Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage Collection

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: 2018 Kim Wilson; Interviewer - David Kunian, ABSTRACT: 01:43 Wilson explains his musical beginnings, when he was handed a baritone horn in third grade. He eventually switched to trombone. At that point, however, he wanted to be a football player. He gave up music three or four years after his introduction, not returning to it until he was seventeen and got into the harmonica. 04:30 Wilson tells how three months after picking up a harmonica, he was in a band, and a year in he was playing with the likes of Eddie Taylor. He was introduced to George Harmonica Smith through a generous friend who had him sub in for him on stage, and assumes that the giants he got involved with liked him because of his evident love of them and their music, and the fact that he was very respectful. 06:53 Wilson explains that when we began playing the main priority was getting people dancing; he studied songs from the radio, lacking a record collection, to do so. James Cotton’s first record on Verve is cited as a major influence, partly for his willingness to mix a number of different styles together. 08:28 Wilson tells how he left California in ’72 or ’73, for a brief stay in Minneapolis, which he’d heard was happening but was too wintery for his taste. On the recommendation of a guitarist he played with he went to Austin, where he did a few gigs. Years later, he moved there to re-join Jimmy Vaughan, who had come up to play with him in MN, and start the Thunderbirds. 11:29 Wilson describes the scene in Austin then. He says you could do anything you wanted, and there were plenty of bars, but also describes it as “a whole bunch of interchangeable people.” 13:27 Demonstration 16:45 Wilson lists the initial personnel of the Thunderbirds, including Keith Ferguson, who he says “in hindsight, was pretty cool.” He explains that the band started touring immediately, before they secured a deal with Tacoma Records, through Denny Bruce. They often played at Antone’s, where they met a number of people, including Muddy Waters, who he says was instrumental in getting them to the East Coast and packing the clubs for them. 20:32 Wilson extols the benefits of having met so many masters of the music, including when he was at a young age. He explains that not only were the musical benefits magnificent, “like playing basketball with Michael Jordan,” but that their warmth and generosity taught him how a person ought to be. 22:57 Wilson explains that the Thunderbirds had been around for eleven years before scoring a radio hit, and that it was Tony Martel at CBS Records that helped them take off. The band re-approached him after a company they’d signed to went bankrupt, and he decided they were something he could sell. Again, Wilson was astounded by others’ generosity. 25:08 Wilson says that making a record and experiencing contemporary success was like a whole new world; he feels he was one of the last to work with “real record people.” Unsurprisingly, he says some were great, and some were less so. 28:37 Demonstration “Tiger Man” 32:25 Wilson explains that getting into writing contemporary material took him a bit away from writing blues, which he found relatively easy. He reveals that he thinks most hit records still follow the Stax formula, which he articulates. When writing, he just tries to do his best, but explains that it’s important to have an eye on playing live when songwriting. In the modern era, he believes anything unique will sell. 35:25 Wilson says the state of the world makes clear that the blues is still relevant, though he clarifies that the blues is not just about bad things, but about every emotion, one of the beauties of improvised music. 37:02 Wilson reveals that he’s working on a book about his musical experiences. 39:21 Wilson says that the music scene in California is, currently, hit or miss. He explains he’d have to work three hundred days a year to make a living play clubs, and concludes that you have to make your own scene. He says he likes that casinos are somewhat supplanting clubs, though he explains that they’re very competitive. 42:46 Wilson confirms that playing his hits does get old, but describes it as “a small price to pay.” 44:30 Wilson jokingly says Clifford’s best advice was “eat another entrée,” then explains he didn’t so much dispense advice as make a great companion.

: 2018 Latin Music in NOLA; Johnny Marcia of Rumba Buena, Javier Olondo of AsheSon, Javier Gutierrez of Vivaz; Interviewer - Dan Sharp, ABSTRACT: 02:52 Olondo explains how he came to New Orleans via his studies in Salzburg, at the request of his uncle with a school in Kenner, and how he became entrenched in the Latin popular music scene after Katrina. 06:45 Olondo gives some background to the Cuban tres, one of the traditional instruments of son. 07:46 Olondo explains his appreciation of New Orleans capacity to let musicians bend, blurring lines between genres. 09:31 Demonstration, guajira 15:32 Marcia tells of his entry into Latin music, spurred by his dad, who got him to sub for his drummer in Los Sagitarios. This didn’t go well initially, but through diligent practice Marcia eventually took the band over, eventually renaming them La Rumba Buena. 18:31 Gutierrez explains that he began as an instrumentalist, and sort of stumbled upon singing accidentally, compensating for a missing percussionist/sound guy. 22:20 Gutierrez gets into his eclectic musical taste and his love of variety. 24:32 Demonstration, “Let’s Go Dancing” 30:31 Gutierrez and Olondo speak to reading a room and determining what to play, emphasizing that audience preference may be generational, cultural, or dependent on whether or not the crowd includes dancers. 32:50 Olondo reflects on the social power of dancing, which he absorbed in Cuba, where everyone does it. 34:57 Olondo displays and explains the tres. 36:30 Demonstration, “Marieta” 41:37 Gutierrez, Olondo and Marcia speak to the “Spanish tinge,” how many rhythms they find in common in Latin music and that of New Orleans, and how the city, a melting pot, encourages experimentation and crossover. 43:39 Demonstration

