Music
Jon Batiste, Chad Smith & Bill Laswell, The Process (M.O.D. Technologies)
With its synthesis of rock, funk, fusion and hip hop, The Process is identifiable as a Bill Laswell project from the first notes. Bassist/producer Laswell has been making and remixing […]
Barbara Barnes Sims, The Next Elvis: Searching for Stardom at Sun Records (LSU Press)
The music business is a continual hustle. Label owners must always be looking for the next charting artist and next hit song. Barbara Barnes Sims saw this first hand when […]
Cary Hudson, Town and Country (Daddy Rabbit Records)
Cary Hudson’s latest record is a little mellower than his Blue Mountain recordings (if you want to hear a wild tale, check out their “Midnight in Mississippi” cut) but the […]
Metronome the City, Isonomia (Independent)
Metronome the City’s new record Isonomnia mixes 1970s progressive rock and fusion with current ambient textures to make for a listening experience that is revealing and fascinating from the outset. […]
The Mumbles, Syncopatience (Independent)
On their latest disc, the Mumbles combine an East Coast pop sensibility with a New Orleans laid-back horn attitude. Although singer songwriters are usually thought of with guitars, the Mumbles […]
Brian Boyles, New Orleans Boom & Blackout: One Hundred Days in America’s Coolest Hot Spot (The History Press)
“The Times They Are A’Changin” sang Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, and all residents and visitors to New Orleans are able to see how this applies to the Crescent […]
Yojimbo, Ghost Birthday (Independent)
Yojimbo’s new record has almost a silly aura to it. Singer Carly Myers emphasizes and exaggerates words and phrases in a young girl voice that can careen into a yell […]
Thomas W. Jacobsen, The New Orleans Jazz Scene 1970–2000 (LSU Press)
Thomas Jacobsen is well qualified to assess New Orleans jazz in the last third of the last century. He wrote many articles for magazines including The Mississippi Rag, The Clarinet, […]
79rs Gang, Fiyo On the Bayou (Sinking City Records)
It is an accomplishment to be celebrated any time that a new Mardi Gras Indian record comes out—and doubly so when it is the younger generation of Indians stepping up […]
Obituary: Al Belletto
Al Belletto, saxophonist, bandleader and general humanitarian, died on December 26, 2014 at his home in Metairie at the age of 86 after a long illness. Belletto was best known […]
