Imagination Movers Sign TV, Record Deals with Disney
The Imagination Movers (www.imaginationmovers.com) are a New Orleans kids-rock band that has rocketed to local stardom among the juice box set.
Their Mr. Rogers-meets-the-Beastie Boys tunes about life as a pre-schooler, riding bikes, brushing teeth and eating healthy snacks are addictive to four-year-olds.
Now they're going global. After a year of negotiations, they've inked a deal to develop a TV show for the Playhouse Disney Channel and to release albums through Walt Disney Records. For more information, click here to view their press kit.
Band member Rich Collins says the TV show looks to be on the fast track for a
fall 2007 debut.
Legendary record producer Nile Rogers (www.nilerogers.com) is a potential creative consultant on the show. He recently visited the band in New Orleans and toured the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina &mdash including the destroyed homes of three of the four band members. Rogers (named by Billboard as the top record producer in the world) is well known for work on monster records ranging from Chic's "Le Freak" to Madonna's "Like A Virgin" to David Bowie's "Let's Dance."
Less known are his kids' music credentials. At age 19 Rogers worked for "Sesame Street." More recently, he developed the "We Are Family Project: A Celebration of Our Common Humanity," a multimedia response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 &mdash portions of which aired simultaneously on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and PBS.
Others involved in the Imagination Movers TV show development are the production team of Skot Bright and Sascha Penn, whose combined credits include work with the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Melissa Etheridge and Dave Chappelle.
After a recent flurry of meetings in New Orleans and Los Angeles, the Imagination Movers are planning to film a TV pilot in Louisiana in October. If the pilot tests well, a 26-episode season could be ordered into production for a September 2007 debut. Meanwhile, Disney will start laying the groundwork by airing music videos from the band's independently-produced DVD.
The band is heading to a recording studio in New Orleans to work on their first major label album. It will combine tracks from their first three independent releases, some simply remastered and others entirely reworked with a live band. A potential collaborator is producer Patrick Dillett (www.patrickdillett.com), who has worked with They Might Be Giants, Mary J. Blige and David Byrne, among many others.
The combination of talents is just the blend to realize what Collins calls their collective vision of "what a hip, alternative kids' rock band should be."
"On the record side and the TV side, we are in the warm embrace of really intelligent people who are really interested in making this happen, and they are very tuned-in to the idea of doing it here" in New Orleans, Collins said.
The Movers have long been a favorite on XM Kids satellite radio. Their post-Katrina song "We've Got Each Other (The Evacuation Song)," from the album "Eight Feet" (as in "eight feet of water in my house") has been getting heavy rotation on XM Kids; the tune "Farm" from the same album reached No. 1. Clips from the Movers' DVD appear daily on Louisiana Public Broadcasting affiliates in Louisiana and other states.
The band will perform at Disney World in August and September.
Amanda Shaw (www.amandashaw.com), the teenage fireball from Covington, Louisiana, started as a classical music violin prodigy. Then she became a good-time Cajun fiddler. Now, after three independently released albums (the most recent distributed by Redeye), she has signed with Rounder Records and is maturing into a pop-rock singer-songwriter.
Rounder talent scout and producer Scott Billington has paired Shaw with songwriting partners including Louisiana pop tunesmiths Anders Osborne (who has written hits for Tim McGraw), Shannon McNally (www.shannonmcnally.com) and David Egan.
Recording is set to begin in late July or early August, with a release expected in early 2007.
Baby Boy da Prince (www.myspace.com/babyboy), a 22-year-old rapper from the West Bank of New Orleans, has signed to Universal/Republic (www.umrg.com). His debut album is set to be released in September.
A first single from the as-yet-untitled album, "The Way I Live," quickly shot to No. 1 on the request line at New Orleans radio station Q93-FM.
Baby Boy got his start as an opening act for No Limit Records artists like Chopper. He has performed with other New Orleans rappers Juvenile and Lil' Wayne and stars including 50 Cent.
New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore (www.stantonmoore.com) is well known for his work in the funk-rock band Galactic. He's also been the band's most active with outside projects. In 2002 he released a solo album on a Verve subsidiary, and has worked with various projects, including a studio album with the band Garage-A-Trois.
Now he's signed a solo deal with Telarc (www.telarc.com) . The yet-to-be-titled release features organ player Robert Walter and guitarist Will Bernard with special guests Dr. Lonnie Smith on organ, Skerik on saxophone and Mark Mullins on trombone. The record was recorded at the legendary Preservation Hall in New Orleans and will be released in late 2006.
