What live music are you going to see tonight?

[kh1958]

This past weekend, my second time at Satchmo Summerfest at the Old Mint Museum in New Orleans, a free festival celebrating Louis Armstrong. Over the course of the weekend, the festival presented 21 concerts on two outdoor, tented stages, six concerts (mostly duos) inside the second floor of the museum (the Gallatin records piano sessions), and ten lectures on Armstrong related topics in the museum's performance room.. I hope to return next year. Two things the city has in abundance, fine pianists and trumpet players.

On Saturday:

Preservation Brass. The Preservation Hall version of a brass band features Wendell Brunious and Mark Braud on trumpets, and Rod Paulin on clarinet and tenor sax. Quite enjoyable and their new CD, For Fats, is recommended. Performing Mondays at Preservation Hall.

Victor Campbell: Very talented young Cuban jazz pianist plays a diverse set that veers from acoustic jazz to funk and fusion. He's good on organ as well. No leader recordings yet.

Jesse McBride and Andrew Baham. An excellent piano/trumpet duo. Before this was the tail end of Ricky Riccardi on piano with Wendell Brunious on trumpet. I caught the last couple of songs of this and it was also enjoyable.

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra. This band plays weekly at Snug Harbor. Nothing like the sound of a seasoned big band. This one swings like mad, like a classic Kansas City swing big band, but mixed with the sounds of New Orleans.  Lots of good soloists, including the leader, Rod Paulin (alto) and Andrew Baham (trumpet). A great set and best of the day.

On Sunday: A day of duos for me.

Keiko Komaki and Rurik Nunan: Piano and violin. Keiko Komaki is Japanese and has lived in New Orleans for 18 years. She is an excellent two fisted pianist. No leader dates so far, only a smattering of sideman recordings. Too bad.

Jamil Sharif and Larry Sieberth. Another piano/trumpet duo. Jamil Sharif is from a multi-generational family of New Orleans musicians dating back to the 1850s. His father was also a trumpet player who played with Luis Russell, among others. He is equally adept at the performance of traditional New Orleans jazz and modern jazz, though he appears to make his living off the former. For this set of mostly Louis Armstrong associated songs, as he explained, it is impossible to improve on the originals, so he performs basically 95% transcriptions of Armstrong's solos, which he described as extremely difficult and demanding. (i note he did this from memory, without sheet music.) As Jamil is himself a great trumpet player, this was awesome to hear in person.

Tom McDermott and Marta Dixon: Finally, for the last of the Gallatin Records piano sessions, the great pianist Tom McDermott performs with trumpeter/vocalist Marta Dixon (Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band). Tom McDermott is a master of ragtime, early Jazz,and latin music and is a pure joy to hear.

This was the end of the festival for me. I did not catch any of the lectures this year.

Closing out the weekend at Snug Harbor, for the Peter Vernado Trio. Peter Vernado is a jazz drummer, in this case leading a piano trio for a set of original music that he hoped to record soon. It was quite good.

Edited Tuesday at 02:05 PM by kh1958

[david weiss]

On 7/13/2025 at 5:26 PM, Pim said:

the Cookers at NSJ. Have been waiting for so long for these guys. Was about to see them in Rotterdam but than Covid kicked in so when I saw they came to NSJ I immediately got me a ticket. Very unfortunately Billy Hart and Eddie Henderson were absent and even more: one of my big musical heroes Billy Harper wasn’t here. But the show was amazing anyhow and I enjoyed every minute. Thanks @david weiss for a great show. I hope mr Henderson is okay 

Thanks for coming out Pim, it was a fun day.

Eddie is fine. He had a minor health issue and was not allowed to fly for a couple of weeks until it was resolved. He joined the band in Nice a couple of weeks later. 

Billy Hart had a conflict with his own band performing at the Village Vanguard that week and was unable to join us.

Billy Harper, unfortunately, has not been in the band for over a year now. His "management" removed him from the band. 

Azar Lawrence has been the tenor sax player since the beginning of the year and is a great addition. 

I thought the subs did a great job!

[Pim]

3 hours ago, david weiss said:

Thanks for coming out Pim, it was a fun day.

Eddie is fine. He had a minor health issue and was not allowed to fly for a couple of weeks until it was resolved. He joined the band in Nice a couple of weeks later. 

Billy Hart had a conflict with his own band performing at the Village Vanguard that week and was unable to join us.

Billy Harper, unfortunately, has not been in the band for over a year now. His "management" removed him from the band. 

Azar Lawrence has been the tenor sax player since the beginning of the year and is a great addition. 

I thought the subs did a great job!

They definitely did David. It was a great show and me and my parents enjoyed it big time. Glad to hear all of you are okay