In This Issue

Vol II issue 1

Vol. II, issue 1 1 Photo / Bob Compton

Where is Beat Street?

There is a place in New Orleans, a figurative address that is home to all that is real. New Orleans Beat Street is the home of jazz. It is also the residence of funk and the blues; R&B and rock ‘n’ roll live here, too. When zydeco and Cajun music come to town, Beat Street is their local address. Beat Street has intersections all over town: from Uptown to Treme, from the Ninth Ward to the French Quarter, from Bywater to the Irish Channel, weaving its way through Mid-City and all points Back o’ Town. Beat Street is the Main Street in our musical village. It is where we gather to dine and to groove to live music in settings both upscale and downhome. Beat Street is where we meet to celebrate life in New Orleans with second line parades, festivals and concerts in the park. Beat Street is lined with music clubs, restaurants, art galleries, recording studios, clothing shops, coffee emporiums and so much more. New Orleans Beat Street is a mythical street in New Orleans surrounded by water and flooded with music.

2 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 3 Photo / Michael P. Smith In This Issue... Beat Street returns with a dual focus this month on the inimitable James Booker and the thirtieth anniversary of the Maple Leaf Bar. Eminent Booker scholars David Ku- nian, Tom McDermott and Josh Paxton weigh in on why Booker was so heavy. Robyn Loda then talks to a pair of Booker’s running partners; Jon Cleary about his first job in New Orleans; and light on the Leaf’s infamous Krewe of OAK.Karl Bremer interviews bassist Reggie Scanlan. Jerry Brock shares his memories of the Piano Prince and also investigates the history of the Maple Leaf. Spike Perkins examines the role that the Leaf has played in the develop- ment of local bands. Bob Compton gets the scoop from the first bandleader to play the venerable club. Broderick Webb delves into the Leaf in film and video. David Kunian brings to life the club’s poet laureate. Keith “Bass Drum Shorty” Frazier elucidates about recording with the Rebirth at the uptown club.

Letter from the Publisher

Welcome back to Beat Street Magazine! We have experi- enced some growing pains over the past several months that were partially alleviated by the creation of our sister magazine, FYI. Beat Street is now back and better than ever. This magazine will continue to be your source for detailed stories and commentary while FYI will function as your source for music listings and information on dining, theater, film and the other arts.

Special thanks go out to the advertisers who stuck with us through this period. I also feel that it is important to let our readers and advertisers know that we have secured a financial partner who is committed to guaranteeing that we will continue to provide the best music coverage in the city of New Orleans.

Our entrance into marketplace a year ago was marked by a rare commentary on local music media by the Times- Picayune’s Money section. At that time, despite alienating some members of the community with our sharp editorial tone, we firmly believed that “a rising tide lifts all ships”. We are proud to be the leaders in a new wave of publish- ing that has hit our fair city.

Finally, in the immortal words of Bob French: “If you like what you are seeing, tell everybody (especially potential advertisers); if you don’t (and we sincerely doubt that), don’t tell nobody!”

4 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 5 contents Memories of James Carroll Booker III page 5 Jerry Brock

On Stage, At Home & Always on Fire – Jack Cruz Remembers Booker page 15 Robyn Loda 8403 Willow Street New Orleans, La. 70118 Reggie Scanlan On James Booker page 18 504.314.0710 Information for Karl Bremer [email protected] James Booker Discography page 21 David Kunian Publisher LOVING Booker’s Peak page 24 Stephen Novak LIVING Tom McDermot in Editor Inside Booker’s Head page 26 New Orleans Joshua Paxton Jay Mazza Subscribe to FYI - $18 a year As the Leaf Turns Turns: Art Director 12 issues + special Jazz Fest issue The Beginnings of a Legend page 31 Andy Schulz Send a note with your check to Jerry Brock Subscription Department 8403 Willow Street, From the Maple Leaf to City Hall: Copy Editor New Orleans, LA 70118. Attorney Lee Madère page 34 Robyn Loda Remembers James Booker Robyn Loda Photo Editor The Maple Leaf: Bob Compton A Musical Saga page 37 Spike Perkins Writers Krewe of OAK Warren America Reveling is Not a Spectator Sport page 40 Karl Bremer Robyn Loda Jerry Brock He Was a Mess: Keith Frazier The Short Life of New Orleans Poet page 42 David Kunian Everette Maddox Robyn Loda Excerpts from a documentary Jay Mazza David Kunian Josh Paxton Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band page 46 Spike Perkins Story by Jay Mazza Interview by Bob Compton MP3 Confi dential: page 48 The No-Money Down Record Business Pro Tools, Café Press, and the Cover Art by Democratization of Access Mike Williamson Warren America The Leaf: Beat Street Logo by Home to Eccentrics page 50 Mike Williamson Jon Cleary’s Early Beginnings Robyn Loda Rebirth Live at the Leaf page 52 Keith Frazier

6 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 7 Memories of James Carroll Booker III By Jerry Brock

“If you ever come to my house, knock upon my door, somebody’s gonna tell you baby not to ever come back no more. ’Cause I know. I think I know. Baby how you’re classifi ed and that ain’t no lie. I’m so glad that I know now—baby how you’re classifi ed. That ain’t no lie.” – “Classifi ed” by James Booker

On November 8, 1983, at 3 PM, James Carroll Booker III was pro- nounced dead in a tragic mishap of negligence at Charity Hospital—the same place where he had come into life on December 17, 1939. Twenty years later the world has now grown to appreciate him for the musical genius he was. His presence, especially for piano players, hangs over this city like a huge wet rag with piano strings attached tightly to the heavens.

Classifi ed, Booker’s fi nal LP and swan song, pretty much summed up his attitude toward people and life during the late 1970s and early ’80s This is the period during which I got to know him.

He was an observer with acute perception. People were constantly ap- proaching him with ideas, opinions, praise or just attempting to get close to his genius. Even in intoxicated or paranoid states he could read some- one’s body language, listen to his or her words and decide if they were worth the bother.

His fl amboyant and extravagant tastes didn’t mix well with his modest fi nances. It’s an understatement to say James was a complicated person. He was hyper-creative, yet his life resembled a double-edged sword. When it swung one way he was at his peak of artistry, but when it swung the other, he self-destructed. He was fi ercely independent, yet insecure, seeking comfort from others.

John Coltrane said, “An artist experiences the highest highs and the lowest lows.” New Orleans’ bassist Ricard Alexis speaking about New Orleans’ piano genius Tony Jackson once said, “He was happy-go-lucky. He was a black, homosexual, alcoholic genius in New Orleans. What else could he be but happy-go-lucky?” These words reek of Booker.

Almost everyone who knew him has a story. My fi rst encounter came at Tyler’s Beer Garden in early 1977. My brother and I went for beer and ten-cent oysters. We weren’t prepared for the lanky pianist who showed up to play.

In three sets he combined compositions of Chopin, Tchaikowsky, Beethoven and Mozart with well-known blues. It was a hot summer

8 NEWEW ORLEANSRLEANS BEATEAT STREETTREET MAGAZINEAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 Photo / Michael P. Smith9 night and he referenced Midsum- mer Night’s Dream. His rhythmic riff on “Junco Partner” introduced a set and he used it to combine songs like movements in a concerto. At the end he said in his dry and overwrought voice, “I’ll be playing at Nietsche’s Vienna Garden [on] Thursday night.”

This was the former Lu & Charlie’s on N. Rampart Street. Thursday night about a half dozen of us were there. Booker asked for requests from the audience but people just sat waiting to hear what he would play next. I called out, “Straight, No Chaser,” the Monk tune. He paused and said, “No, I’d rather have ‘One Scotch, One Bourbon and One Beer’.” He then proceeded to just kill the Amos Milburne song.

The following Saturday he was at Tipitina’s and asked for requests. I threw out “Please Send Me Some- one to Love”. He played it and finished the set. I got up to go to the restroom, but he made a beeline and cut me off.

“Who the hell do you think you are—William Colby, Jr.?”—refer- ring to the then junior head of the CIA. I had no comeback. I could Photo / Michael P. Smith only reply, “Just a fan.” made on The Tonight Show. He felt your stereo,” he said. “Well stop One night I found about 20 plastic that he should be on Carson, not them,” I replied. I got up, put on silver Afro combs with fake rubies For an eight-month stint in 1978 the bald guy with the black stick. my pants and walked to the living in the handles hanging in various James lived with my brother and room to see a rusty-haired Irish places. I blew up. I wanted him to me on Hampson Street. He liked He took my tape recorder to his guy carrying my amplifier out the save his money and get his own having access to our record col- gigs. One of my favorites is from door. place. lection. I’d come home and find Tipitina’s and he starts the piece him lying on the couch listening to with a rollicking “You Ain’t Nothing “Wait, what are you doing?” “What the hell are these?” Arnold Schoenberg’s chamber mu- But a Hound Dog”. After 30 bars or sic or Bela Bartok’s “Mikrocosmos” so he sneaks in Beethoven’s “Moon- “This man has ridden in my cab for “That’s the official James Booker for piano. Bartok and Booker both light Sonata” with his left hand and the past eight hours and now he Comb.” drew from folk music around them to top that off adds a Sinatra favor- says he can’t pay.” and turned it into their own art. To ite, “Strangers in the Night”, to the “What do you mean? Where did Booker, folk music was whatever he mix. He was simultaneously play- “Well that’s my amp, not his.” you get them?” heard. ing three distinct melodies creat- ing a new composition. Beyond his He dropped my amp on the floor “I got them at the K&B on St. He made a 90-minute tape loop of utterly amazing technique was this and left, but took a beer keg tap off Charles.” just the applause on his live Boo- uncanny ability to interpolate mate- my front porch. The next day I had gie Woogie Piano Contest record. rial together that no one else ever to pay Booker’s fare to get the tap “What do you mean official?” When he was depressed he would thought of or tried. back for the deposit refund. lie back and listen to it over and “I bought them all.” over. He wanted commercial suc- I remember Booker shaking me Frequently I’d come home from cess and was jealous of the numer- awake at about 3 AM. “They’re work and Booker would have com- “There are more K&Bs and more ous appearances Pete Fountain stealing your stereo, they’re stealing pletely rearranged the living room. combs—you’re crazy!”

