LOUISIANA RED HOT RECORDS

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DUMPSTAPHUNK

Dumpstaphunk 2BIO

Dumpstaphunk stands out among New Orleans’ best as one of the funkiest bands to ever arise from the Crescent City. Born on the Jazz & Heritage Festival stage, and descended from Neville family bloodlines, these soldiers of funk ignite a deep, gritty groove that dares listeners not to move. Their performances combine ingenious musicianship and complex funk and jazz arrangements with soulful melodies that are simple enough for anyone to enjoy. In Big Easy tradition, dueling baselines from Tony Hall and Nick Daniels III set off one of the dirtiest rhythm sections on the planet, while Ivan Neville lights up the Hammond B3 keys and cousin Ian Neville’s funky guitar riffs send the groove into overdrive. The band recently welcomed their newest member, Alvin Ford Jr. to the quintet, a New Orleans born and raised powerhouse drummer. Dumpstaphunk tosses around lead vocals and four-part harmonies the way Sly & the Family Stone did, but with three studio albums under their belt, Dumpstaphunk stands on the merit of their own material. Songs like “Dancin’ To The Truth” off their latest record, Dirty Word (July 30, 2013, Louisiana Red Hot Records), offer an escape into the funky sublime, sharing the true spirit of New Orleans with every note.

PRESS

“I don’t expect to hear anything funkier this year.” – Jon Pareles, New York Times

“[A] jackpot of a funk record from Dumpstaphunk.” – WNYC

“Dumpstaphunk’s self-produced sonic approach feels live, nasty, and greasy. The band’s writing celebrates community, self-reliance, and social responsibility.” – iTunes

“Dumpstaphunk’s ‘If I’m In Luck’ brings the bass… boasts a fiery lead vocal from drummer Nikki Glaspie” – USA Today

“Funksters and those who relish solid musicianship and incredible vocal harmonies can just be glad that an album like Dirty Word is still being made — that the ‘one nation under a groove’ remains vital. It’s a head noddin’, booty shakin’ disc…” – Louisiana Weekly

“If Dumpstaphunk was a 3 course meal it would start with a juicy rhythm section, then move on to a beautiful arrangement of guitars and keys, seasoned with some soulful vocals and add a pinch of Cosmic Slop for good measure.” – Austin Chronicle

“Dirty Word offers a remarkably fresh update on a sometimes neglected genre.” – Mix Magazine

“[Dirty Word] stands on its own as the harbinger of a new style of 21st century funk.” – The Vinyl District

“Dumpstaphunk has grown from a small side project into one of New Orleans’ most prestigious modern funk ensembles.” – Rolling Stone

www.dumpstaphunk.com

BURTON GAAR

Burton GaarBIO

Cajun bass player and singer Burton Gaar grew up listening to the sounds of great blues artists such as electric guitarist B.B. King and vocalist Bobby “Blue” Bland. Before he hit his teen years, he decided he wanted to become a musician and play the blues, too. Within a couple of years, as the ’50s were drawing to a close, he got his chance when he started working in his hometown of Baton Rouge, alongside blues legend Slim Harpo. Frequently, they worked the city’s Glass Hat Club. Gaar also played for a short time with the Boogie Kings. During the ’60s, Gaar went on to form a band of his own and they found work playing backup for visiting artists to Baton Rouge, a list that included zydeco artist Rockin’ Sidney and soulful singer Percy Sledge. Gaar drew such inspiration from Rockin’ Sidney that in the future he would dedicate one of his albums, Mighty Long Road, to the zydeco musician. Despite the fact that Gaar made music for almost four decades, he didn’t record a solo album of his own until 1996, when the Cajun-influenced Still Singing the Blues was issued with the Mudcats. The following year in Holland, he recorded One Hundred Pounds of Trouble, an album that performed well internationally. He is one of the musicians featured in the book Blues: Keeping the Faith by Keith Shadwick.

William Burton Gaar, Sr., age 68 of LeCompte, passed away Sunday, July 10, 2011, at Grace Home after a brief battle with cancer. He is survived by the love of his life of 47 years, Faye Clark Gaar; his two sons, William Burton Gaar, Jr. (Becky) of Tupelo, Mississippi, and Steven Louis Gaar (Marla) of Alexandria; brothers, Massey Gaar, Pensacola, Florida, Jack Gaar, Henderson, Nevada, John Gaar (Saundra), Austin, Texas, sister, Mary Gaar Myers (Brent), Woodworth; nine grandchildren, and a host of nieces and nephews and musician friends.

COREY HENRY

coreyHenryBIO

Born in July 1975, Henry grew up on Barracks Street just down from Little People’s Club, a now shuttered popularized spot for second line parade stops in the Treme. Henry was the third child born to a family of five boys and two girls. His grandfather Chester Jones played bass drum in a traditional jazz band at Preservation Hall. His uncle is Bennie Jones of the world renowned Treme Brass Band. “Being in Treme was my biggest inspiration, being around all that music at once. We always had brass bands playing – the Pinstripes, Olympia, the Dirty Dozen. I’d go outside and they’d be playing a party or doing a second line. I got inspired by that and of course it’s in my family, my uncle and grandfather.”

