It came from the swamp
New Orleans, as the crucible of jazz, has a unique musical heritage. The Big Easy, as the port city is often called, has always been a melting pot of cultures. Here Spanish and French colonists mixed with French Acadians, Irish workers, other Europeans and Native Americans to produce a musical culture that has been a seminal element in the development of popular American music.
The story of jazz and its origins is what most people think of when they consider New Orleans and its music. But that is the pre-World War II story, and many, many books have been written on the subject of jazz. The second part of the story is really about how New Orleans’ musicians developed rhythm and blues, soul, and funk, from the late 1940s onwards.
In 1983, John Broven wrote a fascinating book on New Orleans R&B, Walking To New Orleans, and in the 90s I reviewed the late photographer Michael P. Smith’s marvellous book of photographs Joyful Noise: A Celebration Of New Orleans Music. These are important books for anyone interested in post-World War II music in New Orleans, and to this list you should add one more seminal book, Up From The Cradle Of Jazz — New Orleans Music Since World War II, which was originally published in 1992 but has since been updated (including an epilogue on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005). The book was written by Jason Berry, Jonathan Foose and the late Tad Jones, and features the photography of Michael P. Smith, Syndey Byrd and Ralston Crawford. As the book is printed on photo-friendly paper, the monochrome photos are stunning in their detail.
The book primarily deals with the history of New Orleans music from WWII up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It delves into the origins of New Orleans R&B and its offspring, rock ’n’ roll. It shows how jazz receded and the younger generation began to blend blues, brass and Caribbean rhythms into an R&B sound as distinctive as jazz. The three authors — a music producer, a jazz researcher and a journalist — use biographical sketches of the key musicians and plenty of comments from the artists as well, so personal anecdotes and in-depth interviews bring the story to life. It makes for entertaining reading.
All the great names are here, and the authors deftly show how Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd), Fats Domino, Tots Washington, Huey “Piano” Smith, Allan Toussaint and the Meters, Dr John (Mac Rebennack), The Nevilles Brothers, Eddie Bo, and Irma Thomas shaped the music. We also learn about how New Orleans music has been developed by musical families and dynasties — think of the Lasties, the Nevilles and the Marsalis clan, all of whom came after early jazz families like the Bechets and the Bigards.
In one early chapter, “Professor Longhair: At The Roots”, we hear how this hugely influential musician (as Dr, John once called him, “the true originator of rock ’n’ roll and New Orleans funk”) was discovered by Atlantic Records founders Herb Abramson and Ahmet Ertegun in a bar in 1949, where they found Longhair performing solo: “He was sitting with a microphone between his legs … he had a drumhead attached to the piano. He would hit it with his right foot while he was playing … It was very loud. He was playing the piano and singing full blast, and it really was the most incredible thing I’d ever heard. And he was doing it all by himself … I thought, ‘My God, we’ve really found and original’. ” Sadly, we know that Professor Longhair did not become famous or rich like Fats Domino, but he influenced everyone, as the great producer and pianist once said: “Whenever I leave the house, I take a bit of Professor Longhair with me.”
The book covers the decline of R&B in the face of the so-called British Invasion of bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (both of whom covered New Orleans songs), and how the city got a second wind from studio owners and producers like Toussaint.
The book is worth its price just for the three chapters on how the Mardi Gras Indian groups developed and how the customs of these groups have direct links to neo-African culture from the Caribbean to West Africa.
This important cultural history showcase the cultures, the music and the neighbourhoods in New Orleans that created R&B, and the genres that followed, like soul and funk. Next time I hit the DJ decks, I’ll be using Up From The Cradle as my playbook.