The Inaugural Legends of New Orleans Tour Thebarton Theatre October 6th 2011

Legends of New Orleans Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, October 6^th 2011 Review

New Orleans has a rich musical history as the birthplace of jazz and went on to create its own sounds and musical traditions from Dixieland to marching bands, rhythm and blues and funk to hip hop and of course New Orleans artist have featured prominently in popular music also. This highly anticipated concert featured .different musical styles associated with those tradtions.

The evening began with Jon Cleary and the Philthy Phew. Cleary has performed in Australia many times as a solo artist and with various local and New Orleans musicians. The Philthy Phew is a flexible line-up but on this tour featured Jelly Bean on drums and Matt Perrine (normally famous for playing the sousaphone) on double bass. Cleary began with a killer version of the old Ray Charles classic Mary Ann and then performed some classic New Orleans tunes such as Tipitina and I Ain't Mad At You along with some of his own tunes like When U Get Back. He also showed his piano skills and debt to the earlier New Orleans style on a Jelly Roll Morton tune. Cleary has great energy and knows how to work a crowd and got the night off to a great start.

Next came the Dirty Dozen Brass Band who despite their title are a 7 piece outfit dating back to 1977. Their style .is based on that of traditional New Orleans brass bands but they have updated the sound adding elements of hip hop, be bop and funk into their repertoire and with this line-up an electric guitar. The band features two trumpets, tenor and baritone saxes, a sousaphone, guitar and drums. Their tunes are infectious and soon had everyone on their feet and singing along to My Feet Don't Fail Me Now and Me Like It Like That. Good to heat the baritone sax played by 70 year old Roger Lewis and a sousaphone, another rarity in live music these days. There was a real party feel to their music. Unfortunately the sound was sometimes a little distorted but this didn't deter the enthusiastic audience!

Last but certainly not least came Allen Toussaint a true legend of New Orleans and elsewhere and this was his first visit to Australia. Now 73, Toussaint appropriately attired in a red and gold suit, played with great panache and soon had the audience rocking to a medley of some of his many hits including Working In a Coal Mine, Fortune Teller, A Certain Girl, Mother in Law and many more. Get Out My Life Woman was performed right through and got an enthusiastic response as did Southern Nights Toussaint also played many instrumentals which were a musical pot pourri including his own tunes, Professor Longhair, some barrelhouse and stride piano and even some classical references cleverly interspersed with segments of .New Orleans classics. On one tune his guitarist Renard Poche played two recorders, a flute and some very sassy trombone! Toussaint's considerable talents were well displayed in a memorable performance. Come back soon Allen!
Check out the interview I did with Jon Cleary talking about the tour and his music:  http://sistert.podomatic.com/