MARSALIS MUSIC HONORS BOB FRENCH   

New Orleans has been a primary source of musical creativity for more than a century, and the Tuxedo Band has been at the center of New Orleans music most of the way. “The Tuxedo Band began as an orchestra, either in 1909 or 1910, depending on where you get your information,” notes Bob French, who has had charge of the incredible Tuxedo legacy for the last 30 years. A multi-generational celebration of traditional New Orleans music is French’s focus in a new volume of the Marsalis Music label’s Honors Series.

Bob French considers the Crescent City’s musical legacy with an ensemble that includes French’s contemporary Bill Huntington, emerging brass stars Kid Chocolate and Trombone Shorty, and young veterans Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Chris Severin and Ellen Smith. Each is a longtime acquaintance and playing partner of the drummer who represents one of the storied jazz families of New Orleans.

“My grandfather Robert was a tuba player,” French notes, “and I had a great uncle Maurice who played trombone with Louis Armstrong. Others on my Dad’s side were gospel singers, and my Dad, Albert “Papa” French, played guitar and banjo until he eventually put the guitar under the bed. He played in the Tuxedo Band, and became the third leader in 1956, after the founder Oscar “Papa” Celestin and his successor Eddie Pierson. I took over after my Dad in 1977.”

As a child, Bob French was determined to become a drummer, despite his father’s warning. “‘Drummer’s are the first ones on the gig, and the last to leave,’ is what he told me, and in 1951 he bought me a brand new King trumpet. It might have been good for me, but I didn’t want to be a trumpeter. So I started taking lessons from Louis Barbarin, Paul’s relative and to my mind a better drummer, and my Dad bought me a second-hand set. Within two or three years, I was playing gigs.”

Like most of his peers, French got his professional start playing rhythm and blues. “New Orleans musicians are smarter than others around the country,” he explains. “If you can make some money playing a style of music, you play it. Even on R&B gigs, we would start with things like ‘Satin Doll.’ I organized a band in high school that included James Booker and Art and Charles Neville, and Kidd Jordan and Alvin Batiste also played in my R&B band. After Earl Palmer left for California, I began playing and recording with Dave Bartholomew, who’s a relative on my mother’s side. I got a call one morning when Fats Domino’s drummer didn’t show up, and after that Fats told Dave to ‘Hire that boy for all of

my recordings.’ Fats wanted to take me on the road, too, but Dave said, ‘Don’t do it. He’ll pay you $400 per week and give you $2000 worth of trouble.’”

One style that initially held no appeal for the young drummer was the music that his father was playing with the Tuxedo Band. “I had been around the traditional music in my parents’ home, but I thought it was corny,” French admits. “Then one night, when Louis Barbarin got sick, my Dad came into my room and said, ‘Put on your blue suit, you’re playing with us tonight.’ Talk about a rude awakening! ‘Bourbon Street Parade’ was the only thing I knew; but I went on the gig, and all of those great musicians – [pianist] Jeanette Kimball, [bassist] Frank Fields, [trombonist] Frog Joseph – started laughing when they saw me, because they knew that I didn’t know the music. I scuffled the whole night and was embarrassed, so from that night on I made it a point to learn the music.”

French learned the music so well that he became one of its living legends. Through leading the Tuxedo Band since 1977, and through the popular radio shifts he holds down each Tuesday and Friday mornings on New Orleans community non-profit station WWOZ (which streams at www.wwoz.org), he has brought the music he loves to countless numbers of people. He has also become a colleague to scores of New Orleans players and singers from several generations. The seven associates he features on Bob French are indicative of the range of artists who he has touched. “[Bassist] Chris Severin and [vocalist] Ellen Smith are part of my regular band. Chocolate [trumpeter Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown] used to be, too, and [banjo player] Bill Huntington worked with me when he lived in New Orleans. I met Chris when he was 15 and played a gig with Ellis Marsalis and me, and I brought Chocolate out when he was 16 or 17 and only knew a few tunes. I’ve known Trombone Shorty [trombonist Troy Andrews] all his life.

The ties between French and the two Marsalis Music artists featured on his disc are also extensive. “I first met Harry Connick, Jr. when he was six or seven, and he would come to my gig once a week and play one of the three or four tunes he knew. Betty Blanc was teaching him classical music, and James Booker was around his house every day, so he had the best of both worlds. Then Harry’s father wanted him to have a jazz teacher, so I gave him Ellis’ number and he had the best of all worlds. Harry asked me once how we put up with him when he was so little, and I told him it was because we knew he had talent. Unbeknownst to most people, he is one of the baddest piano players in the world. And he doesn’t carry himself like a big star. For those of us who knew him in New Orleans, he hasn’t changed a bit.

“Now Branford, I’ve known him since before he was born. I went to school with his mother, and played gigs with his father from early on. He and his brother Wynton showed up to play on one of my gigs with Ellis when they were about 13 and 12 years old. They played two tunes and got the hell off – Ellis was laughing like crazy. I was so happy at the session because of how great Branford played.”

Beyond the attention he paid to selecting the personnel, French also applied great care in assembling the program. “I gave the session some thought,” he explains, “because you have to choose how far back to go, what moods you want to set, things like that. I tried to set it up as ‘one up, one down,’ because you can’t play everything fast or you’ll kill the band. I wanted to include music that people could relate to New Orleans, which is why ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ is included. As a rule, I don’t do ‘The Saints,’ after playing it on Bourbon Street six times a night, six nights a week, but people relate to it. We had to do ‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans’ because I have friends who are still scattered all over the United States. George Lewis’ ‘Burgundy Street Blues’ is there, because you would not believe how popular George’s music remains all over the world. And ‘You are My Sunshine,’ which was written by Louisiana Governor Jimmy Davis, well that’s the hit,” he laughs. “Ellen Smith and I went to Europe after the recording, to play with Sammy Rivington and other great European musicians, and they all knew the words when I asked them to come in on the verse. My yodeling really went over well in Switzerland.”

