In May 2005, the Charmaine Neville Band undertook what was to be a six-month recording project: to record her weekly performances at Snug Harbor, where Neville had performed on Monday nights since the 1980s. It was to be a window for the listener into what a jazz band can do and how it can evolve, [...]
Hank Williams died at the age of 29, leaving behind what sometimes feels like half the American country music songbook. Listening to the recordings, I’m always struck: this is a young man’s voice singing an old man’s songs about loss and loneliness. Spencer Bohren didn’t live through the history or the personal struggles that produced [...]
In indie rock years, the time between 2007 when Big Blue Marble released Natchez and now is an eternity—practically long enough for a reunion tour or a tribute band. On their new, almost self-titled CD, though, Big Blue Marble has streamlined its sound. Mike Blum’s lap steel guitar is a nice link to the band’s [...]
Vocalist Nasimiyu Murumba came to New Orleans from the Twin Cities in 2009, and it’s clear from the title to the lyrical content of her EP that she’s set on making a new home, and making her music about it. It Ain’t Pretty but It’s Beautiful collects six of her original songs, and it’s obvious [...]
The indelible image of the Hot 8 Brass Band at a Sunday afternoon second line parade is that of sousaphone player Bennie Pete and bass drummer Harry “Swamp Thing” Cook. We picture them pushing the band’s low end up and down Lasalle through Central City, out North Broad Street or A.P. Tureaud in the Seventh [...]
Ninety Miles is the distance between Miami and Havana, the closest points in the US and Cuba. This project, the companion CD to a documentary due later this summer, comes from New Orleans-born trumpeter Christian Scott, Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sánchez, and New York vibraphonist Stefon Harris. It’s the latest in a long line of [...]
On “Dream,” the fifth track on Cartel Diem: Lifestyles of the Young & Reckless, Tha Cartel detail their music’s background and New Orleans birthplace in terms not so much geographical as topographical: “Never seen a mountain, never seen a beach.” The rest of the track talks about thinking big and getting beyond the city’s boundaries, [...]
Bronx, New Orleans: Respect Where it Started is an idea that more or less markets itself: using New Orleans samples, Bronx DJ Bazooka Joe and New Orleans rapper Impulss bring together the mythical birthplaces of American music and of hip-hop. Doing so, they can take the vital New Orleans hip-hop sound that’s now affecting the [...]
Very Same Dream represents a significant step forward for the singer-songwriter Jamie Bernstein, in his current incarnation as front man for J. the Savage. Produced by Kermit Ruffins’ regular drummer, Derrick Freeman, Very Same Dream is effectively set up to play its roots-rock eclecticism against its unmistakable Big Easy roots. There’s no doubt about it: [...]
On Chillin’ at the Point, Tom Fitzpatrick approaches the compositions and repertoire of, among others, Stanley Turrentine, Roland Kirk, and David “Fathead” Newman. That’s a very particular kind of pantheon—these are all saxophonists’ saxophonists, known for their mastery of the instrument itself as much as for their innovation in various styles and idioms. That alone [...]
