New Orleans drummer Kevin O’Day has died, as confirmed by social media posts from fellow musicians and friends. The cause of death is unknown.
O’Day performed with many groups, including The Single Atom Theory, Kevin O’Day & Live Animals, and Midnite Disturbers. He also owned KODSquared Entertainment Group, which he founded in 1994, and was a music writer and editor for local publications. He received a bachelor of music degree from Loyola University in New Orleans in 2001 and a master in business administration from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2003.
O’Day was one of the first musicians to return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He organized the first show at the Maple Leaf on September 30 of that year, less than a month after the catastrophic storm made landfall.
John Swenson wrote in his book New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans, published in 2010, that “Kevin O’Day put together a band featuring New Orleans guitarist and singer Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington called the MREs, named after the military-style ‘meals ready to eat’ which everyone was relying on after the storm. O’Day’s spin on the acronym was ‘Music Ready to Enjoy,’ and he reckons that a crowd of roughly 550 locals and journalists came to the show.”
O’Day was quoted in the book: “There were a lot of mixed emotions, but it was incredible from the first moment until the end of the concert just to be playing. It was like the music was really serving its purpose. All the practice and the years of playing really meant something to everyone at that time. We did what we were supposed to do, which was uplift the souls of everybody. It was an intensely spiritual moment for me.”
In an interview for GoNola.com in 2014, O’Day spoke about the abundance of drumming talent in New Orleans: “The reason is really that we are very close to the source of the music here. If you go back in the history of American music, you find out that the rhythm aspect of the music was brought to us by the Africans who were brought here as slaves and were allowed Sundays to play their drums and dance in Congo Square. The drum set was invented here in New Orleans, also. Guys like Dee Dee Chandler, Zutty Singleton, and Baby Dodds were the originators of the drum set and passed that knowledge on. Then moving forward in history, guys like Vernel Fournier, James Black, Smokey Johnson, Earl Palmer, and John Boudreaux each had their way of incorporating elements of the New Orleans brass band rhythms and advanced be-bop concepts into their grooves. We have a rich tradition of innovation here. It is an honor just to be a part of this drumming scene.”
Tipitina’s will host a celebration of life in memory of O’Day on Monday, March 14, starting at 5 p.m. A second line will be held in his honor and family and friends are invited to share their memories.
OffBeat will continue to provide updates on this story.
