943
lagniappe
It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line.
—Duke Ellington
*****
Radio Ellington: All Duke, All Day
WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
2010
Wednesday, 4/7/10
Happy Birthday, Billie!
If I could listen to only one singer for the rest of my life, she’d be the one.
No one gives you more of life.
Inessentials? No one offers fewer.
Moment by moment, no one is more enthralling.
***
Billie Holiday
“The Blues Are Brewin’,” with Louis Armstrong (New Orleans, 1947)
*****
“Fine and Mellow,” with Ben Webster (ts), Lester Young (ts), Vic Dickenson (trbn), Gerry Mulligan (bs), Coleman Hawkins (ts), Roy Eldridge (trmpt), live (TV broadcast), 1957
*****
“What A Little Moonlight Can Do,” with Mal Waldron (p), live (TV broadcast), 1958
Want more? Here.
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lagniappe
Radio Billie: all Billie, all the time
In celebration of Billie Holiday’s birthday, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is playing her music all day.
BILLIE HOLIDAY BIRTHDAY BROADCAST : APRIL 7th, 2010
Ninety-five years after her birth, on April 7th, 2010, WKCR will dedicate all programming to Billie Holiday. Born Elinore Fagan in Baltimore, Holiday learned songs by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith despite the instability and tragedy of her childhood. In 1929, she teamed up with tenor sax player Kenneth Hollan, slowly building her reputation as a vocalist. She replaced Monette Moore at a club called “Covan’s” on West 132 Street in 1932. When producer John Hammond came to see Moore, he was instead captivated by Holiday. He secured a record deal for her, and she recorded two tracks with Benny Goodman. She soon began to record under her own name, collaborating with the greatest artists of the swing era. With pianist Teddy Wilson, she manipulated the melody of dull pop songs for jukeboxes, transforming them into jazz standards, and she courageously recorded “Strange Fruit” with Commodore records when Columbia rejected the sensitive subject matter. Though her career was strained by substance abuse and heartbreak, her voice did not deteriorate. As she inscribed the catastrophes of her life on the texture of her voice, it became only more powerful, more haunting. On April 7th, we will examine the life of this great, mysterious artist, but most importantly, we will listen to her voice.—WKCR-FM
music clip of the day 