Music
Paul Sanchez, Heart Renovations (Independent)
Songwriters need stories and much of the time it’s the story of their life that ends up getting told. A storyteller with a dull life doesn’t have much to work […]
Michael Urban, New Orleans Rhythm and Blues After Katrina: Music, Magic & Myth (Macmillan)
A few years back OffBeat ran the provocative story “Is New Orleans R&B Dead?” Michael Urban has provided his own examination of the question in his new book. Urban, a […]
Johnny Winter with Dr. John, Live in Sweden 1987 (MVD Visual CD and DVD)
This is a professionally recorded live set from 1987 cut in Stockholm’s Sonet recording studio before an audience of about 100 people. Though Dr. John doesn’t play on the whole […]
Will Porter, Tick Tock Tick (Ace Records)
This CD is so good I don’t know where to start. So I’ll start with the fact that it’s part of the great New Orleans arranger Wardell Quezergue’s last […]
Professor Longhair, Live In Chicago (Orleans Records)
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only… Professor Longhair!” Fess hits with a syncopated vamp and it’s off to the races for a half-hour of insanely intense second […]
Fest Focus: Ed Volker
ED VOLKER’S QUINTET NARCOSIS SUNDAY, APRIL 24—LAGNIAPPE STAGE, 2:35 P.M. Ed Volker introduced his post-Radiators project Trio Mollusc at Jazz Fest a few years back. The band’s wild concatenations […]
Toussaint Toujours: Jazz Fest is Dancing to Toussaint’s Tune
TRIBUTE TO ALLEN TOUSSAINT: SUNDAY, MAY 1—GENTILLY STAGE, 2:20 P.M. One of the signature moments of this year’s Jazz Fest will be the Allen Toussaint tribute on May 1. […]
John Sinclair, It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader (SinclairReader.com)
The pioneering music journalist, poet and activist John Sinclair had already accomplished the work of a lifetime when he came to live in New Orleans in the early 1990s. During […]
Medicine Man: Marc Stone’s Surge Of Sunshine
For a lot of New Orleans music fans, French Quarter Fest starts when Marc Stone kicks his band into high gear Friday morning at the Tropical Isle stage. The Gazebo […]
Michael Cerveris, Piety (Low Heat Records)
Producer Mark Bingham shuttered the Piety Street studio two and a half years ago, long enough to reflect on the range and breadth of music that was made there, the […]