New Orleans rock band Supagroup (www.supagroup.com) has signed with Chicago-based booking agency The Billions Corporation (www.billions.com) , home to the likes of the Mekons, Nick Cave, Pere Ubu and Louisiana's own Red Stick Ramblers (www.redstickramblers.com) . Supagroup just returned from a month-long European tour; a fall tour of the U.S. is in the works.
Willie Tee: Another Sample, Another Hit
"Tha Carter II," the latest Cash Money/Universal smash by New Orleans rapper Lil' Wayne (www.cashmoney-records.com) , is quickly closing in on platinum status with SoundScan sales of 964,652 so far. The disc is at No. 117 on the Billboard 200.
No one is happier about Lil' Wayne's success than New Orleans R&B veteran Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton (www.willietee1.tripod.com).
Turbinton is credited as a co-writer of "Tha Mobb," the lead-off track on the new Lil' Wayne album. The cut is based on a sample of the inspirational "Moment of Truth" (www.willietee1.tripod.com/24.ra), from Turbinton's 1976 soul gem "Anticipation" (United Artists).
Turbinton, whose work has also been sampled by the Geto Boys and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, among others, lost his house in Hurricane Katrina. Since the storm he's been in New Jersey as artist-in-residence at Princeton University. He also appears on the New Orleans Social Club album "Sing Me Back Home" (www.burgundyrecords.com).
Singer-songwriter A.M. (www.amsounds.com) grew up in Mandeville, Louisiana, and graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans. He produced an excellent indie CD (with graphics by New Orleans design firm New Emit (www.newemit.com), then headed to Los Angeles to try his luck in the big game.
His sound is mellow gold &mdash more pop-rock à la Beck and Coldplay than funky grooves &mdash but he's always called himself a New Orleans artist. Influential Los Angeles radio station KCRW-FM took a liking, and suddenly Hollywood was his oyster. Without major representation, he's managed to license all 10 tracks from that indie CD to films and TV shows, including MTV's "The Real World" and ABC's "What About Brian." He also snared the closing credits to an episode of HBO's "Big Love."
Now he's licensed the self-titled debut to Luna Records for distribution in the U.K. and is mulling offers from various labels for distribution in Japan and the U.S. He has renamed the debut album "Troubled Times," in honor of his friends and family in the New Orleans region. He'll be touring in the U.K. (including some dates with Bob Mould) in late June to coincide with the album release.
All of which is great. But it's only going to get better. While in New Orleans for Jazz Fest, A.M. dropped off three songs from his next record. Check out the stunning first track, "Stepping Stone," at www.myspace.com/amsounds.
New Orleans country songwriter Jim McCormick (www.satchmo.com/jimmccormickmusic) has been doing it the hard way for years — spending more than half his time in Nashville, making the rounds, trying to find a friendly ear.
He finally found one in James Stroud, a music publisher and record producer whose day job is co-chairman of a little label called Universal Music Nashville.
Now McCormick is getting the cuts he has long deserved. Country superstar Tim McGraw (who had a hit with a song penned by another New Orleans writer, Anders Osborne) has recorded "Louisiana," a tune McCormick co-wrote with Nashville songwriters Dallas Davidson and Hillary Lindsey. McGraw, a native of Louisiana, performed the song on an NBC television special and has been including it in his concerts. Now all he has to do is make sure it makes the final batch of songs on McGraw's next album on Curb Records.
McCormick, who has a master's degree in poetry from the University of New Orleans, is getting some other major label cuts as well. He's got a co-write on country legend Ronnie Milsap's next record on RCA, a tune called "It's All Coming Back to Me Now." And "We Rode In Trucks," another co-write, will be on a Capitol release by singer Luke Bryan.
Arthur Adams at The Truck Farm
Longtime denizens of the Los Angeles music scene know John Chelew as the guy who booked bands at the venerable McCabe's music club. The Recording Academy knows him as the guy who produced the four latest albums by the Blind Boys of Alabama — three of which won Grammys — as well as discs by John Hiatt, Richard Thompson, Donovan and others. New Orleanians are starting to know Chelew as the guy tooling around the Faubourg Marigny on a bicycle.
Chelew's style unites soulful singers with atmospheric arrangements (rootsy but sparse) of unconventional songs. The most recent deserving artist to get the Chelew treatment is Arthur Adams (www.arthuradamsband.com) , who grew up picking cotton in Tennessee, became a session guitarist for Quincy Jones and others in the 1960s and, most recently, has been the house bandleader at B.B. King's Los Angeles blues club.
