Treme Brass Band back in the Candle Light

25th January 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

North Robertson Street in the Treme neighborhood once, not so long ago, boasted numerous spots that presented live music. There was Joe’s Cozy Corner (formerly Ruth’s Cozy Corner), the New Orleans Music Hall and the second incarnation of the Caldonia Club that became Trombone Shorty’s. Go back further in history and there were undoubtedly many more. The last one standing was the Candle Light Lounge located at 925 N. Robertson between St. Philip and Dumaine streets. So when it closed down some six month ago for major renovations, the once music-filled area went silent. It was worrisome too that, in the way of so many places, it might not come back due to some snafu.

Well, the Candle Light is back and so is the Treme Brass Band’s regular Wednesday night gig that it’s held down for around nine years. The group celebrated its return to the Candle Light on January 20th.

“They remodeled it real nice,” Treme leader and bass drummer Benny Jones declares. “It’s much bigger now and the band is at the right – facing the bar – the way it was years ago. Jones, who grew up in the neighborhood, remembers that there always was a barroom at that location. According to Jones, before Leona Grandison, who is known by all as Chinee, bought the building around 30 years ago, it was owned by Melvin and Marva Davis and called Grease.

“What I’m trying to do – my thing is – to preserve the music in the Treme,” says the bandleader. “That’s why I’m playing by the Candle Light and trying to keep people coming to the Treme. Plus, we got Tuba Fats Square on the lot there {next to the building} so we’ve got that going on for us too. It will be feelin’ great,” Jones said previous to the band’s first night. “People kept asking me when we’re coming back.”

“I usually go up there with six pieces but you have a bunch of sit-ins and wind up with an orchestra,” he continues. “The guys love to play in my band and I always invite them. All that’s part of the show.”

The band strikes up around 9 p.m. and goes until midnight and the $10 cover charge includes free red beans and rice.

Beyond the Candlelight gig and regular dates at Frenchmen Street’s d.b.a. and the Blue Nile, the Treme Brass will lead the Red Bean Social & Pleasure Club parade on Monday, February 8, Lundi Gras. It’s a fun, low-key affair that starts at Port and Royal streets at 2 p.m. It heads to the Treme neighborhood via Esplanade Avenue, takes a left on N. Robertson Street and makes a (usually rather extended) stop at the Candle Light. The procession disbands at the Backstreet Cultural Museum, 1116 Henriette Delille Street.

Charles Lloyd & the Marvels
I Long to See You
(Blue Note)

Spirituality has remained the core of the music played by the legendary saxophonist and flautist Charles Lloyd throughout his over five decade career. He starting out performing with masters such as saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Cannonball Adderley, drummer Billy Higgins and a who’s who list of jazz players. It was in the mid-60s when Lloyd formed his own formidable quartet with now-legends, pianist Keith Jarrett, drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Cecil McBee that he truly made the public hip to his sound’s spiritual nature producing some of his most noted works, Dream Weaver and Forest Flower: Live at Monterey.

This sense of spirituality stands as one of the qualities that makes Lloyd’s horn immediately identifiable. So there is little doubt as to who is blowing on the opening cut of I Long to See You. That’s true even though the song, “Masters of War,” comes from the pen of noted folk-singer/poet Bob Dylan rather than a jazz artist and includes instrumentation that is somewhat out of the ordinary in jazz with the great guitar of Bill Frisell and steel guitarist Greg Leisz. Lloyd’s round tone contrasts and complements the edgier timbre of the guitars with the bass of Reuben Rogers and drums of Eric Harland providing a ton of drive on this dirge-tempoed masterpiece.

The rhythm picks up on “Of Course, Of Course,” a tune written by Lloyd years ago on which he brings a wonderful lightness performing on alto flute. Most of the tunes on the album, whether originals or covers, tend to be lovingly sentimental and reveal, to some degree, the influence of the Memphis-raised musician’s blues roots.

Country giant, Willie Nelson joins in on vocals on “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” with Lloyd’s horn taking on the fiddle part. Another guest vocalist, Norah Jones, comes in on a tune with a more modern, yet equally sentimental, flavor “You Are So Beautiful.” That could be said for Lloyd’s horn here too.

The disc concludes ethereally on an extended exploration of the saxophonist’s composition “Barche Lamsel.” More complex in theme, it makes for a dramatic and unexpected conclusion to I Long to See You, an album of spirituality, sentimentality and strength.

This article originally published in the January 25, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.