Tonight, Sun. Sept. 2, 2007, at 8 ET, the PBS HD channel will rebroadcast our concert video, Deacon John's Jump Blues. with replays on Sept. 4 at 3 ET and on Sept 5 at 11 ET. We staged the concert as a live version of our studio CD, both of which are available in stores and at sites like iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby and other links found at www.deaconjohnsjumpblues.com. (Sorry about the shameless plug there but I do want people to hear the CD and see the concert video.) We shot it at the historic Orpheum theater in downtown New Orleans. The theater was probably built as part of the Radio/Keith/Orpheum (RKO) chain and was a relatively small house with great acoustics and architectural flourishes. The floodwaters filled the sub-basement and destroyed the wiring and floors. I think it's questionable whether it will ever be rebuilt. I hope so. 
(This is a shot of Deacon taking his final bows at the concert and the fantastic parquet floor of the stage is prominent in this photograph taken by Philip Gould.) We had a great crew on this concert shoot. We used the production truck from Mark Cuban's HDNet and I had David Niles of Colossalvision NYC in the truck calling the shots. David also helped me edit the show at his production facility in lower Manhattan. He is an amazing producer, director and videographer in his own right and his contribution to the look and sound of the final version of the concert cannot be overstated. David is a pioneer in high definition video and we were fortunate that he wanted to be involved in our project...(and he loves Deac and Teedy and the music!) One of the things we talk about in the film is how pop and mainstream artists "covered" the early records and released them with great success. While Allen Toussaint points out that writers like he and Dave Bartholomew didn't mind because they got writer's royalties, the original artists versions were overwhelmed by the pop versions. I used "Piece Of My Heart," the great Bert Berns ballad, as an example because the original by Erma Franklin is a masterpiece of soulful delivery. The best known version, by Janis Joplin, is not as good. But it was a smash hit and made her an icon, while Erma Franklin remains obscure. I probably should have used the Rolling Stones cover of Irma Thomas' "Time Is On My Side," because of the New Orleans connection, but "Piece Of My Heart" is better known.
The Stones cover of "Time Is On My Side" is not nearly as good as Irma's original, but it's nothing compared to their cover of "It's All Over Now" by the Valentinos. The original "It's All Over Now" is a fabulous, syncopated, upbeat record that had the most amazing time and groove. (Search iTunes for "It's All Over Now" and you'll see what I mean.) The Stones version is...er...theatrical. Cy (A great weekend of college football and the Pac-10 got a little payback vs. the SEC with Cal outplaying and beating Tenn in Berserkley.)
(This is a shot of Deacon taking his final bows at the concert and the fantastic parquet floor of the stage is prominent in this photograph taken by Philip Gould.) We had a great crew on this concert shoot. We used the production truck from Mark Cuban's HDNet and I had David Niles of Colossalvision NYC in the truck calling the shots. David also helped me edit the show at his production facility in lower Manhattan. He is an amazing producer, director and videographer in his own right and his contribution to the look and sound of the final version of the concert cannot be overstated. David is a pioneer in high definition video and we were fortunate that he wanted to be involved in our project...(and he loves Deac and Teedy and the music!) One of the things we talk about in the film is how pop and mainstream artists "covered" the early records and released them with great success. While Allen Toussaint points out that writers like he and Dave Bartholomew didn't mind because they got writer's royalties, the original artists versions were overwhelmed by the pop versions. I used "Piece Of My Heart," the great Bert Berns ballad, as an example because the original by Erma Franklin is a masterpiece of soulful delivery. The best known version, by Janis Joplin, is not as good. But it was a smash hit and made her an icon, while Erma Franklin remains obscure. I probably should have used the Rolling Stones cover of Irma Thomas' "Time Is On My Side," because of the New Orleans connection, but "Piece Of My Heart" is better known. The Stones cover of "Time Is On My Side" is not nearly as good as Irma's original, but it's nothing compared to their cover of "It's All Over Now" by the Valentinos. The original "It's All Over Now" is a fabulous, syncopated, upbeat record that had the most amazing time and groove. (Search iTunes for "It's All Over Now" and you'll see what I mean.) The Stones version is...er...theatrical. Cy (A great weekend of college football and the Pac-10 got a little payback vs. the SEC with Cal outplaying and beating Tenn in Berserkley.) 
