While it’s great when a label manages to attract talent from all over the globe and show their work to a larger audience that they would likely not encounter, there’s still something to be said for a little hometown love. New Orlean’s Basin Street Records is just such a label; they’ve managed to encapsulate the very essence, feeling, and spirit of their beloved city’s culture within their recordings. In a post Hurricane Katrina existence, where the vibrant city’s culture was literally washed away by a devastating natural disaster, the preservation of such unique elements as local music styles is invaluable.
Since their formation in 1997, Basin Street has stacked up a great roster of native New Orleans musicians including Theresa Andersson, Jeremy Davenport, Dr. Michael White, Henry Butler, Jon Cleary, Jason Marsalis, Los Hombres Calientes, Irvin Mayfield, and The Headhunters. Their most noteable and respected artist would have to be Kermit Ruffins and The Rebirth Brass Band, who have been an institution in the New Orleans Jazz scene since they got together in 1983. Their sound has been described as the musical embodiment of what it feels like to be in the city, and they’ve never changed their ways. In fact, the group recently starred in HBO’s New Orleans based series “Treme,” being recognized as far as playing in the show’s opening scene.
Ah, Jazz. The timeless musical form has continued to draw the finest and most dedicated musicians to its complex and expansive stylings for nearly a century now. Since its humble beginnings in the early 1900′s, Jazz has become a blanket-term to encompass a variety of sub-genres, all of which are unique and challenging in their own, wonderful ways. We’ve churned through our catalog to pull out some of IODA’s finest Jazz releases. Dig it man:
This collection from Basin Street Records benefits the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp and is a collaboration with SIGGRAPH 2009 that is coming to New Orleans. The Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp was founded in 1995 with the support of the City of New Orleans. Since then, the camp has grown from a one-week affair serving 35 youth to a three-week intensive program training 100 young people, ages 10-20, in music and dance. In addition, the Camp offers three week-long training programs in music business, recording engineering and music notation technology for advanced students. The camp employs the services of the leading New Orleans jazz educators and performers, and annually hosts a highly accomplished national jazz musician as an artist-in-residence. This sampler features Basin Street Record artists and new orleans greats such as Henry Butler, Kermit Ruffins, and IODA’s beloved Theresa Andersson. Get an awesome tasting of New Orleans Jazz as it stands today!
Artist: Preservation Hall Jazz band Title: New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 Label: Preservation Hall Genre: Jazz : New Orleans Release Date: 5/7/09 UPC: 635961142720 Territory: World
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans proudly releases their brand new recording, New Orleans Preservation, Volume 1. Recorded January 20-22 in the hallowed venue from which they derive their name, this exciting new CD features the stellar multi-generational lineup currently represented in their extensive international touring schedule. Boasting an impressive collection of classic gems of traditional New Orleans jazz as sung by Charlie Gabriel, Mark Braud, Walter Payton, and Clint Maedgen, this album faithfully reproduces all the energy and spirit that has made this all-star lineup an international sensation for almost fifty years. Available now, New Orleans Preservation, Volume 1 is living proof that Traditional New Orleans Jazz is alive and well in the Crescent City and beyond. Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Opening its doors in 1961, the Hall was created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock n roll. Allan and Sandra Jaffe, the hall’s founders, wanted a place where New Orleans musicians could play New Orleans Jazz, a style, they believed, should not disappear. Today, over 40 years later, the hall is still going strong. On any given night, the hall is filled to capacity with eager jazz fans. Check out this great record for a tasting of the magic within Preservation’s historic walls.
Born in Huy, Belgium, Eric Legnini is one of the most talented young pianists around. After spending two years working in New York with American pianist Richie Beirach, Legnini now performs and tours Europe with his own group, The Eric Legnini Trio. He has played with leading musicians such as John Ruocco, Félix Simtaine, Michel Hatzi, Dré Palemaerts, Emanuel Cisi, Toninho Horta, Philippe Catherine, Serge Reggiani, Hein van de Geyn, Marcia Maria, Jacques Pelzer, Aldo Romano, André Ceciarelli, Belmondo 5tet, on top of touring with world famous Toots Thielemans. In 1990, Eric legnini was appointed teacher of jazz piano at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music and that same year, Belgian TV featured a one-hour film about Eric’s life in belgium and the United States. Legnini has composed the soundtrack for “Ombres et Lumières,” directed by Samy Brunet, and also had the opportunity to compose and perform the music for a dance performance, “Si par une nuit…” for the Enzo Pezzella Company. In the Belgian jazz referendum organized by Belgian radios RTBF and VRT, Eric LEGNINI was elected by the listeners as the best Belgian piano and keyboard player of the year in 1998, as well as the Belgian critics poll’s best Belgian piano player. In October 2005, he received the Belgian DJANGO D’OR award for jazz mastery and in 2006′s he earned the Belgium award for “Octaves de la Musique” in the jazz category. Now that’s an impressive resume. Take a listen to these cool remixes featuring Lyrics Born!
