Our New Orleans - A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast

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Our New Orleans -  A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast Rating: List Price: $18.98 Sale Price: $13.49 You save: $5.49 (29%) Buy Used From $12.50 Release Date:   2005-12-06 Sales rank:   16 Catalog:   Music ASIN:   B000BNTM0U UPC:   075597993424 EAN:   0075597993424 Binding:   Audio CD Release Date:   2005-12-06 Usually ships in 24 hours

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Songs List:

Yes We Can Can - Allen Toussaint World I Never Made - Dr. John Back Water Blues - Irma Thomas Gather by the River - Davell Crawford Cryin` in the Streets - Buckwheat Zydeco Canal Street Blues - Dr. Michael White Brother John Is Gone/Herc-Jolly-John - Wild Magnolias When the Saints Go Marching In - Eddie Bo My Feet Can`t Fail Me Now - Dirty Dozen Brass Band Tou` les jours ??`est pas la m??me - Carol Fran L`Ouragon - BeauSoleil Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans - Preservation Hall Jazz Band Prayer for New Orleans - Charlie Miller What a Wonderful World - The Wardell Quezergue Orchestra featuring Donald Harrison Tipitina and Me - Allen Toussaint Philharmonic Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with members of the New York

Product Description:

Hurricane Katrina may have devastated New Orleans and surrounding Gulf communities in 2005, but it was also a forceful reminder of the Crescent City`s world renowned status as the epicenter of much American musical heritage. This benefit album (all net proceeds will be donated to the local relief efforts of Habitat for Humanity, with a portion specifically set aside to provide housing for local musicians left homeless by the disaster) picks up that latter thread, a sometimes bittersweet reminder of how deepy ingrained, yet all-too-fragile, that cultural legacy really is. Allen Toussaint`s succulent reworking of his "Yes We Can Can" sets a rhythmic, optimistic tone that parallels his city`s own historical resilience, while Dr. John turns in a bluesy, laid-back "World I Never Made" that`s a sharp contrast to the flashes of anger he showed on Tab Benoit`s earlier benefit collection, Voice of the Wetlands. Irma Thomas gives a swampy, timely edge to Bessie Smith`s "Back Water Blues" while others pay tribute to the region`s history of gospel (Davell Crawford, Eddie Bo), indigenous cajun folk (Buckwheat Zydeco, Beausolei, Carol Fran) and legacy as the Birthplace of Jazz (vibrantly disparate contributions from Dr. Michael White, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the venerable Preservation Hall Jazz Band). The Wild Magnolias` medley "Brother John Is Gone/Herc-Jolly-John" is a joyous, African-rooted gumbo of musical possibilities, while Donald Harrison`s sax work with The Wardell Querzergue`s Orchestra`s on "What a Wonderful World" is a fine preamble for Toussaint`s elegiac solo piano rendition of "Tipitina and Me." Randy Newman`s closer, a melancholic new version of Good Old Boys` "Louisiana 1927," is a tribute to his own N.O. roots whose refrain--"Louisiana, they`re trying to wash us away"--is also a forceful, tragic reminder that history does indeed repeat. --Jerry McCulley

Reviews for Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast

Down But Never Out A wonderful mix of NOLA soul, R & B, Jazz and almost everything New Orleans, the Nonesuch release Our New Orleans just goes to show you that down does not necessarily mean out. The artists here are telling us that they and their music are still around, thanks, a fact most of us suspected would come to pass even through our shock and our grief at the horrible losses. The problem with many "benefit" albums that offer play lists of "various" numerous artists is that the bands usually cover a broad range of styles, and sometimes such divergent sounds crash headlong into each other. Worse, such efforts sometimes come off as trite, patronizing to their cause or even indifferent. Happily, this is not the case with Our New Orleans. The material, whether Jazz, Cajun, Creole, Rhythm & Blues, Gospel, Second Line or whatever, all have one common current running through their collective wires - the spirit of New Orleans. And the love if it. As others have pointed out, picking out a favorite from so many first-class tracks is next to impossible. Just because Irma Thomas happens to be one my favorite vocalists of all time, doesn`t mean there aren`t plenty of other first-rate performers here to make us jump around the room and celebrate. Celebrate what? I don`t know - celebrate those who made it, I guess, and give those who didn`t a real New Orleans tribute. From the familiar to the revelations (and there were a few revelations for me hiding in this album) all the participants give 1,000%. It wouldn`t be fair to single out any unless I mention that every performance is as heartfelt as it is hearty. One of the revelations for me (for I was not heretofore familiar with the singer or the song) was TOU` LES JOURS ??`EST PAS LE M??ME, a burning Creole bouncer by Carol Fran. And any album that proffers the song Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans is a winner in my book. Originally warbled by the great Billie Holiday to Louis Armstrong in the motion picture New Orleans (1947) I got chills when I noticed it was being performed here by the venerable Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Since the day Katrina hit, I have been singing snatches to myself in a kind of macabre search for the perfect New Orleans swan song. But of course, we always knew the survivors would bounce back... Do you know what it means To miss New Orleans And miss it each night and day Well I know I`m not wrong The feeling`s getting stronger The longer I stay away Miss those moss-covered vines The tall sugar-pines Where mockingbirds used to sing And I`d like to see the lazy Mississippi A hurrying about to spring The moonlight on the Bayous* Those Creole tunes that fill the air You know I dream about magnolias in bloom And soon I`m wishing that I were there Do you know what it means To miss those Red Beans When that`s where you left your heart And there`s one thing more I miss the one I care for More than I miss New Orleans *Billie Holiday sings this line as: "The Mardi Gras, the memories Of Creole tunes that fill the air" Our New Orleans is highly recommended! Who does the downtrodden blues better than New Orleans? This is a wonderful album. It collects the best sounds of the south under one roof for the healing of New Orleans. Listening to this, you feel like you are in New Orleans feeling thier pain and feeling like you can and should do something about it. This album will uplift you, and soothe you. It helps to remind America of the rich musical sounds that could come from no other place in the world than New Orleans. It reminds us why we love the place and why we should all treasure that beautiful land. Songs like Yes we can can will have you feeling peppy with its base player and snappy drummer and vocalist. The world I never made will make you feel like you are in a piano bar sippin iced tea in the heat of summer. Great album. Great. Great. Great. Beautiful, moving set and a great cause Somehow, despite being an extremely fervent admirer of Randy Newman, I`d become slightly jaded about "Louisiana 1927"...I`d heard it too many times, in too many crummy versions, to the point where it had become almost corny, a trope. With Katrina and its aftermath though, it lives again, and I am reminded what a brilliant and beautifully crafted piece of work it is. There`s a lovely, grief-laden take on it here... Although I`ve only listened to this once, the highlights that stood out are too numerous to neatly encapsulate here. But, having said that, listen for: the Donald Harrison sax solo on "Wonderful World", the forlorn Buckwheat Zydeco track, "Crying in the Streets", with great, wailing, sorrowful guitar work from Ry Cooder, and Irma Thomas`s take on Bessie Smith`s "Backwater Blues" (where`s Irma been lately?)...And oh, Dr. John`s weary, resigned "World I Never Made" and Allen Toussaint`s "Yes We Can Can", a perfect opening salvo - if you ask me, there can never be enough versions of that song in the world. Great music and a chance to do a good deed (all proceeds go to Katrina-related causes)? Sign me up, Coach!