10 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 11 After Booker’s death, “Tomorrow I’m going out to buy Earl King told me, the rest of them.” “People used to get mad at Booker be- When film director Louis Malle cause they felt he came to New Orleans to make Pret- was lazy. One of his ty Baby he was enamored by this greatest talents was modern-day piano professor. He arranging music but retained Booker’s services and put he wouldn’t do it. him on the film’s expense account. Another thing people Six months after the production don’t know is that he wrapped, Booker was still living on was a very good saxo- the tab at the Pontchartrain Hotel. phone player.” The only thing Malle squeezed out of Booker was the vocal for Jelly Before WWOZ went Roll’s “Winin’ Boy Blues”. on the air, Booker supported the idea. Between 1979 and 1981 he per- He was scheduled to formed five nights a week at the perform at a benefit Toulouse Theatre during the in- for the station billed termission of and after the nightly as “Nothin’ But a Par- performance of the musical One ty!” at Jimmy’s Music Mo’ Time. Here I witnessed him Club. The lineup was play four-handed with legend- supposed to be Pro- ary pianists Eubie Blake and Earl fessor Longhair, fol- “Fatha” Hines. With Hines they lowed by Booker ac- played “Basin St. Blues” and “St. companied by Rickie Louis Blues”. Lee Jones, followed by the Neville Broth- The Norwegian pianist Morton ers with Patti Labelle. Gunner Larsen studied Booker’s Booker was nervous technique on many nights. Tom and didn’t want to go Waits and Rickie Lee Jones visited on. and sat on the bench with him as he played. Jabbo Smith performed “You set me up. You duets with him. Vernel Bagneris set me up to fail in and other members of the cast front of all these often joined in. people,” Booker told me. “Call me a cab. Then there was one night at I’m out of here.” Tipitina’s. They had brought in a “Okay, you are a cab,” Hammond B-3 organ for him to I jabbed back. He put play. Professor Longhair walked in on his overcoat and wearing a black shirt, black pants, walked out the door black boots and a black cowboy of the club. I followed hat with a leopard skin band and a behind him plead- long orange ostrich plume. Without ing with him to turn acknowledging Fess, James went around. Finally I said, into a brilliant 20-minute medley “James I set you up to show these of Longhair songs. Fess just laughed people how truly great you are.” Nearly every time he finished a show he concluded the last song with a and slapped his leg. No one but He turned and said, “Yeah?” Need- piano rendition of the famous laughing refrain from Chuck Jones’ car- Booker could pull this off and play less to say, he played the show. toon creation Woody Woodpecker. the material better than its creator. Now it’s 20 years later and I’m try- With all of his faults and talent there was still an innocent child in Book- The first time he picked up a sitar, ing to finish this story. I walk out er seeking love and positive recognition. In Booker there was a partiality the complicated Indian string in- of the house and there is a large to Woody Woodpecker, who has been described as “screwball, mischie- strument, he plucked out the melo- redheaded woodpecker on a tree. vous, fast-talking and quick-thinking, he’s a slightly insane bird in an dy to “Sunny Side of the Street”. In music, Booker got the last laugh. incredibly insane world.” “Guess who? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha—Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha—HaHaHaHaHaHaHaaaa…”

12 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 13 On Stage, At Home & Always on Fire Jack Cruz Remembers Booker womb that gave birth to mind- blowing collaborative sessions. By Robyn Loda “Booker knew so many songs, and the words to them all. Like Instant collaborators. Instant ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ by Bing Cros- friends. The brilliant bassist Jack by, ‘The Black Minute Waltz’ and Cruz and piano legend James the theme from The Godfather. Booker. It was so much fun. There was no stopping him. The jam sessions A Connecticut native who were incredible.” relocated to New Orleans in search of his musical home Those jam sessions included a in 1975, Cruz was gigging and kind of mentoring that Cruz will sharing an apartment in the never forget. “Booker had this Quarter on Burgundy Street by positive reinforcement thing go- 1977 with American-Indian delta ing,” he says. “If you were playing blues player Butch Mudbone. He wrong, he’d play stronger with his urged Cruz to check out Book- left hand to demo the bass line. er’s solo act with him one night. He’d smile and laugh when it was right. He was full of fire. It was a “I jumped up on stage and sat great era to be with Booker.” in with Booker,” says Cruz. “He said, ‘Sounds great. Want to start Booker hired a number of a band?’ and that was it. We heavyweights for different gigs, created The Booker Trio. Roger which gave Cruz the chance to Martin was on drums.” play with people such as Poppy Batiste, Cyril Neville and James Booker had been living in a ho- Black, who was always at their tel on Tulane Avenue. “A friend Chartres Street home. of his was footing the bill, but he had to get out.” They moved When Cruz, Booker, Black and into 2412 Chartres Street. “It Neville played The Dream Palace was a really cool place and only on Christmas Eve 1977, Booker $150 dollars total at the time. It unofficially declared the quartet had a great courtyard.” to be “The Candidates for Ango- la”. All but Cruz had done time Booker brought only two main there. items: a minuet piano and a foam Images of New Orleans mattress, both placed in the liv- “Dr. John was also in awe of ing room. “He wanted to sleep by Booker,” comments Cruz. there,” says Cruz. “We offered “Booker basically taught Dr. John Bob Compton him the bedrooms, but he was how to play the organ. Booker like a monk almost. He slept for also put on a suit each week and 504.669.4923 more than a year next to that gave Harry Connick, Jr. lessons at piano in the living room.” www.capturedlight.com the house, sharp. He was good about making this appointment That living room became the every time.”

14Photo / Jim Scheurich NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 15 friendship between Cruz and Booker lasted for years. “He was like a best friend,” says Cruz. “I really liked being around him. He was brilliant. And I’d always go see him play. We remained good friends. In fact, when my mother was in town, she always wanted to go see Booker. They got along great. He was jovial, with a sardonic sense of humor that was Break Free from Apathy and Cynicism wry and hilarious. And he If You Want It Bad Enough It Will Happen was a brilliant conversa- This City Has What It Takes To Be An Economic Power tionalist. He always had other-worldly conversa- Embrace Diversity And We’ll All Be Rewarded tions.”

Cruz later met Walter “Wolfman” Washington Cruz played his fi rst Jazz Fest and became one of the fi rst with Booker, who never worked Roadmasters, a relationship that off a set list. “Our written set list has lasted 18 years. Cruz re- on the stage said, ‘When Irish cently dusted off an unfi nished Eyes Are Smiling’—he was very Booker tune called “One Day funny like that. The place was from Being a Fool” and showed packed and we blazed through it to Washington. “Walter added that set with no list at all; it was his persona to it, and it sounded all totally unplanned. Booker was fantastic. It’s a brilliant tune. on fi re. It was one of the best We’re probably including it on experiences of my life.” our next album, but we’re giving Booker the credits. Booker and Cruz lived on Char- tres Street for about 14 months. “He changed me forever,” con- “That was a long stretch for cludes Cruz. “He showed me the lasting in The Booker Trio,” he diff erence between just playing a comments. All of them seemed song and playing it with passion to need a break, but the off -stage and feeling. I’ll never forget him.” d.b.a. Voted best meeting place on Frenchmen St. by the Beat Street staff

Every Monday Rob Wagner Trio -10pm- (504) 942-3731 618 frenchmen street www.drinkgoodstuff.com 16 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 17 “He shows up at 8:15, 8:30,” One big difference between Reggie Scanlan Scanlan says. “It kinda put me on Fess and Booker, at least from edge. When he came in, he had a bassist’s perspective, was the On James Booker this little toiletry bag, the wig, the role of the left hand. eye patch, stick pin. They were By Karl Bremer oohin’ and aahin’ over Booker. “With Fess, his left hand [which The stage was about the size of generally plays the chords] was Radiators bassist Reggie Scanlan was still wet behind the ears when a desk. It sounded pretty cool, a monster,” explains Scanlan. “A he got tapped to play with James Booker. and as we started going along, he bass was almost superfluous. starts flirting with this guy. They Booker’s left hand was lighter, “It was 1975,” Scanlan recalls, “and I got a call from someone con- started flirting back and forth, so you had a little more room nected with Dr. John’s management who says, ‘Hey, man, James Book- and all of a sudden he takes off to move.” er is moving back to New Orleans and is having a gig on Mother’s his eye patch and takes another Day. Do you wanna play?’ It was at a black gay bar in the Quarter.” one out and puts it on, looks Booker’s uncanny ability to at me and says ‘How does this string together medleys out of Scanlan jumped at it. “From that first phone call, I knew it was a total look?’ And turns around and thin air was particularly chal- opportunity. The guy was such a legend, I knew I could learn some- without missing a beat keeps lenging, says Scanlan, but it was thing if I could just hang on. … You knew you had heard his stuff playing.” also what made playing with but you really didn’t know much about him. You had heard some of Booker such a phenomenal these outrageous stories learning experience. about him.” “It was a job just keep- The day before the gig, ing up and being ready Booker met the band— for anything … the way Scanlan, Web Burrell on he could link things that drums and “Squirrel” were so disparate—‘Iko’ on congas—for the first into Mozart into Sina- time for rehearsal. “So tra into Beatles—and it Booker shows up and always made sense. … he’s—man, he’s kinda his fingers would just crazy,” Scanlan chuckles. kind of float all over the “Obviously flamboyantly keyboards, but he had gay, he’s got this huge total command of his wig on and the eye patch hands. He was just so on—he’s a riot! buoyant.”

