9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
If you were a hepcat living in New Orleans during the LBJ administration you may have heard this old cut recorded for Watch Records in November 1964.
That’s Professor Longhair on vocals and piano, Mac Rebennack on guitar, Curtis Mitchell on bass, and Smokey Johnson on drums.
Producer/arranger Wardell Quezerge ran the session.
Dial it up on Youtube and get ready to cut a rug shugga.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
Y’all remember when ‘Exhibit C’ by Jay Electronica dropped back in 2009.
New Orleans was agog over the St Augustine High School product, and an LP was sure to come out with due haste.
That record would take over a decade to be put to bed.
Rest In Peace Ronald Lewis of Big 9 Social Aid and Pleasure Club
Mr Lewis along with Artie Anderson, Edgar Jacobs Jr, Peter Alexander, Robert Starks and Ricky Gettridge created the Big Nine Social Aid and Pleasure Club in 1995.
Lewis was also founder, owner and operator of House of Dance and Feathers, one of the finest museums in a New Orleans that has hundreds of them.
WWOZ has a full eulogy here.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
A favorite daughter of Booker T. Washington High School, soul-belter Marva Wright was born today back in 1948. The Blues Queen of New Orleans was a late-bloomer, and didn’t get her start in the world of secular music til she was 40 years old.
Miss Marva made the most of the next two decades – touring across the US and holding down steady gig work in New Orleans where she earned her ‘Queen’ nickname.
Miss Wright passed away at the tender age of 62.
If you haven’t heard her work check out ‘Bluesiana Mama’ from her 1990 debut LP.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
It’s the anniversary of the birth of one of our favorite old school New Orleans singers and wildmen, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry.
Put on ‘I Ain’t Got No Home’ in honor of Mr Henry, born in Algiers on this day back in 1937.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
Part of the fabric of the New Orleans sound was ripped free on this day back in 2009 when Eddie Bo passed. We could spend hours writing about Mr Bo but suffice to say he was one of the cornerstones of New Orleans r&b and his passing left a hole in our town’s music scene that will never be filled.
He had dozens of instant classics but if you want to feel quintessential Bo put on his collaboration with Oliver “Nookie Boy” Morgan, “Roll Call”
Don’t do it if you’re not prepared to jump up and start dancing or buckjumping like a wild woman. It’s totally infectious.
Sit down for 40 minutes and watch the old master, John Folse host a hog killing and boucherie where his crew makes andouille sausage, pork sausage, and ponce; red and white boudin; backbone fricassee and white beans; hog’s head cheese; cracklins; debris stew and porchetta. Continue Reading
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
We’re celebrating the anniversary of the birth of soul man Elbert Wiggins Giles more famously known as Eddie Giles, born on this day in 1938 in Frierson, Louisiana.
Giles passed away a year ago in Shreveport. Put on an old burner like ‘Soul Feeling’ and celebrate the life of the fighting pride of Caddo Parish.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
We’re kicked back in New Orleans 9th Ward and marveling at how the ‘end of the worlders’ have somehow seized the day.
Oh, and listening to Leadbelly of Mooringsport, Louisiana.
“Ain’t It A Shame To Go Fishin’ On A Sunday” first Appeared on Leadbelly’s Last Sessions Volume One.
Release Date, 1953.
9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr
Panorama are the most underrated brass band in the city of New Orleans. They’re carving out a bizarre niche for themselves and are about as far as you can get from the traditional Louisiana brass sound. We would love for them to roll with a big S&P club at a second line just to watch people freak out.