Thank you for reading OffBeat, which means you take an art form seriously enough to want to know what’s really happening musically. We believe, if you’re reading this magazine, that you want a musical experience 1) more than just a quick run down Bourbon Street (if you’re from out of town), or 2) more than the canned stuff you might hear at local bars.
Let’s put it this way (she says with just a touch of ego): if you read and enjoy OffBeat, then you’re someone who is a member of the musical and cultural elite, and a real supporter of New Orleans, in all her funky, jazzy, sloppy, beautiful, drunken, sleazy, soulful, ass-wigglin’, unique, emotional, paradoxical, tits-showin’, warmly loving glory.
Particularly during times when the city is reveling in the things that make this an extremely cool place to be (like during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest), we locals tend to forget that unless we take care of our culture, our music, then we’re going to lose it. There ain’t no way you’re ever going to get a Donna’s in any other city but this one, or a Maple Leaf, or a Tipitina’s or a Snug Harbor, or a Rock ‘N’ Bowl. There’s no way Los Angeles would ever produce a Kermit Ruffins or a Wynton Marsalis or a Harry Connick, Jr. So all hail, Crescent City! Enjoy her, don’t abuse her, love her and cherish her. She deserves it!
Best of the Beat
Congratulations to everyone who has won kudos from their peers, the music community and their fans by winning an OffBeat Best of The Beat Award. Enjoy your accolades, and for those who didn’t win: there’s always a next time. Keep up the fantastic music, and have a great time on us at the party on January 25, at Generations Hall. At press time, there were plenty of tickets for fans of local music available for $35 each, for ten bands and great food from local restaurants (see the Best Of The Beat Program beginning on page 45 for the winners and details on the party). Tickets will be available at the door. All ticket proceeds will benefit WWOZ’s building fund.
Who will be our Music Mayor?
As anyone who is a regular reader of this column knows, I speak my mind when it comes to the local music scene. I tend to avoid politics, except when it has an impact on the music community. A few days ago, OffBeat and the Loyola Music Business Program sponsored the first-ever Mayoral Candidates’ Forum on Music. The room was packed with people interested in what the candidates had to say. Eight were invited; seven candidates showed up.
Now that sounds pretty good. I have to tell you that musicians and music businesses in this town get no respect from the “other” business community (maybe it’s because we don’t wear suits, or that we might keep different working hours). Well, I’m here to tell you that we don’t get any respect from the politicians either. Of the seven candidates who attended (Carter, Hunt, Irons, Labat, Nagin, Pennington and Singleton), the two “frontrunners” in the race (Irons and Pennington) left within the first hour (they had other engagements, even though the Forum was confirmed back in November). Guess they thought that writing off the music vote was no great loss.
Singleton seems interested and ready to learn about the needs of the music community, but is superficially informed. Carter sprouted platitudes about how great our music is and how we’re better than Austin, Texas, but did not offer any solutions to the problems and concerns that were posed (all candidates were asked to answer specific questions ahead of time. Only three candidates submitted their answers—Irons, Pennington and Nagin. We will email you their answers if you drop me a line at [email protected]).
As the Forum went on, the politicians left early, leaving only the three business candidates. Hunt says he can hook us up with friends in Los Angeles; Labat wants to turn the Municipal Auditorium and Mahalia Jackson Theater into a music complex (so we can add some more “recording studios”—they all think we have none here!).
Only Ray Nagin seemed to be the most in tune with the music community, and took the most businesslike approach to solving the city’s problems vis a vis music. He wants to determine what the industry is now, determine what we want it to look like in five years’ time, determine the ways to achieve those goals, and most importantly, make people accountable by setting up devices to measure success.
He’s the dark horse in the race, but Ray Nagin is OffBeat’s choice in this election as the candidate who could best work to improve the local music industry.
Virgets is Everywhere
In addition to emceeing OffBeat’s Seventh Annual Best of The Beat Awards, local raconteur, racetrack rat, writer and cultural icon Ronnie Virgets will also host a new radio series being produced by WWNO Radio.
The real star will be New Orleans—its art, culture, food, language, eccentricities, and eccentrics—presented in a mix of sketch comedy, live music and features that aim to be appealing, informative and entertaining to locals and accessible to a wider audience (read: national distribution eventually).
“Crescent City” will launch with three specials in 2002—currently scheduled to air February 1; April 26; and October 25, themed respectively around Super Bowl, Jazz Fest and Halloween. If development of the program is on track after the three specials—the schedule will intensify to monthly in 2003 and weekly in 2004—WWNO hopes to offer the program in syndication via NPR or PRI nationally. Can this be New Orleans’ future Crescent City Companion??
The initial three programs will be taped in front of a live audience at Le Chat Noir on St. Charles Avenue, then post-produced for later airing. Fred Kasten, who is executive-producing the show says, “Our thinking now is that by the time the program moves to a weekly schedule, we will be doing the entire thing live.” The first airdate is Friday, February 1st at 6:30 p.m. On-air versions of the initial episodes will be one hour.
Joining Ronnie Virgets for the first episode of “Crescent City” will be Ricky Graham and Company, Peter Finney, Don Lee Keith, Ron Swoboda, jazz archivist Bruce Raeburn and musical guests Tom McDermott and Leigh “Li’l Queenie” Harris , and the “Crescent City” house band, Astral Project.
Tickets for future show are available by calling 504-280-7000 or visiting wwno.org.
Dollars For Scholars
Pianist Henry Butler will headline a program of traditional New Orleans jazz, R&B and Mardi Gras favorites at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, February 5, 2002, at the Palm Court Jazz Café, 1204 Decatur St., to benefit an Orleans Parish Public School Dollars-for-Scholars music scholarship established in his name. Concert tickets are $20 and will be sold beginning at 7 p.m. the night of the concert or in advance at the Palm Court.
World famous photographer Herman Leonard has donated a signed, silver gelatin print of Billie Holiday to be raffled off at the concert, valued at $5000. The $1 raffle tickets will be sold at the concert or you may find Andrea du Plessis at the Palm Court Cafe on prior Saturday nights to buy raffle tickets in advance. Besides the recently established Henry Butler Dollars for Scholars Music Scholarship for college-bound Orleans Parish School students, he also runs a summer music camp for blind teen musicians. “This concert will celebrate our musical heritage, put people in a good-time mood, while also supporting education,” says Butler. For additional information contact Andrea du Plessis, 586-0245 (and raffle tickets) or Harriett D. Cortez, 286-0485.
