Issue Articles — Features
The Unfortunate Saga of Irvin Mayfield
Irvin Mayfield was sentenced to 18 months in prison in January 2022, but was released on January 9, 2023, after serving less than a year. Although Mayfield pleaded guilty to diverting $1.3 million in New Orleans Public Library Foundation funding to other accounts for personal use, I continue to wonder why he and his business partner Ronald Markham were the only ones that were held responsible.
The Secret Ingredient: Violinist Rurik Nunan is the quintessential sideman
Violinist Rurik Nunan is the quintessential sideman. Rurik Nunan was supposed to be doing snow angels on a bed of euros in France by now. Though he made the pilgrimage from Atlanta to New Orleans to study at Loyola University in the early 2000s, his focus then was international business, because wolves of Wall Street study finance to snag fancy banking gigs. Which Nunan did, for the record. By the time he was 24, the Atlanta native was packing bags for a job abroad with a French mega-bank, doing what the 39-year-old fiddler now calls “dressed up bullshit.”
Koan Kenpachi lives hip-hop
Koan Kenpachi lives hip-hop. The New Orleans-born and raised artist started out rapping with friends in his backyard before making a claim for himself as part of the hip hop band, EOE (Equal Opportunity Employment). In 2011, Kenpachi went solo with the album Chronicles of a Dying Breed before facing many health issues that threatened his vision and his life.
Silver Godling’s Music Therapy Approach To Grief
Treating Grief with Music: Silver Godling’s therapeutic approach
My Music with Dr. Michael White
My Music with Dr. Michael White. Urged by the editorial staff of OffBeat to pursue an interview with Dr. Michael White, a clarinetist living in New Orleans, he is unforgivingly devoted to promoting, playing and preserving traditional New Orleans jazz.
Mushroom Crowd: Mark Bingham will release 22 archival albums
Mushroom Crowd: Mark Bingham will release 22 archival albums
Best Of The Beat: Heartbeat Award – Benny Jones, Sr.
Best Of The Beat: Heartbeat Award – Benny Jones, Sr. Benny Jones Sr. is best known around the world as a drummer and leader of the world-renowned Treme Brass Band. However, in New Orleans and particularly among this city’s brass band community, his reputation looms large as a kind man of remarkable patience and one dedicated to tradition and the culture.
The Best of the Beat 2021-2022 Nominations
OffBeat founder/publisher Jan Ramsey decided that our musicians and music businesses deserved an awards event of their own and put together a concept for a music awards program that would honor only local musicians. Originally held at the House of Blues, the Best of The Beat Awards were only open to the music community (that has changed over the years to include local music fans). In the first event, rock band Better Than Ezra was the big winner and took home Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for Deluxe and Song of the Year for “Good.”