: 2018 Little Freddie King; Interviewer - Steve Armbruster, ABSTRACT: 01:37 King explains his laborious childhood life in McComb, Mississippi. 02:56 King reveals that he was seventeen when he left for New orleans. 03:27 King describes the hard-drinking scene of his childhood, featuring driving around drinking with his father and uncle Babe Stovall. 06:03 King describes his journey to New orleans, made against his mother’s wishes. 13:27 King explains that he didn’t yet know how to play guitar when he arrived in New orleans in 1957; his father said he had to teach himself, only teaching him three chords. He would watch his father play on the porch and borrow that guitar, the only one in the house, when his father was gone, sharing a story about one day accidentally breaking a string. 16:33 King tells how he came upon the cigar box he used to make his first guitar. 18:04 Explaining that he bought himself a guitar once in New orleans, he describes how police foiled his attempts to learn from musicians on Bourbon Street. Instead, he practiced alone at home. He bought himself a record player so that he could teach himself through imitation. He waited to go out in public until he felt he could play his own material and express himself. 20:33 King describes his first gigs, the venues and personnel. 22:34 King describes his relationship with Babe Stovall, who he saw after he moved. 24:38 King explains how his first album came to be. 26:33 King confirms that in his early days his audiences were exclusively black. 29:26 King explains that he plays his version and feelings, and believes himself to be original. 30:23 King tells how he culls his songwriting material from his life, which he finds to be a method of relief. 31:50 DEmnstration 36:31 Wade Wright describes his musical beginnings. 37:44 Wright confirms the historic law barring white people from black clubs, which once got him arrested. 38:47 King tells the story of finding out Lightning Hopkins was his cousin. 42:00 King addresses his fashion, explaining how much he believes wardrobe and appearance to matter. 43:31 Demonstration

: 2018 Louisiana Zydeco Soul: Curley Taylor; Interviewer - Herman Fuselier, ABSTRACT: 00:32 Demonstration 02:55 Taylor describes how heavy his accordion is, and how it weighs on him more as he ages. 04:01 Taylor describes his hectic Jazz Fest schedule. 04:56 Taylor tells how he’s been playing a while, but only released an album, which is rare in zydeco, after building up a base, and delayed playing with that band for a while after its release. 06:40 Taylor explains his early aspirations to assemble a touring band. 07:40 Taylor lists the personnel in Zydeco Trouble. 08:14 Taylor describes his musical style, explaining that he draws from soul and blues because those are his major influences, and he noticed not many others were doing it. 09:42 Demonstration, “Another Saturday Night” 12:11 Taylor lists the local musicians he’s played with as a drummer, and explains how his broad swath of musical experience has helped him stay flexible. 13:11 Taylor explains his decision to opt for the piano accordion. 14:24 Taylor confirms that he errs toward a big band sound, which he describes as “almost Vegas.” 15:00 Taylor describes his enthusiastic reception on the road, explaining that he reads the audience to determine what to play rather than building set lists. 15:50 Taylor explains his decision to also have a single note accordion, partly to deflect the old timey associations of the piano accordion. 18:41 Demonstration, Arceneaux singing 21:12 Demonstration, blues 23:26 Arceneaux speaks of his musical family, and his musical beginnings. 25:23 Arceneaux describes what he thinks makes a great scrub board player, an instrument he describes as more difficult to play than it looks. 26:50 Fuselier reveals that he plays the rub board and push button accordion at home. 29:15 Taylor explains his transition from being a drummer to being a bandleader on accordion, and how financial anxiety played a big role in it. 33:33 Taylor explains that he chooses covers to help draw zydeco converts, and catch people’s attention. 35:16 Taylor tells of the Louisiana connection to the Bay Area. 35:48 Taylor speaks of his international touring experience, explaining how crucial he sees touring to making it big. 37:48 Taylor reflects on his wife, Rachel, considering the challenges of being married to a musician, particularly a bandleader. 41:39 Demonstration

