Interview with frontman, Tony Green

Here is an intriguing interview that I have been hoping to get around to for many years. Tony is a great performer from New Orleans. He is a lone wolf of sorts- a frontman in a city of side musicians. He really delivers too. I first heard him in the unbelievably unique band from the early 90s, The Frank Spencer Quartet. He did much of note before that and since. Currently he has renewed energy for some great projects he describes here, like The Gutter Broithers. There are recordings in the works.

This interview goes through his early start and working in London after that, how he came there, how he returned, his visions in music and his collaborations. It’s well worth the listen and you might find out about some new music you knew nothing about.

Interview here…

Tony Green (front)

Tony Green (front)

interview with Phil Degruy/Cranston Clements

Cranston Clements

Cranston Clements

Phil DeGruy

Phil DeGruy

… a rambling conversation with two killer guitar players and subversive musical comedians from New Orleans, Phil DeGruy, and Cranston Clements. They often perform together as The Self-Righteous Brothers. In this episode we eventually meander through their musical origin stories. Light listening on heavy topics…or is it the other way around?

The Interview is here…

Podcast Interview with Carlo Nuccio-pt. 1 & 2 available now!

I am back to my series of podcasts started in 2010. There has been a long layoff. Here is part 1 of an interview I conducted with the great drummer, producer, singer, writer, Carlo Nuccio.

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The interview, pt 1. is here…

Pt 2. is here…

I will get to the next section within a few days.

And I am in the middle of conducting another great one which you will be notified of shortly.

All the podcasts can be accessed here…

Or from the menu link that says podcast above.

Or from the apple podcast engine-

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New Interview with Jonathan Freilich. Low life journalism on Frenchmen St in the 1990s

Low Life Journalism is a website run by Laura Difazio, architect and journalist. She has been doing a wonderful series about interesting times in a certain part of New Orleans. Her interview style and writing are really exposing a few things not getting coverage elsewhere. Very worth looking at if you have a thing for all things New Orleans.

This time around she interviewed a certain Jonathan Freilich.

The interview is here… and features photos by Mani Lander from Mas Mamones, spoken of elsewhere on this site.

From the music interview side of this site we would like to say that even without a focus on this author, her work is really something!

Laura Difazio

Laura Difazio

She interviewed me a few years back fro offbeat magazine. That interview is available through a link on her website.

The Naked Orchestra at Saturn Bar. 3/21/2018- Equinox Baby!

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The Naked Orchestra

The complete outfit live at Saturn Bar.  Outrageous lineup of new orleans music scene luminaries.

James P. Walsh- conductor
Janna Saslaw-flute
Chris Kohl- clarinet
Persis Randolph-oboe/bassoon
Steve Bertram- bassoon
Martin Krusche-Sop. Sax
Aurora Nealand-Alto sax
Ray Moore-Tenor Sax
Brent Rose- Tenor sax
Joe Cabral- Bari sax
Mike Fulton-tpt
Cyrus Nabipoor-tpt
Jeff Albert-tbone
Rick Trolsen-tbone
John Gros-tuba
jonathan Freilich-guitar
Helen Gillet-cello
Stephanie Nilles-piano
Nobu Ozaki-bass
Doug Garrison- drums

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Part 2 of an interview with Josh Cohen and Ryan Scully of The morning 40 Federation

A highly flavorful half hour of very direct discussion with the writers of a certain kind of real down here in New Orleans.  Alex Mcmurray was involved and the whole discussion was conducted at his address.

What is touched upon? What is examined? What was quietly passed over? 

Find out here on the interviews page-

Who are they?  Wikipedia has this to say...

But who needs that resource when you have this one!

Great things at UNO

It has been hard over the couple decades or more, since arriving in New Orleans, to find much if any dialogue about what is new and most up to date in contemporary music thinking, let alone having that dialogue opened up to the freshest minds around town.  It was invigorating this weekend to catch up on what Yotam Haber and Henry Griffin and others had been putting together for student composers at UNO.

Professor Yotam Haber is a very interesting composer who gets novel and beautiful compositions played all over the world.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcX1lfASmKc.  It is a great thing that UNO has a fellow of this capacity in its music program- which, especially on the jazz side has been excellent- but Yotam Haber offers things for a whole other musical direction to be available to a city that has not often seen the possibility of training or even exposure to things in these directions.  His enthusiasm and vitality for the subject is palpable, and clearly inspiring for the students whom he champions in a great way.

