Issue Articles
Louis Armstrong Tribute: A conversation with Armstrong House Museum’s Ricky Riccardi
In 1925, Louis Armstrong made his recording debut as a bandleader and vocalist with his first Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five release. Previously an uncredited sideman on recordings, the Hot Five records introduced listeners to the musical brilliance and charismatic personality that made Armstrong an international star.
Defying Labels: Mr. Sipp is not one dimensional
Castro Coleman’s contributions to the Count Basie Orchestra’s 2024 album, Basie Swings the Blues, earned the charismatic Mississippian his first Grammy award. That same year, Coleman received a second Grammy nomination for his solo album The Soul Side of Sipp.
River Eckert, A Piano Prodigy, is putting good energy into the world
River Eckert made his Jazz Fest debut in 2024 at 14-years-old. A singer, pianist, composer and arranger, he’s a New Orleans native steeped in his hometown’s indigenous rhythm-and-blues and funk.
Pete Fountain: Every Note Has a Smile
Along with Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt, Pete Fountain is among the most famous jazz musicians from New Orleans. A brilliant traditional jazz and Dixieland clarinetist, Fountain became a household name in the late 1950s when millions of TV viewers watched his weekly appearances on The Lawrence Welk Show.
Sweden’s Jonas Bernholm Publishes His Soul Odyssey: U.S. 1968
In his native Sweden, Jonas Bernholm is known as Mr. R&B. A music researcher, writer and record label owner, Bernholm became enraptured with American rhythm-and-blues and rock and roll music in the late 1950s. He began writing about music in the late 1960s, publishing much of his work in the Swedish blues magazine Jefferson. In 1976, he launched the first of his many reissue record labels.
How Women Made Music: An interview with Alison Fensterstock
New Orleans writer and WWOZ radio host Alison Fensterstock is the editor of How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Inspired by National Public Radio’s Turning the Tables series, How Women Made Music contains a lively bounty of engaging essays and interviews, many of them culled from NPR’s 50 years of music coverage.
Herb Alpert Talks Back
Trumpet star Herb Alpert and his wife, singer Lani Hall, are returning to New Orleans for a December 14 performance at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center in Metairie. The couple’s A Christmas Wish tour features Alpert’s many hits with The Tijuana Brass and solo hits.
Minos the Saint: Atchafalaya Child (Independent)
There’s likely no better example of chamber-pop music in Louisiana than Baton Rouge’s Minos the Saint. For the band’s second album, Atchafalaya Child, Peter Simon’s earnest yet playful songs are dressed in elaborate arrangements crafted by the band’s multi-instrumentalist polymath, Ben Herrington.
From Classical to Cajun: The LPO invites back the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Sweet Crude
Louis Michot, fiddler and singer with the Grammy award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, eagerly anticipates the Cajun band’s encore appearance with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The LPO’s and Ramblers’ first collaborative concert at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans, released last year as Live: Orpheum Theatre NOLA, won both a Best of the Beat Award in January and a Grammy award in February for best regional roots music album.
Walking to New Orleans: The golden anniversary for John Broven’s groundbreaking book
John Broven’s Walking to New Orleans, the first comprehensive book about the golden age of rhythm and blues in New Orleans, was published 50 years ago. Following its original publication in the United Kingdom in 1974, Pelican Publishing Company in Gretna issued the first American edition in 1978, retitled Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans.
