It must be Fall as the season is just around the corner

18th September 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Sometimes there’s a real need to just have a change of scenery – to get out of the city proper. The Wednesdays at the Point music series that begins on September 20, 2017 and runs through October 18, 2017 can be a very enjoyable and inexpensive way to “get away from it all” without much effort. A ferry ride across the Mississippi – a pleasant experience in itself — takes fest-goers directly to the free event that begins at 5:30 p.m. The legendary guitarist, vocalist and composer Walter “Wolfman” Washington, is first on the schedule and first in the minds of those who love to devour the true sound of the blues and rhythm and blues on which this city built its reputation around the world. Wolfman, who used to back up the late great “Tan Canary” vocalist Johnny Adams at noted spots like Dorothy’s Medallion Inn, boasts a sound and style of his own. It’s urban, it’s late night, it’s soulful. Hear it all while gazing at the city lights from a different perspective – across the river.

Kicking the Weekend Off Early at the Louisiana Music Factory

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Basin Street Records label just released A Beautiful World featuring two of its most prolific artists, trumpeters Kermit Ruffins and Irvin Mayfield plus a host of musicians from the label’s impressive roster and beyond. At 6 p.m. on Friday evening, September 22, 2017, Ruffins and Mayfield, a duo who many will remember for their often hilarious, mock trumpet battles, will host, along with Basin Street owner Mark Samuels, a listening party at the always congenial Louisiana Music Factory. The focus of the party will be on checking out the album, the title which cleverly pays tribute to New Orleans greatest trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his hit, “What a Wonderful World,” while Ruffins and Mayfield sign copies of the new CD. It has absolutely been promised that these two friendly combatants, who stand as Basin Street Records’ most recorded artists and helped put the label in the national spotlight, will also be blowing their horns.

A Beautiful World is a jam-packed, 26-cut album that starts swinging from jump with a Ruffins/Mayfield original, “Well, Alright” and sets the tone of celebratory occasion. Most of the musicians in the Basin Street stable of artists such as clarinetist Michael White, vibraphone-ist/drummer Jason Marsalis and percussionist Bill Summers are onboard with over 50 others joining in on the ambitious project. The Rebirth Brass Band, which won a Grammy for its 2011 release on Basin Street – the label’s first – Rebirth of New Orleans was a must for the anniversary recording and performs its signature “Do Whatcha Wanna” with Ruffins on lead vocals.

Some inclusions are less predictable like a full string section on several cuts and the frequent appearance of vocalist/percussionist Cyril Neville who, though he isn’t a Basin Street artist, feels like one of the family. Neville is at the lead on one of the album’s best and most individual cuts, “Allen Toussaint,” a tune he co-wrote with Ruffins and Mayfield. It captures a wealth of the late composer’s and pianist’s talents and brilliant nuances – rollicking piano, solid horn arrangements, kicky rhythms, humor and love.

Basin Street Records celebrating its 20th anniversary release at the Louisiana Music Factory with Kermit and Irvin is, as the late food and fishing ace Frank Davis would say, “Naturally New Orleans.”

Fried Chicken Festival 2017 – No Longer Cooped Up

It was a no-brainer that this year’s Fried Chicken Festival, Saturday, October 23, and Sunday, October 24, flew the coop from its original locale at Lafayette Square, the site of its first event, to the wide open spaces of Woldenberg Park alongside the Mississippi River.

It’s difficult to complain about too much success, yet organizers and fest-goers alike don’t enjoy seeing or enduring long lines for some wings or thighs especially if they’re sold out by the time one reaches the counter as was often the case at the inaugural event. With some 35 food vendors onboard this year that problem should disappear as fast as a crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside chicken leg.

The free festival, which begins each day at 11 a.m. with variations of the Casa Samba dance and percussion ensemble, will naturally include a chicken-eating contest as well as cooking demonstrations. There will be two stages devoted to music – one for live performances and the other driven by some of New Orleans’ favorite deejays.

A few highlights from Saturday’s offerings include the two-stepping accordionist Sean Aroin & Zydekool and trumpeter Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs. The Naughty Professor that has been rollin’ with the release of its double and double-edged CD package, Identity, closes out beginning at 7 p.m.

Sunday’s line-up on the main stage certainly demonstrates the musical diversity that New Orleans has to offer and folks here enjoy. Sunday morning means gospel in this city with the Spirit of New Orleans Gospel Choir taking the stage at 11:30 a.m. What’s a festival without some funk? That will be provided by the always steppin’ trombonist and vocalist Big Sam’s Funky Nation getting down at 5:30 p.m. The stage then switches programs and presents “Ode to Bounce” that, of course, includes the queen, Big Freedia arriving at 7:15 p.m.

This article originally published in the September 18, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.