July 2008
An exhibition of photographs from the illustrious life of Lionel Hampton, on view at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art through the end of this month, is a centennial celebration inviting thoughts on a storied career in jazz.
Hampton, was by various reports, a force of nature, a bandleader...
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June 2008
Though a dazzling presence in the popular imagination, Mardi Gras Indian gangs (as these groups have named themselves) aren’t personally well known to music lovers. People at the New Orleans Country Club have been dancing to Deacon John’s band for decades; so have the masses at Tipitina’s and...
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May 2008
When the political world erupted after YouTube posted the fiery sermons of Jeremiah Wright, the Obamas’ pastor in Chicago, America plunged into another “conversation about race.” That conversation has a rocky history with many fade-to-black conclusions leaving no genuine resolution. The depth...
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April 2008
Lush is one of those words that floats through the collective mental plates as a cloud of many meanings. Consulting the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (50th anniversary edition) reveals that lush can mean “covered with abundant growth,” which is evocative of New Orleans with its sprawling floribunda in...
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March 2008
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the utmost authenticity, the true Celtic reveler will need more than green beer and plastic flowers.
 Baton...
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March 2008
Last September the writer Howard Mandel organized a conference at Columbia University – Jazz in the Global Imagination – for some two dozen writers, researchers and radio hosts from Japan, Russia, Western Europe, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The sheer reach of the project was typical of Mandel, who...
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January 2008
When Billie Holiday began recording in 1933, she brought a mellow voice filled with poetic intonations that achieved her own tone in the national soundtrack from the Great Depression through World War II. She recorded until the week before her death in 1959, but the voice that brought such magic to...
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December 2007
Boys in the Hood - The Blind Boys of Alabama Meet New Orleans
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October 2007
Goethe and Christopher Marlowe gave us the drama of Dr. Faustus, the learned man who sells his soul to Satan for earthly rewards. It is a timeless tale – the temptations of sin for short-term gain – oh-so-germane to battered New Orleans in view of our latest swatch of politicians, captured by the...
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August 2007
On the errant afternoon when I can steal away to the Louisiana Music Factory, the workday stresses melt and I plant myself in the aisles, perusing CDs, scanning the liner notes, knowing there’s never enough money to leave with everything I want, yet feeling ... happy. The ambience of a record...
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