Chelew and Adams spent several days in early June at the Truck Farm studio (www.thetruckfarmrecordingstudios.com) in New Orleans' Bywater neighborhood. With help from Ivan Neville on organ, Willie Green (of the Neville Brothers) on drums and Dave Easley on wicked pedal steel, they created unnervingly deep cuts on an inspired batch of tunes. Titles range from Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" to "For What It's Worth" by Stephen Stills, "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison, Nick Cave's "There Is a Kingdom," and Nina Simone's "Do I Move You."
Throughout, Adams unleashes a husky tenor that is proud and pure. The Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, took a break from overseeing renovations on her flooded house in eastern New Orleans to add bluesy vocals to the Fleetwood Mac song "World Turning" and U2's "Desire."
No word yet on when these retro/modernist gems will be released. But when they are, Chelew's going to have to make some room in his trophy case.
The Imagination Movers are not the only hit-making purveyors of kids' music in the Crescent City. You'd never know this from looking at the CD cover (or by listening, for that matter), but a cast of New Orleans veterans — including pianist David Torkanowsky, drummer Raymond Weber, guitarist Cranston Clements and bassist Chris Severin &mdash played all the music on a record by a teeny-bopper group from Boston called Girl Authority (www.girlauthority.com).
The band recorded basic tracks at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana, on pop/rock fare including Abba's "Dancing Queen," Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat."
The Rounder Records release is No. 10 on the Billboard kids chart and No. 49 on the new artist chart.
The bad news for Ultrasonic Studios in New Orleans was that it flooded badly in Hurricane Katrina, and it's unclear if the studio that was home to hundreds of sessions over more than 20 years in business will ever reopen. The good news is that the owners, Steve Reynolds and David Farrell, have remained busy as producers/engineers.
They've mostly been working out of Dockside Studio (www.docksidestudio.com) near Lafayette. Contact them at: cerebralborealis@yahoo.com. In the past few months they have worked on:
· A new album by Lafayette country/Cajun artist (and TV cooking show host) Richard LeBoeuf,
· The latest release from Lafayette blues band Blue Merlot,
· Overdubs featuring trumpeter Irvin Mayfield for a documentary film, recorded at The Music Shed (www.musicshed.net) in New Orleans ("It's a good set-up, and the guys are real nice," says Reynolds).
· "After the Rain," Irma Thomas' post-hurricane Rounder Records release featuring guest shots from Sonny Landreth, Stanton Moore, Dirk Powell, Corey Harris and others.
At La Louisianne Recording Studio (www.lalouisiannerecords.com) in Lafayette, the swamp-pop supergroup Li'l Band of Gold (www.ritmoartists.com/LilBandOGold/lbog.htm) &mdash which includes Warren Storm, Steve Riley and C.C. Adcock, among others -- has been working on a new album with Tarka Cordell producing. The band has also been working at Mike Napolitano's "Nappy Dugout" studio in New Orleans. Meanwhile, New Orleans rock artist Paul Christian has been working on a new record at La Louisianne, as has Cajun artist Roddy Romero.
Balance Productions Recording Studios (www.balanceonline.com) in Mandeville, Louisiana, has been busy with various projects: Marginal Way, signed to Balance's label, Nocturnal Records, finished a new EP with David Troia engineering. Rock band Invisible Cowboy (also on Nocturnal) cut a new batch of original songs. Country artist Christian Serpas & Ghost Town did an EP with Balance's in-house engineer Ovis at the controls.
In other Balance news, studio co-owner Dave Fortman just returned from Los Angeles where he recorded the next Evanescence disc for Wind-Up Records. Fortman's partner, Gene Joanen, is teaming with metal god Phil Anselmo (of Pantera and Down) to release 15 years' worth of Anselmo's back catalogue on House Core.
At Axis Studio (www.axistudio.com) in Metairie, Louisiana, owner/engineer Misha Kachkachishvili has done various recording, mixing and mastering projects. Among them:
· Jazz group Astral Project's "Live At Snug Harbor"
· Piano man Bobby Lounge's "Ten Foot Woman"
· Ten Trillion Lights' "The Cleansing"
· "Themolition" by Them
· "Fortune and Circumstance" by EOE
Tim Stambaugh at Word of Mouth Studio (www.masterdigital.com/studios/data/wordofmouth.htm) in New Orleans' Algiers Point neighborhood has had several local artists in for sessions in the past few months. They include soul man Walter "Wolfman" Washington, trumpeter Leroy Jones, kids' music singer Johnette Downing, trombonists Rick Trolsen and Lucien Barbarin and the Pinstripe Brass Band.