and took the audio feed directly from the console in the studio recordings. When we first started the project, we wanted to illustrate the fact that many of the conventions of the rock and roll genre originated in NOLA. It's hard not to digress to Katrina tragedies
(this is a picture of recording engineer David Farrell showing where the floodwaters came in his studio, Ultrasonic) but a reader, Adrienne, asked for other examples of the influence of the musicians and performers at Cosimo's. In the film, Amadee Castanell, a great tenor man in his own right, talks about the "tone" innovations from the tenor players at Cosimo's. Lee Allen, Red Tyler, Herb Hardesty and others began to use a small-chambered metal mouthpiece to generate a more "cutting, biting" tone. He points out that during the big band swing era, tenor players used a large-chambered plastic mouthpiece (Amedee calls it a "Fat Boy,") to achieve the round, mellow sound of the big band sax sections and Lee Allen and his compatriots adopted the small-chambered metal mouthpiece to achieve the cutting tenor solos of early rock and roll. Amadee then demonstrates the "tone" difference using a Lee Allen solo from a Shirley and Lee record as an example. Lee and Herb and Red's tenor "tone" set the standard for rock and roll tenor solos and recordings that followed. There are other elements of NOLA music and culture that I'll talk about in future posts, but as Arthel Neville says tonight in wrapping the broadcast, NOLA is a real "gumbo." There are melting pots...and then there's New Orleans. What we hope to do with our film is to highlight the music, the food and the joie de vivre of the city's diverse populations and its Creole and African-American influences. Till next post... Cy (I wouldn't be true to the goals outlined in my first post if I didn't plug the fact that my LSU Tigers play their SEC opener on the road at Miss. State tomorrow night on ESPN. Tiger fans all over the USA are looking for an exciting season...Geaux Tigers!) 
Exciting things are happening in the world of Deacon John. On August 29, "Going Back To New Orleans, The Deacon John Film" premieres on Fox's MyNetworkTV at 8 ET. (Check local listings for time and channel.) Also, starting on August 29 the film will be promoted and available on AOL at AOL True Stories. I'll also be doing a blog here about the film, the people in it, the story of New Orleans music in the 50s and early 60s, the impact of Katrina (and other relevant topics like LSU football!) Then, beginning on Sept. 2nd, the PBS HD channel will replay "Deacon John's Jump Blues," the concert of music from the film, and the rotation is: 9/2/07, 9pm 
ET & PT, and on 9/4/07, 3pm ET, and 9/5/07, 11am ET. So I hope you'll tune in to the film and I hope you find it interesting and enjoyable. Those of us fortunate enough to have been at the concert of music from the film know how much we all enjoyed that night. And with all that's happened since, that night seems like a distant and much less complicated time.... 
In the days and weeks to come, I'll be talking about the points I wanted to make in the film especially how influential the writers and performers from this time and place were in creating the conventions of the genre of rock and roll. Like most American music, rock and roll is an amalgam of many cultures and places. But the seminal recordings made in New Orleans in the 50s by artists like Lloyd Price, Fats Domino, Little Richard and many others established some very important traditions and conventions of the genre. My favorite example is Earl Palmer, the drummer. Earl really "invented" rock and roll drumming. His solid backbeat on the 2 & 4, his syncopated bass drum licks and his staccato fills were from his own imagination...made up and made the standard to which all other recording and performing drummers aspired. So thanks to AOL for this forum and this opportunity to write about a subject very dear to me. My film features 2007 Grammy winners Irma Thomas and Cosimo Matassa, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dave Bartholomew, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John...those are some of the recognizable names but we also spotlight some lesser known and equally important writers, performers and producers. "Going Back To New Orleans" is history, it's musical anthropology, but most of all, it's great fun. I hope you enjoy the film and this blog... Cy