Mahmoud Chouki – Caravan

“Instead of staying three or four days in New Orleans, I ended up staying almost three weeks. And yeah, I started hanging out with the musicians, jamming, and yes, that’s how I fell in love with this city. I remember I went to Austin just to take a flight back.
 
I moved to New Orleans and a year later I went to Europe for a tour with my band. As soon as I started playing, everybody looked at me and said, “You changed, completely.” I didn’t see that actually, but I feel like when I moved to New Orleans, I removed a lot of chains. I became more free. I don’t calculate my music as much. I grew up in a culture that calculated music, and calculated notes. But here, everything is free. Everything is easy. I gained confidence. I began writing music here. Musicians are amazing here. There’s so, so much talent. And I’m so happy to be here, surrounded by these artists. Everything I write, it sounds beautiful, and that’s because of the generosity and the love and dedication that the musicians have here.
 
It’s an interesting thing because I don’t play jazz. I’m not a jazz musician. I’m a composer and most of my music, it’s a mixture of many influences, like North African and Middle Eastern, Spanish, Latin, and now there’s jazz. It became a part of my music. It gives my music a lot of breathing room. Freedom.”
 
– Mahmoud Chouki

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

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Jerry Wexler recalls growing up as a jazz kid

One of the great record producers, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, recalls growing up as a jazz kid in New York City when jazz was rocking and what it was like to run an indie label during the golden age of LPs.

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

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Gene Santoro – The bard who grasped the unity of music

Source: SideTrackLinerNotes.com

Photo by John Peden used with permission

John Peden (and I) say: “Read Gene’s books!”

 

 

Life is full of ironies.

A week or so after I posted my video that said essentially that blues, country and western, jazz, gospel, and rock and roll are all from the same tree…

I discovered Gene Santoro and his book “Highway 61 Revisited: The Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock, and Country Music.”

It turns out he and I went to the same high school, though he graduated eight years earlier than me.

He kept a place in the city, but he also had a place in the country just a half hour from me (and ten minutes from folks like Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette, Sonny Rollins, and Al Foster.)

And he died last year.

This is why I work so hard to do serious interviews of everyone I can. (If you don’t know our interview, go to the home page and click “podcasts.”)

Anyway, one person, the photographer and music maven John Peden of SideTrackLinerNotes.com, did a superb interview of him and has been kind enough to let us share it with you.

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.