Stanton Moore: The Drummer Who Made Funk Scientific
The Drummer Who Made Funk ScientificIf you've ever been in a New Orleans club when the groove got so deep you forgot what day it was, there's a decent chance Stanton Moore was behind the kit. The M...
Dirty Dozen Brass Band: The Band That Saved Brass Bands
The Band That Saved Brass BandsIn the late 1970s, New Orleans brass band music was a tradition in danger. The old marching bands were aging out, the young musicians were playing other things, and t...
Soul Rebels Brass Band: The Missing Link
The Missing Link Between Public Enemy and Louis ArmstrongWhen Cyril Neville — a member of the first family of New Orleans funk — gave the Soul Rebels their name, he wasn't just being poetic. He was...
Solange: She Chose New Orleans
Solange Chose New OrleansSolange Knowles wasn't born in New Orleans. She was born in Houston, and yes, she's Beyoncé's sister, and no, that's not what this story is about. This story is about why o...
Galactic: The Band That Bought Tipitina's
The Band That Bought Tipitina'sIn 1994, two kids from Maryland named Jeff Raines and Robert Mercurio moved to New Orleans to go to college. They fell in love with the city's funk scene, started a b...
Tank and the Bangas: The Tiny Desk That Changed Everything
The Tiny Desk That Changed EverythingIn 2017, a band from New Orleans submitted a video to NPR's Tiny Desk Contest — a competition that receives thousands of entries from across the country. Tank a...
Lucky Daye: New Orleans' Grammy-Winning Soul Man
New Orleans' Grammy-Winning Soul ManDavid Debrandon Brown was born in New Orleans in 1985 and grew up in a strict religious household where secular music was forbidden. He learned to sing through c...
Marques Colston: The Greatest Saint Nobody Noticed
The Greatest Saint Nobody NoticedThe New Orleans Saints drafted Marques Colston in the seventh round of the 2006 draft — pick 252, the kind of selection that most fans skip right over. He played co...
Reggie Bush: The Heisman They Took Away and Gave Back
The Heisman They Took Away (and Gave Back)When the New Orleans Saints drafted Reggie Bush second overall in 2006, the city was still digging out from Hurricane Katrina. The Superdome, which had bee...
Imagination Movers: Four Dads Who Built a Children's Empire After the Storm
Four Dads Who Built a Children's Empire After the StormThe Imagination Movers are not the band you'd expect to come out of New Orleans. No brass instruments. No funk. No second line rhythms. Instea...
Jon Cleary: The Englishman Who Plays Piano Like He Was Born on Rampart Street
The Englishman Who Plays Piano Like He Was Born on Rampart StreetJon Cleary is from Kent, England. This is the kind of biographical fact that makes people do a double take, because when you hear Cl...
Rodolphe Desdunes: The Man Behind Homer Plessy
The Man Behind Homer PlessyEveryone knows Homer Plessy's name. Far fewer know the name of the man who organized the challenge that put Plessy on that train car in the first place. Rodolphe Desdunes...
Chep Morrison: The Mayor Who Modernized New Orleans
The Mayor Who Modernized New OrleansdeLesseps Story Morrison—everybody called him Chep—was the mayor who dragged New Orleans into the twentieth century, whether it wanted to come or not. From 1946 ...
Thomy Lafon: The Free Man of Color Who Became One of the Richest Men in New Orleans
The Free Man of Color Who Became One of the Richest Men in New OrleansThomy Lafon was born free in New Orleans in 1810—a fact that meant everything in a city and a country where the vast majority o...
Paul Barbarin: The Drummer Who Died Doing What He Loved
The Drummer Who Died Doing What He LovedPaul Barbarin spent his entire life chasing the beat. Born in New Orleans in 1899 into one of the city's great musical families, he played drums with King Ol...
David Duke: The Stain That Won't Wash Out
The Stain That Won't Wash OutYou can't write honestly about New Orleans and Louisiana without writing about David Duke. Not because he deserves celebration—he doesn't—but because what he represents...
Harry Connick Sr.: The Singing District Attorney
The Singing District AttorneyFor thirty years, New Orleans had a district attorney who spent his nights singing in French Quarter jazz clubs. Harry Connick Sr. was one of those only-in-New-Orleans ...
Pops Foster: The Man Who Invented the Jazz Bass Line
The Man Who Invented the Jazz Bass LineBefore Pops Foster, the bass in a jazz band was more felt than heard—a thumping pulse that kept time but rarely commanded attention. Foster changed that. With...
Shirley Verrett: New Orleans' Voice at the Metropolitan Opera
New Orleans' Voice at the Metropolitan OperaShirley Verrett was born in New Orleans in 1931, and though her family moved to Los Angeles when she was young, she carried the city's musical DNA into t...
James Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Fought for Black Rights in New Orleans
The Confederate General Who Fought for Black Rights in New OrleansJames Longstreet is one of the most fascinating figures in New Orleans history precisely because he doesn't fit any of the categori...
