It’s your last chance to dance – and then get up and soul groove

21st October 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

The fall edition of the Nickel-A-Dance series wraps up this Sunday, October 27, 2019 with bassist and vocalist Mark Brooks leading his band Mark Brooks & Jazz Friends. It will include pianist Meghan Swartz, saxophonist Roderick Paulin, trumpeter Mark Braud, trombonist Craig Klein and drummer Marlon Brooks, Mark’s 17-year-old son.

Marlon, who attends Holy Cross High School and the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), is making his second appearance at the series though he’s had experience at other venues during his 10 years playing drums. Each Sunday, both he and his father head to the First Emmanuel Baptist Church to lay down those essential gospel rhythms with the band. As the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as Mark also began his long and successful journey in the world of gospel music. A member of the very musical Brooks family, Mark got his start singing along with his siblings – Juanita, Detroit, George and Barbara – with his father’s gospel group, the Masonic Kings.

Naturally, as a NOCCA student, Marlon has enjoyed the opportunity to perform in the school’s jazz band made up of his fellow classmates and to meet and play with several of NOCCA’s renowned alumni such as the very successful Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and pianist/vocalist Jon Batiste who leads his group Stay Human, as the house band for television program, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

At Sunday’s free Nickel-A-Dance show, Marlon will play traditional New Orleans jazz that the series celebrates and the style he’ll perform with his father, Mark, at some upcoming dates. The music department at NOCCA insists on students studying a wide variety of genres so Marlon, who is heading to Morehouse College next fall, is up on modern jazz drumming too.

“I’ve really enjoyed my career playing all the different styles,” Mark Brooks once declared while mentioning R&B gigs with pianist, vocalist and composer Eddie Bo and modern jazz dates with saxophonist James Rivers. Though he appreciates how much working in different genres has improved his bass playing, he admits his first love is traditional jazz. “I just like it, you know.”

The Nickel-A-Dance series is presented from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Maison, 508 Frenchmen Street. It’s free and children are welcome.

PJ Morton
Paul
(Morton Records)

The title of vocalist and keyboardist PJ Morton’s latest album, “Paul,” recognizes the given name that he and his father, the noted Bishop Paul S. Morton share. Each, in their own way, also have in common the gift of delivering a message be it from a pulpit or lyrically through music.

PJ speaks to all generations with his messages of hope on the beautifully harmonic “Don’t Let Go” and the importance of not losing the sense of joy of childhood on the sweet “Kid Again.” On a harder yet always rhythmic note is the funky “Buy Back the Block” that opens with the news report on the murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle. On a vocal duo with Angela Rye, Morton addresses the history of slavery and the frustrations of the often under-privileged, under-represented, over-persecuted Black community on “MAGA?” “I think they mean it was great for them,” he sings… “Injustice is everywhere.”

PJ, a bona fide soul man, Grammy award-winner and a member of the renowned band Maroon 5, sets his “sermons” on top of soul and contemporary rhythm and blues grooves on which the outstanding keyboardist and vocalist often handles all or most of the instrumentation.

Morton also often reveals his romantic side as heard on the slow soul groove of “Built for Love” that features Jazmine Sullivan and is complete with PJ on acoustic piano and the horns of trumpeter Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown, saxophonist Brad Walker and trombonist Jon Ram. This duet comes right out of Motown’s tradition of great pairings like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. “Don’t Break My Heart” blends the hip hop of guest rapper Rapsody and spoken word that builds into a groove-filled contemporary rhythm and blues dance number.

Morton has something to say as a hip, modern, multi-talented musician with gospel roots and an old school soul as well as a man with a message who delivers songs with purpose to stir the heart with love or activate the brain with political and social consciousness.

On Paul, PJ Morton succeeds in his mission of bringing both aspects under one glorious “revival” tent that’s deserving of a heartfelt hallelujah.

This article originally published in the October 21, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.