Happy Birthday, Stanton Moore!

Funk, jazz and rock drummer Stanton Moore was born in New Orleans on July 9, 1972. A founding member of Galactic, Moore has also pursued a solo recording career and has recorded with numerous bands of diverse music genres. Moore also teaches New Orleans drumming, including running drum camps and his own Drum Academy. He also writes for drumming publications, and develops instructional books and videos. Happy Birthday, Stanton!

Photo by: Sam Friedman https://www.flickr.com/photos/friedpixphoto

Happy Birthday, Shamarr Allen!

Trumpeter, vocalist, composer, writer and producer Shamarr Allen was born in New Orleans on July 4, 1980, and hails from the Lower 9th Ward. He has influences in jazz, hip-hop, rock, funk rhythms, blues and country, and is the lead vocalist and trumpeter of his band “Shamarr Allen & The Underdawgs.” In addition to performing with his band, Allen has collaborated with many renowned artists around the world such as Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, Galatic, Harrick Connick Jr, and Lenny Kravitz, to name a few. He is a sought after artist for festivals and venues around the world. In addition to displaying his skills on the front-line as a lead performer, Allen is also a music composer, writer, and producer. With a scintillating and unique sound, look, and exemplary talents, Shamarr Allen transcends musical boundaries. He is the True Orleans experience! Happy Birthday, Shamarr!

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Celebrating the Birthday of Pete Fountain

Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain (Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr.) was born in New Orleans on July 3, 1930. He played traditional Dixieland jazz and was noted for his sweet fluid tone. Fountain started playing clarinet as a child after a doctor recommended he play a wind instrument to treat a chronic lung condition. At first, Pete was unable to produce a sound, but with practice he eventually made music and improved the health of his lungs. While he did take lessons, he also learned by playing along with jazz records of Benny Goodman and Irving Fazola. As a teenager, he played with bands in Bourbon Street bars, and later with the Basin Street Six, as well as the Dukes of Dixieland in Chicago. Fountain was later featured on the Lawrence Welk Show and made numerous guest appearances on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. He recorded over 100 LPs and CDs, and performed regularly in New Orleans, being featured in nearly every New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival since its inception in 1970. He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008. Fountain passed away on August 6, 2016, survived by his wife of 65 years, Beverly, and their three children. Today we remember Pete Fountain and celebrate his legacy as a true ambassador of New Orleans music around the world.

Photo: I, Sumori

Happy Birthday, Johnny Vidacovich!

Jazz drummer John Joseph Vidacovich Jr. was born on June 27, 1949, and is a member of the band Astral Project with  James Singleton, Tony Dagradi, and Steve Masakowski. He has also worked with Bobby McFerrin, Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter, Willy DeVille, Robert Walter, Mose Allison, Johnny Adams, Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Alvin Tyler. He began teaching at Loyola University New Orleans in 1982. Today we wish this exceptional musician a happy birthday!

(Wikipedia Biography)

Photo: bindifry

Happy Birthday, Deacon John!

Bandleader, singer, guitarist, Blues, R&B, and Rock n Roll musician Deacon John Moore was born in New Orleans on June 23, 1941, and grew up in the 8th Ward. Moore was active on the New Orleans R&B scene since his teens, and was a session player on many hit recordings of the late 1950s and the 1960s, including those by Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, and others. His band The Ivories at New Orleans' Dew Drop Inn attracted an enthusiastic following, sometimes upstaging visiting national acts Moore was hired to open for. While highly regarded locally and by his fellow musicians, lack of hit records under his own name kept him from the national fame achieved by a number of his peers. Regardless, in 2000 Moore was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame. Moore has acted in films and television, and was featured in the documentary segment Going Back to New Orleans: The Deacon John Film and the concert CD, Deacon John's Jump Blues (2003). On July 25, 2006 Moore became president of the local branch of the American Federation of Musicians. Deacon John remains a local favorite on the New Orleans music scene. If you have the chance, be sure to catch one of his fantastic shows!

Photo by Mobilus In Mobili - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobili/21498536583/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44363359

Happy Birthday, Donald Harrison, Jr!

Saxophonist and composer Donald Harrison, Jr, was born in New Orleans on June 23, 1960. He started in New Orleans secondline culture and studied New Orleans secret tribal culture under his father, Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr.. Harrison Jr. is currently the Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans Culture. He studied at the Berklee College of Music. As a professional musician he worked with Roy Haynes and Jack McDuff before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with Terence Blanchard and recorded albums in a quintet until 1989. Two years later Harrison released a tribute album to Blakey. This was followed by an album that reached into Harrison's New Orleans heritage with guest appearances by Dr. John and Cyrus Chestnut and chants by the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians. He devoted half the album Nouveau Swing (1997) to mixing the swing beat of modern acoustic jazz with modern dance music and half to mixing the swing beat with Caribbean-influenced music. On the next album his experiments continued by mixing modern jazz's swing beat with hip hop, Latin music, R&B, and smooth jazz.

His albums, 3D Vols. I, II, and III, present him in three different musical genres. On Vol. I he writes, plays, and produces smooth jazz and R&B style. On Vol. II he writes, produces and plays in the classic jazz style. On Vol. III he writes plays and produces hip hop. His group, Donald Harrison Electric Band, has recorded popular radio hits and has charted in the top ten of Billboard magazine. He performs as a producer, singer, and rapper in traditional New Orleans jazz and hip hop genres with his group, The New Sounds of Mardi Gras. The group, which has recorded two albums, was started in 2001 and has made appearances worldwide. Harrison is the Big Chief of the Congo Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group, which keeps alive the secret traditions of Congo Square.

In 2016 Harrison recorded his first orchestral work with The Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He followed up the piece for the MSO by writing classical orchestral works for the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, The New York Chamber Orchestra, and The Jalapa Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Harrison has nurtured a number of young musicians including trumpeter Christian Scott (Harrison's nephew), Mark Whitfield, Christian McBride, and The Notorious B.I.G. Harrison was in Spike Lee's HBO documentary When the Levees Broke and has appeared as himself in eleven episodes of the television series Treme. Harrison was chosen Person of the Year by Jazziz magazine in January 2007.

Happy Birthday to a New Orleans original!

Source: Wikipedia

Photo by Derek Bridges