“He starts warming up Scanlan recalls one of and my jaw dropped his more bizarre gigs to the ground. The with Booker inside guy was unbelievable. Orleans Parish Prison as Even then, I felt that part of a concert series bands really slowed put on by the sheriff. this guy down. No mat- Photo / Jim Scheurich Scanlan played with Booker on ter who was playing with him, he was, like, ‘Man, I got places and off over the next five years “It was the Earl Turbinton Quar- to go.’ At the end of the rehearsal, he says, ‘Let’s meet tomor- until he got too busy playing with tet and Booker. Earl’s band is row before the gig, five o’clock, and we’ll go over some more the Radiators. Scanlan compares going to back up Booker, and stuff.’” his playing with Booker to his I’m going to play [with Johnny] playing with Professor Longhair. Vidacovich [on drums]. We get That left Scanlan with some degree of comfort. After all, getting up He says, “It was a real educa- down to park the car and Book- to speed with the likes of Booker wasn’t an overnight thing—espe- tion playing with Booker. There er starts reaching down in his cially for someone who describes himself at the time as “still just were some nights that were just pants and pulling out this huge learning the bare-bones basics of how to play.” amazing—you couldn’t believe it. bag of pot. ‘I just wanna make And other nights were sheer hell, sure it don’t fall outta my pants,’ The next night, five o’clock came and went with no sign of Booker. because he just kind of went over Booker says. ‘You’re not gonna Eight o’clock on the bandstand—the gig’s starting time—came and the top.” take that in there?’ someone went and still no sign of Booker. asks him. ‘Oh yeah, it’s no prob- continued on pg. 45

18 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 19 James Booker Discography

by David Kunian Offi cial Releases Classifi ed (Rounder) – His last studio record—half solo and half with band. At times uninspired but when he hits it on “Classifi ed”, “Angel Eyes”, and “Grits Ain’t Groceries”, they become the classics for which Booker is known.

More Than the 45s (Night Train) – A compilation of Booker’s early singles and organ trio records. Much of this sounds like roller rink generica, but his haunting voice on his fi rst singles, “Thinkin’ ’Bout My Baby” and “Hambone”, and the wacky keyboard fun of “Gonzo”, “Cool Turkey”, “Smacksie” and others make this es- sential listening. “Gonzo” is one of the great, unsung New Orleans tunes.

Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah/Spider on the Keys (Rounder) – Two separate CDs, but both were recorded live at the Maple Leaf Bar. They are solo performances. The medleys are wild and tunes such as “Gonzo’s Blue Dream” and “Save Your Love for Me” have a soulful loneliness that could come out in some of Booker’s best tracks.

The Lost Paramount Tapes (DJM) – A rare Los Angeles studio recording with Booker and most of Dr. John’s mid-1970s band. The band and Booker are on the same wavelength of New Orleans funk, and some of it, particularly “Feel So Bad” and “African Gumbo”, are positively stinky.

King of New Orleans Keyboard (JSP) – A solo performance from Germany. Booker is in control of himself and the audience with rare recordings of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” and “Lonely Avenue”. Live at Montreux (Montreux Sounds) – A live performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978. The fi rst three solo tunes, including some Jelly Roll Morton and a Beatles medley, smoke! But during the second half, a band inexperienced with Booker’s mu- sic and style accompanies him with a plodding, heavy beat unsuited for the music. Mr. Mystery (Sundown) – Side one is the band set from Montreux. The second half is solo recordings recorded in Belgium in 1976. These tracks are good with a diff erent arrangement of “So Swell When You’re Well”.

20 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 21 A Taste of Honey/United Our Thing Will Stand (Night Train) – These two double CD sets come from recordings made at Tipitina’s and other less glamorous locales. The sound quality on these varies from excel- lent to abominable. They’re worth it for the organ medleys on United and his over-the-top sermon on “Classifi ed” off of A Taste of Honey. Live in Leipzig – This import-only album contains James Booker Selections: a performance from East Germany in the 1970s. For Booker, it is neither horrible nor terrifi c, but it does contain great versions of “Since I Fell For You” and “Little Tune for Leftie”. Sideman Recordings Classifi ed Rounder Records Booker recorded with many people over the years. $15.99 He’s on some of the Fats Domino sessions from the 1950s and many other sessions in Cosimo Matassa’s J&M StudiosStudios,, but no one is quitquitee sursuree which onesones.. HHisis best sideman recordings are Fats Domino’s 1968 re- ccordingording Fats is Back where he rips into “Lady Madon- na” and “I’m Ready” with rolling, embellished, inspired Gonzo: More solossolos.. BBookerooker also gets in a ccoupleouple of good rriffiff s and Than All The gospel-like phrasingphrasing on FreddyFreddy King’sKing’s Freddy King Is A 45’s, Rare and Blues Master and some organ tunes on Lloyd Price’s This Is My Band. If you listen carefully, you can also Previously hear him on records as varied as T-Bone Walker’s Rare Unreissued T-Bone, Labelle’s space disco classic Phoenix, Lee Dors- Recordings ey’s Night People, Maria Muldaur’s Waitress In A Donut 1954-1962 Shop, and all of Earl King’s Imperial singles including Night Train “Trick Bag”. Fans should also hear his gentle vocals (although that’s not him playing piano) on Jelly Roll Morton’s tune “Winin’ Boy Blues” on the soundtrack to the movie Pretty Baby.

Bootlegs/Live Recordings Resurrection of the Bayou There are many recordings of Booker at venues Maharajah aroundaround New OrOrleansleans durduringing the 1970s and 1980s1980s.. TheyThey areare alwalwaysays ininterestingteresting because yyou’llou’ll fi nd him Rounder pulling out versions of songs you’d never expect to $15.99 hear, such as the theme to The Godfather, “Rhapsody in Blue” or a medley of Christmas tunes. The best bootleg is Live at Rosy’s in 1978. This is Booker at his best. He is playing his ass off on a set that includes everythingeverything frfromom RRachmaninoffachmaninoff ’s’s “Prelude“Prelude in C# Mi-Mi- nor” to “Black Night”. Also worth searching out is “Live at Jazz City”, a live The Lost radio broadcast from 1977 where Booker lays out all Paramount Tapes the answersanswers toto drugs,drugs, the political establishment,establishment, andand DJM assortedassorted other ideas overover “Junco“Junco Partner”.Partner”. InIn addition,addition, $15.99 therethere araree session tapes frfromom SSeaea SainSaintt Studios thathatt have never been released featuring Radiators’ bassist Reggie Scanlan. Another unreleased Booker recording is the rehearsal tapes from a 1976 meeting of Booker and the JerryJerry GGarciaarcia BandBand.. Although ininteresting,teresting, the consensusconsensus on these is thatthat BBookerooker and GGarciaarcia sound like they are on diff erent planets. Their sensibilities just don’t mix and they seem to be at odds the whole time with each other’s playing. Spiders On The Keys Other bootleg Booker recordings to look out for Rounder is the recording of him backing up Rickie Lee Jones from when she lived here in the 1970s, and any from $15.99 the Toulouse Theatre where Booker played during the run of the musical One Mo’ Time. 22 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 23 Hannibal, with Booker’s original, nutty liner notes supplemented by George Winston’s solid music analysis and producer Joe Boyd’s Booker’s Peak recollections of the session. An unknown part of the Booker canon for many listeners are two essential LPs culled from a two-night residency at Oncle Po’s Carn- By Tom McDermott egie Hall, a club in Hamburg, Germany, on October 29 and 30, l976. The fi rst, The Piano Prince from New Orleans, was issued on the Ger- “They never really captured the guy on record.” This is a lament I’ve man label Aves in l977. Blues and Ragtime followed in l980. These LPs heard from many since James Booker passed in November 1983. have never been issued on CD. Studio and live sessions may have captured elements of the magic, but never the surreal fl ow of a mix-and-match Booker performance Helma Kaldewey, a producer of the recent Booker fi lm essay “Sugar at its best. B.,” traveled all over Germany looking for people involved with these and other recordings and came to the conclusion that the Well, perhaps this is true. But with no memories to draw on, all that rights for this music are in dispute. “Booker signed multiple con- many of us latecomers have are the recordings. There are about a tracts in Europe that have led over the years to a lot of confusion,” dozen of them out there now, including fi ve LPs that were issued she explains. “Any record company looking to reissue this stuff is while he was alive. Of these fi ve, four remain the best representa- going to have a hard time.” Twenty years ago these LPs were fl oating tions of Booker at his peak: Piano Wizard: Live!, Junco Partner, Blues around with some regularity; now they show up infrequently in local and Ragtime and Piano Prince from New Orleans. used vinyl haunts for $75 dollars and up. They’re worth the price!

