[On the Button] ...for his 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from OffBeat magazine, celebrated by George and his band at the Best of the Beat Awards show last night, where quite a party broke out. Read Alex Rawls' great interview with the bassist wtih the funky mostest , which also appeared in the January print issue with George gracing the cover. He got well-deserved kudos and gave a very gracious thank-you to his wife of 40+ [...]
I thought I'd consider a few tunes from the HOTG perspective in remembrance of Etta James , one of soul music's most expressive singers, who passed away last Friday at 73. She was preceded just a few days earlier by the great Johnny Otis , who had discovered her in San Francisco in 1954 and brought her down to Los Angeles to record for Modern Records, the first session resulting in a hit, "The Wallflower". [...]
Since today is Black Wednesday, I thought I'd act like a real blog today and just post a link to this piece on Mashable which says better than I could what all this SOPA/PIPA obfuscating is really about ....and it ain't online piracy, folks. Not that I support pirating; but nuking the internet, or attempting to make it serve just a few masters, is no solution. In the immortal words of the Isley Brothers...and Public Enemy..."Fight the Power!"
Well, I just looked up for a minute from the near constant keyboard tapping, information seeking, and record cleaning/listening rituals around here to find the new year fully engaged and Twelfth Night already past. Damn, tempus fugeddaboutit. It's time to stand back up and start celebrating all over again, and not just because the Saints continue their winning Who Dat ways.... It's Carnival season, y'all, in no way to be confused with the current Circus of the Absurd masquerading as presidnetial campaigning, traveling [...]
Happy New Year, y'all. Rob Bowman's extensive notes to the 1999 box set, Malaco Records: The Last Soul Company , revealed a lot to me when it first came out about Wardell Quezergue's years working out of the company's Jackson, MS studio, including the exact line-up of vocalists he and his partner, Elijah Walker, brought up from New Orleans on May 17, 1970 to wrap up their first big production project there. That trustworthy account, backed up [...]
George Porter, Jr. @ The Blue Moon Saloon ~ Photo by Dan Phillips / HOTG Archives ....and a groovin' N e w Y e a r ! 2DAT-TRUE DAT!! P.S. - Happy December birthday, George, Zig and Art, Conee Boswell, Lee Dorsey, Dave Bartholomew, Fess, Red Tyler, David Batiste, Louis Prima, Reggie [...]
After innumerable sidetracks crisscrossing by best intentions, I'm back with the next installment in this series of posts on one of the most significant producers and arrangers on the New Orleans popular music recording scene, Wardell Quezergue , who passed away on September 6th. As noted last time, since I started HOTG in 2004, I've done well over a dozen posts featuring his work; and the links are listed at the end of that piece, should you care to take note. He was deeply involved in bringing many songs and artists to prominence over [...]
The New Orleans Record Raid will be back next Saturday, November 12th, in the same location as the summer iteration, upper St Claude, within the walls of Siberia and the Hi-Ho Lounge, with the addition of a new venue, the All-Ways Lounge and Theatre across the street. Kudos to chief organizer, Hunter, for the brilliant stroke of New Orleans inspiration: digging for choice records in bars! Though, next spring, while the weather is decent, it might be nice to have the event outdoors [...]
TRYING TO MAKE THE BARONS RULE Wardell Quezergue began working with the Barons, a New Orleans-based soul vocal group, when they recorded a 45 for Senator Jones in the late 1960s. That convergence of talent is as good a place as any to start my meandering and understandably limited retrospective on this recently departed musicians' musician, known on many record labels from the era as Big Q, whose body of work is as impressive as it is immense. Over the last seven years, I've done a [...]
My usual plodding pace of posts has been slowed even more recently by several factors. First, immediately after Wardell Quezergue's passing, I was asked to do a short piece for OffBeat on a few of his productions I think are important, or, at least, revealing of his talent. That should appear in the October issue as a part of their feature on the man. After I finished that, it was time for the Ponderosa Stomp [...]
