Is it possible to be too New Orleans? To be such a product of New Orleans that it becomes a detriment? Shamarr Allen studied under Kidd Jordan, Clyde Kerr, Jr., Herlin Riley and Alvin Batiste, and he played with Tuba Fats, Rebirth, Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. Michael White, Bob French and countless others. That background speaks to his talent and how thoroughly he is steeped in the New Orleans traditions, but it’s hard to hear what has made him one of the most talked about players in town over the last six months on Meet Me on Frenchmen Street.

Let’s be clear—the album is a good album, but it could be mistaken for a Kermit Ruffins album or a Bob French album. It’s almost impossible to hear Allen’s musical voice in such oft-covered standards as “When You’re Smilin’,” “Millenburg Joy,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Those songs are played so often that they’re virtually white noise, and only the most radical interpretations make an impression. The versions here are well performed, but they blur into the countless other well-performed versions before they reach completion.

The “bonus tracks” take steps in more productive directions. “Party All Night” with the Left Side Brass Band brings a tradition—the brass band—into 2007 with a greater rhythmic complexity and a rapped vocal that connects it to hip-hop. Allen is certainly not the only one linking brass and hip-hop, but he does it well. He performs “The World is a Ghetto” with the New Orleans Underdawgs, his jazz-funk outfit, and even though fusion borders on being played out as well, Allen’s lyrical playing in the quieter passages is arresting. When Willie Green pushes the energy in unpredictable moments, it’s clear that fusion can be more than the soundtrack to a New Orleans party.

New Orleans is lucky to have so many great players, Shamarr Allen among them. The artists that have endured had more than chops, though. They had ideas, and musicians today will make more compelling music the more they show them have some, too.