July 2005
Alt NO
- Acid & Other Drugs
I am now officially in cahoots. The Noizefest I wrote about for the Jazz Fest issue ended up taking place in…
BackTalk
- Ballzack
In 1831, the father of French literary realism Balzac wrote, "There is nothing left for literature but mockery in a world…
Bayou Boogie
- The Prince of Zydeco
If a crowd isn’t dancing at a zydeco dancehall, one of two things is usually happening: the band is terrible or…
Cover Story
- Ivan Neville: The Return of the Prodigal Son
“If Keith Richards tells you you’re a little too out-of-control, you’re in bad shape.” When Ivan Neville was born in New…
Dis 'n' Dat
- Good Times/Bad Times
On February 5th of this year, vocalist/bassist/guitarist Erik Corveaux, front man and songwriter for New Orleans rock ‘n’ roll outfit the…
Features
Hidden Charms
- Detroit Creole
The evening of Saturday, July 15, will be a milestone for filmmaker Dan Rose. On that night at One Eyed Jacks,…
Jazzin'
- John Ellis' Sound Advice
Catching an early Thursday afternoon Jazz Fest set can be difficult for some people and often impossible for many hard working,…
Letters
- Letters July 2005
A ROAD MAP I received my first magazine last week, and I wanted to tell you how impressed I was with…
Mojo Mouth
- Get Educated, Get Motivated
I hope OffBeat readers are planning a visit to this year’s Essence Fest. It’s certainly one of the better music and…
Obituaries
St. Rock
Urban Legends
- Shy Soul Sister
The year is 1980. Terrorists hold 52 Americans hostage at the Embassy in Iran. The U.S. hockey team scores the biggest…
Reviews
- Victor Wooten, Soul Circus (Vanguard Records)
Ever since Stanley Clarke laid down the blueprint for modern bass players everywhere with his anthemic “School Days” ode, life at… - Mark Murphy, Bop For Miles (HighNotes)
Idiosyncratic jazz vocalist Mark Murphy’s deep affinity for the artistry of Miles Davis shines through on Bop For Miles, a live… - Eddie Turner, Rise (Northern Blues)
If you ever wondered where mystical bluesman Otis Taylor gets much of his dark, brooding, mysterious textures, look no further than… - Jimmy Thackery, Healin' Ground (Telarc)
Thackery gets the roadhouse revue rolling with the humorous opener “Let The Guitar Do The Work,” whose moral is that it’s… - Johnny Smith Quintet featuring Stan Getz, Moonlight in Vermont (Roulette Jazz)
Rising from dirt poor beginnings in Birmingham and New Orleans, Johnny Smith found himself in Maine as a youngster where he… - The Flavors of Louisiana, The Flavors of Louisiana (Mambito Records)
It took swingin’ saxophonist Jerry Embree a moment of Hawaiian paradise to have an epiphany. There, in the midst of a… - Bruce Pierre, Just to Love You (Bedzin Productions)
Appearance-wise, Bruce Pierre could possibly pass for one of the Neville Brothers. He has performed with them on occasions, which further… - Lenny McDaniel, Two Sides (Cafe Au Lait Music)
Lenny McDaniel is a good singer, an excellent instrumentalist (especially on guitar), and a producer of major-label ability. What he does… - Chris Whitley, Soft Dangerous Shores (Messenger)
Chris Whitley has always played as if his life depended on it. Last year’s masterful manifesto War Crime Blues was so… - Atman Roots, Improvizatiphopation (Independent)
The six (more or less) members of Atman Roots may all hail from New Orleans, or at least have the stamp… - Various Artists, Ultimate Gospel Fest (Mardi Gras Records)
Move over high-steppin’ brass bands and funky hipsters, here comes the hallelujah-hoisting gospel God squadders. As these 15 testifying tracks demonstrate,… - King Solomon, You Ain't Nothing But A Teenager (Night Train)
Louisiana born King Solomon began his singing career on the nightclub circuit in Chicago, before moving to Los Angeles in the… - Neal Caine, Backstabbers Ball (Smalls Records)
Bassist Neal Caine, who resides in New Orleans but is out of town much of the time, brings his unique mindset… - Ryan Adams, Cold Roses (Lost Highway)
Ryan Adams is feeling good these days and that’s not a bad thing. God knows he earned Cold Roses’ “Easy Plateau”… - Beck, Guero (Interscope)
After releasing his funky, genre-defying magnum opus Odelay, Beck immediately started jumping from style to style between albums instead of within… - Porter-Batiste-Stoltz, Expanding The Funkin' Universe (OUW Records)
