While New Orleans Rhythm and Blues singer Brother Tyrone admits that James Browns his Number One mentor and that Sam Cooke, Al Green, Otis Redding, Bobby Womack and Johnny Taylor have all contributed to his musical education, his favorite singer might surprise some sensitive listeners: Mark Farner [of Grand Funk Railroad] had a lot of soul. Right after this confession, Brother Tyrones beeper goes off, playing Burt Bacharachs Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. Determined to be unpredictable, Tyrones other loves include country-western giants George Jones and Patsy Cline. I always call Patsy Cline the white Etta James!
Music, to Brother Tyrone, is everything, even as he conducts his daily task of driving a truck: I drive and sing all day long. I never stopall day. I eat, sleep, drink music24-7. I never have been a sports person. Ive been a hard-working person all my life and I just love music. When I was a little kid and my mama left the house, I couldnt wait til she left so I could mess with the record box.
In my house, there was always music on. We used to watch those shows like Shindig and Hullabaloo. My mom would rush me: Come on and eat your dinner now cause James Browns coming on TV! I hung out with my dad a lot and we would ride up and down Daneel Street. Back then, Daneel Street had a bar on every corner and there was always music coming out of the barsblasting. Wilson Pickett coming out of this bar and Otis Redding coming out of that bar and James Brown coming out of this bar. It was very glorious times!
Born Tyrone Anthony Pollard in New Orleans, Brother Tyrone grew up where we call Front OTown, around St. Thomas, down there by the river. Ive been playing music since the 70s. I started out as a little kid, 8-years-old. I was doing talent shows and it just evolved from there. About 1973, I got my first band and Ive been in bands ever since. I really consider myself a soul singerthats my main thing. Soul is music from the heart. The real deal. Thats what I call it.
Tyrones band, the Mindbenders, shares its name with a 60s English combo led by Wayne Fontana,famed for The Game of Love. Everett Eglin, our guitar player, gave the band its name, Tyrone explains. He came up with Brother Tyrone, tooit just stuck. Richard Tricy Dick Dixon, the bass player, has been around for a whilehes played behind Eddie Bo and he was on the road with Lee Dorsey for a long time. We have a drummer, Walter Harriswe call him Walter Hollywood Harris because he did a few spots in a few movies. We really have three keyboard players we use. Theres one guyEnglish Bob, he plays with Marva Wrighthe plays with us a lot. Then theres Tom Worley, he mostly plays with Walter Washingtonhe plays with us a lot. And then we have Marc Adams. On the CD, its Marc Adams and Tom Worley. All three of em bad, though.
Brother Tyrone and the Mindbenders, after warping the mental capacities of celebrants at last years Jazz Fest, continue the cerebral onslaught at the French Quarter Festival on April 13. As usual, Tyrone will take his performance very seriously: To me, New Orleans musicians are more dedicated. The average drummer here, wherever hes at, he could be sitting on a bus, hes beating on his legs. Trumpet players, when theyre little kids, they be sitting on their steps when they aint got nothing to do, they blowing their horntheyre dedicated musicians.
I never half-step when I go on stage. If Im on stage, Im clean as a whistle. When I come on stage, Im top notch. When I grew up and I used to look at all these different singers, thats how they was.
When you saw Jackie Wilson on stage or James Brown on stage, they clean to the max. Thats how I always manage to be. Ill go buy a suit just for a gig. I definitely dont play around when it comes to that. I do my thing. I get loose. Its a real nice show and most of allclean!
DRINK, DRANK, DRUNK
Sorry Mom I’m A Drunk is exactly what every parent whos agreed to send their beloved progeny to New Orleans for either vacation or schooling hopes never to hearand probably will. In this case, its the title of New Orleans filmmaker Jeremy Campbells unflinching peek at Mardi Gras, with a suitably boozy musical score by Morning 40 Federation, a band that never met a bottle it didnt like. Campbell will premiere Sorry MomIm A Drunk and two other features (Second Line Sunday and Jazz Funeral) at the Mother-In-Law Lounge on April 17 with screenings at 7 and 9:30. Also on view will be footage from Campbells unfinished documentary, tentatively titled Underground Mardi Gras and featuring interviews with Irvin Mayfield, Chief Smiley Ricks, Irma Thomas and Stanton Moore. In between the cinema, there will be live performances by Tarnation, Vanessa Boyd and Lets Go, Girls! Campbell will also screen his features at Dale Ashmuns weekly TV Party at the Rock n Bowl on April 21 at 9 p.m., and at the Zeitgeist on May 10.
THERE IS A HOUSE IN NEW ORLEANS
Every tourist visiting New Orleans wants to know where the House of the Rising Sun is and of course, the place evoked by the Animals 1964 hit record (which the Animals copped from Josh White) is an apocryphal jointwe all thought. Alas, there is the House of the Rising Sun Bed & Breakfast, 335 Pelican Avenue (504-367-8461), in old Algiers, owned and operated by transplanted Englishman Kevin Herridge and his transplanted Cajun wife, Wendy. Herridge is a jazz scholar and has published several excellent self-guided walking tours of Algiers, available at the House. The tours include detailed maps and an astounding collection of material on Algiers musicians, including Lester Young, Memphis Minnie, Kid Thomas Valentine, Manuel Manetta, Peter Bocage and such obscure players as Albert Dude Gabriel and Oscar Marcour, once hailed as the Rubinoff of Algiers. It is perhaps germane to cite Herridges warning: We encourage you to use good judgement and common sense in taking this tour as it is in an urban area.
A GOOD HABIT
Astral Projects latest CD is titled Big Shot and features the stogie-chomping comic symbol of a local soft drink on its covera drink that anyone whose childhood was spent consuming Hubigs Pies will fondly recall as the perfect beverage to accompany such consumption. But with complex music comes complex symbolism and complex explanations. Complex bassist James Singleton offers the following thesis in the albums liner notes:
Big Shot is based on a variation of a beat heard a lot around Mardi Gras time. The intro and the outro may be the first recorded example of a canon (or round) juxtaposed with a Saint Aug. parade beat. The title has at least a triple meaning. Firstly, it is a not entirely ironic reference to our former keyboard player (hey, maing!). New Orleans locals will also recall seeing the Big Shot float in the Zulu parade on Carnival Day. But most importantly it refers to the best damned soft drink in the land. Go out and buy a case today. A good habit.
