Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins was a teenage saxophone prodigy in the jazz hotbed of Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood in New York City. Under the influence of Charlie Parker and the tutelage of Thelonious Monk, Rollins was the undisputed champion of tenor saxophonists in the 1950s, first as a sideman with luminaries such as Bud Powell, [...]
David Simon of HBO’s Treme
The second floor of the bus and train station is doubling for City Hall offices today. Down a hallway crowded with equipment and crew, past Oliver Thomas—who’s playing himself—is a room where Treme co-producer David Simon is watching a monitor. The show is readying its second season, which will debut Sunday, April 24 at 8 [...]
Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars
The music world lost a great maverick when producer Jim Dickinson died two years ago of heart complications, at the age of 67. Originally a session keyboardist who played with Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones among many others, Dickinson became a champion of all that was primal and impassioned, be it the Delta blues [...]
Krewe du Vieux
“The story starts a million years ago when some caveman in order to impress his woman put on the skull of a dead animal and started dancing around pretending it was the dead animal,” Ray Kern says. “It undoubtedly impressed the woman because they mated and Mardi Gras was born.” “And then the krewe was [...]
Delfeayo Marsalis
In 1957, the Duke Ellington Orchestra recorded Such Sweet Thunder, a suite of 12 compositions based on the writings of William Shakespeare. It was remarkable program music designed to explore the personalities of Shakespearian characters including Lady Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Henry V. Some of the pieces were even composed in sonnet form. Delfeayo [...]
The Radiators
On November 4, Ed Volker, the principal songwriter and singer with the Radiators, sent a letter of resignation to his bandmates Dave Malone, Reggie Scanlan, Camile Baudoin and Frank Bua. Two days later, Volker reiterated his intentions to leave the group at a meeting in a Chicago hotel room. The news quickly spread across the [...]
Stephen Rehage
New Orleans has such a rich musical history that the city’s festival culture often reads like the climactic moment in Casablanca when Claude Rains says, “Round up the usual suspects!” Producer Stephen Rehage has rewritten that scene for the Voodoo Experience, now in its 12th renewal. Rehage sees New Orleans music in a millennial context [...]
Ruthie Foster
Singer Ruthie Foster made a big impression at her first Jazz Fest appearance in 2008. Her big voice and positive spirit levitated the Blues Tent, and no matter how animated Lady Tambourine was when she made a guest appearance, she couldn’t upstage Foster. The Austin-based Foster has since released a follow-up to The Phenomenal Ruthie [...]
Sweet Home New Orleans
Non-profit organizations did as much as anyone to help the New Orleans music community recover. Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO) formed in 2006, and it was the culmination of that effort, a needs-based organization that coordinated the resources of a number of non-profits to help get the city’s musicians and culture bearers—Mardi Gras Indians and [...]
Mystikal
For hip-hop, a genre even more obsessed with being fresh than pop, six years can be an eternity. Mystikal spent one such eternity in jail on charges of sexual assault and extortion. He’s been away from a fan base that can sometimes forget its favorite acts as soon as the next hot newcomer hits the [...]
