Truth Universal, founder of Grassroots!

Grassroots! has been crucial to the underground hip-hop scene in New Orleans. It began in 2002 at a time when Cash Money and No Limit Records‘ mainstream rap dominated New Orleans, and provided not just a space for alternative performances, but a model for the future. “Grassroots! has created a trend of unity and togetherness within New Orleans hip-hop,” says Lyrikill, who has been involved with Grassroots! since its beginning. “Events like Writer’s Block, Soundclash, Uniquity and Certified NOLA are all influenced by the local showcase-themed events that Truth Universal and Grassroots! brought to life ten years ago.”

In the early 2000s, booking concerts was difficult for underground rappers. “It just seemed like we weren’t being taken seriously,” founder Truth Universal wrote via e-mail. “I personally remember letting some talent buyers know I was interested in some concert openings, and it was one excuse after another, or no response at all.”

By hooking up with other like-minded MCs and DJs, such as Raw Poetix, Nabii na Dada, DJ Redd Slick, and DJ E.F. Cuttin and Psychoward, Universal started playing shows at whatever venue would book them. “I was really influenced by an excellent band called Soul Remedy,” Truth Universal says. “They had genuine initiative and an untiring grind ethic. I adapted those things. I was already a part of the Konscious Party collective. I helped Nabii Bastet and the Kuumba Academy camp with that weekly. We did that for a while at the Warehouse on Earhart.

Once he started playing gigs in other cities, though, Truth Universal noticed the weekly and monthly series that had cropped up in places like Los Angeles, Atlanta, or Milwaukee to support their local hip-hop communities. Many even had radio shows, local access TV shows, and publications devoted to local, underground hip-hop. “[New Orleans] had most of those things,” says Truth, “but not really working together. I wanted to do it all, but I thought the best use of energy would be to contribute with the “Grassroots!” showcase series. I had this vision to link a lot of the existing showcases in other cities as a touring circuit.

“I had heard that Neighborhood Gallery on Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. had an auditorium next to its gallery. I went to check it out. It was perfect! I hit it off instantly with Sandra Berry and Joshua Walker, who owned the gallery. We started the next Saturday I think!”

The early days weren’t easy. Needing equipment, Grassroots! would rent a P.A. from the New Orleans Music Exchange. “No one but maybe E.F. [Cuttin] knew how to work that thing. The sound would be horrible until he would mix it.” Several shows stand out as special though. One was an album release party for Euphonetiks, a group of Dillard students that included Lyrikill. “The place was PACKED!” Truth says. “It was like the whole Dillard campus came. [Euphonetiks] had an outstanding set as well.” Other standout shows were the frequent performances by Psychoward, who were consistent contributors to Grassroots!.

One memorable set by a non-local group was from Bay Area duo Zion I. “There were a lot of children in attendance,” Truth Universal remembers. “Most of them had never really been to a hip-hop set like that; it was their first time being exposed to something like that. They absolutely loved it. One of my good friend’s children, who is in high school now, still remembers that.”

Like so much else in the city, Grassroots! struggled to continue after Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, Truth would host occasional Grassroots! shows and would hang its banner at his own performances, but momentum didn’t pick back up until late that year, when Willie Noveck and David “BRX” Kubicki (a.k.a. DJ Proppa Bear) took over management of the Dragon’s Den. They were familiar with Grassroots!, and were glad to make the Dragon’s Den the new venue for the series. In February 2007, the second half of Grassroots! life began in its new home, and they’ve been going strong ever since.

In the years since, the work has become easier for Truth Universal, both from his experience and help from Holly Hobbs and DJ Def D, who comes to town each month from Atlanta for the series. What’s still difficult, though, is the struggle to spread a conscious message in hip-hop. “Those artists who make it a point to overtly address social issues are the minority in most places, and that’s the case here. I can still count those artists on one hand. But in addition to that, people who are exposed to adverse conditions, as a lot of us have been here, have a desire to affect change by addressing issues and conditions with their music. The more dire your circumstance it seems that there is a greater opportunity to become more politically astute.”

Here’s to Grassroots! for nurturing that political opportunity.

Grassroots! celebrates its 10-year anniversary Saturday, February 4 at the Dragon’s Den. The show starts after Krewe du Vieux has passed. Tickets are $5. More info.

The Treme Sidewalk Steppers come out for the second line at the African-American Museum at Governor Nicholls and N. Villere in the Treme. The parade then heads over to Basin St./Orleans Ave. and up towards Broad. There are two stops along Broad before turning down A.P. Tureaud and stopping at Bullet’s. It then continues down St. Bernard, turning on Claiborne for a stop and turn at the Labat Charbonnet Funeral Home. The final stretch goes down Claiborne and turns onto St. Bernard before disbanding at Sidney’s Saloon.

