April 2021
Cover Story
- Pandemic as Opportunity: Stanton Moore and Tipitina’s expand ideas for the future
When Stanton Moore and his bandmates in the funk-rock band Galactic bought Tipitina’s, the iconic New Orleans music venue, the purchase…
Fresh
- Zoom, Zoom, Zoom: Taj Mahal with Jon Cleary
The pandemic has touched everyone’s life in too many ways. Withdrawal symptoms from life as we knew it abound as fatigue… - Music Quest: Vintage vinyl treasures are out there for the scoring
In 2020 vinyl sales exceeded CD sales in the United States for the first time since the 1980s. Vinyl records accounted… - Dancing in the Streets: The Historic New Orleans Collection honors a New Orleans tradition
When Sylvester Francis gave tours of the Backstreet Cultural Museum, which he founded in 1999, he often offered this sage advice:…
Features
- Best of the Beat: And the winners are…
With the pandemic still upon us, OffBeat’s Best of the Beat was a virtual event. In many ways, we all missed… - A Family Affair: Monk Boudreaux and Cha Wa
Joseph “Monk” Boudreaux is the oldest living Mardi Gras Indian Chief, the Elder of Elders in a tradition dating back to… - Family Spirit Endures: Sweet Cecilia’s Grammy nomination continues the legacy of Al Berard
It’s early March, and it’s a time for hope. It’s been a year since the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic altered life as…
BackTalk
- Merry Clayton Talks Back
Beautiful Scars testifies to New Orleans native Merry Clayton’s spirit, faith and talent. A labor of love, the beautifully soulful album…
OffBeat Eats
- Dining Out: Buttermilk
Buttermilk, the newest stall at St. Roch Market, opened on March 1. The food stand, run by Chef Shannon Bingham, serves…
Reviews
- Derrick Shezbie, The Ghost of Buddy Bolden (Clubhouse Records)
Derrick “Kabuki” Shezbie remains best known as a former member of the Rebirth Brass Band, blowing the trumpet and enlivening the… - Noah Young, Absolutions (EP) (Bubble Bath Records)
Bassist Noah Young has assembled a diverse cast of some of the best young jazz players on the scene for his… - Jeff Coffin & Helen Gillet, Let it Shine (Ear Up Records)
Jeff Coffin and Helen Gillet’s new cello/reeds duet record is both head-bopping in its meditative moments and thoughtful even when it… - Max and the Martians, All the Same (Perpetual Doom)
This is the second release that Tuba Skinny member Max Bien-Kahn has done in the past six months under the Max… - Bad Operation, Bad Operation (Community Records/Bad Time Records)
Jimmy Cliff once explained that ska, which originated in Jamaica in the 1960s, was upbeat because it was born during the… - Bas Clas, Meteorite! (Serfdom Records)
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a Meteorite! blazing across the cosmos to announce that Bas Clas is back with a… - Esther Rose, How Many Times (Father/Daughter Records)
Former New Orleans resident Esther Rose is probably best known as Jack White’s duet partner on his last album Boarding House… - Garage A Trois, Calm Down Cologne (Royal Potato Family)
How do you define a relentless groove? Is it the sludgy one chord churn of doom metal or the in-the-pocket funk… - Craig Brenner, Passages (Independent)
Jazz pianist Craig Brenner of Bloomington, Indiana, has been in and out of New Orleans so much over the past five… - Yohan Giaume, Whisper of a Shadow, Opus 1 (Independent)
Trumpeter Yohan Giaume has reached well into the pre-jazz past to put a very personal modern stamp on the musical tradition… - Dumpstaphunk featuring Marcus King, “United Nations Stomp”
New Orleans’ Dumpstaphunk has released a cover of Buddy Miles’ 1973 funky anthemic “United Nations Stomp.” The first explosive… - Daniel Coolik & K.C. Jones, Spirited Melancholy (Valcour Records)
If COVID-19 has been good for anything, it has been for otherwise touring musicians to collaborate on one-off projects without scheduling…
