Dune Records: Janine Irons pt. 1 A few years back my friend and colleague John Murph turned me on to a then-burgeoning record company started by black musicians in the UK, Dune Records. The label has released potent music by such UK stalwarts as bassist Gary Crosby at the helm of his Nu Troop and [...]
Shamarr Allen "Meet Me on Frenchman Street" At 26 trumpeter Shamarr Allen has amassed a storehouse of experience and is on the cusp of being the latest New Orleans-produced trumpet flash. A proud product of the Katrina-devastated Lower Ninth Ward (his house was washed completely off its moorings when the nearby federal levee broke that [...]
Based purely on that fratboy nonsense one sees every year as the mass media depiction of Mardi Gras I must say I was less than impressed and never truly compelled to visit New Orleans during that annual carnival. Being here in the mix is a decidedly different story. Mardi Gras came early this year, colliding [...]
Traveling to Panama in late January is pleasant duty, even if doing so from the Crescent City where the weather has been quite inviting for we northeastern transplants. Arriving there for the 5th annual Panama Jazz Festival along with students from the Thelonious Monk Institute’s graduate studies program at Loyola University was a literal trip to [...]