Two beloved New Orleans musicians received significant honors over the past week. Drummer Gerald French, the current leader of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, received the Ascona Jazz Award from the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland. And original Meters drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste can currently be seen on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine.

The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band leader, Gerald French honored with 2013 Ascona Jazz Award

The Ascona festival represents a longtime love affair between the Swiss jazz community and New Orleans. Founded in 1975, the festival grew out of a traditional jazz meeting that was known as the Picayune. The festival was founded as the Festa New Orleans, with trumpeter “Kid“ Thomas Valentine the first N.O. visitor. In 2001 the Palm Court Jazz Café set up camp for the length of the festival. And while its focus has broadened, New Orleans music is still the heart of the festival: This year French performed along with James Andrews, Lillian Boutte, Shannon Powell and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama.Gerald French recently took over leadership of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band from his late uncle Bob French, and the group can be seen most Mondays at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse.

Original Meters man, Zigaboo Modeliste covers next month's issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

“Zigaboo” Modeliste has been royalty among drummers since the days of “Cissy Strut”, and his work is lately being rediscovered by another generation. He was recently the house drummer for the Superjam event at Bonnaroo, where he played alongside Larry Graham, Jim James, the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard and even Billy Idol, who turned up to sing “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”.

Aside from drumming, Modeliste sang lead on the Meters’ classic “Hey Pocky Way.” The festival of course takes its name from the Dr. John album Destitively Bonnaroo, on which Modeliste also played drums. Modeliste has also released his first instructional DVD, and continues to work with two of his original bandmates as the Meter Men. The Modern Drummer story looks at Zig’s whole career and includes three pages of transcriptions, likely answering a few decades’ worth of “How’d he do that?’—type questions.