Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Lundi Gras, Happy Mardi Gras!
14th February 2012 · 0 Comments
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer
Music has always held a special how to remove payday loans place as an expression of love. Whatever one’s particular taste, be it the exuberantly complex passion heard on jazz giant John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ or the heart-tugging falsetto delivered on The Blue Jays’ doo-wop classic ‘Lover’s Island,’ music brings on or reminds us of the emotion that is common to all of humanity.
So to many, there’s no greater way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14, than to share the enjoyment of music with a special person. One of the evening’s offerings is the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s (NOJO) presentation of Duke Ellington’s masterpiece ‘Such Sweet Thunder,’ which was based on the work of William Shakespeare. For this performance of ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ conductor/trumpeter Irvin Mayfield will hand over the baton to the talented trumpeter, vocalist and orchestra member Leon ‘Kid Chocolate’ Brown. It’s only the second time he’s taken on that important position and the first time conducting Ellington’s suite.
‘This is going to be an ongoing learning experience for me,’ Brown says of leading NOJO. When he fronted the ensemble previously, it was only for several tunes. This occurred during the time when he bad credit loans whangarei was unable to play in the trumpet section due to his bout with Bell’s palsy, a medical condition that causes partial facial paralysis.
‘I don’t think I said how nervous and petrified I am about this Tuesday,’ he adds with a laugh. ‘I feel like I’m at a point in my life when I’m really open to learning again. All of the songs in the suite are dedicated to Shakespeare’s characters and I’ve had to go back and find out what these stories are again. It’s just reminded me of things that I have to relearn that I’ve kind of laid-off of since high school.
‘I’m not worried about them {the band members},’ he continues. ‘I’m worried about me messing them up. I know they’ve got my back though and I am looking forward to it.’
Brown enjoys the multi-dimensional aspect of Ellington’s suite that marries music and literature. ‘You never know, you may convert somebody to an appreciation of a new art form,’ he offers referring to introducing jazz to lovers of the bard’s works or Shakespeare to music lovers.
The piece ‘Madness in Great Ones,’ best quick money loans particularly excites Brown, who has been studying the score and music in preparation for the Valentine’s Day performance at the acoustically superb New Orleans Mint Performing Arts Center. ‘It’s really wild and quirky and it makes a lot of musical sense but it’s peculiar to your ears. It’s not what you’re used to hearing. I think that’s just the way geniuses function. Things that make sense to them don’t necessarily make sense to other people. Being a genius is all about getting from point A to D without B and C.’
Brown, who as a young rapper, dubbed himself Chocolate Ice (think Vanilla Ice), and later dropped the Ice to be known as just Chocolate, was bestowed with the musically historic title of Kid by veteran drummer Bob French one night at Donna’s Bar & Grill. A native of New Orleans and graduate of McMain High School and the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), where his classmates included Mayfield, Kid Chocolate has, with much vigilance, come back from his debilitating episode with Bell’s palsy that struck him in January 2007.
‘I still deal with it today so clear cash loans contact number I have to do all the tedious things that I had to do when I first started playing trumpet,’ he explains. ‘It’s like a six-hour process that I have to do every day before I play.’
The work and determination has paid off. ‘I’m happy after all the years that I finally got to take my band – the Kid Chocolate Quartet – out on the road and I’m doing a lot of traveling solo as a featured artist.’
The quartet with pianist Thaddeus Richard, bassist Richard Moten and drummer Ricky Sebastian, is the same group that has for the last three years held down Friday nights at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse housed in the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Saturday nights, the trumpeter and vocalist moves over to Mayfield’s I Club to perform with the Grammy-winning, Latin jazz group Los Hombres Calientes. Kid Chocolate also blows behind the great guitarist/vocalist Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington and has teamed with his wife’s Creole cuisine catering business, Café Dorgenois, to offer a New Orleans experience packaging food and music.
In keeping with the Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras celebrations, we asked Kid Chocolate his cash advance mineral spring ri favorite songs for these special occasions.
‘I like a lot of those love songs that Ella (Fitzgerald) did with Louis Armstrong,’ says Brown, who quickly mentions ‘Let’s Fall in Love.’ ‘I particularly I like all the double entendres and sexual innuendos. It’s really slick how they got away with it back then.’
As far as tunes that suit the Carnival season, he opts for Earl King’s ‘Street Parade.’ ‘The first time I heard it was on Mardi Gras. The rhythm of that song is so funky and when I listen to his lyrics I can visualize everything that he’s singing without trying to.’
Leah ‘Amore’ Chase’s Valentine Show
Love and laughs go hand in hand and Leah Chase will, as always, offer both at her Valentine’s Day show at Snug Harbor. Accompanying the soulful jazz vocalist are her solid regulars, pianist Michael Pellera, bassist Jesse Boyd and drummer Troy Davis.
Among her favorite romantic tunes is Cye Coleman’s ‘It Amazes Me.’ ‘I call it the warts and all song,’ explains Chase. ‘It’s about someone who truly knows who you really are and likes you anyway.’
Professor Longhair’s ‘Go to payday loan maplewood mn the Mardi Gras’ tops Chase’s Carnival tunes list. ‘My daddy (bandleader Dookie Chase) was a whistler so that whistling always reminded me of my family and him.’
Zulu Lundi Gras
Before the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club began presenting its annual Lundi Gras Festival 20 years ago, the Monday before Fat Tuesday was a rather dull time following a parade-heavy weekend. Now people look forward to gathering by the Mississippi River at Woldenberg Park to celebrate the day and catch the Zulu characters like the Witch Doctor, the Big Shot and, most of all the King and Queen. The musicians who play at the festival, which naturally boasts tasty food, enjoy being a part of the event as much as the locals and out-of-towners.
‘It brings everybody out—it’s for the whole city to see,’ trumpeter/vocalist James Andrews exclaims. At 6 p.m., Andrews takes the stage to lead his Crescent City Allstars at the festival, which has extended its closing time from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ Andrews continues in an enthusiastic state of mind. ‘I just like the revelers and everybody getting together with Zulu. It’s exciting to see.’
A mix of musical styles will be offered throughout the day with artists such as rapper Dee-1, zydeco kickin’ Rockin’ Dopsie Jr., soulman Jeff Floyd, rhythm and blues bassman Parker Shy & Shytown and jazz vocalist Ed Perkins.
Andrews’ selections for what he considers the most romantic songs for Valentine’s Day and the hottest Carnival tune are likely to show up on his hour-long set. He picks ‘What a Wonderful World’ – ‘you can dance to it; you can sing to it – and ‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans’ for romance. When it comes to the flavor of Mardi Gras, he declares, ‘We’re gonna put Earl King’s ‘Big Chief’ on ‘em.’
Andrews & the Crescent Allstars are heading to Texas just before Mardi Gras to tape a performance for ‘Austin City Limits.’ As for Carnival Day, he says, ‘I’m going to hang in the Tremé, the real Tremé, baby.’
This article was originally published in the February 13, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