All of what’s been issued posthumously is worth a listen, and some Of the 28 cuts on these two LPs, I fi gure 16 have never been com- of it is very, very good; but for various reasons (sad-ass pianos being mercially recorded by Booker elsewhere. Quality is uniformly high. the leading culprit) all the others fall short of these four. Booker’s cover of Allen Toussaint’s “Life”, for instance, may be the most virtuoso track he ever recorded, with an independence of The best known of this mighty quartet was recorded in Switzerland hands that’s staggering. “Slowly but Surely” is one of his catchiest and issued on LP in l977 by the European label Gold Records, with originals. There’s an incredibly jolly “Sixty Minute Man/You Talk Too the title Boogie Woogie and Ragtime Piano Contest. I’m not aware if Much” medley, rhapsodic “butterfl y style” solos on “Baby Won’t You anyone else competed in this event, but I know that the German Please Come Home” and “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” Also singer/pianist Vince Weber, a formidable talent, dropped out know- the best “Stormy Monday” you’ll ever hear. The piano sound and ing that there was no way he could match the Piano Pope. The Gold Booker’s vocal chops are fi rst-rate. album has a huge picture of Booker on the front, while the back features a roaring phalanx of Zurich fans. It’s instructive to listen to songs from these LPs side by side with versions from Booker’s last years. Compare the relaxed, rock- Rounder Records reissued this album in l981 as New Orleans Piano ing groove of the “Tico Tico” from Piano Prince with the sped-up, Wizard: Live!, and this is how most people know the music. The set herky-jerky version recorded later at the Maple Leaf and issued has the best Booker vocals ever recorded (the frighteningly intense on Rounder’s Spiders on the Keys. Or consider the brilliance of the “Black Night” and a piercing “Let Them Talk”), and the piano sound earlier “Besame Mucho” with the rather ordinary take on Spiders. is gorgeous. The roar of the audience is gratifying to those of us In my opinion—admittedly formed solely from recordings—Booker who feel Booker was neglected in his day; one story has it that peaked around l976-77 and then declined in the few years he had Booker sometimes listened to a tape of applause extracted from left. The drugs and alcohol took their toll; the number of grooves this performance! (Editor’s note: See Jerry Brock’s story in this is- dwindled; the inspiration dimmed. It happens, even to the greatest. sue for the evidence). Seminal Booker piano tracks like “Keep On Gwine”, and “Sunny Side of the Street” are here, as well as “Tell Me How Do You Feel,” one of the greatest boogie-woogie cuts ever Gourmet Fresh Soups, Sandwiches, Salads recorded.

Booker’s fi rst LP as a leader was Junco Partner, issued in l976 on the Island Records. This album’s strongest points are Booker’s originals (“Pixie”, “Pops Dilemma”, “Put Out the Light”), pieces whose bril- liance elicits one regret: that he didn’t have the time or inclination to do more composing. Of course the covers (“Junco Partner”, “Make a Better World”, “Good Night Irene,” with its manic spoken/ sung intro, and four others) are wonderful, too. Booker’s voice is cafe a tad raspy at times, and I miss the audience feedback, but these CBD are minor quibbles. This great set was reissued in l993 on CD by Lunch delivery every business day everywhere downtown, to your desk, your customers desk, or even the park! 596-2863 24 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 25 Inside Booker’s Head By Joshua Paxton

A few years ago I found myself in a unique situation: I was the musician hired to listen to James Booker’s recordings; figure out exactly what he was playing; and write it down for publication as sheet music.

For a pianist and Booker fan, this is pretty much a dream job. But it was not an easy gig, as transcribing music by ear is always tricky. How tricky? Well, that depends on a number of things, but in simple terms it basically comes down to three questions: How many notes are there to deal with; how quickly are they going by; and how unpredictable are they?

In Booker’s case, the answer to all three questions is “off the scale”.

It doesn’t take a trained ear to hear that Booker could play a whole lot of notes with astonishing speed. He frequently came down with nine or ten fingers where most pianists would use four or five, and even at slow tempos he was prone to throw out plenty of virtuoso runs. This is difficult to deal with, but not insurmountable, especially with the help of digital processors that can slow down recordings without changing their pitch.

However, such modern conveniences are no help with the real chal- lenge, which is the unpredictability factor. It’s no exaggeration to say that James Booker invented a new approach to playing blues-based music on the piano. This means that in terms of trying to figure out his music, many of the usual rules and points of reference no longer apply.

To understand what made Booker’s playing so unusual, you have to start with the fact that unlike most of his peers, he was classically trained. In classical keyboard music, rather than simply having the right hand do one thing and the left hand do something else, it’s very com- mon to have three or more distinct parts happening at once.

Booker’s great contribution was finding a way to apply this concept of multiple parts to blues and R&B. He devised a way to play both a dis- tinct bass line and a separate accompaniment part simultaneously with just his left hand, while playing a melody on top with his right.

In the process, he developed his own vocabulary of interconnected bass lines and accompaniment parts, ranging from fairly simple to wildly complex. Deciphering this vocabulary proved to be the biggest challenge in learning his music.

It also yielded the biggest reward, because it opened up a whole new world of options to me as a pianist. It’s great to be able to play Booker’s music, but it’s even better to understand his approach and be able to use it in different contexts wherever I need it. For one shame- lessly self-promoting example, my next CD will feature a Bookerized Afro-Cuban tune wherein I play both the montuno (piano part) and the tumbao (bass part) with one hand while soloing with the other. It’s just one of many pianistic ideas I would never have come up with except by asking myself—what would Booker do?

photo / Jim Scheurich 26 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 27 frenchy at the Leaf and Jazzfest frenchylive.com new gallery 8311 Oak St. 864-2900 28 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 29 As the Leaf Turns The The Beginnings of a Legend

By Jerry Brock

The Maple Leaf Bar celebrates its 30th birthday this January. Nobody seems to know or be sure of the exact opening date, but all involved Maple Leaf agree that it was in mid-January 1974. Local musicians and the Maple Leaf have sustained each other for three decades. It has been the performance space of choice for an incredibly diverse array of talent including James Booker, Roosevelt Sykes, Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band, the Louisiana Repertory Band, the Laissez-Faire Cajun Band, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Beausoleil, the Iguanas, the Rebirth Brass Band, Jon Cleary, John Mooney and Papa Grows Funk. The list of musicians who have played at the Leaf is endless.

There are also countless stories—some absolutely true, some embel- lished, about the many national and international stars that have graced the stage and/or drank at the bar—from rock stars like Bruce Spring- steen, Robbie Robertson, Ani DeFranco and Keith Richards to movie stars like Dennis Quaid, Robert Duvall, Samuel L. Jackson and Kathleen Turner.

The owners and management are as unassuming and casual as the club itself. Today Carl Brown and Henry (Hank) Lee Staples IV own the bar. Hank also manages the business and books the talent.

Staples says, “I grew up in Washington, D.C., right around the corner from Jed Palmer (the late owner of Jed’s which was across the street from the Maple Leaf; later he owned the F & M Patio Bar). “In the mid- 60s, I was nine and he was twenty-something, and I remember him beat- ing me up with my own fi sts.”

Hank continued, “The fi rst time I had the idea to buy into the Maple Leaf I was working as a bartender at Jed’s. Brown and Palmer were knocking back shots of Jaegermeister and Brown drank Palmer under the table. It was in the summer of 1985. I had come to New Orleans for two weeks in 1983 and now 20 years later I own a business and property.”

The Maple Leaf got its start when six investors pooled their resources and opened a bar. They were Tom Bethel, Carl Brown, John Parsons, Bill Odom, Jim Stratton and Judy Cooper.

Brown is a casual unassuming man—an attorney, husband, father and jazz and ragtime enthusiast. He is the only original owner still involved. “When I was growing up there was no drinking age in New Orleans,” Brown recently shared. “At fi fteen I’d go to Bourbon Street and hear bands like Paul Barbarin, Alphonse Picou at the Paddock Lounge, Sharkey Bonano at the Famous Door, Pete Fountain. I love music, the real stuff . I liked to watch Pork Chop and Kidney Stew dance.

“The place had been a laundromat on the side where the bar is. We couldn’t decide on a name. I came up with the Maple Leaf. Jelly Roll Morton claimed that the “Maple Leaf Rag”—New Orleans style, the way he played it, was the fi rst real jazz piece. He told that to Alan Lomax and

NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE 30 Photo / Bob Compton Vol. II, issue 1 31 I had the Library of Congress re- we opened all of the chess players Laissez-Faire Cajun Band. I booked around the club. Back then the cordings and I’ve really been taken actually came up almost every night. them to play the party and they stage was on the side wall and we by Jelly Roll Morton. I wanted to For two years we belonged to the became a regular band for us. faced the bar when we performed.” call it the Maple Leaf Club. My National Chess League and we partners said it sounded too exclu- would play against teams from all “It was sort of strange,” he con- Parsons explains how the club sive so we decided on the Maple the major cities.” tinues. “When Laissez-Faire per- came to book the band that even- Leaf Bar. There was no real design. formed there was a nucleus of tually became the most famous Ca- We were a neighborhood bar, for Parsons was responsible for hiring about a dozen girls who would jun band in the world. “I fi rst heard ourselves mostly.” James Booker, whose gigs at the teach the guys hanging out in the Beausoleil at Jazz Fest. There were Leaf are legendary and are docu- bar how to dance. People had so maybe a dozen people and a few John Parsons was the original mented on two compact discs on much fun dancing to the music that of the dancing girls. I met Michael talent buyer and was responsible Rounder Records. These records, the crowds really grew.” Doucet and hired him on the spot. for hiring most of the acts that Resurrection of the Bayou Maha- They were our Saturday night band defi ned the club in the early years. rajah: Live at the Maple Leaf Bar Parson’s also booked Bruce Dai- once a month through most of the He essentially brought Cajun and and Spiders on the Keys: Live at the grepont and the Bourré Cajun eighties.” Zydeco music into the city and Maple Leaf Bar, were culled from Band. From 1980 until 1986 they jazz uptown. tapes made by Parsons. performed every Thursday night The club has come a long way at the Leaf. This group was also since those early days. In the Staples continues the story. “John Parsons recollects, “It was [piano instrumental in popularizing Cajun beginning, the laundromat still Parsons doesn’t get the credit great] Roosevelt Sykes who sug- music and Cajun dancing in New operated in the area that is now he deserves for being a power- gested that I become James Book- Orleans. the expanded ladies room. Regu- ful force on the local music scene. er’s manager. He said, ‘That boy’s lars from that era remember doing He followed the local trends and got talent but he needs manage- Daigrepont remembers, “When we their laundry while Booker tickled spotlighted musicians.” ment.’ Shortly after James got out started there, it was the only place the ivories. At one point, there was of prison an agent called me and I where you could hear Cajun music even a sandwich shop in the bar. Brown concurred, “Parson’s had hired him. James showed up and I on a regular basis in the city. We a terrifi c ear and could really tell actually met him for the fi rst time were still learning our instruments The stage has been moved more when someone was good.” on the stage. I liked him immedi- but we kept it going and the crowd than once and it has been enlarged ately and hired him as a regular seemed to love us.” since landing in its current location. In his typically low key fashion, on Tuesday nights. He was such a The hardwood dance fl oor with Parsons demurred, “The person fantastic talent and it is sad that For Daigrepont it was more than the maple leaf inlay was a welcome who should really be credited he was really unhappy towards the just a gig. “I doubt if I had been improvement for the dancers that with starting the Maple Leaf is Bill end.” playing accordion for more than a still pack up front. So was the ad- Odom, and it was Tom Bethel who year. When I think back to those dition of air-conditioning. It’s hard supplied the sheet music for ‘Maple Parsons elaborates on why they Thursday nights I always felt like I for newcomers to imagine that the Leaf Rag’. The way I got involved began presenting Cajun music. “The was going to a party. bar, like Tipitina’s and many others was by hanging out at the Seven whole Cajun music tradition at the in town, remained without AC well Seas on St. Philip St. right off of club started in 1976 because Carl “In fact, I was in high school and I into the late twentieth century. Decatur. It was a chess player’s bar was interested in politics [and] we played the fi ve-string banjo with a and I wanted to learn to play. My were throwing a party for Sonny bluegrass group Luke Thompson The Maple Leaf Bar is quintes- friend John Pitts introduced me to Mouton’s gubernatorial campaign. and the Green Valley Cutups every sential New Orleans. The man- Odom who was looking for inves- I fi gured we needed a Cajun band. Sunday night. We played there agement, staff and clientele have tors to open a bar. He thought that I was wandering around Bourbon about a year in 1974 and ’75 and always personifi ed the unlikely mix the chess scene, and players who St. one night, walked into a club the place was pretty much full ev- of intellectualism, hedonism and drink, fi t into his idea. So when and that is when I fi rst heard the ery week. I was 15 when I started eclecticism that defi nes the city. playing there. My parents would Here’s to another 30 years and 30 come and I wasn’t allowed to walk more and 30 more…!

