JazzFM show #5
Some notes on this week's edition of "The Jon Cleary Show"
There are a few varying flavours in this week’s episode. From the elegant textures of Monsieur Toussaint’s gentle touch on the 88’s to Rumba a la Congolese; some steady rockin’ Kingston style to soulful Miami grease to a European dance groove made with machines and Ry Cooder doing some slinky sliding on six strings. A disparate selection, perhaps, but all, I like to think, infused with the same soul vibrations that the good music of the Crescent City is cooked with and that New Orleans has influenced and been influenced by.
The New Orleans music world doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the musicians here are very aware of what’s being played beyond the Orleans Parish line. The cultural connections stretch to Jamaica, Havana, Brazzaville, Port au Prince, from Miami to LA to New York and across the ocean to Europe.
Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band - “Bogalusa Strut”
Bogalusa Strut is performed here by the Original Tuxedo Jazz band, led now by drummer Gerald French. This band has been in existence in various forms for over a hundred years. At the turn of the last century, it was led by trumpeter Papa Celestin, whose music was the soundtrack to adolescent New Orleanians of the 40s. A young Albert ‘Papa’ French took over the band in the second half of the twentieth century, and Gerald is his grandson. Gerald’s Father was George French, a bassist who had one of the smoothest singing voices in the city, and his Uncle was Bob French. George and Bob were part of the local rnb world of musicians who steered the local sound towards the proto-funk of Huey Smith and Earl King.
Art Neville - “Let’s Rock”
This is the era when the style of music coming out of New Orleans was about to change. The 60s were coming, some of the key studio musicians were looking west at the big-business recording world blossoming in Los Angeles. In California, Louisiana segregation laws didn’t exist, and the musical horizons were national rather than regional. If you listen carefully to Art Neville’s vocal inflections on this record, you can hear the influence of Specialty label mates Little Richard, Larry Williams, and William’s partner in crime (literally and figuratively), Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson - as well as Joe Tex.
Little Richard’s career didn’t really take off until Art Rupe came from California and brought him to Cosimo’s studio in New Orleans. When little Richard abjured the evil ways of rock n roll and turned instead to the Lord, his valet, Larry Williams, was recruited to take his place.
