Happy Birthday, Aurora Nealand!

Bandleader, composer, saxophonist, clarinetist, accordionist, and vocalist Aurora Nealand was born on May 28, in California. The following biography is from http://www.auroranealand.com.

An established bandleader, composer, performer and improviser, Aurora Nealand has become a prominent force in the New Orleans music scene since she first arrived in 2004. Combining the “formal education” – a music composition degree from Oberlin Conservatory and training at the Jacques Lecoq School of  Physical Theatre in Paris –  with the “informal”  experience of playing music in the streets and clubs of New Orleans and throughout the northern Hemisphere, Nealand has emerged as an innovative, sensitive and daring music creator and performer.

She is most recognized for her performance on saxophones, clarinet and vocals and has been at the forefront of the revival of New Orleans Traditional Jazz amongst the younger generation of the city’s musicians. After playing and learning as a sideman in established New Orleans Bands for several years, (Panorama Jazz Band, VaVaVoom, The New Orleans Moonshiners), in 2010 she formed her own Traditional Jazz band “The Royal Roses”. The Royal Roses released it’s first album, “A Tribute to Sydney Bechet: Live at Preservation Hall” to national acclaim and Nealand was voted as one of Downbeat Magazines top ten rising stars for soprano saxophone in 2010.

Nealand grew up in a musical family in California listening to Preservation Hall Jazz Band recordings side by side with Stravinsky, Joan Baez and the Pixies. Later, during her time at Oberlin College/Conservatory she was exposed and fell in love with the recordings of Mingus, the soundscapes of Mort Subotnik and the performances of Laurie Anderson. With a strong interest in interdisciplinary work and sound for theatre and installation, she moved to Paris to study at the Ecole du Theatre Physical Jacques Lecoq. Upon returning to the states, she bicycled cross-country collecting audio interviews and stories in rural America to be used in a series of compositions about true “American Dreams”. This bicycle trip landed her in New Orleans, which has acted as her home base since 2005. In New Orleans she began playing traditional jazz, jazz manouche of Django Reinhardt, as well as Balkan/Klezmer music. She quickly became involved in the local improvisation scene as well, making frequent appearances at the Open Ears series playing her own compositions with various ensembles and artists.

In addition to leading the Royal Roses, Nealand is also the leader/frontman ofNew Orleans premier rockabilly band “Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers”, and as performs frequently with her solo project, “The Monocle”. She also is a member of Panorama Jazz Band and Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship.  In 2010 and 2011 she appeared frequently as herself  in the HBO TV series, “Treme”.

Nealand has performed extensively in New Orleans at clubs, in the Jazz and Heritage Fest, FrenchQuarter Fest and Satchmo Fest. She has also performed frequently in New York City at Lincoln Center Summer Festival in NYC, the BlueNote, Knitting Factory, Barbes and has premiered original works at Symphony Space and Alice Tully Hall.  Internationally she has appeared at the Istanbul Jazz Festival, London Swing Festival, Barcelona Swing Out, and has toured several times around Irealand, Sweden, Germany , France and the Balkans.

Today we wish this uniquely talented artist a very happy birthday!

Photo: http://www.auroranealand.com

Happy Birthday, Samantha Fish!

Samantha Fish was born on January 30, 1989, in Kansas City, Missouri. Fish started out playing drums, but when she was 15 she switched to the guitar. Fish frequently went to the Knuckleheads Saloon to hear touring Blues artists, ultimately joining in with the performers after she turned 18. Fish recorded and produced the live album Live Bait in 2009, which led to a record with two other female blues artists, Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde, titled Girls with Guitars, as well as an international tour in 2011. Fish won the 2012 Blues Music Award for Best New Artist for her record Runaway. In 2013, Fish released her second major studio album, Black Wind Howlin', and her third studio album Wild Heart, in 2015. Fish released her fourth solo album, Chills & Fever in 2017, her fifth, Belle of the West in 2017, and her sixth, Kill or Be Kind, in 2019. Fish regularly performs in New Orleans and is a favorite at local festivals. The annual Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar Festival showcases her unique talent using unique instruments. Today we say to this amazingly talented artist, Happy Birthday Samantha!

Photo: Salamanamanjaro

Happy Birthday, DJ Khaled!

