Celebrating the Birthday of Allen Toussaint 1/14

Pianist, songwriter, arranger and record producer Allen Toussaint was born in Gert Town in New Orleans on January 14, 1938. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as "one of popular music's great backroom figures". Many musicians recorded Toussaint's compositions, including “Whipped Cream”, "Java", "Mother-in-Law", "I Like It Like That", "Fortune Teller", "Ride Your Pony", "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Working in the Coal Mine", "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "Here Come the Girls", "Yes We Can Can", "Play Something Sweet", and "Southern Nights". He was a producer for hundreds of recordings, among the best known of which are "Right Place, Wrong Time", by his longtime friend Dr. John ("Mac" Rebennack), and "Lady Marmalade", by Labelle. Toussaint was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009, the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2013 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama In 2016, he posthumously won the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player title at the Blues Music Awards.Sadly, Toussaint passed away on November 10, 2015, while on tour in Madrid, Spain.

Photo by Henryk Kotowski

Celebrating the Birthday of Danny Barker

Guitarist, banjo player, singer and author Daniel “Danny” Barker was born in New Orleans on January 13, 1909, and performed as a rhythm guitarist for several bands throughout the 1930s, including Cab Calloway. Throughout his career, he played with noted artists including Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet, as well as touring with his wife, singer Blue Lu Barker. From the 1960s, Barker's work with the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band was pivotal in ensuring the longevity of jazz in New Orleans, producing generations of new talent, including Wynton and Branford Marsalis who played in the band as youths. Barker passed away on March 13, 1994, but his music lives on! Today we appreciate his many contributions to the City and music we love.

Celebrating the Birthday of Kid Ory

KID ORY

Influential early jazz trombonist, bandleader and composer Edward "Kid" Ory was born on December 25, 1886, on Woodland Plantation, near LaPlace, Louisiana. Ory started playing music with homemade instruments in his childhood, was leading a band by his teens, and moved his band to New Orleans when he was twenty-one.  Ory played banjo in his youth, which helped him develop a particular style of trombone playing called “tailgate”, with a rhythmic line underneath the cornets and trumpets. Ory was discovered by Buddy Bolden, and by the 1910s had one of New Orleans’ most well-known bands. He hired many of the City’s greatest jazz musicians including Joe “King” Oliver and Louis Armstrong. 

In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles, and in 1921 his band recorded a number of songs, including two instrumentals, “Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues”, which were the first jazz recordings made on the West Coast by an African-American band from New Orleans. Ory paid the recording company Nordskog for the pressings and then sold them at Spikes Brothers Music Store in Los Angeles with his own label, "Kid Ory's Sunshine Orchestra". Ory moved to Chicago in 1925 where he worked and recorded with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Bessie Smith, and many others. He also mentored Benny Goodman and, later, Charles Mingus. Ory retired from music during the Great Depression, running a chicken farm in California during that period. But he returned to music in 1944, leading one of the premier New Orleans-style bands of the time. 

The Ory band helped to revive interest in New Orleans jazz, appearing on popular 1940s radio broadcasts, and in 1944–45 the group made a series of recordings for Crescent Records. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Ory and his group appeared in Los Angeles, and in 1958 he played at 'On the levee' on the San Francisco waterfront. Ory retired from music in 1966 and spent his last years in Hawaii, where he passed away January 23, 1973. He led a remarkable life, which we celebrate today!

Celebrating the Birthday of Dave Bartholomew

David Louis Bartholomew was born on December 24, 1918, in Edgard, Louisiana. He was a musician, bandleader, composer, writer, arranger, and producer in many musical genres including Big Band, swing, R&B, rock and roll, New Orleans and Dixieland Jazz. Bartholomew is best known for his numerous successful collaborations with Fats Domino and other artists, as well as for his significant and influential role in the transition from swing and jump blues to rock and roll. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and recognized for these achievements, being dubbed “one of the Crescent City’s greatest musicians.” New Orleans music legend Dave Bartholomew passed away on June 23, 2019, at the age of 100, but his music lives on. Today, on his birthday, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dave Bartholomew!

Photo by Klaus Hiltscher; SpinningSpark

Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong!

Louis Armstrong, also known as Satchmo, Satch, and Pops, was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. He is the most famous and influential jazz musician of all time, and was a beloved American icon and cultural ambassador. He was born into poverty, learned to play the coronet at the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys in 1913, and emerged as a trumpet virtuoso whose highly inventive, improvised solos transformed jazz. His distinctive, gravelly voice and charismatic stage presence propelled him to great popularity, both at home and internationally, and not just with his musical recordings, but on radio, films and television. He has innumerable popular songs, but he is best known for the heartwarming “What A Wonderful World” and the cheerful “Hello Dolly”, for which he won a Grammy in 1964. Armstrong passed away in his sleep from a heart attack, a month before his 70th birthday, on July 6, 1971. A 12-foot statue of Armstrong, trumpet in hand, is located in Louis Armstrong Park, located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, just across from the French Quarter.

Satchmo Summerfest is the premier American festival dedicated to the life, legacy, and music of New Orleans' native son, Louis Armstrong, and it takes place at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the U.S. Mint on August 2–4, 2019.