May 1996
BackTalk
Bluesworthy
Crescent City Bounce
Fat City
Features
- Fest Focus: Wardell Quezergue
There isn’t a musical instrument in sight in Wardell Quezergue’s living room. The city’s most in-demand arranger works on a card… - Remembering James Booker
On November 8, 1983 pianist James Carroll Booker III was wheeled into New Orleans' Charity Hospital waiting room, where he died… - Fest Focus: C.J. Chenier
Born into royalty, the son of zydeco’s most famous artist has spent his life and career between two worlds. Raised in… - Fest Focus: D.L. Menard
One rainy afternoon, a busload of 65 people crammed themselves into D.L. Menard’s three-bedroom house outside Erath, Louisiana. Every day, it… - Marcia Ball: The Life and Times of a Circuit Queen
Just me and the TV sittin' here glowin' in a lonely room Still wearing my spurs and a quarter's worth of… - Celebration of Spirits
A head flings back as if jerked by the hair, eyes widen to a glare, the body gets rigid and arches… - Fest Focus: The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars
As the sun sets somewhere between Romania and Yugoslavia, a peasant lays his scythe at the side of a grassy meadow… - Fest Focus: Little Freddie King
Don’t let the name fool you: Little Freddie King is an underrecognized giant of country blues. In a town filled with… - Fest Focus: Joe Louis Walker
When multi-talented guitarist and singer Joe Louis Walker returns to the Jazz and Heritage Festival after an eleven year absence, he… - Fest Focus: The Iguanas
Iguanas’ guitarist Rod Hodges will never forget the first embraces of their New Orleans fans. “There was a certain period during… - Fest Focus: Bobby Rush
If live performances were subject to the rating system used by The Motion Picture Association of America, the stage show of… - John Mooney: A Country Boy in New Orleans
Fate works in strange ways. In the annals of blues history, coincidences and events can take on mythical qualities with the… - Best of the Fest, Part 2
- Exploring the Zydeco Clubs of Louisiana
- Fest Focus: Raymond Myles
When Raymond Anthony Myles takes the stage at the Gospel Tent he is usually accompanied by the sound of screaming women.… - Fest Focus: Nicholas Payton
When young trumpet lion Nicholas Payton takes the Jazz Tent stage on Sunday, April 28, it will be a high point,… - Breaking Bread with R&B Legends
Everybody knows Fats Domino, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Wynton and Branford Marsalis enjoy major-label recording contracts and tour the world… - Allen Toussaint: On the Spiritual Side
It has been 18 years since Allen Toussaint, the premier New Orleans songwriter, released a major album of his own. That… - Q&A with Wynton Marsalis
I remember the first time I interviewed Wynton Marsalis some 10 years ago. I came away from that discussion with a… - Fest Focus: The Paulin Family
“A Fellow can’t learn you no jazz, you’ve got to learn that yourself,” says Ernest “Doc” Paulin who has played traditional… - Fest Focus: The Jordan Family
“Jazz is a chance music,” says Edward “Kidd” Jordan, a music explorer, a lover of 20th century music, an educator, a… - Best of the Fest
- Fest Focus: Salif Keita
Through the years the continent of Africa has given the world musicians or singers who catapult into the music scene and… - Jazz Crafts '96
Some of the greatest pleasures of the Jazz Fest aren’t musical. No, believe it or not, there are people who come… - Through Time with Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls and Joan Osborne
In technology, synergism is a doctrine that regeneration is effected by a combination of human will and divine grace. In song,… - Fest Focus: Dukes of Dixieland
The Dukes of Dixieland have maintained their preeminent position in jazz community for nearly half a century. From the original group… - Fest Focus: The Neville Brothers
"Mitahuye Oyasin Oyasin" is from the Lakota language and expresses the understanding that we are all related. All beings and… - Fest Focus: Betty Shirley
As a jazz singer, Betty Shirley has more in common with Billie Holiday than just a finely tuned voice. She’s had… - Fest Focus: David Torkanowsky
Pianist David Torkanowsky seems to take the most left turns -- and the sharpest. His is a big bag of tricks… - Fest Focus: Tony Green
It’s not uncommon for creative people to have more than one outlet for their muse. Musicians as diverse as Felix Mendelssohn,… - Fest Focus: Bela Fleck
In 1989, Béla Fleck was in a bit of a predicament: He found himself scrambling to find a band to back… - Fest Focus: Phish
In October 1983, Phish played their first gig for a ROTC Halloween party at the University of Vermont. They were booed…
Film & Video Bits
Letters
Live Wire
OffBeat Eats
Strictly Jazz
Reviews
- Lil' Malcolm and the House Rockers, Lil' Malcolm and the House Rockers (Maison de Soul)
- Various Artists, Crescent City Soul: The Sound of New Orleans 1947-1974 (EMI)
- Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Long Way Home (Verve)
- Various Artists, Mermaid Lounge (Mermaid)
- James Rivers, I'm the Man (Independent)
- Nicholas Payton, Gumbo Nouveau (Verve)
- Alex Chilton, 1970 (Ardent)
