Sometimes it’s amazing what a lot of love exists in our local music community. It’s a town where the likes of Allen Toussaint, Cyril and Gaynielle Neville, The Zion Harmonizers, Henry Butler, Leroy Jones, The Treme Brass Band, Les Getrex, Kermit Ruffins and many more unite to help their own. These musical stars and many others came together at Tipitina’s Uptown on February 20 to benefit Tricia “Sista Teedy” Boutte, who is desperately in need of major surgery, and who can’t afford the cost. The benefit raised almost $5,000 from tickets sold at the door and from a percentage of the bar donated by Tipitina’s.
Remarkably, Dr. Glenn Steeb, a surgeon who attended the benefit offered to donate the surgery procedure for Tricia. She is also a beneficiary of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic (NOMC) at the LSU Healthcare Network, which is stepping in to help provide for her care.
NOMC seems to be having a major impact on the quality of local musicians’ lives. The NARAS Foundation just awarded $20,000 to the clinic to the LSU Medical Center’s Kresge Hearing Research Laboratory to research and ultimately prevent hearing loss in musicians.
For those of us who listen to the music (and hopefully protect our ears from stuff that’s too loud), The New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, in conjunction with American Sector Studios, has just wrapped up a CD of New Orleans music which will benefit the clinic. Get You A Healin’ is a funk collage of musical luminaries who have donated their talents to making the CD a reality.
When Paul McCord, American Sector’s owner, became aware of the lack of local funding for the health care of New Orleans musicians, he offered to donate the services of his studio to assist in the clinic’s fundraising efforts. The result was a production collaboration with Bethany Bultman, a documentary filmmaker and author, whose husband, Johann, is one of the Musicians’ Clinic’s founders.
McCord and Bultman set some unique parameters for the CD project to insure that it honored the funk traditions of New Orleans music, while at the same time expanding the music’s conventional vocabulary. All the musicians were charged with recording songs related to health issues or “body parts.” (All the musicians volunteered their services for the project).
Dr. John and Art Neville paid tribute to Charles Brown with a soulful rendition of “Virus Called The Blues,” recorded just days after the bluesman’s death. The funky Meters jumped at the chance to re-record the R&B standard “Rockin’ Pneumonia;” and Tiny Town and Dave Malone of The Radiators pumped out a down-to-the-bone version of James Booker’s “Look What I Got.”
Renowned saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr. beats a mean tambourine on an original composition “Big Chief Donald Had A Heart of Steel,” recorded by members of his family, The Young Guardians of the Flame, as a tribute to their late father.
Local drummer, Bernard “Bunchy” Johnson, an appreciative patient of the Musicians’ Clinic, wrote “Fit As A Fiddle” about his own healing experience. Mathilde Bondo, noted Danish violin player and NOMC supporter, flew in to the city to fiddle in key passages. Luther Kent, who once faced catastrophic health problems himself, recorded Bunchy’s song with Wardell Quezergue and His Slammin’ Big Band early one Saturday morning [The Slammin’ Big Band is featured on OffBeat‘s 1998 Festival CD with “Pass It On.”].
Maria Muldaur and keyboardist Chris Burns traveled back to New Orleans (“their spiritual home”) from California to work with session producer Carlo Ditta of Orleans Records, George Porter, Jr., Cranston Clements, Leroy Jones, Mark Mullins and Kenneth Blevins (Tiny Town) to record a smashing duet on “Don’t You Feel My Leg (Don’t You Make Me High)” with the late Blue Lu Barker, who wrote the song and recorded it originally in 1938 with her husband, Danny Barker. The Barkers’ daughter, Sylvia, flew in from her home in Rochester, New York to be present at the historic re-mixed duet between her late mother and Maria Muldaur, a close friend of the Barker family. Muldaur also recorded a duet of “Louisiana Medicine Man” with Coco Robicheaux.
The CD will be released prior to Jazz Fest and all proceeds from sales will benefit NOMC. The CD will be sold at all local record stores, and through OffBeat and its website. The launch party for Get You A Healin’ will be at American Sector Studios, 333 St. Charles Avenue on Sunday, May 2 at 11 a.m. Call (504) 527-0886 for details.
Newest addition to the New Orleans music club scene is the Shim Sham Club & Juke Joint, located at 615 Toulouse Street, the location of the original Toulouse Theater and lately Maxwell’s Toulouse Cabaret and the 21 Club. Los Angelenos Morgan Higby and Dean R. Miller, along with local entrepreneur Matthew Vaughan, are currently renovating the club and will celebrate its grand opening on April 16th & 17th just in time for the first weekend of Jazz Fest, with Louie Prima sideman Sam Butera.
The Shim Sham is named after a Bourbon Street club owned by Leon Prima (Louis’ brother) in the 1930s.
“We’re redesigning the interior to pay homage to the club’s tradition as a theater, and making it something like 1940s club meets the French Quarter,” said Miller. “We’re building booths with zebra print seats in back, and a great bar in front [The Juke Joint]. We’ll have music five or six times a month at first with big bands, rockabilly, classic singers like Hadda Brooks, and a lot more. We’ll also have the Shim Sham Revue featuring a burlesque show with the Shim Shamettes.”
Miller has already started booking music for the club with an April 2 show date set for the Asylum Street Spankers.
Sherman Washington and the Zion Harmonizers will celebrate 60 amazing years in gospel music with a special anniversary concert at 2pm on Sunday March 28 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Sally Ann Roberts of WWL-TV will be Mistress of Ceremony for this historic event that will include tributes to the Zion Harmonizers from the local community. Many local gospel groups will perform, including the Mighty Chariots, Sounds of Unity, Rocks of Harmony, Crown Seekers and the Nineveh Baptist Church Mass Choir, highlighted by a performance by the Dixie Hummingbirds of Philadelphia. The Dixie Hummingbirds have been lifelong friends of the Harmonizers, and have been singing equally as long.
The Concert will be dedicated to the memory of Nolan Washington, Sherman Washington’s brother, who passed away in May 1997 shortly after the release of the Harmonizers’ last CD release, God Promised Me, which was titled after one of Nolan’s original songs.
Tickets for the concert are $10 and are available Through Ticketmaster. For additional information, call Badi Murphy at (504) 522-4786, Sherman Washington at (504) 785-9044 or Margie Ramsey at (504) 891-2280.
Finally an organization has formed to further the interests of music clubs and musicians. The Music Coalition of Louisiana incorporated as a non-profit in mid-February, with Louisiana Music Factory owner Jerry Brock as its president. The organization will announce its mission statement and objectives to the public in late March. Stay tuned to OffBeat for more information.
