The buzz got out that Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, in town to bolster the Habitat for Humanity’s Musicians’ Village, might sit in at Bob French’s Monday night gig. “There’s a 95 percent chance,” French said earlier that day. Those were pretty good odds, especially since the two are heard on the drummer’s new [...]
It was recently announced that Cosimo Matassa will receive the National Recording Academy’s prestigious Trustees Award for his contribution as a record producer. He is to be honored at a ceremony to be held in Los Angeles the day before the Grammy Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast February 11. Matassa plans to attend both [...]
Joseph “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles has been masking Indian since he was a teenager. His father, Raymond, was a member of the Creoles and the Wild Squatoolas Black Indian gangs, so even before Monk built his first suit, he was deeply entrenched in the culture. “I wouldn’t know what to do [...]
The words “The Future of Our Past” printed on the upper right cover of Harold Battiste’s sheet music/workbook, The Silverbook, speak volumes about the musician and the man. Generally, when a Lifetime Achievement Award honor is bestowed, it is a time to reflect.
Certainly Battiste has earned great accolades for his accomplishments through his 50-plus years [...]
The prolific Harry Connick, Jr. enjoys many interests and always has lots of irons in the fire. So it makes sense that the pianist, vocalist, composer, arranger and actor records for two very different and distinctive labels, Columbia Records and friend and fellow musician, saxophonist Branford Marsalis’ Marsalis Music. He has been signed to Columbia [...]
Sirens wail and the shout goes out, “Who Dat Called Da Police.” The New Birth Brass Band gets the party rolling with this street favorite. The popular response, “Dem ho’s called the police!” was left out for the sake of radio airplay, but this opening tune has all the exuberance of a Sunday afternoon second [...]
It seems that the Helsinki-based Spirit of New Orleans (SONO), saved the best for last on its sophomore release. The group boasts trombonist Katja Toivola and as a special guest, her husband, trumpeter Leroy Brown, and it does a good job on traditional material like “Tin Roof Blues.” Things get much more interesting, though, when [...]
