A 13-minute radio segment on the 9th Ward Marching Band:
9th Ward Marching Band Radio documentaryDownloadable version of radio segment
Back in 2007, I was hired by Kevin McCaffrey, a local director and producer, to record voices of regular, everyday people from around the city of New Orleans. Then, using a map of the city, divided into ten sections, I created 10 audio montages, using voices describing everything from the food in that section of town to the sounds of wild parrots that nested in the trees. The audio segments that were produced are now part of a larger exhibit in the lobby of the Basin Street Station, a building just two blocks beyond the French Quarter, featuring images of the city as well. Below are a few examples:
Algiers
Originated in 1719 – Sunday dinners – Cooling off on the porch
Gentilly
A neighborhood that blends the country with the suburbs – Parrots – Grandma’s Bell Peppers
Treme / Mid-City
Meeting James Brown – Hearing a Marching Band after the Levee Failure – Saint Augustine Church
Uptown
A day trip to a former resort town by streetcar – Fish on Friday – the Snow Wizard “it shaves a block of ice…”
You can see the full exhibit at the Basin Street Station.
I’ve spent much of this week snowed in – “stuck in Virginia”, which is a blessing in disguise. Alongside filming interviews for the documentary Chronicles of Core, I’ve been scanning photographs that my grandfather, the subject of the documentary, shot from the late 1940s. While going through a clothes chest full of photographs, I discovered images, that predate my grandfather’s work, of his ancestors. This series in particular is fascinating. I’m hoping to find some older relative who can tell me who these women are.
About a year ago, my mother visited me in New Orleans with a box of negatives from my grandfather’s work as a photographer. What follows is a sampling of photographs from Christmas that my grandfather shot in the mid 1950s.
photographer: Dwight L. Core
Santa with my mother and aunt Nancy (in a hallway?)
Santa with my mother, aunt Carolyn and Nancy
From all accounts by the relatives (and some memories I have), my grandfather “lit the set” on Christmas day before anyone could open their presents.
Photographer: Dwight L. Core
I zoomed in on the chalkboard, evidently a present for my aunt Nancy.
Photographer: Dwight L. Core
Photographer: Dwight L. Core
The details in this shot: the Delivery Cycle, the wrapping paper, everybody in their own little christmas world and the excitement on my mother’s face – there’s something other-worldly in this otherwise normal moment. My grandfather had an eye.
I am about to complete my second year producing “New Orleans All the Way Live”, a radio program about music, food and culture. The show is produced for WWOZ with support from New Orleans Online. It’s syndicated in over 50 radio markets, including several international ones (Australia, Puerto Rico, Ireland).
Over the course of these 90 plus shows, I’ve sat down with rhythm and blues greats like Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington and Ernie Vincent; traditional jazz players including Connie Jones and Tim Laughlin; and musical tricksters like Twangorama and the Tin Men. The culinary adventures include Yakamein with Ms. Linda Green, Cajun roots with Donald Link, and a visit with the spritely Holly of Holly’s Tamales. (She sells tamales on a bicycle route!)Suggestions/Comments: Feel free to check out the archive at WWOZ or leave a comment here for a wish-list of shows and food you would love to hear.
This film, shot and directed by Roger M. Richards, was produced 40 years after the initial filming of “Think of Me First as a Person“, which my grandfather, Dwight L. Core, originally shot and edited in 1960s. I restored the film in 2006, 11 years after he passed away (1995). In 2006, the film went onto enter the National Film Registry, as one of 25 films to be recognized by the Library of Congress.
Coming Soon: The story behind the discovery of the elements (audio tape, 16mm reel, script) that ended up becoming the restored version is fascinating and I promise to tell that story very soon. Honest. But for now, please enjoy this wonderful portrait, produced by Roger M. Richards.
I’ve been sorely away from the site for quite some time, but I’m back with a new format. Let’s see how this works out. Some of the content that I will be adding is “archival”, a blast from some analog past. Other content is from ongoing projects, discoveries and random/inspired moments.
Archival: The song below is based on a gospel song of the same name. It was recorded in the late 90s, let’s say very quickly, without an afterthought, with one overdub – a lazy solo that betrays the love of one-string lead well-fit for the melodically unadventurous.
Note: Part of “Steal Away” ended being used in the film “Think of Me First as a Person.”
Steal Away
