Podcasts about new orleans center

On February 5th of this year, Steve Himelfarb, a longtime fixture in New Orleans' food scene and a true Renaissance man, passed away at the age of 61 following a battle with cancer. Kind, passionate, and endlessly creative, Steve took on many different roles in his life. He was by turns an acclaimed sound engineer, door-to-door cake salesman, café owner, king cake pioneer, teacher, and all-around community treasure.He was also our dear friend and colleague. Steve joined Louisiana Eats as a producer in 2022, working on this show over the last several years with his wife, Becky Retz. His contributions behind the scenes have been vital to what we do here.Over the years, Steve actually appeared on Louisiana Eats several times. In 2021, we interviewed Steve and Becky about the legacy of their beloved Marigny mainstay, Cake Café, and their love letter to diners: The Cake Café Cookbook. In 2023, Steve discussed how his specialty king cakes became a fundraising tradition at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.On this week's show, we remember our friend by bringing you extended versions of these two conversations. We also speak with sound engineer and producer Lu Rojas, who shares stories of Steve's esteemed music career.For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

On February 5th of this year, Steve Himelfarb, a longtime fixture in New Orleans' food scene and a true Renaissance man, passed away at the age of 61 following a battle with cancer. Kind, passionate, and endlessly creative, Steve took on many different roles in his life. He was by turns an acclaimed sound engineer, door-to-door cake salesman, café owner, king cake pioneer, teacher, and all-around community treasure.He was also our dear friend and colleague. Steve joined Louisiana Eats as a producer in 2022, working on this show over the last several years with his wife, Becky Retz. His contributions behind the scenes have been vital to what we do here.Over the years, Steve actually appeared on Louisiana Eats several times. In 2021, we interviewed Steve and Becky about the legacy of their beloved Marigny mainstay, Cake Café, and their love letter to diners: The Cake Café Cookbook. In 2023, Steve discussed how his specialty king cakes became a fundraising tradition at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.On this week's show, we remember our friend by bringing you extended versions of these two conversations. We also speak with sound engineer and producer Lu Rojas, who shares stories of Steve's esteemed music career.For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

“I don't think it's a question of convincing people or convincing the world. My biggest hurdle was convincing myself.” Anthony Mackie on role of Captain America Pivot Family, We are back in New Orleans like we never left! Sitting with NOLA's hometown hero who's Hollywood's new Captain America, Anthony Mackie, is sharing his rise to stardom in the film industry and taking us through how it all started and the challenges faced along the way.  This open-book conversation between the guys is hilarious, riveting and full of energy and insight as we learn the real story behind a young black man who grew up in Louisiana with big screen aspirations and wasn't afraid to be different to pursue his dreams.  Anthony's message about not just making it to the top but sustaining both status and respect in the industry may be unconventional as he tells the guys that success is given and not earned and that we've been lying to our youth by telling them differently. He explains how life is pushing past doubt, embracing opportunities, and finding the strength to carry the weight of something bigger than yourself while relying on relationships to find the next best thing. Being Black has yielded him certain experiences as well as taught him that having one talent or one dimension isn't enough to stay successful but needing an arsenal is what it takes.  He talks about the differences between working actors and celebrities, including today's new wave of names and how the landscape has changed with social media. Anthony admits he never thought he'd be given the role of Captain America but gets vulnerable about the self-doubt he had to overcome... not convincing the world he could do it but convincing himself he was worthy of the role and what it means to represent the character in a new era.  Reflecting on his New Orleans upbringing, Anthony tells Ryan, Channing and Fred how guys from “the hood don't do theater” but he found his calling early on through his elementary teacher who recognized his potential and helped him discover New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) which gave him a sense of belonging and further inspired his acting career.  Anthony shares stories and scenes that shaped him including what his rap battle with Eminem in 8 Mile truly signified, how he landed his role in Hurt Locker, how Don Cheadle inspired his craft and how having Denzel Washington as a mentor guided his career path by watching Denzel never be too big to do the little things that give passion purpose. Channing asks his Channing questions as he tells Captain America he's blown him away with a lot of his films but he didn't love his character portrayal of 2pac and also asks what led him to being ok playing a gay man.    Beyond the big screen, Anthony opens up about losing his mother and best friend as a teenager which was a dark time that ultimately pivoted him down a path to find light again and take acting more seriously. He also discusses the importance of masculinity, raising his four sons to be responsible men and instilling strong family values despite being divorced from their mother.   This episode is more than just Hollywood stories and laughs. It's about resilience, identity, and purpose. Anthony Mackie isn't just a mega star, he's a trailblazer in our time and proof that true leadership comes from honoring the past while inspiring the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part one of this two-part interview, trumpeter, composer, and 2024 NEA Jazz Master Terence Blanchard speaks about his deep musical roots in New Orleans and how the city's rich traditions shaped his artistry. He reflects on growing up in a household filled with music, his early piano lessons, and the pivotal moment when he switched to trumpet after hearing Alvin Alcorn. Blanchard discusses the educators who had a lasting impact on him, including Roger Dickerson and Ellis Marsalis, and his formative experiences at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Rutgers University. He also shares stories of touring with Lionel Hampton as a teenager, learning the ropes of the jazz world, and his time with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he honed his skills as a composer and bandleader. Blanchard also talks about forming a quintet with Donald Harrison and their commitment to innovation, as well as launching his solo career in the early '90s. He describes his unexpected entry into film composition, starting with Mo' Better Blues, and how that led to a decades-long collaboration with Spike Lee. Blanchard reflects on the challenges and rewards of storytelling through music. Stay tuned for part two of my conversation with Terence Blanchard, where he discusses his work in opera, his ongoing exploration of sound with his current band, taking on the role of  artistic director of SFJAZZ, and his role as an educator mentoring the next generation of musicians. 

In part one of this two-part interview, trumpeter, composer, and 2024 NEA Jazz Master Terence Blanchard speaks about his deep musical roots in New Orleans and how the city's rich traditions shaped his artistry. He reflects on growing up in a household filled with music, his early piano lessons, and the pivotal moment when he switched to trumpet after hearing Alvin Alcorn. Blanchard discusses the educators who had a lasting impact on him, including Roger Dickerson and Ellis Marsalis, and his formative experiences at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Rutgers University. He also shares stories of touring with Lionel Hampton as a teenager, learning the ropes of the jazz world, and his time with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he honed his skills as a composer and bandleader. Blanchard also talks about forming a quintet with Donald Harrison and their commitment to innovation, as well as launching his solo career in the early '90s. He describes his unexpected entry into film composition, starting with Mo' Better Blues, and how that led to a decades-long collaboration with Spike Lee. Blanchard reflects on the challenges and rewards of storytelling through music. Stay tuned for part two of my conversation with Terence Blanchard, where he discusses his work in opera, his ongoing exploration of sound with his current band, taking on the role of  artistic director of SFJAZZ, and his role as an educator mentoring the next generation of musicians. 

It's Thursday and that means it's time to catch up on politics with The Times Picayune/The Advocate's editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace. Today on @LAConsidered, we break down the upset in the Baton Rouge mayor-president race, and why a parish that went blue in November elected a Republican one month later.The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) is gearing up for a star-studded milestone celebration, the 20th annual “Home for the Holidays” Concert. The event features artists like Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band, and raises money to support rising artists with scholarships. Adonis Rose, Grammy award-winning musician and executive director of NOCCA, joins us with the details.The Xavier University of Louisiana has been mourning the loss of one of their greatest pioneers, Dr. J. W. Carmichael. Having worked at Xavier for over four decades, primarily as a pre-med advisor for undergraduates, Carmichael is largely credited with putting the school's medical program on the map.WWNO's Bob Pavlovich spoke with Quo Vadis Webster, director of Xavier's pre-med program, to learn more about Camichael's life and legacy. —Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We get production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and our assistant producer Aubry Procell. You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon  and 7 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts. Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to.Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Today's interview is with Lenny Zenith. Lenny Zenith is a transgender singer songwriter and has completed his first memoir. It was edited by Kelly Caldwell of Gotham Writers Group and Lambda Literary Award winner Donna Minkiewicz, who wrote Furious Romance and Growing Up Gollum. He has fronted several bands in New Orleans and New York, and has opened for internationally touring acts U2, Iggy Pop, Gang of Four, Ellen DeGeneres, and more. and the replacements, among many others. Lenny transitioned in junior high school and later attended NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, home to alumni such as Winton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., and Terrence Blanchard. Zenith came close to securing a deal with a major record label, only for the execs to get cold feet over Zenith's gender identity. Lenny has spoken on LGBT panels at the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, and Marymount College, where he has discussed the intersection of race, class, and gender, and has read excerpts from his upcoming memoir, Before I Was Me, at Queer Memoir in New York City. He performs regularly in New York City and New Orleans, and his band wowed the audience at Austin's Gender Unbound Festival in 2019. Lenny's website: lennyzenith.com"Where is Safe" video

You're an aspiring musician, and you want to learn from the best. But sometimes it becomes difficult, as the student in many aspects, has learned as much as the teacher in their hometown knows. But finding music instructors of the next level can be time consuming, and often quite expensive. Enter the online platform “Open Studio”. Created by entrepreneur and acclaimed jazz pianist Peter Martin, this web-based program affords you the opportunity and ability to learn from some of the best musicians in the world. At your pace, and within your level of expertise without fear of being overwhelmed.   In this episode, we discuss the Open Studio concept, how it's designed to work at one's own pace, and its benefits as a useful and versatile learning tool for creative musicians. We also chat with Peter's new jazz album project titled “Generation S”. Peter Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger, educator and entrepreneur. His touring career has taken him to six continents, and Brian has been invited to play the White House on several occasions. Peter Martin performed on and arranged Dianne Reeves' Grammy-winning release A Little Moonlight and appeared in George Clooney's 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as being the featured pianist and an arranger on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. Peter has also performed, toured, and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Betty Carter, Christian McBride, and Joshua Redman, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Peter attended the Juilliard School of Music and has been on the faculties of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Northwestern University, Tulane University, the University of New Orleans and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has performed workshops and master classes at institutions worldwide, including Oberlin College, Duke University, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshops, Steinway Piano Gallery, the Rotterdam Conservatory, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow. In 2015, after launching an successful educational video podcast, 2-Minute Jazz, Martin founded a revolutionary jazz educational web platform, Open Studio, where students from over 120 countries are part of an active community and are continuing to learn from Martin, Dianne Reeves, Fred Hersch, Christian McBride, Greg Hutchinson, Romero Lubambo and other artists. www.openstudiojazz.com www.brianmartinmusic.com Creator and Executive Producer Emeritus: Tom Sabella Showrunner and Host (the guy who has a face for podcasting): Bob Bender Management Representation: Chuck Thompson for Thompson Entertainment Group, LLC Co-Producer - Audio/Video Editor (the man behind the curtain): Mark Sabella Director of Video and Continuity (the brains of the entire operation): Deborah Halle Marketing and Social Media (all knowing): Sarah Fleshner for 362 Entertainment All Around Problem Solver (and Mental Health Therapist for us): Connie Ribas Recorded inside what could be an old beat up Airstream Trailer located somewhere on what's left of Music Row in Nashville TN (Man we sure do miss Noshville, and the Longhorn Steakhouse) Mixed and Mastered at Music Dog Studios in Nashville, TN Editing and Post at Midnight Express Studio located in Olian, NY Production Sound Design: Keith Stark Voice Over and Promo: Lisa Fuson Special Thanks to the creator and founder of the podcast, Tom Sabella, along with Traci Snow for producing and hosting over 100 episodes of the original "Business Side of Music" podcast and trusting us to carry on their legacy. Website: If you would like to be a guest on the show, please submit a request to: bob@businesssideofmusic.com If you're interested in becoming a sponsor for the show, let us know and we'll send you a media / sponsorship kit to you. Contact us at bob@businesssideofmusic.com The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this show provided by the guest(s), are those of the guest(s) own, and do not necessarily represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the host or producers of this podcast. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The Business Side of Music's name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner (Lotta Dogs Productions LLC), and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service. Copyright © 2024 Lotta Dogs Productions, LLC, All rights reserved.

