Fame and Infamy in Louisiana | Scrumptious Chef

Notes On The Short Electric Life Of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones

The 1200 block of Saratoga in Central City is one of the most infamous streets in the annals of New Orleans crime. On the morning of July 27th, 1900, Robert Charles, a black man from Mississippi shot 24 white people including four cops before a white mob set fire to the cottage he was holed-up in, and shot him dead as the house burned to the ground. Continue Reading

Hotel Theresa where Walter Papoose Nelson was found dead on Wednesday, February 28th, 1962

I ran into Walter “Papoose” Nelson’s niece at Little People’s Place in New Orleans 6th Ward in summer of 2018. Continue Reading

Notes On The Life and Death of New Orleans Jazz Drummer Paul Barbarin

I’ve been building a Mount Rushmore for New Orleans drummers over the past few years.

Paul “T-Boy” Barbarin is sitting on top of that mountain. Continue Reading

Notes On The Life Of Legendary Transvestite Performer Bobby Marchan

New Orleans was chockablock with transvestites in the 1950s.

Imagine walking into the Dew Drop Inn in Central City when giants like Fats Domino and Chris Kenner were regularly performing. The host of the affair would be Patsy Vidalia, born Irving Ale, and the show opener just might be Bobby Marchan born Oscar James Gibson. Continue Reading

Notes On The Life Of Bettye Swann

I remember going to see my first movie in Arcadia. My brothers dropped me off at the movie theater so that I could watch Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender. I went up to the balcony; you couldn’t go downstairs if you were black

Notes On The Life Of Lloyd Price

Lloyd Price loved to hang out with his little brother Leo at their mama Beatrice’s fried catfish restaurant, the Fish ’n’ Fry in Kenner, Louisiana when they were kids. She had a jukebox filled with early blues stompers like Beans and Cornbread by Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner’s Watch That Jive, and Amos Milburn’s Chicken Shack Boogie. Continue Reading

Johnny Thunders Found Dead In French Quarter Hotel Room

I hate the word punk. I was never a punk. I never played punk music

Notes On Blanche Thomas The Blues Queen of Treme

Little Richard’s drummer Earl Palmer lost his virginity to Blanche Thomas when he was 12 and she was 16. Take it away Mr Earl Continue Reading

Notes on New Orleans Jazz Drummer Baby Dodds

Baby Dodds was playing a gig in Chicago at Lincoln Gardens in 1923 when he purchased his “favorite drum.” It set him back ten bucks. When asked to show it off he does so gladly before kissing it and placing it back in its rack.

If you come from a hardscrabble background where $10 is a small fortune you better believe you’ll kiss your moneymaker when you shelled out that kind of money for it. Continue Reading

9th Ward Daily Photo via rl reeves jr

New Orleans native Bob Kaufman aka the Original Bebop Man was thrown into a San Francisco jail 39 times in 1959. His crimes? Reciting his poetry on the streets. He got tossed in the can so frequently that his friends kept a tip jar on hand emblazoned with “Bob Kaufman bail fund.” Continue Reading

RL Reeves Jr

Writer Documenting Life In New Orleans 9th Ward. Second Lines, Hotplates, Gumbo, Po Boys, Brass Bands

Notes On The Short Electric Life Of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones

Notes On Early Rock n Roll Guitarist Walter ‘Papoose’ Nelson

Notes On The Life and Death of New Orleans Jazz Drummer Paul Barbarin

Notes On The Life Of Legendary Transvestite Rock n Roller Bobby Marchan

Notes On The Life Of Bettye Swann

Oooh-Oooh-Oooh: Notes On The Life Of Lloyd Price

Johnny Thunders Found Dead In French Quarter Hotel Room

Notes on Blanche Thomas The Blues Queen of Treme

Notes on New Orleans Jazz Drummer Baby Dodds

Bob Kaufman Was The Original Bebop Man

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