We have just gotten word which musicians Regina Carter will be bringing to Sanders Theatre besides vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. They are as follows:
Alvester Garnett, drums
Xavier Davis, piano
Matthew Parrish, bass
Darryl Harper, clarinet
The group is currently on tour in Thailand. Here's a slide show of the tour from Matthew Parrish's web site. Nice hotel, guys.
Wynton Marsalis' new Bluenote CD, From the Plantation to the Penitentiary comes out March 6. Marsalis says it is his most political album in years.
He is quoted by Nekesa Moombu Moody in the Associated Press as saying:
"It's been in my mind for a while. Every decade I like to do one piece that has that kind of social involvement with American culture."
Another unusual aspect of the recording is that it features some of Marsalis' vocals (That's right, you heard me). Something he says comes naturally to him:
"I always try and do something different. I don't try to make any of my records the same," he said. "I'm always singing and chanting all over my house. I grew up doing it in New Orleans, chanting and singing and making up rhymes; long before there was rap music we were doing that. That's the New Orleans' way."
Read all of Nekesa Moombu Moody's article, Marsalis' New CD Deals with Politics.
Wynton Marsalis comes to Boston March 28 with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Our friends The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (we hosted them in Symphony Hall back on October 15) were awarded the National Medal of Arts yesterday by the President. It couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving bunch. Congratulations, fellas!
Read about the award in NOLA Updates from the New Orleans Times Picayune.
After intermission, there was a mini-concert in the Green Room at Symphony Hall: the pianist finished a tune...laughter...a chord...more laughter...some wine was poured...a request...laughter...polite frivolity. When intermission ended no one was shushed, someone closed the door to the Green Room so Ellis Marsalis could begin his set onstage, and the mini-concert continued.
There were musicians in the house last night when the Preservation Hall Jazz Band came to town. Musicians with New Orleans pedigrees of distinction. Musicians with surnames like Barbarin and Brunious and Marsalis. A person got the feeling they could not have been in each others company and not played music. When the Band played Just a Closer Walk With Thee - parade style, going slowly to the graveyard - it felt profound in a way a CD will never capture.
Quite a night. Not lightweight and certainly not somber. I took a few photos, but you shoulda been there.
Bingo! kept the revelry going in the lobby
Wacky cartoons and other video novelties filled the giant screen above the stage
The big finish
(left to right) Talbots CEO Arnold Zetcher, Celebrity Series Executive Director Marty Jones, pianist Ellis Marsalis, and Ellen Zetcher at the after-party.
In case you missed it, Siddhartha Mitter wrote an advance article in The Boston Globe on the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's Symphony Hall concert - our season opener:
"Six of the seven musicians lost their homes to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. A year after the storm, only two of the seven have been able to move back to New Orleans. Yet compared to many other New Orleans musicians, the members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band are the fortunate ones."
Read all of Preserving the Musical Spirit of New Orleans.
Here's a photo of a 1960s version of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring (seated) Sweet Emma “The Bell Gal” Barrett.
The 2006 version plays this Sunday at Symphony Hall with special guest pianist Ellis Marsalis and a host of clowns, jugglers, musicians, and general Mardi Gras types: "The New Orleans Revue"
Read Christopher Blagg's Boston Herald profile of Clint Maedgen (pronounced may-gin), Preservation Hall's unusual (yeah, you could say that) point man for "The New Orleans Revue."
"'We add a guerrilla theater element to Preservation Hall,' said Maedgen, mischievously adding, 'I do bring a little somethin’ somethin’ to the party.'"
A wild time at Symphony Hall!
Get tickets
Rickie Monie, piano, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Born February 4, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana
Played with: Dave Bartholomew, Frogman Henry, Dr. Michael White, Greg Stafford, Topsy Chapman
Raised in the Ninth Ward, Monie [pronounced: Moe-nay] was the son of amateur musicians and full-time lovers of jazz. Both parents played for church services; at home they kept the turntable spinning with records by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson -- all the greatest pianists of jazz and gospel music. The French Quarter was Rickie's playground: His family rode the bus into the Quarter, where they heard music pouring out of the doorways they passed on Bourbon St. During these excursions he heard and came to know Milton Batiste, Manny Sayles, Harold "Duke" Dejan, and many of the other old New Orleans jazz masters. Later, Rickie began making the trip himself on the Desire bus while also beginning to play weekend church services on piano. He majored in woodwind instruments at Dillard University. Piano remained his main focus as he picked up work in every style of music, from the upscale Windsor Court lounge to country & western clubs as well as with the legendary Olympia Brass Band. In 1982 Monie got his first call from Preservation Hall, to substitute for the legendary resident pianist Sweet Emma “The Bell Gal” Barrett after she suffered a stroke. To the delight of audiences around the world, he's stayed onboard ever since.