Here’s the full map:

View Treme Sidewalk Steppers 2012 Second Line Route in a larger map

Click here to view the embedded video.

His career shifted from one cult to another in the early 2000s when members of Fishbone took him on tour that came to the Howlin’ Wolf and introduced him to younger audiences that had never heard his party records. Since then, he’s toured the world and been the subject of a 2011 documentary, The Weird World of Blowfly. He’ll play Siberia tonight with the Super Nice Brothers and DJ Soul Sister.

In our current issue, Ryan Scully of R. Scully and the Rough 7 wrote an obituary of his friend Michael Aaron, former owner of the now-defunct record store Rock ‘n’ Roll Collectibles and guitarist in bands such as Charm City Brokers, Enoch Light Presents, and the R. Scully Band. Aaron passed away in late December after battling heart issues.

Friday, February 3, members of Aaron’s musical family will help celebrate his life with a memorial show at Vaughan’s, followed by a one-block second line at to neighboring Bywater bar B.J.’s at midnight. Happy Talk Band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Egg Yolk Jubileee, King James, Paris, Chinese Drywall, BrockNormanBrock will play sets at Vaughan’s starting at 6 p.m., in addition to Rob Cambre performing solo on Aaron’s own lap-steel guitar. R. Scully and the Rough 7 will close out the evening at B.J.’s.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All of us work like dogs preparing for the Business Awards and the Party/Music Awards. Really, we do. So it’s totally gratifying to know that we’ve accomplished what we set out to do—honor the musicians and the people who make the music happen behind the scenes—while at the same time throwing a wonderful party that the musicians and the public can both enjoy to the fullest.

George Porter, Jr. and his wife Ara at the Best of the Beat. Photo by Kim Welsh.

We get many kudos from people who have enjoyed the party, but truly, the party isn’t about OffBeat, it’s about the wonderful musicians who perpetuate New Orleans as the hottest music city in the world, and the restaurants and caterers, our liquor and beer sponsors, our production coordinators Libra Lagrone and Sami Slovy, and the venues who so graciously work with us in making the event successful. It’s about giving props to our Lifetime Achievement Award winners, George Porter, Jr., Scott Billington, Mary Howell, and John Rankin.

One of the highlights of my evening was seeing Art and Cyril Neville and their spouses. I don’t get to see Art very much any more, and it was thrilling to chat with him for just a minute and watch him perform in a tribute to George Porter, Jr. with his brother Cyril, Dr. John, Papa Mali, Monk Boudreaux, David Barard, Stanton Moore, Khris Royal, Tracy Griffith, Jeff Albert, Mark Mullins and Brian Graber. What an incredible set!

There are plenty of photos of both events online, but if you weren’t there, you missed the music and food, and a great night. Hope we see you next year?

Best of the Beat Music Awards: Winners

Best of the Beat Music Awards: Photos

Best of the Beat Business Awards: Winners

Best of the Beat Business Awards: Photos

Phil Spector Presents the Philles Album Collection (Sony Legacy): Those who know Phil Spector-produced artists by their singles and hope to find pirate treasure in their album tracks will be disappointed by this seven-disc box set. There are some great finds here, most notably the electrifying version of Jackie DeShannon‘s “I Shook the World” by Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, but since the Crystals, the Ronettes and others in the Spector stable were singles artists, the albums were thin. Still, for me they’re thin in interesting ways. It’s hard to imagine I’ll ever listen again to Bob B. Soxx’s Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, with Spectorized versions of “This Land is Your Land,” “The White Cliffs of Dover” and the title track, but the Crystals’ Twist Uptown is consistently entertaining, and the filler’s performed better than such average ideas merit. The disc I’ve listened to the most is Phil’s Flipsides, a collection of instrumental tracks that feature the Wrecking Crew at their go-go finest.

The Smiths Complete by the Smiths (Rhino): The Smiths are one of those bands that eluded me in their time. When their debut album came out in 1984, I liked harder music. After I heard “How Soon is Now,” I was frustrated and gave up when I couldn’t find anything else by them that sounded like that. Most subsequent efforts ended with the realization that I was probably too late to the dance with them, and that I was past the age when Morrissey’s powermope would speak to me. When the complete Smiths was released, I committed myself to making it through the studio albums but skipped the live Rank (no reason) and two greatest hits collections (redundant) and was glad I did. At first, I found Morrissey impossibly fey, but the barbs and kicks in his songs slowly emerged once I grew accustomed to his anxious loneliness as a baseline state of being. I still like the muscle in the BBC recordings on Hatful of Hollow, and even at the point when Johnny Marr and Morrissey were on the outs, the songs don’t show the stress. It’s hard to know who something like The Smiths Complete is for – Smith fans have it, and it’s hard recommend a band’s library as a starting point  - but they affected the music that followed them to such a degree that ’90s Britpop makes a lot more sense to me now.

