Clip of the Soul Rebels performing at Les Bon Temps Roule in New Orleans.
01/08 UPDATE: Soul Rebels to perform in Ybor City at WMNF's Tropical Heatwave May 17.
It's 2:30 p.m. in New Orleans and I'm chomping on a gloriously huge muffuletta, the perfect antidote for a monster night in the Crescent City. My brother Joel has relocated here, renting a duplex in Uptown with his buddy/bassist Tommy and Chandler, Tommy's pal from their days at Loyola. I bought the tasty sandwich from one of the numerous family-run deli/grocery/liquor stores that are within short walking distance of my bro's place.
The hangover I'm battling came from an evening that started yesterday around 10:30 p.m. at the nearby Maple Leaf. The venue regularly features the city's best bands with Papa Grows Funk playing every Monday. It's also the place where piano great James Booker performed weekly before his death in 1983.
The trio we caught at the Leaf was led by Booker's old drummer, venerable New Orleans vet Johnny Vidacovich. Joining him were a keyboardist and sax man. The crowd was sparse and the three men on stage were out there — improvising with disregard for the groove (and the audience). The horn player proved most impressive, his Ornette Coleman-informed pyrotechnics drawing me to the lip of the stage. It was also pretty cool to see the keyboardist bust out a talking drum for a couple numbers.
After soaking up a bit of Avant-garde jazz we headed over to another Uptown nightlife fave, Les Bon Temps Roule, an excellent bar/restaurant/live music venue where the Soul Rebels bring their unstoppable brand of big brass, funk and hip-hop every Thursday. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the back room where the stage is located was so packed all I could see of the band and their horns was the top of a tuba. The Soul Rebels sounded great, though, keeping asses shaking with numbers like a roaring reworking of Bobby McFerrin's novelty hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy." The space eventually got too packed for comfort and we met with a couple girls and lounged in Les Bon Temp's less crowded front room, where the jukebox blared a great rock mix ranging from The Clash to The Boss.
We finally called it a night around 3:30, pretty early considering the last time I visited Les Bon Temps was during Jazz Fest 2006. Big Sam's Funky Nation played a similar style of Big Easy brass madness as the Soul Rebels, keeping everyone at the club dancing and "getting low" (every single person crouched down and rose at the band leader's command) until 6 a.m., when Big Sam finally ran out of steam.
Incidentally, prior to driving with my brother to New Orleans on last Wednesday morning, we caught Crescenty City star Trombone Shorty usher in the New Year at WMNF's big bash at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg. The 21-year-old trombonist/trumpeter/singer/rapper turned in a performance every bit as enthralling as the one he delivered last year at Heatwave.
Here's my Creative Loafing cover story interview with The Dresden Dolls and my latest Bar Tab, The Big Bounce.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2008.