Goodbye to Quezergue

Offbeat's Best of the Beat Awards, 2008,
photo by Dan Phillips

I am sad to report the passing of another of the Crescent City’s musical greats, Wardell Quezergue, Sr., whose name you will find frequently on these pages, so intimately was he intertwined in the fabric the city’s cultural and music heritage. For almost his entire adult life, he was a vital element of the local music scene as a composer, arranger, producer, and record label owner. His name will probably never be as well-known as Dave Bartholomew or Allen Toussaint; but he stood shoulder to shoulder with them on his own terms; and both of them utilized his talents on various projects. His contributions were manifold. His loss is inestimable.

Keith Spera has a brief but worthy summary of Quezergue’s life and career at nola.com.

I’ll be featuring more of Big Q's projects in the coming weeks, and beyond. . . .