Playing Hipfest with Jeff Parker Tuesday 20th at Blue Nile, New Orleans

Very happy to be headed into New Orleans for a few days to be a part of instigators, Jeff Albert and Marcello Bennetti's accomplishment in progress, the Hipfest.  

All the improvisational and Avant Garde Lights of New Orleans will be there and it is truly an event if you really love music.

For my part, I am honored to be doing a duo set with the great Chicago guitarist Jeff Parker.

Check his stuff out!  It all happens September 20 at Blue Nile.  I hear at around 9pm.

The Naked Orchestra rides again. Tonight 10:30PM Blue Nile-downstairs!

Fresh off a refreshing hiatus, with new works, some newer faces and a lot of old friends.  There will be a catwalk!
The full complement will be there:

Jimbo Walsh- conductor
Janna Saslaw- flute/piccolo
Chris Kohl- clarinets
Steve Bertram-Bassoon
Martin Krusche- soprano sax
Aurora Nealand- Alto sax
Rex Gregory- tenor/ bass clarinet
Joe Cabral- tenor sax
Dan Oestreicher- bari sax
John Culbreth-trumpet
Scott Frock- trumpet
Jeff Albert- Trombone
Devon Taylor- Tuba
Nobu Ozaki-bass
Helen Gillet-cello
Carl LeBlanc-guitar
Jonathan Freilich- guitar
Doug Garrison-drums

I'll let you in on a secret.  The Naked Orchestra shows are also a party with some of the most interesting and colorful folks in town. Come over and get down while comparing the key system on bassoons and bass clarinets; the body differences between a cello and a bass, all while pretending to eye the object of your desires so you aren't caught staring hungrily at such things. You wouldn't want to appear over eager.  

 

4 Naked Orchestra concerts in New Orleans this July

You can catch the orchestra 4 times this month.  


3 shows at The Old U.S. Mint on Friday 10th, 17th, and 24th of July from 2-3pm.
1 Show at Snug Harbor on Sunday 12th of July.
It's going to be fascinating and entertaining no matter what.
 

New Naked Orchestra website coming soon!

Weekly Monday at Gasa Gasa Continues

Tomorrow from 8-10pm at Gasa Gasa

4920 Freret St

 

Paul Thibodeaux on drums

Devon Taylor-tuba

Jonathan Freilich-guitar

 

Devon is a really talented young tuba player I met in California who moved to New Orleans recently.  I think he'll fit right in.  Come check it out.  The acoustics are great. Last week was a blast.  The Panorama Jazz Band follows us. They are somethin' else!


New Orleans Klezmer All Stars show tomorrow night: "Mean" Willie Green on drums

Tomorrow night at the Little Gem Saloon 

New Orleans Klezmer All Stars for the last gig of the weekend out for the jazzfest stretch.  If you haven't been there yet.  Things have been unusual and interesting (read exciting if you need more positive detail) at both the jazzfest slot and at the Hi Ho lounge.  

Tomorrow will be no slouch as we return with our old drummer Willie Green (The Neville brothers,  Bob Dylan and other minor figures, etc.) If you haven't ever seen him play yiddish music, you are only familiar with a few of his dimensions as an innovative musical contributor.  Get out there for it! Together we are a fascinating New Orleans/World music machine.

 

Brice Miller Interview Part 3

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     After a very long pause I am posting the conclusion to the interview segment of my conversation with Trumpeter/ Bandleader/ Educator, Brice Miller from the Summer of 2013.
     Brice is finishing up a degree, dissertation is complete- so partially I'd like to use this as a congratulatory gesture for his landmark accomplishment.

     (In fact, I also just completed a degree myself so I can get back to these interviews.)

    There are two other, highly recommendable, earlier segments to this interview, of course. 


In Part 3 of this interview Brice touches on the following...

Brass bands in other parts of the United States; the "mythical" Congo Square; the role of formal musical education in the development early jazz artists- Buddy Bolden; brass bands around the world; jazz funerals, 2nd lines, benevolent societies and their roles in solidifying the place of people of color in the city- the taking of it; why brass bands in New Orleans have outlived the traditions in other cities; political needs for brass bands; more on cultural mentorship, cultural capital, social capital; the relation of brass band music to other musics in the city;  Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Nicholas Payton- their start associated with the brass band tradition; being able to speak collectively; Trombone Shorty; the difficulties of talking to music press and their false ideas of what audiences will find interesting; the maligning or ignoring of intellectual sides to musicians in the press; coming out of depression after Katrina; the way that Brice's identity was used and became a caricature after the storm;  going to the University of Alabama; telling the story of real New Orleans music, and the 200 year history of brass bands, honestly; the indignity of the reduction of all narratives of people of color to slavery; the influence of personal understanding of history on personal identity development; final comments- retelling your own stories.

Believe it or not, there is a whole other more conversational and, perhaps more evocative section to this that I will post soon.

Appearing tonight with The James Singleton Quartet

tonight at chickie wah wah, canal st. (New Orleans)

around 10pm.

james singleton- bass

johnny vidacovich-drums

rex gregory- sax

jonathan freilich- guitar

 

this is one not to miss.

