Congratulations to the fifth annual OffBeat Best of the Beat winners! Your musician peers and your fans have voted you the musical best of the best.
Musicians in the city and state get little enough attention. This is OffBeat’s way of drawing attention to our great musicians and giving them back a little of the pleasure, emotion and expertise they give us from their hearts.
The voting methodology we use has been changed this year to include votes from the public (see page 59 for a description of how voting was managed). Frankly, some of the winners surprised us–but a vote is a vote is a vote. Unfortunately the awards party, hosted by the House of Blues again this year, is closed to the public, except for a few local subscribers who used the opportunity to get a monthly issue of OffBeat every month and a ticket to the hottest music awards show in New Orleans.
Mooney Lovers, Rejoice… And Welcome Back, Kerry!
We’ve received lots of inquiries over the past month on our message board about John Mooney, who just graced the cover of Blues Access magazine. Mooney’s last CD was Dealin’ With The Devil on Ruf Records in 1997, and with the amount of attention he garnered at Jazz Fests 1998 and 1999, all the Moonheads are jonesing for new album.
Kerry Brown, who’s drummed a lot of gigs with Mooney all over the country, just moved back to New Orleans with his wife Jane after a year in El Cerrito, CA. "We missed New Orleans more than we thought; California’s great, but it’s got no soul," said Brown. When we asked him what new projects he’d been working on, we got the answer to two questions: "I’m getting ready to go into the studio on February 2 with John Mooney [!], who’s working on a new album for Blind Pig that we hope will come out for Jazz Fest. We’re gonna have Rene Coman [of the Iguanas], "Mean" Willie Green, Uganda Roberts and Jon Cleary working on it too." Good news for the multitude of Moonheads, and a hearty welcome back, Kerry!
Rock ‘N’ Bowl® Name Under Siege
For our out-of-town readers (or locals who don’t read the T-P), Mid-City Lanes owner John Blancher filed suit last week against the various entities who aired a new hour-long show at 7 p.m. Tuesday nights on TNN, suspiciously called "Rockin’ Bowl." Blancher describes the show as "‘Hollywood Does New Orleans.’ They’re trying to make it exciting, but are doing a pretty poor job. The color scheme, the logo they use [with a sunburst] is similar to mine; they use guys in bowling shirts and cheerleaders dressed the way we’ve done in the past." Blancher owns the trademark on the name Rock ‘N’ Bowl® (read his ad every month for a warning notice!), and protects it carefully. Blancher tells OffBeat that he got a call a few weeks before he knew about the show from a rep from the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) asking about the name registration. Blancher referred the callers to his attorney to discuss licensing the rights to the name, but the attorney never heard from the PBA representative. And surprise! A few weeks later, the TNN show appears.
"It’s going to cost me $15,000 to $20,000 to file suit," says Blancher, who obtained a federal trademark for the phrase "rock ‘n’ bowl" in 1992. "But I have to pursue infringements. If I don’t, I could lose the trademark."
Marsalis Biography and a Potential Honoree
The IAJE convention was probably one of the best music conferences/trade shows I’ve been to in a long time; anyone involved in roots music in New Orleans who didn’t attend really missed out.
While wandering through the multitude of booths at IAJE, I came across one from Scarecrow Press, and much to my surprise, they’d just published a brnad-new biography of Ellis Marsalis, Jazz Man’s Journey. The book was authored by D. Antoinette Hardy, a musician, educator and former Director of the Music Program at the National Endowments for the Arts.
According to Scarecrow’s press release (we’re supposed to be receiving a review copy of the book), Jazz Man’s Journey "chronicles the life and career of one of New Orleans’ most talented jazz musicians. From his childhood in a rural section of New Orleans, to solo appearances with the New Orleans/Louisiana Philharmonic, as well as appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, and Harvard University, this unprecedented biography accurately portrays not only as a pianist and recording artist, but also as a successful teacher, composer, lecturer, father and human being."
The book contains a complete discography and photos from Marsalis’ private collection. We say it’s about time someone wrote something on the ultimate jazz patriarch, Ellis Marsalis. Read this month’s issue for the conclusion of his conversation with son Jason on the state of jazz.
We also received an interesting email, in which we thought our readers may have some interest: Ellis Marsalis is being nominated for an American Jazz Masters fellowship, since he is one of the most important influences on the musical talents of budding youth our city has ever had and has had a dynamic impact on generations of New Orleans "young lions." Nominations should be sent to: American Jazz Masters Fellowships, National Endowment For The Arts, Nancy Hanks Center, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Room 703, Washington, DC 20506-0001, Phone 202 682-5438. Nominations should be supported by a one page letter detailing the accomplishments and contributions of the nominee to the art as well as any short biographical data known to the nominator.
The deadline for this year is January 28, 2000 but nominations remain active for five years. Former honorees include Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, and Count Basie.
Mardi Card May Be Yours
Yeah, Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide might be the big annual book for our annual bacchanalia, but we found a great, and more user-friendly little item: it’s the Mardi Card, a pocket-sized little item that has all the parade routes, maps, descriptions of the parades, how to join krewes (with phone numbers, etc.), music spots, Carnival Q&A and much more. All in a package that unfolds and neatly fits in your pocket. We think this is a dandy item, and we’re offering the 2000 Mardi Card FREE to anyone who subscribes to OffBeat through March 7, 2000. See page 23 for more details.
