It’s prime time for jazz scene at the Prime Example

15th April 2011   ·   0 Comments

It’s prime time for jazz approved cash advance portage mi scene at the Prime Example

By Geraldine Wyckoff

Contributing Writer

Julius Kimbrough is a well-known figure to those on the New Orleans jazz scene as both a presenter and patron. The owner of North Broad Street’s Prime Example who also made a name for himself in the mid-1990s when he presented jazz at the neighboring Showcase Lounge, Kimbrough decided it was time to get back into the music game. The Prime Example now offers excellent live jazz every Thursday night and during Jazz Festival will add Saturday nights to its schedule.

“Just recently, I was thinking about the reasons I was in the bar business in the first place,” says Kimbrough, who has owned the Prime Example since 2001 though it operated primarily as just a bar and restaurant. “That,” he continues, “had to do with live music and jazz in particular. So I decided to dedicate 2011 to getting music back up. I made 70 years old on January 11 and part of this is my rebirth. It’s the starting of my new life. So I didn’t put it off any longer.”

In booking the Prime Example, Kimbrough has turned to some of the musicians who helped put the Showcase Lounge, which he purchased in 1992, on the map. Saxophonist Donald Harrison, who performs on Thursday, April 14, was a regular back in the Showcase’s heydays. On a recent Thursday, pianist David Torkanowsky assembled an excellent group of musicians that included drummer Shannon Powell, trumpeter Wendell Brunious and saxophonist Roderick Paulin for an unforgettable, totally New Orleans night at the club. (Brunious returns on April 21 with pianist Larry Sieberth and Baton Rouge vocalist Judy Davis).

“I never understood why musicians who come from my neighborhood weren’t playing in our neighborhood – musicians play best at home,” Kimbrough says of booking our great local artists.

The atmosphere at the Prime Example on Thursday nights stands as a mix of a neighborhood bar and a hip jazz joint. Kimbrough believes strongly that jazz is better showcased in best cash advance in 64120 a nightclub atmosphere where people can clap their hands and have fun as opposed to more sterile environments. It’s 60-seat capacity makes for a warm, intimate musical experience.

Though Kimbrough says he was always involved in music – at church, in school choirs and bands – he didn’t get into jazz until his college years at Xavier University when he discovered the Joy Tavern in Gerttown. “We called it JT’s,” he remembers. “The band was headed by (saxophonist) Red Tyler with drummer Smokey Johnson, Chuck Badie on bass and either Ed Frank or Allen Toussaint on piano plus vocalist Tami Lynn. I went to JT’s often enough that I was on probation from Xavier my first year,” he adds with a laugh.

Kimbrough was introduced to national jazz artists when, after graduating from Xavier with a pharmacy degree, he moved to Chicago to manage a Walgreen’s drug store. In the Chicago/Detroit areas, he had the opportunity to hear artists like pianist Les McCann and vocalist Lou Rawls.

He returned to New Orleans in 1971 and eventually owned four drug stores, a fast-food restaurant and was part owner of a shoe store. Kimbrough also got back into the New Orleans jazz scene, becoming a regular at North Rampart Street’s noted club, Lu & Charlie’s. “That was, again, my introduction to New Orleans jazz,” he says.

One day in 1992 Kimbrough’s brother called to tell him that the Showcase Lounge was for sale. “I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ I had no idea about the bar business. I was in retail all of my life.”

It took several years before the Showcase began to present music but once it did, things took off. The Showcase offered live jazz five nights a week and radio station WWOZ began airing live broadcasts of many shows. A big boost came in 1996 when the Showcase was chosen to host the Central Time Zone’s segment for National Public Radio’s New Year’s Eve program. Onboard were saxophonist Wess Anderson and trumpeter Nicholas Payton (Payton performs at the Prime Example on Saturday, May 7.)

“We were really burning it up at that point,” Kimbrough enthusiastically remembers.

Kimbrough sold his interest in the Showcase following Katrina in order to focus on the Prime Example. Now jazz finds a place on the menu of the restaurant and bar.

“It’s so great to be back and it’s been so well-received,” he says. “I want Thursday night at the Prime Example to be the place to hear live jazz in New Orleans period.

West Bank Rollin’

“The Mohawk Hunters is the first and only Indian gang on the West Bank,” Big Chief Tyrone Casby proudly declares. The Mohawk Hunters, which was formed by Frank Casby in the early 1940s, presents its annual West Fest Mardi Gras Indian Parade on Sunday, April 17, 2011. It kicks off in Algiers at 1 p.m. with a brass band and the West Bank Steppers leading the procession that starts at Landry and Ptolemy. Much of the action takes place nearby at  L.B. Landry High School where the parade ends and where food, rides and music will be available throughout the day.

 

Big Chief Casby has masked with the Mohawk Hunter for 42 years coming up through ranks –  spyboy,  flagboy, First Chief  – as was expected in the tradition’s earlier years. “Now they think that you just wake up one morning and you’re a big chief,” Casby complains. He took over the gang from Chief Rayfield Parker in 1980 and presently Counsel Queen Rita Johnson stands by his side.

 

The Mohawk Hunters distinguishes itself as a very family oriented gang that boasts several generations of  Casby’s kin – children, grandchildren and nephews. This gang also holds a reputation for really having some fun. As displayed at last month’s Uptown Indian Sunday Parade and whenever the Mohawk Hunters hit the streets, this group keeps the tambourines ringing and voices singing.

 

Like the Mohawk Hunters, the West Fest Mardi Gras Indian Parade, which was first presented in 1984, is a family affair.