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...
Johnny Dodds: The Clarinetist Who Helped Build the Jazz Age
The Clarinetist Who Helped Build the Jazz AgeIn the pantheon of early New Orleans jazz, the horn players get most of the glory. But Johnny Dodds, born in 1892 in the city that invented the music, m...
Kordell Stewart: The Original Slash Before Dual-Threat Was a Thing
The Original Slash Before Dual-Threat Was a ThingBefore Lamar Jackson, before Cam Newton, before anybody was talking about "dual-threat quarterbacks" as a category, there was Kordell Stewart from M...
Owen Brennan: The Man Who Started a Restaurant Dynasty
The Man Who Started a Restaurant DynastyOwen Brennan didn't live long enough to see what he started. He died in 1955 at forty-five years old, just three years after opening the restaurant that bear...
Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Bride of Christ Who Painted New Orleans Into Heaven
The Bride of Christ Who Painted New Orleans Into HeavenSister Gertrude Morgan arrived in New Orleans in 1939 with nothing but her faith and a voice loud enough to preach over the traffic on Bourbon...
George Porter Jr.: The Bassist Who Built the Floor That Funk Stands On
The Bassist Who Built the Floor That Funk Stands OnEvery building needs a foundation, and the foundation of New Orleans funk is George Porter Jr.'s bass. As one of the four founding members of The ...
Lionel Ferbos: The Man Who Played Jazz for a Hundred and Three Years
The Man Who Played Jazz for a Hundred and Three YearsLionel Ferbos was born in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans in 1911, when jazz itself was barely a teenager. He died in 2014, at one hundred and t...
August Alsina: From the Magnolia to the Billboard Charts
The Bounce Rapper Who Went From Magnolia to MainstreamAugust Alsina came out of the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans with the kind of story that bounce music was born to tell—poverty, violence, los...
Edward Livingston: The New Yorker Who Wrote Louisiana's Laws
The New Yorker Who Wrote Louisiana's LawsEdward Livingston came to New Orleans in 1804 as a disgraced New York politician running from debt and scandal. He left behind one of the most important leg...
Papa Jack Laine: The Father of White Jazz Who Didn't Care About Color
The Father of White Jazz Who Didn't Care About ColorPapa Jack Laine holds one of the more awkward titles in music history: the "Father of White Jazz." It's a title that sounds like it should be acc...
Andrés Almonaster y Rojas: The Man Who Rebuilt Jackson Square
The Man Who Rebuilt Jackson SquareIf you've ever stood in Jackson Square and looked at the St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytere—the buildings that define the most photographed vista...
