The High Ground Drifters have made a name for themselves as one of the only bluegrass bands in a jazz town. The six-year-old outfit developed out of a shared love of bluegrass music among the band’s five members—Paul Williams, John Noble, Jeff Bagwell, Grant Ligon, and Greg Nichols—all residents of Mid-City. “We met like bluegrass [...]
DJ Tony Skratchere began as a breakdancing B-boy in the late 1980s, progressed to skating and graffiti in the 1990s, and then settled into his current role as a master of the turntables in the early 2000s. Throughout it all, Skratchere, also known as Ben Hebert, has revolved his life around his two real passions—music [...]
It’s 10:30 on a Wednesday night. Rob Schulte emerges from the darkened dance floor and settles in behind his expansive drum kit. To his left and right, the other members of the Topcats are tuning up guitars and turning on keyboards. These same four friends—Schulte, William “Buzzy Beano” Langford, David Gamble, and Pat Campbell—have been [...]
“It is sort of a fantasy jazz camp,” Banu Gibson says. “Our campers are people who are investment bankers whose parents told them, ‘No, you can’t be a musician for a living.’ Now they are going back and saying, ‘I’m going to do what I wanted to do.’ We get a lot of people who [...]
Grammy Award-winning blues musician Alvin Youngblood Hart finds himself traveling to New Orleans to play music quite often these days. He has to. New Orleans is where his heart is. Or more specifically, it’s where his girlfriend lives. No stranger to Louisiana music, he opened for legendary late bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown early in his [...]
After four years, thirteen graduates, and an extensive community outreach program, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance is ending its collegiate program at Loyola University. Monk Institute Board of Trustees Chairman Thelonious Monk, Jr. said in an April 13 letter that the institute will end its current educational partnership with Loyola in May 2011. [...]
After four years, nearly two dozen graduates, and an extensive community outreach program, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance is ending its collegiate program at Loyola University. Monk Institute Board of Trustees Chairman Thelonious Monk, Jr. said in an April 13 letter addressed to the institute’s partners that the institute will end its current [...]
For 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 [...]
Kermit Ruffins is set to take over the Mother-in Law-Lounge on Claiborne Avenue in the Treme, saving another endangered landmark on the New Orleans musical landscape. While the Treme neighborhood and the working musicians that call it home have received worldwide attention over the past year thanks to the eponymous HBO series, too many of [...]
Anything that starts with the corrosion of copper wire and wall outlets can’t end well for homeowners, and the discovery of tainted Chinese drywall in Habitat for Humanity’s Musician’s Village certainly bears that out for some of the city’s working musicians. Of the 319 homes built by the New Orleans chapter of Habitat for Humanity [...]