548. We talk with Allison Alsup and Jessica Kinnison, who run the New Orleans Writers’ Workshop. "Since its founding in Spring 2017, the New Orleans Writers Workshop has aimed to affordably meet the need for quality creative writing classes in the New Orleans community. Joining forces with an ever-growing number of community partners that embraced the venture like only New Orleans can, NOWW has held one-day, two-day, four-week, and nine-week classes at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, A Studio in the Woods, and the Southern Hotel, among other venues, in addition to free workshops at public libraries and in nonprofit or congregate settings, including Orleans Parish Prison, Project Lazarus, and 826 New Orleans... Allison Alsup is an award-winning writer, teacher and editor. Her debut novel, Foreign Seed, is slated for publication by Turner Publishing in August 2024.  She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from Emerson College.  Her short fiction has won multiple contests and appears, among other places, in the 2014 O'Henry Prize Stories and the U.K.‘s 2018 Manchester Fiction Prize shortlist, her non-fiction in Best Food Writing 2015.... ​Jessica Kinnison's work has appeared in Columbia Journal, Phoebe, Entropy, Juked, and The Southern Humanities Review, among other publications. A 2018 Kenyon Review Peter Taylor Fellow, her story “Star Party” placed second in the 2019 Tennessee Williams Festival Short Short Fiction Contest." This week in Louisiana history. November 11, 1984. Louisiana World Exposition closes with financial loss. This week in New Orleans history. Shortly before 6 p.m. on November 18, 1926, the Orleans-Kenner commuter train was struck and overturned at the Southport crossing by a string of boxcars being back toward the river on a Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company switch track. More than a dozen passengers were injured, though only two of them were taken to the hospital. This week in Louisiana. The 4th Annual Human Horse Races will take place on Nov 23rd, 2023 from 11 – 3 P.M. at Easton Park in MidCity. Website Entry is free. Live music is provided and food and beverages are available. Purchase betting tokens to place donation bets on the horse you think will win the following round. Winners of races receive prizes, and betters get an entry for a chance to win a mega-prize! All donations benefit local animal & wildlife rescue initiatives. The 2023 beneficiary will be Greeno Equine Sanctuary located in Leblanc, Louisiana. Postcards from Louisiana. TBC Brass Band & Hasizzle at Satchmofest in the Old Mint in New Orleans. Listen on Google Play. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook.   

Who taught you how to cook? Perhaps it was a favorite family member or Julia Child on public television. Maybe you devour cookbooks on the weekend just for fun. The education of a professional chef can be just varied – be it a formal degree or on-the-job training. On this week's show, we explore culinary learning. We begin at one of Louisiana's educational treasures, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark this milestone, we revisit our trip to the school's Marigny neighborhood campus. There, chefs Emeril Lagasse and Dana D'Anzi Tuohy explain the origins of NOCCA's celebrated Culinary Arts program. Then, chef and cooking school director Dee Lavigne talks with us about African American chef and entrepreneur Lena Richard. By the 1940s, Richard had become the Crescent City's premier caterer, educator, and the first local TV food personality. Finally, we look outside of the state to learn how Anne Willan achieved legendary success on both sides of the pond. Founder of the prestigious La Varenne Cooking School, which operated in Paris and Burgundy, France from 1975 until 2007, Anne's also a prolific author whose award-winning cookbooks are available in 35 different languages. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Who taught you how to cook? Perhaps it was a favorite family member or Julia Child on public television. Maybe you devour cookbooks on the weekend just for fun. The education of a professional chef can be just varied – be it a formal degree or on-the-job training. On this week's show, we explore culinary learning. We begin at one of Louisiana's educational treasures, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark this milestone, we revisit our trip to the school's Marigny neighborhood campus. There, chefs Emeril Lagasse and Dana D'Anzi Tuohy explain the origins of NOCCA's celebrated Culinary Arts program. Then, chef and cooking school director Dee Lavigne talks with us about African American chef and entrepreneur Lena Richard. By the 1940s, Richard had become the Crescent City's premier caterer, educator, and the first local TV food personality. Finally, we look outside of the state to learn how Anne Willan achieved legendary success on both sides of the pond. Founder of the prestigious La Varenne Cooking School, which operated in Paris and Burgundy, France from 1975 until 2007, Anne's also a prolific author whose award-winning cookbooks are available in 35 different languages. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Chef Frank Brigtsen and his wife Marna are the owners of Brigtsen's Restaurant, in the Riverbend neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans. Frank began his culinary career in 1973 while attending Louisiana State University. In 1979, he apprenticed at Commander's Palace Restaurant under the guidance of Chef Paul Prudhomme and became the first Night Chef at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in 1980. During his seven-year tenure with Chef Prudhomme at K-Paul's, Frank attained the position of Executive Chef. Paul and K Prudhomme were instrumental in helping Frank and Marna open Brigtsen's in 1986. Chef Frank has been named one of the Top Ten New Chefs in America by FOOD&WINE magazine (1988) and America's Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation Awards (1998). He has also been named Chef of the Year by New Orleans magazine and Restaurateur of the Year by the Louisiana Restaurant Association – N.O. Chapter. In 2022, Chef Frank received the Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award in Hospitality, presented by the New Orleans Food & Wine Experience. Chef Frank's passion is teaching and sharing through food. For 15 years, he taught Contemporary Creole/Acadian cuisine as Adjunct Professor at the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University and serves as Chef-in-Residence for the Culinary Arts program at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).

On this week's show, we continue our exploration of all things king cake. Throughout Carnival season, local bakers are hard at work creating their own spin on the treat – one that can make or break their year. When Steve Himelfarb and his wife Becky Retz opened Cake Café, they set out to develop their own signature cake – a delicious combo of apple and goat cheese that has outlasted the bakery itself. We catch up with Steve at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where his king cake has become an annual fundraising tradition. Then, we conclude our two-part conversation with Matt Haines, author of "The Big Book of King Cake" – a definitive king cake bible. We explore the countless varieties of king cakes from across the state and the bakers behind each innovation. We also meet king cake baker extraordinaire Dominique Rizzo of Celtica Bakery. Like his popular baguettes and croissants, Dominique's authentic French galette des rois is a game changer in New Orleans. Finally, we countdown to Fat Tuesday with writer Sally Asher and illustrator Melissa Vandiver. They introduce us to The Mermaids of New Orleans, who choose one day of the year to mingle with those of us who live above water – Mardi Gras Day, of course! For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

On this week's show, we continue our exploration of all things king cake. Throughout Carnival season, local bakers are hard at work creating their own spin on the treat – one that can make or break their year. When Steve Himelfarb and his wife Becky Retz opened Cake Café, they set out to develop their own signature cake – a delicious combo of apple and goat cheese that has outlasted the bakery itself. We catch up with Steve at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where his king cake has become an annual fundraising tradition. Then, we conclude our two-part conversation with Matt Haines, author of "The Big Book of King Cake" – a definitive king cake bible. We explore the countless varieties of king cakes from across the state and the bakers behind each innovation. We also meet king cake baker extraordinaire Dominique Rizzo of Celtica Bakery. Like his popular baguettes and croissants, Dominique's authentic French galette des rois is a game changer in New Orleans. Finally, we countdown to Fat Tuesday with writer Sally Asher and illustrator Melissa Vandiver. They introduce us to The Mermaids of New Orleans, who choose one day of the year to mingle with those of us who live above water – Mardi Gras Day, of course! For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

At 23-years old, fast-rising star Kevin Gullage leads his band of veteran players, The Blues Groovers, with the poise of a seasoned performer. His impressive blend of soulful singing and dazzling blues piano infused with the experience of his bandmates is leaving audiences in awe. The Blues Groovers consist of bassist Tony Gullage (Henry Butler, Dr. John), Hammond B3 Player Brandon Adams (Kenny Neal), Guitarist Carlton Ross (Glenn David Andrews), Saxophonist Roderick Jackson (Kenny Neal), and Drummer Mac Carter (Jon Cleary). Born into a musical family in New Orleans, LA, Kevin Gullage showed prodigious signs of musical talent and followed in his father's footsteps, embracing his passion for music as an instrumentalist, singer, and writer. Growing up interacting with artists such as Henry Butler, Gary Brown, Carol Fran and others in the New Orleans music scene influenced the development of Kevin's musicianship and style from a young age. Kevin began his career as a multi-instrumentalist, but eventually turned his musical focus to piano. His passion for piano would lead him to study music at the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, The Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp (whose alumni include Jon Batiste, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, and “Big Sam” Williams) and later Loyola University New Orleans. At age 18, Kevin was selected as the pianist for the 2017 Thelonious Monk All-Star Sextet performing alongside jazz legend, Bobby Watson. The same year, he was invited to perform with the multi-Grammy winning band Blues Traveler at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Kevin has appeared in several movies including The Last Laugh starring Chevy Chase and Burning Cane starring Wendell Pierce. His voice was also featured in the 2019 release of Disney's Lady & The Tramp. In 2019, Kevin & the Blues Groovers became a resident artist at B.B. King's Blues Club, New Orleans. With a resounding demand from their growing fan-base, Kevin recorded his first EP entitled Blues for the City. Kevin Gullage signed with the Grammy-winning record label Basin Street Records in early 2022. The New Orleans-based powerhouse label is slated to release Kevin & The Blues Groovers first full-length LP, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed Blues, in the Spring of 2022. Kevin Gullage appeared in the 2022 season of ABC's American Idol where he was one of the select few invited to Hollywood. Lionel Richie's review of his performance included, “You got so much flavor!” Gullage advanced to the top 60 contestants on the show. While the Covid-19 pandemic has halted Kevin & The Blues Groovers tenure at B.B. King's Blues Club, Kevin Gullage has forged ahead with his performing career, and spent much of 2022 as a featured performer for Disney Cruise Lines. With an all-star band behind him and bountiful talent of his own, Kevin Gullage is set to soar, as Kevin & The Blues Groovers look ahead to the many opportunities in the future.

Hello ladies, we hope you had a lovely Mother's Day weekend! This week we are joined by media journalist, author, actor, and entrepreneur, Casey Ferrand McGee. She is a New Orleans native who has been in the television & media industry for over 20 years. Her career has taken her everywhere from being a child actress starring in commercials, to a nationally award-winning journalist. She is a mother of a beautiful boy and the author of the book, 'Curly Girl: My Curls Are Mine to Love.' Her experiences led her to become her own boss and create CFM Media LLC, helping others make their mark in the industry. Casey attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where she focused on musical theater. She earned two Bachelor's degrees, in Journalism and in Psychology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She continued to pursue her career working at WDSU News in New Orleans covering events that affected the community. Stay tuned to this week's episode as she shares with us the importance of building connections and telling your story. Follow Casey on social platforms such as Instagram and check out her website for more on https://www.caseyferrand.com/ https://www.instagram.com/caseyferrandmedia/ Enjoy this week's episode of Momming, Surviving, and Thriving! Remember to always give yourself grace!

