Hopes and great expectations for this ‘new year’

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

After looking back over 2014 for the last few weeks, it seems like the right time to look ahead to music and life in 2015. A new year often brings renewed hope for individuals and humanity. Naturally, peace on earth is the wish of most people but there are also those less monumental desires concerning day-to-day matters of life that help us to stay happy. That includes the gifts given by the next-generation of musicians who are keeping the music vital and their elders proud. So here are some thoughts, dreams and expectations for the new year.

It would certainly be agreed by all Mardi Gras enthusiasts that they beg that the weather on Carnival Day 2015 will be better than last year. It’s difficult to imagine that it could be worse save for throwing in some hail or sleet. The rain and bitter cold that prevailed on the holiday deterred many from donning their costumes and stepping out the door. That was particularly true for the Mardi Gras Indians whose delicate feathers shrivel in the rain. Many people tried to keep the spirit alive as best they could but often had to surrender to the elements.

TRAVIS ‘TRUMPET BLACK’ HILL

It’s exciting to anticipate the activities that will take place at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center that opened its doors on December 11, 2014. It already provides a permanent home for the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music that offers free musical education to youngsters. The building at 1225 North Rampart Street, which was formerly the Tharpe-Sontheimer-Laudemiery Funeral Home (where “Uncle” Lionel Batiste and many other Tremé residents once worked) was always an impressive structure with its entrance-way flanked by grand columns. Extensive renovations have transformed its somewhat neglected exterior to its former magnificence while maintaining is original facade. The interior has been redone and modernized to include a 200-seat music venue.

It would be hoped that the city’s apparent policy of a complaint by one or several (often organized) people about “noise” would change and no longer be enough to stop the music. This line of reasoning by the powers that be has been going on for too long – decades, really. Treme, known as a incubator of New Orleans music, now has only one music venue on the river side of North Claiborne Avenue, an area that once jumped with great sounds. That, regrettably, considering the gentrification of the neighborhood, is not going to change. But, the question is which clubs around the city will be attacked next? Which musicians will lose their gigs next?

There are several musicians to keep your ears out for in 2015 as they sure showed themselves in a big way on the scene in 2014. Cuban-born percussionist Alexey Marti arrived in New Orleans in 2007 to study at the University of New Orleans and has made his presence known leading his own groups, hitting with this city’s finest jazz musicians like drummer Herlin Riley and pianist David Torkanowsky and many, many more. The highly-skilled musician was a natural teamed with fellow-percussionist Bill Summers when he played with Summers’ and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield’s Los Hombres Calientes.

Jamison Ross, who came to New Orleans in 2011, is best known as a drummer though on trombonist and vocalist Glen David Andrews’ fine 2014 release, Redemption, Jamison was all over the CD, singing and playing organ. We’re told he’ll be on keyboardist/vocalist Jon Batiste’s next release. (Okay, many people still think of him as Jonathan Batiste).

Trumpet Black & the Heart Attacks is a group that’s been kicking hard around town at spots like Vaughn’s, Jazz in the Park and d.b.a. It is led by Travis “Trumpet Black” Hill, a talented horn player who can really hit those high notes and excites an audience with his energetic stage presence. A relation to the Andrews family, Hill has the spunk whether heading his own band, working with trombonist Corey Henry, or hitting the streets with a brass band.

Speaking of brass bands, trumpeter Glen Hall, who is also related to the Andrews and a student at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), is definitely on the move. The talented musician is best recognized as an original member of the Baby Boyz Brass Band and sitting in – well, parading with – a number of other groups including the New Birth Brass Band. Hall is also performing with trumpeter Irvin Mayfield’s Playhouse band where he gets to show off his more modern jazz chops. As vocalist John Boutte recently offered, the ever-smiling Glen Hall “is always a pleasure.”

Joe Dyson has long been a musician to watch since he stepped out on the scene as a teenager with saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., as a founding member of The Bridge Trio and working and recording with his cousin pianist/vocalist Davell Crawford. Yet he just turned 25 last December so there’s so much more to come. Dyson, who is a member of yet another New Orleans musical family, has also been a regular with organ great, Dr. Lonnie Smith. The drummer’s name is on the lips of musicians who see him as part of the New Orleans drum lineage following in the rhythms of this city’s greats like Brian Blade before him and masters such as Herlin Riley, Idris Muhammad, James Black and Ed Blackwell.

Now that’s hope for the future.

This article originally published in the January 5, 2105 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.