When he's not traveling the globe as sound engineer for Maceo Parker, Andrew "Goat" Gilchrist mans the boards at his House of a Thousand Hertz (www.houseof1000hz.com) studio in New Orleans' 9th Ward. Recent clients include staples of the 9th Ward indie scene Drums & Tuba and Washboard Chaz, as well as Cajun fiddler Jonno.
Since recording part of the Allen Toussaint/Elvis Costello album "The River in Reverse" for Verve in December, Piety Street Studio (www.pietystreet.com) in New Orleans has had roughly 30 projects come through the doors. They include studio co-owner Mark Bingham recording the Radiators and John Mooney, studio co-owner John Fischbach recording gospel group Shades of Praise, and sessions with rock acts Theresa Andersson, Another Big Machine and the Happy Talk Band.
Piety has become the local studio of choice for soundtrack work. It hosted an orchestral session, featuring players from the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (www.lpomusic.com) for the Lions' Gate film "Medea's Family Reunion." And Josh Rabinowitz with the New York-based ad agency Grey Worldwide used a New Orleans band including keyboardist John Gros and sax man Tim Green to cut music for a BellSouth TV commercial at Piety.
Don't forget: Louisiana is one of the few places on Earth where those investing money in record production can get cash back for making albums here. The incentive &mdash modeled on the state's successful film program &mdash is called the Sound Recording Investor Tax Credit. For details, contact info@louisianamusicexport.com.
Deadboy & the Elephantmen (www.deadboyandtheelephantmen.com) , a bayou-garage duo from Houma, Louisiana, is getting plenty of ink and air time. And not just because of the obvious comparisons to the White Stripes (girl on drums, guy on guitar and howls). Frontman Dax Riggs has some previous experience with boldface from his stint with grind-core band Acid Bath. He's still singing about death, but not with such obvious death-metal overtones. With colleague Tess Brunet, they've got a record deal (Mississippi blues-and-roots label) Fat Possum; a major booking agent (California-based High Road Touring); management (Austin-based Charles Attal) and a big-time publicity agent (New York-based Nasty Little Man).
Deadboy's first step on the march to the hit parade came with a coveted (or perhaps dreaded) spot following the Beastie Boys not-so-secret "surprise" show at SXSW (www.austinchronicle.com).
Next came a four-star review in Rolling Stone and an interview on NPR's "Weekend Edition".
Now, their set at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee made the lead of Jon Pareles' June 18 journal entry on the New York Times web site.
Oh, and enough with the White Stripes comparisons. They're a trio now, having added bass player Alex Bergeron.
Louisiana at SXSW
At the 20th annual South By Southwest Music & Media Conference in Austin, Texas, Louisiana was hard to miss.
Every time New Orleans' Hot 8 Brass Band (www.hot8brassband.com) started blowing on Sixth Street, the crowded nightclub district, scores of young people proceeded to lose their minds. You'd think they'd never seen people who actually know how to play trumpets and trombones.
One of the highlights of the week was a special edition of the Ponderosa Stomp (www.ponderosastomp.com), a roots music revival that packed the Continental Club. Show-stoppers Barbara Lynn, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson and Archie Bell were backed by an ace Louisiana band led by C.C. Adcock and other members of his swamp-pop dream team, Little Band of Gold. Said the Austin American-Statesman: "If there was another set during the whole of SXSW with more passion, sweat, commitment, resonance and sheer, unalloyed fun, I'd like to know what it was. As simply a performance, the Ponderosa Stomp was a rambunctious honky-tonk feast. As a testament to the resilience of the tempest-tossed Gulf Coast (and it was explicitly that), it was a declaration that these people, this music and this culture is going to stand its ground and prevail." Read the whole review here.
The main event was the official Louisiana showcase, a free, day-long festival at Austin's Auditorium Shores amphitheater. Allen Toussaint, Buckwheat Zydeco, Beausoleil, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk all delighted the crowd. The concert was free, but cash collected from the crowd totaled $8,500; SXSW generously topped it off, raising a total of $10,000 that was donated to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (www.savenolamusic.com).
The Auditorium Shores gig also marked the second public performance of the New Orleans Social Club, an all-star band that gathered in Austin a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina to make an album (produced by longtime New Orleans-phile Leo Sacks) called "Sing Me Back Home." The record was released during SXSW on a new Sony-distributed label, Burgundy. While in town, the group also taped a segment of the "Austin City Limits" TV show. Watch a mini-documentary about the project at: ( www.burgundyrecords.com).
