Monday, May 12, 2008
MUSIC
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Local band Harlan began without a band. The group’s founder, John Harlan Norris, recorded everything that’s heard on The Still Beat, Harlan’s full-length CD debut, himself at the LSU School of Music studio.
Very rarely do you find musical maturity in the debut album of a local band. Not because the musicians are lacking in talent, rather, it takes time for any band to find its true voice. One of Louisiana’s most unusual and colorful gatherings takes places this Saturday, May 10, at 11 a.m. when hundreds of boats of all types anchor on the Lake Maurepas ‘sandbar’ for the 2nd Annual Jonathan Arrington Memorial Party - Jammin’ in Lake Maurepas. Mariah Carey really did get married to Nick Cannon in the Bahamas last week — and they have the tattoos to prove it. The 38-year-old singer and the 27-year-old actor confirmed to People magazine that they tied the knot at Carey's Bahamian estate April 30 after a courtship that began in late March. In the first stretch of their national spring ’08 tour, Los Angeles-based band Burden of Proof will make a stop at Baton Rouge’s North Gate Tavern May 8. Members of Burden of Proof include Neil Gall (vocals and guitar), Chris Theil (guitar and back-up vocals), Dan Cascio (bass) and Nathan Gall (drums and back up vocals). When most people hear Tuscaloosa, Ala., they think of Alabama football and traitors. What they may not associate with the city is a progressive indie rock band making their way onto the music scene. Baak Gwai was formed in 2004 with John Snowden (vocals/guitar), Adam Pate (bass) and Chris Zeiler (drummer). Adam Planche (guitar/keyboard/vocals) later completed the group. After six years of repeated delays, jury selection is set to begin Friday in the Grammy-winning R&B singer's trial on child pornography charges, prompted by a videotape allegedly showing Kelly having sex with a girl as young as 13. NEW ORLEANS — “We started in the storm, we ended up in the sunshine, just like New Orleans,” New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival producer-director Quint Davis said Sunday following the Neville Brothers’ first Jazz Fest performance since Hurricane Katrina. NEW ORLEANS — Making his belated debut Friday as a solo act at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Art Neville brought more than 50 years of New Orleans music history to the stage. Neville is the eldest brother in the Neville Brothers and a member of the city’s legendary funk outfit, the Meters. Young, black and gifted. That is how Baton Rouge recording artists Lil’ Josh and Ernest — Josh Lewis and Ernest Stewart — see themselves. “And don’t forget handsome, too,” Stewart said Saturday, while the pair lounged in a Southern University Laboratory School hallway during a break from filming their first music video. NEW ORLEANS — In its seventh year of presenting the lost legends of rock ’n’ roll, rhythm-and-blues, blues, soul, country and swamp pop, the Ponderosa Stomp drew big, enthusiastic crowds Tuesday and Wednesday during its two-night stand at the House of Blues and its adjacent sister club, The Parish. The Phantom of the Magnolia Arts Pavilion seems like such a long title. Better shorten it to The Phantom of the Pavilion, at least for this afternoon. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ When the one-man, publicity-generating whirlwind that is Diddy met the well-oiled hype machine of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, sparks were bound to fly. Sean Combs is getting a star Friday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an event most honorees mark by turning up at the assigned time, smiling for cameras, and going about their business. NEW YORK (AP) _ Nick Cannon is cast as Mariah Carey's lover in her new video — but has the superstar diva given the young actor a considerably bigger role in real life? According to several published reports, Carey, 38, married Cannon, 27, on Wednesday. Neither Carey's publicist nor Cannon's manager returned requests from The Associated Press for comment. Sweet Root will be performing their rock-infused country sound at this week’s Live after Five. According to their website, this band has “one boot planted firmly in the hallowed grounds of Americana and the other digging in strong to the new Texas music scene.” In some ways it’s strange that a band that released only two studio albums and, shortly after its lead singer-lyricist committed suicide, a posthumous hit single, should even have a best of collection. Nearly three years after Aaron Neville’s home in New Orleans’ Eastover subdivision fell victim to post-Hurricane Katrina floodwaters, he’s planning his return to Louisiana. But Neville — among the most beloved singers to emerge from his famously musical hometown — won’t live in New Orleans proper. He’s buying property in Covington, an hour-and-10-minute drive from the city. This weekend will be the 30th anniversary of Marcia Ball’s debut at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. With only two exceptions, the Austin-dwelling former Louisianan appeared at the festival every year since 1978. