The walls of the band director’s office at O. Perry Walker High School are plastered with newspaper clippings. One, from The Times-Picayune of February 12, 2010, features a photograph of the Walker marching band with the Krewe of Alla. Another, considerably more yellowed, has them marching with the Krewe of Aladdin in 2002. And nearby, [...]
For a guy who can be seen playing regularly alongside jazz musicians like Jesse Boyd, Tom Fischer and Don Vappie, guitarist John Rankin has an unusual claim to fame. “I play with the LPO [Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra] when they need a guitar or a banjo,” he says. “Last year I did Mahler’s 7th [symphony] with [...]
Jazz funerals work a little differently in Minneapolis. Just ask the Jack Brass Band. “It wasn’t like a second line. We were actually inside the church, standing up in front of the congregation at the altar,” recalls band leader Mike Olander about one of his group’s recent engagements. “We did ‘Just a Closer Walk With [...]
It seems unconscionably trite to say that a band “brings a New Orleans flavor” to their chosen genre, but I’ll say it anyway. Bart Ramsey’s accordion and Chris Edmunds’ busy, percussive guitar leave no doubt about Zazou City’s gypsy jazz idiom. But when Aurora Nealand whips out the soprano sax, Matthew Shilling starts blowing his [...]
You might say that the trajectory of banjoist Chris Edmunds’ musical career has been a bit backwards. In 2008, dismayed at a lack of steady work, he took the plunge and started up his own band, the New Orleans Moonshiners. Only after the group was playing regularly did other gigs start to materialize. “I was [...]
Compilations of New Orleans Mardi Gras music have a tendency to adjust themselves to outside perceptions of the holiday rather than vice versa. Not so with GHB Records’ newest offering. There are no conspicuous appeals here to the broader commercial market, notwithstanding a recording of “The Saints” from Louis Armstrong, whose Mardi Gras bona fides [...]
Tommy Sancton’s notes to City of a Million Dreams include a photo taken during a performance at Preservation Hall in 1965. Sancton sits alongside his mentor and idol, clarinetist George Lewis. Clive Wilson holds up his trumpet alongside De De Pierce, while Lars Edegran faces his piano in the rear. A host of famous old [...]
During the summer of 2010, clarinetist Tim Laughlin asked cornetist Connie Jones to imagine a “dream band”. The list included—among others—John Sheridan on piano, Ed Wise on bass, Danny Coots on drums, and Larry Scala on guitar. Unbeknownst to him, Laughlin was planning a recording session. He brought in that very fantasy rhythm section, adding [...]
A grid of 12 images adorns the cover of Almost Native. It includes a po-boy, a pair of maracas, and the Arc de Triomphe. If that seems too subtle, the track listing includes titles like “Tandé Sak Fè Loraj Gwondé”, “Chorando Em Paris”, and “Tango Ambiguo”. Styles range from waltz to blues to choro and [...]
The Moonshiners have built a reputation as one of New Orleans’ most capable—and unpredictable—trad groups. The group’s third album witnesses a tempering of their more offbeat tendencies, but loses none of their ensemble cohesion. Chris Edmunds’ rhythmically aggressive approach to the banjo remains a staple of the Moonshiners’ sound, as do his gritty-with-a-southern-twang vocal stylings. [...]