This episode I have the opportunity to sit down with Joe Dyson on the last night of the US portion of the Pat Metheny Side-Eye tour at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas. We talk about his extensive background and life in music as well as all of the influences and teachers that have helped form him into the phenomenal performer that he is today from his current band leader Pat Metheny to other greats such as Donald Harrison, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and more. Make sure to check out his debut album Look Within, available for purchase on Band Camp and also streaming on all music platforms.Check out his website joedyson.com and Instagram for upcoming shows and more!New Orleans native Joe Dyson has certainly been one to watch. He started playing music in his family's church at just two years old. After being noticed for his peculiar talent, Joe was placed in the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp where he was shadowed by the late, great clarinetist Alvin Batiste, and his longtime bandleader and mentor, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison. He went on to graduate from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), and earned a Presidential Scholarship to his alma mater Berklee College of Music. Joe has shared the stage with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Ellis Marsalis, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Jon Batiste, Leo Nocentelli, Sullivan Fortner, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Pedrito Martinez, Grammy Award winners Nicholas Payton and Pat Metheny among others. As a musician, Joe has traveled across the globe extensively. Having touched almost every continent, he has performed throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. He has appeared on over 30 albums, including releases by Dr. Lonnie Smith ALL IN MY MIND, (Blue Note Universal Records), Sullivan Fortner's ARIA (Impulse Universal Records) and Christian aTunde Adjuah's Grammy Nominated EMANCIPATION PROCRASTINATION (Ropeadope Records). *Bio available on joedyson.com

Attorney Daryl A. Gray has a full house in the studio today when Kesha McKey (Dance Department Chair and Director of the Arts); Blake Coheley (Director of Admissions and Student Services); and Prinsey Walker (Communications Specialist) from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts stop by to talk about the regional, pre-professional arts training center that offers students instruction in culinary arts, dance, media arts: filmmaking & audio production, music (classical, jazz, vocal), theatre arts (drama, musical theatre, theatre design), visual arts, and creative writing.

In an industry over run with white/male Artistic Directors, Chelsea Ainsworth and Jessica Smith are creating women led organizations that thrive and fill a void the NYC dance world desperately needs. In my interview, we dive into how these two leaders pivoted during the pandemic and the importance of building organizations that encourage creativity, power, and resilience. Dual Rivet is a women-led dance company focused on creating and sharing highly physical contemporary dance to a wide audience. Based in NYC, Dual Rivet creates work for stage and film that exchanges a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. The company teaches a myriad of classes, throughout the United States, with an emphasis on contemporary partnering and floorwork. Led by Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth, Dual Rivet aims to share what it means to be female leaders in the arts. Arts On Site is a women-led nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing artists with opportunities. Arts On Site began as an event to showcase artists. The event was an initiative from professional artists Chelsea Ainsworth, Kyle Netzeband, and Adrian Rosas, to connect artists from multiple art forms. As the event grew, a diverse community of artists grew and the concept for Arts On Site was born.Chelsea Ainsworth is a graduate of the Dance Department of The Juilliard School. She has worked with Johannes Wieland/StaadtstheaterKassel in Germany, Lorena Egan, Flexicure, Amber Sloan, Bryn Cohn + Artists, The Bang Group, Zvidance, and was on the modern/ballet dance faculty at Cap21 musical theater school and Chen Dance Center. Currently, she is creating work through Dual Rivet.Jessica Smith is a New York City based dancer from New Orleans, Louisiana. She studied at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, London Contemporary Dance School, and received her BFA in dance from the Department of Dance at Purchase College. She's currently a performer at Sleep No More NYC, Vim Vigor Dance Company, and ZviDance as well as Associate Director of Arts on Site NYC. She is the Co-Choreographer and Director of Dual Rivet, a women-led dance company based in NYC. Connect with Chelsea and Jessica!​https://www.instagram.com/ainsworthchelsea/https://www.instagram.com/jaesmith9Dual Rivet:https://www.dualrivetdance.com/https://www.instagram.com/dualrivet/Arts on Site:https://www.artsonsite.org/https://www.instagram.com/artsonsite/Special thanks to Emma Thesing for her assistance in organizing material for this episode of BTWPod.Connect with Brandon!Instagram: @itsBrandonColeman | @BreakingTheWallPodcastWebsite: www.BrandonColemanDance.com/BTWP

This week our guest is The Adoni aka Rahsaan Adoni Ison, a young talent from New Orleans who is a singer, writer, rapper and producer with the Fourth Eye Tribe. We talk to Rahsaan about his wrongful expulsion and his being reinstated, with the help of the NAACP, from and to The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, known as NOCCA.We discover his new music and talk about his muses. He speaks of his plans for the future and his current collaborations. Rahsaan’s story of leaving New Orleans is absolutely riveting.To watch the YouTube video go to YouTube and type "Cali High Episode 35"!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/calihighla?fan_landing=true)

Our twentieth official episode of Meet Me At Mill Mountain: The Podcast features Broadway performer Donald Jones Jr.! Join host Ginger Poole, the Producing Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theatre, as she talks to Donald about his journey to Broadway and experience as the Director and Choreographer of MMT's 2020 production of "Dreamgirls," canceled due to COVID-19. Donald Jones, Jr. is a Director/Choreographer and Actor originally from New Orleans. He is a graduate of Northwestern State University of Louisiana where he received a B.S. in Theatre and Dance. He has trained with the New Orleans Ballet Academy, New Orleans Ballet Theatre, the American Dance Festival, and Spectrum Dance Theater of Seattle, where he was a company member from 2011-2013. Donald has taught dance both nationally and internationally at Broadway Dance Center of New York, Steps on Broadway, Broadway Classroom, Studio West Dance Center of Colorado, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and was a Cultural ambassador with DanceMotion USA where he performed and taught contemporary American dance in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He lived in NYC for 7 years where he performed on Broadway in productions of Frozen (OBC), Aladdin (OBC), and CHICAGO. His Off-Broadway credits include: Sweet Charity with The New Group and West Side Story with Carnegie Hall. He has also done a National Tour with The Color Purple Musical. Donald has Directed/Choreographed productions of Dreamgirls at Mill Mountain Theatre, Children's Letters to God with NORD. He is also a guest choreographer for several episodes and advertisements for Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues and You. Follow him on IG @doniejunior. Mill Mountain Theatre strives to inspire, entertain, enrich, educate, and challenge audiences of Southwest Virginia through high-quality, professional theatrical productions and experiences. Meet Me At Mill Mountain: The Podcast explores all of the buzz words in Mill Mountain Theatre’s mission statement.

from facebook: Please register in advance here: https://tulane.zoom.us/.../regi.../WN_qzhKDUD6S36ZK-LYYMCzgw The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and A Studio in the Woods present a virtual discussion with National Book Award winner and 2016-18 Gulf South Writer in the Woods Edward Ball and Tulane historian Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley about Ball’s book, "Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy", which addresses painful truths of America’s racist past and present, engages with the vibrant national discussion of anti-racism, and serves as an anti-racist history of white supremacy in Louisiana. The program includes opening remarks by Dr. Anneliese Singh, Tulane University Associate Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development and Chief Diversity Officer. Presented by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, housed within the Tulane School of Liberal Arts, and A Studio in the Woods, a program of the Tulane ByWater Institute, with co-sponsors Amistad Research Center and Garden District Book Shop. Event Objectives - Empower contemporary anti-racist work by illuminating the often purposefully obscured history of white supremacy in order to better understand its patterns, insidious power, and crippling effects. - Educate our community about New Orleans’ role in the global construction of theories of race and its intertwined histories of white supremacist and racist mob violence, publications, and governance, and of anti-racist, Black-led organizing, publications, and governance. - Respond to the call to expose Tulane’s white supremacist history by educating ourselves about Tulane’s history and relationship to the global construction of race theory, as host of lectures by “race philosophers” instrumental in codifying and popularizing constructs of race, and to white radical terrorism, as meeting hall for local white vigilante terrorists who participated in mob violence, government insurrection, and massacre, which is detailed in this book. - Explore how 19th century organized white violence relates to white nationalism and violence today and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

Dr. Denise Frazier and Dr. John "Ray" Proctor discuss Women and Movement #8: African American Women Affecting the Arts in New Orleans, taking. place Friday, February 5, at 11AM CST. Registration link at bottom of description. Music Rising at Tulane presents Women and Movement #8: African American Women Affecting the Arts in New Orleans Five African American women will discuss how they are navigating their specific artistic mediums and working with their communities during this unprecedented time of socio-political unrest and international pandemic. As in past panels, this conversation will also consider the politics of race, artistic agency, and artistic opportunity. Panelists include: Doreen Ketchens (Doreen's Jazz New Orleans), Diane Mack (Producer and Morning Edition Host, WWNO), Queen Cherice Harrison-Nelson (Guardians of the Flame Maroon Society co-founder ), and Joy Clark (Musician, songwriter, and guitarist). Moderated by Lauren E. Turner (Producing Artistic Director of No Dream Deferred NOLA). Sponsored by New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. Organized by theater professor Dr. John "Ray" Proctor and assistant director of New Orleans Center for the Gulf South Dr. Denise Frazier. REGISTER AT https://tulane.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s7uJq9atQq2AofkYPpoUlg?_x_zm_rtaid=exnf_qMfT_mAKkpYNen7Sg.1612146176220.6512273a6414c130b67c6e4be0e1fc89&_x_zm_rhtaid=290

Denise Frasier and Theo Hilton discuss this upcoming event. "Join Gulf South Writer in the Woods Ladee Hubbard and culinary historian Jessica Harris for a discussion of Hubbard’s new novel, "The Rib King" on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 6pm CT. Hubbard works to deconstruct painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in the early twentieth century, that centers around the Black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family. Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, "The Rib King" is an unsparing examination of America’s fascination with Black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful, disturbing, and timely novel, Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are, and most importantly, who and what they are not. Ladee Hubbard served as the 2019-2020 Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South that supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region. --- Ladee Hubbard is the author of "The Talented Ribkins" which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Times Literary Supplement, Arkansas International, Copper Nickel and Callaloo among other venues. She is a recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and has also received fellowships from Art Omi, the Sacatar Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among other places. Born in Massachusetts and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, she currently lives in New Orleans with her husband and three children. Jessica B. Harris is an award-winning food historian and one of the world’s leading experts on African Diaspora cooking. She is the author of the memoir, "My Soul Looks Back" (Simon & Schuster, 2017) about her youth in Harlem in the Seventies, where her social circle included James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and other leading black intellectuals and artists of the time. She is the author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora as well, including "Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking", "Sky Juice and Flying Fish Traditional Caribbean Cooking", "The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking", "The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent", and "Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim". Harris also conceptualized and organized "The Black Family Reunion Cookbook". Her book, "High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America", was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history. For more information, please contact Regina Cairns at 504-314-2854 or rcairns@tulane.edu"

Interview with Denise Frazier, assistant director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region. Specifically, this year we aim to support BILAPOC Speculative Fiction writers working in prose, poetry and stage/screenwriting. Special consideration will be given to southern voices, under-represented communities, and perspectives not often heard. Eligible writers must live in the Gulf South, be from/have heritage in the Gulf South, and/or write about the Gulf South. The awardee will receive a stipend of $5,000, a 6-week residency at A Studio in the Woods over 18 months, Tulane University library access, and staff support from the presenting partners. APPLY https://www.astudiointhewoods.org/2020/11/18/open-call-for-next-gulf-south-writer-in-the-woods/

There is one thing that can be said about Ron Carbo “Intelligent.” It is motivating to many individuals to see an African American pave the way for others, but especially in the entertainment community. Ronnie “Ron” Carbo, raised by his mother Marian Carbo and Grandmother Almena Lane grew up in the 7th ward in the great city of New Orleans, La. He spent his teenage years developing his skills as a musician, dancer and as an athlete. While attending Marion Abramson High School, he also attended the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, which at the time was filled with talents like Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Reginald Veal, Donald Harrison and Harry Connick Jr. Although he had a rigorous schedule, Ron found time to gig with numerous local bands as well as participate on a number of sports teams. After graduation from high school, Ron attended Grambling State University to study Music Education and marched in the world famous “Tiger Marching Band.” Upon completion of his first year, Ron was persuaded by life long friend Reginald Veal (bassist for Wynton Marsalis) to transfer to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. to study with world renowned jazz musician Alvin Baptiste. At Southern, Ron participated in jazz ensemble and the “Human Juke Box” which was another famous marching band from an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities). Although both Grambling and Southern had wonderful music programs, Ron’s desire for something more than a career in music education led him to Boston, MA in 1986 were he attended Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee Ron studied Film Scoring and Music Production and Engineering and acquired a Bachelor of Music degree. In 1989, Ron pursued former Berklee professor, Greg McPherson who had recently resigned from Berklee to work for Maurice Starr as a producer and songwriter for the super boy band New Kids on the Block, for a job doing anything in the studio. This went on for about eight months until that call finally came. It was a position at the House of 2 Hits Recording Studio were artist such as New Kids on the Block, Perfect Gentleman and New Edition recorded their projects, but there was a minor problem. It was a janitor’s position. Although disappointed, Ron accepted the position under the advisement of McPherson. Over the next six months, Ron performed his janitorial duties during the day but because he was the janitor, he had keys to the studio, which allowed him the opportunity to stay after hours. Ron would stay far into the night reading equipment manuals, practicing recording techniques that he observed in sessions during the day and continued to develop his producing and songwriting skills.

