Issue Articles — Features
Music is Literally in His Blood: RAM from Haiti is now a local New Orleans band
Richard A. Morse, the founder and co-lead vocalist, along with his wife, Lunise, for the Haitian band RAM, likes to tell audiences that his band began in 1791. That was year that the Haitian revolution started and was also the beginning of Haiti as an independent nation. It was the only successful slave revolt in the Western hemisphere.
Eclectic Jam Band: The Quickening will tear it up at the Fair Grounds
The Quickening, Thursday May 4 at 5:30 p.m., Lagniappe Stage Blake Quick, the guitarist, songwriter and founder of the Quickening, had his first inkling he might someday grace the stages […]
Mississippi Rising: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is sitting on top of the blues world
He’s sitting on top of the blues world. Christened “the next explosion of the blues” by Buddy Guy, 24-year-old Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has already won his first Grammy Award. He’s also topped Billboard’s blues chart; won nine Blues Music Awards; and, moving beyond the usual blues outlets, has been profiled by NPR’s Morning Edition, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and The Washington Post.
Celebrating Puerto Rico: Jazz Fest features everything Puerto Rican from music to food
After Puerto Rico was devastated by both Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, plans were made for the island’s rich heritage to be showcased as the Cultural Exchange for the […]
Give Me The Power: Luther Kent puts his heart and soul into music
After 60 years on the bandstand, Luther Kent doesn’t often rehearse. Not even for his annual spot at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. When Kent, a.k.a. “Big” Luther Kent, and his 13-piece band, Trick Bag, play on Jazz Fest’s opening day, he’ll pick the songs he’s singing while he’s on stage performing. “Whatever feels right for the audience,” the blues, jazz and rhythm-and-blues singer said.
A Fascinating Background: Catherine Russell will have a good time at Jazz Fest
Catherine Russell may be making her Jazz Fest debut in 2023, but her New Orleans roots run deep. Her dad, Luis Russell, recorded with Louis Armstrong in 1929 and 1930 and served as Armstrong’s musical director from 1935 to 1940. She also contributed to Wynton Marsalis’s soundtrack for the 2019 docudrama “Bolden,” which explored the near-mythic life of Buddy Bolden, considered by many (including Armstrong) to be first person to play jazz.
Joy, Celebration and Comfort: Connie and Dwight Fitch married in life and to gospel music.
Connie & Dwight FitchSaturday May 6 at 11:15 a.m., Gospel TentSunday May 7 at 4 p.m., Alison Miner Stage Connie and Dwight Fitch, a married couple in life as well […]
Steve Miller’s Musical Garden
Steve Miller was a mainstay of commercial radio in the 1970s based on his steady flow of endurable hits—“The Joker,” “Livin’ in the USA,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Jet Airliner,” “Jungle Love,” and “Abracadabra” among them. But most people may not know that his musical roots go beyond the psychedelic rock sound he honed with the Steve Miller Band.
New Beginning: Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. is keeping his father’s legacy alive
It’s not always easy following in the footsteps of your major dad, especially when he’s the legendary Buckwheat Zydeco (1947-2016) who brought zydeco to worldwide prominence— more so than his mentor and genre founder Clifton Chenier. After spending three years playing organ in Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band, Buckwheat Zydeco, a.k.a. Stanley Dural, Jr., founded his own group, Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Sont Parti Band. (Ils Sont Parti means “they left,” a commonly heard cry when the horses sprint out of the chute at a local racetrack.)
A Forever Family: For the Continental Drifters the story is not over
The Flatlanders once claimed they were “more a legend than a band,” but the Continental Drifters are a little of both. Anyone who followed the Drifters in the ’90s-’00s can vouch for the volume of terrific songs, the onstage spirit and camaraderie, and the inexplicability that a band this good never got massively big.
