• Harry Connick Jr in people

    Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr (born September 11, 1967) is one of the most acclaimed and successful multi-talented performers to ever emerge from Louisiana. Pianist, singer, television personality, and feature-film actor who plays leading roles, Connick has won top national awards in every facet of the entertainment industry. Connick has…

  • Charlie Gabriel in people

    Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (August 18, 1856, Wilton, Iowa – September 14, 1932, Hollywood, California) was a writer of gospel songs and composer of gospel tunes. He is said to have written and/or composed between 7,000 and 8,000 songs, many of which are available in 21st century hymnals. He used several…

  • Carol Fran in people

    Born in 1933, and still vibrantly active at this writing, Carol Fran (née Carol Martin) is a rhythm & blues, jazz, and swamp-pop artist from Lafayette, Louisiana. (Fran's surname reflects her 1950s marriage to saxophonist Joe Francois; ethnic names were regarded as career impediments during that era, and accordingly she…

  • in people

    The Porch Sessions is a web portrait of the vibrant contemporary music scene in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a historical crossroads between the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans.” Every month, Drew Young interviews musicians from a range of Southern genres – blues, country, Americana, singer-songwriters – and each represents a distinctive voice…

  • Big Chief Allison "Tootie" Montana in people

    Chief Allison "Tootie" Montana was the Big Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe and "Chief of Chiefs," the acknowledged leader of all the New Orleans tribes, for many years. A deeply respected, even revered, figure, he is credited with ushering in a new era of peace and…

  • Les Blank in people

    Les Blank is a prize-winning independent filmmaker, best known for a series of poetic films that led Time Magazine critic Jay Cocks to write, “I can’t believe that anyone interested in movies or America…could watch Blank’s work without feeling they’d been granted a casual, soft-spoken revelation.” John Rockwell, writing in…

  • Clifton Chenier in people

    More than a quarter-century following his death, Clifton Chenier is still regarded as zydeco's best-known and most influential musician. New trends, such as zydeco's interaction with rap and hip-hop, have inevitably emerged since his passing. Nevertheless, Chenier's work still sets the standard for contemporary zydeco accordionists and their bands. Chenier…

  • Wendell Brunious in people

    Wendell Brunious (b. October 27, 1954, New Orleans) is an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Born on October 27, 1954, Wendell Brunious was born into a Louisiana Creole family, the son of Nazimova “Chinee” Santiago and John “Picket” Brunious, Sr. who was a trumpeter who studied at Juilliard, played with…

  • R.L. Burnside in people

    R.L. Burnside (1926 - 2005) was a singular blues singer, guitarist, and farmer who lived and played in the rural areas surrounding Holly Springs, Mississippi. For most of his life he performed in relative obscurity with regard to the general public and blues fans. His style was mostly the one…

  • Mannie Fresh in people

    Mannie Fresh is a Grammy-nominated DJ, producer and rapper from New Orleans. He was the sole in-house producer for Cash Money Records for over a decade and has since found continued success as an independent artist after leaving the label in 2005. He is widely considered one of hip-hop’s best…

  • Louis Armstrong Park in places

    Just steps away from the French Quarter is a 31-acre public park named after and dedicated to the Satchel-Mouth , a revolutionary jazz musician from the city of New Orleans. The park is located in the historic neighborhood of Tremé, a faubourg with deeply rooted music culture. The park, which…

  • Chapter 3: First Field Trip in course chapters

    For this class, we meet in front of Audubon Park at 10AM and, through a mix of rolling narration and disembarkations, learn the urban geography of New Orleans through this and other route stops: St. Charles Avenue, Uptown Reform Jewish community, "superblock nuclei" pattern, Napoleon Ave Wharf, Old Lafayette German/Irish…

  • French Colonial New Orleans in course chapters

    The French established the colony of Louisiana in 1699 and laid out its capital city of New Orleans in 1718. Despite the elaborate maps drawn by colonial engineers in the 1720s, the city was a small, rather rough frontier outpost during French rule, which effectively lasted until 1769. The French…

  • The Cold War and the Ambassadors of Jazz in course chapters

    Jazz is an indigenous American art form, a creolization of the musical cultures of Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Its keynotes are groove and interplay, self-expression and improvisation, flow and flexibility. What jazz has always offered any and all individuals is a method for creating a singular artistic voice and…

  • Big Band Swing: 1930-1945 in course chapters

    Another development in the 1920's, as freewheeling jazz bands threatened to pre-empt the traditional dance orchestras playing from written arrangements, was the initiative to adapt the spontaneous jazz sound to written music. Through the 1920's, dance orchestra leaders coped with incorporating jazz effects (syncopation, blues, etc.) into their dance arrangements.…