Issue Articles
Leyla McCalla navigates her Haitian identity in multimedia production
A woman twists and gyrates, seemingly deep in a trance, silhouetted behind a screen on which images of other ceremonial dancers are projected. She emerges onto a dark stage and […]
ÌFÉ, 0000+0000 (Discos Ifá)
The compelling, hypnotic second album from percussionist-composer-DJ-producer Otura Mun, a.k.a. ÌFÉ, begins and ends in New Orleans, where he has lived for only a year now after moving from Puerto […]
Boma Bango, Étranger (Valcour Records)
It’s not hard to imagine an only slightly alternate world in which a brand of rumba took root and flourished in the heart of Acadiana, just as it did in […]
Shakespeare & the Blues, e.g. Rhapsodic (Nouveau Electric Records)
With the Tin Men, who bill themselves as “the world’s only guitar-sousaphone-washboard trio,” you can get a pretty good idea of what they sound like from that description alone. With […]
‘I Dare You’: Terence Blanchard expands the language of jazz and explores opera
When Terence Blanchard found himself needing to write something quickly to round out his new album, Absence, he thought about a bit of wisdom given to him by Wayne Shorter, […]
The Vari-Colored Songs of Leyla McCalla
For Leyla McCalla, history is a living thing that ties us to the past “I always imagine if I could have met Langston Hughes that we probably have similar personality […]
Threadhead Foundation architect Chris Joseph’s journey of cancer recovery
Life is a Ride Threadhead Foundation architect Chris Joseph’s journey of cancer recovery In March of 2017, Chris Joseph sat down at his computer to type a letter. To […]
Harry Shearer explores Donald Trump’s many moods on new album
Harry Shearer is often in New Orleans—pandemic or no. And New Orleans is rarely far from his mind even when he’s not there. The actor (Derek Smalls of This is […]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: Los Angeles Bands
She had to leave Los Angeles / sippin’ on gin and juice / it’s the story of my life / just work the angles the city I’m from is Los […]
Amédé Ardoin, Mama, I’ll Be Long Gone: The Complete Recordings of Amédé Ardoin (Tompkins Square Records)
There’s some deep irony in the title. Anyone up on the Cajun-Creole music scene of Southwest Louisiana knows that these sounds, recorded between 1929 and 1934, are anything but gone, […]