As a result of this unique environment, Henry didn’t learn his craft in the school band the way many other brass band musicians in New Orleans learn. Treme was his music classroom; family members and neighbors on every block were his teachers. “I always had people like Tuba Fats giving me tips on what I needed to do during gigs; Freddie Kemp, sax player with Fats Domino; also Stack Man, Frederick Shepard, Roderick Lewis. They all lived in the neighborhood and played with the Treme Brass Band.

Henry started on the snare drum but switched over to the trombone at the age of 10. When he turned 16, his uncle Bennie hired him to play with the Treme Brass Band. “He just threw me in the mix with all those bad musicians, said ‘This is how you gon’ learn. Just go for it.’ So I learned doing it live, not during rehearsals. It was like learning on the job.” Showing him the ropes along with his uncle was trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. “They put me with a lot of musicians who were phenomenal, taught me a lot about stage presence, how to conduct yourself, coming to gigs on time.” He counts legendary trombonists Keith ‘Wolf’ Anderson and Revert Andrews as mentors who helped him develop his unique sound. “It was these two different musicians showing me things and me listening and practicing and just researching, being hungry and eager to learn.”

With “Lapeitah,” his national debut from Louisiana Red Hot Records, Henry reveals a signature playing style with the capacity to lead a band with its own muscular voice, his trombone blasting through the crowd like a fast-coming train, charging audiences with fire and excitement.

www.coreyhenry.com
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HONEY ISAND SWAMP BAND

Honey Island Swamp BandBIO

Great music begins with great songs, and great songs are what the Honey Island Swamp Band is all about. The band came together after Aaron Wilkinson (acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Chris Mule’ (electric guitar, vocals) were marooned in San Francisco after the levee breaches following Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and had a chance encounter with fellow New Orleans evacuees Sam Price (bass, vocals) and Garland Paul(drums, vocals) at John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room on Fillmore Street. They knew each other from having all played together in some form or another in various New Orleans bands, and with the great unknown regarding their return to their underwater hometown looming in the distance, they decided to put together a band and get some gigs going. Fortunately, the Boom Boom Room’s owner Alex Andreas offered the band a weekly gig on the spot.

Sunday nights at the Boom Boom Room soon became a favorite of Bay Area roots music lovers, who have a long-standing affinity for New Orleans music and musicians. Two months into the residency, sound engineer Robert Gatley approached the band with a rare opportunity — he wanted to record a Honey Island Swamp Band album at the legendary Record Plant studios in Sausalito, where he worked. The 7-song eponymous debut “Honey Island Swamp Band”came together beautifully, with Wilkinson and Mulé both contributing favorite originals, and was received so well that they all decided to continue the band upon moving back to New Orleans in 2007.

Honey Island Swamp Band‘s music has been described as “Bayou Americana”with timeless songs from Wilkinson & Mulé, highlighted by Mulé’s searing guitar, Wilkinson’s sure-handed mandolin, and 4-part vocal harmonies, all anchored by the powerful groove of Price & Paul’s Louisiana stomp rhythm section. The addition of Trevor Brooks on Hammond B-3 organ to the HISB family in 2010 has rounded out the band’s sound, which draws from a variety of influences in the world of roots music, including artists such as Lowell George & Little Feat, The Band, Taj Mahal, Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Reed, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and New Orleans’ own Earl King and Dr. John.

In April 2009, the band released its first full-length album entitled Wishing Well. The album was well-received and based on the strength of such songs as “Natural Born Fool”, “Till the Money’s Gone”, and the  title track, Wishing Wellwas awarded 2009′s “Best Blues Album” by OffBeat Magazine, which also named HISB as 2009’s “Best Emerging Artist” and 2010’s “Best Roots Rock Artist”. Most recently HISB won the award for “Best Roots Rock Artist” of 2011 at the Big Easy Awards, New Orleans’ most prestigious arts and entertainment honors.

2010’s Good To You was named to several “Top Ten CDs of 2010″ lists, and has quickly become a staple on the Crescent City’s legendary radio station WWOZas well as on Sirius/XM Bluesville. It features the southern strut of songs such as “Be Good”, “300 Pounds” and the album’s first single “Chocolate Cake.”

Now the band is gearing up for their first nationally-distributed studio recording, Cane Sugar, on Louisiana Red Hot Records in late July 2013. Produced by Grammy-winning producer John Porter, the 12 new songs illuminate the mix of country-inflected rock, New Orleans funky blues and infectious songwriting that makes Honey Island Swamp Band‘s music so familiar yet unique at the same time. Cane Sugar is by far their most fully-realized recording to date and reflects the finely tuned unit the band has become after incessant touring.