The Seaway Movement: A Lecture by Richard Campanella Monday, December 7 6:00PM-7:15PM CST Registration Link: https://tulane.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xElF_smgSkm1wG3A0YWrWA New Orleans Center for the Gulf South invites you to our annual Monroe Lecture with geographer Richard Campanella. Campanella is associate dean and senior professor of practice in Tulane University's School of Architecture. In this illustrated talk, Campanella explores two rival shipping canals of the West Bank, one dug by enslaved laborers and the other by immigrants, and how they reconfigured the urban geography of our region—nearly to the point of calamity. As a geographer, Campanella researches questions of “where” and “why there.” That is, he tries to identify, characterize, and explain spatial patterns—of human settlement, the built environment, and the underlying physical geography—with an emphasis on New Orleans and Louisiana. His approach is empirical and quantitative, using mapping and spatial analysis tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, integrated with qualitative sources and humanistic methods. His recent work The West Bank of Greater New Orleans: A Historical Geography examines the West Bank holistically, as a legitimate subregion with its own story to tell. No other part of greater New Orleans has more diverse yet deeply rooted populations: folks who speak in local accents, who exhibit longstanding cultural traits, and, in some cases, who maintain family ownership of lands held since antebellum times―even as immigrants settle here in growing numbers. Campanella demonstrates that West Bankers have had great agency in their own place­-making, and he challenges the notion that their story is subsidiary to a more important narrative across the river. For more information on Richard Campanella, please visit https://richcampanella.com/. For more information on this event, please email gulfsouth@tulane.edu or call 504-314-2854. Braid and Flow: Power Friday, December 11, 12:00-1:00PM CST and Monday, December 14, 4:00-5:15PM CST Zoom Link: tulane.zoom.us/j/92870457936 Electrical power is measured in watts. The time it takes for power to transfer to an electric circuit is determined by the rate of work done by an object which is held at certain constant velocities. Hurricane Zeta demonstrated how reliant we are on the "constant" of electrical power. The recent election and impending transfer of presidential powers is a reminder of the precarious and delicate balance of democracy amidst national and political divisions. In December, Braid and Flow will tackle the topic of "Power." How is it transferred? At what velocity does it travel? What is its impact? Braid and Flow convenes twice each month to explore themes that stretch across scales and disciplines, such as food and food systems, racial violence, climate, money, cultural institutions, technology and intimacy. Our goal is to strengthen the theories and the practices that guide our work as artists, activists, researchers, policy makers, writers, scientists, designers, teachers, students, and leaders, all working to navigate the Anthropocene and the challenges of climate change, white supremacy, and the global pandemic. These conversations are hosted by the The Blue House/Civic Studio, Water Leaders Institute, PUNCTUATE, Antenna, New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, and the Gulf South Anthropocene Working Group, with the support of the following people: Shana griffin, Aron Chang, Rebecca Snedeker, and Denise Frazier. Please reach out if you'd like to join the team or otherwise support these convenings. Spread the word! Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/DM7C9f5p. For more information, please email gulfsouth@tulane.edu.

This week's episode features an interview with current young professionals Travis Flynt and Eddie Falshaw! Today we take a look at the culture of toxic masculinity within our industry, as well as covering topics such as fitness, bulking culture, comparison, and advice for other male identifying performers who may be struggling with this own self image. Make sure to subscribe and review!!Instagram: @cararoseDP99Website: https://www.cararosedipietro.comTravis Flynt uses he/him pronouns and is originally from Sun Valley Idaho. Between attending Idyllwild Arts Academy and going on to pursue a BFA in Music Theatre at Elon University, he has spent the past 8 years of his life honing his craft as a performer and an artist. Outside of theatre he is passionate about preserving the environment, advocating for the LGBTQ+ and other minority communities, and spending his free time at home figuring skating, downhill skiing, mountain biking, water skiing, hiking, backpacking, camping, and basically anything else that involves being in nature. Instagram: @travis_flyntWebsite: http://www.travisflynt.comEddie Falshaw also uses he/him pronouns and is a New Orleans boy at heart. Growing up playing all sorts of sports including soccer, cross country, track & field, and even tackle football… he then turned to the arts and found his path. He went on to attend the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), then continuing his education at Elon University's B.F.A. Music Theatre Program. When he's not acting, he loves playing acoustic guitar, making music, rock-climbing, and much much more. Instagram: @eddiefalshaw_Website: https://eddiefalshaw.com

(from New Orleans Center for the Gulf South website) Women and Movement #7: Agitators, Policymakers, and Dismantlers in New Orleans October 08, 2020 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM Uptown Campus Featuring Lisa D. Alexis, Jennifer M. Williams, Hannah Kreiger-Benson, Angela Tucker Women and Movement #7: Agitators, Policymakers, and Dismantlers in New Orleans will be a panel of women who are at the intersection of affecting change in New Orleans cultural policy. All three panelists and moderator have shifted, dismantled, and agitated calcified understandings of the status quo with regards to cultural policy and the New Orleans cultural climate. Panelists include the following: Lisa D. Alexis, Director of Mayor Latoya Cantrell's Office of Cultural Economy New Orleans; Jennifer M. Williams, DismantleNOMA and Alternate Roots; Hannah Kreiger-Benson, Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans. This event will be moderated by Angela Tucker, filmmaker and Tulane professor. The Women and Movement series is designed to collectively engage women scholars and artists from across the gulf south region to take part in discourse about place, performance and the social-political issues that transform their bodies, art, language, and greater community. This program is in conjunction with Imagining America 2020 Collective Creative Engagement: Through Tumultuous Times: Reimagining and Rebuilding ‘America’. Zoom Link: https://tulane.zoom.us/j/97722942901 For more information, please contact Regina Cairns at 504-314-2854 or rcairns@tulane.edu. For more information on Imagining America, please visit imaginingamerica.org. New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University For more information contact: Regina Cairns via email to rcairns@tulane.edu or by phone at 504-314-2854 Tickets are Not required

As one of New Orleans’ most-in-demand artists, saxophonist, educator, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Khari Allen Lee has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Alvin Batiste, Ellis Marsalis, Edward 'Kidd' Jordan, Aaron Neville, Aretha Franklin, Dr. John, Branford Marsalis, Allen Toussaint, DeeDee Bridgewater, Stevie Wonder, Terence Blanchard, the Treme Brass Band, Leah Chase, Herlin Riley, the Astral Project, Shannon Powell, Wes ‘Warmdaddy’ Anderson, Jason Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Bill Summers, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Barron & more. He is lead saxophonist & touring member of Delfeayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra directed by Adonis Rose, and is presently on the faculty at the University of New Orleans following his extended tenure at the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). As leader, Khari Allen Lee & the New Creative Collective have released three albums, Conscious Evolution (2012), Our Great Awakening (2014) & A New Earth (2016), all to enthusiastic praise. In 2015, he was chosen as newest artist endorser of the family of Jody Jazz Mouthpieces,& in 2017 was chosen as newest artist ambassador for the family of Rovner Ligatures.Read more of his bio hereIf you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests.For show notes and past guests, please visit dougstonejazz.com/podcast-1Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the sponsor formDiscover Doug’s music: dougstonejazz.com/musicInstagram: instagram.com/dougstonejazzsaxophoneFacebook: facebook.com/dougstoneBoston Sax Shop

WTUL was joined by Denise Frazier, Assistant Director of New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane Unviersity, to talk about an upcoming virtual discussion between Edward Ball and Dr. Lydia Pelot-Hobbs on Ball's sixth book of non-fiction called Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy. The discussion will take place on August 6, 2020 at 6pm. For more info and the event link, email gulfsouth@tulane.edu. Other upcoming events/opportunities hosted by New Orelans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 6:00PM CT LIFE OF A KLANSMAN: A FAMILY HISTORY IN WHITE SUPREMACY DR. LYDIA PELOT-HOBBS in conversation with EDWARD BALL THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 6:00PM CT KATRINA: A HISTORY, 1915-2015 VANN R. NEWKIRK II in conversation with ANDY HOROWITZ Deadline October 1, 2020 MONROE FELLOWS RESEARCH GRANT OCTOBER (more info to be announced soon) WOEMEN AND MOVEMENT Also in this episdoe: Counterspin with Alex Main on Bolivia Coup, Carol Anderson on Voter Suppression

Discussion Topic: A Colorful and Cultural Conversation about New Orleans' Social, Aid and Pleasure Clubs (SAPC) Author, Artist, Producer, Founder, and Host of TheRhyze! Podcast, Naje Badu, sits down with Author Karen Celestan, to discuss her beautiful, recently released photo essay book titled, Freedom's Dance - Social, Aid, and Pleasure Clubs in New Orleans, collaborative project with noted photographer Eric Waters. Brief information about the wonderful souls featured in this segment (more to be shared in each segment): (Host) Naje Badu - Artist, Author (Let Go Of Your But! A Women's Guide to Self-Love and Fulfillment) and Creativity Coach who has 25+ years of experience with project management and product development. (Guest) Karen Celestan - Executive writer-editor in University Advancement and a former adjunct professor of English at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. She managed the Music Rising program in the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University, was an adjunct instructor of English at Southern University at New Orleans, and a freelance entertainment writer for the New Orleans Advocate. References: Take Action Now Drop by TheRhyze! Website to contribute your ideas, thoughts, feelings, and solutions that can move the Black Community and the Movement for Equality forward. Take Action Now Reach Out To TheRhyze!: Facebook: TheRhyze! Features Facebook: TheRhyze! Group Page Instagram: @TheRhyze Twitter (for live interaction) @TheRhyze Website: TheRhyze.com Email: Rhyze@TheRhyze.com Reach Out To Our Guest: Facebook: Karen Celestan LinkedIn: Karen Celestan --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/therhyze/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/therhyze/support