: 2018 Luther Kent; Interviewer - Marc Stone, ABSTRACT: 00:53 Kent explains that his big band was assembled at the absinthe bar in New Orleans in 1978, and that this is his thirty-ninth appearance at Jazz Fest. He confirms he’s been recording since he was fifteen years old, signing with Montel under the name Duke Royal. 01:53 Kent reflects on his childhood. He grew up by Tipitina’s in a musical household, with a piano-playing father and an older brother who was a musician and would bring him to gigs. Upon moving to Broad Street, he started frequenting the Pimlico, where he’d go stand outside to hear music starting around age ten. 03:12 Kent reveals how he got into singing: after moving to Baton Rouge following his father’s death, he was teased for his New Orleans accent, and took to hiding in the choral room to play piano and sing. A teacher heard him and signed him up for the talent show, his first performance. Soon after he was asked to sub in for a friend’s sick singer, who was fired after the band saw how he did on the gig. 05:21 Kent explains his relationship to Blood, Sweat & Tears, who he joined on part of their ’74-’75 world tour, unable to record with them due to clashing contracts. 06:57 Kent explains that he got a recording contract with Lou Adler while with the band Cold Grits, who released a regional single to boost working. The album never came to be, because “business got sideways,” which he regrets – he followed the band’s lead because they, as the staff rhythm section for Criteria Studios, had far more recording experience than he did at the time. 09:27 Kent says that right after Cold Grits, he formed a band of Louisiana musicians he wanted to work with called The Real Thing. They worked at the Ivanhoe on Bourbon Street for a year and a half before fizzling out. Then, trying to plot his next step, Kent got the call from Blood, Sweat & Tears. That was not his first touring experience, having done the Midwestern circuit and toured in California. 11:45 Kent explains that upon returning to New Orleans in 1977, he basically assembled a band on a lark, citing personnel to a magazine interviewer before he’d spoken to any of them. However, this band – with Johnny Vidacovich, James Singleton, Michael Pallera, and Charlie Brent – is still together forty years later. He explains that major acts, including Billy Eckstine and Etta James, would come sit in with them, at either the Absinthe Bar or the Blues Saloon, where he had a gig starting at two thirty AM. 15:51 Kent extols the pleasures of being able to stay home and work, having found the touring schedule/schedule grueling, doing twenty-two one-nighters a month with Blood, Sweat & Tears. Living in New Orleans also gave him the bonus of many musicians coming through, in effect finding him so that he didn’t have to go find them. He has maintained his band, which, at ten pieces, is rather big, by working fifty weeks a year, five nights a week. He expresses his gratitude for having been able to make a living playing what he wants to play, with the help of the arrangements of the late Charlie Brent. He developed his taste for playing with a big horn section partly from the influence of Bobby Bland. 21:46 Kent explains that his friend who was Billy Eckstine’s road manager is who set them up, sending Eckstine to go see Kent’s band, which he began doing regularly, becoming good friends with Kent. 23:26 Kent tells how the proximity of the clubs where he was in residence to the Blue Room, where the likes of Billy Eckstine would play, helped, as people often came through, including the Four Tops, who he one night turned to find backing him. 24:12 Kent lists some of the personnel that came through his band, Trick Bag, over the years. 26:13 Kent shares the fact that, tied by his producer Mike Post, he tried out acting on Steven Bochco’s Cop Rock, which though a flop in the US was a cult hit in Europe. He also tells how Post, as a producer, would say he didn’t want to tell him how to sing, and would just come in to do composites once three tracks had been laid down. 29:09 Kent admits to being hardheaded, explaining that his will was the main influence over what he chose to play. Fortunately, he had sufficiently good bands to be able to pull that off. 30:44 Demonstration “You Are My Sunshine” 34:46 Kent attributes the staying power of R&B to the fact that “it’s real,” calling the music he grew up on the greatest ever. He says it moved him hard, and not just him, but the world. He explains that he once did a gig at a standard club that expected conformity; it was a brief gig he intends never to repeat. 36:16 Kent attributes his staying power to his love of the music, and the charge of playing to audiences that shared that love. He describes himself as “chomping at the bit” every night to go to work. 38:25 Kent says the one other thing he wants, after his career, is to “croak in the middle of a high note on stage.” 39:17 Demonstration “Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans)”