The Louisiana Music Export Office will have a trade show booth and will lead a panel discussion on the post-Katrina Louisiana music scene at WOMEX (www.womex.com) , the World Music Expo, which will be held this year in Seville, Spain, in October. Louisiana music companies interested in sending materials to the conference should send e-mail to: info@louisianamusicexport.com.
The Cutting Edge
Aug. 24-27, 2006
New Orleans, LA
www.cuttingedgemusicbusiness.com
The International Association of Jazz Educators
Jan. 10-13, 2007
New York, NY
www.iaje.org
The Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Jan. 21-24, 2007
New York, NY
www.artspresenters.org
The Folk Alliance
Feb. 22-25, 2007
Memphis, TN
www.folkalliance.org
South By Southwest
March 9-18, 2007
Austin, TX
www.sxsw.com
April Festivals Post Solid Numbers
April is the peak of festival season in Louisiana. The place bubbles over with music, with events including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Festival International, the French Quarter Festival, the weekly concerts in New Orleans' Lafayette Square and Baton Rouge's Blues Week.
All of these events drew large crowds this year, reassuring fans from around the world that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita haven't dampened Louisiana's party spirit.
Here are the numbers:
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (www.nojazzfest.com) reported total attendance of between 300,000 and 350,000 people over six days. That equates to roughly the same daily attendance as last year, which drew 400,000 people over seven days.
Festival International in Lafayette (www.festivalinternational.com) gave an official attendance estimate of 300,000 over four days. That's on par with the 2005 numbers and would have been higher if parts of the main event on Saturday, April 30, hadn't been rained out; on the whole, attendance was 30-40 percent higher than last year on the days it didn't rain.
The French Quarter Festival in New Orleans (www.fqfi.org) estimated attendance at 350,000 over three days &mdash down from last year's record of 450,000 but still strong considering all of the hurricane-related obstacles to mounting the first large festival of the season.
Baton Rouge's Blues Week (www.louisianasmusic.com), which hosted nine club shows over five nights, reported ticket sales of just over 2,000 &mdash about 30 percent higher than last year.
The Wednesdays at the Square concerts (www.wednesdayatthesquare.com), now produced by New Orleans' Young Leadership Council (www.youngleadershipcouncil.org), have been more crowded than ever. Official attendance estimates are up by 50 percent from last year, with total attendance for the 12 weekly concerts expected to reach 75,000.
These live music events attract fans from around the world, providing a much-needed boost for local hotels, restaurants and music clubs. They also generate a ton of media coverage. Most of the national and international press focused on the effects of the devastating hurricanes on Louisiana culture. Good examples are dispatches on MSNBC.com and USA Today.
But The New York Times barely mentioned the hurricanes in a front-page profile of Don Montoucet, the 80-year-old maker of antique-steel triangles prized by Cajun musicians. Click here to read the full article.
Of all the spring festivities, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival led the pack in digital media outreach to the world. As it has for the past two years, Jazz Fest is selling live recordings of the 2006 event on CD and as digital downloads in partnership with Munck Music (www.munckmusic.com). This year, MSN.com stepped in with video streams of the event (photographed by New Orleans-born film producer Michael Murphy) Visit this link to view the streams. And as it has for years, WWOZ-FM broadcast the Fest on the Internet and local radio at www.wwoz.org.
Besides generating tourism dollars and media exposure, festivals also showcase our musical talent for the producers of other events from around the globe who descend on Louisiana in search of fresh faces for their own overseas concerts.
Jazz Fest wasn't even over before Carlo Pagnotta, founder and producer of the prestigious Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, announced a special tribute to New Orleans at the 33rd annual event in Perugia. The Detroit International Jazz Festival followed quickly with a similar announcement.
Lisa Stafford, programming coordinator of Lafayette's Festival International, took the showcase benefits of that festival a step further. She added the Louisiana International Music Exchange (www.festivalinternational.com) — a trade show where roughly 65 booking agents and event producers from California to Belgium mingled with musicians from across southern Louisiana. Among the participants were reps from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; the Grou Tyme Acadian music festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Rhode Island.
Irma Thomas' (www.irmathomas.com) post-Katrina album, "After the Rain" (Rounder), has been getting great press around the world, including four stars each in the Independent of London, (www.enjoyment.independent.co.uk), The Guardian www.arts.guardian.co.uk and the Montreal Gazette. It also got a nice mention in the June 10 New York Times.
