It was the mid-1970s, and the applause from the audience was electrifying. The band members’ smiles hinted of both joy and respect for their dazzling colleague. What I remember most was the reaction of the host, iconic Tonight Show legend, Johnny Carson. For the 30 years that the show ran, Carson had a distinct affinity for great comedians and great musicians. His reaction to this performance, one of roughly sixty Tonight Show invitations that P ... Read More >>
You might think someone an extreme attention-seeker if you knew he performed as a singer/songwriter and frontman for a band bearing his name. But if you think this about Baton Rouge native Benjy Davis, you would be dead wrong. Quite frankly, if you found him backstage before a show with his band, The Benjy Davis Project, you’d be more likely to think he was a part of the st ... Read More >>
Interview with Big Sam (of Big Sam’s Funky Nation)
By Meg Barbor
Congo Square Stage, 2:15 PM
Who inspires you musically? Everyone in New Orleans, but especially the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; also James Brown, Funkadelic, and Wycliffe Gordon (an amazing trombone player).
What kind of music/bands did you grow up listening to? I was into hip-hop and R&B as I was growing up, and then got into brass bands and jazz later in high school.
A lot of jazz bands are reminiscent of marching bands. ... Read More >>
Far from his Swedish roots, Anders Osborne has created his own musical niche in our city’s warm, vibrant music culture. Now a renowned Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, he continues to release one critically acclaimed album after another. Coming Down (2007) is his most recent to date. He also performs locally and raises environmental awareness as a member of the Voice of the Wetlands. A versatile and exceedingly ... Read More >>
After losing an entire rhythm section following Katrina, Big Blue Marble has evolved into much more than guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Fera might have initially envisioned. All but abandoning the group’s country folk roots, the new dynamic of the reformed BBM is an aesthetic gamut of rock sub-genres too cliché to list, but all in all, they are crowd-pleasing, inventive, and meticulous without pretentiousne ... Read More >>
