Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, and A. Doe not yet accounted for in New Orleans area

-- Jordan (jordan...), September 1st, 2005.

I was having trouble with the search engine or I would have linked to the other New Orleans threads or just posted all of this there. Sorry.

http://www.rebirthbrassband.com/messaging/cutecast.pl?forum=1

"heard about it on the mishpucha list. Even crazier is that Chilton gave his car to a girl
from the Gories so she could leave town."

You should see Memphis now - lots of NOLA people in town. Talked to some of them Tuesday night and while by and large they seemed pretty good-humored, I suspect they were still probably in a little shock.

But Los Angeles-based comedian Harry Shearer, who has strong ties to New Orleans, told Reuters that he heard unconfirmed reports from friends that Domino had made it to the New Orleans Superdome, where more than 23,000 people have taken refuge.

Soilent Green is okay, out on tour. Glad to hear about Quintron and the others.

I'd like to hear from Eyehategod, Crowbar, Down, Anselmo, and their friends and brethren.

Yeah, those Crowbar dudes probably aren't much for swimming.

On Wednesday, he announced plans for Team Rescue, a relief venture formed by him, his wife, Sonya, and rapper son, Romeo. "My family has set out to save and rebuild our neighborhoods and help our inner-city brothers and sisters who have lost everything in this disaster," he said.

thankfully, master p is OK -- and is going to be in a telethon on BET with wynton marsalis and russell simmons.

i also pray that fats domino somehow survived :-(

anyway, on the ILE thread they say he was rescued from his house.

YAY!!!!!!!!

http://theposies.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134

Anyone have any confirmed information on this? Because I'm feeling a bit woozy over this one.

care to say whethere he's alive or dead?

But as far as I know right now, the last anyone's heard from him was Monday. So I'm concerned. Glad that Fats is OK.

Man, what a mess--New Orleans is gonna take a long, long time to get back to something even approaching normal.

Please, say that about Fats Domino right about now.

Anyway, everyone from EHG is accounted for -- save Mike Williams. Phil Anselmo also lives to slur another day.

"You spend time kind of remembering your stuff," he said. "You just go, `Oh, and then there's that vintage guitar that I can't replace or that notebook that has writing in it that I'll never be able to replace.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050901/ap_en_mu/katrina_dave_pirner

I feel sorry for the guy, but not in the way that I think he'd want me to feel sorry for him.

Beyond New Orleans, Katrina Destroys Music History Too

This loss is a human one first and foremost. But as word spreads that (among others) New Orleans R&B legend Fats Domino remains unaccounted for after the storm[written before he was found], media is more mindful this is cultural devastation too--destruction of primary information about the beginnings of American music, and of a currently thriving community of jazz and rap and everything betwixt.

To better understand the enormity of the situation from that perspective, we spoke with musicologist Ned Sublette. Last year Sublette, musician, label co-founder, and much-applauded author of Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, spent time in New Orleans as a Rockefeller Humanities Fellow at Tulane University, doing hands-on research for a book about the city and its fundamental relationship to American musical history. Below are some of Sublette's reactions to the loss:

Intro

"The destruction of New Orleans, from a cultural point of view, is too awful to contemplate. And at the same time, everyone had contemplated it. Anyone who came to have dinner last year at my house in New Orleans pretty much heard me describe pretty much what happened, in advance. Not because I'm clairvoyant, but because it was well-known what would happen.

"The hurricane was not preventable, but the flooding that occurred was preventable. That levee break was preventable, the destruction of the marshland was preventable. Even if the flooding was not preventable, there was another failure, which was the complete failure of civil defense.

"As of Friday, I was 102,000 words into a book [I'm writing] about [New Orleans]. So I have been for months deeply synthesizing this. So for this to hit me now is just like--it's a mindfuck. Simple example, three weeks ago I had somebody drive me past Fats Domino's house so I could take a picture of it. And that house is under water now. It's like the whole time I was on input remembering things that might now be there next year, and I was conscious of that as it was happening. I would say to people, it's as if we're midway between life and death here."

On Whether Some Musicians, Perhaps Domino, Chose to Stay in New Orleans Instead of Fleeing:

"Well, first of all let's see if that's true. We don't know yet. There's a couple reasons [why people might stay though]. I do know that Fats Domino, unlike many others of his contemporaries, actually made money, because he didn't sell his publishing. He could have lived anywhere he wanted to, but he wanted to live in his hood, in his community. It's a very specific and peculiar community. Fats came from a French-speaking world, I believe they spoke French in Fats's household when he was a little boy. His house was a local landmark, pink-trimmed, a big house with a huge satellite dish. Maybe he wanted to go to hell with the ship, but I don't even want to speculate, because I don't know.