Speaking of the Arts welcomes NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis and Epstein & Company's own Marie Le Claire. In this episode, we talk to Delfeayo to hear more about his new album JAZZ PARTY and what he has been up to during quarantine. Listen as Delfeayo speaks in depth about the conception for his Uptown Jazz Orchestra and the unique approach they take to each show. For the better part of a decade, acclaimed trombonist, producer and composer Delfeayo Marsalis has spent Wednesday nights at the helm of his sprawling Uptown Jazz Orchestra’s residency at Snug Harbor in New Orleans. With Jazz Party, Marsalis’ seventh album as a leader, he delivers an original composition-heavy set of music that showcases the same exuberant energy of those shows, complete with modernized twists on New Orleans songbook gems and musical traditions, and swinging, groove-infused homages to the contributions of modern jazz masters. Spiked with the NEA Jazz Master’s wry wit and visionary production acumen, Jazz Party sees Marsalis – along with Roger Lewis, Terrance Taplin, Khari Lee, and more of the Crescent City’s finest musicians – making a strong musical case for the notion modern New Orleans jazz can and should be as celebratory in nature as it is cerebral in execution. Over the course of his prolific career, trombonist, composer, producer, educator and NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis has been hailed as one of the “most imaginative...trombonists of his generation,” a title that reflects decades of musical exploration, preparation and risk-taking, much of which began during his childhood in New Orleans, where his father, Ellis Marsalis, introduced him to jazz in the family home. Eventually, Delfeayo says, he “gravitated toward the trombone,” which felt like “an extension of my personality.” He was simultaneously developing his ear for music production after his brothers, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, piqued his interest in the process, which he continued to develop while producing their demo tapes and interning at Allen Toussaint’s Sea Saint Studio. He’s gone on to produce more than 100 recordings for artists including his brothers, his father, Spike Lee, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and others. An exceptional trombonist, Delfeayo has toured internationally with bands led by Art Blakey, Slide Hampton, Abdullah Ibrahim, Max Roach and Elvin Jones, as well as his own groups. Delfeayo recently served as Music Producer for the film “Bolden!,” a mythical account of the life of Buddy Bolden, and has worked extensively in arts education. He holds a master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Louisville and an honorary doctorate from New England College. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Jessica Antes is an actor, writer, and teacher. She is a Chicago native with a BA in Film & Video from Columbia College Chicago, as well as a graduate of the Second City Training Center's Conservatory, Comedy Writing Program, Music Conservatory and iO Chicago. She teaches many classes to both children and adults at the Second City Training Center in Chicago, which include: Intro and Advanced improvisation, Comedy Writing, Improv for Anxiety, Improv for Parkinson's, Improv for Seniors, Making the Improvised Musical, and various artist in residencies at schools in the Chicago land area. She has also taught special Improv workshops at The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Act Out Academy in Birmingham, Alabama. Jessica is a co-creator of a comedy training program called S.H.E. Camp (Sisterhood Humor & Empowerment) that focuses on empowerment and encouraging girls and young women to develop their own unique artistic voice. When she's not teaching, Jessica performs with her improv team, Daffodil, at iO Chicago and her sketch groups Just the Tip, The Comic Thread and Half & Half. Lastly, when comedy isn't consuming her life, she likes to hang with her dog, Hobbes, and cook a delicious meal. http://www.jessicaantes.com/about-jessica.html https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaantes/ 1:48 Jessica's college story & how she got into teaching/improv/comedy 10:21 Why it's important to have a girls' comedy camp 16:46 Jessica's goals 25:12 How Jessica's family reacted to her career path 28:06 Does Jessica's work feel like “work”? 30:40 Can “funny” be taught? 32:34 Who is Jessica's target clientele/audience 44:35 Comedians pushing boundaries of being politically correct 49:44 Advice for aspiring comedians 52:21 What to expect from Jessica in the future

 Conversation Starters USA Today Article to jumpstart the conversation: https://www.usatoday.com/maternal-mortality-harm-hospital-database/ USA Today Article: Hospitals blame moms when childbirth goes wrong. Secret data suggest it's not that simple. - https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/deadly-deliveries/2019/03/07/maternal-death-rates-secret-hospital-safety-records-childbirth-deaths/2953224002/   Socials FB - https://www.facebook.com/asabibirthservices/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/asabi_birth_services/ Web - asabibirth.com  Notes What is a pregnancy related death? Not only does it include the death of the mother and child during delivery, but the timeframe from birth up to 1 year and all the complications that can culminate during that time frame. Black women are 3-4 times more likely to experience death from childbirth 60% of these childbirth related deaths are preventable 3 Main Categories Social Implications via Racial Discrimination Physical Weathering What should parents look for to understand what's at stake during pregnancy? Why a birth plan is important. Why Angie refers to herself as a silent ninja! The hardest thing a mother has to plan for. What is a Maternity Coordinator? Post Partem Classes Breast Feeding Classes Advanced Women's CareWhat is a nurse mid wife? Understanding the affects of gestational diabetes on African American women How are we looking at Black Women's wellness as a whole? How convenience is jeopardizing women's health during pregnancy  Black on Black on Black on Black Segment The importance of supporting, sharing, and showing up as a black business owner Angie sheds light on myths about the Black Business community and talks about supporting up and coming Duala's Hear what Angie is curious about and striving for. (A hint, it relates to putting together an army of black women for the cause)!  Assumptions about Angie and her business  Community Resources: March of Dimes - https://www.marchofdimes.org/giving/support-march-of-dimes.aspx La Leche League of Florida - http://www.lllflorida.com/lalecheleague/home/ LEAPS Post Partum Support Group - Meets at Ever'man Groceries Educational Center. - https://www.everman.org/events Black Midwives Alliance - International - https://blackmidwivesalliance.org Black Douala's Association - https://blackdoulas.org Melanin Motherhood - Local. Founded by Angela West. - asabibirth.com  ReferencesModern Grandmother of Birthing's - Penny SimkinBooks What is a Doula Pregnancy in Childbirth - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079L64ZT8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1 Bio Angela is a birth doula, spiritual mentor, life and holistic coach and founder of Asabi Birth Services.  In her role, Angela practices, educates and seeks to promote all aspects of Black wellness, through birth, spirit and life coaching.A big believer in community, Angela supports black entrepreneurship, community development projects and cultural, educational programs.She is a qualified birth doula who completed certification studies with Commonsense School of Midwifery and Doulas of Northern America (DONA).  Angela is no stranger to hospitality, having spent 10 years as a server trainer and fine dining expert, which taught her the importance of patience and communication. Prior to starting her coaching and consulting business, Angela spent several years as a classically trained musician. She studied piano from the age of 3 and completed accelerated music programs which include, New Orleans Center of Creative Arts (NOCCA), Loyola University and University of West Florida. While studying towards her vocal music education degree, she performed in several musical theatre productions which include Little Shop of Horrors, Once on This Island, and Into the Woods.Before joining Navy Federal Credit Union in 2018, Angie worked three years at a 30-year-old, Pensacola-based non-profit organization, the African American Heritage Society, Inc (AAHS). Her job titles with the organization include: Office Manager, Program Coordinator and Executive Director.   In her role, she initiated several grant writing opportunities which funded the AAHS Heritage Scholars Summer Program, and the popular Foo Foo Festival: Storyteller's Circle Series. During her service with the organization, she collaborated with numerous organizations which include the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network (FAAHPN), Florida Humanities Council, University of West Florida Archeology, Escambia County Commissioners, Arts, Culture and Entertainment, Inc. She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, the National League of Professional Women, Doulas International, Inc. and The Black Business School. In her free time, Angela enjoys crafting, gardening, singing, organizing and reading. Angela currently resides in Pensacola, FL with her husband Kimathi, son Jelani, and dog, Russo.  

Interview with Denise Frazier and Maura Sullivan about the third annual Tulane Indigenous symposium--NOW POSTPONED TO MARCH 2021. https://www.tunicabiloxi.org/third-annual-new-orleans-center-for-the-gulf-south-indigenous-symposium/ (from Tulane bios) Denise Frazier is assistant director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. A scholar, educator, violinist, and Gulf South native, she describes herself as “fascinated by this region,” and “enthusiastic to work with other people who are excited to discuss it as well and put it in a larger and more global context.” Denise earned her Master’s and PhD in Latin American Studies from Tulane, and now serves on the program committee of Tulane’s indigenous symposium. Maura Sullivan is a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, Ph.D. Student in Linguistics and fellow in the Tulane Mellon program in Community Engaged Research here at Tulane University, and a member of the Indigenous Symposium program committee as well.

SOTA host Gabe Barcia-Colombo, visited the Big Easy this week to experience LUNA FÊTE, New Orleans' public festival of light, art, and technology. Produced by the New Orleans Arts Council, LUNA FÊTE first emerged in 2014 as a celebration of New Orleans creative industries. Now in it's sixth iteration, Gabe had the opportunity to speak with Lindsay Glatz, New Orleans Arts Council Creative Director and Curator of LUNA FÊTE, as well as two participating artists, Camille Grosse, and Courtney Egan. -About LUNA FÊTE-LUNA Fête is a visionary initiative created by the Arts Council New Orleans to demonstrate the power of art to transform communities. This free and open to the public festival of light, art, and technology celebrates New Orleans creative industries and provides a memorable experience for diverse event attendees. Since its 2014 inception, LUNA Fête has presented some of the top light and projection-based artists in the world, while simultaneously providing training to local artists to advance their capabilities to create large-scale and interactive art animated with light. More than 200 New Orleans artists and 60 youth have advanced their technical and artistic skills through this unique educational opportunity.-About Lindsay Glatz-Lindsay joined the Arts Council in 2009 after serving as a Senior Communications Strategist for Deveney Communication where she managed communications efforts for the collective New Orleans Tourism Industry following Hurricane Katrina. With a commitment to social innovation, she has served as a Propeller consultant assisting in the launch of Birthmark Doula Collective and Where Y’Art. Lindsay holds degrees in Journalism & Mass Communications and Leadership Studies.Learn more at https://www.artsneworleans.org/about/staff/-About Camille Grosse-Camille Gross is a french visual designer born in 1984. Art passionate since her childhood, she studied at l’ESAT in Paris, where she graduated in section scenography in 2008. The same year, she worked with a french artist video with whom she collaborate for 4 years on international light projects.Freelance since 2012, she collaborates regulary with the french agency Cosmo Av on various projectsLearn more at http://camillegross.com/-About Courtney Egan-Courtney Egan’s projection-based sculptural installations mix botanical themes with shards of technology. In 2010 she presented a solo show, “Field Recordings,” at Heriard-Cimino Gallery in New Orleans. Recent group shows include “Louisiana Contemporary” at the Ogden Museum of Art, “Uniquely Louisiana” at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art, “NOLA Now II” at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, “The World According to New Orleans” at Ballroom Marfa, and “Frontier Preachers,” at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis. Her work has been featured in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, OxfordAmerican.com, PelicanBomb.com, Artforum.com, and in The Gambit. Courtney has also screened short films at many festivals, including the New Orleans Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, New York Underground Film Festival, MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, Kasseler Dokumentarfilm & VideoFest, and the Black Maria Film Festival. Courtney was an artist-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute and at Louisiana Artworks in New Orleans. She is a founding member of the New Orleans-based visual arts collective Antenna.Courtney holds an M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art. She taught art and media in elementary, secondary, and college classrooms since 1991. Courtney is currently a Media Arts faculty member at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Learn more at http://www.courtneyegan.net/project-type/video-sculpture-installation/

Kesha McKey is a New Orleans based choreographer, the artistic director of KM Dance Project and the chair of the Dance Department at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.  She recently received NEFA’s National Dance Project award for her latest work Raw Fruit and an invitation to the Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative.  Visit Mondo Bizarro for more information and to donate. Our theme music is by Rotary Downs. 