What a week. Despite the heavy hitters such as Metallica, Kanye West and Devo that made it down to Austin for shock and awe performances in tiny venues, SXSW 2009 was still all about the thousands of indie bands trying to shine through a Mid Texas town over-saturated in everything to do with music, debauchery and barbeque.
We took a survey of IODAns that made it down to see the madness and here is our list of stand-outs in no particular order (with as many free PromoTracks we could scramble up!):
The Flower Travellin’ Band-
Winding down their first ever US tour, the fore-bearers of stoner rock made their last stop on tour, Austin, a memorable one. They even made the cover of The Austin Chronicle’s Friday SXSW edition (check out that Sitorla)!
“In fact, tonight’s set confirms the band’s unique sound and vision remains intact. There are moments when they verge of Canfunkoid territory, others where King Crimson spring to mind and where Cream’s ghost is evoked. The overall effect is both startling, uplifting and over all too quickly.” -Mojo Magazine
We couldn’t get a promotrack for you but check a song out by them in an episode of IODAcast here.
Earthless with J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.-
Earthless + Mascis was something else. Took a while to get going but then WOW. The drumming was AMAZING and everything came together. What threw us off were the model-types handing out samples of CK One- do they not know their demographic? Doubt people like the dudes below from Black Tusk enjoy the scent of Calvin’s unisex perfume.
This supergroup doesn’t yet have an album out (expect it some time in 2009 via Friendly Fire) but the buzz was roaring leading up to their SXSW baptism. NPR to the most niche tastemaker blogs put them on their must see lists. We think they lived up to the hype and are gearing up to listen to their recently mastered debut.
“After hours spent searching for the Next Big Thing at SXSW, checking out bands attempting to woo jaded industry insiders, it was refreshing to take in the Wrens’ set. These dudes have been there, done that, and done it again. Nobody is running to their laptop to blog about hot up and coming buzz band the Wrens. So their headlining set at the Absolutely Kosher showcase was packed with true believers, dudes who knew all the words and spent the whole time shouting along, not Twittering.
Frustratingly, the set was short on new songs, with only one and a half (the half serving as the intro to “She Sends Kisses”) played. Both were slow, pretty ballads that stood in sharp contrast to the fired-up Meadowlands tracks that made up the rest of the set. Kevin Whelan served as ringmaster/ringleader, jumping around and screaming with hardcore intensity, offering up his bass to the crowd to pass over their heads. At the end of the show, as Whelan took a seat behind a keyboard for “This Is Not What You Had Planned”, Charles Bissell knelt down and planted a kiss on his cheek. It was love all around.”
“Positively everyone at SXSW was at least hoping to see HWGM and it’s not without cause — they’re fantastic. I only knew the names of a few of the songs they played, but everything sounded great. It makes me a little bummed that I don’t live anywhere near the upcoming Grizzly Bear/Here We Go Magic tour. That’s lessened a little bit by the fact that I got to see them pull a young girl who wasn’t more than waist-high out of the crowd to play the maracas along with the band. She kept great time and we all had a great time. Funny how that works.”
We totally loved My Jerusalem. The singer is Jeff Klein, who was in Twilight Singers. They are sort of a “supergroup” although no one in it is famous, but they do come from other bands. Notably, the bassist is Ashley Dzerigian, who was in Great Northern last year, and is now in My Jerusalem. She also happens to be the sexiest woman in rock ‘n’ roll (sorry Theresa Andersson, who was great at the IODA party). Drummer Cully Symington was in Bishop Allen and tracked The Gutter Twins album. Rick Nelson, who plays violin, viola, cello and keyboards in the band, is a longtime member of the Polyphonic Spree and St. Vincent. The show was pretty good, it was a big band and kinda reminded us of the Arcade Fire, only darker and more brooding. Once it got going, it rocked the house.
Absu-
We’ve never laughed that hard at a metal show. The drummer’s evil metal scowl in between tunes was mythical with introductions like: “This next track is called 181- one plus eight plus one equals 10 which is also one. The mysteries will be revealed in the f#@*ing song.” Extra points for track titles such as “In the Name of Auebothiabathabaithobeuee”.
