August 2010
BackTalk
- Mystikal
For hip-hop, a genre even more obsessed with being fresh than pop, six years can be an eternity. Mystikal spent one…
Bookmark
- Two Louis
David Stricklin Louis Armstrong: The Soundtrack of the American Experience (Ivan R. Dee) Scott Allen Nollen Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music,…
Cover Story
- Shamarr Allen: None of the Above
1907 Jourdan Avenue is situated just past the east wall of the Industrial Canal. Shamarr Allen recalls growing up there, practicing…
Features
- Paul Sanchez on Shamarr Allen
I met Shamarr at an in-store in Louisiana Music Factory Jazz Fest 2006. I was still with the Mouth and he… - Seeking Satch Competition: The Sons of Satchmo
"New Orleans is the only place I know of where you ask a little kid what he wants to be and… - Hurricane Katrina 5 Years Later: Where Are We Now?
Perhaps it doesn't seem like five years since we were all running from a hurricane roughly the size of the entire… - HBO's Treme: I'll Be Your Mirror
[UPDATED] “New Orleans is still a factory town,” David Simon, co-producer of Treme told the Los Angeles Times. “There are no…
Fresh
- Remembering Fred Anderson
(Chicago-based jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson passed away June 24. Valid Records’ Benjamin Lyons reflects on his passing.) The Velvet Lounge on… - Dirty Linen Night: Getting Dirty
The French Quarter’s “answer” to White Linen Night comes at dusk the following Saturday. Royal Street shuts down to traffic and… - Washboard Rodeo: What's in a Cowboy Name?
Washboard Rodeo is bringing cowboy jazz to New Orleans. The Western swing group recently released its self-titled debut album, an acoustic… - Tropical Isle: Back on Bourbon
A year after a four-alarm fire ripped through the building, the Tropical Isle at the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon re-opened… - La Fete Cultural 2010: Oil and Culture Don't Mix
The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation (LCEF) will be hosting La Fete Cultural 2010, a celebration of culture to honor LCEF’s 5th… - A Century of Krazy Kat
The classic newspaper comic strip “Krazy Kat” is most associated with the American southwest, as the landscape and architecture of its… - OffBeat Wins Big at Press Club of New Orleans Awards
Saturday, July 17, the Press Club of New Orleans honored excellence in journalism in the Crescent City. In a ceremony at… - The Three Faces of Allen Toussaint
French-speaking Montreal has a deep fascination with its cultural cousin from the colonial era, New Orleans. The Montreal Jazz Festival is…
Letters
- August 2010 Letters
Sense of History Bravo and congratulations to Jason Marsalis for his frank and insightful piece in the July 2010 issue of…
Mojo Mouth
- Cultural Economies Need Love, Too
We play in the August heat, too. Satchmo SummerFest celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Originally funded by the Louisiana Office…
OffBeat Eats
- Johnaye Kendrick Hits the Spot at Il Posto Cafe
Il Posto Cafe 4607 Dryades St. (504) 895-2620 Why Il Posto? Well, because it's lunchtime. It's a really nice lunch spot… - Dining Out: Meltdown Popsicles
Hot enough for ya? This time of year, the temperature in New Orleans more resembles a valedictorian's report card rather than…
Dining Out
- Dining Out: Meltdown Popsicles
Hot enough for ya? This time of year, the temperature in New Orleans more resembles a valedictorian's report card rather than… - Tropical Isle: Back on Bourbon
A year after a four-alarm fire ripped through the building, the Tropical Isle at the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon re-opened…
The Spot
- Johnaye Kendrick Hits the Spot at Il Posto Cafe
Il Posto Cafe 4607 Dryades St. (504) 895-2620 Why Il Posto? Well, because it's lunchtime. It's a really nice lunch spot…
Reviews
- Juvenile, Beast Mode (E1 Entertainment)
Juvenile’s Beast Mode sounds like the name of a summer blockbuster. And like an action-packed mega-hit movie, the album is heavy… - Shamarr Allen and Paul Sanchez, Bridging the Gap (Threadhead Records)
Shamarr Allen is a born front man, the kind of artist who embraces a showy star turn. Throughout his career performing… - Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Up in Flames (Sound of New Orleans Records)
A churning dynamo, fully powered from start to finish, the latest release from Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers backs up… - Big Daddy ‘O’, Used Blues (Rabadash Records)
As the title implies here, most of these songs have been around the block more than once. But that’s not to… - Brian Quezergue, Reflections (Independent)
Brian Quezergue sets up his debut CD, Reflections, to highlight the bass guitar’s power and versatility as an instrument. This would… - Various Artists, Classic Sounds of New Orleans from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways Records)
This collection from Smithsonian Folkways does what any visit to our origins should: broaden the mind. Beyond the sonic revelations, these… - Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys, Cravin' Cajun (Swallow Records)
Multi-CFMA award winner Kevin Naquin has consistently fielded good line-ups and delivered quality recordings, but this slamming disc is the dancehall… - The Tom Paines, The Rites of Man (Threadhead Records)
The Rites of Man is the debut album from the Tom Paines, the latest incarnation of veteran New Orleans jacks-of-all-musical-trades Alex… - Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, Lucky Devil (Independent)
Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns have become a fixture on Frenchmen Street since their founding in 2009. The group… - Renard Poché, 4U 4Me (Re-Fro Records)
“We Are the People,” the 6th track on Renard Poché’s 4U 4Me, samples Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “I Have A… - The Beltway Brass Quintet, From the Streets of New Orleans (Independent)
In New Orleans jazz, there are the mega-standards, tunes such as “St. James Infirmary,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “Do… - Mitch Woods, Gumbo Blues (Club 88 Records)
Mitch Woods has long been acknowledged as one of the preeminent boogie-woogie pianists working today, as well as a master of… - Solomon Burke, Nothing's Impossible (E1 Entertainment)
I was lucky enough to catch Joe Henry, one of Solomon Burke’s “older” producers, (Don’t Give Up on Me, from 2002),… - Rex Gregory, An End to Oblivion (Independent)
In the liner notes to multi-instrumentalist composer Rex Gregory’s debut album, An End to Oblivion, he asks, “Can we take the… - Janiva Magness, The Devil Is An Angel Too (Alligator Records)
Not many folks in the People’s Republic of South Louisiana have heard of the R&B chanteuse Janiva Magness. Despite a late… - Ann Savoy and Her Sleepless Knights, Black Coffee (Memphis International Records)
Through 12 standards about love’s tricky turns and soft whispers, the sound on Ann Savoy’s latest release is sweet, but rarely… - Metronome the City, Object to be Destroyed (Independent)
On Object to be Destroyed, underground, experimental rock provocateurs Metronome the City have culled together a set of hazy, dystopic sound… - TheSekondElement, The Kommencement (Independent)
On her debut, The Kommencement, Bay Area-bred/New Orleans resident TheSekondElement serves up a lesson in lyricism—an intelligent, introspective collection of message… - Ryan Brunet and the Malfecteurs, Ryan Brunet and the Malfecteurs (Independent)
With the ongoing revival of Cajun music, there’s nothing earth-shattering about a competent accordionist who happens to be in his mid-20s.…
