New Orleans

Zydeco, Mardi Gras, Cajun, N'awlins flavor.

  • New Orleans

    Ickmusic in the Big Easy

    pete in new orleans

    Happy New Year all. I’m back from a long weekend getaway in New Orleans for my brother in law’s wedding. That’s my big head up there covering up Andrew Jackson and most of St. Louis Cathedral. It was also four (4!!) full days without a computer. There was a laptop available, but my wife challenged me, so I stayed away. Yes, my name is Pete, and I am a computer addict. (“Hello Pete”).

    Anyway, on to the subject at hand: New Orleans, Louisiana.

    This was my first visit. New Orleans had always been at the top of my list of places I needed to visit. Now I can cross it off the list. But don’t think I’m satisfied. New Orleans is a place that teases you when you leave, making you itch for more. And I want more, especially since I didn’t get to visit any of the great music meccas of the city, like Tipitina’s or the Maple Leaf Bar. It was a family wedding weekend, so that took priority. But I did manage to get away for a few outings.

    Here are some of the things I did….

    Gray Line “Katrina” Bus Tour:

    a church in the ninth ward

    I woke up early Saturday morning and drove down to Toulouse Street & the Mississippi River to embark on a 3-hour bus ride around the areas of New Orleans most affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We drove through downtown, Lakeview, New Orleans East, St. Bernard Parish, and the Lower and Upper Ninth Ward. It’s sort of hard to describe the emotions you experience when witnessing these areas first-hand. There shock, there’s sadness, there’s outrage, but also a bit of hope.

    The tour guide and the driver (Pat and Diane, respectively), who both were displaced by Katrina, mentioned that they’ve been doing the tour for about a year now, and they’re finally starting to see some positive signs. One of them is the presence of more and more FEMA trailers outside of the damaged or destroyed homes, which means people are returning to New Orleans to rebuild their homes.

    What you see is wide swaths of the city that are for the most part abandoned, save for the people who have chosen to return to their neighborhoods. They’re virtual ghost towns. Empty homes, schools, churches, shops, malls… all at different levels of damage and decay (some just empty lots where the buildings have already been demolished).

    Most of them have the markings of the rescue and recovery teams, showing the date visited, the state the team was from, and the number of people found, if any. Yeah, it’s pretty depressing, but important to see. It’s still maddening when you dwell on the details of the disaster – the fact that human beings, citizens of the United States of America, were left to wait in the sweltering heat without food and water for days – on freeway overpasses, on rooftops, in attics, at the Superdome – all just waiting for help.

    One bright moment on the tour was a visit to Musician’s Village, a Habitat for Humanity project spearheaded by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis. Built on 8 acres land in the Upper Ninth Ward, Musician’s Village will consist of housing for the area’s musicians affected by Katrina, all built around the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. A handful of homes have been built already. Here’s a pic from the bus. Notice the cool Easter egg colors of the homes….

    The musician's village

    Across the street, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity hammered away on one of the new houses…

    Musician's Village

    It was really cool to see. Read more about Musician’s Village here and here.

    The tour operators said that Gray Line’s business has been severely affected by Katrina (about 40% of what it was pre-Katrina), so if you’re going to be in New Orleans, do yourself a favor and take one of their tours, whether it’s the Katrina tour, a cemetery tour, a plantation tour, or whatever. It’s a great alternate way to see the sights of the city.

    A couple days later I drove the family through the Ninth Ward, and passed by the home of Fats Domino. On September 1st, Fats was rescued from the rooftop of this home (I am assuming this is his home, as well as the office for Fats Domino Publishing – one of you NOLA residents can confirm or correct)…

    Home of Fats Domino

    An Outing on Bourbon Street: the first night I was there, my brother in law and I headed from his home in New Orleans East to the French Quarter for a walk down Bourbon Street. Our butts hit the barstool at The Old Absinthe House, a 200 year old bar on the corner of Rue Bourbon and Rue Bienville. The bartender was cute & friendly, and sounded a lot like Jaime Pressly (whom she had never heard of). After a glass of Abita Beer, we filled up a plastic cup with another and walked Rue Bourbon. It was a Thursday night, so there was pretty mild behavior altogether. We saw a lot of people taking pictures with cops. We stopped into a few bars here and there, listened to some live music, people watched, and ended up back at the Absinthe House for the rest of the evening. I told the bartender that we had a ho-hum time, and she told me that next time, I need to make my way over to Frenchmen Street, where the locals go. So next time, it’s Frenchmen Street. Snug Harbor is on my list too, and it’s also on Frenchmen Street.

