Camile Baudoin at Snug Harbor tonight!

When I previewed this interesting performance for OffBeat magazine one of my favorite New Orleans musicians, trumpeter Charlie Miller, was scheduled to be part of the project. I was looking forward to hearing Miller play "Beer Barrel Polka" but with Harry Hardin replacing him on the gig the instrumentation reverts to a string format with percussion, which should work well on the acoustic material.



Radiators guitarist Camile Baudoin sets out to capture the relaxed music from his early years on Thursday, Dec. 10 at Snug Harbor. Camile will be accompanied by fellow axe-man John Rankin, violinist Harry Hardin and Michael Skinkus on percussion. The set list reflects the songs sung around the family’s living room as well as tunes he played with his uncles’ band, The Dufrene Brothers, in clubs along Bayou Lafourche.



The show, which will be recorded for Camile’s upcoming solo album, is dedicated to his paran Alton Dufrene, who taught Camile how to "play what you feel," and who turns 89 on December 18. The set list includes hit standards from the era, an original or two (test your Cajun French!), and the rare "Old Bayou Blues," penned by Baudoin's cousin Rosalie Toups. The recording project is supported in part by a grant from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.





Shows at 8 and 10 pm, $15 admission.



Call Snug Harbor at 504-949-0696 to reserve advance tickets or head to the club at 626 Frenchmen. Arrive early for best seating.

Mississppi Sheiks Tribute announced

This is a show that should be at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It will be held instead in Vancouver, British Columbia. I guess Jazzfest minds are too busy trying to find the successor to Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Bon Jovi.

VANCOUVER, BC – A host of major blues and roots music artists will gather to perform two nights of special tribute concerts saluting the music of the seminal American band, The Mississippi Sheiks, on March 13 and 14 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Presented by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad in partnership with Capilano University, the two nights will include already-confirmed performances by Grammy-nominee John Hammond, Van Dyke Parks, Geoff Muldaur, Danny Barnes, Jim Byrnes, Steve Dawson, Robin Holcomb, Oh Susanna and The Sojourners. Additional artists are expected to be announced. The all-star band backing up these artists for the shows will be Matt Chamberlain – drums; Keith Lowe – bass; Wayne Horvitz – keyboards; Steve Dawson – guitars; and Daniel Lapp – fiddle.



The Mississippi Sheiks Tribute Concerts will be the last event for the Cultural Olympiad, the arts festival that takes place in conjunction with the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to be held in Vancouver on February 12-28, and followed by the Paralympic Winter Games on March 12-21.



Black Hen Music president/producer/musician Steve Dawson is leading the charge to reintroduce the music of The Mississippi Sheiks to contemporary audiences. In October, the Juno Award-winning producer released Things About Comin’ My Way, the critically-acclaimed tribute album with recordings by 17 world-renowned artists, many of whom will play live at these world premiere events. Things About Comin’ My Way was just nominated for a Blues Music Award as “Acoustic Album of the Year” by the Blues Foundation in Memphis.



The Mississippi Sheiks, a country and blues string band, has been called the Radiohead of its era, recording over 60 hugely influential songs between 1930 and 1935. Walter Vinson and Sam Chatmon formed the core of the band, with Sam’s two brothers, Lonnie and Armenter “Bo Carter” Chatmon, dropping in when they were in town. The group had a blockbuster hit with “Sittin’ On Top of the World,” which has since been covered by Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Cream, The Grateful Dead and dozens of others.

The Sheiks practically invented the string band concept in blues and roots music, but when the group disbanded, the Chatmon brothers returned to farming. Bo Carter, for one, died blind and destitute in 1964. At the peak of their popularity, however, they were enormously popular and even received a personal invitation to perform for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

