Issue Articles — Features
Fest Focus: C.J. Chenier
Born into royalty, the son of zydeco’s most famous artist has spent his life and career between two worlds. Raised in Port Arthur, Texas, C.J. Chenier lived with his mother, […]
Fest Focus: Bela Fleck
In 1989, Béla Fleck was in a bit of a predicament: He found himself scrambling to find a band to back him for a PBs Lonesome Pine television special. Given […]
Fest Focus: Tony Green
It’s not uncommon for creative people to have more than one outlet for their muse. Musicians as diverse as Felix Mendelssohn, George Gershwin, Tony Bennett and Joni Mitchell could all […]
Fest Focus: David Torkanowsky
Pianist David Torkanowsky seems to take the most left turns — and the sharpest. His is a big bag of tricks and he seems to employ most of them on […]
Fest Focus: The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars
As the sun sets somewhere between Romania and Yugoslavia, a peasant lays his scythe at the side of a grassy meadow and takes off his cap to wipe his sweaty […]
Breaking Bread with R&B Legends
Everybody knows Fats Domino, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Wynton and Branford Marsalis enjoy major-label recording contracts and tour the world as musical ambassadors of the sound of New Orleans, […]
Remembering James Booker
On November 8, 1983 pianist James Carroll Booker III was wheeled into New Orleans’ Charity Hospital waiting room, where he died while awaiting medical attention. Rumors have spread through the […]
Fest Focus: The Jordan Family
“Jazz is a chance music,” says Edward “Kidd” Jordan, a music explorer, a lover of 20th century music, an educator, a saxophonist and the patriarch of one of New Orleans […]
Allen Toussaint: On the Spiritual Side
It has been 18 years since Allen Toussaint, the premier New Orleans songwriter, released a major album of his own. That was Southern Nights, a minor classic with the dreamy […]
