The old French city where slaves were entitled to sing, play percussion and dance on Congo Square on Sundays… The city where jazz is born, where rock'n'roll was born, where rhythm'n'blues was born, where funk was born… The city where unclassifiable musician Troy Andrews aka Trombone Shorty was born in 1986...
September 22, 2023
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter IX – Troy Andrews a.k.a. Trombone Shorty
September 21, 2023
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VIII - Various Artists & Albums
All from Nawlins
(except one... guess who)
► Snooks Eaglin - New Orleans Street Singer (1959/2005) : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/02/snooks-eaglin-new-orleans-street-singer.html
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VII : Irma Thomas
The Soul Queen of New Orleans
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VI - The Rough Guide To The Music of New Orleans (2-CD Special Edition, 2012)
→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille
The city where music never stops
In a recent review, I wrote : “New Orleans and her Mardi-Gras and Carnival, New Orleans and her old dixie jazz, New Orleans and her jazz funerals and second line parades, New Orleans and her tribal rhythms, New Orleans and her swamp blues and bayou R'n'B, New Orleans and her Zydeco and Cajun music, New Orleans and her French creole culture, New Orleans the unique, New Orleans the Big Easy where music is a way of life, New Orleans the Big Funky…” These few lines would fit perfectly this 2-CD Rough Guide.
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter V - New Orleans Funk (Vol. 1, 2, 3 & 4 - 2000, 2008, 2013, 2016)
→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter IV - The Neville Brothers
Fiyo On The Bayou (1981) - Live at Tipitina's 1982 (1998) - Yellow Moon (1989) - Brother's Keeper (1990) - Valence Street (1999) - Walkin' In The Shadow Of Life (2004)
The origins of the Neville Brothers as a band are intricately entangled with the history of several previous New Orleans groups where the brothers honed their trade : eldest brother Art's band The Hawketts in the 1950s; The Sounds, that became the house band for Allen Toussaint's Sansu label in the late 1960s, and later took the name The Meters; The Wild Tchoupitoulas, a Mardi-Gras Indian group led by their uncle George Landry aka Big Chief Jolly, whose backing band were the Meters until 1976 when they disbanded.
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter III - The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (My Feet Can't Fail Me Now, 1984 / We Got Robbed! Live In New Orleans, 2003 / Funeral for a friend, 2004)
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the New Orleans brass band tradition experienced a renaissance, with bands breaking away from traditional styles and adding elements of funk, be-bop jazz, and later even hip hop, to their repertoires, applying one of the primary law of life on earth : who can't evolve disappears. This is exactly what the DDBB did : they added “modern” instruments, mainly electric guitar and keyboards, to the traditional brass structure, and modernized the drumming style. While old brass bands gave birth to traditional New Orleans jazz, contemporary brass bands incorporated in turn some modern jazz patterns, especially improvisation spaces.
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter II - The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The 50th Anniversary 5-CD Set (2019)
→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille
→ The pics on this page concern only the artists featured in the 5-CD box Set
Journey To Nawlins, Chapter I - Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens : The Big Ol' Box Of New Orleans (1927-2003)
This fascinating 4-CD box embarks us on a 5-hour cruise into the extreme richness of the unique musical melting-pot of New Orleans. A Wikipedia article describes it better than I would : “New Orleans has long been a significant center for music, showcasing its intertwined European, African and Latino American cultures. The city's unique musical heritage was born in its colonial and early American days from a unique blending of European musical instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to have allowed slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in Congo Square, now located within Louis Armstrong Park), New Orleans gave birth in the early 20th century to an epochal indigenous music : jazz. Soon, African American brass bands formed, beginning a century-long tradition. […] The city's music was later also significantly influenced by Acadiana, home of Cajun and Zydeco music, and by Delta blues.”
September 16, 2023
Mighty Sam McClain : Solo Discography
A man's redemption
Another good one gone… It's a long time I wanted to write about this soulful mystic blues singer. The early life of Samuel McClain is not very different from dozens of other bluesmen : born in Monroe, North Louisiana, in 1943, singing in church very young, early vocation for music, escape from home and from an abusive step-father at 13, "school" on the Chitlin' Circuit with R&B guitarist "Little Melvin" Underwood, meeting of DJ and producer "Papa Don" Schroeder at the 506 Club in Pensacola, Florida, who opened him the doors of the Muscle Shoals studios, first hit single in 1966 with a cover of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams", more sides recorded in Muscle Shoals and Nashville for Amy Records and Atlantic, but without any commercial success (most of these sides were later compiled in "The Amy Records Sessions, 1966-1969", released in 2014).
September 10, 2023
Eric Clapton - Blue's (Live in Oslo, April 5, 1995)
→ Thanks to my friend L.C.
Warning ! Before
all, to prevent any disappointment from Clapton's fans (and other blues
aficionados), I'll quote my friend L.C. who shared this bootleg with
me : “While far from being perfect, the general sound is good enough to
enjoy the music, provided the listener has the proper audio system.” The
proper audio system… You've been warned.
Slowhand in Viking land
This two-CD bootleg was taped at the Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on April 5, 1995, one of the over 120 concert halls visited by Clapton during his 1994-95 “Nothing But the Blues” world tour which followed the release of his studio album “From The Cradle”. The same tour during which the official 2022 release “Nothing But the Blues” was recorded on November 7, 8 & 9, 1994 at the San Francisco Fillmore.
September 02, 2023
Deborah Coleman - Takin' A Stand (1994), I Can't Lose (1997)
→ Thanks to L.C.
She was born in 1956 in Portsmouth, Virginia, in a very musical family : her father, a Marine, played piano, her brothers and sister, guitar and/or keyboards. She started guitar at eight, later changing to bass and playing in local R'n'B and rock bands in her mid-teens, before switching back to guitar after discovering Hendrix, Cream or Led Zeppelin. But she had to reach 19 years old to fall for the blues after hearing John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf at a festival.