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...
The Boswell Sisters: The New Orleans Women Who Taught Ella Fitzgerald to Sing
The New Orleans Sisters Who Taught Ella Fitzgerald to SingBefore the Andrews Sisters, before every girl group that ever harmonized into a microphone, there were the Boswell Sisters of New Orleans. ...
Patrick Surtain: Edna Karr's Lockdown Corner and His Son Who Followed
Edna Karr's Lockdown Corner and His Son Who FollowedPatrick Surtain grew up in New Orleans, attended Edna Karr High School, and became one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history. Then his son did t...
Frances Parkinson Keyes: The Woman Who Wrote Dinner at Antoine's
The Woman Who Wrote Dinner at Antoine'sFrances Parkinson Keyes came to New Orleans as an outsider and loved the city so hard that she bought one of the most historic houses in the French Quarter an...
Alice Dunbar Nelson: The Poet Who Left Paul Laurence Dunbar and Changed American Literature
The Poet Who Left Paul Laurence Dunbar and Changed American LiteratureAlice Dunbar Nelson was born in New Orleans in 1875, and the city's complicated racial landscape—the Creole hierarchies, the co...
Leon Godchaux: The Man Who Owned Canal Street
The Man Who Owned Canal StreetLeon Godchaux arrived in New Orleans as a peddler and became one of the richest men in the South. His department store on Canal Street was an institution for over a ce...
Nash Roberts: The King of New Orleans Hurricane Forecasting
The King of New Orleans Radio WeatherFor decades, when a hurricane was coming, New Orleans turned to one man: Nash Roberts. While the National Weather Service issued official forecasts and the nati...
Junkyard Dog: The Wrestling Legend Who Ruled the Superdome
The Junkyard Dog Who Became a Wrestling LegendBefore the WWE made professional wrestling a global entertainment empire, there was the Mid-South territory, and there was the Junkyard Dog. Sylvester ...
