Piety St. Studios will be shutting its doors shortly. Mark Bingham talks about it in this article...
The Mark Bingham interview referenced and another, earlier one are available on the interviews page...
The interview is on the interviews page...
For more on the fascinating Brice miller, bandleader, scholar, trumpet player see the entry further down on this blog about part 1.
It's such a crazy week that I omitted an announcement about tonights really promising show at Bacchanal Wine in the Bywater. Great food too.
Showtime is 7:30-10:30p
Alex Mcmurray-gtr;vcls
Bill Malchow-keys; vcls
Kevin O'Day- drums
Jonathan Freilich-gtr;vcls
Kevin O'Day! That should be something!
Ecumenical music?
Hello All,
This week is the last chance to catch me locally for quite a long stretch. Luckily it is a great week of shows for a send off. You are assured to see some of the city's finest up to some unusual and interesting musical escapades and explorations in some unusual local haunts.
Here is the run:
Sunday Aug. 18th at Snug Harbor- The Jonathan Freilich Quartet
w/ James Singleton-bass; Tim Green-sax; Johnny Vidacovich -drums
Tuesday Aug. 20th- The Open Ears series at Circle Bar - Naked On The Floor feat.-
Jeff Albert-tb; Paul Thibodeaux-drums; James Singleton-bass;
Ray Moore-Bari Sax; Tim Green-sax
Friday Aug. 23rd- at Casa Borrega- w/ Mas Mamones
Saturday Aug. 24th- at Siberia- w/ The Tom Paines
I almost forgot to mention it, but always worth a catch if you like the old acoustic guitars rolling and blending around some of the old songs. And, what better time in American history to remember old Tom Paine...
Alex Mcmurray- guitar, vocals
Jonathan Freilich- guitar, vocals.
Come find out how chicken is best cooked for an obscure Liberian songster...
Albu is still available and sounds great thanks to Mark Bingham at Piety St. Studios...
...amongst many other things. This interview will be of great interest for anyone with an eye and ear toward New Orleans musical traditions and culture. That doesn't cover all that is opened up here, however. Much is also explored on the relation of the music to the history of the city, and the many unfortunate changes of late. It speaks a lot to musical meaning in general- something important to everyone- so worth every bit of attention.
Brice's picture of these things is heightened by the authority of his experiences as brass band leader, and by the fact that his Father came from the same tradition. He grew up in the stories and transmissions of a previous generation of New Orleans musician and has an intimate experience of that life. He is old enough to chronicle some change himself. He has traveled the world as a representative of this tradition with its cornucopia of beautiful, rhythmic music.
His interests and inquiry do not stop there...
Brice is also currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alabama for an interdisciplinary degree with an emphasis on New Orleans brass bands after Hurricane Katrina. There is much discussion of his academic focus in the interview, and this ends up speaking of the horrors of intentional community displacement, and the results of that in New Orleans's ongoing identity and survival struggles.
And then there is talk of the fascinating tales of Ecirb Müller: revelations and perspective coming to light at a club near you.
It has been quite some time since the last audio interview was posted. This is a long and complete one on important musical subjects thanks to Brice's generosity. It will be posted in digest-able segments over the next short while. There was a final hour that became more conversational. Perhaps that segment will also be posted, as much was uncovered there as well.
The Interview is now up on the interviews page
So good last week we got another shot. Come out. As Alex Mcmurray (there tonight!) says, it's ecumenical music.
last week's crowd
The Jackals are:
Doug Garrison- drums
Joe Cabral-bass
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
Alex Mcmurray-guitar
Oh yes...Alex and Joe sing songs too. And not all in one language either. Collectively we are unafraid of a multilingual universe. Lengue, eh?
Doug Garrison
Joe Cabral
Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray
Tonight. after your linen has been truly gallery dirtied. get over to three muses- nola. great songs played at a high level. no sacrifice of essential humanity involved. you will beam and easily grab a fine wine at the same time!
Alex Mcmurray-guitar/vocals
James Singleton-bass
Joe Cabral-saxophone
Jonathan Freilich
Hard as it's been to get some time where we can all make it, we finally did. If you are unfamiliar with The Jackals, it was the sequel to 007 which became 00-Doug when drummer Jeffrey Clemens wasn't around. Lip service had to be paid to those voices that attempt minor potential gains through strict name recognition, so we changed the name to The Jackals. Now it is vastly distinguished from 007. You'll see!
Anyway we are at The Circle bar this Wednesday at 10pm.
Be there or don't. But...
As Louis Armstrong said "I never was born to be a Square about anything, no matter what it is..."
How about you?
The lineup is:
joe cabral
Alex Mcmurray
The itunes feed was down for some time while this site was revamped. Now the old interviews are slowly going back up. The podcast was initially conceived to ask deeper questions of musicians than what the standard music press, in its often genre-based, marketing centric, 'false-omniscience', tends to presume. When these interviews started several years ago, I had a distinct sense that musical awareness and interest was perhaps declining because questions were not being asked. Things may actually have gotten even worse in music journalism than a few years ago when these interviews started.
If you are interested in New Orleans's musical drivers plow on. There are many that I haven't had the opportunity to interview yet but I hope to. I try not to bias specific groups or styles but I have only had access to these figures so far. Connections are unintentional as far as preference goes but sometimes it does expose a network or community which is of interest.
The podcast features notable figures that relate in some way to the current vibrancy of the New Orleans music scene and community. It seeks to form a dialogue between ideas and motivations behind the music and the relationship of those ideas to the sound artifact being presented. The podcast also addresses what the audiences' state of understanding is about the music and whether understanding is relevant to the "success" of the musical artwork at all.
The real podcast had to be slightly renamed because of obscure problems with the iTunes store. If you search and find two podcasts under the name, Jonathan Freilich, the operational one will be 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians' The podcast features the material from this site's 'Interviews with Musicians' page and showcases in depth interviews with well known and lesser known contributors to New Orleans musical life. To get there on itunes click here...
On Sunday 4th of August at 8pm, come to readings from the work of...
Louis Armstrong
New Orleans music journalist, John Swenson will be curating this presentation of Armstrong as first 'jazz journalist.' The show is an effort by the New Orleans chapter of the JJA. Come by and see notable New Orleans voices including Chuck Perkins (poet), Mark Bingham(engineer/composer), Joe Cabral (musician/composer), and many more reading selections from the writings of the jazz, and 20th century music mastermind, Louis Armstrong. This will be towards the end of the festivities for the Satchmo Summerfest at Cafe Istanbul, New Orleans. Armstrong was an all-round artistic voice; a prolific writer to boot and, as always his distinctive artistic bent and style pervade this medium as well as his colossal music contribution. Of course, he was also a central shaping figure of the 20th century art so his stories are ground central for an important viewpoint of the world in his time. For more information and times check the calendar entry...
John Swenson