PRESS

“Somewhere, there exists a dark, smoky bar with a jukebox that spins George Jones, Gram Parsons, Delbert McClinton, and Little Feat. And if that fantasy honky-tonk lights your Marlboro, you need to know about Honey Island Swamp Band.” – Broward-Palm Beach New Times

“Vintage country meets Gulf Coast boogie-woogie blues.” – Bthesite, Baltimore Sun

“The Honey Island Swamp is a real place. It resides near the border of Louisiana and Mississippi. It’s therefore a fitting name for this band that draws inspiration from the music of those two states. With the Honey Island Swamp Band, soul, country, R&B and blues are all on equal footing. The two man songwriting/guitarist team of Chris Mulé and Aaron Wilkinson produce expressive, hook-laden tunes that honor songcraft while respecting the groove.” – Jambase.com

“What a fine band this is – an utterly refreshing, unpretentious group of first-rate instrumentalists who also sing engagingly. Their music is as delicious as their name.” – Susan Peña, The Reading Eagle

www.honeyislandswampband.com

 

LEROY JONES

Leroy JonesBIO

The legendary jazz trumpeter Leroy Jones is known to music lovers as the “keeper of the flame” for traditional New Orleans jazz and to critics as one of the top musicians ever produced by the Crescent City.

“The mission of the Leroy Jones Quintet is to expose audiences everywhere to the authentic music of New Orleans, the music of Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, Danny Barker and all the other greats who have helped create the rich gumbo that is the sound of New Orleans,” he says, “while putting our own more modern stamp on it.”

Jones himself, a native of New Orleans, whose playing has been described as a blend of Louis Armstrong and bebop virtuoso Clifford Brown, has been a critical figure in the history of New Orleans music.

A member of the New Orleans Jazz Hall of Fame, he was leader at the tender age of 12, of the seminal Fairview Band, a brass band whose alumni have included some of the best known musicians in New Orleans. It was the Fairview Brass Band which is widely credited with restoring interest in the brass band tradition of New Orleans. Today, in fact, New Orleans has more brass bands performing than at any time in the city’s history – an achievement that can be traced back directly to the Fairview Band and its successor the Leroy Jones Hurricane Brass Brand.

A regular at Preservation Hall in New Orleans and a featured performer in the Harry Connick Orchestra, where his playing and singing have made him a crowd favorite, Leroy has performed on every continent and in every major U.S. city at prestigious theaters, festivals and jazz clubs like the Village Vanguard in New York City. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show, Arsenio Hall, Conan O’Brien and Oprah Winfrey. He is also a regular at the world famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, as well as French Quarter Fest and the Satchmo Summerfest.

PRESS

“It was really early in the day and Leroy Jones was playing trumpet. I don’t know what he was playing but it was achingly beautiful; I literally felt my body responding. It was so soft and melodic and catchy and just right and my eyes welled with tears and I was pretty sure if I died right then and there, it would have been a life worth living.” – Chris Rose, Times-Picayune

“…Leroy Jones, a supurb trumpeter who tossed off traditional New Orleans Jazz lines and modernist runs.” – Jon Pareles, New York Times

“…his improvising, either in a New Orleans mold or in the Fats Navarro style, had its own grace and humor.” – Peter Watrous, New York Times

“The big hat goes off to trumpeter and singer Leroy Jones, whose clean, flowing set managed to get the audience clapping along… Leroy Jones avoids the defensive attitude present in much of today’s retro jazz and makes listening to the music something it frankly often is not: fun.” – Boston Globe

“…from the moment he stepped onstage, Jones himself was the real crowd-pleaser. Like Louis Armstrong, his principal role model, he can make entertainment of art and art of entertainment with seemingly no effort.” – Washington Post

“His playing was as memorable as his appearance. It swung from the traditional, fiery New Orleans lead trumpet to fluent late bebop… without the slightest sense of strain or incongruity.” – The Observer (London)

“Leroy Jones expresses himself in the very classical style of New Orleans… density, clarity, fine paused notes…” – La Samaine Des Spectacles Cannes (France)

“We’re not going to hide anything: We loved it. It’s soul; it’s warm; it’s all jazz.” – Nord Éclair (France)

“Jones eventually evolved from a brash street player into one of the Crescent City’s most articulate trumpeters, as his three fine releases in the ’90s — Mo’ Cream From The Crop, Props For Pops (Columbia) and City Of Sounds (Louisiana Red Hot), demonstrate. His jovial, swinging attack — complemented by deft mute technique and infectious, gospel-flavored vocals — evokes Armstrong, but also reflects a broad historical spectrum…” – Jonathan Tabak, Down Beat

“Louis Armstrong is alive and well in [this] trumpeter…. [He] plays a clean, take-your-time, declaritive lead throughout…. The rhythm section is infectious… uncluttered, uplifting and respectful of tradition.” – Jazz Times

“Leroy Jones’ City of Sounds features the veteran trumpeter at his best, a pure tone at turns delicate and tough, with lyrical flights that leave the melodies floating through one’s thoughts after the CD is back in its case.” – Jason Berry, New Orleans Magazine

“…both his vocals and trumpet parts are imbued with an accessable, generous helping of upbeat pleasure. And that sort of showmanship is an essential element of Armstrong’s legacy that too many of his musical grandchildren overlook.” – Washington Post

Visit Leroy Jones’ website here.

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