Terence Blanchard and Weedie Braimah – The sounds of New Orleans and its African roots

3rd December 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Appropriately, a great deal of holiday music is presented with December’s arrival. Early this month, however, jazz reigns in its birthplace starting with a rare appearance by trumpet master/composer Terence Blanchard at Snug Harbor on Tuesday, Dec. 4. The Crescent City native will be backed by his very impressive E-Collective with keyboardist Fabian Almazan, drummer Oscar Seaton, guitarist Charles Altura and bassist Dale Black. All but the bassist were heard on the trumpeter’s strikingly expressive albums, 2015’s “Breathless” and this year’s “Live,” which Blanchard and company will revisit at the gig.

Blanchard’s performance here came about as he was selected by Zeiss Camera as one of five creative people from different fields and from around the word to participate in the company’s visual portraits for its campaign to announce its new camera.

The core of the promotional concept is that if one is passionate about something and pursues their goals it enables them to enter a mental state of energized focus called flow. That philosophy comes directly from Blanchard’s 2005 release, Flow, and is found in its music as well as the liner notes the trumpeter wrote for the album.

“What we talked about on that album is that sometimes artists think that it should be a struggle to create,” Blanchard explains. However, he agrees with a writer who contradicted that idea. “His thing was that no, once you find the flow – some people call it vibration – it actually becomes much easier. I’ve experienced that.”

“I think it can happen early on (in one’s musical journey),” Blanchard continues. “The difference is that the older you get, the more you refine your technique to speak more eloquently in the flow. I see young musicians all the time around New Orleans who are in the flow. The thing they should do – the thing they need to do – is to constantly refine their craft. Buddhists chant every morning to try to find that universal vibration to energize their day. I think musicians tap into that on a regular basis while playing.”

During the filming and photo shoots, each of the participants will highlight some of their favorite places. For Blanchard that will include City Park as he lives across the street from the lovely, green expanse. He also loves being on the bayou. The renowned trumpeter also gives a thumbs up to the restaurant Domenica and, wait for it… Dat Dog. Who knew?

Snug Harbor, where his performance will be captured, is, of course, foremost on his list of favored spots in New Orleans.

“First of all, I remember when it was called the Faubourg,” Blanchard says. “It just has so much history. It’s one of the staples of the music scene in New Orleans. Whenever I step in there, I’m seeing (the late saxophonist) Earl Turbinton on stage. I remember playing with him – the African Cowboy – when I was a kid. I’m seeing (pianist) Willie Metcalf, I’m seeing Ellis (Marsalis). I remember seeing (trumpeter) Nicholas Payton, (drummers)Adonis Rose and Brian Blade when they were kids. It reminds me where I came from.”

“I think people think about New Orleans the wrong way too much,” Blanchard continues. “Everybody thinks of New Orleans as a party town. I think about New Orleans as a place where ideas are born. Herbie Hancock once said, “Whichever way New Orleans goes, so goes the rest of the country.”

Drums in the Bloodline – Weedie Braimah Leads the Hands of Time

Djembe master Weedie Braimah debuts as leader of his own band, Hands of Time, at Snug Harbor on Saturday, December 8.

“I’ve always wanted to bridge the gap between African music in Africa and African music in America,” says Braimah who was born in Ghana, raised in East St. Louis and has been residing in the Crescent City for the last year or so. “I tell people if you go to New Orleans, you can see it. African music is alive in the culture.”

Braimah, boasts deep roots both in New Orleans’ and African drumming. His mother, Ann Morris, who married Ghanaian drummer and composer Oscar Sulley Braimah, was a jazz drummer and the daughter of the renowned Weedy Morris who played drums behind luminaries such as Illinois Jacquet and Oscar Peterson. Braimah’s uncle was the brilliant Idris Muhammad, who was born in the Crescent City as Leo Morris and was the drummer on Hawketts’ Carnival anthem “Mardi Gras Mambo” and Fats Domino’s 1956 hit “Blueberry Hill,” and went on to gain international acclaim.

Braimah’s group marries New Orleans recent residents like pianist Shea Pierre, guitarists Raja Kassis and Sam Dickey plus percussionist Luke Quantia with Atlanta-based percussionist Munir Zakee and Senegalese bassist Cheikh Ndoye.

Braimah, who was named after his noted grandfather though the spelling differs – Weedie vs. Weedy – describes his approach as the new sound of African music, folkloric music that has evolved into jazz and funk. “It all beings with the drum and it all begins and ends with Africa.”

“I’m not necessarily playing djembe licks,” he continues. “I’m able to create a new sound that the djembe brings to the music and what makes it a melodic instrument as well. We’ll do some folkloric and original music and standards flipped all the way.”

This article originally published in the December 3, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.