On Friday we played the film scores composed by Yotam Haber's students, live, along with silent movies selected by Henry Griffin and Laura Medina. Griffin is massively knowledgeable about film and had selected some of very wonderful key films from the silent era for the students to score.  A great deal of effort went in to getting these pieces played with a good degree of finesse, and that is a great opportunity for young composers- and essential if they are to keep developing  or gain confidence to keep writing.  It was clear that they had been given exposure to a plethora of interesting techniques and had made their own choices about what to use and, some of the results were quite interesting.

Saturday evening there was a concert of pieces by the students and also by Yotam Haber and another faculty member from Tulane.   

I was called in to play guitar with the Contemporaneous ensemble that Professor Haber had brought in from New York.  I have little experience or comfort in playing in such ensembles so it was humbling to be treated so well despite my own short comings, and I must add that the young players in contemporaneous, including their conductor, David Bloom, were also extremely generous in giving me pointers to help the event go off smoothly. Not to mention larger picture issues from my old friend, bassist Doug Therrion. It was all very interesting especially because I am usually in the composer's seat having a piece played, not usually doing the playing.  My strengths as a player are often in other directions, but it was nice to be given an opportunity try to find some way to contribute, given my limitations.  Fresh challenges in music are a good thing.

It seems that with all this going on we might see a healthy crop of fine composers develop out of New Orleans which is something that has been in short supply here, and something that could make a  fascinating musical town, even more so.

Part 3 of Audio interview with Geoffrey Douville of Egg Yolk Jubilee is up

Long overdue- the penultimate section of interview by New Orleanian, Geoffrey Douville, pictured below with the banjo marching with Egg Yolk Jubilee.

Geoff goes on to describe the relationship and impact of his film practices to his musical thinking.  This segment goes very heavily into things he likes in film creativity. it's on the interviews page, here...

Part 2 of audio interview/ conversation with Geoffrey Douville of Egg Yolk Jubilee

Jeff Douville marching with Egg Yolk Jubilee

Jeff Douville marching with Egg Yolk Jubilee

In this segment, Geoff goes on to discuss his involvements with film, more on Danny Barker, New Orleans Rhythm and Blues performer/ audience relationships in music and a handful of other interesting subjects.

Take a listen- get involved in some more sides of the New Orleans music world of today and the past!

The Interview can be found on the interviews page, here...

Interview appearance on It's New Orleans radio show

The "It's New Orleans" radio show had me on to talk for their Happy Hour Show, which is a weekly live recorded show at The Wayfare restaurant on Freret.  It was an entertaining hour.  I even sang a song- very rare to put my voice on the air.

The talk was interesting.  The other interviewees were artist and storyteller, Marie Lovejoy, musician, Andrew Duhon, and film-maker Russell Blanchard.  Interesting conversation ensued.

 

Check out the show here...

 

Brice Miller Interview Part 3

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     After a very long pause I am posting the conclusion to the interview segment of my conversation with Trumpeter/ Bandleader/ Educator, Brice Miller from the Summer of 2013.
     Brice is finishing up a degree, dissertation is complete- so partially I'd like to use this as a congratulatory gesture for his landmark accomplishment.

     (In fact, I also just completed a degree myself so I can get back to these interviews.)

    There are two other, highly recommendable, earlier segments to this interview, of course. 


In Part 3 of this interview Brice touches on the following...

Brass bands in other parts of the United States; the "mythical" Congo Square; the role of formal musical education in the development early jazz artists- Buddy Bolden; brass bands around the world; jazz funerals, 2nd lines, benevolent societies and their roles in solidifying the place of people of color in the city- the taking of it; why brass bands in New Orleans have outlived the traditions in other cities; political needs for brass bands; more on cultural mentorship, cultural capital, social capital; the relation of brass band music to other musics in the city;  Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Nicholas Payton- their start associated with the brass band tradition; being able to speak collectively; Trombone Shorty; the difficulties of talking to music press and their false ideas of what audiences will find interesting; the maligning or ignoring of intellectual sides to musicians in the press; coming out of depression after Katrina; the way that Brice's identity was used and became a caricature after the storm;  going to the University of Alabama; telling the story of real New Orleans music, and the 200 year history of brass bands, honestly; the indignity of the reduction of all narratives of people of color to slavery; the influence of personal understanding of history on personal identity development; final comments- retelling your own stories.

Believe it or not, there is a whole other more conversational and, perhaps more evocative section to this that I will post soon.

Of interest: The Yossarian society

Here is an interesting website.

