ORLEANS
the music of
N
EW ORLEANS, where the
French collided with
Africans, where colonists
of every creed came to exploit the
bountifully rich Gulf of Mexico.
It’s where Catholicism and new
world Protestant fundamentalism
came face to face with African ju
NEW
ju, and voodoo and what emerged
was a ‘Hey honey, how do you do?’
It’s the city of the overt sexually of
Mardi Gras that sits next to the
bougainvillea clad antebellum arti-
facts of the age of puritanism and
slavery.
It’s where the Irish and Scots and
Welsh learned how to swing and
sing like they’d never done before.
But more than anything it is the
city in which popular music, as we
know it, was born.
Without the clash of African blues
massive
mingle
April 15 2011
and European baroque, we don’t
have jazz. Without the mix of jazz
and blues and Celtic folk songs,
you ain’t got country or rock n’ roll
or, even, tenuously, hip hop.
It’s the city that gave us Louis Arm-
strong, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll
Morton, Irma Thomas, Mahalia
Jackson, Allen Toussaint, Fats
Domino, Dr John, Clifton Chenier,
the Marsalis family, Randy New-
man, the Rebirth and Dirty Dozen
Brass Bands.
It has faced civil war, crushing
poverty, organised crime, genera-
tions of civic corruption and one of
the greatest natural disasters of re-
cent times, yet it will always be the
most important city in modern pop-
ular culture.
It’s all copacetic, pod’na.
PADDY HOEY
“The minute you land in New Orleans, something wet and dark leaps on you and starts

essential
artists

Louis
Armstrong
Q1: TRY to imag-
ine modern
music without
Louis Arm-
strong’s influ-
ence? See, you
can’t.
Q2: Name five
more influential
figures in the
modern history
of popular
music? Again,
you can’t.
That’s not bad
for a man born in ROYAL APPOINTMENT: The queen of
Nola in 1901 and New Orelans soul Irma Thomas
who learned
music in a char-
ity for poor boys.
He was playing
pro at 18,
learned his big DISC 1 Rebirth Brass Band
band chops in
Chicago in the 1. Angelina (4:22) Louis Prima 11. Hush Your Mouth (6:24)
20s went on to 2. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans New Birth Brass Band
develop the mod-
ern jazz solo in (3:09) Sidney Bechet 12. Just a Closer Walk With Thee
LA and New York 3. Basin Street Blues (3:18) (5:31) The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
in the 1930s &
40s and by the Sidney Bechet 13. Down By The Riverside (2:21)
1950s and 1960s 4. Mardi Gras In New Orleans (2:18) Mahalia Jackson
was one of popu- Fats Domino 14. Where The Blues Were Born In
lar entertain-
ment’s biggest 5. Jelly Roll Blues (3:08) New Orleans (3:11) Louis Armstrong
stars. Jelly Roll Morton 15. Louisiana Bayou Drive (3:14) T-
He may have at-
tracted the ire of 6. Rum & Coca-Cola (2:04) Bone Walker
many black ac- Professor Longhair 16. Louisiana Two Steps (4:05)
tivists for his per-
ceived ‘Uncle 7. I’m A Hog For You (6:20) Clifton Chenier
Tom’ act on TV, Clifton Chenier 17. Louisiana 1927 (2:57)
but the pay-off
for being re- 8. Don't Go Back To New Orleans Randy Newman
ceived by white (1:21) T Bone Walker 18. In The Morning (Jockomo) (4:14)
audiences was 9. Intro (0:32) Big Chief Boudreaux
being allowed to
be a true pioneer. New Birth Brass Band 19. Riffs And Variations (0:49)
10. Feel Like Funkin' It Up (5:39) Sufjan Stevens
humping you like a swamp dog in heat...” - Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume)

blues &
essential
artists

soul &
funk & Mahalia

all that
Jackson
‘HALIE’Jackson
grew up in the

jazz
notorious Carroll-
town district of
downtown New
Orleans and had
the kind of up-
bringing that is
quintessential to
great soul and
gospel artists:
absent parents,
physical beat-