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Most people around him getting sick at gigs that Booker By Robyn Loda either had an axe to grind with was a heroin addict, but heroin him or wanted him to make really wasn’t his big thing. He money for them. He trusted was a drinker,” says Madère, who From the outside, they looked like an unlikely pair. But their strug- almost no one, and very few will celebrate his eighteenth gles forever entwined them. trusted him. year of sobriety this year. “Never once when I knew him did he Meet attorney Louis E. “Lee” Madère, Jr., a then-44-year-old Mar- In a similar tailspin, Madère sud- require heroin. He got sick all lon-Brandoesque, working-class white boy, whose father was from denly found himself having been the time because he had been Garyville, Louisiana, and whose household language as a child was abandoned by his second wife; prescribed anabuse to help him such a mixture of Cajun-French and Sicilian-English that people being a single parent of two quit drinking. It makes you sick could barely understand him when he arrived at LSUNO in 1959. toddler daughters; and in the if you drink, but he would drink middle of renovating a house at anyway, knowing this. There was Although an aspiring pianist, and a confident man with a lust for 8231 Plum St. During the day also cocaine usage, and when adventure, Madère had taken a straighter path than Booker to be- he worked at City Hall under he did coke, he got really crazy- come an economist and later a lawyer; he also married and began a Mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial. delusional and paranoid. He said family. he first became addicted to pain They met at The Maple Leaf and medication when he was 10 Enter the flamboyant, bisexual, one-eyed African-American piano soon Madère became a regular years old because he was hit by legend James Booker. He had a reputation for owning almost noth- alongside Booker at the bar. a car. In fact, he would say that ing but a piano; for teaching some of the finest musicians in town “I think—maybe Booker and I this same accident was what including Dr. John; for a short stint in Angola for narcotics posses- could be friends, true friends— took out his eye. But by now his sion; and for “living so large” that scheduling him for gigs became a because I didn’t want to make addictions were killing him.” crap-shoot. A hard drinker who explored painkillers in their vari- money off of him,” remembers ous forms, sometimes he just didn’t show up for commitments– Madère. “I became a lawyer for Madère wanted to help. When nothing personal. And often when he did show up, he would fall the money. I didn’t need money, Booker asked for a job, he also asleep at the piano…or worse, get sick all over it. But when he sat so I didn’t look at Booker like so mentioned that he could type down to play, he’d blow the roof off the joint. many people did in those days, and file, skills he had learned like he was a cash cow. He really while in Angola. So Madère ob- However, 1982 presented a fulcrum of change for both men, each had very few friends, and he hid tained permission from Mayor undergoing intense transformations that incited retreat from their his lovers. He was very pri- Morial to hire Booker as a clerk feelings into a seemingly joyful bubble of numbness. In the end, one vate in some ways. He seemed in the City of New Orleans Of- mostly surrounded by people fice of Economic Analysis. “There who wanted to exploit him. We were only two requirements for just enjoyed having fun together, his employment: Show up sober playing the piano together and and show up on time.” getting in trouble together.” Booker worked there for almost Madère chuckles while remem- a full year, and the two friends bering those raucous times would drink together after work with Booker, but his eyes belie and on those fateful Saturdays. the sorrow beneath his winning “I’d pick him up and have his smile: His friend is gone. His bottle of Seagram’s. He loved friend took it too far. Madère Seagram’s. And we’d play piano was lucky to escape. “We’d drink at my house. It was so fun. We Every Monday together, play piano together had so many laughs. But I had to @ 9pm at my house and pass out. We’d start buying smaller bottles be- even drink on Saturday mornings cause he would drink it all right p.l.u.m. together, even while we were there. working at City Hall.” “Booker eventually had a hard The Hanger Indeed, Madère’s job was in a time suiting up and showing up; 1511 S. Rendon “high enough place” to help the drugs and alcohol were tak- 822-9858 Booker find employment. “One ing their toll,” Madère continues. www.plum-music.com day Booker called me and said, Booker soon began arriving at

34 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 35 work donning an unmistakable stench of alcohol. When Madère The Maple Leaf would take him aside, Booker would reply that he “might have been gargling with alcohol.” Of course, a truly flamboyant character can’t help but make a grand exit. Madère flashes a grin remembering that approximately seven weeks before Booker’s death, one of the secretaries came into his office saying that there was a “problem with James”. He was run- A Musical Saga ning down the hall with his pants down. “I said, ‘Yes, Wanda, that certainly is a problem.’ He was drunk and had the runs and was try- By Spike Perkins ing to get to the men’s room. It was time to finally let him go.”

A few weeks later, Madère took his friend to vote. It was one of the From behind an unimposing façade on Oak last things they did together before the large vein under Booker’s St. in Uptown New Orleans, the Maple Leaf stomach ruptured and killed him. Bar has hosted a unique musical universe. Though it did not necessarily revolve around “The sad part was that he was born with such a tremendous gift. him, James Booker was at its center for a number of years. People would come to mar- Booker just couldn’t stop the lifestyle he’d been living for so long. vvelel aatt hhisis mmusicalusical bbrilliancerilliance aandnd ppuzzleuzzle ooverver hhisis eec-c- It’s how he lived and how he died,” says Madère, who still heads a centricities. The Maple Leaf was also home (sometimes literally) to successful group law practice in the Central Business District and another brilliant eccentric, the poet Everette Maddox. has been happily re-married for 23 years. The building itself had unusual configuration, perhaps best de- “But for the record, Booker might have thrown up on some peo- scribed by this writer in a review of Everette Maddox’s 1988 book ple’s pianos, but he never threw up on my piano.” Bar Scotch as “…a long, smoke-filled tunnel with pressed tin walls and ceiling, where blasts of zydeco accordion ricochet over the heads Robyn Loda is a freelance writer living in New Orleans for the second of dancing, sweating revelers to escape into the patio in back.” time and loving it. Her work has appeared in WIRED, Jazziz, JazzE.com, The Maple Leaf was the linchpin of a music scene that gathered mo- Rhythm Music, OffBeat, Gambit Weekly, New Orleans CityBusiness, mentum in the 1970s and exploded in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Health & Fitness, Family Living, WHERE New Orleans, and others. It mixed traditional Louisiana music genres with outside influences She is a regular contributor to Beat Street. and helped nurture organic, family-type interaction and connections among musicians and music genres. Though the Maple Leaf was the oldest and arguably the best-estab- lished, it should be noted that in those days the Carrollton area had four music clubs within walking distance of each other and this was part of what drove the scene. Also on Oak Street was Jed’s, which later, under new management, became Muddy Waters. On the corner of Willow and Dublin Streets were Jimmy’s Music Club and Carroll- ton Station. It was commonplace to bounce between all four clubs, which had shows every weekend, without driving. In a sense the scene predated what now exists on Frenchmen St. in the Faubourg Marigny. In the 1970s Cajun music was pretty much unknown to people in other parts of the country and to many in New Orleans. Maple Leaf partner and manager John Parsons remembers, “People would come from other parts of the country and they couldn’t believe it. They’d never seen anything like that scene on Cajun night, with people dancing in the street with their dogs. It was hot—the place was never adequately air conditioned—so people would wear jogging clothes and they’d run out, strip off their T-shirt, wring it out, then put it back on, come in and dance some more.” Beausoleil, today the world’s best-known Cajun band, used to play Saturdays at the Maple Leaf at least once a month. Other bands the worked the Leaf regularly in the early days included the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, Lil’ Queenie and the Percolators, Bahamian artist Exuma, the Radiators, and the zydeco artists John Delafose and Rockin’ Dopsie, Sr. Out-of-town acts, like Texas-based pianist/singer Marcia Ball, were welcome. Parsons remembers one early visit when she struck a chord on the little spinet Booker played and said, “Wow, I’ve touched James Booker’s piano.” It was Jazz Fest time, and Booker was scheduled to open for Ball and her band that night. Parsons picked Booker up for the gig and was telling him about the night’s headliner. He said, “Marcia, with a ‘cia’” and Booker bolted from the car and didn’t show up until hours