The sagacious, genius, unpredictibilities of James and Johnny. The weighted spritelinesses of Rex Gregory in creative moods. And me somewhere in the amorphous and great unknown- some sort of mid-riff.

 

what I'm driving at here, is killer music!  

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Two shows in New Orleans this week

Solo at The Parlor on St. Claude Ave at 6pm on Wednesday- get your costumes! Music.  Drinks.

Friday Night- with the James Singleton Quartet at Chickie Wah Wah on Canal St at 10pm-

Stunning Lineup-

James Singleton- bass

Johnny Vidacovich-drums

Rex Gregory- sax

jonathan Freilich- guitar

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Please come out.  Overjoyed to be back in town for an extended detour.

Of interest: The Yossarian society

Here is an interesting website.

There is a new society being birthed.  Concerned with a number of things I would think, but right now the site has a good deal of focus on the plague of folks that would distract you from anything of actual importance in New Orleans, by endlessly attempting to suggest that sound ordinances are somehow a mark of great civilization- more than the culture of music!?!?!  

What can be said...Katrina courted throngs of people that have no idea and have fallen prey to some rich maniacs and carpetbaggers who are attempting to gain vast long term control over the profit systems in New Orleans.  But, it's surely the old Louisiana political story:  a new pipeline to fly high volumes of cash into a few local old pockets under the guise of renewal and a few beads for the new masses caught in the excitement.

Anyway, this mysterious

Yossarian Society

sheds more light than this brief rant-ette.

For instance, the Society says this... 


"Yossarian is entry level anarchism.

We like anarchism if it is funny. When it is a challenge, like Emma Goldman, not so much. So let’s try to start with some funny.

Yossarian’s philosophy is a first step. What happens when the Governing Caste slips its anchor? Yossarian pokes it in the eye."

 

     ...Can't be bad...who, after all, didn't get the tragic truths of 'Catch-22'.  If Heller could only see this world!

This week's gigs: Jonathan Freilich Quartet, Mas Mamones, The Tom Paines, Naked On The Floor

Hello All, 

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This week is the last chance to catch me locally for quite a long stretch.  Luckily it is a great week of shows for a send off.  You are assured to see some of the city's finest up to some unusual and interesting musical escapades and explorations in some unusual local haunts.  

Here is the run: 

Sunday Aug. 18th at Snug Harbor-  The Jonathan Freilich Quartet       

             w/ James Singleton-bass; Tim Green-sax; Johnny Vidacovich -drums

Tuesday Aug. 20th- The Open Ears series at Circle Bar -  Naked On The Floor feat.-

              Jeff Albert-tb; Paul Thibodeaux-drums; James Singleton-bass;
              Ray Moore-Bari     Sax; Tim Green-sax

Friday Aug. 23rd- at Casa Borrega- w/ Mas Mamones 

Saturday Aug. 24th- at Siberia- w/ The Tom Paines 

Tonight at Circle Bar- The Jackals 10pm

So good last week we got another shot.  Come out.  As Alex Mcmurray (there tonight!) says, it's ecumenical music.

last week's crowd

last week's crowd

The Jackals  are:

Doug Garrison- drums
Joe Cabral-bass
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
Alex Mcmurray-guitar

Oh yes...Alex and Joe sing songs too.  And not all in one language either.  Collectively we are unafraid of a multilingual universe. Lengue, eh? 

Doug Garrison

Doug Garrison

Joe Cabral

Joe Cabral

Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray  

Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray  

The Itunes podcast, 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians' is back

Go directly to the new feed...

The itunes feed was down for some time while this site was revamped.  Now the old interviews are slowly going back up.  The podcast was initially conceived to ask deeper questions of musicians than what the standard music press, in its often genre-based, marketing centric, 'false-omniscience', tends to presume.  When these interviews  started several years ago, I had a distinct sense that musical awareness and interest was perhaps declining because questions were not being asked.  Things may actually have gotten even worse in music journalism than a few years ago when these interviews started.  

If you are interested in New Orleans's musical drivers plow on.  There are many that I haven't had the opportunity to interview yet but I hope to.  I try not to bias specific groups or styles but I have only had access to these figures so far.  Connections are unintentional as far as preference goes but sometimes it does expose a network or community which is of interest.

The podcast features notable figures that relate in some way to the current vibrancy of the New Orleans music scene and community.  It seeks to form a dialogue between ideas and motivations behind the music and the relationship of those ideas to the sound artifact being presented.  The podcast also addresses what the audiences' state of understanding is about the music and whether understanding is relevant to the "success" of the musical artwork at all.  

 

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The real podcast had to be slightly renamed because of obscure problems with the iTunes store.  If you search and find two podcasts under the name, Jonathan Freilich,  the operational one will be 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians'  The podcast features the material from this site's 'Interviews with Musicians' page and showcases in depth interviews with well known and lesser known contributors to New Orleans musical life. To get there on itunes click here...

w/ James Singleton Quartet at Cafe Istanbul- Wed 31, July at 9pm

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James Singleton- bass, composer, leader, legend

Mike Dillon- assorted percussion, stamina, and other experimental fits with a high creative yield
Tim Green- sax, deep thought, style, will cut through those barriers that perpetuate the isolation
 

I will be playing with that bunch.  The last few times have all been epic, and completely different from each other.  I think you like music...you should struggle to make it in a way that nonetheless doesn't compromise your basic recreational mindset.  We will handle the other imbalances. 

