Born Leo Morris—a relative of the Nevilles, a resident of the 13th Ward—Idris Muhammad was destined to make an impact. At nine years old, he was drumming with Dixieland bands. By his teens, he was playing with the Hawketts, who had gained notoriety before he joined with their 1954 song, “Mardi Gras Mambo.” In an [...]
Michel Navedo might be best remembered, up to now, for fronting legendary local noisers, Nipples of Isis. The release of the trumpeter’s recording New Orleans on My Mind should adjust that. The disc features music that Navedo describes as “up close, personal, romantic and sweet.” It’s an apt description. This is cool jazz with a [...]
Her voice was never as buxom as she was. Her husband’s fame outgrew her own. Still, Blue Lu Barker remains an important icon of New Orleans jazz and blues 12 years after her death. And while her best-remembered material dates from the ’30s when she was living in New York City, Barker continued performing, especially [...]
[Updated] Edward “Kid” Ory may not be as well known as the superstars of early jazz, players such as Louis Armstrong and Buddy Bolden, but Ory played with them all, and he left an indelible imprint on each of them, all the while helping to create the most dominant trombone sound of all. Ory left [...]
Ed Blackwell died a few days shy of his 63rd birthday in 1992. He was eulogized around the world. His obituary ran in hundreds of papers, mostly because of his groundbreaking work with Ornette Coleman. But Blackwell had long been credited with introducing a subtlety to the fervent jazz sides he played on. His work [...]
When writers Bill Russell and Fredric Ramsey tracked Bunk Johnson down in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1938, they found him toothless and out of music. Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong had spoken so highly of Johnson to the men that they searched him out for their book Jazzmen, if only to discover how and why [...]
