ListenGood

Oh, how I wish I'd been in Morocco last week. Saxophonist Donald Harrison, who is also Big Chief of the Congo Nation, a tribe in the Mardi Gras Indian tradition, made the trip to Essaouira, Morocco, for the 12th annual Gnaoua & World Music Festival.  This must have been some melding of spiritual power and rhythmic drive. Here's how Willard Jenkins, who organized the trip … [Read more...] about big chief in morocco

I've tried wherever I can to lend a sense of context to presentations of New Orleans music, in terms of history and especially the current situation. So I was thrilled when The Wall Street Journal asked me to host a July 15th panel discussion at Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse about just that topic, as part of "Summer Scoops: Live with the Wall Street Journal," the paper's … [Read more...] about stomping (and talking) the blues (and jazz and soul and r&b) in new orleans

In my recent Village Voice piece on New Orleans, I made reference to a battle in the Louisiana State Legislature over arts funding, and the deep and cynical cuts proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal. My friend Ned Sublette, as erudite a political commentator as he is a historian, suspects a national effort to "zero-out" arts budgets in states with Republicans in power -- to … [Read more...] about a dirge for culture