The Smoky Greenwell Band and the Pentones

Funky Pirate Blues Club and Bamboula’s, New Orleans, USA, 7th to 8th November 2014.

In the evening we headed off for the Funky Pirate Club in Bourbon Street where the Pentones were playing. It was very crowded, so not many angles were available for photographs.

Thomas McDonald (bass), Eddie Christmas (drums), Mark Pentone (guitar).

The Pentones play smooth and lively blues, rhythm & blues and funk. You can find out more about them on their website, or even purchase their new CD, or listen to some tracks on ReverbNation.

This is Mark Pentone. We only caught the end of the gig but I had a talk to him and he told me he was playing later on Frenchman Street with the Smoky Greenwell Band so we headed off for there.

On the way, a view on Bourbon Street, left over from Halloween.

Smoky Greenwell.

Peter Bradish.

David Hyde.

Brief performance by Vaughn Mordenti, whom I took to be a poet, which may well be the case, though is actually the owner of Bamboula’s.

As you can see from the following images, it was a great night and the crowd were having fun. The band describes their genre on Facebook as Blues, Rock, Jazz & Funk. Mark Pentone on the left is standing in for regular guitarist Jack Kolb.

You can checkout their somewhat terse website or play this youtube video (with a larger chorus line than usual) or this one.

Smoky Greenwell.

Interstellar Transmissions

Aug2

The Bus, Frenchmen St, New Orleans, USA, 7th November 2014 (am).

I was heading back along Frenchmen St around 1am after seeing Willie Lockett and the Blues Crewe. There was a bus parked in a side street with the engine running. Interesting sounds were coming from it and a young woman invited me in.

Inside the bus was a whole different musical experience. This is Interstellar Transmissions. The inside of the bus provides a different and intimate social setting and the bus with its rounded roof probably has inherently good acoustics as well.

At the far end of the bus is the band under stage lighting and with the visual effect enhanced by the reflections on the polished ceiling.

Gavin Robert McGowen on the left plays guitars, William Jerome “Coda” at the right is on keyboards and Nathan Wilson on drums & percussion.

Gavin later told me they used to turn up on the street at Frenchman Street and start playing. They would pull a big crowd, drawing lots of people out of the venues. Then the venues would complain and the Police turn up to move them on. They are based in Austin Texas and already had the bus so in a stroke of brilliance they decided to modify it to double as a venue.

They are an instrumental group and the closest associations I could think of were Rick Wakeman, Todd Rungren and Yes. The describe their genre on Facebook as “Carnivalesque Shamanic Tribal Rock Fusion”. You can listen to some of their music on Reverbnation.

After a while, I started to concentrate more on the reflections.

Gavin told me they were to return the next night and I was intending to return with a wider lens. However, either I missed them or they were diverted somewhere else.

Willie Lockett and the Blues Crewe

Jul31

Vaso, Frenchmen St, New Orleans, USA, 6th November 2014.

People on the dance floor powered by Willie Lockett & the Blues Crewe. Another great blues band at a Frenchmen St venue (in this case, Vaso). They have previously gone by the name of The All-Purpose Blues Band. Willie Locket has been around for a long time, having played trumpet with Professor Longhair in the 1960s and the members of his band have similar depth of experience.

Here is the website and here’s a YouTube video of the All Purpose Blues Band doing Hoochie Coochie Man.

Willie Lockett.

Don’t know the drummer’s name.

Billy Gregory.

Willie Lockett.

Paul Boudreaux.

There was a young bloke with a trumpet sitting near the band. He was given an opportunity to play but was initially too timid to make much noise.

Billy Gregory.

Paul Boudreaux.

Willie Lockett.

Some Further New Orleans Bands

Jul30

Frenchmen St and Bourbon St, New Orleans, USA, 6th to 9th November 2014.

Here we have four bands where I only took a few images: Mike Darby and the House of Cards, Sound Table, Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters and Vic Shepherd with Extra Reverb. In the case of Sound Table, I caught only the last few minutes of their set. For Big Al Carson, it was extremely crowded and I have only the one shot from a distance. For Mike Derby and Vic Shepherd, it was small crowded venues with such low light as to compromise the quality of some of the images.

(I have previously posted for Mem Shannon, Troy Turner, Ed Wills, Jeff Chaz and the Dukes of Dixieland. Still to come are Willie Lockett and the Blues Crewe, Interstellar Transmission, the Pentones, Smoky Grenwell Band and G String Orchestra.)

Mike Darby and the House of Cards

This band does not appear to have a web site and I can’t give you the names of the musicians. They are playing at one of the small venues at the top of the music zone on Frenchmen St. The closest to a web presence I found is this but it must be many years out of date. You can hear a couple of their tracks on Spotify.

This is Mike Darby.

Sound Table

This is a band I expect I would like to have seen more of but I only caught a track or maybe two at the end of their set at BMC. I can find no presence for them on the web, perhaps partly indicating that the name is too generic for a useful search.

Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters

Here we see Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters playing at the Funky Pirate Blues Club, where they have a regular gig. No prize for guessing who is Big Al. Here is a YouTube video showing them playing there.

Vic Shepherd with More Reverb

This is Vic Shepherd with More Reverb, playing in their customary and very crowded late night Sunday spot at the Apple Barrel at the top of the music zone in Frenchman St. Here is their web site, opening to the page with sound clips.

There is a human being on the right here, cunningly disguised as a space-time anomaly, perhaps a tardis materialising. More prosaically, with a swirling guitar. Light levels were low and this is a half-second exposure from very close with a very wide angle lens.

From left to right: Tom Shute, Jason Jurzak, Vic Shepherd.

Another Day in Paradise

Jul23

Cafe Negril, Frenchmen St, New Orleans, USA, 6th November 2014 (am).

Early in the morning, i.e. after midnight, after seeing Troy Turner, Ed Wills and Jeff Chaz, I dropped into Cafe Negril where Another Day in Paradise was playing.

Band members include Dominick Grillo, Ian Smith, Mike Kobrin, Travis Blotsky, Eugene Harding, Thomas McDonald, Mike Hood, Ed Barrett and Blac Sol.

They describe their musical range as Blues, Funk, New Orleans R&B, Rhythm and Blues and Jazz. While I was there it seemed to be New Orleans big brass band jazz, and raging. Here’s a video by Rodney Dill that he has supplied in the comments.

The house was packed and the lighting was very low.

The images appear bright, brighter no doubt than it seemed at the time but hopefully they convey the vibrancy of the occasion.

I don’t think I will win any photographic prizes with these images because I was pushing the furthest limits of the camera’s capacity.

Consequently, though they will still look OK if you click on them to see them larger, there is not a lot of detail and the tonal range is limited.

However, just as with the music, the feel is everything. I hope these images will give you something of the feel of what it was like.

Jeff Chaz

Jul21

Vaso, New Orleans, USA, 5th November 2014.

Jeff Chaz.

Another great Blues band from New Orleans. Perhaps sometimes sounding more like Chicago Blues than New Orleans, but hard to pin down and varied. According to on English critic “Jeff Chaz may well be the missing link between B.B. King, Albert King, Roy Buchanan, and Frank Zappa”. He also is a Minister with his own black church.

Dean Zucherro.

For more on Jeff Chaz, see his website, and there’s some of his music on ReverbNation.

Jeff Chaz.

Dean Zucherro.

Jeff Chaz, Pierre, Dean Zucherro.

Pierre Menefield.

Jeff Chaz.

There can be low and difficult lighting in these venues. This started off as a part of an image that was challenged by bright light where much of the rest of the image was in dark shadows but I liked the feel of it, so I converted to a tonal dropout, as you see.

Jeff Chaz, Pierre Menefield, Dean Zucherro.

Ed Wills and Blues 4 Sale

Jul19

BMC and Bamboula’s, New Orleans, USA, 3rd and 8th to 9th November 2014.

Ed Wills.

Here are images of my favourite band in New Orleans, Ed Wills and Blues 4 Sale. They are from two performances; one at BMC on 3rd November and one at Bamboula’s on 8th to 9th November, both on Frenchmen St. For more on the band and the music, check out ReverbNation,

James Clark.

Julius Evans.

Ed Wills.

Ed Wills and Blues 4 $ale at BMC.

Charles Baker. At Bamboula’s from here on.

Charles Baker, James Clark, Ed Wills, Wil Frank.

Action at Bamboula’s.

Wil Frank.

Ed Wills.

Ed Wills, James Clark, Wil Frank. There’s probably a bass player hiding behind Ed.

Wil Frank.

James Clark.

Ed Wills.

Charles Baker.

The band and the audience at Bamboula’s.

On the dance floor….

Ed Wills.

The music flows out of his guitar so effortlessly it seems as though it has a life of its own…

Troy Turner

Jul17

Vaso, Frenchmen St, New Orleans, USA, 5th November 2014.

The first band we saw for this night was Troy Turner at Vaso towards the end of Frenchmen St. I can’t tell you the names of the band members because I didn’t receive an answer to the message I sent in Facebook and the CD I have was recorded in Maine from musicians local to there so doesn’t have the right names. However, you can hear some of his music from MySpace or ReverbNation.

This guitarist may be something of a partner for Troy in the band. Troy cited him as something as a mentor for bringing him back from the hardships of life and/or drug/alcohol problems.

This is Troy Turner.

Mem Shannon

Jul11

New Orleans, USA, 3rd November 2014.

Naturally, being in New Orleans, we went off to see some bands. Why else would we have come? (OK, food, culture and ambience but the music was the main draw). This is Young Fellaz Brass Band, who play every night on Frenchmen Street, just a couple of blocks from where we were staying.

The rest of the images are of Mem Shannon’s band, playing in Bamboula’s, also on Frenchmen St.