Music
Garage a Trois, Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil (Royal Potato Family Records)
Like Gang of Four, which is now essentially two guys, Garage a Trois has a band name that’s just too good to change when it’s no longer numerically accurate. The […]
Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars
The music world lost a great maverick when producer Jim Dickinson died two years ago of heart complications, at the age of 67. Originally a session keyboardist who played with […]
Trombone Shorty, Backatown (Verve Forecast)
It didn’t take a genius to peg Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews as a national success waiting to happen. He’s young, good-looking and a born entertainer, he was also making credible […]
Chocolate Milk: The Other Funk Band
Quick: Name a New Orleans funk band that recorded for a major label in the ’70s, worked with Allen Toussaint, played backup on dozens of notable sessions, and left behind […]
Porter-Batiste-Stoltz, Moodoo (Highsteppin’ Productions)
From the start, one of Porter-Batiste-Stoltz’s strengths was their lack of a keyboard player. The power trio format is fresh territory for funk and PBS has worked wonders with it, […]
Joe Krown/Walter “Wolfman” Washington/Russell Batiste, Jr., Live at the Maple Leaf (Independent)
Every Jazz Fest seems to bring another stack of one-off, local supergroup, live jam albums. What’s different about this one? For one thing, it wasn’t made during the Fest, but […]
Grayson Capps, Rot ‘n’ Roll (Hyena)
Early in this rural travelogue of an album, Grayson Capps finds an arrowhead in the dirt and makes you care about that for three and a half minutes. Finding meaning […]
Jon Cleary, Mo Hippa (FHQ)
You know exactly what to expect whenever anyone strikes up the opening riff to Professor Longhair’s “Go to the Mardi Gras,” right? Not quite. That riff opens Jon Cleary’s first […]
The Radiators, Wild & Free (Radz)
The concept of linear time just doesn’t exist when it comes to the Radiators. Their live shows always felt like slices of one, never-ending gig; you show up and get […]
Tab Benoit with Louisiana’s LeRoux, Night Train to Nashville (Telarc)
On paper, this live set has all the makings of a supremely excessive blooze-rock rave-up. Always a mean guitar-slinger, Tab Benoit is backed up here by Louisiana’s LeRoux, who’ve had […]