New Orleans soul-rock singer Eric Lindell is making noise at radio with his first album on Alligator Records (www.alligator.com) , "Change In the Weather." The song "Give It Time" is at No. 20 on the Radio & Record's Indicator Triple A (Adult Rock) chart. It's also a Top 20 song on the radio trade publication Friday Morning Quarterback's Triple A chart. The album hit No. 21 on the FMQB Public Radio chart. The disc was No. 8 for the month of May on the Living Blues radio chart and No. 1 in the Roots Music Report. Apple's iTunes featured "Give It Time" with a free download, which was snapped up by 98,000 people.
Cajun stars BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet (www.rosebudus.com/beausoleil) have a new disc, "Live In Louisiana," which showcases the band during two January installments of the Louisiana Crossroads concert series that were part of the band's 30th anniversary tour. The disc is available online at (www.WayDownInLouisiana.com).
"Fever On the Bayou," the 2005 release on Telarc Records by Houma blues guitarist Tab Benoit (www.tabbenoit.com) , won the Blues Music Award (formerly known as the W.C. Handy Awards) for best contemporary blues album of the year.
The New Orleans Jazz Vipers (www.jazzvipers.com) have a new independent release that brings a post-hurricane sensibility to their old-school swing. Notably, the band adds to its usual mix of standards with an original penned by alto sax player Joe Braun: "I Hope You're Comin' Back to New Orleans."
Rabadash Records (www.rabadash.com) , founded by New Orleans pianist John Autin, celebrated 25 years in business &mdash and still in New Orleans &mdash by putting out an 18-track promotional disc featuring early tracks by Anders Osborne, John Magnie (of the subdudes) and Theresa Andersson, plus tunes from stalwarts like Big Daddy O, Al Broussard, Rockin' Jake, Nora Wixted and others.
Christian rocker Jason Morant (www.jasonmorant.com) has just hit stores with his third disc, and second for Vertical Music. "Open," the follow-up to 2004's "Abandon," continues his attractive blend of anthemic hooks and wispy electronica.
That guy stapling flyers to telephone poles on New Orleans' Frenchmen Street is none other than DJ Impulss (www.myspace.com/impulss) — a mainstay of the New Orleans hip-hop scene before Katrina and a determined promoter, trying to keep the flame alive as the city rebuilds.
Impulss was hitting the streets to promote a May 21 MC battle at a French Quarter club. But he was also happy to hand over a copy of "The Restless Natives," a smart compilation "dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina." The CD &mdash not to be confused with the New Orleans funk-rock band Restless Natives (www.bridesfunk.com) , fronted by guitarist Bill Iuso — features several noted New Orleans hip-hop artists: Raj Smoove www.myspace.com/rajsmoove, Truth Universal (www.myspace.com/truthuniversal), Dick Darby, DJ Maxmillion (www.myspace.com/advancedideasmusic) and others. See: (www.dragonsbreathrecords.com).
Meanwhile, Johnnie "Docta'J" Harris e-mailed from his new digs outside of Dallas with a great new track by the Lost Souls. It's called "My City" and was featured in the film "New Orleans Exposed" (www.streetgangs.com/movies/neworleansx.html). There are a few naughty words, but it's snappy and has a great hook that somebody in the New Orleans tourism industry should grab: "New Orleans, baby, come down to my city." Listen to it at: (www.nukmusic.com/mycity.mp3). Harris produced the track and hopes to be back in New Orleans soon.
Bionik Brown (www.myspace.com/bionikbrown), temporarily exiled in Denver, sent a copy of his latest project, "The Cold Gumbo LP." It's a very polished disc (beats and cuts by DJ Quickie Mart) that shows off Bionik's snarky tongue twisting.
Myself (www.myspace.com/whoismyself), who has been in New York since the hurricane, has been working the conscious hip-hop angle in New Orleans since the late 1980s. He's just come out with his strongest release yet, "Protest in Disguise" (www.thecouturelabel.com) . Myself raps with the kind of passion rarely heard in too-cool-for-school hip-hop. With his jazzy beats, live instruments and dramatic flow, he's more like a rocker who rhymes than a traditional rapper.
In 2004, Amanda Gresham sold her house in northern California and moved to New Orleans, determined to help expose the wider world to the great music of the Gulf South. Her vehicle became the Delta Music Experience (www.deltamusicexperience.com).
Gresham has found a niche in creating special events within existing festivals that cater to roots music.
