Articles by Thomas Cole
A House Full of History with Leslie Blackshear Smith in New Orleans
by Thomas Cole
On the recommendation of more than one person, I sought an audience with another of the born and raised New Orleanians who have been indispensable to an education in the town's traditional music. Living a stone's throw from the river and the shadows of an imposing abandoned factory, I knocked on the peeling paint of a wooden door to her fenced in garden enclosure, but the texted response was hardly hopeful--on a facetime call and can't talk. Departing to drive ...
Continue ReadingUnfiltered - Ben Jaffe at Preservation Hall, New Orleans
by Thomas Cole
In the Moment, a yet-to-be-published interview put together for a jny: New Orleans music magazine with Ben Jaffe, creative director of Preservation Hall, was actually the distillation of a conversation rather than a mere moment in time. Nor was it an interview in the dictionary sense of that word; for the most part, the Q and A format was absent. Prepared with a list of maybe fifty questions, fewer than 10 were ever asked. Shy to request two ...
Continue ReadingThe Culture War - Springsteen, Brooks and The American People
by Thomas Cole
On January 30, 2026, the NY Times featured the final opinion column by David Brooks, and two days before I heard Bruce Springsteen's first (and probably not his final) “protest" song. Somehow, they seem incontrovertibly linked in, to and with the history of this country. And to the very core of the human experience. Bruce Springsteen's song, apparently recorded in his home studio, unveils the soul of a pop star beyond his intermittent statements reported in the press. ...
Continue ReadingDickie Landry: From Lafayette to the New York Loft Scene
by Thomas Cole
Reknowned in the region for music that reflects its various cultural influences, Dickie Landry is one of the older players still active in Louisiana. Arriving in his home state for the interview, AAJ called Landry to check in. Quickly answering the phone and to the usual greeting of “how are you today," he immediately responded, “Alive!" Not to be taken for granted, life hangs by an ever-tenuous thread at his not so tender age of 86. Early Days ...
Continue ReadingSunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
by Thomas Cole
Ed Sullivan, at one time was the most renowned name in US television. Most of us hear that name and think of Elvis Presley and his electrifying game-changing performance in 1956. Few of us will ever forget the hip-shaking gyrations that captivated a nation. Nothing like it had ever been seen on national television. Or so the myth goes, as Elvis premiered on the Milton Berle Show a few months earlier. Or we think of and remember his introduction of ...
Continue ReadingJon Cleary: The Bywater Sessions
by Thomas Cole
Interviewed on WWNO in jny: New Orleans, when asked what has inspired his The Bywater Sessions album (and it is an album as the traditional vinyl format is available), the response was simple. Musicians from New Orleans thrive on live performances and, too often for one reason or another, the CDs sold at gigs do not reflect the one-off ambiance of a live performance that, by its very nature, immediately disappears into the ether. Cleary's goal was to produce a ...
Continue ReadingBenny Jones: Jazz History & More
by Thomas Cole
I was born and raised in the 6th Ward, which is called Tremé these days but these days I live near the Fairgrounds. My father was in the Eureka Brass Band and was very good friends with bot the Humphrey brothers--Willie and Percy. They had all played in different bands together as well as at Preservation Hall; he got around as he was playing the bass drum behind a lot of people. As a member of the union too, he, ...
Continue ReadingClint Maedgen: Life Before & With Preservation Hall
by Thomas Cole
My first memories of listening to music as a kid? I was probably listening to Fats Domino and rock 'n' roll on the radio. The power of AM radio at that time in the '70s was a huge foundational influence on me, as it has been for a lot of people in those days. And sittin' in the car with my father, as he played cassettes with Hank Williams and Bob Wills, among others, I remember filing all that away ...
Continue ReadingJohnny Vidacovich: Magnet In The Middle
by Thomas Cole
The ever changing cast of the Johnny Vidacovich Trio defies the meaning of that word--trio . Historically, jazz trios with a drummer in the middle have included such notables as Art Blakey, Gene Krupa and Max Roach but none of those groups changed cast members on a weekly basis or deviated very far from what they normally played--jazz. These drummers, for the most part, embraced their familiar style of music or genre and played. But every Thursday evening the Vidacovich ...
Continue ReadingThe Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Miner Auditorium
by Thomas Cole
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band Livestreamed from SF JAZZ Miner Auditorium San Francisco, CA August 18, 2023 The dichotomy or, in more blunt terms, the extreme differences of opinion over the current course charted out by creative director and heir to the Hall, Ben Jaffe, seemingly has been fully addressed with the song selection and current configuration of the band on this most recent concert tour. Featuring their recently named musical director, Wendell ...
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