Skye Jackson was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds degrees from LSU and Mississippi College School of Law. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop where she currently serves as an Associate Poetry Editor of Bayou Magazine. She also co-edited The Portable Boog Reader, an instant anthology of poetry based in New York City with a focus on New Orleans writers. Her work has appeared in the Delta Literary Journal and Thought Catalog. Her prize-winning chapbook, A Faster Grave, was published in May 2019 by Antenna Press. She has taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and currently teaches at the University of New Orleans. My chapbook can be purchased in New Orleans at Antenna Gallery, Paper Machine, Garden District Book Shop, Malvern Books in Austin, TX or online at www.antenna.works. Upcoming events: On Friday, November 22nd 2019, I will be featured at the New Orleans Words and Music Literary Festival, as part of the late night literature session, "Poets Respond to Gentrification." Originally aired on September 28th 2019.

Christian is back in the Red Room for Ep. 70 of We Don't Even Know.  Shonali and Christian can't help but spread the word of the phenomenal soul r&b pop hip hop artist Lizzo after seeing her live show just a few days earlier. We quickly move from self-love to self-mutilation - you sort of could call it that - waxing is not so popular these days is it? That's the question.  Bushes are back in  - well that's what Shonali thinks.  Shonali and Christian's first guest is writer Jamela Zahra (@ 00:12:35).  She explodes on to the podcast with an unpleasant waxing story.  Jamela grew up with MTV and always wanted to be a VJ. Her dream was to kick a blunt with Janet Jackson.  We believe that dream will come true.  Jamela has a website called HighHowAreYou.com geared to women who smoke cannabis, especially women of color.  Jamela's ultimate goal is to break down the stigma of smoking pot for black people.  After saying she herself should have her own brand of weed, she confessed she would like to have her own cookie company.  Mackenzie Besos if you're listening, we've found a good cause for you to support.     Our second guest is Kate Willett (@00:38:37) is from the Bay Area in Cali and Shonali has flashbacks of rope sandals, unflushed toilets to when she lived in Santa Cruz, CA.  Kate just made an appearance on Stephen Colbert which we will all get to see later this summer. Do you know what makes social media enjoyable? Kate has been spending time working on art she cares about, such as a book about contemporary masculinity with the working title "Good Guys."  We can't wait to read it.  The convo moves from deep hippie state to hookup culture - the good, the bad, the ugly. Kate is and has been doing great things including touring in India, China and Australia. Kate's brand of comedy in India blows Shonali's mind.  Check out Kate's special on Netflix!  We #GetItOffYourChest (@1:02:00) with WDEK's great friend Mike Stuto! Christian would like to have the ear of his periodontist.  Shonali explains what is supposed to happen in "the Quiet Lounge" at a spa.  Mike Stuto will not have it anymore with the pretentiousness of vinyl lovers, which means he's talking about Shonali.  Our last guest is writer, singer, rocker Lenny Zenith, (@1:13:28) originally from NOLA and currently a long time New Yorker.  As a kid, Lenny went to school at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts along with fellow students such as Wynton and Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. Lenny explains that even though his music has roots in new wave and punk rock, the aforementioned jazz artists were deeply influential on him, in terms of witnessing their talent, persistence and work ethic.  Lenny is transgender and shares with WDEK an inspirational story of transitioning as a 14 year old in New Orleans.  Lenny moved to NYC ready to rock and was a member of Jenifer Convertible, Tenterhooks and RZA.  Only recently has Lenny been recording under his own name, Lenny Zenith.  Lenny sings two of his songs during this episode, including a brand new unrecorded tune and one on his latest record What If The Sun called The Wish.   Thanks to our WDEK crew, Daria Huxley our photographer, Justin The Intern  - Justin Hall for our great intros, Ezana Million our sound engineer and Lori Schwarz our Red Room hostess and bartender! Special thanks to Lenny who sold CDs after the show with proceeds going towards trans people of color.  Thank you ALL! Follow us on all social media @wdekpodcast !  

Poet and educator Andy Young joins us for this segment of Figure of Speech to read from her latest chapbook, JOHN SWENSON DYNAMICRON, as well as from another project currently in progress. Andy Young is the author of four chapbooks, including John Swenson Dynamicron, just out from Dancing Girl Press, and a full-length poetry collection, All Night It Is Morning (Diálogos Press, 2014). She teaches at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Her work has recently appeared, or is forthcoming, in Waxwing, Southern Review, Ecotone, and Prairie Schooner. Her translations, with Khaled Hegazzi, are featured in the Norton Anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond. Originally aired on May 25th 2019.

Phillip Youmans is a filmmaker from the 7th Ward of New Orleans. He is this years Tribeca Film Festival winner for his feature film Burning Cane. Phillip was also rewarded for his cinematography picking up the Best Cinematography award. Remarkably he is only 19 years old meaning he wrote, shot and edited the film while in high school. As of this month Phillip just finished his first semester at NYU Film School making him the youngest director to have an official selection at Tribeca and also the youngest winner. Indiewire proclaimed Burning Cane to be the most exciting black film of 2019 so far. In his childhood, Phillip was first introduced to filmmaking as an actor, taking small roles in productions around New Orleans. This early exposure to working on sets ignited Phillip's desire to pursue the medium from behind the camera. Before high school, Phillip began writing, directing, shooting, and editing his own short films. During his high school years at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Phillip solidified his technical foundation of filmmaking in their media arts program. In his junior year, Phillip began work on his first feature film Burning Cane. Burning Cane, starring Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Jack Ryan, Tréme, Suits, Clemency) and executive produced by Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), speaks on the rigid religious convictions that govern the black community in the rural south and the cyclical nature of destructive behavior. His most recent video installation titled Won't You Celebrate With Me premiered with Solange Knowles' creative agency Saint Heron at the end of his senior year of high school; the instillation is showcase of black female unity in an alternative future. His latest short film Nairobi, also made with Saint Heron, is about a Harlem-based family of francophone West-African immigrants. Nairobi will premiere on their platform in the Spring of 2019. Furthermore, Phillip is in post-production for his documentary about the Grammy-nominated jazz musician Jon Batiste titled The Vanguard: Days with Jon Batiste. Set release in late 2019 in tandem with Batiste's latest album, the film follows Batiste and the Stay Human Band from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to their six night run at the legendary Village Vanguard.

Lara Naughton is a New Orleans-based writer, teacher and compassion trainer. With more than twenty years teaching and facilitation experience, she has worked with students K-12 as well as adults, and has led writing classes with people who have faced challenging circumstances, including homelessness, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, wrongful conviction, incarceration, and torture. She is a certified Compassion Cultivation Trainer through the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University School of Medicine, founder of the Compassion Program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, LA, and creative writing faculty member at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Salon, Guernica, Refinery29, Narratively, and Bustle, among other publications. Her writing also includes the documentary stage play Never Fight A Shark in Water: The Wrongful Conviction of Gregory Bright and memoir The Jaguar Man. Originally aired on April 6th 2019.

Original work from 4th year Creative Writing students from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Originally aired on December 15th 2018.

Jasen Weaver is a composer, educator, and world renown musician. He has performed with Donald Harrison, Jason Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis and many others. Jasen and I discussed the process of creating his debut album Voscoville as well as the importance of constant creation as an artist. We also explored the inner workings of the day to day life of a musician when taking on different roles. Enjoy the show. Contact Jasen Weaver Here: https://www.JasenWeaver.com Bio Jasen Weaver began playing the double bass at the age of 11. He first received training at programs like the New Orleans String Project and the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra (GNOYO). At the age of 13, he joined the jazz band at his middle school and began what would become a full time interest in music. By age 14, he was accepted into the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) as a member of the Jazz program. He later attended the University of New Orleans and graduated as a Jazz Studies major in 2012. Since then he has been privileged to play with many great musicians including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Herlin Riley, Donald Harrison, Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Adonis Rose and many others. He has also recorded with Dr. John, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (feat. Dee Dee Bridgewater), Jason Marsalis, The Session, Cliff Hines, Sasha Masakowski, and saxophonist Stephen Richard. He has performed internationally in Europe, Australia, Japan, Russia, Honduras, Barbados, Israel, South Africa and New Zealand. Jasen has also played at some of the most renowned jazz clubs and festivals in the world such as the Newport Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Jazz Showcase and Yoshi's. In addition to being a sideman, Jasen has been leading his own band since Summer 2012. The group is currently a sextet and has been featured on Saturday nights at Bacchanal Wine since Fall 2012, as well as many other venues in New Orleans such as Snug Harbor, The Prime Example, the Hyatt Regency and Gasa Gasa. He released his debut album, "The Voscoville" in March 2018 and will be performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in May 2018. Support this podcast

Today on The Working Artist Project Jason and I dive deep into the life and habits of the modern musician. We discuss a wide range of topics including, the cultural importance of music in New Orleans vs New York, family, business and most notably the drums! Whether you're a young musician looking for inspiration or a curious supporter of the arts, this episode is for you. I have a feeling you are going to enjoy listening to this one. Don't forget to hit the like button! Connect with Jason Here: http://jasonmarsalis.com/ Connect with us Here: http://secondlinearts.org Bio: From a tender young age, it was clear that Jason Marsalis had what it took to be great. Jason is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and his wife Dolores, and the youngest sibling of Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and their patriarch Ellis, comprise New Orleans venerable first family of jazz. Ellis and Dolores began to cultivate Jason's interest in music at age three, with the purchase of a toy set of drums. Jason is fond of telling the story of a game he and his parents would play with the drums. “When I was three, my parents bought me a toy drum set and the used to introduce me to an imaginary audience. They would say, ‘Ladies and gentleman introducing the fabulous Jason!' and I would come out and start banging away much to my parents delight. I too enjoyed it to the point that I started to go up to my parents unsolicited and say, ‘Dad, introduce me again!'” By age six, not only had Jason gotten his first real drum set, but he was also taking lessons from the legendary New Orleans drummer James Black. At age seven he was sitting in with his father's jazz group, as well as playingwith his trombonist brother Delfeayo. Jason was progressing so rapidly as a drummer that in 1984 his father started using him consistently on engagements. Jason was starting to become a seasoned road veteran before the age of nine, even traveling to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston for older brother Delfeayo's recital. Though Jason had also taken up violin at age five, drums remained his primary focus throughout his grade school years. However, in his last year living in Richmond, VA,it was as a member of a junior youth orchestra that he first discovered the percussion section. The following year, Jason gave up the violin and focused exclusively on percussion. In 1991, he auditioned and was accepted to the acclaimed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts High School (NOCCA). Throughout his high school years he continued to hone his skills by playing gigs with his father and brothers, as well as studying orchestral percussion techniques at the venerable Eastern Music Festival. Shortly after graduation from NOCCA in 1995, Marsalis ascended to the drum throne of a new group lead by virtuoso pianist and former sideman for Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts. Despite a demanding touring schedule with Roberts, Marsalis furthered his educational goals by attending Loyola University in New Orleans, as well as studying composition with notable classical composer, Roger Dickerson. While Marsalis made appearances with such international jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson and Lionel Hampton, he was visible on the New Orleans scene working with a diverse cross section of bands from Casa Samba (Brazilian), Neslort (jazz fusion) Summer Stages (children's theater), Dr. Michael White (traditional jazz) and many others. It was in 1998 that he co-founded the Latin-jazz group Los Hombres Calientes. While recording two albums with the group, Marsalis also produced two albums under his own name, Year of the Drummer (1998) and Music in Motion (2000), as well as producing reissues and current recordings of his father on their self-owned label, ELM Records. In 2000, Jason left the Los Hombres group to attain more focus with the Marcus Roberts trio. It was around that time the Marsalis started to play the... Support this podcast

