The Music Of New Orleans Liner Notes

To a newcomer, New Orleans was one revelation after another. The beautiful oaks spreading over the streetcar line. Fascinating architecture whispering the city’s history in brick, stone and cypress. The food, all richness and intensity, different flavors coming together to make something new, surprising, fantastic. Heat, humidity beyond description, and one’s gradual acquiescence to it. A whiff of flamboyance in even the most basic things, from the elaborate filigree on a little shotgun house to the seasonings in a pot of red beans. The people at home in this world—warm, open, exuberant, creative, ready for a good time and unwilling to let one end.

And New Orleans Music. Real New Orleans Music. All over town, great musicians absolutely immersed in the moment, playing with a spirit of genuine improvisation, devotion to the groove, volatility of expression, wit, emotion, viscerality, melodic sense transcending their instrument or even the genre—Dixieland, swing and modern jazz, Blues, R&B, Funk, Swamp pop, Salsa—in the right hands, any of these boiled with vitality and possibility.

Matt Lemmler was raised on Caffin Avenue in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, down the street from Fats Domino. He and his brothers Richard and Michael, and their father Richard Sr., all played piano. The house was full of music.

"The piano was played all day long. It was like our own little world. We didn’t know other families weren’t doing the same thing."

As a teen, Matt began playing professionally with the masters and legends of the Crescent City. After years in New York and on the road, he returned to his hometown and built a successful life there as a respected musician, composer, bandleader and teacher. And there he might have stayed.

Volumes have been written about the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina, but nothing can prepare the visitor returning for the first time. A trip through the old familiar neighborhoods is shocking, even a year later. Some sections are relatively intact, but others lie in ruin. Driving through what remains of the Ninth Ward, on towards Chalmette or up towards the lake, is heartbreaking. Mile after mile of devastation, in every direction. Incomprehensible. Even though hope remains in some parts of the city, here, a way of life, a community, is simply gone.

Throughout history, significant events have influenced the dissemination of a region’s culture, cuisine, music, to the benefit of others. Eventually, we may see the aftermath of Katrina as a time of change in jazz music in many communities around America and even the world, as former New Orleanians build new lives in their new homes. This recording is an example of something good that has come from that enormous disaster.

When Matt came to Houston after Katrina, he found like minds, kindred spirits, and a special musical chemistry among the community of musicians. And, Houston gained an exciting, fresh voice on the scene. Tom Tollett, the proprietor of Tommy’s Seafood Steakhouse, has provided an excellent venue for these new musical relationships to develop. The listener can drop by on any jazz night, confident in the prospect of excellent nourishment for both body and spirit!

Any recording is just a snapshot of a moment, an unchanging representation of a fluid, ephemeral event (in this case even more than most). Go hear live jazz whenever you can! For a recording, however, this is a striking document that captures the spirit of creativity and freshness in Matt’s ensembles. Starting with songs from the canon of old popular tunes that jazz musicians have employed for decades, Matt and his bandmates transform them in surprising and pleasing ways. You may come to prefer these new versions over the originals!
David Evans (New Orleans saxophonist from 1984-1994)
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