Keys to the Crescent City is an all-star piano revue that also serves as a Rounder sampler, with Charles Brown, Eddie Bo, Willie Tee and Art Neville. All have been closely linked to the New Orleans piano style, though Brown is the sole non-New Orleanian in the bunch. Actually, Brown’s material was not recorded for [...]
In a place where music means so much—and where so much of it has been recorded—what visitor or resident hasn’t entertained the idea of building an essential New Orleans record library? Given the enormity of the city’s recorded output and stylistic scope, the prospect may be daunting. The immediate urge to have everything must be [...]
It’s easy to understand why Ellis Marsalis seems almost gratified by something his students almost take for granted. “Growing up in New Orleans, there was always some opposition, especially at the university level, to any kind of jazz,” said Marsalis, the city’s foremost jazz educator. “There was also a kind of fundamental opposition in academe [...]