: 2018 MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger; Interviewer - Holly Hobbs, ABSTRACT: 00:10 Taylor tells that he started playing music seriously while living in San Francisco, after growing up in southern California. His father was a guitar player and singer, but never pursued it professionally, and didn’t teach Taylor much, though he’d observe him. Taylor began playing guitar around the age of seventeen, trading a BMX bike for his first instrument. 02:45 Taylor says he has a complicated relationship to his songs, thinking in terms of breakthroughs more than pride. He considers his 2011 album Bad Debt to be one, though he calls it “horrible-sounding.” 05:11 Taylor explains how he got his start around punk and self-taught musicians. He eventually learned some theory and became hooked on harmony. 06:49 Taylor describes how much he learned from his long-time collaborator Scott Hirsch, including technicalities of the guitar. He says he has always relished songwriting, “the words part,” as a voracious reader. He explains that sometimes it’s a question of finding the right melody of words he has in mind, and sometimes the other way around. 09:04 Taylor explains that even when he isn’t touring, which he often is, “travel for music has always seemed an important part of my life.” 09:39 Taylor speaks to his graduate experience in North Carolina, training and working as a folklorist. Seeking out “traditional” music taught him a lot, particularly in learning the variety of interpretations of what that might mean. 13:37 Speaking to the complications of success, Taylor explains that he’s been unsuccessful for long enough that enjoyment is his motivator. While he observes changes in his style, he attributes them more to personal evolution – including fatherhood – than anything else. 20:50 Taylor introduces “Lucia,” sharing that he tracked down Linda Thompson, with whom he was enamored, to do harmony on a version. 22:46 Demonstration, “Lucia” 26:09 Taylor speaks to the influence and awe of John Prine. 26:49 Taylor speaks to his collaborations with Tift Merritt. 28:29 Taylor explains that he doesn’t consciously work thematically, but often sees connections and patterns in hindsight. 31:07 Taylor explains that he’s assembled a steady stable of collaborators, and that despite there being a number of people on his records, in the process the groupings are kept small. 33:55 Taylor describes the influence of Muscle Shoals, which he admires as a “rhythm-forward organization,” emphasizing the importance of rhythm in not losing an audience. 35:36 Taylor explains his goal to make music that feels simultaneously happy and sad. 39:31 Demonstration, “Jenny”

: 2018 Master of the Telecaster: Bill Kirchen; Interviewer - Tom Piazza, ABSTRACT: 01:47 Kirchen tells how much folks music he got to see thanks to the university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he grew up. 02:26 Kirchen lists the many blues musicians he saw at Newport, where he’d gone to see Mississippi John Hurt, who he found the most relatable. He found Son House terrifying. 03:37 Kirchen explains that he was not yet playing guitar when he first went to Newport at fifteen, but rather learning the banjo, carrying around one he had been given by his mother, which she used to play. 04:38 Kirchen explains that the guitar felt like the next step after the banjo. Particularly inspired by Hurt, he pursued his technique, with plastic finger picks on an acoustic guitar. 05:09 Demonstration, Hurt’s finger picking style 05:51 Kirchen describes the man primarily responsible for teaching him guitar. 07:26 Kirchen describes how and when he tuned into Dylan, beginning with the purchase of his second album. He saw him live twice consecutively at Newport, including when he went electric, which he remembers liking. 10:03 Kirchen explains that Dylan, particularly “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” influenced him to go in a rock direction, starting with a high school talent show. 11:10 Kirchen tells how he started gigging during his year off after high school, with a band he created called the Seventh Seal. 12:23 Kirchen explains leaving Ann Arbor for California, followed by other members of Commander Cody. 13:59 Kirchen describes their first studio album, Lost in the Ozone, from 1971. 15:30 Demonstration, “Down To Seeds and Stems Again Blues” 16:13 Kirchen reveals that “Down To Seeds” lacks any minor chords because the songwriters took them as a sign of weakness. 17:12 Kirchen explains that one of Cody’s notorious songs, “Hot Rod Lincoln,” was an oldie they re-vamped. 18:18 Kirchen describes how he was originally only the guitarist on the song, but learned the vocals so he could play it independently, adding the flourish of quoting famous guitar players, which has become a trademark. 18:59 Demonstration, “Hot Rod Lincoln” 20:41 Kirchen announces his line-up for his set at the Lagniappe Stage. 21:06 Kirchen gives the timeline of Commander Cody, which broke up in ’76. 21:30 Kirchen describes the band he started afterward, the Moonlighters, who recorded their first album in England. There were two incarnations, one a Western swing seven piece swing band, and the other four-piece new wave. 23:51 Kirchen explains what he got into, starting a trio, which has been his primary set up since, after moving to DC in 1986. 24:58 Kirchen describes moving to Austin seven or eight years ago to be closer to his family. 25:44 Kirchen describes getting into Telecasters after getting into old country and roots music, realizing that was what everyone was playing, and trading his Gibson for one. 27:02 Kirchen attributes Telecasters’ simplicity to their tonality and players’ ability to get their own sound. 27:53 Kirchen explains his guitar’s modifications. 29:31 Kirchen describes the inspiration for “Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods,” an ode to the Telecaster he wrote. 30:07 Demonstration, “Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods” 32:09 Kirchen demonstrates what B-Benders do, and acknowledges that they’ve fallen out of favor. 33:43 Though Kirchen admits he doesn’t know why Bruce Springsteen opted for a Tellie, he guesses it relates to his workingman image, and says he gets a nod in “Hammer.” 34:55 Kirchen speaks to his amp preferences. 35:38 Kirchen describes how the price of high quality instruments has gone down. 37:13 Kirchen describes his specific guitar, which is handmade and bought in the Village. 39:19 Demonstration, Dylan 39:40 Kirchen attributes de Lone with emboldening him to dare sing Dylan. 40:16 Kirchen promises to eventually do an album of Dylan tunes.

