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No city has a better defined, more peculiar or more vital musical heritage than New Orleans. As a tribute to the Crescent City, we've cooked up a batch of her essential recordings . . . just don't call it a "gumbo."
The 25 Greatest Hot Fives and Sevens (2002
three-CD set), Louis Armstrong
Satchmo left his hometown in the 1920s, but it never left him. The
Hot Fives and Sevens sessions remain one of the paramount
achievements in all recording, featuring off-the-cuff classics such
as "Wild Man Blues" and the wellspring of scat singing ("Heebie
Jeebies"). As trombonist Kid Ory once said, "You couldn't go wrong
with Louis."
"Good Rocking Tonight" (1947 single), Roy
Brown
A strong candidate for first-ever rock & roll song, and not
just for the reference to "rocking." "Before Roy Brown, soul
singing was reserved for church," one rock historian wrote. "After
him it belonged to the world."
"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" (1952 single), Hank
Williams
The Alabama giant co-wrote (with fellow Opry star Moon Mullican)
one of the timeless Louisiana anthems, covered by Fats Domino,
zydeco king Clifton Chenier, the Carpenters and the Residents, to
name a tiny sample. "Hank loved the carefree life in Louisiana,"
said fiddler Jerry Rivers. "He longed for it because he was not
ever a carefree person."
The Fats Domino Jukebox: 20 Greatest Hits the Way
You Originally Heard Them (1999 CD), Fats
Domino
With the invaluable help of arranger and collaborator Dave
Bartholomew, Antoine "Fats" Domino personified the classic R&B
sound of NOLA, combining boogie-woogie, blues and Latin rhythms.
The list of masterpieces ("Ain't That a Shame," "Blueberry Hill,"
"Walking to New Orleans") is long; Domino's theme, "The Fat Man"
(1949), is sometimes cited as the original rock & roll
record.
Georgia Peach (1991 CD), Little
Richard
Macon, Georgia's maniacal Richard Lee Penniman recorded a dozen
songs at Cosimo Matassa's legendary J&M studio on the edge of
the French Quarter beginning in September, 1955. "Tutti Frutti,"
"Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," "Rip It Up," "Good Golly, Miss Molly"
-- the sessions made Richard one of rock & roll's biggest early
stars, an inaugural inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
and an honorary New Orleanian in perpetuity.
"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952 single)/"Stagger Lee" (1958
single), Lloyd Price
His first Number One R&B hit was originally written as a local
radio jingle. A few years later the Kenner, Louisiana, native spent
a month at Number One on the pop charts with his rock & roll
reworking of the traditional murder ballad "Stack-O-Lee." For
American Bandstand, Dick Clark and ABC insisted on a
sanitized version -- in which the song's climactic gunplay is
averted -- just like Wal-Mart does today.
"Let the Good Times Roll" (1956 single), Shirley and
Lee
Reputedly discovered by Cosimo Matassa in a group of
schoolchildren who pooled their nickels to cut a song at J&M,
sweethearts Shirley Goodman and Leonard Lee had their biggest hit
in 1956 with this million-seller. Shirley resurfaced in 1975 with
one of the first disco-era smashes, "Shame, Shame, Shame."
"Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" (1957
single), Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns
Smith, who started his career at fifteen with Guitar Slim,
recorded with Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis and Little Richard before
recruiting the flamboyant singer Bobby Marchan to join his own
band. True, "Don't You Just Know It" was a bigger hit; "Sea
Cruise," too (a Clowns track credited to singer Frankie Ford). But
"Rockin' Pneumonia" remains a honking New Orleans classic.
"Ain't Got No Home" (1957 single), Clarence "Frogman"
Henry
As featured in Diner the Frogman's eccentric signature
song ("I can sing like a man"/"I can sing like a girl"/"I can sing
like a frog") confirmed New Orleans's flaky reputation for the rest
of the country. Henry's songs have been soundtrack favorites; the
R&B ballad "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" was revived for
Forrest Gump.
Finger Poppin' and Stompin' Feet: 20 Classic Allen
Toussaint Productions for Minit Records, 1960-1962 (2002 CD),
Various Artists
This was the versatile producer, writer and performer's most
fertile period, with hits by Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, Aaron
Neville and Jessie Hill ("Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part One)") all vying
for chart position. The set aptly kicks off with "It Will Stand,"
the showmen's reply to those who figured rock & roll was just a
passing fad. Toussaint later worked with Joe Cocker, the Band,
Elvis Costello and countless others.