As three-quarters of the funky Meters, you don’t expect Porter-Batiste-Stoltz to offer many lyrical insights on their debut studio album, Expanding… - Juice, Juice Live! Hey Buddy (Independent)
Call it the Second Wave of jam-band music, when the histories are written. And place this local five-piece supergroup at the… - Jeff Albert, One (Independent)
Trombonist Jeff Albert approaches creative music from a variety of angles. His compositions allow for an abundance of free improvisation while… - Various Artists, Acoustic Brazil (Putumayo World Music)
After Carnival has silenced its mighty roar, things slowly return to a saner sense of normalcy with the swaying, tropical acoustic… - Various Artists, Mali (Putumayo World Music)
Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt are among the Westerners who’ve collaborated with Malian musicians in recent times. Corey Harris… - Richard Harris, Pssst...Over Here (Scrench)
It’s one thing to be retro, and another thing entirely to actually be stuck in a particular decade. Richard Harris’s recent… - Various Artists, The Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues (World Disc)
Granted, there will always be blues compilations flooding the market as an introduction to an imprint’s wares. The Rough Guide to… - Carl Sonny Leyland Trio, Railroad Boogie (Komodo Records)
There are thousands of piano players, amateur and professional, who can plow through a few boogie-woogie tunes. Then there’s Carl Sonny… - Charles Lloyd, Jumping the Creek (ECM)
There’s a spiritual quality that permeates the music of Charles Lloyd. Rich layers of depth coupled with emotional integrity performed with… - Tord Gustavsen, The Ground (ECM)
Tord Gustavsen’s Changing Places, his debut as a leader on ECM, announced the graceful talent of a jazz pianist with impeccable… - Various Artists, Fried Glass Onions: Memphis Meets The Beatles (Inside Sounds)
Fried Glass Onions is a great title, and one with a good idea attached to it—retool old Beatles classics with the… - Betsy Braud and the Jazz Nurse Perscription, Just What the Doctor Ordered (Independent)
Betsy Braud plays as many instruments as she has daughters, sings in at least two different languages and really is a… - Various Artists, You See Me Laughin' (DVD) (Fat Possum)
Subtitling this Fat Possum documentary “The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen” was a wise move. After all, most of the… - Better Than Ezra, Before The Robots (Artemis)
Collectively, the 13 tracks of Before The Robots are Better Than Ezra’s most polished and refined work since their 1997 release… - Big Blue Marble, Stars in Suburbia (Independent)
Big Blue Marble have certainly proven themselves on Stars in Suburbia, their second release and first full-length LP. Their overall sound… - The Ronnie Kole Show, Live in Concert at St. Scholastica Academy (Independent)
On this two-record set, recorded live at his granddaughter’s school, Kole is both teacher and guide on a musical journey through… - Aaron Neville, Tell It Like It Is (Empire Musicwerks)
As a re-release of a 1990 11-track Capitol CD (cover art and all), the return of Tell It Like It Is… - Chris Ardoin and Nu Step, Sweat (Independent)
The body wasn’t even cold by the time Chris Ardoin re-christened Double Clutchin’ to NuStep immediately after the release of 2004’s… - Peter Martin, In the P.M. (MaxJazz)
The beauty of Peter Martin is that even when he opens a standard like “Never Let Me Go” or “Come Rain… - Beth Patterson, Caught in the Act (Little Blue Men Records)
She absorbs you with an unrestrained exuberance,” notes Smithfield Fair’s Dudley-Brian Smith about his Celtic colleague Beth Patterson. Given the bouzouki-slinging… - The Bad Off, Twilight in Eclipse (Independent)
Singer Erik Corveaux starts the Bad Off’s new four-song Twilight in Eclipse with a “Yeah, that’s right!” Then the rock kicks… - Ballzack, Chipmunk Dream Machine (Lambs on Helium)
When you become one of New Orleans’ premier underground hip-hop artists overnight, what do you do for an encore? Well, if… - Harry Connick Jr., Occasion: Connick On Piano 2 (Marsalis Music)
Perhaps surprisingly, Occasion is an album of duos featuring pianist Harry Connick, Jr. and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Though the two have…