What’s on the CD? ings and deep in-

volvement in the
church.
Jackson was the
woman that gave
us gospel, in its
true sense.
After moving to
DISC 2 28. Baltimore (4:04) Chicago in the
great migration
20. Mozartin’ (4:34) Randy Newman of the 1920s she
Ellis Marsalis 29. Shake Ya Ass (4:18) quickly became
a mainstream
21. 2nd Line (3:55) Mystikal star.
Wynton Marsalis 30. Ghetto Fabulous (feat. Charlie She was the
22. Time is on my side (2:55) Wilson & Snoop Dogg) (4:15) first gospel artist
to play Carnegie
Irma Thomas Mystikal Hall in New York
23. Last Train (3:02) 31. Get Ya Hustle On (3:29) and her work for
Apollo records
Allen Toussaint Juvenile saw her have
24. Sweet Home New Orleans (5:51) 32. Brickyard Blues (feat. Allen Tou- hits with Go Tell it
Dr. John ssaint) (3:56) to the Mountain, The
Lord’s Prayer and
25. Handclapping Song (2:54) Bluesiana Hot Sauce Move on a Little
The Meters 33. What a friend we have in Jesus Higher.
Another artist to
26. Hercules (4:11) (3:44) The Dirty Dozen Brass Band gain huge re-
Aaron Neville spect in Europe,
This appears to be a she was deco-
27. Funkyard (5:01) means of contacting me: rated in France
hoeyp@hope.ac.uk.
Walter "Wolfman" Washington & The It’s actually just filling receiving the
Roadmasters space on a badly designed Grand Prix du
page. Design pro tip, ahoy. Disque.
“There are only two things: all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans

essential
artists

Dr John
THE first time I
heard Dr John, I
thought he was
from another
planet, but then,
the first Dr John

I feel
record I heard
was Gris Gris, a
gruelling gumbo
of voodoo and
psychedelia
which really
does sound like
it comes from

like
another world.
However, to see
Dr John through
the lens of his
quintet of late
60s/ early 70s al-
bums does the
great man a dis-
service.

funkin’
Simply, he is
New Orleans.
From his medi-
cine shows of
the 70s through
to his jazz, pop
and blues work
with every major

it up
New Orleans
artist of the last
50s years, he is
a kind of unoffi-
cial curator of
the city’s recent Brass bands are
musical history.
A winner of five the fruitful breeding
Grammys and a
Rock and Roll ground for Nola
Hall of Fame in-
ductee, he con- jazz and some are
tinues to
represent the the heart & soul of
melting pot that
is Nola. the city itself
 Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly.” - Boris Vian

essential
artists

Fats
Domino
IF Louis Arm-
strong is merely
from New Or-
leans, Fats
Domino IS New
Orleans.
Born in the city
and speaking
Creole as his
first language, he
is the fulcrum
point between
jazz, blues and
rock and roll.
Beginning his
career in 1949,
his early records
were embraced
by the rock and
roll generation.
Indeed his boo-
gie woogie mas-
terpiece The Fat
Man, is consid-
ered by many to
be the first rock
record.

T
HE Dirty Dozen Brass Band
helped to rewrite the modern
In the aftermath
of Katrina, it was
brass tradition was at a low ebb. feared he had
When the DDBB took to the road, drowned, refus-

p
historyof New Orleans music they spread the word of this newly ing to leave his
with an upbeat modern take updated form of the old music far and house in the
on the brass bands which had been wide and beyond Lousiana. Lower Ninth
the city’s mainstay since the start of New York, California and Europe, in ward. He was,
particular, took to a vibrant band of thankfully, res-
the 20th Century. cued by the
Brass bands were the beat that drove virtuoso musicians who had been coast guard.
the city’s Mardi Gras carnival and the schooled in community music pro- But, only one
funerals. grammes. thing needs said
But when Gregory Davis, sousaphon- Along the way they have collabo- about Fats: are
ist Kirk Joseph, trombonist Charles rated with some stellar names, includ- there any more
Joseph, and saxophonist Kevin Harris ing Dr John, Elvis Costello, Dizzy joyous sounds in
Gillespie and Norah Jones. pop than Blueberry
were joined by Efrem Towns (trum- Hill and Ain’t That
peter/ lead singer) and Roger Lewis And they inspired other similar acts a Shame? No, I
on saxophone and Benny Jones and like Nola’s Rebirth Brass Band and didn’t think so.
Jenell Marshall on drums in 1977, the Wisconsin’s Youngblood Brass Band.
 “Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music,

essential
artists

Allen
Toussaint
BORN in a shot-
gun house typi-
cal of New
Orleans, Tous-
saint is, like Dr
John and Fats
Domino, umbili-
cally linked to
the city and its
music.
His mother fed
musicians in
their home and
by 17 he was
playing pro.
By the early
1960s he had
written hits for

The man
artists like Ernie
K-Doe, Irma
Thomas, Art and
Aaron Neville,
The Showmen,
and Lee Dorsey.

who
Otis Redding
recorded his ver-
sion of a Tous-
saint song with
Pain in My Heart.

rewrote
But his solo
work stands out.
He is another
bridge between
blues, soul, jazz

the rules
and funk and his
song Southern
Nights has be-
come an anthem
for N’awlins and
Toussaint,

of pop
through his col-
laborations with
Elvis Costello, Dr
John et al, has
become another
curator of the
city’s musical
heritage.
our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living.” Chris Rose