"We play gospel music here. We play old spirituals. We play military marches. There's no end to the variety of music that we play. But we play it all our way. And the more we play, the more the level of happiness rises. Just to watch our audiences go wow when we play, that gives me a good feeling and makes me want to put out more."
“We spent seven weeks in West Africa. We played inside theaters and churches, but we also went into the wilds, the tribal areas. And the response there was just as if those Africans had seen someone in New Orleans dancing. They were making the same movements! Another thing I've noticed is that little children brighten up when they hear us. They move. And a lot of times they'll move to the music. Now, what does a child know about rhythm? But they're right on it. All of this tells me that our music offers something that can be understood even across the waters and across the generations."
Monie weathered Hurricane Katrina, though all of his possessions, including a nine-foot concert grand piano and a vintage Hammond B-3 organ, were destroyed. As the storm subsided he left town with his wife for Baton Rouge, where her mother owned a rental home. There were already eleven people seeking refuge there, with no hot water or appliances; there was, however, a sturdy roof and a dry floor to sleep on. As of this writing, the crowd has thinned a bit. Monie and his wife are still in Baton Rouge, putting the pieces of their lives together as they build a new just outside New Orleans.
“Playing with this band has helped me get over the hump because we’re like brothers and the music we play is joyful and happy. There were lots of hugs when we got together for the first time after Katrina, but I have mixed feelings about the future. We’re probably the last generation of musicians who really know this music, because we learned it directly from the older guys. I’m concerned about who will take up the baton when it’s time for us to pass it along. We are like a precious stone now, and that feels good, but more than anything I want this music to go on. It should last forever.”
Sometimes the biographies in our concert programs are just plain boring. I can admit it. They're useful, but they're often boring. That's okay, we really aren't there to read, anyway. The bios we have received for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's New Orleans Revue tour are different. Every band member's story is told in some depth, with quotes from the musicians detailing their connection to New Orleans and its music and how the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina affected them. I'm starting with bandleader and trumpeter John Brunious.
John Brunious, trumpet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Born: October 12, 1940 Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Played with: Clyde McPhatter, Tony Mitchell, Paul Barbarin
Bandleader John Brunious is a gifted ambassador for the music and spirit of New Orleans -- an elegant and witty raconteur as well as a player of exceptional expressiveness. From his earliest days in the city's Seventh Ward John breathed in the spirit and sound of jazz: His father, John Sr., a respected trumpeter, composer, and arranger, took him to hear the great parade bands and later invited Johnny St. Cyr, Paul Barbarin, and other friends over to trade stories about Louis Armstrong and other acquaintances from the halcyon days. John began taking lessons from his father at age ten but mostly taught himself to play by listening to records and emulating what he heard; inspired by Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson, he developed a flair for flashy, high-note solos that earned him work at gigs and on record sessions in a variety of styles. Traditional jazz, the foundation for all the later styles, never lost its appeal. Eventually, while playing at a club called Crazy Shirley's in the French Quarter, he walked a half block down St. Peter Street to hear the band at Preservation Hall, which included trumpeter Ernie Cagnolatti and tenor saxman Andrew Morgan. They invited Brunious to sit in -- that was over 20 years ago, and he's been at the Hall ever since.
"Ever since my father took me to hear those parade bands and funeral bands, I'd wanted to play this kind of music. It's a music that can express just about everything you experience in life. Now, whether we're going to different parts of the world or playing at Preservation Hall, people from just about every country in the world can share that experience. Let me put it this way: I consider New Orleans jazz to be a treasure, and it's wonderful to be able to share that treasure."
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating experience for the band’s beloved trumpeter. He not only lost his home and all of his possessions, he also had to literally fight for his life after being caught in the raging waters – three times – that ravaged his neighborhood. In the wake of the disaster Brunious received several new trumpets from friends and well-wishers, but his main horn remains the same one he played before Katrina. Once the floodwaters had receded, Preservation Hall Director Ben Jaffe retrieved the battered instrument from the wreckage, and trombonist Frank Demond sent it to a friend in California who was able to return it in perfect repair.
“We’ve gotten extra-special vibes from our audiences since Katrina. People all around the world have been so nice to us. And we run into people like that every night, man. It’s made me feel closer than I ever have to them, just as the friendship we feel within the band has only gotten deeper. I love New Orleans, and I hope one day that my wife and I can go back home at last.”
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The New Orleans Revue, October 15, 5pm, Symphony Hall
