The Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival
12th January 2015 · 0 Comments
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer
For several years, a series of events around the city dubbed Guitar Extravaganzas have been taking place to raise funds and anticipation for The Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival. For even longer, folks who understand the banjoist, guitarist, vocalist, composer, author and self-proclaimed raconteur’s importance to New Orleans have been waiting for this exceptional artist and man to gain greater recognition in and from his hometown. At last, the festival to honor Barker takes place at various locations around town on Friday, January 16 and Sunday, January 18, 2015 with “satellite” events being held earlier in the week.
They include a celebration at Snug Harbor on Barker’s birthday, January 13th. The stellar group for the occasion will include Barker’s cousin, trombonist Lucien Barbarin and trumpeter/vocalist Gregg Stafford, both of whom often played with Barker. Also onboard are drummer Herlin Riley, banjoist/guitarist Detroit Brooks, the producer of the festival, guitarist Steve Masakowski to whom Barker bequeathed one of his guitars and bassist Jesse Boyd.
The festival’s “main event,” Fundraising Extravaganza, takes place on Friday evening, January 16, at the Carver Theater, 2101 Orleans Avenue. It begins at 6 pm with a meet and greet reception upstairs and music by the fine modern jazz band The Bridge Trio. Then the activities move to the building’s main floor led by the Black Men of Labor parading in to the sounds of the Treme Brass Band. A host of some of this city’s best guitarists and banjoists, including the likes of Carl LeBlanc, Todd Duke, John Rankin and more will be mixed and matched in various ensembles throughout the night with performances ending at 11 p.m. Tickets are $25 and benefit future Danny Barker festivals.
An Extravaganza after-party kicks off at 12:30 a.m. at Snug Harbor that features a super-star selection of guitarists including Grant Green Jr., June Yamagishi, Leo Nocentelli and Chris Thomas King backed by the solid rhythm section of drummer Raymond Weber, bassist Donald Ramsey and keyboardist Thaddeus Richard. Wow…
There are also several free festival events including seminars and clinics at area schools and universities. Sunday, the place to be is the newly opened George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart Street. There’s a full day of music scheduled starting at 11 a.m. with the Hot 8 Brass Band. Traditional New Orleans jazz is presented from 12:15 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. headed by well-regarded leaders starting with trumpeter Kid Merv, trombonist Lucien Barbarin (1:30 p.m.), pianist Steve Pistorius (2:45 p.m.), trumpeter Gregg Stafford (4 p.m.) with trumpeter/vocalist Kermit Ruffins taking it out beginning at 5:10 p.m. There is no admission charge and beyond the strong line up of artists, the event offers the opportunity to check out the renovation of this historic and grand building.
A complete schedule of the Danny Baker Banjo & Guitar Festival is available at www.dannybarkerfestival.com.
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As a warm-up to the festival, it seems appropriate to tell just a bit of Barker’s story, hear some of his wise and witty words from past interviews, listen to a few recordings like his1988 album Save the Bones (Orleans Records) and/or read one of his several, excellent books, including his autobiography “A Life in Jazz.”
A plaque marks the building at 1027 Chartres Street in the French Quarter, a neighborhood Baker once described as smelling like “spaghetti and meatballs,” where he lived with his paternal grandparents until he was in the second grade. It could have been a dangerous spot for a young Black boy but Barker, with his usual droll humor explained his method. “Oh, I just carried a watermelon, so everybody thought I was tame.”
That statement is pure Danny Barker, a notorious storyteller and straight shooter who would offer his observant social commentary with lifted eyebrows and a knowing smile.
Later Barker moved to “lower” Esplanade Avenue and as he told it, began to discover the “real” New Orleans along with his uncles, Willie, Lucien, Louis and Paul Barbarin. Music surrounded him, emanating from all the nearby benevolent society halls and nightclubs and pulsating down the streets as brass bands blew for the frequent jazz funerals.
“I was with them all the time, so I was another Barbarin,” Barker remembered. His grandparents, alto saxophonist Isodore, who played with the Onward Brass Band, and Josephine Barbarin encouraged their children to play music because, as Barker explained, it made you “something special.” His uncle, the late great drummer Paul Barbarin, was not only a role model for the young Barker but sent the aspiring musician his first banjo. Later it was Paul who encouraged Barker to come to New York and introduced him to those on the scene.
Barker first took up ukulele playing with kids in spasm bands, including the Boozan Kings. His little group would get a crowd going on Creole tunes like “Eh la-bas,” a song Barker continued to perform throughout his career. “We’d make people shake and wake and wobble,” Barker declared.
As a kid, Barker jumped on the back of a truck with trumpeter Kid Rena’s band for his professional debut. For almost 10 years, he strummed fat guitar chords with Cab Calloway’s band in New York and even recorded with jazz legend saxophonist Charlie Parker. He was befriended by and played with piano master Jelly Roll Morton, recorded with Louis Armstrong and decades later went into the studio with both pianist Dr. John and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
Despite his successful career in New York, Barker may have given the world of jazz his greatest gift after he came back to New Orleans in 1965. On his return, Barker noticed that the ranks of the once very prominent brass bands had dwindled to just a few.
“There was a big market for brass bands,” remembered Barker, who became concerned for the tradition’s future. “I could see it. But there were no kids playing it because they thought it was old men’s music.”
Danny and his wonderful wife, vocalist Blue Lu Barker, bought a house on Sere Street and joined the nearby Fairview Baptist Church that Barker described as having “a finger-popping’ congregation.” One day in the early 1970s, the minister asked if he was interested in organizing a band. It was idea Barker already had in mind. His first inductee was a young neighborhood trumpeter, then-13-year-old Leroy Jones, who presently enjoys a successful musical career. The Fairview Baptist Church Band blossomed from 10 members to 30 musicians who split up into three separate groups in order to satisfy all the gigs they were offered. Filled with now well-known musicians like drummer (then-trumpeter) Herlin Riley, trombonist Lucien Barbarin, trumpeter Gregg Stafford and Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen, the Fairview eventually spun off brass bands like the Hurricane and Dirty Dozen. This one little kids band began a revolution in brass band music that revitalized a tradition that continues to flourish mightily today.
Even after the Fairview disbanded, Barker, who continued to play throughout his life and led his own group, the Jazz Hounds, kept an ear out for young musicians. He would head over to the musically rich Treme neighborhood to check out up-and-comers and offer his sage advice and insight on music and life. Well-loved and respected by all, Barker drew younger people to the classic jazz and brass band traditions.
Danny Barker, who passed away on March 13, 1994, inspired kids to view brass band music not as a thing of the past but as a culture worth cherishing.
This article originally published in the January 12, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
