Issue Articles — Features
Kyle Roussel: Refreshing and Intellectual
Pianist Kyle Roussel kicked off 2025 with a bang in the form of a landmark new album, “Church of New Orleans,” featuring around three dozen top New Orleans musicians.
Youssou N’Dour: The Voice of Senegal
About 20 years ago singer Youssou N’Dour, who stands at the top of modern Senegalese music, visited the island of Gorée near his home in Dakar. It was the start of a mission to trace the paths of the many Africans transported from there to the Americas and Europe as slaves, and to trace the paths of the music that emerged from the depths of those horrors — specifically jazz and gospel. The directive was for him, accompanied by Swiss pianist Moncef Genoud, to bring that music back for performance on Gorée, now used as a monument to those who suffered beyond comprehension in that dark history. The result was a documentary, “Retour a Gorée (Return to Gorée).”
Pete Fountain: Every Note Has a Smile
Along with Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt, Pete Fountain is among the most famous jazz musicians from New Orleans. A brilliant traditional jazz and Dixieland clarinetist, Fountain became a household name in the late 1950s when millions of TV viewers watched his weekly appearances on The Lawrence Welk Show.
A conversation with Odd the Artist
Whatever you do, don’t pigeonhole Odd The Artist. The young rapper, singer, DJ, and producer is equal parts hip-hop and rock star. She’s been steadily making noise around New Orleans, which elevated with her first album “Let Go, Let Odd” in 2024. There’s no doubt she lives in the studio, so we met up in the lab to get the word.
Sarah Quintana: Baby Don’t
“Making feel-good music is harder than I thought thanks to pandemics, hurricanes, this being 2025 and life being life,” Sarah Quintana says. “But the sense you have of being in the moment, being part of a community, having a good rehearsal—all that is encouraging.
Loose Cattle: Soulful Harmonies
In New Orleans, the Laissez Faire Laissez/Les Bon Temps Roule vibe and inherent funkiness of the lifestyle obscure the fact that this is a city of songwriters and storytellers.
Guitar Slim Jr.: Trouble Don’t Last
The blues singer and guitarist Guitar Slim Jr., the son of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones, has been a New Orleans mainstay for years, though lesser known.
Wendell Brunious
When you enter Preservation Hall, it’s like stepping back in time. The small no-frills room looks pretty much like it did when Allan and Sandra Jaffe first opened their now-legendary French Quarter venue on St. Peter Street in 1961. Bare unvarnished floors serve as the stage, surrounded by wooden chairs where the audience sits — until as often happens, they are moved to get up and march around with a band that celebrates the living past of New Orleans jazz.
Dwayne Dopsie
With broad shoulders, big biceps and a boyish face, Dwayne Dopsie resembles a New Orleans Saints linebacker more than a zydeco accordionist. Dopsie, 46, says his physique reflects good health he’s maintained since the age of nine or 10.
The Creole String Beans
The Creole String Beans are huge fans of that music, and they play it with a sense of joy and fun. Guitarist Rick Olivier, also an internationally renowned photographer, put together the band with bassist Rob Savoy after a chance meeting on Grande Route St. John.
