New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

Thank god for this woman and anyone else who's uploading full second line footage, rather than IG clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paLacuoI5Iw

Yes, thanks !

St. Mary’s Academy’s skirt-wearing band first formed in 1937, making it the oldest Black girls band marching in the city. Today, it is one of just a handful of all-girl bands to regularly appear in Mardi Gras parades...This Mardi Gras season also marks the first time Raynice Crayton, 27, will be at the band’s helm. A St. Mary’s alumna who joined the band as a seventh-grader, Crayton has already more than doubled band membership during her short tenure as director..The group’s 52 players have varying levels of experience, from novices to passionate musicians, and they range in grades from fourth to 12th. In New Orleans East, where the school’s campus has been located since the 1960s, Crayton spends hours teaching girls the 10 tunes they will perform this Carnival, ranging from traditional music to a Janet Jackson song to the group’s favorite this year: “Talking in Your Sleep” by the Romantics..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2024/02/12/mardi-gras-girls-marching-band/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA3NzE0MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA5MDk2Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDc3MTQwMDAsImp0aSI6Ijk5OGU2NGM1LTg2NDktNDUyYS1hNTE4LWZlZTI3ZWNjOGJlZiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9zdHlsZS9vZi1pbnRlcmVzdC8yMDI0LzAyLzEyL21hcmRpLWdyYXMtZ2lybHMtbWFyY2hpbmctYmFuZC8ifQ.v-dFiptu0EAVbzwspUbkiE3UJD4SNps-CIPtXTNLnZs

Happy Mardi Gras!

Seeing sad news on Instagram that snare drummer Kerry “Fatman” Hunter was killed by a car ( reportedly a drunk driver) on North Claiborne at Pauger Monday night

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/arts/music/new-orleans-rapper-flagboy-giz.html

37 years old rapper & Black masking Indian merges the 2 cultures on “We Outside “ 2022 song and newer album, and a remix project

I heard that, so sad. He was never the flashiest player but had a huge and unmistakable sound, deeply rooted in the tradition. The groove on 'D-Boy' is fathoms deep. Unfortunately a lot of the best parts of New Birth Brass Band's (his main band) discography are not streaming or even on youtube, but here are some of my favorite Kerry Hunter recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQELLw2A_nw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=verTSC200Ls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDuwGU_cB5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUtJAsp28WQ

I am not going to be there and so hope the Friday 1 pm pacific time Pop Con presentation by USC professor Josh D Kun on the Mexican musical legacies of New Orleans will be streamed or recorded

WWOZ is streaming some of French Quarter Fest

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/04/african-caribbean-artists-new-orleans-music-jazz

African and Caribbean musicians moving to New Orleans

https://www.offbeat.com/news/palm-court-jazz-cafe-announces-closure-after-35-years/

Trad jazz place Palm Court Jazz Cafe closing after 35 years due to rising expenses

The Mother-in-Law Lounge will open Tuesdays at 4 p.m. ahead of trumpeter Irvin Mayfield's weekly performance from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The club will then go dark until Saturdays, when doors open at 6 from Ruffins' weekly gig from 8 to 10 p.m.

Otherwise, the Mother-in-Law Lounge will only be active for private events.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/kermit-ruffins-cuts-back-treme-mother-in-law-lounge-hours/article_975dd374-1d1e-11ef-8164-877897fa52df.html

Damn, bad news for both of those venues.

For some reason I thought New Orleans band Cha Wa was kind of a jam band, but I got free tickets for their dc gig at the Library of Congress and they are a funk band with a bit of brass. The group includes 2 Black Masking Indians one who plays sax and does vocals, and the the other uses a tambourine and raps. The group also has a trumpet player, a trombonist, a male lead vocalist, two female backing vocalists, bassist, guitarist, keyboard/organ player, full trap drummer, and a background vocalist /percussionist. It was a fun gig.

It's kinda weird, they were started by the drummer (not a New Orleans guy) and used to have Joe from TBC on trombone and Thaddeus from Big 6/Stooges on tuba (who incidentally has been detained in Bermuda, it's really weird and apparently the sentencing hearing is today?). But those guys (and Chief Joseph, the frontman) split off and made their own band, The Rumble (I always forget the name) - https://therumbleband.com/. I don't know who's in Cha Wa now.

The printed program included some names- Cam Clark trumpet; Kaleb Summers trombone; Tajh Derosier sax and lead vocals; Joe Gelini drums & bandleader; Rik Fletcher keys ; Jay Sutton bass; Matt Kruft guitar plus a bunch of vocalists

the two leaders of Cha Wa, singer/percussionist Honey Banister and drummer Joe Gelini, have been involved with the Mardi Gras Indians for years. Honey Banister, Big Chief of the Creole Wild West tribe, combines both the Mardi Gras Indian tradition and the history of New Orleans rhythm and blues. His father, Irving Banister Sr., is an unsung hero of New Orleans music, having played with everyone from Danny White to Eddie Bo to Allen Toussaint. It is his guitar on “Sugar Boy” Crawford's original version of the song “Jock-A-Mo.” Honey’s mother, Big Queen Ledell Banister, is also a member of the Creole Wild West tribe - recognized as the oldest of all the tribes, dating back to the late 1800’s. She got Honey involved when he was 6, and he has been with them ever since, recently rising to the highest rank of the tribe.

Gelini moved to New Orleans after graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. “That's where I first heard of the Mardi Gras Indians,” he recalls, “I went to see Idris Muhammed (the New Orleans-born seminal jazz/funk drummer) play, and I asked if I could have a lesson. When we got together, he told me, 'Man, you got to understand what I'm playing is the Mardi Gras Indian tambourine parts when I'm playing the snare drum.”' After he moved to New Orleans, Joe saw the Mardi Gras Indians emerging on Mardi Gras day to march down Dryades Street and, he says, “I was hooked. It's a spiritual thing. It's more than the music.”

Heh, "involved" is doing very different work there.

Yep. Well, the free in DC Cha Wa gig was still fun. Cha Was played NYC a night later I think. Maybe the Rumble can get booked at those spots sometime.

Speaking of Mardi Gras Indians, I wanna see this Guardians of the Flame doc that was started by the late Jonathan Demme

https://www.guardiansoftheflamemovie.org/about#:~:text=Guardians%20of%20the%20Flame%20is,Demme%20and%20writer%20Daniel%20Wolff.

https://www.guardiansoftheflamemovie.org/

Seeing Instagram ads for The Rumble album and tour dates . They’re playing for free Saturday near me

There was a second line on Monday for Frankie Beverly

Kermit Ruffins posting on Instagram that he might shut down the Mother-in-law Lounge as he's losing money