Issue Articles — BackTalk
Frankie Ford
“So be my guest, you’ve got nothing to lose—won’t you let me take you on a sea cruise?” The lyrics to Frankie Ford’s 1959 hit “Sea Cruise” are embedded in […]
Mark Mullins
The trombone, as composer Hector Berlioz once observed, can musically portray everything from “religious accent, calm and imposing…to wild clamors of the orgy.” New Orleans trombonist Mark Mullins seconds Berlioz’s […]
Holly Golightly
With her lilting British accent and a name straight out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Holly Golightly is a tailor made introduction paragraph for lazy music writers. But there’s much more […]
Tim DeLaughter of The Polyphonic Spree
With 24 robed members joyously singing and playing the pedal steel, pianos, organs, guitars, basses, tubular bells, whistles, the flute, the piccolo, the banjo, the synthesizer, the trumpet, the flugelhorn, […]
Maurice Brown
Trumpeter Maurice Brown is undeniable. He can blow. Consider this—the only names to appear weekly on Snug Harbor’s schedule are Marsalis and Neville (Ellis and Charmaine, respectively) and Maurice Brown. […]
Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly and Maze is the only act that has performed at Essence Festival since day one. Not only that, the old school R&B/soul/funk faves close the event each year […]
BackTalk: Fats Domino (Interview)
If the late New Orleans R&B singer Ernie K-Doe is remembered for anything besides his music, it’s without a doubt his repartee. “I’m not sure,” K-Doe was fond of saying, […]
Al Green
Rev. Al Green, at home in Memphis, was not quite ready for his telephone interview. Apologetically, Rev. Green’s New York publicist explained that there would be a delay of approximately […]
Amanda Shaw
Like another, equally ambitious, slightly more famous Louisiana girl named Britney, Amanda Shaw has been in the spotlights most of her life. She began playing violin at four and at […]
Archie Shepp
In 1960, saxophonist Archie Shepp and trombonist Roswell Rudd combined their instrumental voices to explore the revolutionary language of creative music or free jazz. The merger resulted in a seven-year […]