From songs about child essential

murder and racism, to artists
winning Oscars for
cartoon soundtracks,
Randy Newman, is one
of small number of Sydney
artists who can do it all Bechet

W
Bechet is one of
HEN it comes to tackling the most impor-
difficult subjects, there tant men in the
aren’t many people history of mod-
braver than New Orleans singer song- ern music. As a
pioneer of the
writer Randy Newman. one of the jazz
From taking on the persona of a slave solo he beat
trader (Sail Away), to virulent racists Louis Armstrong
and a child murderer (In Germany Be- to the recording
fore the War), Newman has never studio by several
shied away from saying the unsayable months.
and making music that redefines what He was also one
of the first jazz
the singer songwriter is all about. saxophonists
It’s a stretch to call him a N’awlins and his confident
boy, he moved there as a youngster delivery, brilliant
and then moved back to the place of improvisation
his birth, California, at the age of 11. and unique vi-
But, for this magazine, brato, paved the
he’ll do. Call it the Jack way for a genera-
tion of musicians
Charlton school of selec- who would rede-
tion, at least he actually SMALL PEOPLE: Newman fine the genre in
lived there and it isn’t a doesn’t mind wee Oscar the 1940s on-
granny which qualifies wards.
him. Your Hat On have been covered by Bechet also
A professional songwriter from the many. blazed a trail, be-
age 17, from a family with a two gen- But, it’s his work as a three time coming one of
Oscar winning writer for films that the most cele-
eration history of scoring films, New- brated jazz play-
man has had a successful career from shows his true genius. He’s written ers in Europe.
the late 1960s. the scores for Monsters Inc., The He moved to
Along that way he has written dozens Princess & The Frog and is most France in the
of wonderful songs recorded both by noted for his work on Pixar’s Toy final years of his
himself and a band of luminaries. Story Series. life and became
A list of his songs and those who It is for the latter series that he dis- a hero to the
plays his true ability to write about new intellectual
have recorded them shows how much movements
he has seeped into the popular imagi- outsiders most poignantly. there, in particu-
nation, his mordant wit and intelli- He won the 2000 Academy Award lar the existen-
gence shining through. That he can be for best film song for the heartbreak- talists who
seen as both high brow and a com- ingly beautiful When She Loved Me, revelled in the
poser of standards for MOR/ FM about the cast aside cowgirl toy Jesse, gloriously high
radio says much for his abilities. struggling to come to terms with brow nature of
being forgotten by a child grown -up his playing and
Small People, Mama Told Me Not to composition.
Come, Rednecks and You Can Keep and moving away from play.
 NO,SMART CASUAL:
Clarke Peters as Chief
Albert Lambreaux in
HBO seriesTreme

Have yourself an
Indian summer
L It may test your patience with
IKE everything else that
David Simon has been
involved in, Treme is a
morality tale about our times.
Just as The Wire was supposed
to be about the war on drugs, but
was really about the systematic
destruction of the urban working
class by those institutions of so-
ciety supposedly sworn to protect
it, Treme is nominally about New
Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
But it’s not that simplistic. It
may also be about racism and
neglect of a once great city, but
it’s also a celebration of cultures
in decline, old cultures under
threat and those people from the
community that resist the stifling
temptation of moving and forget-
ting the past for the sake of it.
Music is a symbol for saving
N’awlins, it’s a powerful symbol
plots as slow moving as a silted
up bayou, but HBO’s Treme is a
one stop shop in Nola music
of a glorious past which sustains
those who refuse to give in to the
storm, the government and the
nay sayers.
Chief among those keeping the
old times alive is Clarke ‘Lester
Freamon’ Peters as Indian chief
Albert Lambreaux who sews and
works his fingers to the bone
keeping his historic carnival
gang together. Wendell ‘Bunk
Moreland’ Pierce, is gifted but
priapic trombonist Antoine
Batiste hustling for work playing
music from across the city’s rich
history, while Steve Zahn plays
middle class white musician and
DJ Davis McAlary, a man in love
with black music, its musicians
and who leads a crusade to get
the truth about Katrina known.
With cameos by Toussaint, Dr
John and Kermit Ruffins, it also
boasts one of the best opening
sequences of any TV show - a
panorama of the city's heritage
from ragtime to revival, be bop,
rock and dirty south hip hop, it
all concludes with a New Orleans
marching band on the streets of
Treme, a troubled neighbourhood
in the French Quarter.

Word Magazine NW Massive Mingle Music of New Orleans Magazine was compiled lovingly by Paddy Hoey (PaddyH
on the blog). You can email him on hoey1967@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @paddyhoey. If you
want to take issue with anything contained herein, please consult the prospectus of your local adult education centre, where
you may stumble upon a course which will help you get a life and put things like a typo in a free magazine into perspective.