More on Bon Jovi

Horseracing handicappers look at more than just past performances. Trainer patterns are particularly significant, and sometimes even owner patterns can tell an interesting story. Churchill Downs Inc., the owner of Fair Grounds Racecourse, delivered a particularly interesting "tell" last week by announcing that Bon Jovi would headline its coming music festival at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. In New Orleans the Fair Grounds has an extremely lucrative relationship with the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, namely proceeds from the beer concession. Horsemen are ambivelant about the music fest -- training must be concluded immediately after the meet ends in late March as the track is prepared for the festival crowds. But Churchill Downs Inc. saw more than a horseracing facility and casino gambling palace when it bought Fair Grounds -- it had its eye on the success of Jazz Fest as well. Now it's running a competing festival at Churchill Downs, naming the festival after the racetrack's brand and apparently using Jazz Fest as advance billing for its headlining act. Bon Jovi's inclusion on the last Jazzfest lineup was a glaring red herring in the mix of acts -- a mainstream rock band with zero connection to New Orleans music or any of its tributaries -- and the group brought out a mass of fans that to put it mildly were unschooled in New Orleans music. The Bon Jovi crowd booed Dr. John during his Jazzfest set as fans pushed toward the stage for a good view of Mr. Bon. So now we have a better idea of how Bon Jovi became one of the headliners of the 40th anniversary of the New orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Nice to know we are now a subsidiary of the Churchill Downs Fesival season. I wonder what wonderful branding tie-ins we can expect at future Jazzfests?

Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra

That wasn't Squanto celebrating Thanksgiving with the settlers at the Hi Ho Lounge. It was several Mardi Gras Indians, without the feathers, singing and chanting their folk tales of New Orleans with an outstanding band of musical supporters. Friday night they came back and did it again. The smaller crowd saw an even better throwdown, with Sunpie Barnes taking several outstanding vocal turns and Reggie Scanlan on bass and Camile Baudoin on guitar really distinguishing themselves. Sunpie's tale of Shotgun Joe's demise started things off at an outstanding level and the evening just went on from there. The event was recorded and will eventually see the light of day as a full length album, but WWOZ may well use parts of it for fundraising purposes in the future.

David S. Ware on NBC website

David S. Ware, the outstanding jazz musician who is back to performing after receiving a kidney transplant, is the subject of feature story on the NBC Nightly News website. There is live footage from his recent Abrons Arts Center performance fully incorporated as well.

For right now, it is listed at the top of the ‘Latest Program’ list (click on this link to increase the front page view count!):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/


For future reference, here is the link direct to the story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33794579#33794579

Bryan Lee hospitalized with staph infection

Louisiana guitarist Bryan Lee is gravely ill with a staph infection "and his oxygen levels are critically low" according to a friend who posted the information on a blues message board.

Mirliton turns into Bywater Altamont

Ratty Scurvics got things going in fine style at what was billed as the 20th Mirliton festival. The Markey Park event took place in perfect weather and drew a large but manageable crowd including a lot of kids and a growing number of politicians. Jackie Clarkson seems intent on policing this crowd personally each year but unfortunatly she left before the fisticuffs broke out. You know she would have landed a sucker punch on somebody in the fracas. Hurray for the Riff Raff started out a little slow but ended up winning over the crowd with its strong songwriting and vocals. Guitar Lightning Lee tore it up in anticipation of his Saturday night throwdown at Melvin's, then hung out on his motorcycle to catch the R. Scully Rough 7 which did not disappoint a suddenly animated crowd. With Ratty back on keyboards Scully took no prisoners. Happy Talk band was even better with Luke Allen singing and playing guitar, Alex McMurray on electric guitar, Helen Gillet on cello and Mark Bingham on bass. McMurray and Gillet challenged each other with magnificent virtuoso turns and things got so hot that toward the end of the set some loon charged through the crowd yelling "Stop it!" Stop it!" When he reached the front of the stage, hands waving in the air, he apparently said something about Alex McMurray's mother because McMurray charged off the stage after him. Bingham, looking extra mad, dove immediately into the fracas. The whole exchange almost seemed like it was the opening act of the Fringe Festival but the guy did get thrown out so I guess it was all real. "I think he objected to Alex writhing around on the stage" observed Bingham. If Jazzfest 40 was Woodstock 40 redux, this was the Bywater Altamont. Fortunately DJ Jubilee was up next to chill everybody out before McMurray re-introduced the mayhem leading the Valparaiso Men's Chorus with Schatzy on accordion, Matt Perrine on sousaphone and a "chorus" of up to 20 men and Jonathan Freilich singing famous sea chanties such as "Give Me Some Time to Back That Ass Up." Mirliton executives rewarded the crowd by offering free beer toward the end of the set, which could have turned into another riot except they ran out and everyone when over to Markey's for another drink.