At this year's Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival (www.waterfrontbluesfest.com) in Portland, Oregon, she has organized a series "blues cruises," eight trips on the Willamette River featuring sets by Louisiana artists including Marva Wright, the Bluerunners, the Rebirth Brass Band, Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk, Buckwheat Zydeco, guitarist John Fohl and Porter, Batiste & Stoltz. These are in addition to Louisiana artists that the Waterfront festival already books, such as Dr. John and Big Chief Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolias.
At the Crawfish Fest (www.crawfishfest.com) in Augusta, New Jersey, which books such Louisiana acts as the Radiators, Chris Ardoin and Henry Butler, the Delta Music Experience sponsored a stage to give second and third gigs to some of the Louisiana artists already appearing at the event.
It was hard not to notice New Orleans jazz man Tom Saunders &mdash a respected authority on traditional jazz, WWOJ deejay and the best bass saxophone player in town &mdash as he made his way through New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport. The sousaphone case gave him away.
He was en route to Paris with a group of New Orleans musicians organized by pianist David Boeddinghaus. They were off to the famed Opera Comique (www.opera-comique.com), where they were going to play in the house band for a theatrical production called "Looking for Josephine," based on the life of Josephine Baker, the famed American performer who worked for the French Resistance during World War II. After rehearsals, the play will tour France and Spain, then return to Paris for a run that lasts from Nov. 23 to Jan. 14.
After a gig in New York at Lincoln Center with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers (www.jazzvipers.com), violinist Neti Vaan heads to Europe with husband/pianist Bart Ramsey (www.ramseyvaan.com) for a string of dates that will take them throughout Italy and France. Then back home for all of one day, before Vaan jets off to Brazil for gigs with New Orleans classical harp player Patrice Fisher.
Also part of the annual summer exodus to Europe is funky piano personality Davis Rogan, who has a six-week residency funded by the government of France at an abbey in Loire Valley. After that, he's joining French brass band Ceux Qui Marche Debout (www.cqmd.net) as guest lead singer for a tour.
Similarly, jazz trumpeter Brice Miller (www.bricemillerproductions.com) will perform June 21 to July 5 at various venues in Bordeaux, France, as part of a partnership with New Orleans French Consulate.
New Orleans rock band Adam's Attic (www.adamsatticmusic.com) toured American military installations in Portugal, Spain and Italy in February as part of a deal with the United States Armed Forces Entertainment Office, which takes the band to Greenland June 28-July 7.
New Orleans rock band Mute Math (www.mutemath.com) seems to have successfully shed the "Christian" tag, scoring a slot on the metal-fest known as the Warped Tour. Dates include:
July 13: Sleeptrain Amphitheater, Sacramento, CA
July 14: Idaho Center, Boise, ID
July 15: Gorge Amphitheater, George, WA
July 16: Columbia Meadows, Portland, OR
July 18: Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver, BC
July 20: Race City Speeedway, Calgary, AB
July 22: Utah State Fairgrounds, Salt Lake City, UT
July 23: Invesco Field, Denver, CO
July 25: UMB Bank Pavilion, St. Louis, MO
July 26: Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
July 27: Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA
July 29: Co-America Park & Street, Detroit, MI
Aug. 1: Darien Lakes Fields, Darien Center, NY
Aug. 2: Fitchburg Airport, Fitchburg, MA
Aug. 4: Lollapalooza, Chicago, IL
Aug. 6: Englishtown Raceway, Englishtown, NJ
Aug. 8: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, VA
Aug. 10: Nissan Pavilion, Bristol, VA
Aug. 11: Tower City, Cleveland, OH
Aug. 12: Park Place, Toronto, ON
Aug. 13: Park Jean Drapeau, Montreal, QC
Aug. 19: V Festival, Staffordshire, UK
Aug. 20: V Festival, Chelmsford, UK
Oct. 28: Voodoo Music Experience, New Orleans, LA
The Bluerunners
July 1: Safeway Waterfront Blues Fest, Portland, OR
July 2: The Landmark, Yachats, OR
July 4: Slabtown, Portland, OR
July 5: The Triple Door, Seattle, WA
July 7: Harrison Festival of the Arts, Harrison Hot Springs, BC
July 8-9: Vancouver island Music Fest, Vancouver, BC
Aug. 5: Martyr's, Chicago, IL
Aug. 6-8: Oneida Casino, Green Bay, WI
Brotherhood of Groove
July 19: Scoot n' blues, Durango, CO
July 20-21: Las Montanas, Telluride, CO
July 22: The Eldo, Crested Butte, CO