36 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 37 later. Parsons eventually realized Maple Leaf in 1974, right after system. “It’s the one place in my that Garth Brooks was there. It he had set off Booker’s phobia I moved to New Orleans. James entire career—26 years with the would be three in the morning, about being pursued by the CIA. Booker had just come back from Radiators—that I almost died on and they wouldn’t want to go Europe and was around there a stage. I think there was a rain- home—it would be like, ‘Where Parsons believes that Booker lot, but another guy who was real storm and the electricity was do you people go, what do you do, started working regularly at the big for me was Everette Maddox. messed up, and nobody checked doesn’t anybody have to work in Leaf in 1976. He had Tuesday the [electrical] ground between the morning?’” nights until he disappeared for “The place was full of creativity, my amp and the microphone. two or three weeks; Parsons had just from the crowd that hung So I stepped up to the mic and it Another great band associated to book other acts. As it turned out there and drank in the af- arced; about two inches of light- with the Maple Leaf in those days out, Booker was in the Parish ternoon,” continues Magnie. “I ning burned my lip. Got knocked was the Song Dogs. Spearheaded Prison under an assumed name think that’s why it nurtured good flat on my ass, but I finished the by Bruce McDonald, they played and nobody could find him. After bands. Anytime you had an idea gig.” all original music and combined he got out, Booker was given for a band, you could go in there veteran musicians with some tal- Mondays and Lil’ Queenie and and play, and then you got the The music at the Maple Leaf ented newcomers. the Skin Twins took over Tues- bar tab, and it’s like, ‘How much reached a real zenith in the late days. do we owe for playing tonight?’” ’80s. Booker was gone, but regu- The Song Dogs developed a huge lar acts like Walter “Wolfman” following very quickly, becoming Lil’ Queenie and the Skin Twins He also remembers hearing Washington and Rockin’ Dopsie, favorites at the Leaf and every- were the band that Leigh “Lil Tommy Malone for the first time Sr. packed the dance floor most where else they played, includ- Queenie” Harris put together at the Leaf. “… he was probably weekends, and a new band, the ing early out of town gigs. They after her breakout act, the Per- about 18, [playing] with Kurt Iguanas, landed a steady Sunday put out a local record on their colators, came close to a national Kassen. He had a Dan Hicks-type night gig. They were just begin- own and came close to signing a career and then broke up. band, with girl back-up singers. ning to build a following and national deal. They were a huge It was like country-jazz. I was define their sound. Eventually rumbling ball of creativity, ener- Bruce “Weasel” McDonald, to impressed.” Magnie and Malone normally slow Sunday nights gy and dissension. But there were whom she was then married, was have now worked together for turned into a social event. just too many internal conflicts, on guitar; John Magnie was play- nearly 30 years, first with Lil’ and the band just couldn’t stay ing keyboards and they all sang. Queenie and Percolators and cur- Meanwhile, singer/songwriter together. McDonald was already a legend rently with the subdudes. and multi-instrumentalist Pe- of Louisiana music, having played ter Holsapple, a cult hero of the The Maple Leaf continues to with Beausoliel’s Michael Doucet Tommy’s brother, the Radiators’ New-Wave era, had moved to roll on and nurture new, up- and Tommy Comeaux in Coteau. Dave Malone, also feels a strong town and began playing solo at and-coming bands, like Papa He also toured and recorded with connection with the Leaf.“I have Carrollton Station on Sundays. Grows Funk, and old friend Jon Zachary Richard while still based a different perspective than the Local musicians like John Magnie Cleary’s Absolute Monster Gen- in Lake Charles. rest of the band because I’m the and his fellow subdudes, or Leigh tlemen, among others. The bar only Radiator [for whom] it was Harris (Holsapple would eventu- also helped pioneer “breakfast Moving to New Orleans, he had my neighborhood bar. The Maple ally join her band, Mixed Knots), shows”, starting at 2 AM or later joined George Porter’s band, Leaf was small and it was always would come sit in with him and during Jazz Fest and Carnival, Joyride, soon after the breakup an intimate place for us to play. then head over to the Leaf to that many of the other clubs in of the original Meters. The Skin The people were right in your catch the Iguanas. town emulated. Twins music was funky and face, and after years of playing eclectic and it was hard to be- big places, it’s a joy to recollect Sunday night grew from a music Over the course of 30 years, the lieve that a band without bass playing those little bitty places. salon to a social event, a place to Maple Leaf can take credit for and drums would have people up It’s special, it’s like playing in see and be seen. Soon the Igua- many firsts in the music scene dancing, but dance they did. your living room.” nas’ shows were packed with in New Orleans. The sense of beautiful people and rumors creativity and eccentricity that John Magnie, now with the sub- Malone remembers one Maple of celebrities. Bassist Rene Co- attracted the musicians back in dudes, recalls discovering the Leaf experience with less than man remembers, “People would the beginning and its two great Maple Leaf shortly after mov- warm and fuzzy feelings—the go there expecting to see some muses, James Booker and Everette ing to New Orleans. “I basically time he was nearly electrocuted, celebrities drop by, like Springs- Maddox, live on in story, song moved over to that neighborhood no doubt before the later up- teen dropped by one time and sat and spirit. because I found out about the grades of the club’s electrical in with us, or rumors got around

38 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 39 explains Kasten.

It all starts around 8 PM at the Leaf on the Friday before Mardi Gras. Krewe of OAK Inside, the queen and king are announced, then the parade line forms outside. Reveling commences for about two hours as the krewe tours the Reveling is Not a Spectator Sport streets of the riverbend, on both sides of Carrollton Ave. “Refreshment By Robyn Loda stops” are made along the way at watering holes such as Snake & Jake’s and Bruno’s. The party finally winds up back at the Leaf. What began as a love of neighborhood and community turned into a But why stop there? One Carnival a year just wasn’t enough for these unique Oak Street Carnival krewe with big, open arms. Initiated as an folks. Now more than 300 people join the krewe for its “Midsummer informal and small group event 18 years ago by regulars at the Maple Leaf, Mardi Gras” in August. “We created an official party in the middle of the Carrollton Station and Jed’s, the Krewe of Oak can count as many as 600 summer heat,” says Staples, “although the term and celebration are actu- participants at its Mardi Gras march. ally older than the Krewe of OAK. A group of a few people on Oak Street used to have a party, each year at a different person’s house, to celebrate Currently led by three long-time members, the Krewe of OAK’s by-laws Midsummer Mardi Gras. We just formalized it a little bit.” In New Orleans, are modeled (despite their obvious differences) on venerable Rex. At the any chance to revel is a blessing. helm are Hank Staples, co-owner of the Maple Leaf; WWNO 89.9 FM program director Fred Kasten; and emergency medical technician Tommy Quinlan, all former Kings of OAK. Unlike the Rex model, obviously, the anonymity of its leaders is not critical for this krewe.

A key person in creating the Krewe of OAK was the late Terry Tucker, who was a bartender at the Leaf, Carrollton Station and a number of other clubs in town. “She said, ‘Since we’re inclined to parade, let’s formal- ize it,” says Kasten.

So during Carnival of 1982, they gave it a title, created a theme, named a court and marched through the Carrollton area; the grand finale was a ball at the Leaf. “The first march was in the tradition of the social aid and pleasure clubs, neighborhood clubs and small Carnival krewes,” continues Kasten. “No floats. Just a chance to have fun in your own neighborhood. And our first king and queen were both men!” This has occurred more than once, mind you.

Floats came much later, about five years ago, and in order for the krewe to preserve its small-parade status, golf carts must pull them. “We’re committed to honoring the dead legends of Oak Street,” explains Staples. “Other people might not know who the papier-mache likenesses are, but they are all dear to us here in this neighborhood.”

The first float was a bust of the Leaf regular Everett Maddox, the late American poet who died in 1989. The krewe next honored the late, great

New Orleans pianist James Booker; also the late Zydeco legend Rockin’ Hank Staples / Bob Comptom Photo Dopsie, Sr., and two beloved local bar-employee personalities who have since passed on. “Parading with the Krewe of OAK is an opportunity to connect with the spirit of Carnival right here in our own neighborhood,” says Kasten. Created by local papier-mache artist Ellen Ellis, the floats helped elevate “There’s a life-affirming nature to it that’s been part of this city for more the krewe’s visibility. “Since we’ve commissioned the busts, it’s more like than a hundred years. It doesn’t cost you a lot of money, and you can ex- a parade than a marching club,” says Kasten. “The floats have really taken perience it, not just be a spectator on the sidelines. It’s more than revel- us up a notch. We’ve got a core group running it now, and we’ve become ing—as Fess says, ‘What’s Carnival fo’?’—but the reveling is a helluva lot of more organized in the last five years.” fun!”