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Part 2 of audio interview with Jimmy "King James" Horn, leader of the Special Men

Part 2 of the audio interview with Jimmy Horn is up. To go directly to the interview click here...

 To hear part 1 start here... 

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The breakdown of who Jimmy is and what he is up to starts there.  Check it out if you are in anyway interested in the goings on in the New Orleans music scene.     

 

Part 1 of Interview with Jimmy "King James" Horn of the Special Men is up

 Jimmy Horn is a fascinating musician with one of the greatest neighborhood regular gigs around: Mondays at BJ's.  That band plays great R'n'B music from all across a wide blues time span.  The band does not come off like a museum piece at all but does give the feeling that you are outside time in another rockin', blues alterverse.  Get right to the interview here...

As Jimmy explains here, the driver of that is a comfortability and fascination with all kinds of music, and especially the blues, since he was four years old.   And "all kinds of music" is really what it means- Chinese Opera to Muddy Waters, Kurdish music to Kiss.  He sees connections everywhere but really seeks to communicate with people and be in line with the sort of energy that will give them what they need on their night out.

      Here he discusses openly, his winding road toward the current King James scenario, from Utah to BJ's, time in Mississippi around Jesse Mae Hemphill and other great Mississippi musicians, Sun Ra saturation.  Playing on the street with the Royal St bunch in the 90s, The Photon Band.  Jimmy plays saxophone, bass, piano, guitar, piano and has a natural feel on each.  How does this happen?  Check out this interview with a musician who is currently picking up pace in the local scene and, probably has a lot to say to it. 

       The interview, in line with the rest on this site, is informal but informative.  You will hear the sounds of BJ's day shift in the background as well as words from harmonica player Bobby Lewis.  The interview shows again what level of interest and love musicians can take in every kind of sound phenomena and how it can cut to a very deep kind of communication that puts people together in fascinating ways.  Enjoy!

 

Upcoming audio interview with Jimmy Horn a.k.a King James (leader of the Special Men)

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Just before King James and the Special Men took off for shows in New York City, including at The Lincoln Center, I sat down with their leader, Jimmy "King James" Horn, at BJ's bar in New Orleans for a relaxed audio interview. There, at BJ's, his band, The Special Men, have been holding down one of the greatest weekly gigs in town for quite some time now.  I felt quite lucky to be able to catch some words by a bandleader riding at a crest of the project's development.

The power and delivery that make for attention grabbing music always have stories in the background that are supplying the power.  It is scarcely possible to create depth in music by mere emulation.  Imitators can be very good but they can't supply the hidden mysterious qualities in music.  King James is not an imitator but his drives musical and otherwise do come from somewhere. He has possibilities and there are reasons why the sound takes this form right now.

Transformation is discussed. 

You may figure some of it out on the interviews page.  The same place you can get the ideas of so many key New Orleans players in need of more attention.

Bacchanal gig tonight! Very interesting lineup

Join us tonight for a Pan-Amero-Caribbean Ecstatic Naked Dithyramb at the bar named for the God of all that...Bacchanal in New Orleans from 7:30-10:30pm. Corner of Chartres and Poland.

Tim Green-saxophone
James Singleton-bass
Hector Gallardo-Cuban percussion systems
Jonathan Freilich-guitar

You'd be crazy to miss! Interesting music, great food, possible sacrifices varying from blood to the extremely symbolic and unknowingly abstract.

See you there

Naked on the Floor rides again

James Singleton-Bass
Dan Oestreicher-Bari sax
Rex Gregory-Tenor Sax
Rick Trolsen-Trombone
Paul Thibodeaux-Drums
Jonathan Freilich-Guitar

What an interesting and strong lineup for a concert at the Circle Bar (Lee Circle, New Orleans).

New arrangements and I guarantee as yet unknown and exciting exploration. Heights of sociable music.

Oestreicher, saxophonist with Trombone Shorty is also interviewed on this site- poke around and get a listen on the audio page. Look for Rex Gregory's while you're there.

See you tomorrow!

Circle Bar Show tonight

M'luds, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm pausing the words on the death of the constitution and the snarky spy humor (see facebook) to bring the following announcement:

Tonight at the circle bar in New Orleans at 10:30pm I'll be performing withAlex McMurrayDoug Garrison and Bill Malchow. We will be engaging in everybody's favorite form of offline subversion- MUSIC! - the good kind. Cheaper than a Po' Boy (now a local designer sandwich). 
For those of you concerned with class and respectability, Mcmurray will be grass fed and fennel rubbed and rear gentrified
The great caroline valencia will be bartending. its the perfect midweek gateway to the rest of the week. Don't miss it!
See you tonight