Issue Articles
Loose Cattle: Soulful Harmonies
In New Orleans, the Laissez Faire Laissez/Les Bon Temps Roule vibe and inherent funkiness of the lifestyle obscure the fact that this is a city of songwriters and storytellers.
Guitar Slim Jr.: Trouble Don’t Last
The blues singer and guitarist Guitar Slim Jr., the son of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones, has been a New Orleans mainstay for years, though lesser known.
Wendell Brunious
When you enter Preservation Hall, it’s like stepping back in time. The small no-frills room looks pretty much like it did when Allan and Sandra Jaffe first opened their now-legendary French Quarter venue on St. Peter Street in 1961. Bare unvarnished floors serve as the stage, surrounded by wooden chairs where the audience sits — until as often happens, they are moved to get up and march around with a band that celebrates the living past of New Orleans jazz.
Dwayne Dopsie
With broad shoulders, big biceps and a boyish face, Dwayne Dopsie resembles a New Orleans Saints linebacker more than a zydeco accordionist. Dopsie, 46, says his physique reflects good health he’s maintained since the age of nine or 10.
The Creole String Beans
The Creole String Beans are huge fans of that music, and they play it with a sense of joy and fun. Guitarist Rick Olivier, also an internationally renowned photographer, put together the band with bassist Rob Savoy after a chance meeting on Grande Route St. John.
Lila Downs Talks Back
Lila Downs, one of Mexico’s most vibrant musical stars for a few decades now and a global ambassador of the nation’s culture, sits in a house in the capital Mexico City, about 250 miles northwest from her home in Oaxaca. She’s not there as an artist, but as a mother.
Mojo Mouth: Last Will and Testament
We are proud and happy to honor Irma Thomas as our “Forever Soul Queen” on this year’s Jazz Fest Bible™ cover. I thought long and hard about who would grace it, and I couldn’t think of a better subject than our musical queen and icon, Irma Thomas Jackson.
Irma Thomas: Audience With the Queen
The moment was triumphant—Mick Jagger inviting Irma Thomas onstage with the Rolling Stones last April at Jazz Fest and then joining her to sing the song they once recorded separate versions of in 1964.
Jessie Hill (1932-1996)
New Orleans lost one of its more colorful rhythm and blues artists September 17, when Jessie Hill succumbed to kidney and heart failure. He was 64. Hill is best known for recording one of New Orleans’ most distinctive — and successful — records, “Ooh Poo Pah Doo,” Jessie Hill was born December 9, 1932.
Bounce Music Hits the local rap scene
Who would have thought six years ago when bounce music first hit the local rap scene that it would still be around today? Sure it was catchy and easy to dance to—repetitive chants over “Triggerman” beats and numerous other funky tracks—but did it have lasting appeal?