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews comes from New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood, a richly musical place prior to Hurricane Katrina. The 22-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist grew up around his trumpet-playing brother, James “Satchmo of the Ghetto” Andrews, the late Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen, the Rebirth Brass Band and many more New Orleans musicians, including singer-trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, a neighbor who lived just down the street. SURREY, British Columbia (AP) -- Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger was sentenced Thursday to a year without driving and fined $588 for a drunken driving conviction. NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The rock group Widespread Panic, Thursday's closing act of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, had more than musical entertainment to give this city and its residents. The band arrived in New Orleans early Wednesday to visit the Lower 9th Ward, the neighborhood where it is sponsoring the building of a house for a family who lost their home to Hurricane Katrina. The Lafayette, Louisiana-based Puzza Crudo appeared in May 2006. The band mixed a powerful female voice with jazz and funk to create a fresh rock sound. Even though the band’s name started out as Puzza Crudo, the group found that people didn’t really understand it. Sometimes one song can take you back and remind you of the good old days. That’s just what you can experience every Wednesday night at the Caterie with One Wants. Band members Lee McCurley (vocals), Cory Landry (guitar), Stephen Black (bass), Kenny Guzzardo (drums), and Jacob Cardona (sound engineer) play covers of the music they love every single week. By now, it’s no secret that Wednesday nights in Baton Rouge are dominated by the original funky-brass sound of The Michael Foster Project. For the past decade the New Orleans-style brass band trudged its way from obscurity to being one of the leading funk bands in the city. As lead singer of the Shangri-Las, Mary Weiss recorded some of the 1960s’ greatest girl-group hits. “Leader of the Pack,” including motorcycle thunder and crash sound effects, reached No. 1 in November 1964. “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” was a Top 10 hit, too. LAFAYETTE — Crowds of people showed up in downtown Lafayette Saturday to enjoy the music being played at the Festival International de Louisiane. The performers played for 12 hours Saturday on a stage set up around the fountains between the River Center and the Old State Capitol. Despite a persistent threat of rain, the large crowd lounged in lawn chairs or in the grass or sat at tables set up in the concession area. NEW ORLEANS — Despite the clouds that hovered above the Fair Grounds Race Course throughout Friday, the 2008 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was spared rain during its extremely successful opening day. The festival wasn’t so lucky Saturday. NEW ORLEANS — Opening day for the third post-Hurricane New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was music, food and fun as usual. A flood of festival patrons filled the grassy spaces in front of the festival’s largest stages to see the likes of pop star Sheryl Crow and the duo of Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and bluegrass chanteuse Alison Krauss. The past two albums from Orange County, Calif.-based rock-metal band Atreyu both reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The latest of the two, Lead Sails Paper Anchor, was re-released this week with a ton of extras, including bonus tracks, music videos, a printable 50-page digital booklet and a guitar lesson from the band’s Dan Jacobs. With an inspired new album about to be released, a summer tour on the horizon and a clean bill of health, Kenny Neal is a blues survivor. Performing again following the 52 weeks of treatment for hepatitis C that took him off the road for the first time in 30 years, Neal is emerging from the waves of trouble that struck him and his deeply musical family in recent years. New Orleans piano maestro Henry Butler is among the city’s artists in exile. “I was on the road for about three months after Katrina and then I realized I didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said during a telephone interview. The Baton Rouge Blues Festival returns Saturday following a 13-year absence. Performers include Austin’s singing, piano-playing Marcia Ball; Phil Guy, Louisiana native and brother of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Buddy Guy; Houma’s hardworking blues star and advocate for Louisiana’s wetlands, Tab Benoit; Kenny Neal of Baton Rouge’s Neal family of blues artists; former local and roots music legend Lazy Lester; and such Baton Rouge mainstays as Larry Garner, Luther Kent and Slim Harpo band alumni James Johnson and Rudy