By John D'Aquila
tipitinas.com

(Photos by Jenny Bagert)

I was not surprised to see Mark Mullins wearing black as he entered tipitinas.com's offices for our Q&A session. Black togs are his custom.

And with his band Mulebone's new CD release, the critically acclaimed Only In New Orleans, not to mention a plethora of other important work, Mullins is clearly "in the black" musically.

Few musicians are as busy as Mullins. He plays with the Harry Connick, Jr. Big Band, with George Porter Jr. and His Running Pardners, from time-to-time with Better Than Ezra, Woodenhead, and his own projects Mulebone and Bonerama. It is a clear case of "have trombone, will travel."

In addition to his wealth of musical work, the 34-year old Mullins is a husband and a new father of a 20-month old son. As he settled in to talk about Only In New Orleans, it was evident that he is very pleased with his latest work. The CD has drawn rave reviews and he is ready to take it on the road to see what audiences have to say about it. But first, a CD release party at Tipitina's Uptown is on his agenda on Feb. 15.

Mulebone is comprised of Mullins on trombone, electric trombone and lead vocals, Jimmy Robinson on electric guitar and vocals, Mike Mayeaux on acoustic and electric guitars and vocals, Benji on electric and upright basses, and Mike Barras on drums...(to read more click here)

Sherman speaks in Tip's first online interview

The idea was to get Sherman Ewing online with MSN Instant Messenger so we could conduct Tipitina's first online question and answer session. Normally we do it the old fashioned way -- face-to-face. But Sherman lives in New York City and I in New Orleans.

"Why don't you just do it over the phone?" someone asks, incredulously.

"Because this is 2001, babe, and it is more websitey (I invented a word!) to do it online," was my reply.

So, here we were, on the phone, trying to get Sherman set up in MSN IM. So much for us being "websitey."

Sherman is a singer/songwriter scheduled to perform at Tipitina's Uptown on Oct. 26. He has quite a cadre of musicians playing behind him: JoJo Hermann, Anthony Krizan, Harold Brown, and Jimbo Walsh, who plays locally with a host of bands, including Michael Ray and Cosmic Krewe and is the conductor of the Naked Orchestra. The other guys either play with famous bands or have played with famous bands in the past, but I am not allowed to mention any of them. Let's just say they rhyme with Bridespread Kanic and Din Spoctors, and one of them is "raW" spelled backwards....(to read more, click here)

Tim Green: A saxophone sideman nonpariel
Tim Green arrives at Tipitina's 8th Floor Studio on time, an anomaly as musicians go. I comment on it and he smiles, saying timeliness, or lack thereof, is something he has never understood about his music brethren. I explain it is something we are accustomed to and thank him for being on time.

For those of you who do not know Tim Green, well, he is arguably the finest saxophone player in town, and one of the most sought after musicians around the country for both session work and gigs.

The quintessential sideman, Green currently plays with more than 20 bands, and has performed on more than 50 recordings with local, regional, national and international acts. He has done all this rather quietly, without the fanfare many musicians of his ilk garner.

In addition to being a top-notch musician, Tim Green is a fine man who has dedicated himself and continues to dedicate his time to a host of worthy causes. He serves and has served on a bevy of boards, everything from music foundations, to foundations for the blind and homeless people. For 8 years he served as the General Manager for WRBH 88.3 FM, Radio for the Blind and Print Handicapped, and is directly responsible for building the station's state of the art studio on Magazine St.

His work at WRBH and the many boards he served on earned him President George Bush's 257th Point of Light.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Green has lived and worked in New Orleans for more than half his 44 years, so much so that he considers himself, and rightly so, a New Orleanian.

Although he did not pick up his first saxophone until he was 19 years old, Green is clearly a prodigy. He was gigging, literally, within weeks of buying his first horn from a pawn shop and studied briefly at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts before forging ahead with his music career.

A prodigious worker, Green, like two of his revered predecessors - John Coltrane and John Gilmore - has honed his skills with countless hours of practice. There is seldom an hour in the day when Green his not playing his horn.