Do you have to join the Krewe of OAK? “No, anyone can show up in The Krewe of Oak will celebrate Carnival on Friday, Feb. 20, when it an- costume and join the parade. Fifteen bucks covers the beer and food at nounces its royalty: wardrobe stylist Jillian Kreiner and Ultrasonic sound the Leaf at the ball afterward. We’ve made attempts to collect dues, but engineer Matt Coby. it’s been mostly underwritten by the members and especially by the bar,”

40 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 41 He Was a Mess: He was a poet, a teacher, an inspiration, a barfly. Everette Haw- thorne Maddox fulfilled many roles during his short time on this earth. His talents took him from his birthplace near Prattville, Ala., a small town about 15 miles from Montgomery, to college and graduate work in Tuscaloosa, then to his eventual home in The Short Life of New Orleans. He was born in 1944 and died in 1989. Ralph Adamo, a fellow poet, friend and a posthumous editor of Maddox’s work says, “Everette embraced the role of public poet. It fit the poems, which have all sorts of levels, but on one level New Orleans Poet they’re accessible, they’re friendly.” Whether instructing in school, sitting at the Maple Leaf Bar, or conducting poetry readings on the Maple Leaf back patio, Ever- ette lived the life of a poet. His published writings were few, but Everette Maddox he influenced everyone with whom he came in contact whether at the bars he frequented, the readings he organized or the classes he taught. Excerpts from a documentary by David Kunian New Orleans writer and producer Fred Kasten knew Maddox well, both in Alabama and later in New Orleans. “His immediate Photo / Dale Milford Hank Staples

42 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 43 family…it’s not too strong a word Waste describe scenes on Oak St. from pg. 19 “Reggie Scanlan” to say that they were cursed. No since the Maple Leaf served as his one lived past fifty. All died of can- de facto home and workplace. He “We get inside and Booker says, ‘I wanna take you around and show cer or alcoholism in one case.” wrote all those poems in the last six you the cells I used to stay in. I said, ‘No, thanks, man.’ … he had his months of his life. In the early 1980s, several artists own little rooting section in there.” got the inspiration to do something Hank Staples of the Maple Leaf with the wealth of poetry being played a significant part in pre- Scanlan recorded on some sessions with Booker, but the best one created in New Orleans. Sculptor serving much of the latter-day has never seen the light of day. Franz Heldner, poet Bob Stock and poetry of Maddox. He says, “We Maddox hatched the plan for po- had this old K&B bag, the kind with etry readings at the Maple Leaf Bar a handle on it. I kept [his poems] in Allen Toussaint produced the spontaneous session, which Scanlan in New Orleans. that. It started out he was reluctant, says “happened literally in a day. Booker called, I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be but then he was coming up and there.’ All these people are there. Earl King’s there, Ken Laxton, who The readings were held every Sun- saying, ‘Archives’. And sometimes day at the Maple Leaf, and Maddox in a day he’d hand me three or four was [engineer] on [the Meters’] “Rejuvenation”. John Mayall’s in the was paid 20 dollars each week to poems... they were on Abita Beer studio, Fats’ drummer, Cyril [Neville], Allen’s running the show. We be the master of ceremonies for coasters, bar napkins, flyers from go through two tunes and get ’em down. It goes all right. And then them. Adamo says, “…he had a Muddy Waters.” Booker leaves. great delivery. He was a robust and terrific reader. And he was a ter- Poet and doctor Mary Harrington rific MC.” Darkin was there at the end. “It “Everyone’s just hanging around, and Booker comes back, and he’s turned out he had cancer of the just out of it. He sits down and goes into a totally wild version of Maddox taught at a couple places, esophagus and he couldn’t swallow. ‘Goodnight, Irene’. He’s going off, and it’s like a totally different per- but these jobs soon ended, and he And he said very cheerfully, ‘Should son recording.” couldn’t or wouldn’t find work. I tell my friends that I’m dying?’” He was a full-time poet, but other aspects of his life suffered. Dusty Phillips is a welder and At the end of the session, Scanlan says, “Apparently Booker, out of self-proclaimed river rat. He and paranoia, insisted on taking the master tracks with him and pro- Kasten recalls, “It wasn’t too much Maddox were friends and drinking ceeded to leave them in the cab on the way home.” longer after that that he basically partners. Dusty saw him the day he became homeless… for most of the went into Charity Hospital. He said, latter half of ’87 and all of ’88, “I stopped to speak to him and say Now there’s a challenge for the archivists out there. he was sometimes locked in the hello. He told me, ‘I’m going to the bar at night. He slept in the back hospital, and I ain’t coming back.’” of a dump truck that was parked on Dante Street. Sometimes he Supposedly the last thing he said to Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, Minn. was known to sleep on the bench some people was, “If anybody tries behind the Winn Dixie in the to bury me in Ala-goddamn-bama, Riverbend. … one morning he there’s going to be some serious woke up using the previous day’s haunting going on.” Times-Picayune as cover and his name was on the society pages for His ashes were spread around being at a party for the 1st Tennes- the Maple Leaf patio and strewn see Williams Festival where he was in the Mississippi River. He has a a panelist. headstone on the back patio at the Maple Leaf and his picture adorns It became evident to Maddox’s the wall at the rear of the front bar. friends that Everette’s life had as- sumed a certain trajectory. It was The Everette Maddox Memorial a difficult dilemma, as Fred Kasten Poetry and Prose Reading Series explains. “I think it was clear to continues every Sunday at 3 PM at people, without him expressing the Maple Leaf Bar, 8316 Oak St. it, that he was on the path he had in New Orleans. chosen. And there was nothing by the way of an intervention in his The poetry of Maddox can be read drinking or anything along those in the following books: The Ever- lines that ever got seriously consid- ette Maddox Song Book,1982; Bar ered.” Scotch,1988; and American Waste, 1993. Heldner concurs. “There’s a Henry Miller line that says that there is no This article is supported by a grant power on Earth that can loosen the from the Louisiana Division of the grip of a man who has his hands Arts, Office of Cultural Develop- on his own throat. In many re- ment, Department of Culture, spects, that’s what Everette certain- Recreation and Tourism, in cooper- ly proved.” ation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Arts Many poems that appear in his Council of New Orleans. posthumous collection, American

44 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 45 coming from a lifelong musician who still leads the band. “It was re- ally the halcyon days of my musical life. “I mean I’ve had many great gigs; we were at the Columns Hotel for years. We were on the River for years. We were the house band at the Fairmont for years and at The Royal Sonesta for years. But losing that job to me was the biggest loss of a music job that I ever had. I mean, it wasn’t like it was a financial loss, but I don’t think I slept for a week when I lost that job.” Unfortunately, competition drove the decisions about booking bands. Jed’s, located across the street from the Maple Leaf, had big name acts from the zydeco community as well as national and internation- al bands. And they charged a cover. Hall says simply, “I never wanted to be a part of a door charge.” Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band will perform again at the Maple Leaf on February 6 as part of the thirtieth anniversary celebration at the bar. Photo courtesy of Andrew Hall Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band

Story by Jay Mazza Interview by Bob Compton

Pianist and drummer Andrew Hall moved to New Orleans perma- nently from London in 1973 after first visiting the city in 1970 and returning several times for three years prior to that. His reason for coming to New Orleans was simple he says it was, “basically to learn music from the old-timers.” His band played the Grand Open- ing of the Maple Leaf Bar on February 23, 1974. Hall describes how it came to pass, “There was a guy, an English guy, Tom Bethel, who was one of the original owners, who saw us play at a New Year’s Eve party on Royal Street in 1973. He asked me if I was interested in playing the opening in February. And I said of course.” Hall didn’t know what to expect when he went up to Oak St. to look at the place. “It was as far out of the French Quarter that I had ever been.” Nor did he have any idea how the uptowners would take to his band’s traditional “old time” music. He recalls, “So I said to them, ‘look, if you don’t like the music after the first set, you don’t have to pay me and we’ll go home’.” His band was made up of many members of the last generation of original jazz men, musicians with names like Teddy Johnson, Ernest Poree, Justin Adams and Albert Walters. They were an immediate hit. Hall continues, “Anyway, we went up there, and instead of just one set, we stayed close to eight years.” Playing at the Maple Leaf was a significant part of Hall’s acceptance into the local music community. He describes it in powerful terms

46 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 47 Now add the Internet, and the advent handles the manufacturing, order pro- of on-demand, one-off CD manu- cessing and shipping, then sends the MP3 Confidential facturing. Today there are Web sites vendor a check (after deducting their where musicians can upload their cut). Because their quality and service By Warren America music and artwork, and have them are excellent, and because there is no turned into professional quality CDs set-up fee, they’ve quickly become one The No-Money-Down Record Business that can be purchased online. Such of the most prominent online mer- Pro Tools, Café Press, and the Democratization of Access services—originally seen at MP3.com, chandisers. and now offered in a slicker form by It’s no news to anyone that digital technology is transforming how music is en- Café Press—enable any musician to Now Café Press is applying their model joyed, purveyed, and purloined. The longer-running, more-entrenched part of begin selling CDs over the Internet to audio CD. Bands simply upload or the digital audio revolution is on the production side. Music recording has been practically overnight. mail in their music and art, Café Press a predominantly digital affair for many years, and the tools are commoditized produces the CDs one-at-a-time, as to the point that their price has literally been driven to zero. MP3.com had what was called the they’re purchased. The end user gets DAM CD, which combined audio a professional-looking-and-sounding Every component of the professional recording studio has migrated onto the tracks, MP3 files and some multimedia product, and the independent artist is computer. Costly, cumbersome, multi-track tape decks the size of washing ma- content. But as of December 2, 2003, able to get into the CD business, with chines—and mixing consoles that required three sets of hands—were replaced the new owner CNET has turned off no up-front investment and no over- by inexpensive multi-track recording software; programs that do more and MP3.com, the DAM CD program, and head. sound better than their analog precursors. Towering racks of signal processing thousands of band home pages. effects and banks of synthesizers gave way to software plug-ins that model the The upshot is huge: Anybody with a sound of classic gear. The shutdown of MP3.com is a blow handful of tracks can now become a to the thousands of independent art- record label, instantly, for free. There’s With the right software, a decent sound card and speakers, plus some know- ists who made MP3.com their online very little effort required. Naturally how, one can create commercial-quality recordings on a thousand-dollar lap- home and de facto record label. The Café Press takes a big cut on each unit top in a dorm room. Then release the product worldwide with just a few more high-traffic band site was the only sold; they set a minimum price on mouse clicks. music portal that mattered in the pre- each item. Vendors determine their Napster era; there is no other compa- own markups and margins. Con- Older musicians can appreciate the progress. Twenty years ago the coolest thing rable site in terms of size, traffic, and sidering the amount of work they on earth was the four-track cassette portastudio, which cost upwards of a thou- services. perform and the lack of risk, their sand bucks and was fundamentally incapable of making a professional quality deal is a bargain. Check it out at http: recording. Today any kid can have CD-quality recording with sound-shaping Nonetheless, competitors are already //www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/ capabilities the Beatles would have killed for. Simply commandeer the family’s filling the vacuum left by MP3.com’s cds.aspx. computer, and download some free digital recording software. shutdown. Band site Broadjam.com is offering free web pages and stor- Café Press’ kind of turnkey replication That’s right, FREE digital recording software. Market leader Digidesign crushes age of up to eight songs to displaced and vending causes a further shrink- all competing consumer/hobbyist offerings, and provides a gateway into their MP3.com artists; drop by http:// ing in the record label’s role. With the hardware products, by giving away a free version of the Pro Tools software. www.broadjam.com/signup/mp3/ for manufacturing process democratized Strangely enough, it’s called Pro Tools Free. details. Broadjam is one of the coolest to this degree, the label’s only plausible self-publishing sites around, but the reason for existence is as a marketing Pro Tools Free, which can be downloaded from http://www.digidesign.com/ real excitement is over at Café Press. department and bank. ptfree/, provides eight tracks of CD-quality recording and editing, plus a 48- track MIDI sequencer, plug-in support, and the same editing and mixing tool- Many readers already know Café Press Warren America is the nom de sets found in the upmarket versions of Pro Tools. It’s a no-risk way to get going as the do-it-yourself merchandise su- punque of a New Orleans entrepre- with digital recording and it’s scaleable—sessions can be moved to professional perstore. Café Press established them- neur, author and skateboarder. Pro Tools setups for overdubs and mixing. selves by making on-demand, custom- ized tee shirts, coffee mugs and other The main limitation is that it won’t work with a professional-quality sound branded merchandise. Vendors simply card; Pro Tools Free is intended for the computer’s built-in sound channels. upload their artwork, Café Press Digidesign wants you to upgrade to one of their audio interfaces, which can cost anywhere from $500 bucks to tens of thousands of dollars.