There is a new society being birthed.  Concerned with a number of things I would think, but right now the site has a good deal of focus on the plague of folks that would distract you from anything of actual importance in New Orleans, by endlessly attempting to suggest that sound ordinances are somehow a mark of great civilization- more than the culture of music!?!?!  

What can be said...Katrina courted throngs of people that have no idea and have fallen prey to some rich maniacs and carpetbaggers who are attempting to gain vast long term control over the profit systems in New Orleans.  But, it's surely the old Louisiana political story:  a new pipeline to fly high volumes of cash into a few local old pockets under the guise of renewal and a few beads for the new masses caught in the excitement.

Anyway, this mysterious

Yossarian Society

sheds more light than this brief rant-ette.

For instance, the Society says this... 


"Yossarian is entry level anarchism.

We like anarchism if it is funny. When it is a challenge, like Emma Goldman, not so much. So let’s try to start with some funny.

Yossarian’s philosophy is a first step. What happens when the Governing Caste slips its anchor? Yossarian pokes it in the eye."

 

     ...Can't be bad...who, after all, didn't get the tragic truths of 'Catch-22'.  If Heller could only see this world!

Tonight at Circle Bar- The Jackals 10pm

So good last week we got another shot.  Come out.  As Alex Mcmurray (there tonight!) says, it's ecumenical music.

last week's crowd

last week's crowd

The Jackals  are:

Doug Garrison- drums
Joe Cabral-bass
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
Alex Mcmurray-guitar

Oh yes...Alex and Joe sing songs too.  And not all in one language either.  Collectively we are unafraid of a multilingual universe. Lengue, eh? 

Doug Garrison

Doug Garrison

Joe Cabral

Joe Cabral

Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray  

Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray  

The Jackals ride again-Circle Bar Wed Aug 7-10pm(that's tonight!)

Hard as it's been to get some time where we can all make it, we finally did.  If you are unfamiliar with The Jackals, it was the sequel to 007 which became 00-Doug when drummer Jeffrey Clemens wasn't around.  Lip service had to be paid to those voices that attempt minor potential gains through strict name recognition, so we changed the name to The Jackals.  Now it is vastly distinguished from 007.  You'll see!

Anyway we are at The Circle bar this Wednesday at 10pm.  

Be there or don't. But...

As Louis Armstrong said "I never was born to be a Square about anything, no matter what it is..."   

How about you? 

The lineup is:

joe cabral

joe cabral

Alex Mcmurray

Alex Mcmurray

Alex Mcmurray-guitar, vocals
Jonathan Freilich- guitar
Joe Cabral-bass, vocals
Doug Garrison--drums

 

The Itunes podcast, 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians' is back

Go directly to the new feed...

The itunes feed was down for some time while this site was revamped.  Now the old interviews are slowly going back up.  The podcast was initially conceived to ask deeper questions of musicians than what the standard music press, in its often genre-based, marketing centric, 'false-omniscience', tends to presume.  When these interviews  started several years ago, I had a distinct sense that musical awareness and interest was perhaps declining because questions were not being asked.  Things may actually have gotten even worse in music journalism than a few years ago when these interviews started.  

If you are interested in New Orleans's musical drivers plow on.  There are many that I haven't had the opportunity to interview yet but I hope to.  I try not to bias specific groups or styles but I have only had access to these figures so far.  Connections are unintentional as far as preference goes but sometimes it does expose a network or community which is of interest.

The podcast features notable figures that relate in some way to the current vibrancy of the New Orleans music scene and community.  It seeks to form a dialogue between ideas and motivations behind the music and the relationship of those ideas to the sound artifact being presented.  The podcast also addresses what the audiences' state of understanding is about the music and whether understanding is relevant to the "success" of the musical artwork at all.  

 

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The real podcast had to be slightly renamed because of obscure problems with the iTunes store.  If you search and find two podcasts under the name, Jonathan Freilich,  the operational one will be 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians'  The podcast features the material from this site's 'Interviews with Musicians' page and showcases in depth interviews with well known and lesser known contributors to New Orleans musical life. To get there on itunes click here...

Playing with cellist, Helen Gillet at Bacchanal Monday June 18

This Monday for my weekly Bacchanal show I will be playing with cellist, Helen Gillet.  Just the two of us.  Expect French music, improvisations, Rock 'n' roll flares, Baroque hauntings, jazz flecks, and Rococo rescue.  Also, there will be the great food and wine that Bacchanal offers.  The whole thing kicks off at 7:30pm.