Music
The Garden of Joy: Bouncin’ Around (Big Tone Records)
The Garden of Joy, a traditional jazz band led by banjoist, guitarist and vocalist Hunter Bergamy, recently released their debut album. If that name sounds familiar it’s because Bergamy has been featured in OffBeat for his work with Fritzel’s Jazz Pub’s releases and recordings by the Secret Six.
Ivan Neville: Touch My Soul (Mascot Label Group/The Funk Garage)
Keyboardist, vocalist and Neville family scion Ivan Neville has released his first solo album in nearly 20 years. Best known more recently for Dumpstaphunk, and for special guest appearances with a huge variety of musicians, many of his musical friends and family return the favor by guesting on an album chock full of them.
Smiloh: Kaleidoscape (Independent)
Emily Mikesell is the mastermind behind Smiloh. She is a fast-rising trumpeter and vocalist who is a member of Trumpet Mafia and has played with a wide range of local players since moving to town.
Sean Hobbes and the Hi Res: Images of Rose (Independent)
Back in the day, the kind of music Sean Hobbes and the Hi Res are making was called “blue-eyed soul.” Defined mostly by the race of its practitioners, the genre was as meaningless as most other attempts to pigeonhole musicians.
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 […]
Smoking Time Jazz Club: 6 Blueses, 5 Joys and A Stomp! (Independent)
After a couple of releases as the side project The Secret Six, the musicians in the Smoking Time Jazz Club are back with their effervescent lead vocalist Sarah Peterson on a new collection of traditional-minded blues and jazz.
Various Artists: Fritzel’s Jazz Pub (Independent)
Fritzel’s European Jazz Pub, which is located on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, bills itself as a the place “Where Jazz Lives!” The club has recently released two albums chronicling live performances in the intimate space just off the hubbub of the city’s most touristic street.
Saturn Quartet: Luz (Independent)
Less than a year ago, I reviewed the debut album from the Saturn Quartet. The jazz group is back with another fine effort called Luz. The title cut is from the pen of Brazilian great Djavan and opens with the drummer Gerald Watkins, Jr. playing an intricate, samba-like pattern on his toms. The rest of the album features originals and three covers from film score composers as well as a composition from a local up and coming trumpeter.