Red Cortez-
Red Cortez (fresh off dates with Morrissey!) were raw and excellent at the reapandsow showcase.
“Make way for Stu McLamb, a genuine new talent with a name straight out of the annals of McDonald’s villainy. Imagined dalliances with the Hamburglar aside, McLamb really can sing– improbably, his voice veered from Roy Orbison croon to Walkmen-style bleat last night while his band swelled and cracked alt country a Whiskeytown fan could love. There’s an attractive symmetry to North Carolina’s the Love Language on stage; two female keyboardists far right and far left, a bass and a rhythm on either side of McLamb, and a drummer in back. Also, the Love Language is just attractive– at least four members could be models. Can’t hurt.
Especially when they’re offering songs that peak on their own, like if Arcade Fire’s big moments came out of back porch jam sessions. And then there’s “Lalita”, a garage-pop break with a tremulous grip on love, life, faith, all of it. McLamb dropped “We are the Love Language” three times during the set. Soon, he won’t have to do that stuff at all. Sooner the better.”
Ty Segall killed it at the Goner showcase!! We were shocked how much we wanted to go see local Bay Area bands even though we’re all located in SF and can see them at any time. The music scene here is so strong and seeing what a presence they had down in Austin made us feel like proud mommas and poppas.
Parties at the French Legation Museum are always so calming and you feel like you’ve been magically transformed out of Texas. Moriarty playing at that venue only added to the far from Texas feeling with their twangy Franco-Americana. Bonus points for their cover of Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus”.
The Village Voice listed them in their top 5 bands they enjoyed at SXSW:
“4. Obits. This particular blog’s crush/obsession with these surly-garage titans continues.”
Now signed to Sub Pop, they played songs from their IODA-distributed 7″ on Comedy Minus One:
The Chap-
We kept hearing over and over that to completely understand and love The Chap you need to see them live… We agree, they were amazing at the Ghostly International/ anticon showcase Wednesday night. The Chap “Proper Rock” (mp3)
from “Builder’s Brew” (Ghostly International)
Start it off right with IODA’s 5th Annual Opening Day Bash at Emo’s Annex from Noon-6pm. We’ll have some special brunch treats for all to enjoy- Batter Blaster pancakes served by your favorite IODAns! (while supplies last)
The event is free, no wristbands or badges required.
Performing artists include: Easy Star All-Stars, Deer Tick, J. Tillman, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Blind Pilot, maus haus, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Deastro, Marching Band, Theresa Andersson and Y La Bamba.
http://iodasxsw.com/download will get you 11 free tracks from our performing artists! This sampler is also available at most online retailers including Limewire Store, iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and more.
http://iodacast.com features a special SXSW episode that’ll also give you event info and music from the performing artists.
Check out the newest episode of IODAcast that features songs by all artists playing our 5th Annual IODA SXSW Opening Day Bash on March 18, 2009 in Austin, Texas! Artists include: Easy Star All-Stars, Deer Tick, J. Tillman, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Blind Pilot, Maus Haus, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Deastro, Marching Band, Theresa Andersson and Y La Bamba! Thanks to our sponsor: LimeWire Store.
Be sure to visit IODASXSW.com to get all information about our event and download a free sampler full of tracks by artists in our line-up! You can also find the sampler at LimeWire Store, iTunes, eMusic, Amazon and other great online retailers now!
Artist: Various Artists
Title: IODA SXSW Opening Day Bash 2009 Sampler
Label: ioda
Release Date: 2/24/09
UPC: 844185034371
Genre: Alternative
Territories: World
The sampler will be available tomorrow at LimeWire Store, iTunes, eMusic, Amazon and other major retailers but you can get the sampler for free now at http://iodasxsw.com/download! One song per eleven performing artists, including: Easy Star All-Stars, Deer Tick, J. Tillman, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Blind Pilot, Maus Haus, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Deastro, Marching Band, Theresa Andersson and Y La Bamba!
While it’s great when a label manages to attract talent from all over the globe and show their work to a larger audience that they would likely not encounter, there’s still something to be said for a little hometown love. New Orlean’s Basin Street Records is just such a label; they’ve managed to encapsulate the very essence, feeling, and spirit of their beloved city’s culture within their recordings. In a post Hurricane Katrina existence, where the vibrant city’s culture was literally washed away by a devastating natural disaster, the preservation of such unique elements as local music styles is invaluable.
“Good Morning New Orleans”
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