Displaced in New York nine years ago following Hurricane Katrina, Mid-City evacuee Jared Zeller, inspired by the Mardi Gras Indian’s Super Sunday tradition and the legacy of Bayou St. John, initially conceived the Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo, a music, arts and culture festival celebrated on the bayou’s banks. But it was more than just the idea [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 36): Tony “Oulabula” Bazley, Rhythm King
“All my life, I been a jazz, bebop drummer,” says 79-year-old Pigeon Town native Tony “Oulabula” Bazley in this week’s episode of OffBeat’s Look-Ka Py Py Podcast. Over the course of his six-and-a-half decade career, Bazley has manned the kit for jazz legends such as Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon and Wes Montgomery as well as [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 35): Walter Wolfman Washington, Soul Shepherd
Long before his trademark howl echoed in the Crescent City’s streets, Walter “Wolfman” Washington was a hungry, young guitarist cutting his teeth on the Dew Drop Inn stage. In the mid-Sixties, he fell in line with New Orleans soul-funk pioneer Lee Dorsey and found his strut, stirring “Ride Your Pony’s” slinky groove with his stinging [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 34): Terence Blanchard, Behind the Scene
“We’ve all had that moment in our lives where we’ve had to ask ourselves, ‘Who am I? What am I doing,’” says trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard in this week’s episode of OffBeat’s Look-Ka Py Py Podcast. He’s describing the concept behind one of the scenes in his recently completed opera Champion, which focuses on [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 33): House of Dance and Feathers Takes Flight
Upon retiring in 2002, Lower 9th Ward resident Ronald W. Lewis opened the House of Dance and Feathers, a DIY museum and cultural exhibit chronicling Mardi Gras Indian history, in his Tupelo Street garage. Three years later, Hurricane Katrina claimed the former streetcar repairman’s extensive collection of costumes, beads, photographs and memorabilia. In the storm’s [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 32): Spencer Bohren’s Lap Steel Leger
A folkie in spirit and a bluesman at heart, six-string sage Spencer Bohren made the Big Easy his home in the mid-70s. In the time since, Bohren’s songbook has sewn 16 solo albums, his matchless fretwork, steering each sojourn. Bohren’s most recent effort Tempered Steel marks the songman’s first disc devoted entirely to his beloved [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 31): Cutting Up with the Session
With the sound of New Orleans forever linked to the rambling cacophony of traditional jazz, getting a leg up on the city’s contemporary scene presents a unique challenge to its up-and-coming purveyors: getting their feet in the door. “You either give up, or you go to New York. Or, you do something else and go [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 30): Searching for James Booker
Save for New Orleans music aficionados, few are familiar with the music of James Booker — arguably the most prodigiously talented and unquestionably the most misunderstood and overlooked musician to ever call the Crescent City home. Aside from a strung-together Wikipedia page and spare bag of recordings, pictures and concert clips, little is know about [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 29): Jazz at the Sandbar Marks the Spot
In 1990, venerated New Orleans jazz musicians Ellis Marsalis and Harold Batiste founded Jazz at the Sandbar, a weekly spring concert series held at the Cove on the University of New Orleans’ campus that pairs its Jazz Studies students with renowned artists. In this week’s episode of OffBeat’s Look-Ka Py Py Podcast, host Zachary Young [...]
Look-Ka Py Py Podcast (ep 28): Anders Osborne, Right at Home
Swedish-native Anders Osborne first set foot in New Orleans in 1985, and almost instantly, the city compelled the young, wayward drifter to change his course. After landing a spot opening for Earl King at Tipitina’s, the songwriter/guitarist knew he had found his place. For Osborne, the freedom of playing in the moment transcended the stage [...]
