“New Orleans is the only place I know of where you ask a little kid what he wants to be and instead of saying ‘I want to be a policeman,’ or ‘I want to be a fireman,’ he says, ‘I want to be a musician,’” said Allan Jaffe, founder of Preservation Hall. The French Market [...]
Tag Archives: NOCCA
Conun Pappas, Jr., Oh, What A Feeling (Independent)
July 1, 2010 – 12:32 am
New Orleans has been a jazz piano town since, as he claimed himself, Jelly Roll Morton invented the jazz piano. Conun Pappas, Jr. is a native son and a piano prodigy, but in his journey from the jazz program at NOCCA to the Manhattan School of Music, where he is now, he has located his [...]
Frank’s Place Tonight
May 24, 2010 – 10:57 am
In a nod to the great New Orleans-based television show that preceded it, HBO’s Treme presents “Open for One Night Only: Frank’s Place” at NOCCA tonight at 6:30 p.m. The 1987 series was Tim Reid and Hugh Wilson’s first series after WKRP in Cincinnati, and it starred Reid as a son who inherited the family’s [...]
Baby Boyz Brass Band: French Quarter Fest Focus
April 1, 2010 – 1:00 am
Dressed in their navy blue T-shirts with their logo across the front, the Baby Boyz Brass Band was dwarfed. It was playing the jazz funeral for the ’Aints, and it was loud enough to be heard despite the growing second line as it danced along North Rampart Street. Glen Hall III, the 16-year-old leader of [...]
Preview: “Home for the Holidays”
December 23, 2009 – 11:04 am
This Wednesday night is the 5th annual “Home for the Holidays” benefitting the Daniel Price Memorial Fund at the House of Blues. After the tragic loss of Daniel Price, a talented painter and former New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA) student, in 2003, his family created the foundation and the annual concert event to benefit [...]
Jeremy Davenport: Get a Room
August 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
The swagger in Jeremy Davenport’s step is a little more exaggerated these days. He’s riding high on the success of his residence at the Ritz-Carlton on Canal Street, a new album— We’ll Dance ’Til Dawn —and the prospect of establishing a foothold in the New York City club scene at the Huckleberry Bar in Williamsburg. [...]
The Sound of Paint
August 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
In June, avant-garde artist, educator, inventor and musician Marcus Brown released Peinture Concrete. But this danceable, heavily synthesized and jazz-infused album wasn’t made in the traditional sense. The son of an electrical engineer, Brown is a natural tinkerer. His curiosity about how things work coupled with a passion for art and music led him to [...]
Nova NOLA: A Family Affair
August 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
A “new” New Orleans is a reality we all confront and construct for ourselves. Nova Nola, founded by Astral Project’s Steve Masakowski, is one attempt to address New Orleans’ evolving musical landscape. “With Nova Nola, I really wanted to feature ‘new’ New Orleans and I wanted to feature what’s fresh about the New Orleans music [...]
Signs of the Times
June 16, 2009 – 9:20 am
New Orleans got love from the New York Times in the last few days. In Jon Pareles’ Bonnaroo wrap-up, Allen Toussaint was singled out for his version of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and Ben Ratliff reported on the Marsalis family’s visit to the White House, including the workshop they gave to students, including some [...]
The Bridge to Somewhere
May 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
Nineteen year-old Conun Pappas began playing piano out of sheer curiosity. Now, as part of the Bridge Trio, he’ll back up Donald Harrison when Harrison plays the Jazz Tent. At an early age he realized he could pick out the piano parts in songs while listening to his grandmother’s old records. He was also fascinated [...]
