Festivals

No-fee Jazz Fest tickets available for one day at Tipitina’s

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The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is holding a one-day sale of no-fee tickets at Tipitina’s, 501 Napoleon Ave., on Saturday (April 8) from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Announced Monday (April 4) on the WWOZ website, this opportunity for locals gives Jazz Fest fans a chance to purchase tickets in person, without online processing fees. Only the $85 single-day advance tickets will be sold. Weekend passes, VIP options and other packages will not be available at this venue. And in line with Jazz Fest’s new cashless policy, payment must be with a credit card. WWOZ 90.7 FM, a community radio station, is owned by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, according to the Jazz Fest website.

Neutral Ground Coffee House owners prepare for a potential ‘exile’

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Caroline Williams, known by most as Phant, broke down in tears at the front door of Neutral Ground Coffeehouse. Someone waiting at the door mistook the Neutral Ground co-owner for a Realtor looking to sell the building where the coffee shop lives. That’s how Williams and James Naylor learned their coffeehouse could lose its longtime home. They don’t know when they will have to go, Williams said, but they’ve already begun preparing for Neutral Ground to be in “exile” if the building sells. Neutral Ground Coffee House is a “community space, part gallery, half stage,” often referred to as a safe third place for patrons.

Krewe of Muses

Singer Irma Thomas to ride as honorary Muse and krewe’s ‘Sole Queen’

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Irma Thomas — the Grammy Award winning, legendary blues and gospel singer known as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans” will serve as the Krewe of Muses’ 2023 Honorary Muse, Captain Staci Rosenberg announced. “On ‘Muses Thersday’, Feb. 16, Thomas will lead the parade riding in the 17-foot-tall fiber optic encrusted red high-heel shoe float.” Rosenberg said. “We refer to her as our ‘Sole Queen.’

Christmas

Uptown holiday concerts make the season bright

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You can fill your ears and your spirit with sweet yuletide sounds, and enjoy a respite from holiday frenzy, at Uptown holiday concerts during December. Traditionally an Uptown mecca for music lovers, especially during the holidays, Trinity Episcopal Church on Jackson Avenue is currently under renovation and will not be presenting their usual holiday concerts. However, they plan to be back next year. There are plenty of other choices, listed below. Whether your taste runs to classical, gospel, jazz, funk or reggae, you can find a concert to make the season brighter.

blight and demolition

City seizes the blighted Buddy Bolden house, NOLA.com reports

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The city seized the blighted Central City shotgun where legendary jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden once lived, stating the owner, Greater St. Stephen Ministries, let fines for minimum property maintenance pile up unpaid, Doug MacCash reports on NOLA.com. Grammy winning musician PJ Morton, the son of the St. Stephen pastors, announced plans in 2019 to renovate the Bolden house at 2309-11 First St. and a twin shotgun double next door into a museum and community recording studio, but has allowed it to deteriorate for years.

New Orleans Film Fest

Tribute to local music legends to close out New Orleans Film Festival (with video)

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The 33rd New Orleans Film Festival will close out its in-person screenings Tuesday (Nov. 8) with the locally made documentary film about four beloved music legends: Irma Thomas, Little Freddie King, Benny Jones of the Tremé Brass Band, and the late Ellis Marsalis. Music Pictures: New Orleans, directed by Ben Chace (Wah Do Dem, Sin Alas), will screen at the New Orleans Jazz Market. The 72-minute film gives four legacy portraits of iconic New Orleans musicians while in their 80s. 

Director Ben Chace and Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans,” will be in attendance. To tell the story, the filmmaker uses recording sessions and interviews with the four personalities.

Festivals

Oak Street Po-Boy Festival is back, with music on four stages and a truck

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After a two-year absence, the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, the popular event celebrating New Orleans’ beloved sandwich, will return Sunday (Nov. 6). The 14th annual festival will host more than 40 food vendors, four stages of music (plus a piano truck stage), an arts market and kids zone. The 2022 festival will also highlight the history of the po-boy with special programming and events, organizers said in a press release. ​The festival traditionally features a po-boy competition, where local restaurants battle for top honors.

historic preservation

Trumpeter Doc Paulin’s Central City home up for landmark status

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The Historic District Landmark Commission will vote Wednesday (Nov. 2) on taking steps toward granting landmark status to an unassuming four-bay cottage in Central City, the home where Ernest and Betty Paulin raised their 13 children. Buildings can become city landmarks for their architectural or their cultural significance.  In the case of 2230-32 Seventh St., it would be the latter. “Ernest ‘Doc’ Paulin had a seven-decade-long career promoting and performing traditional New Orleans jazz, as well as mentoring other musicians,” the HDLC staff states in its report. “His contributions to the city’s musical and cultural heritage are well documented and undeniable.” The HDLC staff recommended that the commission approve the nomination

Paulin began his career as a New Orleans bandleader and trumpeter in the 1920s, performing with musicians such as Kid Ory and Oscar “Papa” Celestin and forming the Doc Paulin Dixieland Jazz Band.

Halloween

Ghost Manor is ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ and ‘giving the devil his due’ (with video)

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Ghost Manor on Magazine Street is back with two new Broadway-style vignettes this Halloween season. David Gentry, who creates the Halloween extravaganza, prefers that it not be referred to as a light show — as it’s so much more. The spectacle is an immersive theme-park-inspired theatrical show with coordinated animatronic characters, special effects and elaborately orchestrated performances that celebrate the magic and whimsy of Halloween with singing skeletons, dancing zombies, flying ghosts and other creatures. “I like to think that this is what ghosts and ghouls do after they get home from their jobs haunting people,” Gentry said. “My place is like a speakeasy for ghosts to unwind and entertain themselves.”

“Puttin’ on the Ritz” with the Ghost Manor gang of ghouls (courtesy of Ghost Manor)
This year’s light, music and animatronic dancing skeleton sequences feature two distinctly different new shows.

second line

Prince of Wales to second-line on Sunday

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The Prince of Wales Social Aid & Pleasure Club will second-line through the Touro-Bouligny, Central City, Garden District and Irish Channel neighborhoods on Sunday (Oct. 9). Prince of Wales is one of the oldest social and pleasure clubs still parading in New Orleans. It was formed in 1928 by dock workers; its roots are in the Irish Channel and other Uptown neighborhoods along the river. “We bring the spirit,” Prince of Wales member Joe Stern told WWOZ.