"There's another reason that someone might not leave, aside from not being able to. A lot of people stayed to protect their property from the people who don't leave. Crime is very very intense in New Orleans. New Orleans has a murder rate that is eight times that of New York City. It has 10 housing projects, which are densely compacted problems. The two big hip-hop labels, Master P's No Limit comes out of the Calio projects, and Cash Money comes out of the Magnolia projects."

On the loss of primary historical information:

"Everything from documents to recordings to things that are in private hands [are lost]. Many of the more serious archives are on higher floors--presumably many of them have survived the flood waters. But what condition are they in? How quickly will cultural workers be able to get in and rescue the patrimony which is very important in understanding where American music came from?

"For instance, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, the historian, has been going around from parish courthouse to parish courthouse looking at documents that many times were not considered to be of great importance. She managed to compile a database of the identities of 100,000 enslaved Louisianans, the identities and nationalities, from primary documents sitting in Louisiana. There are many secrets that those documents might yield up with some hard-working historians to examine them.

Congo Square and its Importance to American Music:

"Congo Square, there were gatherings of black people dancing and playing ancestral drums and singing in ancestral languages probably by the introduction of slaves by the French in 1719. There were gatherings in the French period, there were gatherings in the Spanish period--the gatherings continued up to before the civil war. In the first half of the century in the United States, the English-speaking slave owners prohibited the playing of drums by blacks, because they could be used to signal rebellion. But in Congo Square, the one people in the United States that black people were allowed to play drums with their hands. It's the one place where an African derived drumming tradition directly continued far longe rthan it did anywhere else in North America. It may be that the Mardi Gras Indians, the groups of black men that dress in fantastical African-style costumes imitative of the motifs of the Plains Indians, it may be that their tambourine tradition derives from this. If so,!
this
is the only direct descendent of the African hand-drumming tradition in the United States. In the years before recordings, this very fertile period between the end of slavery and the beginnings of recordings when we don't quite know what happened and what it sounded like. There was music going up from Brazil to North America, the step that turned music into jazz was taken in New Orleans, we know that."

New Orleans's Connection to Rock:

"If you're only looking at it from the rock and roll perspective, New Orleans is a fundamental city in the story. In 1949, Dave Bartholomew, who I hope he got out in time, led the house band that backed up Fats Domino on his first hit, the Fat Man, and became the first professional RB studio band, the forerunner of the kind of thing that they would have in Motown. Where singers like Little Richard, Lloyd Price, Ray Charles would come to New Orleans to play with this house band. And many of the first R&B and rock and roll classics were recorded in New Orleans.

Rebuilding New Orleans:

"To early to tell. But I do feel that you cannot abandon New Orleans. You can say that New Orleans has no viability asna business or industrial city. But if our history and culture as a nation mean anything, New Orleans is central to it. And if we can save New Orleans, if we haven't lost it already, it has to be put back and saved right. If we can somehow turn the hateful direction this country is going in, around, and really save and fortify New Orleans, and really show the world that we as a nation can save our own cities, that our concept of homeland security, then we can be proud of ourselves. Right now we can't. We're not only watching history disappear, history is watching us disappear. How's that for a phrase."

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/riffraff/archives/2005/09/katrina_destroy_1.php

From the Washington Post-
After Anxious Days for Families, A Sweet Note on Missing Musicians
washingtonpost.com

By Korin Miller
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, September 2, 2005; Page C01

The message posted on Craigslist.com yesterday was one of scores pleading for information about friends and family missing in the catastrophe that was once New Orleans. This one was in search of relatives gathered at an uncle's house in the badly hit 9th Ward: "They are on the second floor of their home," wrote Checquoline Davis. "They didn't get out."

Davis's uncle is Fats Domino, the R&B legend.

R& B legend Fats Domino was among those rescued in New Orleans, his daughter told CNN.com yesterday. (By David Rae Morris -- Reuters)
After several long, anxious days, Davis last night got some good news: Her uncle was identified in a photograph of people being rescued from the 9th Ward, CNN.com reported.

His whereabouts since the rescue, however, were not immediately known. Nor is there any news as to the fate of his wife, Rosemary.

Fats Domino had not been heard from since Sunday, when the 77-year-old musician -- whose Top 40 singles include "Ain't That a Shame," "Whole Lotta Loving" and "Blueberry Hill" -- told his agent via phone that he planned to stay in his house with his wife and daughter.

Davis told The Washington Post that her family stayed in the city because of her aunt's poor health: "My Aunt Rose, she didn't want to leave the house because she's sickly."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune photographed Domino getting off a rescue boat Monday night. Domino's daughter Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in the photo on Thursday, CNN.com reported.