On this week s show, we re going back to school for no ordinary education. We begin with Chef Jeremiah Tower, whose book, Table Manners, offers a 21st century guide to being a better host and guest. Jeremiah s lessons on etiquette and "techiquette" come from a decades long career owning and operating restaurants from California to Hong Kong. Then, we meet some of the students of Big Class, a literacy program in New Orleans that uses food as an entry point for creative writing projects. In 2018, they will become part of the 826 National network, founded by author Dave Eggers. We also take an in depth look at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts NOCCA and their flourishing Culinary Arts division the only chef s training program offered at the high school level in the nation. The program s inception was due, in no small part, to Chef Emeril Lagasse. We meet Emeril on NOCCA s campus for the backstory. After hearing so much about the program, we get to see it in action with Dana Tuohy, Culinary Department Chair, at the school s teaching kitchen. Next, we step outside to Press Street Gardens, an urban farm and outdoor learning laboratory on the edge of NOCCA s campus. We find manager Marguerite Green at the garden s gate. For the final stop on our tour of NOCCA s culinary program, we return to where we started Press Street Station, a working restaurant open to the general public. We meet Chef James Cullen to learn how the restaurant furthers the students s hands on education, as well as what you can expect to find on their menu. And we speak with Louisiana born blogger and writer Kelly Williams Brown, author of Adulting How to Become a Grown up in 468 Easy ish Steps. Kelly discusses her transition into adulthood and offers several pieces of advice on the subject, many of which pertain to the kitchen. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

This is a unique episode. This episode I'm the one answering all the questions. Noah Jackson interviews me about my recent pilgrimage to Africa. We had a compelling conversation about the extreme emotions that surfaced after returning to my ancestral home after a 400 year forced exile. Connect with me here http://www.DarrianDouglas.com Become a patron herehttps://www.patreon.com/DarrianDouglas Connect with Noah Here http://www.noahjacksonmusic.com/home-horizon/ Bio Jackson, Mississippi native Darrian Douglas has fashioned a successful music career with jazz groups throughout New Orleans and New York City. At age 11, Darrian began studying music at the Academic and Performing Arts Center under Dr. Perry Combs and several other inspiring music educators, including Alvin Fielder, London Branch and Chad Anderson. These musicians played a huge role in his early development and would also serve as his mentors. In 2008, Darrian moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he took over the drum chair in Ellis Marsalis's quartet. He stated, "I love playing with Mr. Marsalis; he allowed me to grow and explore the music without consequence." Darrian continued to play with Ellis until his departure from New Orleans in December 2012. Darrian is a rising star, drummer, composer, and band leader of The Session, a group comprised of unique characters he shared the bandstand with while playing in Jason Marsalis' vibe quartet. Darrian has performed in over 30 festivals worldwide. He has also performed at renowned venues such as The Kennedy Center, Herbst Theatre, Saenger Theatre, Aladdin Theater, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Snug Harbor, Smoke Jazz Club, and Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse. He has shared the stage with Wynton Marsalis, Victor Goines, Irvin Mayfield, Godwin Louis, Jazzmeia Horn, Brianna Thomas, Joe Temperley, Germaine Bazzle, Jessie McBride, Bob Cranshaw, Bria Skonberg and Ellis Marsalis. Darrian has recorded with Ellis Marsalis (Live at New Orleans Jazz Fest 2011), Greggory Agid (Mystery Blues), The Session (This Is Who We Are), Sam Zeanah Band (self titled), Bria Skonberg (TBA), Christina Perez (self titled), and Regeneration Brass Band (Body and Soul). In addition to performing, Darrian taught percussion classes at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Performing and teaching are two of Darrian's greatest passions! Darrian now resides in New York City where he is currently pursuing his music career. Support this podcast

Gregory and I discuss the complexities of love, life, art and success. His latest release entitled Words Are Not Enough places emphasis on the many faces of love or the lack thereof. We also have a great exchange about identity and community. Shining a spotlight on the role our communities play in our everyday lives. Connect with Gregory here https://www.gregoryagid.com/ Connect with Darrian here http://www.darriandouglas.com/copy-of-my-podcast Support The Working Artist Project here https://www.patreon.com/DarrianDouglas Bio Clarinetist Gregory Agid was born in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. He got his first clarinet at the age of seven—and when his family moved to New Orleans five years later, Agid discovered jazz. After attending Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp, where he learned from legendary musicians Alvin Batiste, Kidd Jordan, and Clyde Kerr, Agid was accepted to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Here, Batiste became his mentor. “Alvin Batiste once told me that the clarinet is also like a jealous mistress, and the moment you don't give her the attention she wants, she becomes spiteful and unruly,” Agid remembers. Agid's NOCCA classmates included Grammy-nominated trombonist and trumpet player Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Grammy-nominated trumpet player Christian Scott, and pianist Jonathan Batiste. In 2005, NOCCA awarded Agid a grant to study with clarinetist Eddie Daniels at Daniels' home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While earning his bachelor's degree in clarinet performance from Loyola University New Orleans, Agid dove into performing. In addition to playing alongside Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and Kristina Morales, he leads the Gregory Agid Quartet and performs regularly in the New Orleans area, Nationally, and Internationally. Agid graduated from Loyola in 2010, and released his debut album, Mystery Blues, in 2013. The following year, he completed his master's degree in music at the University of New Orleans. Agid's sophomore record, Words Are Not Enough, will be released winter 2016 Support this podcast

BLVK Samurai (AKA Charles Burchell) is a pillar of strength, love, and courage. His unique approach to life glows with a fluorescent hue. Harvard graduate, father, friend, musician, and love are all words that describe his journey and our conversation. I have a feeling you guys are going to love the topics and sounds explored on this episode of The Working Artist Project. Connect with BLVK Samurai here https://charlesburchell.com https://theloveexperiment.bandcamp.com/ Listen to the music below! https://soundcloud.com/wayofthesword Connect with Darrian here http://www.darriandouglas.com/ https://www.patreon.com/DarrianDouglas Bio Charles "BLVK SamuRai" Burchell is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, educator, and diplomat from New Orleans, LA. He has studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the New England Conservatory (B.M. '12) and most recently completed the Masters of Arts in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Ed. M '13). Burchell has recorded and produced albums with Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson, Delfayo Marsalis, Ran Blake, Ciel Rouge, and has performed and given master classes at various music festivals around the world. His band, The Love Experiment, released their self-titled debut album last year and have been featured on prominent music blogs such as 2dopeboyz. Burchell also works as a cultural diplomat with the Next Level Program and is currently a teaching artist for Carnegie Hall's Digital Music Production Workshop and Musical Connections Program in which he works with court involved youth and students from various boroughs throughout New York City. Burchell continues to perform regularly around the U.S. and internationally as a DJ, drummer, and bandleader. Support this podcast

In this episode of Confetti Park, Katy Hobgood Ray interviews Kid Chef Eliana de Las Casas, a New Orleans-based chef who is seriously one of the hardest-working kids around. Eliana has been cooking since she was four years old! Her interested hasn't waned over the years from those early days of watching her family elders make food in the kitchen. Now at 16 years old, Eliana has bloomed as a chef, as an entrepreneur, as a cookbook author and as a culinary personality. Eliana was born in Gretna and has a whole lot of cultural influences driving her style. She describes herself as a gumbo of Filipino, Cajun, Honduran, and Cuban. "My whole family taught me how to cook, everyone. We always loved being in the kitchen together and having huge family gatherings," says Eliana. "There would just be all kinds of different dishes at the table. I never wanted to leave the kitchen! I was never the kid to ask for toys. I always wanted something kitchen-related." Eliana’s mom is notable Louisiana children's author Dianne de las Casas, and she encouraged Eliana to start a food blog when Eliana was touring with her at book signings around Louisiana. From there, Eliana's abilities as a media mogul too grew! Soon Eliana was doing cooking tutorials for kids on Youtube, and before long she declared her intention to publish a cook book. She was only ten years old when her first cookbook came out; today Eliana has three published cookbooks: Cool Kids Cook: Fresh & Fit, Cool Kids Cook: Louisiana, and Eliana Cooks: Recipes for Creative Kids.  In this interview, Katy and Eliana dive deep into Eliana’s early inspirations and her current aspirations, which include launching her own line of spices. They also talk about some of Eliana’s adult mentors, such as New Orleans-based chefs Tory McPhail (Commander’s Palace), Chef Adolfo Garcia (Primitivo, RioMar) and Chef Ryan Hughes (Purloo). Today Eliana is a full-time student at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She takes traditional academic classes in the morning, and in the afternoon, she studies in a culinary arts program funded by the Emeril Lagasse Foundation. She is also a radio host! Every Friday at 6pm CT, listen to Kid Chef Eliana’s weekly radio show, Let’s Get Cookin’, on 102.3 FM WHIV. Learn more at http://www.kidchefeliana.com The Confetti Park radio show and podcast is supported by theNew Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Music Rising at Tulane University, and OffBeat Magazine.

On this week s show, we go back to school for no ordinary education. We take an in depth look at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts NOCCA and their flourishing Culinary Arts division the only chef s training program offered at the high school level in the nation. It wasn t until recently that the culinary arts discipline was added to the Institute s curriculum. The program s inception was due, in no small part, to Chef Emeril Lagasse. For the behind the scenes story of how the program got its start, we meet Emeril at Press Street Station on NOCCA s campus. Then, we walk over to the campus office of the NOCCA Institute s Executive Director, Sally Perry, who shares her insight into the conservatory s culinary program and the relationship between its students, their mentors and the community. After hearing so much about the program, we get to see it in action with Dana Tuohy, Culinary Department Chair, at the school s teaching kitchen. Next, we step outside to Press Street Gardens, an urban farm and outdoor learning laboratory on the edge of NOCCA s campus. We find manager Marguerite Green at the garden s gate. For the final stop on our tour of NOCCA s culinary program, we return to where we started Press Street Station, a working restaurant open to the general public. We meet Chef James Cullen to learn how the restaurant furthers the students s hands on education, as well as what you can expect to find on their menu. We re getting an edible education on this week s Louisiana Eats

Lara Naughton's The Jaguar Man (Central Recovery Press; July 12, 2016; 978-1-942094-20-3) explores her encounter with the stranger who raped her. Perhaps surprisingly, she doesn't want retribution, she wants him to heal. She writes, “I will always maintain that my right as a victim is that I get treated, and he gets treated.”   The Jaguar Man is about what happens when one incident changes your life, splitting it between before and after. On the fourth day of what Lara thought would be two weeks of bliss in Belize, she was kidnapped and assaulted by a man pretending to be a cabdriver. Held in the depths of the jungle—alone with the Jaguar Man—compassion was her only defense.   Compassion for her rapist.   Lara's survival and journey of healing is poignant, compelling, and exceptional. Bending the limits of reality, she uses myth and magical realism to process her experience. As Lara seeks a new understanding of herself, her lyrical, haunting prose reveals a belief that there is room for compassion—for self and for others—even in the midst of violence and fear.   Lara's journey has taken her from Los Angeles, where she began her career in education, to New Orleans, where she is the chair of the creative writing department at the famed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). In addition to teaching writing, she also leads mindfulness and compassion workshops in various and varied environments across the country, including within prisons. She has collaborated with the exonerated Gregory Bright, who spent more than 27 years in Louisiana's infamous Angola prison for a murder he didn't commit, to write a play, Never Fight a Shark in Water, which has toured the country.      