The other big limitation is that Pro Tools Free will only run on Windows 98SE and ME, or Mac OS 8.6 or 9.x. It will neither run on Windows XP, 2000, NT, 95, or 3.1, nor will it run on Mac OS X in emulation mode. But even with those hurdles, Pro Tools Free is an amazingly great deal. Putting full-featured digi- NEW ORLEANS MUSIC EXCHANGE tal recording within practically anyone’s reach is a real power-to-the-people move, as well as a smart marketing scheme. AMPS - P.A.’S Now that the cost of digital recording tools has been driven to practically zero, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS the only real obstacles to musical greatness are one’s own motivation and skill. RECORDING EQUIPMENT Thousands of garage bands and independent artists of every stripe are now crafting professional-quality CDs and soundtracks using Pro Tools, or a handful SALES & SERVICE of imitator products. This democratization of access to the means of production has resulted in a blossoming of divergent musical styles; a general improvement in the sonic quality of independent releases; and shrinkage of the record label’s 3342 Magazine St. NOLA role. Million-dollar recording budgets are no longer necessary, or even conceiv- able. 504.891.7670 www.neworleansexchange.com 48 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 49 Jon Cleary: Early Beginnings Amidst price at other times. It took us six months to finish painting the bar. “It was no secret that we were bad painters,” continues Cleary, “but there was an exciting group of people—lots of construction work- the Maple Leaf’s ‘Bastion of Real New ers, lawyers, raconteurs and eccentrics, always around there—and we became a bit of an entertainment act. Everyone would be watch- Orleans Eccentricity’ ing us from Oak Street, and it was rockin’ there about three o’clock in the afternoon each day.” By Robyn Loda The music began as a warm-up for the painting around one o’clock. Most of what Cleary banged out were Fess tunes and old boogie- woogie numbers. “These were quite rudimentary,” he laughs, “and we often got scolded for not painting.”

Opportunity certainly knocked, and Cleary’s daytime “jam” sessions that made him so familiar with the Leaf came in handy in a pinch.

Photo / Jenny Baggert Covered in green paint, Cleary was asked by the owners to “stall for Booker” one Tuesday night… that is, keep the customers occupied When Englishman Jon Cleary arrived in New Orleans in 1981 at age until the late arrival of pianist James Booker, whose reputations for 17, he headed straight for the Maple Leaf Bar. musical genius and tardiness (or not showing up at all) were part of a complicated package each week. “I got off the plane and took a taxi directly there,” remembers the 42-year-old piano giant, who, ever the Brit (even when spending “I played my entire music repertoire, which took approximately 15 hours in his French Quarter studio) still emerges for this interview minutes, and I looked a bit less than professional,” he remembers, in his “open-air living room” on his patio one cold December morn- “but the crowd really seemed to dig it. This became a pretty fre- ing wearing tweed trousers and a camel-hair coat, offering hot tea. quent thing for me. I had heard and read all about James Booker before coming to New Orleans, and he was a regular at the bar as “I had memorized the phone number to the Maple Leaf from a well. A fascinating individual.” match box given to me by my uncle’s ex-girlfriend, whose sister Fiona was living in New Orleans and tending bar there. I still remem- This year Cleary celebrates his twenty-fifth year as part of this city’s ber the number—866-9359.” cavalry of greats. He and his band The Absolute Monster Gentlemen will release their newest album, Pin Yo’ Spin, on Basin Street Records That night Lady New Orleans deployed a wonderful set of circum- at Jazzfest this spring. stances that sent him the unmistakable message, “Yes, you’re in the right place, Jon.” He walked into the Leaf that night to find Fiona herself tending bar, and Earl King and Deacon John on stage.

“Here’s your first Dixie Beer, Jon,” Fiona directed him. “Welcome to New Orleans.”

Afterward, the late American poet Everett Maddox, founder of the Leaf’s Sunday poetry reading series that continues to this day, was “put in charge” of getting Cleary something to eat at a diner on Car- rollton. “That was my baptism, and it was clear that the Maple Leaf was a true bastion of real New Orleans eccentricity.”

A few days later, a friend of Cleary’s from England arrived to join his adventure. “We were fortunate enough to be introduced to one of the owners of the Maple Leaf, Carl Brown, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude,” says Cleary. “I think he was amused by two 17- year-old wandering Brits, so he took us under his wing and gave us jobs there. The first assignment was to dig up the banana trees in the back yard.

“Soon we were painting the exterior of the building. We could work whenever we wanted, and we drank for free while working, and half- Photo / Jenny Baggert

50 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 51 Musician’s On Music The Main Event- Live at the Maple Leaf

By Keith Frazier As a professional recording musician, I had never been a proponent of live re- cordings. Even after completing two in a span of six years, both at neighborhood bars that are now closed, my feelings towards them remained the same. However, in the winter of 1999, a few days after Christmas, our band, the always high-spirited Rebirth Brass Band, decided to give live recording another chance. We were well aware that our previous attempts to capture the energy of a live Rebirth show fell well short of our expectations although our listening public seemed to enjoy the recordings nonetheless. Keeping the outcome of our previous live recordings in mind, we took special care to choose the right location, producer, recording equipment and engineer. When we began our search for a location, we looked for a place that would be familiar to the musicians as well as to our audience. We wanted the recording to sound like everyone was truly having a good time and we wanted both the musi- cians and the audience to just be themselves and not be concerned that a live recording was taking place.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Elmore

In Memory of Anthony“Tuba Fats” Lacen September 15, 1950 - January 12, 2004 After a few days of discussing the importance of location, we decided that the Photo / Michael P. Smith best place for a live recording would be the Maple Leaf Bar. For the most part this was a relatively easy decision to make based on the popularity of our regular Tuesday night gig, which had been taking place since the fall of 1990. Once all the preliminaries had been ironed out, we set the date for a Friday to allow locals and college students time to clear their schedules from the rigors of Over the years, the gig at the Maple Leaf had become Party Central for neo- work and school and to prepare for a good time. phyte Tulane students who were just getting their first real taste of New Orleans nightlife. Little did those unsuspecting college students know that their education The night of the recording was filled with anticipation and excitement. Despite would also include the course “Rebirth at the Maple Leaf 101”. all the work we did leading up to the recording, we were unsure if the level of energy needed to capture a live Rebirth show would be there. Additionally, the Once the Maple Leaf was chosen as the location, we quickly moved forward to weather conditions didn’t help because it was much colder than one would ex- pick a producer who not only knew our band and music but someone who also pect for a New Orleans winter night. knew the musical history of the Maple Leaf. With these prerequisites in mind, we could think of no better person than Jerry Brock. We had worked with him in the Nevertheless, once the place began to fill and the music started, it was like magic. past and he has been coming to the Maple Leaf since the days of the legendary It was clear that the ambiance of the Maple Leaf was more than enough to bring James Booker and Rockin’ Dopsie, Sr. out our best performance. I can still recall Stafford Agee reminding the audience, “The more you drink, the better we sound and perform.” As the audience began As for the engineer and recording equipment, we decided to follow the direction to booze, the music began to groove. of our producer who felt that the guys from Ultrasonic Studios would be the best engineers for such an undertaking. By the time the clock struck midnight we were well on our way to completing two great sets of music that would forever be etched in everyone’s memory. But more importantly we felt that we had finally been able to capture the excitement of a live Rebirth Brass Band show, thanks in large part to choosing the right loca- tion—the Maple Leaf Bar. 52 NEW ORLEANS BEAT STREET MAGAZINE Vol. II, issue 1 53 DO YOU Advertisers: Talk with your LIVE ON customers as they relax and plan their fun! Talk with your customers Beat Street? as they relax and plan their fun! The residents of Beat Street are musicians and artists and everyone who loves them.

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