    Beignets at the Cafe du Monde:

    a bag from the cafe du monde

    Beignets are delicious pieces of fried dough (fritters) bathed in a bag of powdered sugar. The Cafe du Monde has been serving ’em up since 1862. I picked up a bag of a dozen to take back to the family. I’m pretty sure I ended up eating 10. Heaven on earth, these beignets.

    Lousiana Music Factory: Across from the House of Blues on Decatur (down in the French Quarter) sits a great regional music shop called the Louisiana Music Factory. I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time in the place, but managed to pick up some quality Zydeco selections, some of which I have for you below).

    In my short time there, I felt the spirit of New Orleans. Walking the same streets of the Vieux Carre that people have been walking since 1718, driving through the sections of New Orleans devastated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, watching the ships and barges ride the mighty Mississippi, there’s a vibrancy and spirit to the city that still remains. Yes, there’s plenty of work to be done. The residents of the Crescent City (and the whole Gulf Coast, for that matter) have their work cut out for them. And it is up to the rest of us to support them in any way we can.

    A great way to support this wonderful city is to visit. Walk the streets, eat the food, listen to the music, soak up the multi-culture. The fact that you’re reading this site makes you a prime candidate for a visit to New Orleans: you’re a music lover. New Orleans is music. Come on down to the birthplace of jazz. How about Jazz & Heritage Festival at the end of April? Plan a visit!

    I was only there for a few days, and am disappointed that I didn’t get to experience a lot of the things I know I should. So there will be future trips. I will sit in Tipitina’s and catch a live show, I will walk Frenchmen Street, I will visit both of Larry Flynt’s Hustler Clubs on Bourbon Street (just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention).

    New Orleans, thank you, and I’ll be back. Join me, won’t you?

    Clifton Chenier: Johnny Can’t Dance (mp3) – from The Best of Clifton Chenier

    Boozoo Chavis: Zydeco Heehaw (mp3) – from Zydeco Home Brew

    Beausoleil: Bye, Bye Boozoo (mp3) – from Gitane Cajun

    Keith Frank & the Soileau Zydeco Band: Co Fa (mp3) – from Zydeco (from Putumayo World Music)

    NOLA.com

    Expedia

    Donate to Habitat for Humanity’s Musician’s Village (link is from this page).

  • New Orleans

    The Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump

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    If you really want to learn something about New Orleans music, subscribe / bookmark Dan’s Home of the Groove, the music blog about New Orleans music. Going along with the Mardi Gras Indians theme from the previous Iko Iko post, listen to this great Wild Tchoupitoulas song.

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    Helped out by members of the Meters and the Neville Brothers, and produced by Allen Toussaint, the Tchoups release their self-titled – and only – album, in 1976. For a more thorough background of this song and the Mardi Gras Indian culture, see this great post from Home of the Groove.

    The Wild Tchoupitoulas:
    Meet De Boys On the Battlefront (mp3) – from The Wild Tchoupitoulas

    NOLA Related:

  • New Orleans

    Iko Iko

    dixie cups

    I’ve been hearing “Iko Iko” for years and years, primarily the Dixie Cups version from The Big Easy soundtrack and live versions from the Grateful Dead. But I never really took the time to understand what the lyrics were all about. “My flag boy and your flag boy”, “look at my king all dressed in red”, etc.

    Well, here’s the story behind the song:

    Following is the “Iko Iko” story, as told by Dr. John in the liner notes to his 1972 album, Gumbo, in which he covers New Orleans R&B classics:

    “The song was written and recorded back in the early 1950s by a New Orleans singer named James Crawford who worked under the name of Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters. It was recorded in the 1960s by the Dixie Cups for Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller’s Red Bird label, but the format we’re following here is Sugar Boy’s original. Also in the group were Professor Longhair on piano, Jake Myles, Big Boy Myles, Irv Bannister on guitar, and Eugene ‘Bones’ Jones on drums. The group was also known as the Chipaka Shaweez. The song was originally called ‘Jockamo,’ and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. Jockamo means ‘jester’ in the old myth. It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and ‘second line’ in their own special style during Mardi Gras. That’s dead and gone because there’s a freeway where those grounds used to be. The tribes were like social clubs who lived all year for Mardi Gras, getting their costumes together. Many of them were musicians, gamblers, hustlers and pimps.” – from this Wikipedia article

    The Dixie Cups: Iko Iko (mp3) – from the Big Easy soundtrack (HIGHLY recommended)

    So what is a Flag Boy??