: 2018 On the Road with Fats; Jimmie Moliere, Carlton 'Frog' McWilliams, Reggie Hall and Roger Lewis; Interviewer- Rick Coleman, ABSTRACT: 00:50 Panel introductions 03:02 Roger Lewis explains how he got hooked up playing with Fats, and details his first gig, in Toronto in 1971. Explains that a perk of the gigs with Fats was that he was always welcome back, even when intermittently absent to pursue his work as a founding member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 08:00 Clarence Frog McWilliams relates how he got involved playing with Fats, enabled by Lee Allen to waltz straight from Wilson Pickett’s band, on guitar, into Fats’, on bass. He stuck with Fats for fourteen years. 11:00 Jimmie Moliere explains that he was familiarized with Fats’ music by jamming with his son Antoine, who recommended him after the passing of Fats’ initial guitar player Roy Montrell 12:26 Moliere tries to call out names of who all he played with prior to Fats, settling on “literally just about everybody in New Orleans” 13:24 Reggie Hall recounts his first impressions of Fats, which came when they were teenagers and Fats was dating his sister. Recalls Fats, known to him as Antoine, setting up a snowball stand in his backyard on Caffin Avenue. 16:32 Demonstration “I’m Walkin’” 19:10 Rick Coleman calls out Fats’ original band mates’ names, with some background on each, they being Dave Bartholomew, Earl Palmer, Frank Fields, and Herbert Hardesty, and invites the panelists to reflect on them. Lewis compares Bartholomew to a drill sergeant in terms of his organization, and calls Hardesty one of the nicest people you ever want to meet. He says Allen’s projection was such that mics were near unnecessary. Lewis also adds Walter Kimball to the roster, who was known as the clown. He adds Frederic Kemp as well, who he compares to John Coltrane, and says once did backwards flips standing up with playing his alto, earning the band huge tips. 25:52 Lewis conveys what a great learning experience playing with Fats was for him, including absorbing the power of his stage presence. Reminisces over how Fats bought the subsequent baritone sax player a new horn so that he, like Lewis, could play a low A. 28:30 Hall recounts Fats’ having passed “You Talk Too Much,” on a chart topper he wrote specifically for him. Subsequently the record was sent to Fidel Castro and played at the UN. 29:52 McWilliams reflects on his relationship with Lee Allen and the fact that it was he who got him involved with Fats. He also reflects on Allen, Bartholomew and Hardesty’s individual fame. 33:00 Hall reminisces over Walter Papoose Nelson, Fats’ original guitar player, who he credits with beginning the trend of standing right behind Fats. 34:07 Demonstration “Blueberry Hill” 35:25 Lewis recalls Fats’ habit of sliding the stage at the end of shows, and how he slid a baby grand right to the edge at a gig in Evansville, Indiana, a near-disaster which saved by inadvertently hurling himself over it, leading to his being replaced in the second set by Roy Montrell, something he says he’ll never forget. 37:19 McWilliams calls Fats the sweetest musician of any he ever worked with, and Moliere says working with him was his easiest job. There wasn’t a single rehearsal his first eleven years with the band. 38:10 Hall remembers Fats once gifting and immediately retracting a station wagon, conveys how Fats relied on him. 39:23 Demonstration “When The Saints Go Marching In”

