July 2015
Cover Story
- Tank and the Bangas' Wild Ride
Tank and the Bangas call their rehearsal space and its cozy lower Ninth Ward confines “Bangaville.” The band meets twice a…
BackTalk
- Backtalk: Trombone Shorty
On Sunday, July 5, 2015, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Orleans Avenue will arrive on the main stage at the Essence…
Dining Out
- Dining Out: CellarDoor
Like so many ancient buildings in New Orleans, the Swoop-Duggins House has a checkered past worthy of a novel. Dating back…
Features
- The New Orleans Wine Business is Booming
It used to be that in order to buy a bottle of wine in New Orleans, you’d head to the nearest… - OffBeat's Guide to Essence Fest 2015
The wait is over: the Essence Festival returns to the Convention Center and Superdome this Fourth of July weekend, bringing to… - Kids Carry on New Orleans Music
Mother’s Day in May…Father’s Day in June… a family gathering for Independence Day—as summer rolls in, one’s family and the idea… - Overstanding Billy Iuso
Billy Iuso can be hard to sum up. The New York native has played his way around the world as a… - Terence Blanchard is Breathless with Frustration
Breathless (adj.) To be restricted of air because of emotions or force. The word breathless has the ability to bring to… - Tonya Boyd-Cannon is Fearless
When Adam Levine told Tonya Boyd-Cannon she’d have to perform Elton John’s “Take Me to the Pilot” on the “Live” segment…
Fresh
- Soul Preservation
The “Jazz Houses: Where They Lived” app—updated and relaunched this spring to coincide with Jazz Fest—is an exciting example of what… - Soundcheck: Five Questions with Mickey Hanning
Why roller derby girls? When I originally thought of it, we figured we could do it with our wives/girlfriends chasing the… - Fourth of July Playlist
What do you prefer to hear on the 4th of July, honest-to-God patriotic songs or fiery protest anthems? This playlist for… - Soundcheck: Five Questions with Karen Carter Peterson
What are some of the memories you have of Essence Fest? I actually attended the first Essence [in 1995] and have… - Mayfield at Montreal Jazz Festival
Irvin Mayfield canceled several high profile appearances in New Orleans in the wake of a WWL-TV investigation into his financial dealings… - My Music with Dee-1
"Hell yeah [Shamarr Allen and Dee-1’s song “Bring ‘Em to the Dome” helped the Saints in the Super Bowl]—definitely. Because we…
In The Spirit
- In the Spirit: Jeff Grdinich of Angeline
"We had gone out to Pelican Produce, which is a family farm that’s renting plots all up around the Ninth Ward.…
Letters
- July 2015 Letters to OffBeat Magazine
IRVIN MAYFIELD I hope in the future you don’t support seemingly corrupt and arrogant musicians like Irvin Mayfield. In your April…
Mojo Mouth
- Thank You Harold Battiste
I met Harold Battiste, Jr. for the first time when he first moved back to New Orleans, around 1992. We were…
Obituaries
- Obituary: Milton Vanicor
ajun music lost its iron horse rock star, 96-year-old Milton Vanicor, who died peacefully at home in Welsh, Louisiana, on Friday… - Obituary: Harold Battiste
Harold Battiste, Jr., saxophonist, arranger, producer, label owner, educator and author, died June 19 after a lengthy illness. He was 83.…
OffBeat Eats
- Dining Out: CellarDoor
Like so many ancient buildings in New Orleans, the Swoop-Duggins House has a checkered past worthy of a novel. Dating back…
The Spot
- Trixie Minx Hits the Spot at Curious Oyster Co.
In my musicians’ cookbook, The Gravy, your recipe was actually a cocktail. Let me tell you, friends and I started a…
Reviews
- Galactic, Into the Deep (Provogue)
After playing musical chairs with lead singers over the past few years, it makes perfect sense that the members of Galactic… - Rhino Electric Band, Guide to the Galaxy (Independent)
Jazz isn’t the first soundtrack you’d necessarily think of while making your initial foray into Douglas Adams’ acclaimed sci-fi absurdist pentalogy… - Sonny Landreth, Bound by the Blues (Provogue Records)
Saying that Sonny Landreth just made a blues album is a real heavy exercise in redundancy, yet on his latest, the… - Steve Pistorius Trio, Under the Creole Moon (GHB Records)
The pianist Steve Pistorius, a New Orleans native, is an encyclopedia of early New Orleans jazz. He knows the works of… - James Clark, March of the Bi-Polar Bears (Independent)
Shadows, the first solo album by former Gal Holiday drummer James Clark, was cinematic and airy, complex and dark, and the… - Chef Menteur, Chef Menteur III (Sunrise Ocean Bender)
Don’t let their name fool you: as area rock bands go, Chef Menteur is progressive. Like, Bernie Sanders-level progressive. They spell… - Rewind: The Bluerunners, The Bluerunners (Island Records)
Rob Savoy hits Rewind for a look back at 1990's The Bluerunners, which took the band from the bars of Lafayette to the pages… - Sons of Soul, Baby Fat (Independent)
No matter how much New Orleans changes, some things remain constant: we always give good supergroup. This disc is the brainchild… - Tubaluba, Champagne Sunday (Independent)
As locals may or may not know, NOLA’s brass bands have inspired similar groups around the world (including the fine Mama… - Ruben Moreno, Compliqué (Independent)
As the cognate implies, compliqué means complicated, a totally fitting description of the artist still known as Ruben Moreno. The rising… - Gold Standard, Gold Standard (Independent)
The “gold” in Gold Standard refers to brothers Jake and Matt Gold, respective organist and guitarist of this jazz-soul five piece,… - The Soul Stirrers, Joy In My Soul: The Complete Recordings (Kent)
Here’s a welcome, renewed acquaintance with two old friends and a chance meet some new ones, as this double-CD reissues the… - Jerry Giddens and Killeen Foundry, Damn It Abby! (Sputnik Recordings)
Singer-songwriter Jerry Giddens wouldn’t be the first West Coast musician to return to Louisiana in order to get centered, and it… - James Burton, Albert Lee, Amos Garrett, David Wilcox, In Person: Guitar Heroes Making History (Stony Plain)
Like many contemporary blues/roots labels, Stony Plain’s catalog is littered with several all-star collections which pair two or more solo artists… - Tony Joe White, The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (Real Gone Music)
Tony Joe White has always had the persona of being Elvis Presley’s wilder, funkier swamp cousin. This happened even before Elvis… - Jamison Ross, Jamison (Concord)
Jamison Ross, a Florida native and the 2012 winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute drum competition, moved to New Orleans in… - Johnny Adams, I Won’t Cry: The Complete Ric & Ron Singles 1959-1964 (Ace)
Johnny Adams has long considered by many the best vocalist to ever come out of the Crescent City. Dubbed “The Tan…