Producer, rapper, songwriter, and record label executive Khaled Mohamed Khaled, better known as DJ Khaled, was born in New Orleans on November 26, 1975. A popular radio host at a hip hop station in the 1990s, he DJ’d at Terror Squad’s live shows and eventually gained production credits on their recordings. His 2006 debut album “ Listennn... the Album” achieved gold, and Khaled founded his own label, We the Best Music Group. He has continued to achieve great success with his subsequent releases, even garnering a Grammy nomination in 2016 for Best Rap Album for his ninth studio album, “Major Key”. Subsequent releases have also achieved great commercial and critical success, with his 2019 album, “Father of Asahd” achieving number 2 on the Billboard 200. Khaled is also a prominent media personality, an actor, and he is a New York Times bestselling writer with his book The Keys.

Photo by: Meghan Roberts - DJ Khaled, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46144938

Celebrating the Birthday of Dr. John

On November 20, 1941, New Orleans gifted the world with Malcolm “Mac” John Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, the Night Tripper. Rebennack was a singer, songwriter and musician whose unique “New Orleans Sound” combined blues, pop, jazz, soul, boogie woogie, funk, and rock n roll, and whose stage appearance was inspired by Mardi Gras Indians and voodoo shaman. He made his album debut with Gris-Gris in 1968, and had a hit single in 1973 with “Right Place, Wrong Time”. Over the following decades, Dr. John has released numerous albums and songs covering a wide range of styles and genres, becoming a six-time Grammy winner along the way. He was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Dr. John passed away in his beloved New Orleans on June 6, 2019.

Happy Birthday, Harry Connick, Jr!

Harry (Joseph Harry Fowler) Connick Jr. was born in New Orleans on September 11, 1967, to his mother Anita, a New Orleans lawyer and judge, and his namesake father, Orleans Parish District Attorney (1973 to 2003), and was raised in the Lakeview Neighborhood. Connick started learning keyboards at age three, playing publicly at age five, and recording with a local jazz band at ten. His musical talents were developed at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis Jr. and James Booker. 

Connick moved to New York City to study, and he met a records executive who persuaded him to sign with Columbia. He soon acquired a reputation in jazz and was asked to provide a soundtrack for the 1989 romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally... . The soundtrack achieved double-platinum status in the United States, and Connick won his first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance. His 1990 big-band album We Are in Lovewent double platinum and earned him his second consecutive Grammy for Best Jazz Male Vocal. Songs I Heard, his 2001 big band re-working of children's show themes, won Connick another Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album. Connick has sold over 28 million albums worldwide and is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States. He has had seven top 20 US albums, and ten number-one US jazz albums, earning more number-one albums than any other artist in US jazz chart history. 

"Promise Me You'll Remember", his contribution to the Godfather III soundtrack, was He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Tony. As if a wildly successful music career wasn’t enough, Connick began his acting career in 1990 with the World War II film Memphis Belle. Since then he has performed in numerous films, various genres, and in both leading and supporting roles. He has appeared on Broadway and on television, including helping to organize and appearing in a live telethon concert for relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, as well ashosting his own talk show. 

On a personal note, Connick married former Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre in 1994, and the couple has three daughters. Connick is a founder of the Krewe of Orpheus, a music-based New Orleans krewe, that parades on St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street on Lundi Gras. Connick is a Grammy and Emmy-award winning singer, composer, pianist, actor, and television star … and a diehard Saints fan! Who Dat!

Photo by bg_nh2014 - Wikimedia commons

Happy Birthday, Ivan Neville!

Ivan Neville was born in New Orleans on August 19, 1959, to one of the great musical families of the Big Easy. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to members of The Neville Brothers, and has clearly inherited the family’s legendary musical talent. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter who has been performing in bands since 1977. Ivan has joined his father and uncles in The Neville Brothers, was a member of Bonnie Raitt’s band in the 1980’s, was a member of Keith Richards’ X-Pensive Winos tour, and has played with numerous musical luminaries including the Rolling Stones, Don Henley, Robbie Robertson, Delbert McClinton and Rufus. Neville and his cousin, Ian Neville (son of Art Neville) formed Dumpstaphunk in the early 2000s and play their own incomparable brand of funk and jazz. Neville is also a member of JazzFest phenom Dragon Smoke, along with Eric Lindell, Rob Mercurios and Stanton Moore. No matter who he is playing with, never miss an opportunity to see Ivan Neville perform! Happy Birthday to NOLA musical royalty!

Photo by Newber Machado