'Fess: Anthology (1993 two-CD set), Professor
Longhair
Chief architect of the rolling, rumba-soaked piano style at the
core of the R&B sound, Henry Roeland Byrd popularized such
regional standards as "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" and blessed the
legendary New Orleans haunt Tipitina's with its name. Largely
forgotten in the 1960s, 'Fess regained his throne with his
reemergence at the inaugural Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Gris Gris (1968 LP)/Goin' Back to New
Orleans (1992 LP), Dr. John
Longtime session man Mac Rebennack (Frankie Ford, Earl Palmer)
reinvented himself in acid-laced southern California as the voodoo
shaman Dr. John Creaux, the Night Tripper. His cosmic debut
includes "I Walk on Guilded Splinters," later sampled on Beck's
"Loser." Grammy winner "Goin' Back to New Orleans" is Crescent City
Musicology 101, from the Cuban-flavored classical of nineteenth
century composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk to Jelly Roll Morton and
good-time traditionals like "How Come My Dog Don't Bark (When You
Come Around)?"
"Louisiana 1927" (1975 single), Randy
Newman
With its prophetic chorus of "They're tryin' to wash us away,"
this song is to Hurricane Katrina what Springsteen's "My City of
Ruin" was to 9/11. Newman is a New Orleans native.
"Lady Marmalade" (1975 single), Labelle
Art Neville, George Porter Jr., Leo Nocentelli and Joseph
"Zigaboo" Modeliste -- the Meters -- were New Orleans' most grossly
underrated act. For a time in the mid-Seventies, however, the
recording industry took notice. Paul McCartney worked with the
band; Robert Palmer matched them with members of Little Feat for
his solo debut, "Sneakin' Sally through the Alley." But it was this
1975 Number One jam that really sweetened the pot.
Funkify Your Life (1995 two-CD set), The
Meters
Spare, super-funky instrumentals, sometimes embellished with Mardi
Gras-style chants, were the group's forte. From "Cissy Strut" to
"Hey Pocky A-Way," this collection cleared the parade route for
future groove bands such as Galactic.
Acadie (1989 LP), Daniel Lanois/Yellow
Moon (1989 LP), Neville Brothers/Oh Mercy (1989 LP),
Bob Dylan
The Canadian's arrival in the Crescent City, where he set up
studios in a succession of opulent old homes, kicked up some of
that swampy allure. Inside a year, Lanois produced the most
cohesive album to date by native sons the Neville Brothers, Bob
Dylan's best set in years and his own solo debut, a gorgeous
collection that celebrated the link between his Quebec and the
Acadian exiles -- the Cajuns -- of Louisiana.
The Iguanas (1993 CD), Iguanas
Local darlings were the world's best bar band for a time, ranging
from cha chas and Tex-Mex to shuffling blues and swamp pop. Their
now-out-of-print debut was executive produced by Jimmy Buffett.
Kickin' Some Brass (1998 CD), Various
Artists
"The Gulf Coast is still coming through the dirge," strained
President Bush in his post-Katrina address. "Yet we will live to
see the second line." The brass band may be the musical genre that
most deserves to be heard in person, not on record. If you can't be
there, however, this is a good place to start, featuring tracks by
some of the best (Rebirth, Dirty Dozen) as well as worthy
new-schoolers such as Coolbone. Glaring omission: the Soul Rebels,
whose utterly uninhibited hip-hop hybrid is not to be missed.
"Shake Ya Ass" (2000 single), Mystikal
From No Limit to Cash Money, New Orleans has played a crucial role
in the rise of hip hop's Deep South. For sheer shameless hedonism,
this James Brown-inspired rap beats out New Orleans' other
rear-view-fixated megahit, Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up," by (ahem)
a hair. Mystikal's follow-up, "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against
the Wall)," was bootylicious too.
Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol'
Box of New Orleans (2004 four-CD set), Various
Artists
Filling the void left by the late, lamented, out-of-print box
Crescent City Soul, this freewheeling collection hits all
the right notes in its effort to chart the vastness of the Big Easy
sound. In an NPR commentary on the devastation of Katrina, the poet
and longtime New Orleanian Andrei Codrescu theorized, "The whole
country's garbage flows down the Mississippi" to the city, leaving
its musicians to turn "all that waste into song. They took the sins
of America unto themselves." Here's definitive proof.
Check out New
Orleans Hottest Musical Exports