    Tootie Montana on Indian Hierarchy: The fundamental framework of a Mardi Gras Indian gang is a functional hierarchy. Montana spells out the positions: “You’ve got first chief, which is Big Chief; First Queen; you’ve got Second Chief and Second Queen; Third Chief and Third Queen. First, Second, and Third chiefs are supposed to have a queen with them. That’s just tradition. I found them doing that. Your fourth chief is not called fourth chief, he’s the Trail Chief. From there on it’s just Indians, no title. You also have your Spy Boy, your Flag Boy and your Wild Man. Your Spy Boy is way out front, three blocks in front the chief. The Flag Boy is one block in front so he can see the Spy Boy up ahead and he can wave his flag to let the chief know what is going on. Today, they don’t do like they used to. Today you’re not going to see any Spy Boy with a pair of binoculars around his neck and a small crown so he can run. Today a Spy Boy looks like a chief and somebody carrying a big old stick. It’s been years since I seen a proper flag. Today everybody has a chief stick. The Wild Man wearing the horns in there to keep the crowd open and to keep it clear. He’s between the Flag Boy and the Chief.” – – check out the whole Wikipedia article about Mardi Gras Indians.

  • New Orleans

    A Year Since Katrina

    ctk

    Here comes the one year anniversary of Katrina. Tuesday, August 29th marks one year since the storm hit the Gulf Coast, and set off a chain of events – natural and unnatural – that caused devastation to the region.

    I watched the first half of Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke, last week on HBO. Talk about feeling sick to your stomach all over again. Then I read in the NYT today about the influx of politicians to the area this week to – yes – politicize the tragedy. The Democrats there to point fingers at the Bush Administration and the Republicans, and their seeming incompetence in responding to the tragedy; and W. and the GOP on site to point out the successes so far in the reconstruction effort. No fly overs in Air Force One this time…

    null

    To be fair, positive steps have been taken, but there’s obviously a long way to go. And fact is, all of the wonderful politicians in town this week for their staged events and photo ops will be cleared out by week’s end. And large swaths of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will sit,
    untouched since the storm, waiting for the help they so desparately need.

    Chris Thomas King

    So let me turn to the music. Chris Thomas King is a blues artist from southern Louisiana (you’ve also seen him in O Brother Where Art Thou and Ray). I saw him perform in Telluride just three weeks after Katrina (I took that pic above @ the festival). He had lost most of his equipment in the floods, so was using new and borrowed equipment. He played a song which had made its debut a few days earlier on a nationwide televised relief broadcast. It’s called “What Would Jesus Do?”, and points out the incompetencies and injustices found in the aftermath of Katrina. The song is also found on King’s latest CD, Rise, which was released earlier this summer.

    Chris Thomas King: What Would Jesus Do? (mp3) – Please support Chris by buying the song and/or album on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon (or wherever). You can check out his official web site here.

    Here are a couple of Aaron Neville tunes I posted last year soon after Katrina.

    Aaron Neville:

    Louisiana 1927 (mp3) – original post from last year | Aaron’s version of a Randy Newman song about the 1927 Louisiana flood. Its lyrics fit right into the present day situation. From Warm Your Heart.

    St. Jude’s Hymn (mp3) – original post from last year | “St. Jude’s Hymn” was sent to me by a reader (William) last year. I thought I would repost his moving and thorough background of the song. You can buy Midnight at St. Jude’s here.

    On the edge of what used to be the notorious Storyville section of New Orleans, a short walk from the famous St. Louis #1 Cemetery, rests a small and beautiful church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel /International Shrine of Saint Jude.

    This church has withstood the test of time and adversity. Surviving through the Civil War, the Reconstruction, coexisting in the heart of Storyville, standing after the horrible aftermath of 1965’s horrible Hurricane Betsy; and, as of August 30, 2005 was still standing amidst the
    impoverished and crime-ridden projects of New Orleans.

    Nested in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel / International Shrine of St. Jude provides a quiet haven for meditation and a place of solace, a place where one can escape the worries of this world for a while. Saint Jude is the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations. This small chapel exemplifies the very qualities of hope for the hopeless, and help for the helpless, the very qualities that Saint Jude so embodies.

    In March and May of 1987, two masses were held which attracted New Orleans music legends such as Aaron Neville and Allen Toussaint. The ensuing recording from these masses was released as the album ‘Midnight at St. Judes.’ At the time, proceeds from this album and all artists’ royalties were donated to St. Jude’s Community Center in New Orleans.

    Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, amidst so much devastation, hopelessness and feelings of helplessness, the track “St. Jude’s Hymn” as sung by that gentle and kind giant of New Orleans, Aaron Neville, resonates in a way that it never has before. If one ever watches
    Aaron Neville deliver a live performance, one will notice a large, gold medallion hanging from his left ear. On that medallion is the image St. Jude, an image Aaron carries with him to remind him of the power of faith.

    This hymn was composed by a housewife, who is credited only by her more formal married name, Mrs. Herb Quaid. One only need listen to this song for a minute or two to recognize that she creatively used a variation of John Lennon & Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” as the cornerstone for her lovely hymn.

    One need not be religious to recognize the promise of hope, of help and the promise of a better day when hearing this song sung so beautifully by Aaron Neville. It is with the spirit of hope and the belief that no situation is ever a lost cause that I hope you will listen to this hymn. As we watch on the news what will, no doubt, be nightmarish images of loss in the coming days, let us all try to keep alive the spirit of hope and the promise of better days. Hear this song and keep alive the faith that New Orleans will rise up to see another era of glory, and will again be the Multi-Cultural Jewel; the most European-like city that exists in the United States. Listen to this song and believe that many will persevere against impossible circumstances. Sing this hymn with the heartfelt belief that there will be hope for the hopeless, and help for the helpless.

    May our Maker keep us all safe in the days ahead, in particular those souls, both living and departed, who have suffered from Hurricane Katrina.
    ~ William Innes, September 5, 2005

  • New Orleans

    3 for New Orleans

    preservation hall jazz band

    After checking out Home of the Groove’s latest Mardi Gras posts, and listening to Nick Spitzer’s New Orleans-based American Routes on NPR tonight, I am in the Mardi Gras mood baby! New Orleans may be a very different place after Katrina, but its spirit no doubt remains, and its rich and unique heritage will lift that city right back on its feet.

    Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Bourbon Street Parade (mp3) – from New Orleans, Vol IV
    Professor Longhair: Go to the Mardi Gras (mp3) – from Anthology
    Olympia Brass Band: Go to the Mardi Gras (mp3) – from New Orleans Jazz Preservation

  • Funk,  New Orleans,  Old School

    Funky Friday

    Thanks to great mp3 sites like Home of the Groove, and in this case, Can I Bring My Gat, I’ve been introduced to some great tunes out of the New Orleans area. Thankfully after all these years, I’m finally discovering the Meters.

    Considered by many to be the founding fathers of funk, The Meters created a unique sound that lasted through the sixties and seventies and was reborn in the late eighties. Their trademark sound blends funk, blues, and dance grooves with a New Orleans vibe.The history of this native New Orleans band dates back to 1967, when keyboardist Art Neville recruited George Porter, Jr., Joseph (Zigaboo) Modeliste and Leo Nocentelli to form The Meters. When Neville formed the band, he had already been a prominent member of the New Orleans music community for 15 years.

    So the Meters song I have available tonight sounded very familiar to me. The opening riff was the opening for an old school hip hop song I liked way back when, I just couldn’t place it. Well, it hit me tonight – it’s none other than Droppin Em from LL Cool J’s third release, 1989’s Walking With a Panther. Of course!! You can’t begin to tell me that beat ain’t funky.

    Compare, contrast, enjoy, have a funky good weekend. In the words of a young Robert Goulet, holla back.

    The Meters: (The World Is a Bit Under the Weather) Doodle-Oop (mp3)

    • appears on Trick Bag (1976), the tasty album cover above

    LL Cool J: Droppin Em (mp3)

  • New Orleans,  Soul

    Required Listening 101

    Is there a better singing voice than Aaron Neville’s? I really don’t think there is. I was listening to the Big Easy Soundtrack – again – this afternoon, and was inspired to put this out there for the masses; lest someone out there has not heard the Neville Brothers’ live performance of “Tell It Like It Is” from the soundtrack, just listen to this.

    Then buy the soundtrack. The collection of songs on this CD – like the city of New Orleans – is so full of life, so rich, so gratifying, that I think all of humankind should own a copy. So click here and pick one up.

    “From the pages of the The Neville Brothers songbook”: Tell It Like It Is (mp3)

  • New Orleans

    14 minutes with the Dirty Dozen

    Listening to American Routes the other night, the PBS radio show whose studios lie smack dab in the middle of the French Quarter, I heard this gem of a song (Nick Spitzer, the host, is temporarily running the show from Lafayette). Entitled “The Lost Souls (of Southern Louisiana)”, it’s basically a 14 minute suite laid out similarly to a traditional New Orleans funeral. Starting out dirge-like, it finishes off with a rhythmic fury of percussion. It has three sub parts: Cortege, Do I Have to Go, and Mourning Ma.

