Whether you’re in town for the Fest, or the Stomp, or because, you know, you live there, I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Offbeat and check out something they asked me to write. To wit:
Rob Walker presents his liner notes to an imaginary compilation of versions of the New Orleans classic, ìSt. James [...]
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T-P Music writer Keith Spera says:
The well-trod “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans” is, like “St. James Infirmary” and “Lil’ Liza Jane, ” a New Orleans standard overdue for retirement.
Due for retirement?
“St. James Infirmary”??
You’re fucking fired.
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A bit more than two years ago, I published on this site a mini-review of a then-new version of “SJI” by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. I really didn’t care for it, but of course I know that Campbell and Lanegan have a lot of indie-rockin’ fans. Anyway, Campbell did the singing on that, so [...]
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I’m pretty late with this news, but those of you who follow things in New Orleans are no doubt aware that Al Copeland passed away recently.
He died of a malignant salivary gland tumor, near Munich German; he was 64. The Times obit failed to explain what he was doing in Germany, but it did provide [...]
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All About Jazz describes a White House event featuring guests the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins, and others. Also:
As the night wound down and the guests were either asked to leave or escorted out, Condy Rice sat in at the piano, she is a fine pianist by the way, and did a credible version [...]
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From time to time I check out Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on NPR. It’s often pretty good. In an interesting recent episode the subject is Jimmy McPartland — a cornetist, but also, it turns out, McPartland’s former husband.
I didn’t know a tremendous about McPartland, who died in 1991. But I enjoyed the program. Many of [...]
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So suggests Bettye LaVette in this interview. Regarding her past manager John Lewis she remarks:
He made me learn good songs, which enabled me to do Broadway or sing in New Orleans, because I knew “St. James Infirmary” and “Bill Bailey.”
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Something I did not know: Cab Calloway’s grandson is a working musical performer. His name is C. Calloway Brooks. A New England Conservatory of Music grad, he performed with his grandfather back in the 1980s, and now tours with the seven-piece Cab Jivers. And according to this brief piece about him, “SJI” is (not surprisingly) [...]
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A review of a live show in Biloxi by “boogie-woogie stylist” Michael Kaeshammer says the piano player “wowed” the crowd with his playing and a “his dry, Dick Cavett-style humor.”
For instance:
Two songs introduced as romantic, love-filled numbers: “St. James Infirmary” (about a dead lover on an emergency room gurney) and “My Girlfriend is a Kangaroo” [...]
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A long time ago I corresponded with, and if I remember right, even spoke to, some folks in Holland putting together a two-part radio show of versions of “SJI.” (Here and here.) During that exchange I was informed that a version of “SJI” performed by Johnny Kendall & The Heralds was a huge hit there, [...]
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