Young Man with the Big Beat by Elvis Presley (Sony Legacy): This attractive box set packaged to resemble a multi-album vinyl set captures Elvis in 1956 when almost everything worked for him. That year, he cut “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Love Me,” “Trying to Get to You,” ” Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,”  ”Love Me Tender” and more, and you can hear the confidence in the tracks. He sings with the assurance that it’s all going to work because it has so far. The set includes a live show from Shreveport as well as songs from his one setback that year, a stint in Las Vegas that didn’t speak to the swells at the casinos. You don’t notice any timidity in his performance of “Long Tall Sally” in Vegas until you hear what he comes up with when the Shreveport audience egging him on. Box sets are the coffee table books of the music world, but The Young Man with the Big Beat is an attractive document of a rare moment in anyone’s life when everything was coming up Elvis.

This year’s Jazz Fest poster features Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, and was painted by New Orleans’ Terrance Osborne. Shorty last graced the 2009 Congo Square poster, and Osborne’s last poster work was the 2010 Congo Square poster featuring Uncle Lionel Batiste. Here’s the official Jazz Fest 2012 poster:

The 2012 Congo Square poster features Shamarr Allen, and was painted by South Carolina’s Carl Crawford, who won the Most Unique art award at last year’s Jazz Fest, and Best in Show at the 2010 Fest. This is his first poster commission. Here’s the 2012 Congo Square poster:

The 2012 Jazz Fest poster and 2012 Congo Square poster can be ordered from Art4Now.com.

Anyone who’s witnessed Glen David Andrews on a good night knows he is capable of being the most charismatic performer in New Orleans. Up until now, you had to be there to appreciate his talent, though. His 2004 Dumaine Street Blues demonstrated his capabilities playing traditional jazz and New Orleans street favorites quite well but didn’t distinguish itself from many similar recordings. 2009’s live Walking Through Heaven’s Gate captured GDA’s impressive gospel roots, but technical difficulties made the album a less than perfect medium for his galvanic talents. Finally, Live at Three Muses captures the full force of GDA’s live act for posterity. The Frenchmen Street club decided to record all of its regular acts over the summer of 2011 with the idea of putting together a compilation record. In the process, Andrews managed to condense his peripatetic performance into the perfect live recording.

Andrews can be sprawling from set to set, brilliantly unpredictable and over the top. He takes so many chances that his moves don’t always work, but he adjusts to the moment so it’s always just a short wait until the next spectacular turn. But on this record, he exercised outstanding discipline in charting a program that takes him through the full range of New Orleans styles he excels at without taking a breath.

Andrews starts out with “Basin Street Blues,” a traditional New Orleans jazz vehicle that has been a live staple for over 80 years, but his delivery is straight out of tonight. He uses the song to celebrate the New Orleans music scene as it is right now:

Preservation Hall will be here to greet you
Dr. John will be here to greet you
Charmaine Neville will be here to greet you
Aaron Neville will be here to greet you
Cyril Neville will be here to greet you
And Trombone Shorty will be here to swing you…

John Boutte will be here to greet you
James Andrews will be here to greet you
Glen Andrews will be here to greet you
Terence Blanchard will be here to greet you
Papa Grows Funk will be here to greet you
The music of Mahalia Jackson will be here to greet you
The spirit of Louis Armstrong will be here to greet you

Andrews delivers these lines like a hip-hop MC working up a crowd with neighborhood shout-outs, then moves into a recasting of Boutte’s “Treme Song,” personalizing it with new lyrics and an urgent, double-time arrangement that surges into the Andrews original “Flat Like That (Get That Gator),” a manic dance piece that moves on drummer Jamal Watson’s relentless pulse.

Andrews then breaks it down with a meditative, gospel-influenced take on “At the Foot of Canal Street,” framed by fervent piano accompaniment from Kyle Roussel. This radically transformed version of the song is typical of the way Andrews deconstructs material, basically taking the title and a few phrases and turning it into his own vehicle. It’s another example, along with the frantic pace of his beats, of how contemporary Andrews’ instincts are. Just as hip-hop artists treat preexisting songs as readymades for their own compositions, Andrews appropriates freely, dropping pieces from disparate places into the mix. His genius lies in the fact that he’s never copying other people’s music, but always reimagining it. When he says, “How about it for John Boutte and Paul Sanchez for writing such a beautiful song?” it’s more like a name check than an acknowledgement of the song itself, which is recognizable in Andrews’ version only by the use of the title.

