A small representation of New Orleans and Louisiana music, mostly by artists from the area, inspired by Treme and a funeral I attended where the body was introduced by a New Orleans style band, featuring Crescent City legends such as Allen Toussaint, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and the Nevilles a few of the tracks here are N.O. songs by outsiders, sometimes N.O. songs by local folk. There’s a wider selection in the ‘box:
West End Blues – Louis Armstrong
Shag – New Orleans Feetwarmers
Climax Rag – Jelly Roll Morton’s New Orleans Jazzmen
Petite Fleur – Chris Barber
New Orleans (The Rising Sun Blues) – Leadbelly
Basin Street blues/When It’s Sleepy Time Down South Medley – Louis Prima
Big Chief – Professor Longhair
Ya Ya – Lee Dorsey
Free, Single And Disengaged – Huey “Piano” Smith & His Clowns
Goin’ Down – Allen Toussaint
Handa Wanda – Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indian Band
Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall) – Mystikal
Hook ‘N’ Sling, Pt. 2 – Eddie Bo
Pop, Popcorn Children – Eldridge Holmes
Gossip – Cyril Neville
Chicken Strut – The Meters
Cold Bear – The Gaturs
Right Place, Wrong Time – Dr. John
Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band – Redbone
The Flood – Eilen Jewell
Louisiana 1927 – The Neville Brothers
La Vieille Chanson de Mardi Gras – Cedric Watson
Cryin’ In The Streets – Buckwheat Zydeco
Also, GHE was asking if anybody has any recommendations as to music venues /local performers to try and see when he visits the city in October.
Epic post!! Can’t wait to listen.
I just discovered Huey “piano” Smith and his Clowns. Haven’t heard this one, though.
Ejay: Just enjoyed the first set, well most of it, it quit loading when it got to Leadbelly. This is the music I grew up on, when I was a teenager my fantasy was to travel to N.O. just to be in the cradle of it all. Westend; one of my all-time favorites, a CLASSIC piece of music in every respect, love Earl Hines at the piano plus Johnny Dodds on clarinet. Bechet is only one down from Louis on my list, he’s #1 as an improviser and Tommy Ladnier is an often overlooked trumpeter, love ‘em both. Bechet was also in Jelly Roll’s band along with another great trumpeter, Sidney de Paris, Jelly Roll was a key figure in my early jazz education. Petite Fleur, another song by Bechet, that version was more Monty Sunshine than Chris Barber and I remember it well. Right about that time I and several friends hired the Chris Barber band to play a concert in Suffolk, if we’d just stuck with it!
Thanks for the post, I’m looking forward to listening to the rest.
Lovely stuff – thanks, ejaydee
I need a lot of time to sit down and listen to this.
This looks and sounds like a labour of love ! I’ve just listened to the first set and especially loved both Louis-es, for different reasons. My dad has the Chris Barber on an EP with High Society and a couple of others; it’s Monty Sunshine on the clarinet, from the East End of London (rather than the West End of New Orleans). Thanks EJD.
Thanks for this compiliation! Intimidating to listen to all in one pop, will probably have at it over the course of the week.
Thanks for checking it out ‘Spillers, I know there’s a lot so feel free to skip, on the other hand there should be something for everybody.
It doesn’t seem like too much a lot!! it’s the perfect size.
Love the picture, too.
I like the mix of genres and epochs. Back after a more careful listen.
Oh I’m gonna enjoy this lot … eventually!
A live mp3 of Louisiana 1927 by DBT, played (at Manchester Academy3 the first time I ever saw them) a week after they played Tipitina’s, and three days after Katrina is already a personal fave, and Cryin’ In The Streets has been on my Walkman for a couple of years I think.
Cheers, ejay.
Drop DBT in the box DsD, and I was wondering where I got Cryin’ In The Streets from…and Dsd reminded me we got it from GHE’s social CD.
The Buckwheat Zydeco is perfect! I hadn’t heard that before.
I think this is the original, and I love this…
Drive-By Truckers version of Louisiana, live from Manchester on 6th September 2005, now in the ‘Box. Jason Isbell was on fine form, Mike Cooley(‘s under-rehearsed solo) less so! And unfortunately, the mp3 excludes the extended, heartfelt, showstopping explanation and intro speech that Patterson Hood gave, just before the band raised bottles of Jack Daniels in salute to N.O. and launched into the song.
I’m looking forward to this as well. New Orleans music has a special place in my heart after I took a driving tour of the U.S. the spring after Katrina. In Palm Springs, Florida a friend in real estate took me around and showed me the devastation that still remained – I couldn’t see it at first, but on closer inspection you could see where some of the posher houses were still waiting for half a dozen designer roof tiles to come off back order so they could get the temporary ordinary ones down.
In New Orleans, a few blocks from The Quarter it was empty, rubble on the streets, pot holes in the roads, still no electricity. An Army Corps of Engineers crew was at work on one property and I asked how they picked that one out of thousands. Guy said, we were told to start somewhere.
There was no plan. No one knew what to do next. Some of the houses were boarded up, some just sat leaning. People could find jobs serving drinks or rebuilding but had nowhere to live.
”No one gonna tell me it ain’t cause we’re a black city,” a guy repatriating drowned fridges and stoves told me. What are you going to do with the appliances, I asked. Fix ‘em up, he said. People will come back sooner or later.
And will anything have changed, I asked.
He looked at me for a second, then turned back to hefting a fridge off the back of a truck.
.
People still don’t get what a black mark this was on the U.S. I haven’t accepted America’s moral authority on anything since.
HEAR HEAR!!!!
