Singing the praises of ‘Talk That Music Talk’

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“Talk That Music Talk – Passing on cash america intranet Brass Band Music in New Orleans The Traditional Way”
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes & Rachel Breunlin
(Center for the Book at the University of New Orleans)

This book is physically heavy – it’s got some weight – due to its hefty amount of information and photographs. Even its title is sizable. Yet its theme is not formidable, on the contrary, it’s straight-ahead as depicted on the book’s cover. Benny Jones, the highly respected leader and snare drummer of the Treme Brass Band, stands behind a very young boy. The elder warmly grasps the focused youngster’s hands that are holding striped drum sticks. This is a moment of learning; this is a moment of, as the book’s title proclaims, passing on brass band music in New Orleans the traditional way.

“Talk That Music Talk” is a collaborative effort between Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, an accordionist/vocalist and now-retired Interpretive Park Ranger of the New Orleans Jazz National Park and ethnographer Rachel Breunlin, co-director of the Neighborhood Story Project. Through the use of extensive, often personal and always enlightening interviews, the book’s aim is to show how New Orleans music, in this case the brass band tradition, is shared. The volume explores Playa Del Ray Los Angeles CA cash advance the importance of this city’s extensive musical families and the many musicians who’ve grown up with the philosophy of making certain that New Orleans legendary music lives on.

The focus of the interviews center on the students involved with the now, unfortunately, defunct, Music for All Ages (MFAA) program sponsored by the Jazz Park that began in 2006. At one point, these musicians all performed with the Young Traditional Brass Band. For the most part, they are matched in talks with mentors of their choice such as clarinetist Joseph Torregano and tuba player Woody Penouilh. Often the interview teams are composed of musicians who play the same instrument. So we have trumpeter Kenneth Terry, who has blown with numerous brass ensembles and was heavily influenced by the Olympia Brass Band’s trumpeter Milton Batiste, interviewing John Michael Bradford, whose talent on trumpet he spotted early on. Terry tells his story first, followed by a previously recorded interview with the late Batiste and then Terry interviews the talented and on-the-rise Bradford.

The late Allison Miner, who was instrumental in the early production of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, understood the link between the musicians’ oral histories and their check loan music. For one, artists often sing or play with a cadence and content that is similar to how they speak. Like the conversations that take place at the Fest’s popular interview venue, the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, that view is reinforced in the extensive conversations that are transcribed in “Talk That Music Talk.” The musicians – both veterans and up-and-comers – tell their own stories in their own words. The history is the back beat underlining it all; the next generation’s reverence for the past and forward thinking provide the upbeat.

The book’s first measure begins with the voice of Jerome Smith the founder of the Tambourine & Fan youth-oriented organization and a activist in the civil rights movement. As Barnes writes of Smith to open the chapter, “He created a curriculum for understanding how music, street culture and social justice are connected in New Orleans…”

The chapter also includes an interview with the late, legendary trumpeter/vocalist/composer Louis Armstrong. The inclusion of his and other historical interviews with deceased musicians such as trombone great Waldren “Frog” Joseph and banjoist/guitar-ist/vocalist Danny Barker are intertwined in relevant chapters. They have been included, it has been explained, because personal loan orange county ca their names were often mentioned in the conversations between the young musicians and their mentors. To hear their voices is naturally a pleasure. However, it is somewhat unfortunate that the book doesn’t indicate their birth and death dates in the text. The omission could lead to confusion especially for those who, particularly from outside of New Orleans, aren’t that familiar with these great artists.

The extensive interview with Smith, who describes the streets of his youth in New Orleans as being “swollen with music,” sets the stage for the vibrant Black experience in his Treme neighborhood. “During Mardi Gras,” he says, “we weren’t allowed to go to parades that ride along Canal Street. It was only for white folks. But I learned that Rex was stagnant compared to what I was coming around.”

Next up is Fred Johnson Jr., one of the founders of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid & Pleasure Club. Raised in New Orleans 7th Ward, Johnson masked as spyboy with the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indians led by Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana. A community activist, he also worked with the Tambourine and Fan organization that inspired and instilled pride – and continues to do payday loans nashville tennessee so – in Black youths. Many members of the brass bands today got their start on the streets playing with the Tambourine & Fan’s offshoot, the Bucketmen Brass Band or with the Olympia Jr. Brass Band assisted by Milton Batiste who became involved with the organization. That sends us right back to trumpeter Kenny Terry.

That is the beauty of the book, which includes an absolutely impressive display of black and white photos that range from historic photographs to current shots captured by author Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes. There is a thread that weaves through “Talk that Music Talk” that connects the eras, the remembrances, the families and communities, the politics and race relations by way of the music and those who have and continue to perpetuate it.

No one is better able to tell this story than those musicians and members of this city’s communities who are contributing to it and/or have lived it. They offer their informative tales with the same improvisation, quirkiness, rhythm and flair that makes New Orleans music dance to its own beat.

This article originally published in the February 2, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.