Malcolm John (Mac) Rebennack Jr. — Dr. John — was an American original who inhabits a special place in our musical heritage. He lived from...
Category - New Orleans
Things sometimes have a nice way of coming full circle. Some time ago, my daughter suggested that Tank and the Bangas would be a good subject for a post at...
The last three paragraphs of this post were published a few years ago, though I changed them to not look odd after Dr. John’s death. With some...
Two things become apparent when taking a look at the life of Allen Toussaint (besides his talent and class): The amount of great music that New Orleans has...
The Red Hot Jazz Archive calls Johnny Dodds one of the greatest clarinetists of the 1920s. The site says that two other greats of the day — Sidney...
It’s really hard to believe the first sentence of Wikipedia’s profile of Jon Cleary. It says he was born in Kent, England. But it’s Wikipedia, and so it is the...
Here is the start of AllMusic’s profile of The Neville Brothers, one of the most important of the many great bands and performers to come out of New...
Professor Longhair was a New Orleans piano player who greatly influenced Dr. John. Here is the first paragraph of an interesting site dedicated to the colorful...
Editor’s Note: The Daily Music Break often re-posts music from earlier in the run of the site. This is a good one. It initially was posted on April 12...
Reading Music
The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.
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Here are some books to check out.
Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.
What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.
The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").
David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.