Offbeat's Best of the Beat Awards, 2008 , photo by Dan Phillips I am sad to report the passing of another of the Crescent City's musical greats, Wardell Quezergue, Sr., whose name you will find frequently on these pages, so intimately was he intertwined in the fabric the city's cultural and music heritage. For almost his entire adult life, he was a vital element of the local music scene as a composer, arranger, producer, and record label owner. His name will probably never be as well-known [...]
Picking up more or less where my prior post left off, I'll start with another of the late Benny Spellman's unreleased, Allen Toussaint-produced tracks, probably recorded prior to 1963 from the sound of it. I forgot to include this one this last time, and want to get it in, since it's a great little number, and one of my favorites. The song first appeared on the 1984 Bandy LP compilation, Benny Spellman (a/k/a Calling All Cars [...]
I really expected bigger things from Benny. He was by far the most popular rhythm and blues artist in New Orleans. He always was working even when nobody else could find a job. And he had those teenagers mesmerized, they just loved him. - Joe Banashak to Jeff Hannusch in I Hear You Knockin' . Benny Spellman, who would have turned 80 this December, passed away in early June in his hometown of Pensacola, FL. A singer with a pleasing, recognizable sound, whose career in music came [...]
I really expected bigger things from Benny. He was by far the most popular rhythm and blues artist in New Orleans. He always was working even when nobody else could find a job. And he had those teenagers mesmerized, they just loved him. - Joe Banashak to Jeff Hannusch in I Hear You Knockin' . Benny Spellman, who would have turned 80 this December, passed away in early June in his hometown of Pensacola, FL. A singer with a pleasing, recognizable sound, whose career in music came [...]
If you are in the New Orleans area, you should or may already know about this. The "raids" happen three or four times a year. Lots of worthy sellers, and vinyl predominates. It's indoors this time, with food, possibly some DJs spinnin', and A/C. How civilized! Check out their blog , to get more info and advance notice about future raids. See ya there...if I can look up from the boxes long enough.
If you are in the New Orleans area, you should or may already know about this. The "raids" happen three or four times a year. Lots of worthy sellers, and vinyl predominates. It's indoors this time, with food, possibly some DJs spinnin', and A/C. How civilized! Check out their blog , to get more info and advance notice about future raids. See ya there...if I can look up from the boxes long enough.
The always groovin' music of Willie Tee (Wilson Turbinton) goes particularly well with summer; and hearing it any time of the year summons up that seasonal vibe for me, especially the songs by his early 1970s funk band, the Gaturs, which just seem imbued with heat, humidity, and a feel-good, hang-loose spirit. So, with the advent of the summer season, I'm pulling out a few rarities by Willie solo and with the Gaturs. I've done a number of background posts on him over the years; and [...]
The always groovin' music of Willie Tee (Wilson Turbinton) goes particularly well with summer; and hearing it any time of the year summons up that seasonal vibe for me, especially the songs by his early 1970s funk band, the Gaturs, which just seem imbued with heat, humidity, and a feel-good, hang-loose spirit. So, with the advent of the summer season, I'm pulling out a few rarities by Willie solo and with the Gaturs. I've done a number of background posts on him over the years; and [...]
This session's batch of New Orleans vinyl contains songs associated with a dance called the Sissy, which also became known as the Sophisticated Sissy, and even a few more variants. When I considered doing a post on Sissy songs, I realized that I really didn't know much of anything at all about the dance itself, beyond the song titles and whatever lyrics there were, if any, that I could decipher. At that point, as always happens with these things, my OCD research mode kicked in; and I was off on various tears and tangents, [...]
In case you were wondering, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. . . yet. I'm just way behind on my posting after festival month down here and all. I made it to the French Quarter Festival, up to Memphis to help my dad celebrate his 86th birthday, then three days of JazzFest (you've got to pick your shots when the price gets so high), some of Festival International in Lafayette, and various side events and gigs. I also did taxes somewhere in there, which was not the least bit festive. In whatever rare, brief pockets of free [...]
Home of the Groove
On The Cover Of A Magazine
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Kylie Minogue receives threats on Twitter, alerts police!
The Shins Visit KEXP
