Track Listing

1. Drop Me Off in New Orleans - Kermit Ruffins
2. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - Doc Cheatham, , Nicholas Payton
3. Basin Street Blues - Louis Prima
4. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams - Duke Dejan, , Preservation Hall Jazz Band
5. Baby Won't You Please Come Home - Topsy Chapman
6. Devil Done Got Me Blues - Kevin Clark,
7. Tin Roof Blues - Louis Armstrong
8. Basin Street Blues - Dr. John,
9. Give It Up (Gypsy Second Line) - Dr. Michael White
10. Going Back to New Orleans - Deacon John Moore
11. Bye & Bye/Saints - Gregg Stafford, , Dr. Michael White

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22520 in Music
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Album Description
New Orleans has a long musical history and the new Putumayo collection New Orleans captures the ambiance of this city where jazz was born. The musical traditions that New Orleans has nurtured are legendary, but music is not just the stuff of legend there. In the city’s streets, it is a vibrant, ever-evolving art form. New artists regularly learn from their predecessors, and inject those lessons with fresh energy and ideas.

For New Orleans, Putumayo founder Dan Storper researched traditional jazz and blues in forms both old and new after becoming a part time resident of New Orleans in 2003. The collection includes legends Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Doc Cheatham, Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Hot 4 with Duke Dejan alongside local favorites Nicholas Payton, Kermit Ruffins, Deacon John, Dr. Michael White, Topsy Chapman, Kevin Clark and Greg Stafford.

The descriptive liner notes, written by New Orleans musicologist Baty Landis, are in English, French and Spanish. They feature striking photographs by respected New Orleans photographer Michael Smith, as well as a resource guide for New Orleans music, travel and entertainment. Renowned New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme has a contributed a recipe for seafood gumbo.

Amazon.com
The Putumayo label is known for its easily recognizable packaging and accessible collections of music from around the world. Here the label takes a broad survey of one of the most storied music towns in the world. Household names like Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong and Dr. John do their version of some Crescent City classics. Local favorites like trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and singer Topsy Chapman offer up traditional flavor as well. Music fans knowledgeable about the local scene will likely be happy about the inclusion of the swingin' December-May collaboration between trumpeters Doc Cheatham (who was 91 when he recorded "I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues") and Nicholas Payton (who has 23). Highlighting a vibrant diversity of old and new talent, this album is a musical and cultural tour of a town filled with French Creole culture, a Spanish tinge and some good old American jazz and blues. –-Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews

Captures the essence of the city, past and present!
Wow! What an irresistible collection this is. It celebrates New Orleans' ever-evolving musical world by intermingling the legends (like Louis Armstrong, Topsy Chapman and Doc Cheatham) with current local favorites who are injecting new energy and new ideas (like Kermit Ruffins and Dr. Michael White.)

Unlike most CDs, where I skip around to my favorites, I play this one straight through because there's not a single cut I don't love. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Dr. Michael White's "Give it Up (Gypsy Second Line)" with its Klezmer influenced clarinet.

Highly recommended to anyone who likes a musical good time!

Poignant and marvelous music
I've always loved the music that flourishes in New Orleans, and this CD contains examples of some of the best music the Crescent City has always offered to the world, from such legends as Armstrong and Prima, and from wonderful current artists like Kermit Ruffins. The music may seem poignant now in the face of Hurricane Katrina, but it also contains a defiant merriness that leaves no doubt that New Orleans will recover and rise again from this disaster. Best of all, producer Putumayo has stated that all sales of this album will go to relief efforts in New Orleans -- as good a reason to own and revel in this CD as any!

A great introductory album!
If you're not familiar with New Orleans music, this is a great place to start. It's an authentic collection of the type of music that the city is genuinely home to (accurately, no zydeco or cajun tracks are included here, as those are imports from Southwest Louisiana) and it's a nicely rounded collection, at that.

The music of New Orleans is only one of about a million things that make the city so special, and this is a great place to get started. If you're already a die-hard New Orleans music fan, you'll probably find that you have most of these tracks in your collection anyway, but for the beginner, this collection is perfect.