Our interview on at 8th Floor Studios took nearly 3 hours to complete as Green told the story of his music sojourn, which is filled with so many twists and turns he is wont to believe that only God could have orchestrated such a life....(to read more, click here)

Space is still the Place for cosmic Michael Ray
I am on my way over to interview Michael Ray at his girlfriend's house wanting to kick myself. When setting up the interview I had forgotten to ask him to bring his trumpet. I arrive at the Grand Route St. John residence of "Starlyte" and when she answers the door I immediately recognize her from Eluard Burt & Company's Jazz & Poetry Performance Troupe.

She lets me in and the first thing I see is his distinctive red-leather trumpet case sitting on a chair. There is a piano in the front room, as well. I begin to relax. Before the interview is over, he will play them both.

Michael walks into the front room wearing a blue tank top, stone-washed blue jean shorts and sandals. I hardly recognize him without his flowing Cosmic Krewe regalia.

For those of you who do not know Michael Ray, he is a disciple of Sun Ra, one of the most influential avant-garde jazz musicians of the 20th Century. Although Sun Ra passed away in 1993, the Arkestra still survives and Michael is a staple there and Space is still the Place for Sun Ra and his deciples. He also played, and still tours, with Kool & The Gang, the popular disco/R&B band of the 1970s and 1980s, not to mention his own band, Michael Ray & Cosmic Krewe, a very popular group around New Orleans and various parts of the country.

But, his impressive 25-year resume also includes gigs and recordings with the rock-phenomenon Phish, not to mention Aquarium Rescue Unit, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Widespread Panic, Porno for Pyros, Col. Bruce Hampton, and Deep Banana Blackout. His early resume, before Sun Ra, includes the likes of Patty LaBelle, The Delfonics and The Stylistics.

But it was with Sun Ra's Arkestra that Michael Ray's considerable musical education began. And that is where we will begin....(to read more click here)

Ricki Comeaux talks about writing, Big Brother and an angst to make it
It is a blazing hot July day, the sun baking the downtown New Orleans streets like a calzone under a heating lamp. I am scheduled to interview singer/songwriter Ricki Comeaux at 3 p.m. I am early and searching for the address, the blacktop like hot coals under my ankle boots, sweat pouring down my face in coursing rivulets.

I hear a voice but can't locate it…it is very faint. Finally a man on the street hails me and points to an upstairs window where Ricki's friend Kelly leans out, an inquisitive look on her face.

"Are you here to do Ricki?" she asks.

"Well, so to speak," was my tongue-in-cheek rejoinder. We both have a brief laugh.

Kelly comes downstairs to collect this sweating hulk and informs him that Ricki and Gia (her good friend) will be late…albeit fashionably so.

The apartment is spacious, more of a flat or loft-style dwelling, decorated in an art deco motif…lots of Andy Warhol pieces on the walls, plus a Roy Liechtenstein print from the Guggenheim doggedly overlooking the kitchen. A circa-1941 divan (bought in a garage sale in Florida and recovered in lime-green canvas) sits in the middle of the living room, a lazy black and white cat napping on it. A couple of surfboards lean up against the wall.

Ricki and Gia arrive with a bottle of white wine, apologizing for their
tardiness, Ricki complaining of a fierce hangover. Ricki, as is her wont, is attired in black, a stark contrast to her fair skin and bleached hair, accentuated with startling yellow eyes. She is slender and has a raw beauty about her that often keeps her audiences mesmerized. She is a bundle of energy, despite the hangover.

She sits on the divan next to the cat, picks up her guitar and begins to tune it. I request my favorite Ricki Comeax song -- "Coffee Cup," an upbeat, up-tempo rant about life.

"Oh, that's an old one…no problem, that's easy," she says, and begins playing and singing, her rich voice reverberating throughout the spacious flat. She is a passionate performer who embraces her audiences with a stage presence rooted in an acting background.

When she is finished she gushes: "Don't you just love the acoustics here? It is just like singing into a microphone." Then just as quickly changes the subject: "God, I am hungover. Let's go get a drink at the W (Hotel). I need a Bloody Mary."

