When Kate Gaar started the Frenchmen Art Market in April last year, she envisioned it as “the night shift of Jazz Fest,” luring festival goers into the lot next to the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street after they’d had time to shower off the dust and grab some dinner. Since then, the Market has expanded [...]
New Books at Jazz Fest
Don’t just come home from Jazz Fest with a bunch of New Orleans music for your turntable or IPod, bring some for your coffee table as well. Four new books available this year offer unusual looks at local musicians. Sally Newhart’s The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band: More Than a Century of a New Orleans Icon [...]
Cosimocode.com: Cracking the Cosimo Code
At this point, no one really needs to be reminded that Cosimo Matassa engineered thousands of recordings in the succession of New Orleans studios he owned over a three-decade period. He got his start in the late 1940’s in the back room of the North Rampart Street J&M Music shop which he co-owned with his [...]
OffBeat Cover Artist Karen Ocker Brings Work to Jazz Fest
Karen Ocker, who painted Monk Boudreaux and Walter “Wolfman” Washington for the two covers we’re doing for our Jazz Fest Bible this year, is a veteran Jazz Fest artist. This will be her fourth year selling her work at the Fest. “Jazz Fest was the first arts market I ever did. I bring 40-50 pieces [...]
Hot Topic: Regulating Culture
Jazz Fest is one of the most popular times of year in New Orleans, attracting millions in tax revenue. But Jazz Fest in New Orleans doesn’t just happen within the New Orleans Fair Grounds gates. For nearly two weeks, we live, eat and breathe just about every form of music imaginable. It is safe to [...]
Dumpstaphunk’s Funky Decade
Ten years ago, Ivan Neville put his solo career in the dumpsta. As a solo artist during the ‘80s and ‘90s, he’s found a mix of deep grooves and confessional songwriting. But as the leader of Dumpstaphunk he put the groove upfront, and has been on that track ever since. Dumpstaphunk celebrates its 10th anniversary [...]
Timecode: NOLA Screens Professor Longhair, Ernie K-Doe, More at French Quarter Fest
Though we’re sure somebody’s tried, we still haven’t been able to resurrect our late music pioneers like Professor Longhair, James Booker or Ernie K. Doe to play French Quarter Fest live . But this year the indie filmmakers collective TimeCode:NOLA has the next best thing, a series of rare Louisiana music films shown during the [...]
Dylan’s Angels: Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Paintings
“There are a lot of places I like,” wrote Bob Dylan memorably in his autobiography, “but I like New Orleans better.” Of course, “like” varies so much from mind to mind, palate to palate. The Pulitzer-prize-winning songwriter recently unveiled “The New Orleans Series” of paintings, which stayed on exhibit until March 10th in Milan, Italy. [...]
Thunderous: Walter Lure and the Waldos Set for Siberia Sighting
Johnny Thunders, the guitarist who rose to fame as a member of the New York Dolls and ascended to legend leading the Heartbreakers, claimed a unique corner in New Orleans rock history when he died under mysterious circumstances in April 1991 at the St. Peter House, leaving behind rumors of foul play and the inevitable [...]
Yarrr! Pirates Come in Many Forms for Hal Willner
What is it about singing drunken pirate songs that holds such universal appeal for rock musicians? National Lampoon’s Goodbye Pop album did a hilarious job of spoofing this genre, thank you Paul Shaffer. Nearly 40 years later there’s more than a little ironic distance at the table in this second volume of producer Hal Willner’s [...]
