During a recent late-night phone conversation with Ivan Neville, the 33-year-old son of Aaron Neville seemed a bit preoccupied. And understandably so: he was in the Power Station recording studio in New York, working on a solo album. And in an adjoining room, laying down some “bad shit” for that album, was Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Shouldn’t Neville be supervising Richards’ work? “The man knows what he’s doing.” ‘Nuff said. The album-in-progress will be Ivan’s second solo effort. Polygram released his first in 1989, but as of yet a label hasn’t been found for the new project.
Neville has been a member of Richards’ X-Pensive Winos side project for several years, and just came off the most recent Winos tour. Thus, it wasn’t difficult to get Richards in for what turned into an eight-hour, all-night session. “I asked him, and he wanted to do it,” says Neville. Ivan may get a chance to work with Richards’ other band: he says Richards has spoken to him about possibly contributing keyboard parts to the next Rolling Stones album. Neville, not surprisingly, says he would gladly accept such an offer, and would have no misgivings about his abilities to fill the role. “I’m the cat to play the gig,” he says. Neville said Richards was to discuss the matter with Mick Jagger in Barbados the following weekend. In other collaborative news, Ivan said he would perform with alternative rockers Soul Asylum on an episode of MTV Unplugged to be taped in late April. And for the record, Ivan said he hadn’t heard any of his father’s new A&M album.
CAJUN FOUND WHILE SEARCHING FOR JAZZ…Seventeen-year-old Cajun artist Roddie Romero and his Rockin’ Cajuns scored themselves a slot at the Jazz Fest the old-fashioned way: they earned it. Romero and band won the annual Jazz Search competition, held the weekend of April 3rd. Romero and his band will hit the big WWL/Ray-Ban Stage at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 29.
ONE LESS EVANGELINE…Violinist Nancy Buchan and local country/Cajun outfit Evangeline have come to an “amicable enough” parting of company. “It wasn’t a firing or a quitting—we came to a point where we took different routes,” says Buchan. “They were going in a direction that I didn’t want to go in, and maybe even couldn’t.” Buchan says other group members said they wanted more of a country fiddle sound on their second album, which they will start recording in early May in Nashville. “It was a good run,” says Buchan of her two-and-a-half years with Evangeline, which encompassed the group’s self-titled debut, released last year on Jimmy Buffett’s MCA-distributed Margaritaville label, and a stint as Buffett’s opening act on his summer tour last year. For the immediate future, Buchan will be busy: she will participate in the Songdogs reunion (see story, page 69), and play with both Baton Rouge jazz violinist Michael Ward and gospel vocalist Jo “Cool” Davis at the Fair Grounds on the Jazz Fest’s second Sunday. And on April 18, Buchan and Charlie Howard, who has been involved in the local music business in various capacities for a number of years, were to get married in City Park.
POWER LUNCHING…It was the quintessential New Orleans music power lunch. Multiple Grammy-winning superstar producer Quincy Jones was the guest of honor at an April 2 gathering sponsored by WNOL, the local Fox affiliate (which he owns). Attendees who feasted on a scrumptious traditional lunch at Dooky Chase restaurant included former NBC and Paramount chief Brandon Tartikoff, Allen Toussaint, Willie Tee, Kidd Jordan, Hammond and Nauman Scott from Black Top Records, Cyril Neville, Charmaine Neville and noted jazz photographer Herman Leonard, among others. Jones and station personnel announced a feature film project chronicling the life of Louis Armstrong, starring Charles Dutton (from the Fox TV series Roc) in the title role, and a locally-produced variety show aimed at the youth market. One station rep describes it as “Ed Sullivan meets Saturday Night Live on a kid level,” to feature music, comedy and all manner of variety. Some 1,400 hopefuls between the ages of six and 16 were auditioned for the pilot; thirty-six performers were selected. The show is tentatively scheduled to air locally at the end of May.
FEST FOR KIDS…For those of you planning to bring young’uns to the Jazz Fest, the Kids’ Tent will feature a continuous lineup of shows geared toward the younger set. Shreveport-based Robert Trudeau, a writer and educator who occasionally contributes to OffBeat, will present his “Born in Louisiana Revue” for the third consecutive year at the Kid’s Tent on Friday, April 30 (and again the following day at the Louisiana Children’s Museum).
THE BEST OF THE BAD…Here’s one for fans of late-night cable. The New Orleans Worst Film Festival has “proudly” announced the calendar of celluloid mediocrity for its third annual fete, scheduled for Saturday, May 29 at the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center. This year’s offerings include The Beast of Yucca Flats, War of the Planets, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.; attendees are asked to bring at least one non-perishable food item for donation to Second Harvesters Food Bank. Call 895-3317 for more information.
IN BRIEF…One Jazz Fest homecoming of note involves Timothea, known around these parts for her collaboration with Walter “Wolfman” Washington years ago. The powerhouse vocalist is coming back from New York to perform at the Jazz Fest and promote her saucy new album, Twisted, Funky and Blue, which features the Wolfman and several of his Roadmasters.