: 2018 Roddie Romero and Eric Adcock; Members of the Hub City All-Stars; Interviewer - Edna Gundersen, ABSTRACT: 00:42 Demonstration “Gulf Stream” 07:08 Romero explains how lucky he feels to be rich in local influence, saying the Lafayette and New Orleans have really “been it” for him, musically. 08:07 Adcock says that he feels American music has always sprung from South Louisiana, which he says is the foundation of their inspiration as musicians. He believes a regional sense of place permeates all their music, whether or not it seems objectively regional stylistically. 10:21 Romero confirms that regional music has always been his influence and inspiration, having been exposed to it at a young age through his older siblings. His desire to please his parents and facilitate their dancing helps hold him to this, despite national trends; he explains that their household had “a good mix of French Acadian songs and Fats Domino brewing in one pot.” 12:02 Adcock and Romero explain how they hit it off when they met as teenagers. They were both playing professionally, emphasizing different styles, which terrified Adcock initially, but it became clear that their interests aligned, in their focus on local music. 14:58 Romero expresses the import of carrying on tradition, and Adcock explains the delicate art of respecting it while trying to move it forward, which he explains has gotten them some flack but he likens to an oak tree growing new limbs. 18:15 Adcock explains his process writing “The Creole Nightingale Sings,” inspired by his grandparents’ visits to the Hotel Monteleone in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. 19:45 Demonstration “The Creole Nightingale Sings” 25:11 Romero emphasizes their ability to stick close to home and find incredible songwriters, like Bobby Charles, and Adcock extols the musical richness of South Louisiana, explaining how incredible he finds it that Charles, Allen Toussaint, and Fats Domino all lived so close to one another. He also gets into the fact that Acadiana was, originally, quite separate from New Orleans; he considers records a great, modern way to blend all influences in one place. 28:38 Demonstration “Must Be In A Good Place Now” 33:06 Romero says that, in response to how many under-sung songwriters there are, all he sees that they can do is keep loving and doing what they do. Adcock concurs, adding that he believes people to be highly influenced by the radio and what’s fed to them by the mass media. 35:35 Adcock speaks to the influence of Buckwheat Zydeco, explaining how lucky he and Romero were to be taken under his wing early, as they frequented the club where he played as kids. Zydeco encouraged them to make their own label, and told Adcock never to criticize what he doesn’t understand, advice that has stuck with him since. 37:53 Romero seconds this, emphasizing that “it’s the same twenty musicians in the fifty bands” back home, and how busy everyone is, proving Buckwheat Zydeco’s lesson that you can do bad all by yourself. 38:36 Romero says that since the release of their last record he’s been, as always, continuing to write and outline arrangements. Adcock admits that the record took a lot out of them and that they’ve partly been recouping, but that his creativity is coming back now that the business necessities have subsided. 39:59 Demonstration “Rock ‘N’ Roll Soul Radio” 43:40 Adcock outlines their upcoming gigs, in Lafayette and Pensacola.

: 2018 Ron Carter; Interviewer - Jason Patterson, ABSTRACT: 04:12 Carter describes his family in Detroit, and how he was the sole child (of eight) to pursue music professionally. He switched from cello to bass due to discrimination in the classical music community. 05:59 Carter explains that his demanding high school, Cass Technical, gave him a head start once he got to college. Unfortunately, discrimination continued to cost him in college, forcing him to give up his seat in the Rochester Philharmonic orchestra. Luckily, he’d been playing in jazz clubs to support his way through school, and had landed in good company, including Sonny Stitt, the likes of whom assured him that a bassist could find work in New York. 08:09 Carter decides to see if the New York rumors are true and moves there in 1959, immediately landing in Chico Hamilton’s band with Eric Dolphy, which he describes as having been “off and walking” (the bass). 09:09 Carter confirms joining Miles Davis’ quintet in April, 1963. 09:38 Recording “Seven Steps” 10:14 Carter recalls the recording process of Seven Steps, Miles’ first album with a quintet. There were two recording sessions, the earlier with Carter, Davis, Victor Feldman and Frank Butler, and the latter incorporated Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and George Coleman. Carter explains that the group had not yet gelled; “just nice guys, having a good time.” The group dynamic intrigued him, as while everyone knew who the leader was, no one was afraid of him, which fostered a good environment for creative experimentation and improvement. Carter jokes that as a bonus, he was the paymaster, “so I was in charge.” 12:02 Patterson explains that by the second record, the quintet – Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter – had coalesced and gelled. Carter attributes some of their staying power to their musical curiosity. He emphasizes that they had the right set-up for experimentation, and were having fun. Describes the group as “a band of friends.” 13:39 Carter explains that post-quintet, which broke up in 1968, he felt he needed more time to explore the possibilities of the string bass. Rather than pursuing fusion, including electric instruments, as many of his band mates did, he decided to stay straight on that path. He is still using the bass he bought in 1960, which was crafted in Prague in 1910. He borrowed thirty-five of the hundred dollars required to buy it. He calls his bass The Best I Can Find. 15:47 Carter elucidates his evolution with the piccolo bass: he had one made initially because he felt his ambitions to be a bandleader would go over better if he were positioned in the front, so he had a friend in New Jersey make him a half-size bass that he played as a tenor cello. He rounded up Buster Williams, Kenny Barron, and Ben Riley, and in 1975 had formed his first bass-led quartet. This new bass was higher pitched, thus more prominent, and was played from a sitting position. 17:34 Recording, “Freedom Jazz Dance” 17:40 Carter reflects on Eddie Harris, a saxophone player and composer he considers under-studied. 19:29 Recording “VSoP” 20:53 Carter explains how the VSOP band resulted from a Herbie Hancock night at New York’s Newport Jazz Festival – to honor the Miles period in Herbie’s career, Freddie Hubbard was enlisted as trumpet player, and Tony Williams and Carter joined, and subsequently went on tour, and did some recordings. 21:54 While saying he is not a dabbler, Carter lists non-jazz personnel with whom he’s worked, including Paul Simon, Tribe Called Quest, and Robert Flack. He has also played in Broadway shows, believing to have been hired so contractors could display a good racial conscience. However, he enjoyed the experiences, particularly relishing what he describes as “weekly, not weakly” checks. 24:32 Carter describes his “scholarship students,” twelve children he’s found who are interested in learning how to play the bass and whose only fee for his tutelage is being on time to lessons. 25:17 Carter sheds light on his plan to eventually, once he plays less regularly, teach third and fourth graders how to play the bass, based off of his book Finding the Right Notes. He’s focused on that age because he finds those kids particularly curious, and likely open to direction. 26:55 Recording “Verses From The Abstract” 27:36 Carter explains how he came to collaborate with A Tribe Called Quest. Q-Tip called him, and he said he’d call him back. After getting his sons’ endorsement, he warned Q-Tip that he would not participate in anything involving the “verbal skills” typical of hip-hop; however, the forty-five minute recording session went fine, once he’d approved the lyrics which he found his job to be to make less safe with no words. He acknowledges that that 1991 album “changed everything, man.” 30:36 Carter explains how he got into the Miles Davis band: he had a gig with Art Farmer, Jim Hall, and Walter Perkins at the Half Note in New York in 1963, and Miles approached him to say his current band was disbanding, as they were joining the Wes Montgomery Quartet, and he was trying to put together a new one. Carter had him ask Farmer if he’d release him, which he did. This was the band everyone wanted to join, and Carter felt he was ready to try out his developing concepts and see if they worked. He was never afraid of Davis, who he found to be “convivial.” They talked about a wide range of topics, though never music. 35:06 Per request, Carter shares his McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans stories. He had to ask McCoy not to play below the S in Steinway on the piano, and warned Bill Evans that he doesn’t play clouds, but will provide the beat. 36:54 Also asked to, Carter sheds some light on Eric Dolphy’s personality, explaining how his wife took on teaching him how to cook, which he had no knowledge of when he moved to New York. 39:02 Carter explains his latest snafu in his attempts to play with Ahmad Jamal, the one person remaining on his list of people he’d like to play before he hits “that last note”. Michel Legrand had to bow out of a five-day tour at the Blue Note and tasked Carter with finding replacements, but Jamal demurred, leading Carter to threaten to tell his bass player to step out and watch CNN for an hour during his next gig. 41:41 Recording “Don’t Run”

