Another Royal Fingerbowl reunion show this Friday at One Eyed Jacks. The unique chemistry of Alex McMurray (gtr), Carlo Nuccio (drums), Matt Perrine (bass/sousaphone), Bob Andrews (keys), and probably Washboard Chaz (french horn - just kidding) will be on display for all and recorded for posterity and later live CD. If you missed the last one, it was a beautiful time and hearing the Fingerbowl anthems put me in the right frame of mind. There were great drinking songs and great sobbing songs and the demented perspective of Decatur Street, Frenchmen Street, and Barracks St. Some of it was like walking into a time warp back into the turn of the century. What I mean was that I looked up from the bar and the Fingerbowl groupies (names have been concealed to protect the-not-even-close-to-innocent) were dancing together and a certain shaggy pianist was pulling back the curtain side stage almost tripping off the steps with a nefarious look on his face and I looked up at Candace to order my shot and look down and it’s the same bar! Literally, I’m looking at and leaning on the same bar that I held up at the Matador back when Fingerbowl did the Monday nights there. What godforsaken year is it anyway? Anyway, enough of my ranting hallucinations. You too can have this experience while listening to the classic songs of this great band.

The irrepressible Hank Staples, proprietor of the Maple Leaf Bar - 8316 Oak Street in the heart of Carrollton (called the Montparnasse of New Orleans by Everette Maddox, but that is another story) - called to let me know that they are doing a tribute to James Booker this Saturday in honor of the 25 anniversary of his passing. Yes, November 8 1983 Booker got dropped off at Charity Hospital in New Orleans where he was put in a wheel chair and in line to see the stomach doctor. He passed out and some orderly whose name is lost to the ravages of time saw his eye patch and moved him from the line to see the stomach doctor to the line to see the eye doctor. There he died from stomach complications and kidney failure. He was 43 years old.

There are other sources to find out the Booker story, but I will tell you that he is the second best pianist in the history of the instrument. (Nobody touches Art Tatum). His story is one that sums up much of what we love and hate about New Orleans. Imagine that Mozart grew up here and was too good and crazy to make any kind of commercial success, but still played like all of the great art that human beings have conceived. That was James Booker. I can almost guarantee that tales of his genius and illness will be spun at the Maple Leaf, a place that can own his ghost more than anywhere else.

Hank tells me that the band will include a Weber, a Hall, and a couple Nevilles. He wasn’t sure about pianists, but there are so many great pianists in this town touched by Booker that it should rival WWOZ Piano Night for the best night of radiating the 88s anywhere on the planet. I’ll place money that there will be a Cleary, a Paxton, a McDermott, a Worrell, and who knows whom else.

Should be a special evening. see you on the back patio.

In honor and remembrance of James Booker before the 25th year since his passing, Jazz Lunatique will put on the 2 hour 2 part documentary from 1996

James Carroll Booker III: The Life, Music, and Mystique of the Bayou Maharajah - produced by David Kunian.

Wednesday 11/5/08 at midnight - 90.7 FM New Orleans - www.wwoz.org

Tell your friends. Tell your enemies and make them your friends. Tape or burn it all you want. It’s got rare recordings and interviews with everyone from Dave Bartholomew, Earl King, Ed Frank, Red Tyler to Scott Billington and Allen Toussaint. It will make you laugh, cry, and feel like a kid again. Better than CATS!

And stay tuned for Jonathan Freilich’s Freedom Double-0 Naked Klezmer Jazz Latin Boogaloo: The Radio Documentary! coming to you November 19-21, 2008

OK everybody, but especially you guitar geeks out there, don’t miss Stanley Jordan at Tipitina’s on Wednesday night. Nobody plays guitar like him especially the way he uses his fingers on the frets to inject melodies and counter rhythms into the songs. To those of you who think that Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption is the pinnacle of fret percussion, think again. If we’re lucky, he’ll break out his versions of Ravel’s Bolero or the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. Show starts at 9.

Tuesday I talked with Deacon John (another unsung hero of New Orleans music) who sadly informed me that the great George Davis passed away.  George Davis was a guitarist, bassist, and reedman who did numerous sessions for Instant, Minit, and NOLA records in the 1960s.  You can hear him playing on most of the June Gardner and Smokey Johnson tracks including the guitar solo in It Ain’t My Fault.  That’s him also on Willie Tee’s Teasin’ You and playing bass on Earl King’s “Come On.”  However, his biggest claim to fame (and it’s a big one) is that he co-wrote “Tell It Like It Is,” Aaron Neville’s smash classic hit.  Davis also worked with Ernie K-Doe, Johnny Adams, Nancy Wilson, Jerry Butler, and others.  Davis had been living in Atlanta for the last few years.

www.grdmusic.com

And RIP Earl Palmer.

Allright, y’all, this missive is from Captain Ann-Marie Coviello of the Box of Wine. The Box of Wine is the parade that marches down St. Charles to alert the revelers and Mardi Gras fans that the time of Bacchus is upon us. It is open to all and more fun than a barrel of Motley Crue and Lindsay Lohan. Come march or watch.

To those who don’t know, Bacchus is the reason behind Mardi Gras. It all goes back to Bachhus. And he must be worshipped and given tribute especially, according to Grand Marshall for Life Shelly Loughnane, “by those who lives the lives that we do.”

From Ann Marie:

It’s that time of year again, the time of year when a Bacchante’s mind turns away from the quotidian and toward the call of Dionysus’ drumming…. Read the rest of this entry »

Rolled upstairs from the Blue Nile Wednesday to hear the Naked Orchestra for the Open Ears series. Open Ears is trombonist Jeff Albert’s weekly series of wild music that can feature everything from jazz blowouts to string quartets. Jonathan Freilich’s Naked Orchestra was only an 11 piece, but it played its heart shaped ass or ass shaped heart out. The band played two tunes twice, but the variations in each made it like you were looking at it with different tinted glasses each time. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t miss the record release party for Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes at Tipitina’s Friday 1/18. The new record has the gonzo rock and funk that they have become known for. And they were on my radio show last week where they said that they had something special planned for this gig. Their last release party at Tips they dressed in tuxedos for the first song and then dropped their trousers and played the rest of the gig sans pants. That’s NOT happening this year, but who knows what might, ya heard me?

Y’all don’t forget to pop by the Dragon’s Den on 12/16 (Philip K. Dick’s birthday) to see the high energy and deep conviction of saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan and his cohorts who include drummer Alvin Fielder, bassist Elton Heron, trumpeter Clyde Kerr Jr. (all of those folks have been playing together for 30 years) and relative newcomer Brian Quezerque on bass. This will be entirely improvised music, but don’t be scared. It takes a moment to get used to, but it’s powerful and full of moments of overwhelming beauty.

Kidd is one of the great saxophonist living today and is acknowledged as such around the world. He rarely plays here and that is a shame, but that is reality. Music like this can blow your mind and change your whole perspective. Read the rest of this entry »