It's that time of year again. A little more going on and there is a number of interesting performances afoot from this direction. Check these out!
Thursday April 14th- Tonight- with Blake Amos quartet at Yuki Izakaya (Frenchmen st) 8-11pm. Blake plays many originals and classics, all heavily Brazilian inflected and it's no joke, he's heavily steeped in that- but also drenched in what was here too. Simon Lott on drums. Come by, you might win the Simon Lottery!
Saturday April 16th- with guitarist Carl Leblanc at Casa Borrega 7-10:30pm(Oretha Castle Haley Blvd). Carl is one of the city's great musicians. Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Sun Ra Arkestra, but then his own thing and signature guitar sound and approach- with intelligence subtlety and rhythm. All severely lacking much of the time these days.
Thursday April 21st- At Allways lounge 9pm with James Singleton, Scott Amendola, Rob Cambre. Always a pleasure to do new things with new people. Rob Cambre runs a great new series at Allways and seems to be really going an interesting direction by getting groups whose internal mechanics are frequently vastly different from each other- and yet there is a great deal to feel less isolated about here. Rob plays guitar. James Singleton, the iconic New Orleans bassist. Scott Amendola- plays with the heavies out west. These days I often hear things described as musical. I nod my head as if I know what they are talking about. You'll probably hear that description slung around a lot over hear. That's because the players care about how they sound and the audience seems to like that. It's an old story that renews every time. Uninterrupted we like the way music feels...
Friday April 22nd- with James Singleton at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center -9pm (Oretha Castle Haley Blvd). Playing James's music again. Always a great lineup, and it gets more and more interesting and sensitive. If you missed the show here last year you get another shot now. It is a great room. The important sounds linger in the air a little longer.
Sunday April 24th- with The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at The Old Arabi Bar. 10pm. Here is one to catch if, like me, you are interested in more alternative scenarios. Get down to further out old New Orleans neighborhood, closer than you think and see some far out music in an area far squarer than you know. But, you can still smoke in that bar, and the egregious interruptions of neighborhoods-coming-up isn't distorting the vision. The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars with the full lineup including Ben Ellman of Galactic, and Glenn Hartman on accordion, Joe Cabral of the Iguanas on bass. The way we have had it for years now.
Tuesday April 26th- with The Diesel Combustion Orchestra at Open Ears Music Series 10pm- Blue Nile Upstairs (Frenchmen St.) Dan Oestreicher, the Baritone sax player from Trombone Shorty's band has this smart outfit. We will fix your normality good and proper, isolate it, and transport straight into an ice castle at the bottom of the Mississippi river. You will flip. There's electronics, heavy exotica and exploration that will cause the catharsis to get you into that life that you wish you could slip away into effortlessly.
Friday April 29th- with The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at Casa Borrega 7-10:30pm(Oretha Castle Haley Blvd). See above. This is dangerously close to where we really started to catch hold of the city in 1992. The food is great and the Tequila flows like wine. This one is going to kill!
Saturday April 30th-with The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Join us. Our set is before Stevie Wonder so don't panic. ANd- the secret is, we are not far away from the main stage. You will experience the newest thing- THE MEYERS. Standby for the album you have been waiting for.
Casa Borrega on all Saturdays in May too! Come on out! Lineups TBA.
