The Performers
The New John Robichaux Society Orchestra
Tom Hook and Wendell Brunious lead the NJRSO, a nine-piece orchestra of top tier New Orleans musicians playing original music from the John Robichaux Band [pictured on our Home Page], one of the premiere party bands in the city from 1895 to 1927, when the band was turned over to son Joe Robichaux.
With the help of archivist and scholar Bruce Raeburn, Tom scoured the boxes of arrangements left in the care of the Hogan Jazz Archive for gems, made period arrangements, and brought history back to life. Most of the NJRSO’s pieces have never been recorded before, despite being very popular in their time. Seeing this band live is like traveling through time in music and dance.
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Opera Creole, excerpts from Treemonisha
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Givonna Joseph, artistic director of the now world -famous Opera Creole, decided ten years ago to put together a 45-minute program, excerpts from Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera, Treemonisha, a story that foretold the Great Migration, about a community leaving the chaotic no-man’s-land of west Louisiana/east Texas to find peace and opportunity in other places. Ms Joseph and her company of singers, accompanied by Xavier music professor Wilfred Delphin, gave a stunning performance from this under appreciated opera by the greatest of all ragtime composers.
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This year Ms Joseph will present her company Opera Creole in a re-creation of this unique program. You do not want to miss it!
Louis Ford and his New Orleans Flairs
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Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs have been delighting audiences all over the world for decades. We are regulars at Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest in New Orleans, and entertain at dozens of visiting conventions every year.
Louis is a fifth generation New Orleans musician, inspired by his father Clarence Ford. Like his father, Louis is an accomplished clarinetist and saxophonist, with love and dedication to the Preservation of Jazz.
Studying music at NOCCA under Ellis Marsalis, and a member of St. Augustine’s Marching 100, he earned a degree in Music Education from Loyola University.
(All the band members are music teachers, too.)
Louis’ career has enabled him to travel extensively, sharing his gifts throughout the world, with his band, Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs. Louis’ most inspiring and rewarding travels are those sharing his knowledge of New Orleans culture, Traditional Jazz, and the history of the music pioneers who created it.
S. Frederick Starr
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Founder of the Louisiana Repertory Ensemble in 1980, as well as the biographer of L. Moreau Gottschalk, octogenarian Fred Starr is making some new recordings with Gallatin Street Records.
Tom McDermott
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In the past three decades, there hasn't been a more consistent presenter of the classic ragtime repertoire in New Orleans than Tom McDermott. Tom's contributions to ragtime have truly been innovative. Being a virtuoso in so many piano styles, from the different eras of New Orleans piano, to neighboring styles from Central and South America and the Caribbean, Tom is able to hear connections that most of us miss. When you hear Tom play a rag with a Brazilian beat, or turn a march into a Jelly Roll Morton stride, you are witnessing a synthesis of musical feelings from across time and space.
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