: 2018 Southern Soul/Blues Icon: Bobby Rush; Interviewer - Scott Billington, ABSTRACT: 01:00 Rush explains that though he was born in Louisiana he identifies the way his father taught him, ‘You’re always from wherever you are.’ 01:36 Rush tells how though he’s played and recorded all over, his first Grammy came last year, for his first album recorded in Louisiana. He explains that it came to be from a producer who years ago had asked to record him and Solomon Burke, then followed up. 03:21 Rush says that he claims both Homer and Houma, LA, having grandparents from both towns. He identifies as a country boy, which he seems to credit for teaching him the blues. 04:20 Rush gets into the music of his childhood, telling of a man named Mr. Tutch who taught him guitar (while it was nailed to the wall). His father was skeptical of his influence, given the lyrics of the songs he would sing. 06:16 Rush tells of his journey to Chicago, via a stunted bus route earning money between stops, where he found preeminent members of blues royalty, including Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. He says that he and Buddy Guy are the only remaining living black blues singers from the Chess crowd, and that he, turning eighty-five in November, is the oldest. 09:08 Rush speaks to the development of his and Billington’s record, which he feels was facilitated by Billington’s permission to be himself. BIllington adds the anecdote of Rush having shared his old demo cassettes, which gave them three songs, including the title track, “Porcupine Meat.” Rush credits Billington with pulling the best out of the personnel, coaxing them into multiple takes. They reveal that they’re currently working on their second collaboration, which Rush predicts will be one of the greatest things he’s ever done. 15:58 Rush explains that the chitlin circuit, of which he’s sometimes referred to as the last king, will always be there with its audience, the key being empathetic storyteller. He sees his aim as letting people briefly forget their problems and enjoy themselves. He also notes that while he crossed over and gained a white audience, he never forgot his black one, and gets into his background, including having not made decent money for a very, very long, a marker he uses to measure how far he’s come. 21:50 Demonstration, what he learned from Jimmy Reed, who he considers to have taught him everything he knows. 23:44 Rush explains that the Beatles stole some of Reed’s riffs 24:16 Demonstration 27:34 Demonstration, with Billington’s accompaniment 31:34 Rush, prompted by a question about having known Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on some of the sadder moments in his life, including when he and his drummer were ignored by sheriffs after a horrible car accident in Chicago in 1963, and referred to as “the N-word.” He says, however, that good things have come from the bad, and believes his character to have been strengthened by the adversity he’s endured. 35:55 Reflecting on how many places he’s been, Rush explains that he hopes to never forget “the bridge that brought [him] across.” A major mission of his is to give back, and to, as he sees important for all members of his generation, “bring the young peoples along.” 40:29 Demonstration 42:42 Rush sing-speaks some of his musical history, over accompaniment by guitar and harmonica, leading to an anecdote about his father, a preacher, singing a song that plants lewd thoughts in Rush’s mind (who recently proclaimed himself a “dirty old man). 45:50 Rush reflects on their upcoming album, saying how he knows it will contain what it needs to, which he hopes will appeal to his audience.

