Ahhh, October in New Orleans. The weather cools down, the gators shed their skin and those poor nutria keep getting smashed as they try to cross I-10. October is also home to my all-time favorite holiday…Halloween. Which brings us to our first category of notable events.
TRICK OR TREAT DEPT.… Coven Party III will be held at the Columns Hotel, 3811 St. Charles on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Organized by Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat Fan Club (see last issue for news about them), this year’s theme is “The Vampire’s Ball”. Anne Rice will be among the guests. Sue Quiroz, a founding member of the club, expects members from across the country to attend. Admission is $10 for members and $12 for non-members. As the invitation says, it will be “a grand costumed event” and you can find out more details by phoning 899-9308.
Halloween is a big party night in New Orleans and music will abound, with the Iguanas at Mid-City Bowling Lanes; The Neville Brothers, Charmaine Neville and Neville kids’ band D.E.F.F. Generation at Municipal Auditorium.
FOR ARTS’ SAKE DEPT.… Have you noticed the cool banners adorning our local fire stations as you tool around town? There are nine of them altogether, all painted by one Doug MacCash. You can catch more of his work in a group show at the Still-Zinsel Gallery on Oct. 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. Doug regularly illustrates OffBeat‘s covers (like this month’s, for example).
October is also our substantial art community’s big month to shine, with the Contemporary Art Center’s Art for Arts’ Sake bash at 8 p.m. Oct. 5, at 900 Camp Street. The party’s getting bigger and bigger as years go by, and this year should prove to be better than ever—A Sante with Mari Serpas (late of Nunsense fame) will keep feet hopping from 9 p.m. to midnight at the music stage on St. Joseph Street (the whole block will be transformed into a street fair), with more music to choose from inside in the Freeport-McMoRan Theater. Ethnic and New Orleans cuisine samples will abound. Concurrent gallery openings all over town liven up the proceedings from 6 to 9 p.m. The CAC also presents two mid-week concerts of Count Basie’s music performed by local jazz greats on October 1 and 2. Local artists Tony Dagradi, Victor Goines (who’s profiled in this issue of OffBeat), Kidd Jordan, and many others will play.
MULTIPLE AWARENESS DEPT.… Speaking of jazz, October is the Louisiana Jazz Federation-sponsored Jazz Awareness Month in New Orleans, and will celebrate that fact with concerts, workshops, radio programming, artist’s showcases at local clubs and the Jazztown Awards Ceremony, which this year honors Harold Battiste. Battiste recently revived the AFO record label, which originally recorded many of New Orleans’ great jazz and rhythm & blues artists in the late ‘50s and early ’60s. A complete schedule of events is included in this issue of OffBeat.
October has also been proclaimed Music Business Awareness month in New Orleans by our illustrious City Council. Several events are planned, including the month-long Music Business Institute, a series of workshops for musicians on everything from putting together a promo kit, to selecting a booking agent and manager and getting more gigs. A different workshop will be held every day of the week at Direct Box Studios’ The Firehouse rehearsal complex at 1719 Toledano Street. Best of all, all classes are free. The series is presented by the New Orleans Music & Entertainment Commission with OffBeat Publications, Kinko’s, Words & Pictures, BMI, ASCAP, and Bright Moments as the workshop sponsors. Call 731-0352 for more information on classes, which start October 1.
On October 30, Interfest, the international festival producers’ conference, begins at the Clarion Hotel. Delegates from around the world are committed to attend, and showcases of local bands will take place October 31-November 2 at the Clarion, with some of the more notable performances being the Bayou Renegades and the Friendly Travelers (presented by New Orleans En Avant). The Friends of New Orleans Music sponsor a masked ball on Halloween at the Clarion and local clubs will also showcase bands during the event. At press time, the following bands were confirmed: Astral Project (Snug Harbor); Black Top Blues-A-Rama (Tipitina’s); Rejoicin’ in the Park gospel fest (Armstrong Park); and Donald Harrison and Nicholas Payton with their bands (DeNovo’s).
FILM BUFFS’ DELIGHT DEPT.…The New Orleans Film & Video Festival’s fall program will get underway the week of October 11-18 at the Canal Place Cinema. The program includes John Sayles’ new flick, City of Hope, and Gus van Sant’s (Drugstore Cowboy) new work, My Own Private Idaho, starring River Phoenix.
RADIO DAYS DEPT.… This season’s WWOZ fundraising drive runs October 23 through November 2, and includes several series that celebrate Jazz Awareness Month, among them “Radio Free Rahsaan” every Friday beginning October 4 at 5:30 p.m. The program is an eight-part 90-minute series recorded in 1973 by and about Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the virtuoso sax man. Guests include Sippie Wallace, The Eureka Brass Band, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and many others. ‘OZ also presents a series of “Jazz Modules” throughout September that discuss various New Orleans jazz styles, with commentary by Ellis Marsalis, Ed Blackwell and Danny Barker, among others. Also on Tuesday nights, from midnight to 1 a.m. in October, the station will feature “The Miles Davis Project,” a seven-part series including interviews with Miles Davis and commentary by Joni Mitchell, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Carlos Santana and many others.
WWNO will broadcast a special performance by Harold Battiste on October 25, live from The Sandbar. The performance starts at 9 p.m., and the broadcast is from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
GOSPEL IS ALIVE DEPT.… Tipitina’ s Records just finished taping and shooting a gospel album. WLAE- TV is sponsoring The Gospel Train To New Orleans, an all-star gospel showcase of the city’s best talent “singing from their musical roots” on October 5 at the Saenger Theater. The event will by hosted by New Orleans’ newest national media celeb, Arthel Neville (currently’ of E! TV) and will feature, among others, Irma Thomas, The Dixie Cups, Charmaine Neville, Frankie Ford, Wanda Rouzan, Marva Wright, Ronnie Kole, Barbara Shorts, Jo ”Cool” Davis, and the Gospel Soul Children. Tickets are $20 and $25 and are available through Ticketmaster.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST DEPT.… Be sure to have a safe, sane but totally out of control (is that possible?) Halloween. Also, keep sending in that info on what’s going on around town ’cause it makes my job a whole lot easier. Adios, amigos and stay regular.
