New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra to Play Lionel Ferbos Memorial Concert

A free concert in honor of late trumpeter Lionel Ferbos will take place on Sunday, November 9, from 5-6 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church.

Lionel Ferbos, Golden G. Richard, III, OffBeat Magazine, August 2014

Photo: Golden G. Richard, III

The concert will be presented by the New Orleans Jazz Celebration and the Holt-Burnett Memorial Fund (a part of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Assistance Foundation Gig Fund), organizations committed to supporting local musicians and subsidizing live jazz performances.

It will feature Ferbos’ beloved New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, with whom he first performed in 1970.

Presently, the group consists of bandleader Lars Edegran on piano, Richard Perles on violin, Jamil Sharif on trumpet and vocals, James Evans on clarinet, Rick Trolsen on trombone, Jesse Boyd on string bass, and Ernie Elly on drums.

Along with vocalist Sharon Nabonne, they will perform a collection of Ferbos’ favorite jazz classics.

The MCs for the evening will be Al Kennedy, author and historian at the University of New Orleans, and John Pult, host of Frenchmen Street’s Nickel-A-Dance concert series and writing professor at Dillard University.

Until his recent passing on July 19, 2014 at the age of 103, Ferbos was the city’s oldest performing jazz musician. Over the course of his career, he made numerous recordings with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra and was a long-time fixture leading the band at the Palm Court Jazz Café every Saturday night.

For more information on the memorial concert, contact Stacey Morigeau, New Orleans Musicians’ Assistance Foundation Musical Resource Director, at (504) 289-8040.