On this week s show, we go back to school for no ordinary education. We take an in depth look at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts NOCCA and their flourishing Culinary Arts division the only chef s training program offered at the high school level in the nation. It wasn t until recently that the culinary arts discipline was added to the Institute s curriculum. The program s inception was due, in no small part, to Chef Emeril Lagasse. For the behind the scenes story of how the program got its start, we meet Emeril at Press Street Station on NOCCA s campus. Then, we walk over to the campus office of the NOCCA Institute s Executive Director, Sally Perry, who shares her insight into the conservatory s culinary program and the relationship between its students, their mentors and the community. After hearing so much about the program, we get to see it in action with Dana Tuohy, Culinary Department Chair, at the school s teaching kitchen. Next, we step outside to Press Street Gardens, an urban farm and outdoor learning laboratory on the edge of NOCCA s campus. We find manager Marguerite Green at the garden s gate. For the final stop on our tour of NOCCA s culinary program, we return to where we started Press Street Station, a working restaurant open to the general public. We meet Chef James Cullen to learn how the restaurant furthers the students s hands on education, as well as what you can expect to find on their menu. We re getting an edible education on this week s Louisiana Eats

On Wed., January 13, 2016, the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University will host a panel on music as an agent in the continuing Civil Rights Movement and advancing cultural equity. The discussion will be led by Gianna Chachere, founder of The New Quorum in New Orleans, with Wall Street Journal jazz critic and writer Larry Blumenfeld, avant-garde jazz pioneer Wadada Leo Smith, and long time civil rights pioneer/activist Roxy Wright. In this episode of The Green Room, we hear from NOGCS director Rebecca Snedeker, Chachere and Blumenfeld about the work and the history of The New Quorum, which is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to bringing professional musicians and writers from across the globe to New Orleans for meaningful cultural exchange with local and regional artists. Blumenfeld and Wadada Leo Smith are both currently artists-in residence at The New Quorum, located at 2435 Esplanade. Learn more about The New Quorum residency programs and upcoming events, at the website new quorum.org. This piece is underscored with music by Wadada Leo Smith. Photo by Scott Groller.

MAGNETIZEDTerence Blanchard (trumpet) is one of the most important musician/composer/band leaders of his generation. His emotionally moving and technically refined playing is considered by many jazz aficionados to recall earlier jazz trumpet styles. Born March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, the only child to parents Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver Blanchard, a part-time opera singer and insurance company manager, the young Blanchard was encouraged by his father, Joseph Oliver, to learn to play the piano. In the third grade he discovered jazz trumpet when a big band, featuring Alvin Alcorn on trumpet, played at a school assembly. In his teens Blanchard attended the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, where he studied and played with saxophonist Donald Harrison. While performing with Lionel Hampton's big band, he studied for two years at Rutgers University under the tutelage of Paul Jeffrey and Bill Fielder.In 1982 Blanchard replaced Wynton Marsalis under his recommendation in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, working in that band up to 1986 as lead soloist and musical director. He then co-led a prominent quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison, recording seven albums for the Concord, Columbia, and Evidence record labels in five years, including a stirring in-concert tribute to the Eric Dolphy/Booker Little ensemble. In the '90s, Blanchard became a leader in his own right, recording for the Columbia label, performing on the soundtracks to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues, and composing the music for Lee's film Jungle Fever. In fact, Blanchard has written the score for every Spike Lee film since 1991, including Malcolm X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Inside Man, and the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for HBO. With over 40 scores to his credit, Blanchard and Mark Isham are the most sought-after jazz musicians to ever compose for film. In the fall of 2000, Blanchard was named artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Keeping up with his love of live performance and touring, Blanchard also maintains a regular studio presence, recording his own original music for the Columbia, Sony Classical, and Blue Note labels. Albums include The Billie Holiday Songbook (1994), Romantic Defiance (1995), The Heart Speaks (1996), the acclaimed Wandering Moon (2000), Let's Get Lost (2001), Bounce (2003), and especially Flow (2005), which was produced by pianist Herbie Hancock and received two Grammy nominations. Blanchard has been nominated for 11 Grammys and has won four in total, including awards for New York Scene with Blakey (1984) and the soundtrack A Tale of God's Will in 2007. In 2005, Blanchard was part of McCoy Tyner's ensemble that won the Grammy in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category for Illuminations. A quintessential sideman as well as leader, he has worked with prominent jazz players including Cedar Walton, Abbey Lincoln, Joanne Brackeen, Jay McShann, Ralph Peterson, Ed Thigpen, J.J. Johnson, Toots Thielemans, the Olympia Brass Band, Stevie Wonder, Bill Lee, Ray Brown, Poncho Sanchez, Dr. Billy Taylor, Dr. John, Lionel Loueke, Jeff Watts, and many others. Scarecrow Press published his autobiography, Contemporary Cat. By April of 2007, the Monk Institute announced its Commitment to New Orleans initiative, which included the relocation of the program to the campus of Loyola University in New Orleans, spearheaded by Blanchard. During 2007, the Monterey Jazz Festival named Blanchard Artist-in-Residence, and the festival formed a 50th Anniversary All-Stars ensemble featuring trumpeter James Moody, Benny Green, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott, and Nnenna Freelon. In 2008, Blanchard helped scored the hit film Cadillac Records. Signing with Concord Jazz in 2009, he released Choices -- recorded at the Ogden Museum of Art in Blanchard's hometown of New Orleans -- at the end of that summer. In 2011, he paid tribute to the innovative Afro-Cuban recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo by teaming up with Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez for the studio album Chano y Dizzy! In 2012, Blanchard returned to his film work by scoring the soundtrack to director George Lucas' WWII action/drama Red Tails.“I’ve always believed that in life, what you keep in your mind is what you draw to yourself.” That’s how trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchardexplains the title of his 20th album, Magnetic, which finds a stunning variety of sounds and styles pulled together by the irresistible force of Blanchard’s vision.That credo stems directly from Blanchard’s personal faith; raised in the Christian church, he has turned in recent years to Buddhism after meditating with Herbie Hancock while on the road with the legendary pianist. The idea of a spiritual magnetism “is a basic concept in any type of religion,” he says. “Both Christianity and Buddhism have forms of meditation - one’s called prayer and one’s called chanting. But it’s all about drawing on those things to help you attain enlightenment in your life at the same time that you’re trying to give back to the community.”Magnetic gives expression to that belief through the combined voices of Blanchard’s always-scintillating quintet. Its latest incarnation brings together longtime members Brice Winston (saxophone) and Kendrick Scott (drums) with pianist Fabian Almazan, who made his debut with the group on its 2009 album Choices, and its newest member, 21-year-old bass prodigy Joshua Crumbly. In addition, they’re joined by a trio of remarkable special guests: master bassist Ron Carter, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, and guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke.The vast array of approaches undertaken by that ensemble is striking, from the blistering bop of “Don’t Run” to the fragile ballad “Jacob’s Ladder;” the psychedelic electronic haze of “Hallucinations” to the urgent edginess of “Another Step.” As Blanchard says, “It’s a wide range of musical ideas that come together through the efforts of the guys in the band.”Magnetic marks Blanchard’s return to Blue Note Records, which last released A Tale of God’s Will, his triumphant 2007 requiem for his home city, New Orleans, in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. That harrowingly emotional song cycle is just one of many large-scale projects Blanchard has undertaken in recent years. Since first writing music for Spike Lee’s 1990 jazz-set movie Mo’ Better Blues, Blanchard has become a renowned film composer with over 50 scores to his credit, most recently the WWII drama Red Tails for producer George Lucas. This summer, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis will combine forces to premiere Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, an “Opera in Jazz” based on the story of the gay boxing champion Emile Griffith. This follows his recent score for Emily Mann’s Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.After the broad scope of such lofty undertakings, returning to a small group setting can be a challenge. “You get accustomed to having so many different colors at your disposal,” he says. “So I try to figure out a way to have as much diversity in everything that we play, the same expansive color palette as when you have an orchestra and voices.”One way that Blanchard expands his palette on Magnetic is through the use of electronics, creating an overdriven, electric guitar-like sound for his horn during “Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song” or brewing the mind-altering atmospherics of “Hallucinations.” The latter tune, though titled by Blanchard’s 14-year-old daughter, also touches on the lifelong spiritual search evoked by the album-opening title track and “Central Focus,” which was originally recorded twenty years ago on Blanchard’s album Simply Stated. “When chanting for meditation,” he says, “you can have those moments of reflection that will bring new ideas to you. Some people may not call them hallucinations, but I think they’re all related in some fashion.”Not every tune comes from such profound motives. The hard-bopping “Don’t Run” was written solely with the intention of allowing the band to joust with Ravi Coltrane’s soprano and Ron Carter’s mighty bass runs. The title was inspired by a taunt from Carter to Blanchard, asking only half-jokingly when the trumpeter would call on the legendary bassist’s services. “Stop running from me, man,” Blanchard recalls him saying, and when Carter speaks, you listen.Coltrane’s contributions, which also include a taut, powerhouse turn on tenor for “Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song,” came about simply because Blanchard was blown away by the saxophonist’s latest album, Spirit Fiction. “Ravi has developed a style and a sound that’s very unique,” Blanchard explains. “It’s an incredible feat given who his father was and what instrument his father played. But his being on my record has nothing to do with any of that; his being on my record is simply due to the fact that I love the way he plays.”The same goes for Benin-born Lionel Loueke, who first came to prominence through Blanchard’s quintet before becoming widely renowned as one of the most innovative guitarists and vocalists in modern jazz. “He’s a very unique talent,” Blanchard says. “Lionel always brings a certain spirit and energy to any project that he’s a part of.”Blanchard also readily sings the praises of his core group, which has been evolving over two years together to reach the deeply attuned point at which Magnetic finds them. “I’ve always appreciated the artistry of Brice and Kendrick,” he says of the band’s two veterans. “They’ve very seriously committed to developing their own unique styles of playing.”Of newcomer Crumbly, he says, “Josh is a young guy who’s very talented and brings a lot to the group.” And of Almazan, he continues, “Fabian has been growing by leaps and bounds. His harmonic knowledge has taken the band in interesting directions and he colors things in ways that I think are very fresh and forward-thinking.”So enamored is the bandleader of Almazan’s talents that he affords the pianist a solo spotlight, the captivating “Comet.” Almazan, Blanchard says, “plays with such grace and beauty. We did five or six takes and all of them were so beautiful that it was a hard to choose just one.”Each member of the group provides their own contributions to the album: Crumbly, the lovely and delicate “Jacob’s Ladder;” Scott, the forceful, rhythmically intense “No Borders Just Horizons;” Winston the lithe and intricate “Time To Spare;” and Almazan an “emotional roller coaster” dedicated to his mother, “Pet Step Sitters Theme Song,” which is later reprised as “Another Step.” “We had so much fun playing that tune that we just couldn’t leave it,” Blanchard explains. I thought it showed the diverse nature of the group, when you see the directions that it goes into, totally different from the first take.”In his role as mentor to his younger bandmates, Blanchard takes the mantle from his own onetime mentor, Art Blakey. Stressing the importance for young musicians to compose as well as improvise, Blanchard recalls the legendary drummer’s advice: “Art Blakey told us that composition was the path to finding your own voice. If you improvise, you don’t sit down and reflect coldly on what it is you’re playing because you’re moving so quickly onto the next thing. Whereas when you compose, you have to sit down and really contemplate what each note means and how you get from one to the next. That in itself will create a style.”Terence Blanchard’s own style continues to evolve and expand in exciting and compelling fashion. Magnetic is sure to capture listeners with an attractive power nearly impossible to resist.To Visit Terence Blanchard's website CLICK HERE

Join us this week as we welcome Pop/Rock/R&B music artist Kara Mann. Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, Kara has been performing since the age of seven in musical theater. She started songwriting at fifteen while attending The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. She is currently recording in Los Angeles. We will talk to Kara about her upcoming schedule, get a behind the scenes look at her music, play many of her latest new songs and ask her to share her efforts to support the troops. Please be sure to visit Kara Mann at http://www.myspace.com/karamann and spread the word. Fans are welcome to call in and chat live with Kara during the show. If you would like to participate in the live chat during the show, you must sign up on the show site first and then log in during the show. As always we will give shout outs to our deployed military listeners. Be sure to join us, Sunday June 5th 2011 at 4:00 PM EST! Our message to the troops....WE do what we do, because YOU do what you do.