Domino was just one of several artists who live in the city and had been feared missing for much of the week.

When James Hampton had not heard from his mother, New Orleans musician Charmaine Neville, since Monday, he tried "not to think the worst." His mother and some friends had planned to wait out the storm, then make a run for a school if conditions worsened. "I know my mom," he said yesterday afternoon. "She's a strong woman." Neville's father, Charles, is a member of the Neville Brothers, whose hits include "Fly Like an Eagle," "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Ain't No Sunshine."

Last night Hampton got the phone call he had been waiting for: His mother was safe and staying at a church in Donaldsonville, La.

"She said she had to get out of the house" after the levee broke, he said. "They kicked out the windows" and made it to safety. They've slept on rooftops for the past few nights, but weren't able to make it out of the city immediately because "people were trying to take over the rescue boats."

Neville and her friends finally spotted a bus and made a run for it. She is now staying in a church 40 miles from Baton Rouge, where the nearest airport is located. "I'm trying to get a ticket to her," said Hampton. "But she doesn't know how to get to Baton Rouge."

"She was hysterical while she was telling me this," Hampton said.

Producer and musician Allen Toussaint, who wrote "Working in a Coalmine" and "Get Out of My Life Woman," was initially reported to have been one of the 15,000 refugees at the Superdome. It turns out that the night before the hurricane hit, he had moved to the Astor Plaza hotel in the French Quarter. "I'm the die-hard Orleans southerner," said the 67-year-old Toussaint. "I always think I'm going to stay through the storm."

R& B legend Fats Domino was among those rescued in New Orleans, his daughter told CNN.com yesterday. (By David Rae Morris -- Reuters)
Toussaint said the water outside his hotel was high, but "it wasn't waist-deep," so he waded out and caught a chartered bus. He headed for Baton Rouge at 6:55 a.m. yesterday, flew to Houston and then to New York, where his label, NYNO Records, is located.

Other celebrities who have relatives in New Orleans have publicly expressed concern, and some are raising money to help victims.

Rapper Master P, a New Orleans native, told the Associated Press yesterday that his uncle, father-in-law and sister-in-law, among others, were unaccounted for. "We just got caravans of family members," he said. "It was just devastating." The rapper-producer created a foundation called Team Rescue and had helicopters searching for his missing family members.

New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr. posted a statement on his Web site announcing that his immediate family is safe, but "I have not heard from many, many friends and other family members."

"I haven't slept in days," the 37-year-old singer also wrote. " . . . It is hard to sit in silence, to watch one's youth wash away." Tonight, Connick will join NBC's televised fundraiser, "A Concert for Hurricane Relief."

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman told the AP that his home in the Mississippi Delta escaped the brunt of the hurricane, but Freeman, 68, has helped organize an online auction to raise money for disaster relief. The auction will open tonight on CharityFolks.com and will run until Sept. 16.

"Now, charity begins at home, so we call on anybody to . . . help these people," he said.

I wonder about Alex Chilton though.

And like Don, I find the title of Big Star book horribly ironic. You can read my Nashville Scene piece on the book/forthcoming album at: http://www.nashscene.com/Stories/Arts/Music/2005/09/01/Mod_Lang/index.shtml

this is really breaking my heart--of all the cities in the country, this has to happen to New Orleans. And the mayor is right--it'll *never* be the same.

and here:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/alexchilton/messages

for information from people actively looking for him. No news yet. Supposedly his house was searched and found empty -- but it's all hearsay.

does not have anything specific... Oh, I read somewhere that Dave Bartholomew, who's mentioned in the Ned Sublette Voice blog posting above, got out...

En check die bling bling! The show must go on, hurricane be damned...

-- hiram (kinghan...), September 2nd, 2005 4:33 AM. (hiram) (later) (link)
New Orleans is natuurlijk home-of the-bling.

-- JoB (jobdewi...), September 2nd, 2005 5:41 AM. (JoB) (later) (link)
En home of the FUNK, al heeft dat inmiddels een wat wrange dubbele betekenis gekregen.

-- hiram (kinghan...), September 2nd, 2005 6:12 AM. (hiram) (later) (link)

Healthcare for Musicians and several other organizations, including the Grammy's MusiCares program and The New Orleans Musicians Clinic, have joined to create the Lafayette Health Alliance to specifically help musicians and music business professionals.

People can send money donations to Healthcare for Musicians which has an emergency fund account set up through SW LA Health Education Center, its sponsoring non-profit agency.

The address is: Healthcare for Musicians 103 Independence Blvd. Lafayette, LA 70506

If anyone knows of any displaced musicians who need help please let them know to call Healthcare for Musicians at 337-988-1583 Through MusiCares they can get financial help for all basic needs.

