Nicholas Payton, Dear Louis (Verve)

“He’s the closest to Louis Armstrong that I’ve ever heard,” Doc Cheatham used to say of Nicholas Payton, and anyone who’s experienced Payton’s wondrously expressive trumpeting—equally explosive in a modern […]

Irvin Mayfield

Walking up to Irvin Mayfield’s apartment building, passing the flourishing art galleries, upscale restaurants and other urbane features of the New Orleans Warehouse District, I couldn’t help but marvel at […]

Wayne Boyd, New Orleans Sessions (Sound of New Orleans)

Tabla Temptations

In March, the New Orleans jazz scene usually reflects a post-Mardi Gras, pre-Jazz Fest Lenten lull. Not so this year. The rich array of options, from major national talent like […]

Various Artists, Keep It Rollin: The Blues Piano Collection (Rounder Heritage)

Donald Harrison, Jr. Presents The New Orleans Legacy Ensemble, Spirits of Congo Square (Candid)

This recent release from New Orleans-bred sax master Donald Harrison has received relatively little attention, probably because it’s on a European label (as opposed to Harrison’s recent “Nouveau Swing” work […]

Victor Goines, Sunrise to Midnight (Rosemary Joseph)

Chief Smiley Ricks & Donald Harrison, Jr.: The Mardi Gras Indian Connection

First came the drums and tambourines. A hot, dense, exquisitely layered syncopation, rumbling from the back of the upstairs bar at Tipitina’s Uptown. Then came the shouts and chants: “Hi-yo!” […]

Sonny Stitt, Just the Way It Was “Live” at the Left Bank

Irvin Mayfield, How Passion Falls (Basin Street)

It’s a good thing this record sounds so fine. Otherwise, I might be tempted to turn into a catty movie critic and say simply, “How Passion Fails,” and call it […]