Music: May 2008 Archives

Arts Journal's featured video today is Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye singing a duet version of "When the Saints Go Marching in" It's available on You Tube, click here

You might think it's corny, but it swings -- Danny Kaye, a complicated man, was full of awesome talent -- check it out!

You might think that I'm using any excuse to showcase this photo of me and Dr. John

and you would be right!

But I do have a story to tell. When I met Dr. John last Wednesday night  outside Tipitina's in New Orleans, he asked where I was from.

"Los Angeles," I told him

"I know some people there," he said.

I offered that I knew someone he knew in Los Angeles, Stewart Levine" (a producer Dr John has worked with)

"I know two Stewart Levines in Los Angeles," Dr John said, "And one of them is an asshole. Which one do you know?"

Saturday night found all of us wandering around Frenchmen Street, visiting the clubs there, from the Dragon's Den where a combo of guy on mac, guy on drums and guy on turntable jammed together.

Over at the Blue Nile there was a great band called Toubab Krewe -- a bunch of white guys playing exotic African instruments -- it was sort of the David Byrne / Talking Heads / Fela Kuti influenced "remain in light" sound taken to a trance level.





Sunday I worked in one more outrageous meal at Commander's Palace. Commander's reopned after 18 months with a multi-million dollar renovation to make it look like it always did --  Easter brunch year round. the Blood marys were reportedly excellent, I had perhaps the best cosmopolitan I've had in New Orleans, I had an incredible chicken and andouille sausage soup, --the famous turtle soup was terrific, the eggs sardou remain true to classic, but a steak and eggs was off the charts --- but all is prelude to the bread pudding. Such was a perfect ending to a classic meal.

PS. Harry Shearer and Judith Owen were at the next table

Despite early morning rains, the sun came out as did the people to play at Jazzfest


People at Jazzfest were dancing in the mud

Saw quite a few great bands


there were the jazz hounds of Tokyo a traditional New Orleans jazz band --- straight from Tokyo




Spent some time in the gospel tent

Perhaps one of the highlights was seeing The Roots. Here are pictures of  Questlove and their set list


But the surprise was seeing Ludacris come out and perform a few numbers


Ludacris is now my new best friend




Here's my buddy George Rush or Rush & Molloy on the job interviewing Ludacris



What was Ludacris doing there? He's part of a new show to begin airing on Aug 3 on Planet Green in which he and Tommy Lee travel to various places and end up having some positive charitable or environment impact -- in New Orleans I think they did a benefit -- it's called "Battleground Earth" -- and I'll have more details as we get closer to air date.

Day one at Jazzfest:
Thursday was a hot one, with the occasional clouds and wind giving a break. But there was a healthy crowd there for a Thursday and some fine music as well.

Although I walked around and dabbled here and there I ended up spending most of the day at the Gentilly tent. It was a sort of New Orleans greatest hits.

Sammy Ridgely and the Untouchables cooked up a set of Otis Redding and other hits you would recognize but made them his own.

Kermit Ruffins, trumpeter par excellence, is the inheritor of Louis Armstrong's mantle -- he has become one of the favorite interpreters of classic and modern New Orleans music, and he delivered a set that was a love song to New Orleans including Professor Longhair classics.

Then Randy Newman took the stage. Now Newman has got himself to a place where he can make a song out of conversation, and his piano playing is masterful -- so he played some new songs -- about how the world hates us but we're not bad as some others before us -- a song about all the old performers who are still touring ("You're dead, but you don't know it) and some classics.

Newman told the crowd that he was down in New Orleans with a bunch of Disney and Pixar execs (he said Toy story made about $7 Billion and that his song for that movie had made them about $4,378 ) recording songs for a new animated film "The Frog Princess", he played a song that he said they had recorded that afternoon with Dr. John doing the vocals.

So the good Doctor is in the house, doing some Disney work as well. Turns out the good Dr is staying at our hotel here The Monteleone.

Now as I write this Dr John has ambled into the offices WWOZ the legendary New Orleans radio station (that you can listen to online).

I hope they archive it and you can listen to it, because that's it's like eavesdropping -- they just talkin talkin talkin

"Music is the language of New Orleans," is the Mayor's slogan Dr John explained," because nobody here speaks the same way."