NOLA is very well represented at this year’s event. This from the Providence Journal. Dr. John & The Lower 911 featuring ex-Brit Jon Cleary (there are a few of us who are besotted with NOLA), Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with special guests Catherine Russell and Jonathan Batiste. Catherine RussellDr. JohnJazzjon clearyJonathan BatistenewportNewport Jazz FestivalNOLApreservation hallPreservation Hall Jazz Band
Today is Louis Armstrong’s birthday, in my view a musical titan to match the likes of Wagner. No artist has given me such pleasure as Pops as well as being a perennial symbol or a paragon of dignity in trying circumstances. Below are two of my favourite photos of Pops. I also highly recommend you…
Check out the terrific artistry of Paul Rogers (no, not the PR from a rather successful 70s beat combo). Paul’s work reminds me a great deal of Rockwell Kent‘s work – now that is high praise indeed. Paul’s jazz drawings is a world away from the schlock that typically populates Jackson Square. Though I like…
I was interested to read Jan Ramsey’s OffBeat discussion of the relative failure of NOLA to honour it’s most famous (and of course America’s most famous art form, Jazz) not to mention the rather patchy public space recognition accorded to its most famous musical sons and daughters. Plaques such as located at the site of Cosimo…
Here’s a review from the very excellent Journal of Jazz Studies. Along with Teachout’s “Pops” I can also highly recommend Ricky Riccardi’s What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years since together one gets a fuller and more rounded picture of America’s greatest art form and greatest artist. Both Teachout and Riccardi are masterful…
manwithoutqualities 