Celebrating the Birthday of Louis Prima

Trumpeter, singer, songwriter, actor, bandleader and composer Louis Prima was born in New Orleans on December 7, 1910. In the late 1920s Prima formed a New Orleans-style jazz band, then he led a swing band in the 1930s, and a big band group in the 1940s. By the 1950s, he had helped popularize jump blues and was a featured act in Las Vegas. From the 1940s through the 1960s he played early R&B, rock’n’roll, boogie woogie and Italian folk music. Despite that musicians of his era were discouraged from displaying their ethnic roots, Prima embraced his Italian heritage and helped pave the way for other musicians to display their ethnic roots in their music. Some of his most popular songs include, “Just A Gigolo”, “I Wanna Be Like You”, “Jump, Jive an’ Wail”, “Pennies from Heaven”, and “When You’re Smiling”. Sadly, Prima passed away on August 24, 1978, after a lengthy illness. Today we celebrate this unique performer who always left us smiling’!

Photo by: William P. Gottlieb

Happy Birthday WWOZ!

Happy Birthday to the greatest radio station on the planet! WWOZ 90.7 FM has been operating since December 4, 1980, and is the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station, a community radio station operating out of the French Quarter in New Orleans. WWOZ is a listener-supported, volunteer-programmed radio station that covers many events live in and around the city and across the United States. They also broadcast live from the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival annually. WWOZ's mission is to be the worldwide voice, archive, and flag-bearer of New Orleans culture and musical heritage. They continue to succeed in that mission year after year! Congratulations WWOZ! Help keep them around for many years to come by clicking on the logo below and donating.

Happy 89th Anniversary, Pat O'Brien's!

Pat O’Brien ran a speakeasy in New Orleans’ French Quarter, until the repeal of Prohibition, and officially opened the bar on December 3, 1933. Pat O’Brien’s became one of the most iconic nightclubs in the United States, partly by mixing plentiful rum with passion fruit and putting it in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp, and by originating the popular form of dueling piano entertainment where the audience dictates the show. No visit to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Pat O’Brien’s!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Michael White!

Jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, Jazz historian and musical educator Dr. Michael White was born in New Orleans on November 29, 1954, and he began his jazz musical career as a teenager playing for Doc Paulin's Brass Band. White is a classically trained musician who was discovered by Kid Sheik Colar while performing in Jackson Square in the French Quarter. He was a member of the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, played in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band since 1979, and led a band called The New Orleans Hot Seven during the 1980s.

In 1981, White founded The Original Liberty Jazz Band to preserve the musical heritage of New Orleans. The group has performed an end-of-year concert at the Village Vanguard every year since the early 1990s. He is a recipient of a 2008 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. White is also a college professor who teaches African-American Music at Xavier University of Louisiana, and, he holds the Rosa and Charles Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities of New Orleans Music and Culture. He has also served as guest director at several Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts relating to traditional New Orleans jazz, often working with Wynton Marsalis. White has also served as a commissioner for the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park.

White is a celebrated and accomplished musician, historian and educator who shares his many gifts with students and audiences alike. Let’s all join together today to wish him a very happy birthday wishes!

Photo: Derek Bridges

Giving Tuesday!

It’s “Giving Tuesday”, and if you are able to give today, please consider donating to NOLA charities. Click the image below to scroll through a list of organizations worthy of consideration. Thanks y’all!

Image: It’s Your NOLA

Happy Birthday, DJ Khaled!

Producer, rapper, songwriter, and record label executive Khaled Mohamed Khaled, better known as DJ Khaled, was born in New Orleans on November 26, 1975. A popular radio host at a hip hop station in the 1990s, he DJ’d at Terror Squad’s live shows and eventually gained production credits on their recordings. His 2006 debut album “ Listennn... the Album” achieved gold, and Khaled founded his own label, We the Best Music Group. He has continued to achieve great success with his subsequent releases, even garnering a Grammy nomination in 2016 for Best Rap Album for his ninth studio album, “Major Key”. Subsequent releases have also achieved great commercial and critical success, with his 2019 album, “Father of Asahd” achieving number 2 on the Billboard 200. Khaled is also a prominent media personality, an actor, and he is a New York Times bestselling writer with his book The Keys.

Photo by: Meghan Roberts - DJ Khaled, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46144938