Trudy Lynn Is Still Here

Trudy Lynn got notice with her marvelous soulful blues recordings on the Icihban label but since that label’s demise her recordings have been less frequent. She appeared on some of trumpeter-bandleader Calvin Owens project, had a CD on Ruf, but her new album on Owens’ Sawdust Alley Records, proclaims I’m Still Here. With a variety of guests including clarinetist Michael White, guitarists Guitar Shorty and Clarence Holliman and zydeco accordionist, Jabo, this disc is compiled from sessions over several years.

Against Owens Big Band backing Lynn displays why she is such a highly regarded vocalist. She has a powerful voice but convinces with her command as a singer who can handle a soft ballad as she can blast out a jumping number. She certainly ranks at the top of any list of contemporary women blues vocalists. Unfortunately too much of the material here consists of generic blues songs about swinging or Trudy being a Blues Singing Woman. The material is not as strong as the authority which with Lynn invests her performances.

Lynn’s own song, which provides the album with its title, is stronger as she reflects on her life as a performer and a blues singer and her struggle to keep carrying on. Hands Off My Woman is one of two vocals by trumpeter Nelson Mills. It is an OK number but this is this is Trudy’s album and why do I want to here some gentleman singing about his woman is his property even if he loves her. Saturday Night is an instrumental where Owens takes his only solo here and Michael White is also featured.

Since I Found You is one of the better songs here, a soul-ballad whose lyric matches Lynn’s vocal. Another good number is Left Me Singin’ the Blues about a man who left her with Charles Davis contributing a nice solo. A bit of big band zydeco can be head on Boogie Woogie Gumbo, another instrumental with a striking solo by the late Clarence Holliman and accordion from Jabo. A real nice track but again, this is Trudy’s album ,and its unfortunate that they did not have a selection of Holliman playing behind Trudy. You’re the Only One is a wonderfully sung love song, while Welcome Home Baby, has a nice lyric of getting past what happened in past while the closing Payin’ the Price has a somewhat quicker tempo for a solid soul-blues performance.

Trudy Lynn is well worth listening to even on lesser material as she has one of those voices and she is one of those singers that could make a phone book a swinging affair.

I believe this is the last album that has been released under Trudy’s name. This review appeared originally in theNovember 2006 DC Blues Calendar, then the newsletter of the DC Blues Society. I received my review copy from either the record company or a publicist handling the release. Here is a video of Trudy doing a well known blues chestnut.

"Our New Orleans" Was Rhythm And Blues After Katrina

In April 2006 I wrote reviews on several post-Katrina benefit albums. I will be posting these in the next few days (not necessarily consecutively). Here is the first which originally appeared in the April 2006 (issue 281) of Jazz & Blues Report as well as the April 2006 DC Blues Calendar, then the DC Blues Society’s newsletter. Some of the artists on this have passed on and it is still in print. I likely received a review copy, not sure if from the record company, a publicist or Jazz & Blues Report.

Our New Orleans on Nonesuch is a collection of new studio recordings by New Orleans and other Louisiana musicians recorded in various cities last September and October. The emphasis is less towards jazz and more towards blues and rhythm & blues.

Allen Toussaint opens with his Yes We Can Can, a song he originally wrote for Lee Dorsey and the spirit of helping each other make it is especially apt. Dr. John’s morose World I Never Made is followed by Irma Thomas, backed by Toussaint, singing an unfortunately topical Back Water Blues, singing “My house fell down and I can’t live there no more.” Davell Crawford adds a touch of gospel with his marvelous Gather By the River, one of several fine solo piano performances including Eddie Bo’s slow drag interpretation of When the Saints Go Marching On, Carol Fran’s Tou' Les Jours Ç'est Pas La Même with New Orleans rhythm accents as she sings bilingually about her man, “where were you when I passed by?”, and Allen Toussaint’s instrumental Tipitina and Me.

Traditional jazz is represented by clarinetist, Dr. Michael White, on a lively salute to King Oliver on Canal Street Blues and Preservation Hall on Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans; cajun and zydeco are represented by Buckwheat Zydeco’s Cryin’ in the Streets (with a sullen feel and one of the best vocals I have heard from Mr. Dural with Ry Cooder on guitar) and Beausoleil’s bittersweet instrumental L’Ouragon; and street sounds of New Orleans are sampled by the Wild Magnolia’s Brother John is Gone/ Herc-Jolly-John, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now.

Charlie Miller plays sings and provides the only accompaniment on his trumpet on Prayer to New Orleans, while Donald Harrison’s alto is featured on The Wardell Quezerque Orchestra’s rendition of What a Wonderful World. The disc concludes with Randy Newman reviving his unfortunately appropriate Louisiana 1927 (about the flooding of cajun country in 1917) backed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with members of the New York Philharmonic singing about “they are trying to wash us away,” a lyric that rings unfortunately true.

New Atlantis Tells Story How Music and Musicians Are Helping rebuild New Orleans

New Atlantis: Musicians Battle For The Survival of New Orleans
John Swenson
Oxford University Press


Music journalist and scholar John Swenson has authored an important new book about the efforts of New Orleans musicians to help rebuild and restore their city after the "federal flood" that occurred after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina. After an opening chapter dealing with the Voice of the Wetlands project that Tab Benoit had initiated prior to the Hurricane, and a chapter on the Mardi Gras Indians, Swenson interweaves the rebuilding of the city and music scene and the return of some of the musicians who returned over time.


It isn't an easy recovery. For some who came back, there were others who never would, or would pass away not long after returning. And the early returnees came to a city occupied by the National Guard and terrible street violence with musicians and tourists not being safe from gang related violence. But there are James and Troy (Trombone Shorty) Andrews returning to New Orleans 17 days after Katrina to play at Jackson Square at ceremonies associated with the President's speech and having to deal with what they saw.


Musicians slowly came back and started playing but as Swenson observes they did more than simply make music. Craig Klein of Bonerama started the Arabi Wrecking Crew to help gut ruined houses and then partnered with a group building a musicians community. And then there is music such as that by harmonica player Andy Forest with a recording "Real Story," while Coco Robichaux started playing at Molly's when the lights went back on there, and a group including Walter 'Wolfman' Washington played a concert at the Maple Leaf that the National Guard closed down at 8:00PM after curfew, and James Andrews playing a concert at the Ogden Museum, resuming its concert series that Katrina had interrupted.


Taking us through Halloween and Mardi Gras, Swenson introduces us to a variety of individuals (some famous nationally and others local) such as DJ Davis, the real person who served as the basis for the character on the HBO show "Tremé," Paul Sanchez, Papa John Gros, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Dr. John, Dr. Michael White (the great clarinetist who lost countless and irreplaceable musical artifacts in the federal flood), Theresa Anderson, John Boutté, Evan Christopher, Susan Cowsill, Glen David Andrews, the Radiators and others.


There was a protest against the street violence that the musicians were a major force behind as well as important efforts to revive neighborhoods and communities. He discusses a variety of recordings as well as performances and the unique relationship between the musicians and their fans from not just the city but around the world. Swenson's draws the reader into the rich tapestry of people and events that he so compellingly tells us about. It is a superb and import book of a story that still is unfinished and is recommended to anybody who loves New Orleans and its music.


I received an advance review copy from Amazon.com's Vine program, but had purchased this for my kindle.