Music
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.
Brass Brass Everywhere: Original New Orleans Brass Fest at Armstrong Park
New Orleans Original Brass Fest at Armstrong Park
Eponymous Debut Redux: Davis Rogan celebrates 25 years since All That’s debut
Davis Rogan first had visions of the band that would become his groundbreaking hip hop, brass band, funk hybrid All That while still in college. The 1985 Ben Franklin graduate matriculated through Reed College in Portland, Oregon. But before graduating, he took a year off and returned to New Orleans.
The Secret Six, Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon (Independent)
The Secret Six continue to be one of the most prolific bands recording in New Orleans today. This new collection of traditional jazz and blues goes deep into the well of old-time music, while also bringing back a couple of tunes that ought to be covered more often.
