When people say that hanging out in New Orleans is like vacationing in a time warp, well, perhaps it’s the intimacy missing from so many other social experiences today that they are referring to; the type of intimacy that cozy places like Buffa’s Lounge on Esplanade Avenue provide. Time and again inside this neighborhood watering hole, it has been overheard: “if only I could bottle up this sound, this experience, and take it home.” This Wednesday, November 20, Buffa’s offers the opportunity to do just that at their CD release party for Live From The Back Room.
Live From The Back Room V.1 Release Party at Buffa's Lounge on November 20.
Humble and unassuming, Buffa’s Bar and Restaurant has been serving up libations and food on the border of the Marigny and French Quarter neighborhoods since 1939. The Spanish stucco storefront, lit at night only by its tri-color neon sign, still boasts its premiere amenity: air conditioning.
Known as well for their casual jazz brunches — a viable alternative to the more formal, expensive counterparts elsewhere — Buffa’s has played host to countless players in the New Orleans bar room music scene. For years, it has been a place to hear new, rising or even rare comeback musicians in an intimate setting.
Specifically, it has been home to popular Dixieland jazz, ragtime and swing artists of the day, such as Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand.
Maybe that is where the “time warp” comments from visitors bellied up to the bar are born — from the feeling of hearing a style of jazz live that is nearly obsolete in most other places. But in New Orleans, contemporary bands like the Moonshiners, the Panorama Jazz Band, Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, even the brassier New Orleans Nightcrawlers, are making new music rooted in these traditions, and they often make it at Buffa’s. So the good folks at the tiny music venue decided it was time to capture some of that magic on disc and let fans take a piece of Buffa’s home with them.
This month, Buffa’s releases the first in what is intended to be a series of CD compilations containing the music of the staple bar. Buffa’s Lounge: Live From The Back Room — Volume One: And So It Begins… features 16 songs from musicians and poets that have poured out their hearts, hopes, fears and dreams on the tiny stage in the little back room of Buffa’s Lounge. R&B/jazz/pop trio The Mumbles, slide guitarist and singer/songwriter Jeremy Lyons, all-female acoustic strings quartet The Honeypots, and even rogue keyboardist (and now famed Tremé character) Davis Rogan all appear on volume one.
Sweet songbird Ruby Moon invites us to “Smoke A Little Reefer With [Her],” while poets like Thaddeus Conti are caught ruminating in late night New Orleans moments on the CD. Acclaimed composer and pianist Tom McDermott offers up his “Chopin Stomp” in only the way he could, and the lounge’s Sunday jazz brunch house band, Some Like It Hot! close out the compilation with an official Buffa’s Lounge theme song-turned-commercial.
Live From The Back Room V.1 is available now via Buffa’s website or direct from CD Baby. But the more intimate way to get your copy is at this Wednesday evening’s CD release party (November 20) from 8 p.m. until 12 a.m. in the back room of Buffa’s Lounge (1001 Esplanade Ave), where all of the tracks for the compilation were recorded live. Special live performances begin at 8 p.m. and Buffa’s will offer Happy Hour drink specials all night until the party is over at Midnight in celebration of the release. Admission is free and open to the public. More Info: www.buffasbar.com