Richard. Lafayette’s 22nd Festival International de Louisiane continues this weekend with a bountiful mix of music, dance, food and art from around the world. This year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, April 25-27 and May 1-4, is the first time the celebration has featured seven days of music since Hurricane Katrina. The festival’s mix of rock, jazz, country, blues, gospel, world beat and more will feature hundreds of musicians including The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Al Green, Diana Krall, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and Irma Thomas. British-born New Orleans singer-pianist Jon Cleary has no less than eight gigs lined up in the next eight days. His performance sprint begins Saturday with a set at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, continues with a Mid City Lanes Rock ’n’ Bowl gig that evening, a Sunday show at d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street, more appearances through the week and, finally, a CD release party at the Maple Leaf Bar next Sunday. Soul singer Roy Young came to love American rhythm-and-blues music when he was a child in his native Jamaica. He still regrets having been too young to see Sam Cooke when the singing star performed in Jamaica. His parents had emigrated to England by then and young Roy was essentially an unsupervised street kid. What have you accomplished in the last four months? Is it anything worth writing home about, or have you simply been going through the same motions? For four Baton Rouge natives, the last four months have proved quite successful, as this is the amount of time it’s taken them to form a band, record an album, perform nearly a dozen shows and produce a line of t-shirts. When a famous musician dies, many bands will immediately break up (Led Zeppelin) or replace the deceased member and carry on (The Who). Blind Melon took a different path in 1995 that recognized the loss of singer Shannon Hoon while allowing the group to continue on until 1999. Based out of Chicago, One Chance is gearing up to make it big with their single, “U Can’t,” featuring Young Joc. Not only is this single getting airplay, but the group is also about to release their debut album and begin a summer tour with multiplatinum artist Usher. NEW ORLEANS — Ministry let loose a firestorm of decibels Saturday night upon a sold-out House of Blues. It was a stop on the band’s C-U-LaTour, reportedly the final world trek for the rock-metal-industrial powerhouse that began 28 years ago. Keith Sweat headlines an all-star rhythm-and-blues show tonight at the Baton Rouge River Center. A star since his multimillion-selling 1987 debut, Make It Last Forever, the slow-jam maestro releases his latest studio album, Just Me, May 6. Just Me is classic Sweat. An elegantly crafted collection of slinky R&B, it features guest vocalists Keyshia Cole, Athena Cage, Paisley Bettis and Akon and rapper Chris “F.L.O.” Conner. Downtown Alexandria invites visitors to come enjoy the fun tomorrow, April 19, at Jazz on the River. Presented by the Arna Bontemps African American Museum, the event is designed to bring jazz to audiences outside the New Orleans area and to showcase the art form that influenced Arna Bontemps and other artists of his era — the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age. Chris Thomas King, Grammy-winning recording artist, actor and film composer, was wearing one of his many hats Friday at Louisiana Media Services, a local movie post-production company. Standing in front of a screen showing scenes from the crime drama Killing Point, the Baton Rouge native and Prairieville resident re-recorded several of his Killing Point lines. The movie’s editor listened in from Vancouver, where the film was shot. Warlords of industrial music, Ministry and its fearless leader, Al Jourgensen, fused punk rock, metal, electronic and dance into a supercharged hybrid that took no prisoners. Blues star Buddy Guy’s homecoming show Wednesday at the Texas Club was a mixed blessing. Guy — a native of Pointe Coupee Parish, former Baton Rouge resident, multiple Grammy winner and 2005 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — had lost much of his voice prior to the show. Watching the annual Grammy Awards telecast one year, zydeco musician Terrance Simien and his wife and business partner, Cynthia, wondered why there was no category for zydeco or Cajun music. After all, there’s a great tradition of indigenous music among the Creole and Cajun people of south Louisiana. Since the early 20th century, too, the music has been documented in commercially released recordings. The annual Baton Rouge Blues Week returns this week with nine days of events, including the return of the Baton Rouge Blues Festival. As giant changes pound the music business, the group called Tuesday's Debut is staring down the cocked barrel of the unknown and not blinking. They have stood strong despite parting ways with a founding member and losing their record deal. |
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