Issue Articles
Farewell Tour: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jazz Fest debut
When you’ve been a band for 58 years and played a key role in country-rock history, you’re entitled to a long goodbye. So it is that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is playing Jazz Fest toward the start of its farewell tour, but they don’t intend to wrap it up right away.
Bad-ass Babe: Ghalia Volt is a lot about feel
Ghalia Volt is one bad-ass babe. Though I came late to her raucous blues-rock party—she first hit town in 2014 and made New Orleans her homebase in 2017, when she Let the Demons Out on her Ruf Records debut with local bar-band faves Mama’s Boys—I became an instant convert when I blasted her latest release Shout Sister Shout! in my earbuds and kept it in heavy rotation.
From Visual Art to Musical Freedom: Indys Blu is a rising vocal star
During Indys Blu’s recent set at the Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s Chanteuse Series, she nonchalantly took hold of a full room mostly unfamiliar with her music and, step by step, made them feel her and wanting more. This is what can happen when songwriting shines, delivery glows, and energy reciprocates. The fact that she pulled it off with slower-tempo songs made her sheer talent and studied style even more striking.
A “Baron” of Philadelphia: Pianist Kenny Barron loves to play in New Orleans
Pianist and composer, the hugely talented Kenny Barron, 80, jumped into the jazz scene when he was still in high school and through circumstances met and performed with the legendary and progressive saxophonist Yusef Lateef. Lateef would become a major influence in his life.
The Songbird of Wassoulou: Oumou Sangaré is always moving
Quint Davis and his team basically built the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival from the ground up decades ago. But they didn’t build it from the ground up the way Malian singer and cultural activist Oumou Sangaré built the Festival International du Wassulu for its inaugural edition in 2017.
A Personal Essay: The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger taught me how to dance, as anyone who saw me strut my stuff on the dance floor in my prime can attest. Like many other smalltown Yankees in the ’60s, I was first introduced to the blues by the Rolling Stones, who mined the motherlode of music by Black artists from the deep south and its northern outpost in Chicago by listening to “race records” far more available in England than in Jim Crow America.
Amis du Teche: They’ll Play Music Forever
Fiddler Adeline Miller and acoustic rhythm guitarist Amelia Powell of the Cajun quartet Amis du Teche—average age 20—couldn’t be happier. For the first time ever, Amis du Teche is slotted to play Jazz Fest and also has performed at French Quarter Festival this year.
New Orleans Klezmer All Stars: Celebrating Over Three Decades Together
The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars are celebrating 33 years together. When one thinks of Klezmer and the Crescent City, they’re solely the ones who come to mind, and in doing so they’ve expanded the New Orleans sound in turn. They have the musical chops and vision to pull Yiddish dance music in a modern age while being wryly respectful of tradition. Befitting a multi-talented band with in-demand members, getting them all in a room is not an easy task, but lo and behold, they’re playing shows in support of Tipish, their new album, just in time for Jazz Fest. I hiked the Maple Street construction zone along with Glenn Hartman and Jonathan Freilich to discuss the new album and more.
A Whole Lot of Funk: Tower of Power returns to Jazz Fest
Fifty-six years makes for a whole lot of funk. And in Tower of Power’s case, a whole lot of people as well. More than 60 bandmembers have passed through the ranks in that time, but the soulful essence of the band has been consistent.
Sisterhood: Troy Sawyer knows That Girls Play Trumpets Too
Troy Sawyer has been a noted New Orleans trumpet player and bandleader for years. In recent times he’s added film scores to his repertoire, but his music education non-profit organization Girls Play Trumpet Too is what’s been making the recent buzz. We found a spot at Church Alley Coffee to talk about it.
