Deacon John Moore: The Most Important New Orleans Musician You've Never Heard Of

The Most Important New Orleans Musician You've Never Heard Of

Deacon John Moore has been playing music in New Orleans since the late 1950s, which means he's been playing music in New Orleans for longer than most New Orleans musicians have been alive. He's played with Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, and virtually every other significant artist the city has produced. He's a member of the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. And unless you're a serious music obsessive or a New Orleans local, you've probably never heard his name.

That's the story of session musicians everywhere, but it hits differently in New Orleans, where the session players were often as talented as the stars they backed. Moore was born in the Eighth Ward in 1941 and was active on the New Orleans R&B scene by his teens. His band, The Ivories, was a fixture at the Dew Drop Inn—the legendary nightclub on LaSalle Street that served as the hub of Black entertainment in New Orleans during the segregation era.

The Dew Drop was where everything happened: where musicians played after hours, where record deals were made over drinks, where the who's who of New Orleans R&B came to hear the best players in the city. Playing the Dew Drop was a credential that meant more than any recording contract, and Deacon John was a regular.

His session work reads like a history of New Orleans music. He played guitar on records produced by Allen Toussaint, backed Irma Thomas on her classic recordings, laid down tracks with Lee Dorsey and Ernie K-Doe. He was part of the invisible army of musicians who made the New Orleans sound possible—the players whose names didn't appear on the marquee but whose playing made the records great.

Unlike many session musicians who eventually moved away or retired, Moore stayed in New Orleans and kept playing. Decade after decade, through changing fashions and fading scenes and Hurricane Katrina and everything else, Deacon John was on a stage somewhere in the city, playing R&B and funk and blues with the same energy he brought to the Dew Drop Inn in 1960.

He also became president of the local American Federation of Musicians branch, advocating for the rights and livelihoods of the musicians who make New Orleans what it is. In a city that often exploits its musicians even while celebrating its music, having someone like Deacon John in that role matters.

Deacon John Moore is the kind of New Orleans musician that the city depends on but rarely recognizes properly. He's the connective tissue between eras, the living memory of a music scene that stretches back more than sixty years. He never had the big national hit, but he had something better: the respect of every musician in the city and a career that spans the entire modern history of New Orleans music.