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 [...]
Tag Archives: R&B
Khris Royal and Dark Matter, Dark Matter (Hypersoul Records)
February 1, 2012 – 12:58 am
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 [...]
Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society (Heads Up International Records)
February 1, 2012 – 12:52 am
Intended as the companion to 2010’s Chamber Music Society, Esperanza Spalding’s latest release explores pop and its power on radio. For an artist whose credentials are questioned by various jazz cops, this is a rather frank way to tackle the question of “crossover.” If the previous album was uploaded by the mainstream through whatever mechanisms [...]
Obituary: Larry Hamilton (1951-2011)
February 1, 2012 – 12:10 am
Larry Hamilton, a singer/songwriter who might be best known for a self-titled 1997 NYNO CD produced by Allen Toussaint, died December 28, 2011. Born in Galveston, Texas, March 23, 1951, he moved to New Orleans as a youth. At the age of seven, he began taking piano lessons with Ray Charles as his major influence. [...]
YouTube du Jour: Etta James
January 20, 2012 – 12:54 pm
The R&B/blues singer Etta James died this morning at the age of 73 due to complications arising from leukemia. She was the greatest of Chess Records’ female singers, and had been inducted into the Rock & Roll, Blues, and Grammy halls of fame. Peter Keepnews reviews her career in his obituary for James at The [...]
The Alabama Shakes: Right At Home with Newfound Fame
January 18, 2012 – 2:27 pm
You can’t ignore the sense of place in the music of the Alabama Shakes. It’s right there in the quartet’s name. Simply the Shakes at first, when forced to pick a new name to avoid copyrights they just added the name of their home. Lead singer Brittany Howard wears that home on her sleeve—literally. She [...]
Stevie Wonder and MLK Day
January 16, 2012 – 2:33 pm
Although it’s popular at birthday parties today, Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” was originally released in 1981 in support of the burgeoning movement to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. That year he went on tour with Gil Scott-Heron on the heels of Hotter Than July, the album containing “Birthday”. The 4-month trek [...]
YouTube du Jour: Luke James
January 11, 2012 – 2:46 pm
The 2012 Essence Music Festival lineup was announced this morning, and among the list of local artists is a name most people hadn’t heard before this past fall: Luke James. With the homepage WhoIsLukeJames.com and Twitter handle @WhoIsLukeJames, James knows fans are probably curious where he came from. But the St. Augustine grad (real name: [...]
Ryan Foret and Foret Tradition, Let the Groove Move Ya (CSP Records)
January 1, 2012 – 12:51 am
When I was coming of age along the Northeast shoreline during the 1970s, my favorite local band was Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, a horn-laden R&B outfit spawned by the fertile music scene in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Jukes’ first album, I Don’t Want to Go Home remains a blue-eyed-soul masterpiece to this [...]
YouTube du Jour: Nicholas Payton
December 8, 2011 – 12:01 pm
Tonight, Nicholas Payton performs a free show with his trio supported by the Tulane University Big Band at Dixon Hall on the Tulane campus at 7 p.m. Payton is the Jazz Artist-in-Residence at Tulane, and he recently ruffled the feathers of the jazz world when he declared that jazz died in 1959 in a blog [...]
