A few weeks ago, the newly elected Prime Minister of Dominica (a small eastern Caribbean island) was in town, and, like so many visitors to our funky city, he was looking for a place to hear some real New Orleans music. Well, someone gave him good information, because he wound up at Donna’s.
It was a Monday night, so the aroma of barbecue chicken and red beans was wafting around a packed house when the Prime Minister and his entourage (including armed security personnel in conspicuous dark suits) entered the weekly jam session led by the French brothers.
It wasn’t long before drummer Bob French called up one of his favorite singers, and the joint fell under the heady spell of Tricia “Sista Teedy” Boutté’s soul-stirring voice. Obviously, the Prime Minister felt the magic also. After Boutté had sung a few numbers and left the stage, she was approached by a State Department liaison, who informed her that the Prime Minister had two requests. First, that she sing another song. Second, that she and the band play at his upcoming inauguration in Dominica.
“I was like, ‘Sure, no problem,'” recalls Boutté. “So I walk over to Bob while they’re playing a song and lean over and whisper to him, ‘The Prime Minister of Dominica is here, and he wants to fly us to Dominica to perform for him at his inauguration.’ And Bob said, ‘You’re bullshitting me!’ I said, ‘No, I’m not. You see all those people in suits? They’re secret service.’ It was funny because these two guys from Germany were sitting in, one on trumpet and one on piano, and when I told Bob that, he hurried up and ended the song. He said, ‘Okay, thank you very much! Come on, y’all get up now.'”
The Germans were summarily dispatched and Bob called up the band’s starting lineup – Davell Crawford on piano, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown on trumpet, Steve Walker on trombone and Todd Duke on guitar – to back Boutté for a mesmerizing rendition of “Let Them Talk.” It turned out to be one of the Prime Minister’s favorite songs. A few days later, contracts were signed and plane tickets were in the mail. They were headed for Dominica.
But newly-elected leaders of tropical islands aren’t the only ones being dramatically moved by Boutté’s powerful and redemptive singing. The 30-year-old continues to front the reggae band Cool Riddims, but she’s been branching out of late, winning new fans, not only in the trad jazz context with the French posse, but with her R&B group Sista Teedy & Whyte Chocolate and other associations. During a recent weekend, for example, she went from a Bob French gig at Storyville District to a Stevie Wonder tribute at Tipitina’s (where she was the featured vocalist) to a rehearsal with blues guitarist Deacon John. In the studio, she’s contributed vocals to blues man Corey Harris’ Greens from the Garden CD and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, Nine Inch Nails’ Fragile, which received a 1999 Grammy nomination. And, as if her resume wasn’t diverse enough, DJ Davis Rogan has asked her to play the Acid Queen in his forthcoming production of the rock musical Tommy.
In all of these endeavors, her versatility is matched only by her endurance, which is amazing considering her health troubles. (She’s been battling cancer for almost ten years.)
“The first thing that makes Teedy special is that she’s a survivor,” says Bob French. “Three years ago she was supposed to have been dead. The second thing that makes her special is that she can sing any kind of music. She’s willing to learn stuff, and she’s always studying her craft. And she goes from one form to the other and never does she stumble.”
Boutté is indeed a stylistic gypsy, but jazz is her family inheritance (her aunt and uncle, Lillian and John Boutté, are both renowned jazz singers) and it’s in this genre, singing spirituals and traditional numbers with intense soul and conviction, that she seems most natural and expressive. More importantly, she says that she’s enjoying jazz right now more than ever before, thanks to the French brothers and their cohorts.
“All of us have developed such a wonderful chemistry working together,” she says. “And, especially at Storyville, we cut up and clown with each other so much and get the audience involved with all of our madness, that it makes it fun. We have a good time, and when the musicians are having a good time, it’s automatically gonna sound good.
“You know, a lot of younger people are learning a whole new respect for music that actually came from here. ‘Cause if you notice at Donna’s, it’s a pretty young crowd that comes out there. We have older cats that come out, but there are a lot of college kids that don’t play music hanging out on these sets, listening to trad jazz. And a few years ago, that wasn’t the case. Those kids are getting culture without even realizing it, watching legends come jam together like Leroy Jones and Herlin Riley, and Walter Payton comes in and heckles Bob from the back of the room. That’s amazing stuff.”
Fortunately, Bob French recently went into the studio to document this magic on a forthcoming record (due out during Jazz Fest). It features most of the regular players at Donna’s, plus a dazzling array of special guests, such as Dave Bartholomew, David Torkanowsky, Bill Huntington, Freddy Lonzo, Eric Traub, and Chris Severin, with guest vocalists Juanita Brooks, John Boutté and, of course, Tricia Boutté. They cut 26 tracks in one eight hour session; thirteen will be selected for this record and the rest used later.
During Jazz Fest, Tricia Boutté performs with Bob French & the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band on April 29 (Economy Hall). She also sings back-up for Allen Toussaint that day, and with Cool Riddims on May 5 (Congo Square).
More Jazz Fest CDs
Every year at Jazz Fest there’s an incredible deluge of new records, which is wonderful, except that it’s impossible to cover them all, especially when so many come out at the last minute. But just in case you’ve still got some music buying change rolling around on the floor of your car, here’s a few more noteworthy releases that were recently discovered:
Guitarist Steve Masakowski’s For Joe, on Compass Records, is a tribute to the legendary Joe Pass that was inspired by Pass’ famous tribute record, For Django. (Very tributary, isn’t it?) The record mixes originals and standards in a trio setting, featuring Bill Huntington on bass and Astral Project bandmate Johnny Vidacovich on drums. The sparse setting allows for Masakowski’s formidable seven-string guitar technique to shine.
Saxophonist Rebecca Barry is putting out a record with bassist Bill Huntington, who evidently plays some stellar guitar on this set as well. Mike Pellera is on keys and the ubiquitous Johnny Vidacovich plays drums. I haven’t heard the music yet, but Barry says it veers away from New Orleans groove and has more of an emphasis on New York style intricacies. To find out what that means, check out the Barry/Huntington Jazz Fest set on April 30 (Jazz Tent).
The Jazz Mandolin Project celebrates the release of a Blue Note Records debut, Xenoblast, with a late night show at Tipitina’s Uptown, starting at 2 a.m. on the morning of May 7. The late show time offers a clue as to the band’s primary audience: young bohemian types who want to groove to improvisational music ’til dawn. But what’s wrong with that? Jamie Masefield, the group’s leader, is inventing a new space for the eight-string acoustic mandolin, and his quirky compositions blend in jazz and classical influences while maintaining an effervescent sense of groove.
Garage A Trois features eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter, saxophonist Skerik, and drummer Stanton Moore. It’s the same trio that communed for Moore’s All Kooked Out record a few years back, and which put on a bizarre, yet wonderful late night Jazz Fest show last year. During this year’s Fest, they open for Oysterhead on May 4 at the Saenger Theater and headline their own show at the Maple Leaf on May 3. Their new release, Mysteryfunk, on Fog City Records, is a strange, hybrid creation. The result of late night fishing expeditions during the All Kooked Out sessions, it’s an EP (available in 12″ vinyl only) showcasing the trio in an all live, dubbed-out “electronica” style. Stanton plays mostly slow, hypnotic grooves while the other guys experiment with talk boxes, keyboards and other gizmos in a raw, minimal fashion. The extremely atmospheric, almost trance inducing vibe could be called “lava lamp music for the twenty-first century,” but it seems far too mellow for electronic types and lacking in instrumental fire for us organic jazz types. The appeal of this “limited edition” is indeed limited, and doesn’t do justice to three great young performers.
