New Orleans music is so many things to so many people that I can not begin to do it justice. A cousin who used to play trumpet in a band on one of the steamboats, The Delta Queen, that went up the Mississippi from that great city introduced me to one of the greats like Professor Longhair. Our first visit there was around 1990. The friendliness of the people was extraordinary and genuine. I am originally from a small town in Rhode Island and upstate NY always seemed cold to me in more ways than one. In New Orleans people would start talking to you anywhere. I was called ‘honey’ there more than anywhere else. A friend introduced me to The Radiators in the early 90’s. I knew of Aaron Neville and enjoyed his voice very much. Fats Domino I knew from his hits in the 1950’s and 60’s but at the time I did not know that he was from New Orleans. I don’t remember who turned me on to The Meters but whoever you are, thank you. Listening to James Booker for the first time was a revelation. I had seen the name Allen Toussaint on many recordings credited as song writer, but never heard any of his own recordings. He wrote so many songs that he admitted to forgetting quite a few. When he did record a few albums of his own I quickly snapped them up. After the levees failed in 2005, I learned a few things about Cosimo Matassa and the music that was made in his legendary studios in New Orleans. In retrospect, the flooding of New Orleans was the event that lead me to seek out more music from that great unique city. Dr. John was another master in the pantheon of New Orleans music makers. He could sing Johnny Mercer and turn on a dime and steep you in swamp funk. I had heard songs like “Sea Cruise” when it first became a national hit, but I did not know until many years later that it originated in New Orleans. Then there is Zydeco and people like Clifton Chenier. That’s a whole other universe of which I know hardly anything. When people say that New Orleans is the northern most part of the Caribbean they are referring to the cultural gulf stream that flows into the city. The origin of the heart beat is Africa and its pulse has travelled through the Caribbean Islands and Brasil into New Orleans. If you listen closely it is all in the music
Comments
Top
New
Community
No posts