Round 6 (2014)
Bamboula
THCF Round 6 Grant was given to Bamboula 2000 to help fund their upcoming cd entitled ‘Elevate’ with songs to inspire and encourage New Orleans people to reach inside their souls, identify their gifts and work to elevate their lives to the highest potential. The group is deeply rooted in the soul of Congo Square and for 20 years has been a music and dance experience beloved in NOLA and beyond. Bamboula 2000’s music is influenced by New Orleans, the Caribbean and Africa. They have won the prestigious Big Easy Award for Best World Music group 3 times and has been nominated 8 times. In addition, Bamboula 2000 reaches thousands of children annually through their ‘Imagination Tour’ dance and drum workshops.
Kick’n Some Brass (Brice Miller)
Kick’n Some Brass: A New Orleans Brass Band Curriculum for Young Musicians. It is a multimedia curriculum intended to introduce 4th-10th grade students the basic history, pedagogy, and performance theory of the New Orleans style brass band. Covering core concepts such as historical overview, ensemble structure and playing, swing and groove, improvisation, and style, the interactive lessons, with audio examples and activities, the curriculum aims to offer a pedagogical, historical, performative, and experiential based introduction to this uniquely American, and consistently popular New Orleans cultural and performance tradition. As a life-long brass band musician (leader of Mahogany Brass Band), music and cultural educator, historian, and having recently received his Ph.D., Dr. Brice Miller has long been New Orleans’ brass band ambassador, keeping the beat on the street and passing the tradition down from generation to generation.
Red Wolf Brass Band
The Red Wolf Brass Band is in the process of recording their second cd entitled “Gumbo”. The band expects to release the cd during Jazz Fest, and will be comprised of 10 songs highlighting the musical and cultural diversity that makes New Orleans unique. It will include various genres of traditional New Orleans music, including jazz, bounce and traditional brass band music. The band intends to use the nature of the cd’s exclusively New Orleans homage to hold educational workshops at local schools and summer camps to encourage a youth movement to become engaged in music arts. These workshops will provide a historical teaching on the origins of each form of music represented on the disc, and we will musically exhibit the links between each of them.
Friends of the Cabildo
Friends of the Cabildo and Louisiana State Museum which will continue the Oral History Program with a project focusing on New Orleans pianists and the New Orleans piano tradition. The LSM and FOC will work with audio engineer and musician Joe Stolarick to capture four field interviews with New Orleans pianists in their homes or other artist-specified locations. LSM Director of Collections, Greg Lambousy, and LSM Photographer, Mark Sindler, will conduct the field interviews. In addition to the field recordings, four in-house interviews and concerts with David Kunian serving as the moderator will be held and recorded at the Old U.S. Mint.
Leroy Jones
Leroy Jones’ full-length recording called “I’m Talkin’ Bout New Orleans” will be a compilation of 11 original compositions and arrangements, covering nuances and musical genres that have influenced his style and molded his individuality over the past 4 decades. A few of the songs have been previously recorded. But, along with his musical colleagues, he plans to reanimate those covers with a spicier twist. “My wish is for the fans and music lovers to simply enjoy.”
Lily Keber
Lily Keber’s (Bayou Maharajah) next film is about Professor Longhair. MAKING A GUMBO is a feature-length documentary on the life and music of New Orleans piano legend Henry Roeland Byrd, aka Professor Longhair. The Bach of Rock. The Picasso of Keyboard Funk. The Granddaddy of Rock & Roll. And to his friends and fans… simply Fess. Albert Goldman said “Professor Longhair gave Elvis Presley his blue suede shoes voice and the arrangements gave producer Sam Phillips the sound.” Professor Longhair sounded like no musician before him and influenced every musician after. Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, James Booker, The Neville Brothers, The Meters… ALL of them cite Fess as THE greatest influence on their musical formation. His “Go To The Mardi Gras” is the anthem of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Any and every school child in Louisiana would recognize the opening riff of “Big Chief”. And one of the most legendary music clubs in New Orleans is named after his “Tipitina”. And yet this Godfather of Funk, the man whose Afro-Caribbean syncopations and percussive rhythms changed New Orleans music forever has never had a film dedicated to him. Until now.
MaCCNO
MaCCNO will use its 6th Round Threadhead grant to continue helping the cultural practitioners of New Orleans empower themselves and understand the laws and policies which govern music and cultural activities. This will be done by continuing the series of MaCCNO ‘teach-ins’ and other outreach and educational work. The teach-ins each focus on a specific facet of our work– past topics have included Zoning Law and Culture, Laws about Performing on the Street, and Noise Ordinance. This year’s sessions will revisit Zoning and the language pertaining to culture in light of the current revision of the Zoning Code, look at what information street performers need to know about sound, shared space and their rights and restrictions, and explore the complexities of the Cultural Economy in New Orleans, among others.
