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DiscountDelight - Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast
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List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $10.99
Your Save: $ 7.99 ( 42% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597993424
Label: Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
Publisher: Nonesuch
Release Date: 2005-12-06
Studio: Nonesuch
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring almost beyond words
Comment: I had no idea this recording would be so moving. On paper, the stellar lineup of artists in brand-new recordings of superb material seemed about as close to ideal as one could imagine -- and all to benefit a good cause -- but of course projects like this sometimes turn out to be well-meaning but artistically inert. This is not one of those times.
To go on and on about every track would take hours of writing, so I'll just cite my favorites, beginning with Allen Toussaint turning "Yes We Can Can" into an something with the primal power of "We Shall Overcome." Irma Thomas is mesmerizing in "Back Water Blues," followed by Davell Crawford's equally poignant "Gather by the River," leading into Buckwheat Zydeco's aching anthem, "Cryin' in the Streets." With its mournful slow step, it is the one track that evokes a New Orleans funeral march, and one of the disc's emotional high points.
Later Donald Harrison and the Wardell Quezergue Orchestra polish "It's a Wonderful World" to a gleaming shine, and the great Preservation Hall Jazz Band burnishes "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" with a nostalgic glow, not to mention some fabulous musicianship. In between the mood is sometimes more upbeat, even humorous. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is optimistic in a festive "My Feet Can't Fail Me Now," and Dr. Michael White's fluid clarinet is almost too happy in a foot-tapping "Canal Street Blues."
With many of the artists in temporary exile, the entire disc was recorded in various locations shortly after the overwhelming sadness of Hurricane Katrina. If there is any common thread, the selections show an enormous fighting spirit, but one that still makes time for grief to show through. I confess I haven't heard any of the other recorded projects released to help victims, but it would be hard to imagine one better conceived, performed and recorded than this.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: ream the consumer
Comment: If you like this music - DON'T BUY THIS CD! If you care about the victims of hurricane katrina - GIVE MONEY TO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY BUT DON'T BUY THIS CD!!!
I would love to hear this cd. I bought it from Amazon and *just opened it*. I don't listen to music on cd as a rule - I load it into my ipod. But guess what happened when I tried to load this one onto my computer to put into the ipod? Right - nothing good.
It is a crime that this cd is being offered to help the people of the gulf coast while reaming everyone. I am a hurricane katrina victim and now I have been victimized by Nonesuch as well. They just stole the price of this cd from me since I can't use it.
How noble.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Jazz and Blues
Comment: I was a little skeptical, ordering this sight unseen, but I'm a sucker for causes and the plight of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast moved me to purchase it.
Not disappointed! Some dynamite songs on this! Dr. John is outstanding and it's amazing how Randy Newman's "Louisiana" can still be so topical when it was written about a flood in the early part of the 20th century, just goes to show. Haunting soul song.
I'd recommend it for anyone who likes blues AND Zydeco...great cut by Buckwheat Zydeco, the premier Cajun group.
Remember, a portion of the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity, building new homes in the Louisiana/Mississippi Gulf Coast...buy it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: gumbo of talent
Comment: This CD combines such talent, spirit and music that embodies the energy lying within the moss-hugged, jasmine-smelling, voo-doo city that care forgot...take me home...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fitting for NOLA
Comment: A good selection of classic New Orleans music for a good cause...
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Editorial Reviews:
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Hurricane Katrina may have devastated New Orleans and surrounding Gulf communities in 2005, but it was also a forceful reminder of the Crescent City's world renowned status as the epicenter of much American musical heritage. This benefit album (all net proceeds will be donated to the local relief efforts of Habitat for Humanity, with a portion specifically set aside to provide housing for local musicians left homeless by the disaster) picks up that latter thread, a sometimes bittersweet reminder of how deepy ingrained, yet all-too-fragile, that cultural legacy really is. Allen Toussaint's succulent reworking of his "Yes We Can Can" sets a rhythmic, optimistic tone that parallels his city's own historical resilience, while Dr. John turns in a bluesy, laid-back "World I Never Made" that's a sharp contrast to the flashes of anger he showed on Tab Benoit's earlier benefit collection, Voice of the Wetlands. Irma Thomas gives a swampy, timely edge to Bessie Smith's "Back Water Blues" while others pay tribute to the region's history of gospel (Davell Crawford, Eddie Bo), indigenous cajun folk (Buckwheat Zydeco, Beausolei, Carol Fran) and legacy as the Birthplace of Jazz (vibrantly disparate contributions from Dr. Michael White, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the venerable Preservation Hall Jazz Band). The Wild Magnolias' medley "Brother John Is Gone/Herc-Jolly-John" is a joyous, African-rooted gumbo of musical possibilities, while Donald Harrison's sax work with The Wardell Querzergue's Orchestra's on "What a Wonderful World" is a fine preamble for Toussaint's elegiac solo piano rendition of "Tipitina and Me." Randy Newman's closer, a melancholic new version of Good Old Boys' "Louisiana 1927," is a tribute to his own N.O. roots whose refrain--"Louisiana, they're trying to wash us away"--is also a forceful, tragic reminder that history does indeed repeat. --Jerry McCulley
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