Tag: New Orleans

Antonio Maggio – Published First Blues Song in 1908

Antonio Maggio was a fascinating man best known as an early creator of blues music. His song “I Got the Blues,” which became a hit in New Orleans in 1908, was the first published 12-bar blues with “blues” in the title. The dramatic events of his life, besides showing the context of his musical imagination, illustrate the unique process of becoming a New Orleanian during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Cefalu, Sicily in 1876, Maggio came to the city as a teenager, and like his father and his brothers, he was a consummate musician and multi-instrumentalist.

Though he worked at his brother’s barbershop, he was said to spend more time playing music in the streets, and was a contemporary of other notable New Orleans music pioneers; in the mid-1890s, he was playing in a string band at Poydras Market, just a couple of blocks away from Charlie Galloway’s barbershop frequented by Buddy Bolden. By the time he was 25, he had led a brass band, played background music for wild animal shows, and toured the United States with an opera company. Then, the major shattering event of his life happened: President McKinley was felled by an assassin’s bullet, and Maggio, due to his loudly proclaimed sympathies for both socialism and anarchism, was detained without trial as a suspect. Several months passed before he was released, then he returned to New Orleans to resume his musical career. For years, he was playing several gigs around town, including at Fabacher’s Restaurant, when a chance encounter on the levee changed music history. He stopped to listen to an African American man playing a guitar, and growing curious, Maggio asked the man what song he was playing, and he replied, “I got the blues.”

Maggio then went home and composed a song based on what he had heard—as he explained in an interview towards the end of his life in the 1950s—and he had not intended this as a serious composition, but nonetheless, it took off like wildfire in the city, becoming a favorite song requested by audiences in multiple venues. Led by curiosity, trusting his ear, and acting on instinct, Maggio made a contribution to perhaps the most significant musical idiom to emerge from the Deep South, the blues. The genesis of “I Got the Blues” encapsulates the long story of complex interactions between European and African American musicians, and by paying close attention to historical context, we can begin to understand how New Orleans has provided an environment where such interactions take place.

Shane Lief wrote his MA in Musicology thesis at Tulane University: “Staging New Orleans: The Contested Space of Congo Square.” He is currently at work on a PhD in Linguistics, focusing on multilingualism in New Orleans and how Native American, African, and European traditions have influenced the linguistic and musical landscape of the city. Read the full story in Vol. XXV of Jazz Archivist https://jazz.tulane.edu/jazz-archivist

TajMo’ Workin’ – Jontavious Willis – Blues Center Interview #1 Remastered

Jontavious Willis

The Georgian blues phenom sits down for the inaugural Blues Center interview. In this expanded edition Jontavious talks about his mentor Taj Mahal, going down to Louisiana to get a mojo hand and Fats Domino’s update to “Junker’s Blues” with “The Fat Man.” Newly added concert footage from his appearances in New York City add to this mess o’ blues. Oh, and he can play county blues like a much older bluesman.

 

Jason Isbell at the Joy

Setlist for Saturday October 22, 2016 at The Joy Theater in New Orleans. A ton of soul from the Muscle Shoals maestro and plenty of 400 company and Drive by Truckers material and a John Prine cover to boot.

Jason Isbell at the Joy Theater in New Orleans, LA
Jason Isbell at the Joy Theater in New Orleans, LA

Go It Alone
Flying Over Water
Different Days
24 Frames
Something More Than Free
Decoration Day
Speed Trap Town
The Life You Chose
Traveling Alone
Codeine
Elephant
Alabama Pines
Cover Me Up
If It Takes a Lifetime
Stockholm
Never Gonna Change
Encore:
Storm Windows (with Josh Ritter)
Super 8
Children of Children

Fats Domino – Singer R&B Explosion 1980

Fats Domino, New Orleans R&B pianist and vocalist updating his classics in a funkier vein with live performances of “I’m Walkin'” “Blue Monday” “I’m in Love Again” “I’m Ready” and “I Want to Walk You Home” in 1980. He powered hits such as “Blueberry Hill,” “Ain’t it a Shame,” and “Walking to New Orleans.” Also known by the nickname “The Fat Man,” the best-selling African-American musician in the 1950’s had an influence on Elvis Presley, the Beatles and many ska musicians who took note of his rhythms.

Domino was born in the Crescent City in 1928. He grew up speaking French Creole before English and had learned to play piano by the age of 7. Among his stylistic influences were blues pianists Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Little Willie Littlefield. Fats Domino’s music career took off in 1947 when Billy Diamond, a local bandleader and bassist heard him playing at a barbecue.
Domino signed onto Imperial Records and met Dave Bartholomew, who became his arranger and co-writer, in 1949. That year he and Bartholomew released the rhythm and blues cut “The Fat Man” which sold millions of copies and went gold in ’53. By the mid-50s Fats had become hugely popular with both black and white audiences. Despite his success with white listeners, Domino was still occasionally refused lodging on the basis of his race while on tour. His music releases were the most successful during his years with Imperial Records and Dave Bartholomew. After leaving New Orleans for Nashville in 1963 to transfer to ABC-Paramount, his records sales dropped off, in part due to changes in popular taste. Two years later he returned to New Orleans and reinvigorated his collaborative relationship with Bartholomew. In 1986, Fats was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did not attend his induction ceremony. He continued to tour up until 1991, when he became concerned about his health and decided to remain in New Orleans. He even remained at his Gentilly home during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and had to be rescued from his attic as the flood waters rose in Orleans Parish. And the legend lives on!