    Set aside 14 minutes of your life and take a listen to some New Orleans brass band action courtesy of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

    The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
    : The Lost Souls (of Southern Louisiana) (mp3)

    • From ‘Open Up: Whatcha Gonna Do for the Rest of Your Life?’ (1991) – check it out on Amazon.
    • Official Site of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
  • New Orleans,  Soul

    St. Jude Hymn

    Tonight, a great guest post and a very moving hymn :

    On the edge of what used to be the notorious Storyville section of New Orleans, a short walk from the famous St. Louis #1 Cemetery, rests a small and beautiful church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel /International Shrine of Saint Jude.

    This church has withstood the test of time and adversity. Surviving through the Civil War, the Reconstruction, coexisting in the heart of Storyville, standing after the horrible aftermath of 1965’s horrible Hurricane Betsy; and, as of August 30, 2005 was still standing amidst the impoverished and crime-ridden projects of New Orleans. Nested in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel / International Shrine of St. Jude provides a quiet haven for meditation and a place of solace, a place where one can escape the worries of this world for a while.

    Saint Jude is the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations. This small chapel exemplifies the very qualities of hope for the hopeless, and help for the helpless, the very qualities that Saint Jude so embodies.

    In March and May of 1987, two masses were held which attracted New Orleans music legends such as Aaron Neville and Allen Toussaint. The ensuing recording from these masses was released as the album “Midnight at St. Judes.” At the time, proceeds from this album and all artists’ royalties were donated to St. Jude’s Community Center in New Orleans.

    Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, amidst so much devastation, hopelessness and feelings of helplessness, the track “St. Jude’s Hymn” as sung by that gentle and kind giant of New Orleans, Aaron Neville, resonates in a way that it never has before. If one ever watches Aaron Neville deliver a live performance, one will notice a large, gold medallion hanging from his left ear. On that medallion is the image St. Jude, an image Aaron carries with him to remind him of the power of faith.

    This hymn was composed by a housewife, who is credited only by her more formal married name, Mrs. Herb Quaid. One only need listen to this song for a minute or two to recognize that she creatively used a variation of John Lennon & Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” as the cornerstone for her lovely hymn.

    One need not be religious to recognize the promise of hope, of help and the promise of a better day when hearing this song sung so beautifully by Aaron Neville.

    It is with the spirit of hope and the belief that no situation is ever a lost cause that I hope you will listen to this hymn. As we watch on the news what will, no doubt, be nightmarish images of loss in the coming days, let us all try to keep alive the spirit of hope and the promise of better days. Hear this song and keep alive the faith that New Orleans will rise up to see another era of glory, and will again be the Multi-Cultural Jewel; the most European-like city that exists in the United States. Listen to this song and believe that many will persevere against impossible circumstances. Sing this hymn with the heartfelt belief that there will be hope for the hopeless, and help for the helpless.

    May our Maker keep us all safe in the days ahead, in particular those souls, both living and departed, who have suffered from Hurricane Katrina.

    ~ William Innes, September 5, 2005

    Aaron Neville and others: St. Jude Hymn (mp3)

  • New Orleans

    Louisiana 1927

    After watching a very small part of the NBC Hurricane fund-raiser on TV earlier tonight, I feel compelled to post yet another tune sung by Aaron Neville. The man’s voice is an instrument, and stops me in my tracks when I hear it.

    I saw him perform two songs tonight: a heart-wrenching “Amazing Grace”, and this Randy Newman composition, entitled “Louisiana 1927”. It’s the first track on the same 1991 album as my previously posted A.N. tune “It Feels Like Rain”- the album is ‘Warm Your Heart’.

    (CNN) — In 1926 and 1927, the Mississippi River, heavy from months of rain, started bursting its banks. Land along the river flooded from Illinois on south. Memphis was overrun in the fall of 1926; the waters covered western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana in the months following. Seven hundred thousand people were evacuated or left homeless…. – Read the full Sept. 1st CNN article here.

    I found some interesting credits on this song. The choir in the background consists of, among others, Rita Coolidge and Linda Ronstadt. The choral arrangement was done by Van Dyke Parks, known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson.

    As is the case with most other Americans, I am sick to my stomach over the tragedy down on the Gulf Coast, and the apparent lack of a quick and organized relief effort. Absolutely sickening, but good to see that the tide is starting to turn.

    Aaron Neville: Louisiana 1927 (mp3) – – – >>> Buy the album here on Amazon.