It is my fervent hope that Dubya’s own personal room in Hell is shaped like a post-Katrina, government-ignored, mud-sodden, stench-ridden, stifling-by-day & freezing-at-night, water-ruined home; with one sound-proofed, misted’n'grimy window looking out into his old room in the White House, where the displaced residents of New Orleans are having the good-time party of their lives, funded by all the backhanders both Georges squirrelled away.
I don’t usually do “hate” against people I’ve never met, but for the Bush family, I’ll make a blanket exception.
GlassHalfEmpty: this from the Treme page
http://www.hbo.com/treme#/treme/inside/behind-the-scenes/video/beyond-bourbon-street.html/eNrjcmbOYC5Uz89JccxLzKksyUwOSExP9UvMTdUsy0xJzYeJOufnlaRWlDDns0knlpbkF+QkVtqWFJWmsjGyMXIyMgIAblQXOA==
gives a few tips, but I’ve never been to New Orleans myself so I can’t help anymore than that.
ejaydee
I really like a lot of this stuff. Have you ever heard of a New Orleans artist who went under the single name of Archibald? I heard his version of “One Scotch,One Bourbon, One Beer” on, of all things, Suzi Quattro’s radio show and it was really good. Seems he was some sort of NO “character”, but I can’t find much else about him.
Google is your friend Mitch.
Archibald
that’s a link – doesn’t show up too well though
Archibald’s been added to eJay’s menagerie Mitch. Forgot I had a record of his down in the basement. How dopey of me. In my defence, it is a really really big basement.
Hadn’t heard of him, but there’s a couple of tracks by him on Spotify and last.fm:
http://open.spotify.com/artist/0QhSO7ecVYCZf1NcZl9hPd
If you don’t use those, it looks like this compilation has 3 songs by him.
Thanks mucho for this, eejay; it’s fantastic! Are the tracks from your personal collection?
Tin, please feel free to select any one of these at any time for an Earworm and bung my name on it.
P.S. Am I being an idiot? Can someone direct me to bold/italics on this bit?
All tracks are indeed from my collection, except Eilen Jewell’s, which Tin contributed for, and I had to extract the Cedric Watson from a podcast. Main contributors include Soul Jazz Records’ New Orleans Funk and various Warner Bros./Atlantic funk compilations, What It Is! is the most comprehensive.
The bold and italics are represented by a simple b and i in wordpress. If you meant in the comments, I think {b}{/b} where {=<, should work, although I'm typing this from the dashboard comments section, where they use strong instead of b. I think one can only comment form the dashboard on one's own post though. I hope I didn't confuse you even more.
I’m going to listen soon ejd
but just popped in to say Soul Jazz record is ace.
had been meaning to pick up saturday night fish fry 1 or 2 (but it might be out of stock)
they do excellent re releases too – Ragga Twins or An England Story – that rarely get far away from the stereo.
this all looks brilliant ( tried to zip it from the box last night but it failed on me) I’ll try again before the football.
Have you checked their latest: Deutsche Elektronische Musik? It’s double ace, and I like their new packaging too, which is nice when you pay good money.
sounds good i will have a look
Am listening now – fab stuff Ejaydee – I’ve been really keen on the music the Steve Zahn character cranks up on his speakers in Treme and then goes out, leaving it booming in the street – it’s nigh on impossible to get a handle on who it is though.
I’m currently on episode 5 and am really glad that a 2nd series has been commissioned.
The song he plays in the first episode is the Mystikal, where the Neptunes expertly recreate the N.O sound, bypassing the local contemporary No Limit/Cash Money bounce sound.
I burnt the missus’ dinner cos I forgot it was in the oven cos of this playlist!!
The Chris Barber is lovely. And the Leadbelly – wow.
Not sure when I’m gonna get round to listening to this lot, ejay, but looking forward to eventually!
Ejay – this looks yummy. I’l save it for the weekend & do etoufee & red stripes. Thanks.
Every song in this list is a gem. I’m going to stop being an overly-effusive american now. But thanks for this, ejay.
The Mystikal is amazing. lyrically, musically…
I looked for Treme in all my usual shady places. I guess I’l hang out with GF and wait for the netflix.
http://eztv.it, search from there.
I get mine using Vuse.
Vuze, sorry,
Thanks.
I love the corn-popping percussion on the eldridge holmes. And we had some crazy-Isaac-dancing to the Meters and the Gaturs. Live blogging the playlists!!
I’ve listened to it all now, although in a better-than-not-at-all backgroundy way for some of it. Especially like the Prof, the Nevilles, and Buckwheat Z, which is the perfect choice for the closing track. Thanks again!
I have had a listen now too.. this is one major work.. now you know it’s all good, but unfortunately I can’t get the A team out of my head when I listen to ‘Sons & Daughters’ Neville Brothers – and that’s really not what they were aiming for…. (I know I’m a sad cretin – sorry)
but apart from that lapse it’s been a wonderful pleasure.
Epic post, Ejay. Can’t add much to what’s already been said. Nice one.
just getting round to starting this….loving it all so far, thanks Ejay.
And….thanks for the Treme tip-off, i’m a little isolated over here and came to The Wire 5 years too late, I ‘m just about to start watching the final series…
..so it will be nice to try to watch in “real time” for once, if I can find it….
Finally finding time to listen to this – and I think it’s my favourite playlis t ever on t’Spill (and that’s saying something).
Thank you so much, ejd!
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!
Brilliant, ejay – just what I need for my trip to the Big Easy! And thanks for the link – Frenchman Street looks like my destination!
@ steen – my very first post on t’Spill extolled the joys of Cryin’ in the street:
“It was on the New Orleans benefit album put together by Dr John. The real standout on that album was Cryin’ in the street by Buckwheat Zydeco.” Thanks for digging out the original for us, too.
I went to see them live – great live act – and I always meant to post some video of them on YT – must get round to it!
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