Buy on Amazon Davell Crawford often gets called the “Piano Prince of New Orleans,” but that usually isn’t meant in the Purple Rain sense. But it’s hard to think of a better parallel on Crawford’s first studio album in more than a decade: Few other artists this side of Prince are more eclectic, more erratically [...]
It may have been the Beatles whose experimentation from album to album raised the expectation that recording musicians always had to do something different or unexpected with each new project. This idea has led to many more bad records than good. Kermit Ruffins doesn’t buy this. When a Ruffins record get cued up, listeners know [...]
Buy on Amazon When Spencer Bohren decided to form a group called the Whippersnappers with his son Andre, he took time out from his whirlwind schedule to review his recording career and was astonished by the depth of his catalog. The resourceful guitarist and singer-songwriter has a genius for album concepts and turns out new [...]
Buy on Amazon Terence Blanchard brilliantly continues his life-long exploration of jazz on his latest release. As one would expect of a musician of his caliber, broad experience, talent and passion, the trumpeter, composer and arranger brings his all to every work. On this, his return to the Blue Note label, Blanchard, 51, teams with [...]
Don’t look now, but Bonerama has turned into a full-fledged rock band. True that classic rock was always in them, and there’s a Zeppelin or Sabbath cover on all four of their previous discs. But in the past, the rock was just part of an eclectic mix of brass-band, jazz, funk and out-there jam elements. [...]
Buy on AmazonBuy on iTunes David Egan’s songs may be better known than he is. As the writer or co-composer of “Fading Footsteps” (memorably recorded by Solomon Burke), “Please No More” (a hit for Joe Cocker), and the Marcia Ball-Irma Thomas-Tracy Nelson signature, “Sing It,” the Lafayette-based singer-songwriter has shown his mastery of blues, from [...]
Over the past few years, clarinetist Gregory Agid has seemingly remained the New Orleans jazz scene’s best-kept secret. However, with the release of his quartet’s debut album Mystery Blues, the cat is out of the bag. For those not hip to the late Alvin Batiste’s last protégé, the title track of this Delfeayo Marsalis-produced gem [...]
Buy on Amazon No sophomore slump here, Yvette Landry delivers a beaut that honky tonks its way through an assortment of colorful tales told mostly from a woman’s perspective. Whether it’s turning the tables, perpetuating romantic failure or finding lasting love, she covers a wide range of topics as captured by an observant eye. Some [...]
For a New Orleans jazz group, the Panorama Jazz Band has a very reliable lineup. Four years after the release of their last studio album, Come Out Swingin’, Charlie Halloran continues chugging away on the trombone. Walt McClements’ accordion, Aurora Nealand’s saxophone, and John Gross’ tuba are right where we remember them, while group leader [...]
Joel Savoy’s Honky Tonk Merry-Go-Round is a real sweetheart of an album—an informal gathering of accomplished young Cajun musicians taking their turns on tried-and-true honky-tonk numbers in a recording environment that transforms what might have been a dancehall or concert-stage platform into a more-intimate, front-porch music setting. Merry-Go-Round also celebrates the Cajun love affair with [...]