Kidd and Maurice lost their homes. But they are OK; Kidd is in Baton Rouge, don't know where Maurice is..

Bo - American Music Magazine

See here:
Alex Chilton is likely okay

He's maybe ok.

Hurricane Katrina Relief for Musicians

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:46 am Post subject: PLEASE HELP EDDIE BO TODAY!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,
I spoke with Eddie Bo today by phone....you know, he is not the kind of person to ASK for help, so I am asking FOR HIM.
I have set up an organization called NEW ORLEANS MUSICIANS RELIEF EFFORT. I will post more info on that later.
If you make donations to Red Cross or United Way etc., none of that money will get DIRECTLY to the New Orleans musicians that are in dire need. Please stay tuned for more info on N.O.M.R.E.
Eddie says he has nothing, and that he does not know what he is going to do. I told him that I would try to hook him up with some help, and he said that that " gave him hope." He needs money for food, clothes and essentials. He lost his home and restaurant and has nothing. He still managed to make me smile even in the midst of this tragedy....he has an amazing spirit! PLEASE help him with any donations...every little bit will help. He needs help NOW!
KAREN HAMILTON
c/o EDDIE BOCAGE
320 West Plaquemine St.
Church Point, La. 10525
THANK YOU!

CindyChen
NEW ORLEANS MUSICIANS RELIEF EFFORT
1314 Las Olas Blvd. #1074
Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301

er, well, extenuating circumstances... ;-)

Is this really the only Fats Domino thread on ILM? A shame if true.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2013/08/archivist_joe_lauro_plans_new.html

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1241805955/the-big-beat-the-story-of-fats-domino-and-his-band

Fats Domino movie doc to premier in New Orleans October 23

The early years (1949-62) of the Fats Domino / Dave Bartholomew collaboration and its roots in the culture and music of New Orleans

....On the day in 1948 the unlikely paths of Antoine "Fats" Domino and Dave Bartholomew collided at a small Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans night club neither men would have suspected that their collaboration would result in one of the longest ( 65 years and running) and most successful in American Music history. A collaboration that, by 1962, would sell over 60 million records.

THE BIG BEAT: THE STORY OF FATS DOMINO AND HIS BAND is also the story of how Fats and Dave's music BECAME Rock N' Roll and how it effectively broke down the color barriers that paved the way for racial integration through music. We will use recent interviews with Dave, Fats and with surviving band members and rare previously unseen full length vintage performances of the Fats Domino Band ( with Dave Bartholomew on Trumpet) performing their early hits to illustrate the story of these two men and the other musicians who made their band among the greatest in Rock N' roll history...

Several years ago, while doing preliminary research for a possible Fats Domino documentary, I discovered in ( of all places!) the French National Archive, a 45 minute live concert film , shot in 1962, of the original Fats Domino band...the same band that recorded with Fats from 1949 to 1962 as well as appearing , with Dave Bartholomew as band leader and director, on over 200 nationally charted singles and 21 gold records - all of which recorded in Cosimo Matasa’s tiny J&M studio on Rampart Street in the city of New Orleans

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/herb-hardesty-best-known-as-fats-dominos-saxophonist-dies-at-91/362631252

If listeners didn’t know Hardesty’s name, they would certainly know his saxophone, which is heard on such Fats Domino-Dave Bartholomew hits as “Ain’t That a Shame,” “I’m Walkin’,” “Blue Monday,” “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” and even Lloyd Price’s 1952 classic “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.”

Aw, man... he had an amazing life. I got to shake his hand once, when I was at this:

During Jazz Fest 2001, the Knights pulled off one of its biggest coups to date, presenting the superb but largely forgotten '60s soul singer Howard Tate at the Circle Bar.

"Someone handed me an article that said he was alive in Philadelphia, and I emailed the guy who wrote the article and asked for his phone number," remembers Dr. Ike. "So I called Howard and told him we'd like to get him to New Orleans, and this was two weeks before Jazz Fest. He said he wanted to come, so I talked to Derek Huston of the Iguanas, who worked out the horn arrangements in 10 days. The band rehearsed the afternoon of the show, and it helps when you have (guitarist) Lil' Buck Sinegal and the great rhythm section of Alonzo Johnson and Nat Jolivette.

"The other thing about that night is, as great as Howard Tate was, what went down at the jam session after was out of control: Jody Williams playing with Classie Ballou, Freddie Roulette on lap steel, and Herb Hardesty playing sax," Dr. Ike continues. "It was pretty mind-blowing."

I'm jealous, as I did not go down there that year.