Margie Perez
A singer and songwriter, Margie is recording a CD of original songs showcasing the great New Orleans talent she performs with in all her diverse projects. Her solo Funk Band with Kyle Sharamitaro on drums, Will Repholz on bass, Billy Franklin on guitar and Brad Walker on Sax and horn arrangements will be featured on many tracks. She will also be joined by her fellow Honeypots (Lynn Drury and Monica McIntyre) and her fellow M&M’s (Papa Mali, Stanton Moore, and Robert Mercurio). Talented songstress Amy Trail, who wrote a song especially for Margie will appear, as well as The One Love Brass Band and Threadhead fave, Shamarr Allen. She will even include a song that came out of a fun songwriting session with Paul Sanchez. Always looking to help the local economy, Margie is making sure that everyone involved with this record from the recording, to the mixing, graphic design, even duplication will be based out of New Orleans!
New Orleans Jazz Vipers
The New Orleans Jazz Vipers is a 6 piece acoustic swing band playing for enthusiastic audiences and top-notch dancers in both NOLA and abroad. The bands repertoire comes from the likes of Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie and others. The sound is unique in that we rarely use amplification which emulates an authentic 1920’s and 30’s swing band. The New Orleans Jazz Vipers have been performing at the Spotted Cat Club since the beginnings of Frenchmen Streets transformation into the music mecca it is today. Our goal is to bring New Orleans music further out into the world and having a fresh album to distribute is a great way of achieving that goal. This is an exciting time for the band as we’ve introduced 3 new members to the band. Every show gets better and better and we really feel we’ve reached a new level of music making. Thank you so much for the opportunity to work with and be a part of the Threadhead Cultural Foundation! The Jazz Vipers are very excited to get started on producing our next album and helping to expose more to New Orleans music and culture.
WWOZ “New Orleans Calling”
With funding from the Threadhead Cultural Foundation, WWOZ 90.7FM’s nationally syndicated radio program New Orleans Calling will hire two independent audio producers to create 3-7 minute audio documentaries about New Orleans (music, culture, character, sound) that will become segments for the program. By working with independent producers, New Orleans Calling will engage more New Orleans voices, personalities, and stories into the program. The program serves as an extension of WWOZ, an ambassador of New Orleans music and culture, on public radio stations around the country and world. Show episodes and more information available at WWOZ.org.
Dinneral Shavers Educational Fund
The DSEF Music & Education Program will educate New Orleans youth in the history of this great city, through its cultural traditions: jazz, visual arts, Mardi Gras Indians and Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. Educators will be esteemed members of those communities, many of whom are teachers in the school system. The Music & Cultural Education Program will have the additional unique characteristic of utilizing artistic, hands-on and educational approaches to help impact young lives in an effort to counter the culture of violence. The program is designed in two 11-week sessions corresponding to the school year. Session one will explore the cultural history of N.O. with introduction to visual art, music instrumentation, dance & drums. In session two, students will select one artistic pursuit in which to become proficient..
Feather Up (Buddy Mann Memorial Grant recipient)
The 2nd Annual “Feather Up” ball is in the works and will be a highlight of 2015 Mardi Gras season. Partygoers will take part in history by honoring the 2015 royalty of New Orleans most outrageous, kinky, bohemian Carnival Krewes (Krewe of OAK and the MOM’s Ball Organizations) by a “Meeting of the Courts”. Attendees will crank open the costume trunk or can support local artists with a purchase of a piece de resistance and boogie down to a local favorite musical artist.
Frenchman Fais Do Do Concert Series (Buddy Mann Memorial Grant recipient)
The mission of the “Frenchmen Fais Do-Do Concert Series” is to increase awareness and enjoyment of Cajun and Zydeco music and dancing as well other musical groups that perform in the New Orleans area. Offering three hours of non-stop music and dancing and a “family-friendly” atmosphere, two bands, one of which is Cajun or Zydeco, play two alternate sets on two separate stages. There is no cover charge and free dance lessons are offered in the musical genres playing (Cajun & Zydeco, Cajun & Country, etc.) before each event, normally monthly. We try to replicate a “Fais Do-Do” atmosphere (“Fais Do-Do” is a name for a Cajun dance party) so that friends, family members and strangers can “eat, drink, dance and be merry” on a Saturday afternoon.