While there are plenty of such upbeat moments on Bob French, there are also such introspective highlights as “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” as might be expected from a man who lost his home to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “We could have subtitled the album ‘New Orleans Devastated,” he remarks; ‘but the most important thing I wanted to relate is the importance for the youngsters who are coming behind me, and the ones behind them, to learn this music and start playing it. Not playing it like me, but like them. If people get nothing else out of the album, I hope it leads some of the youngsters to pay attention to the real New Orleans music.”

Marsalis Music Honors Bob French, together with Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste, is being released on April 10, 2007.

MARSALIS MUSIC HONORS BOB FRENCH   

Produced by Branford Marsalis
Recorded and Mixed by Rob “Wacko!” Hunter

Recorded June 15-16, 2006 at Avatar Studios, New York, NY

Mixed November 14 – 30, 2006 at The Studio in the Country, Durham, NC

Mastered December 15, 2006 by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound Studios, New York, NY



Musicians
Bob French drums, tracks 1-9, 11
vocals, tracks 1, 5, 11
Ellen Smith vocals, tracks 2 and 9
Leon Brown trumpet, tracks 1-9, 11
Branford Marsalis saxophone
Troy Andrews trombone, tracks 1-9, 11
Edward Huntington banjo, tracks 1-9, 11
Harry Connick, Jr. piano
Chris Severin bass, tracks 1-9, 11

MARSALIS MUSIC HONORS BOB FRENCH   

Playing music was never an issue for Bob French – not in a family that included grandfather Robert, one of New Orleans’ great tuba players, or uncle Maurice, whose trombone was heard with Kid Rena and Louis Armstrong, or father Albert, who played guitar and banjo and led the legendary Tuxedo Band between 1956 and his death in 1977. Bob’s instrument was in doubt for a while, because his father advised him to avoid the drums that were his first love (“You’ll be the first one on the gig and the last to leave”); but after the new King trumpet he bought his son sat under the youngster’s bed for a while, Albert “Papa” French relented and got young Bob a second-hand drum kit.

Like most of his contemporaries (including Art and Charles Neville and James Booker, who were members of the band he assembled in high school, or Ellis Marsalis, who married his high school classmate Dolores Ferdinand), French found himself playing all kinds of music. “The New Orleans guys are smarter than many musicians around the country,” he explains. “If you can make some money, you take the gig and play the music.” He became Dave Bartholomew’s drummer after Earl Palmer left for Los Angeles, recorded with Fats Domino, and even swung the likes of “Satin Doll” on occasion. Traditional jazz was another matter.

“I thought that music was corny,” French recalls; “but I had a rude awakening one night when [Tuxedo Band drummer] Louis Barbarin got sick. My dad came into my room and said, `Put on your blue suit, you’re playing with us tonight.’ I scuffled the whole night, and my embarrassment led me to learn the music.”

That baptism by fire, and the dedication that has made him a master drummer (check his press rolls for evidence) turned French into one of the giants of the music he formerly disdained. Since his father’s death, French has led the Tuxedo Band, which will soon celebrate its centenary (“either in 2009 or 2010, depending on where you get your information”), and he also hosts a popular radio program each Tuesday and Friday morning on the New Orleans non-profit community radio station WWOZ.

One of French’s strengths is his longstanding connection to members of several local jazz generations. Bill Huntington, heard on banjo, is a contemporary who worked with the Tuxedo Band extensively as well as serving as Ellis Marsalis’ bass player. Representing the city’s talented youth cohort, trumpeter Kid Chocolate (Leon Brown) made his first mark as a teenager with French, while Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews) is someone who the drummer has known even longer. The in-betweeners here include two members of French’s working band, bassist Chris Severin and vocalist Ellen Smith, plus a pair of old friends. “I’ve known Harry Connick, Jr. since he was six or seven, when he’d come down to our gig every week and play one of the three or four tunes he knew. And I’ve known Branford Marsalis since before he was born.

The program was selected with equal care. “I wanted music that related to New Orleans, which is why I included a tune like ‘The Saints’ which I don’t do after years of playing it six times a night, six nights a week. ‘Do You Know What It Means?’ is there because friends of mine are still scattered all over the United States. ‘Burgundy Street Blues’ is included for its composer, George Lewis, whose music is still unbelievably popular throughout the world. And ‘You are My Sunshine,’ well, that’s the hit,” he laughs. “I sang that when I went to Europe right after the recording, and my yodeling really went over well in Switzerland.”

This meeting of longtime friends has produced some of the most intense and heartfelt traditional jazz in years, which is just what Bob French had hoped to achieve. “The most important thing I’m trying to relate,” he concludes, “is that it’s important for the youngsters who are coming behind me, and the ones coming behind them, to learn and start playing this music. If people get nothing else out of this album, I hope it makes them start paying attention to the real music of New Orleans, and start playing it.”

MARSALIS MUSIC HONORS BOB FRENCH   

• New Recordings: Bob French
• New Recordings: Bob French
• Marsalis Music Honors Bob French

MARSALIS MUSIC HONORS BOB FRENCH