Having given the crowd a breather, GDA launches immediately into the driving riff of “Rock Star (Like Mike),” written with cousin Trombone Shorty and Mike Ballard, which segues to the heavy brass instrumental “Whatever Happened to Peanut,” written with another cousin, trombonist Revert “Peanut” Andrews. The crowd is so hyped by the end of this track that you can hear people screaming out the melody line. Suddenly, we’re into another of GDA’s reimaginings, this time a radical revision of Monk Boudreaux’s “Bury the Hatchet” which becomes a medium for Andrews’ riveting sermon about black-on-black crime in New Orleans.

Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina” gets about the most straightforward rendition of anything on the album, a great medium for both Roussel and Watson. As Roussel plays his solo choruses, Andrews goes into a reverie, sending out a message to a 93-year-old female fan from Chicago with cancer. GDA is in the pulpit, declaring, “I believe someday we’re going to find a cure for cancer,” then asking the audience to “put your hands up for everyone who’s suffered from this horrible disease.” This kind of metaphysical shift seems to occur spontaneously in a GDA show and offers the perfect set- up for a nearly 10-minute-long gospel medley. Andrews is most at home in this medium, and while it lacks the authenticity of Walking Through Heaven’s Gate, this performance employs the crowd- pleasing usefulness of gospel material in a pop context, leading into “Saints” and the “Who Dat” chant. Heading from one old school to another, GDA leads the band into a Brothers Johnson groove based on “I Want You.” This is the real climax of the show, with a Dr. John tribute offered as a little lagniappe: “I will, I will melt your heart like butter.”

Some complain that GDA merely mines preexisting genres of New Orleans music for narrow focused tourist mongering. I hear a transformational character in New Orleans music, redefining classic works by bringing contemporary elements to them and infusing them with the force of his personality. When you hear a performer say “Somebody scream!” usually you’re getting a rote suggestion devoid of context or imperative. When GDA addresses the crowd, he’s issuing a personal command and he gets a personal response. He’s taken the rote out of the tradition. What you get at a good GDA performance is something akin to the sheer athleticism and unrelenting flow of a Celtics-Lakers NBA final. And finally, thanks to Three Muses and a brilliant engineering job by Michael Seaman, you can bring that experience home with you.

Over the past few years, saxophonist Khris Royal has emerged as one of the most exciting up-and-coming musicians on the New Orleans music scene. He’s one of George Porter, Jr.’s Runnin’ Pardners, and his own funk-fusion outfit, Dark Matter, has been busy establishing itself as one of the city’s most incendiary live acts. On the band’s debut album, Dark Matter, they infuse soul into space funk and jazz into bump-and-grind.

No strangers to stretching jams, shaking booties, or shedding into another dimension, the talented ensemble of Danny Abel (guitar), Kyle Roussel (keys), DJ Raymond (bass), and Terrence Houston (drums) match their captain’s imagination and ambition. Royal, the mastermind behind Dark Matter’s far-reaching endeavors and exotic sound, sets the trajectory. He wrote each of the album’s 11 cuts and played six different instruments. He also covered half of the production duties.

The only thing more palpable than Royal’s prowess on Dark Matter is his passion. An adventurous player with an unyielding spirit, Royal’s most ear-catching attribute is his ability to forge an emotional connection to the music without weighing down the rhythm or overpowering the groove. Early on, his fierce licks and soulful flourishes fuel the fiery “Whyuwanna.” Similarly, his shimmering solos pace the super funky “Foley.” When venerated saxman Donald Harrison steps into the smooth ride of “Big Booty Express,” Royal engages the legend’s urban swing with a shot of street bop. Likewise, he wastes no time revving up the uptown roller “Chicken Dance” before Big Sam caps it off with a hearty trombone solo.

Royal’s use of the EWI, essentially an electronic saxophone, is arguably the album’s most intriguing facet. In addition to shading the spectral hues of the set standout “Kendrick’s World,” its chilling electronic timbre adds a mysterious air to the ominous title track. Though more of an afterthought, the odd closer “Party Starter,” which features Royal on vocoder and verses from emcees M@ Peoples and TheSekondElement, doesn’t necessarily fit the album’s tone. No matter; when not meandering into jamland or reaching for a bridge too far, Khris Royal and Dark Matter possess an inventive sound that often blends the liveliness of vintage-era Grover Washington, Jr. with the dense funk aesthetic of early ‘80s Zapp.

Buy Khris Royal and Dark Matter’s Dark Matter on iTunes

Listen to Khris Royal and Dark Matter’s Dark Matter on Spotify