Issue Articles — Features
New Orleans Rhythm & Blues Shrines: A Guided Tour
Ernie K-Doe once declared, ”I’m not sure, but I’m almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans.” While some might debate K-Doe’s blanket observation, it is a fact that […]
They Play. You Dance. That’s It. The World According to ReBirth
There are a lot of things about New Orleans that outsiders find odd-that St. Patrick’s Day is a de facto postal holiday, for example, or that the recently deceased must […]
Branford Marsalis: Musician as Iconoclast
On Friday, April 30th, The Jazz & Heritage Festival welcomes home saxophonist Branford Marsalis, a New Orleans son who is undoubtedly one of the most important, and controversial, figures in […]
Pah-Rade!
Sitting one hot afternoon for an interview at the former Lu and Charlie’s jazz club in August of 1974, James Black, one of the great unsung drummers of modern New […]
Zydeco!
A new collaboration by photographer Rick Olivier and journalist/musician Ben Sandmel, Published by the University Press of Mississippi covers the musical phenomenon of zydeco. From Creole folk roots to the […]
Groovy! Dude! New Orleans Musical Nicknames
Slim, Red, La La, Tee Tee, Foots, Nose, String Bean, Snowflake, Half A Head, June, Daddy, Pipes, Buck, Pee Wee, Queenie, Stale Bread, Turkey Neck, Groovy, Okey Dokey: sometimes it […]
BackBeat: The Earl Palmer Story
Although New Orleans has produced more excellent musicians than it’s size warrants. it simply hasn’t been able to support more than a limited number of artists. Even during the commercial […]
100: The 100 Essential Louisiana CDs, Part 8
In late 1997, the Offbeat staff began developing the list of the 100 Essential Louisiana CDs. Our goal was to pick the 100 compact discs that, Individually, represented influential and/or […]
Best of the Rest: The Top 11 Acts Not Booked at This Year’s Jazz Fest
A break down of the worthy bands that did not make it to the 1999 Jazz & Heritage Festival lineup, in the May 1999 issue of OffBeat Magazine.
Identity Crisis: Louisiana’s Guitar Gable Defends His Legacy
On 1956, Gabriel Perrodin, a native Bellevue, Louisiana, musician, traveled to Lake Charles to make a recording at Eddie Shuler’s Lake Charles studio. When the session didn’t come off as […]