Several good excuses for the lack of new content....

My usual plodding pace of posts has been slowed even more recently by several factors.

First, immediately after Wardell Quezergue's passing, I was asked to do a short piece for OffBeat on a few of his productions I think are important, or, at least, revealing of his talent. That should appear in the October issue as a part of their feature on the man.

After I finished that, it was time for the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. Last weekend, I spent two days at the record show diggin' boxes and gabbing with fellow geeks from all over, and two full nights at the Howlin' Wolf for the concerts - make that three nights, as I went to the Hip Drop DJ showcase at d.b.a. on Thursday to kick it off. Wish I had time to review the event, which had plenty good to commend it, plus some great stuff, including Allen Toussaint [my photo from the floor] and his band taking part in the tribute to Cosimo Matassa the first night, truly awesome, plus the tribute to Stax and Memphis Soul the next night, featuring the fabulous Bo-Keys as the backing band, tight like that. Hope some of you got to go.

By the way, the upcoming issue of OffBeat should also have another article by me on the original Sissy dance as it inspired certain New Orleans songs, which is a distillation of my post on the subject here a few months back. Thanks to Alex Rawls, Associate Editor of that fine publication, for the opportunity to briefly pretend to be a real journalist - twice.

As promised, I've got a post on Wardell in the works, should be up within the week; and there will be more after that - so stay tuned. I'm telling you, I haven't been slacking. . . .

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. . . .