July 27-28: The Sandbar, Vail, CO
July 29: Quixote's, Denver, CO
July 30: Trilogy Wine Bar, Boulder, CO
Aug 3: Knotty Pine, Victor, ID (with the Dirty Dozen)
Aug. 4: Half Moon Saloon, Big Sky, MT
Aug. 5: Knotty Pine, Victor ID
The Jamie McLean Band www.jamiemclean.com
June 23: Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA
June 24: Stella Blue, Ashville, NC
June 29: House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ (with Marc Broussard)
July 19: Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA (with Galactic)
July 20: The Main Pub, Manchester, CT
July 21: Toads Place, new Haven, CT (with Galactic)
July 30: Nu Groove Music Festival, Van Etten, NY
The Red Stick Ramblers
July 1: Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, Woodstock, NY
July 5: Watermelon Wednesday, West Whatley, MA
July 6: Narrows Center for the Arts, Falls River, MA
July 8: Riverlink Park, Amsterdam, NY
July 9: Sackets Harbor Battlefield State High, Sackets Harbor, NY
July 11: CHIRP 2006, Ridgefield, CT
July 13-15: Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Ancramdale, NY
July 22-23: Fingerlakes GrassRoots Festival, Trumansburg, NY
Rockin' Jake Band www.rockinjake.com
June 22: Salina Parks, Salina, KS
June 24: BB's Lawnside BBQ, Kansas City, MO
June 25: Double Deuce, Topeka, KS
June 27: Jackson's, St. Louis, MO
June 28: Boogaloo, Maplewood, MO
June 30: Blues Society of Omaha Blues Cruice, Omaha, NE (with Kenny Neal)
July 1: Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Davenport, IA
July 6: Nola's BBQ, Rochester, NY
July 7: The Press Room, Portsmouth, NH
July 8: Inn on the Blues, York Beach, ME
July 9: Harry's Blues Bar, Hyannis, MA
July 13: AJ's Sports Bar, Levittown, PA
July 14: Sydney's Jazz and Blues, Rehoboth Beach, DE
July 16: Coin's Pub, Ocean City, MD
Director Robert Mugge's documentary "New Orleans Music In Exile," which features Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Kermit Ruffins, Eddie Bo, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and others, debuted on the Starz network. For photos, see: http://www.robertmugge.com.
"Deacon John's Jump Blues" www.deaconjohnsjumpblues.com, a concert film featuring the New Orleans blues legend with guest appearances by Allen Toussaint, Dave Bartholomew, Dr. John and Irma Thomas, airs several times in June on PBS' HD Channel. Also on high definition TV is the Jamie McLean Band, caught live at the Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas for the HDNet channel's program "True Music."
The Sundance Channel will observe the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with an evening of documentaries, including the world premier of "Saving Jazz," a documentary by Leslie Woodhead that follows legendary photographer Herman Leonard as he sifts through the remains of his New Orleans home. See: www.elitestv.com
The music of southwest Louisiana &mdash especially Cajun and zydeco &mdash has a new online presence with www.LafayetteMusicSpace.com. The site features a cool iPod-style music player and links to various music industry news, events and tourism information.
The Flat Town Music Company, founded in 1958 by the legendary Floyd Soileau in Ville Platte, Louisiana, has gone digital. The web site www.flattownmusic.com features iTunes-like sales of digital downloads from the company's vast catalogue (on labels including Maison de Soul and Swallow Records) of Cajun, zydeco, swamp-pop and other southwestern Louisiana styles.
New Orleans hip-hop artist Thais Mills, temporarily exiled in Houston, is turning into a dot-com entrepreneur. Her new web site, (www.mstee.net), is a cool showcase for Dirty South hip-hop. It’s also an online music store where you can buy recordings by a fresh mix of mostly female rap artists. Mills#8217; other web site, (www.lipserviceink.com), is an amusing online audio magazine/podcast where you can hear the such New Orleans rappers as 5th Ward Weebie, Young A and, of course, Ms. Tee herself.
The Louisiana Music Export Office in the news:
Austin Chronicle, www.austinchronicle.com
Austin American-Statesman www.statesman.com
Gambit Weekly (New Orleans), www.bestofneworleans.com
KUT-FM, Austin, www.kut.org
KXAN-TV, Austin, www.kxan.com
National Public Radio, www.npr.org
Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com
Times of Acadiana (Lafayette) www.timesofacadiana.com
Variety, www.variety.com
XM Satellite Radio www.scottywhy.com/streamcast/050706ScottAiges.html
High Notes is the quarterly e-mail newsletter of the Louisiana Music Export Office. To submit news items, please send e-mail to: info@louisianamusicexportoffice.