We all stomp over the W, which is a perfect compliment to the flat and have a round of drinks that cost $40. Hey, they were good drinks!

Finally, back at the flat, Ricki is ready to be interviewed. She is animated and candid, talking about everything from an upcoming CD, her burning desire to "make it," her love of performing, her prolific songwriting, her appearance as a finalist for the Big Brother television show, and her road from Lafayette to New Orleans and, perhaps, beyond...(to read more, click here)

Shane Theriot: A Q&A with the Neville's "Ax Man"
Shane Theriot arrives clutching a new, custom-made guitar he is yearning

to show off. He pulls it out of the case to show us -- it's purple.

"Wow, not so close," someone says, "I might get blinded."

"I've always wanted a purple guitar," Theriot chortles, who granted tipitinas.com this exclusive Q&A session.

In essence, and oddly, the purple guitar fits the squeaky clean 30-year old Theriot, who is the lead guitarist for the first family of funk, the Neville Brothers. Don't be fooled by his choirboy looks. When it comes to playing the guitar, Theriot is a killer -- a phenomenal player and a skilled performer.

Theriot cut his musical teeth in sleepy Raceland, 30 miles south of New Orleans, studied guitar at the highly-acclaimed Musicians Institute of Los Angeles, taught at the prestigious Atlanta Institute of Music, honed his playing skills in Nashville doing both recording sessions and gigs with a lot of big names, and has toured and recorded with the Neville Brothers for five years.

Recently, Theriot completed a side project, Highway 90, his well-received CD and is currently working on his new CD with the likes of Johnny Vidocavich, Russell Batiste, Cyril Neville, among others.... (to read more, click here)

A Q & A with the funkiest bass man on the planet

(George Porter, Jr. recently granted tipitinas.com an extremely candid and exclusive question and answer session.)

We arrive at George Porter's house a few minutes early and his lovely wife Ara greets us at the door with a pleasant smile. She informs us that her husband is in the studio, upstairs.

"Just take the stairs. Be prepared for some exercise, it is three flights," she jokes.

As we ascend the last flight Porter appears at the top of the steps in a t-shirt, a pair of shorts and white socks. He was not prepared to see us coming up the steps and we startle him. He pinches a handful of shirt over his heart and gives himself a mock heartbeat with it, to show us that we have startled him. We all have a nice laugh.

His studio, located in a converted attic, is small, but chocked full of recording equipment, instruments, and various other electronics -- a very cozy and comfortable place. He points out a couple of chairs to us and we gush over how honored we are that he as agreed to do this interview...(to read more click here)

He chose a coffee shop. For all that have encountered the burly organ player, they are acutely aware of the ever-present "to go" coffee mug in his hand. Having only met him once, and ever so briefly, and not knowing what kind of vehicle he drove, I begin looking for a big guy carrying a burnished aluminum coffee mug.

I should have figured he drove a van. Almost nothing else would move a big Hammond B3 organ from gig to gig. He turns the corner, toots the horn, and waves. He is talking on a mobile phone. Ah, the life of the bandleader of, arguably, the hottest band in town is a busy one....(to read more click here)

Cyril Neville: The baddest of the Neville's has got next
The great baseball pitcher Satchel Paige once said: "Don't look back, somebody might be gaining on you." Yet Cyril Neville -- singer, songwriter, musician, entertainer extraordinaire, producer and Grammy Award winner -- can't stop looking back.

"My music pays homage to those who came before me," he says, with both pride in his own music and admiration of former New Orleans music greats sparkling in his eyes.

The names roll off his tongue like sweet butter: Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dave Bartholemew, Danny Barker, his Uncle Jolly Landry, brothers Art Neville, Charles Neville, and Aaron Neville, among many others too numerous to mention. He even includes those Africans who beat their drums in Congo Square in New Orleans many years ago in what Cyril calls "The first gig."

Those who know New Orleans music can clearly see that although Satchmo, Fess, Fats and the rest once had center stage in New Orleans music, Cyril Neville has next.... (to read more click here)