: 2018 The Accordion in Louisiana; Marc Savoy, Glenn Hartman, and Corey Ledet; Interviewer - Barry Ancelet, ABSTRACT: 01:30 Ancelet gets into the history of the accordion, explaining that its first patent was acquired in 1829 in Vienna, and how it works as an instrument. He says that after developing between the 1820’s and 1840’s it spread like wildfire in the 1840’s, which he attributes to the fact that it was compact, simple, sturdy, and loud. He explains that it traveled through the world without instructions, leading people to simply figure out how to make it make the music they heard in their heads, “and that’s the magic of the accordion.” 06:08 Marc Savoy explains how he believes the accordion came to be so popular amongst Cajuns and Creoles. He believes that its loudness had a lot to do with it, citing how at jam sessions you can hear a single accordion from afar without hearing a thing from the accompanying ten fiddles, given that Cajuns are known as a rather rowdy bunch, and that its indestructability helped, particularly given the climate of Louisiana, which wreaks havoc on stringed instruments. He also praises the ease of learning on certain accordions, noting that with some of them it’s a different story. 07:50 Savoy explains how accordions were imported to LA from Germany, seemingly through a network in the Jewish community, as there were major Jewish importers in New York and all the Jewish-owned dry goods stores in LA began selling them. He explains why – due to the bell metal that was being used in the reeds – the accordions were flimsy compared to those made today, which use refined steel. 10:20 Savoy explains that there is proof to how early the accordion arrived in Louisiana: C. Bruno & Son, a music company, had about three hundred different types for sale (ranging from one seventy-five to four fifty) in their 1854 catalogue. 11:30 Savoy gets into the evolution of the quality of the instruments. For a while, no accordions were sold, because people believed the factories in Germany had been destroyed in World War II, including soldiers who came home and had memories of kicking accordions out of their way. This, however, was not the case: stores had been demolished, but the factories were beyond the war zone. They were, however, on the east side. 13:09 Savoy explains how he got into accordion making: the dearth of German imports left people with only one choice as their old ones began to fall apart, a model from Hohner (based in West Germany) that got so streamlined it began unappealing. People began repairing their old ones, including, in 1955, a man named Sidney Brown, who eventually branched out into fabrication. He used Hohner models as the base, but, notably, re-tuned them, figuring out a system for doing so himself, so that they sounded more like the older East German models. 15:28 Savoy explains that a French Canadian, Philippe Brunot, inspired him to try and make exactly the instrument that he, who Savoy considered to put him to shame on the accordion, requested. He didn’t have quite enough musical knowledge for that, so it took him years, but he says now he feels it’s good enough. 16:31 Savoy explains that he now makes accordion to play as he likes them to – for him, this means they’re responsive, have a good, strong bite, and don’t require being wrestled to get a good air flow going. 17:30 Demonstration 19:31 Ledet speculates that Clifton Chenier opted for a piano accordion because he felt it had a bit more versatility, and had been accustomed to playing keyboards. 20:39 Ledet demonstrates the different sound stops on his piano accordion. 21:34 Demonstration of piano accordion zydeco, by Ledet 23:44 Hartman explains an idiosyncrasy of the diatonic accordion, its rhythmic clicking that comes from changing the direction of the bellows. 25:00 Hartman tells how his father used to play accordion, which he found silly. It was moving to Louisiana and seeing Clifton Chenier that changed his mind about the instrument. He explains that the instrument has a hard time most other places, as he recounts in a story about a contest in San Francisco where contestants got equal points for their playing and their apparel. 27:37 Demonstration, klezmer accordion, by Hartman 31:52 Demonstration, “soulful sound” 32:37 Savoy explains that the Cajun and piano accordions tune differently. 33:14 Demonstration, blues by Ledet 34:30 Demonstration, Yiddish intonation by Hartman 35:10 Hartman explains that the music of an accordion lives in is bellows. 36:27 Demonstration “Crowley Two-Step” by the Savoys 37:40 Savoy explains why some more amateur players only play one side, as there are only two chords on the bass side and they’re difficult to maneuver. 38:21 Demonstration by Ledet 40:03 Demonstration, “La Adelita” Yiddish mash-up by Hartman 42:52 Demonstration, modulation by the Savoys

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation

Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage Collection

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