Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast | 
| Artist: Various Artists
Label: Nonesuch
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $5.98
You Save: $13.00 (68%)
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 5129
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 79934
UPC: 075597993424
EAN: 0075597993424
ASIN: B000BNTM0U
Release Date: December 6, 2005
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Condition: Order with confidence - Every single package is shipped with insurance, and domestic packages have Delivery Confirmation. We will email you a confirmation with tracking information before we ship. Many individual CD's and DVD's get upgraded to first class mail to get to you quickly.
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| Tracks:
| • | Yes We Can Can - Allen Toussaint | | • | World I Never Made - Dr. John | | • | Back Water Blues - Irma Thomas | | • | Gather by the River - Davell Crawford | | • | Cryin' in the Streets - Buckwheat Zydeco | | • | Canal Street Blues - Dr. Michael White | | • | Brother John Is Gone/Herc-Jolly-John - Wild Magnolias | | • | When the Saints Go Marching In - Eddie Bo | | • | My Feet Can't Fail Me Now - Dirty Dozen Brass Band | | • | Tou' les jours c'est pas la meme - Carol Fran | | • | L'Ouragon - BeauSoleil | | • | Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans - Preservation Hall Jazz Band | | • | Prayer for New Orleans - Charlie Miller | | • | What a Wonderful World - The Wardell Quezergue Orchestra featuring Donald Harrison | | • | Tipitina and Me - Allen Toussaint | | • | Philharmonic Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with members of the New York |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
Album Description
Nonesuch Records is releasing a benefit album of newly recorded songs featuring artists from the New Orleans music community - across a wide variety of styles - to document the depth, richness and profound musicality of that unique city. Funds from the sale of the record, titled Our New Orleans, will be donated to Habitat For Humanity to aid those affected by the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster. A number of New Orleans' best known musicians have been asked to record songs that are integral to their lives and that express their feelings about the city and the recent events there. Sessions began in New York on September 20, with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Wild Magnolias recording at Clinton Studios. Later the same day and on September 21, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band recorded at New York's Avatar Studios. Further sessions in October included Dr. John, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Randy Newman, among others. Nonesuch's parent company - Warner Bros. Records - is donating all of the production costs for this record, as part of the Warner Music Group's larger efforts on behalf of the hurricane victims. Many others involved in the project are also generously donating their time and services.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Down But Never Out December 9, 2005
James Morris (Jackson Heights, NY United States)
66 out of 67 found this review helpful
A wonderful mix of NOLA soul, R & B, Jazz and almost everything New Orleans, the Nonesuch release Our New Orleans just goes to show you that down does not necessarily mean out. The artists here are telling us that they and their music are still around, thanks, a fact most of us suspected would come to pass even through our shock and our grief at the horrible losses.
The problem with many "benefit" albums that offer play lists of "various" numerous artists is that the bands usually cover a broad range of styles, and sometimes such divergent sounds crash headlong into each other. Worse, such efforts sometimes come off as trite, patronizing to their cause or even indifferent.
Happily, this is not the case with Our New Orleans. The material, whether Jazz, Cajun, Creole, Rhythm & Blues, Gospel, Second Line or whatever, all have one common current running through their collective wires - the spirit of New Orleans. And the love if it.
As others have pointed out, picking out a favorite from so many first-class tracks is next to impossible. Just because Irma Thomas happens to be one my favorite vocalists of all time, doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other first-rate performers here to make us jump around the room and celebrate. Celebrate what? I don't know - celebrate those who made it, I guess, and give those who didn't a real New Orleans tribute. From the familiar to the revelations (and there were a few revelations for me hiding in this album) all the participants give 1,000%. It wouldn't be fair to single out any unless I mention that every performance is as heartfelt as it is hearty.
One of the revelations for me (for I was not heretofore familiar with the singer or the song) was TOU' LES JOURS C'EST PAS LE MIME, a burning Creole bouncer by Carol Fran.
And any album that proffers the song Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans is a winner in my book. Originally warbled by the great Billie Holiday to Louis Armstrong in the motion picture New Orleans (1947) I got chills when I noticed it was being performed here by the venerable Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Since the day Katrina hit, I have been singing snatches to myself in a kind of macabre search for the perfect New Orleans swan song. But of course, we always knew the survivors would bounce back...
Do you know what it means
To miss New Orleans
And miss it each night and day
Well I know I'm not wrong
The feeling's getting stronger
The longer I stay away
Miss those moss-covered vines
The tall sugar-pines
Where mockingbirds used to sing
And I'd like to see the lazy Mississippi
A hurrying about to spring
The moonlight on the Bayous*
Those Creole tunes that fill the air
You know I dream about magnolias in bloom
And soon I'm wishing that I were there
Do you know what it means
To miss those Red Beans
When that's where you left your heart
And there's one thing more
I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans
*Billie Holiday sings this line as:
"The Mardi Gras, the memories
Of Creole tunes that fill the air"
Our New Orleans is highly recommended!
Beautiful, moving set and a great cause December 7, 2005
Travis Dubya McGee Bickle (Texas Quail Hunting Camp)
45 out of 46 found this review helpful
Somehow, despite being an extremely fervent admirer of Randy Newman, I'd become slightly jaded about "Louisiana 1927"...I'd heard it too many times, in too many crummy versions, to the point where it had become almost corny, a trope. With Katrina and its aftermath though, it lives again, and I am reminded what a brilliant and beautifully crafted piece of work it is. There's a lovely, grief-laden take on it here...
Although I've only listened to this once, the highlights that stood out are too numerous to neatly encapsulate here. But, having said that, listen for: the Donald Harrison sax solo on "Wonderful World", the forlorn Buckwheat Zydeco track, "Crying in the Streets", with great, wailing, sorrowful guitar work from Ry Cooder, and Irma Thomas's take on Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues" (where's Irma been lately?)...And oh, Dr. John's weary, resigned "World I Never Made" and Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can", a perfect opening salvo - if you ask me, there can never be enough versions of that song in the world.
Great music and a chance to do a good deed (all proceeds go to Katrina-related causes)? Sign me up, Coach!
Five stars isn't enough, give it a universe of stars January 6, 2006
O. J. Dean (Texas, USA)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
I am rendered speechless by this album. I put this CD on for backround music while I was reading because it would remind me of home. When the song "Tou' les jours ?'est pas la m?me" came on I could no longer concentrate on my book, it aroused so much emotion in me. It is definitely rare for a song (actually, the entire album) to be able to do that and now I can't stop listening to it. This is a most powerful experience. Do not miss out on this album.
Apt Title for This CD December 15, 2005
A. Morrison (Torrington, CT USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought this CD for a woman I work with who's childhood home was New Orleans. Living in Connecticut she is far removed from zydeco and red beans and rice. She was, needless to say, devistated by Katrina even though she was so far away. Her face was priceless when she opened this CD. She immediately put it in the office CD player and began to dance around the office. I joined her as did others and in the middle of well below freezing temperaturers and mounds of snow and ice we all experienced N'Oleans. This CD as she put it, is real Cajun music. I don't know what higher praise it can be given.
The Best Album I've Ever Purchased December 22, 2005
E. F. Pretus (Metairie, LA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I live in Louisiana, and naturally, these old tunes (and the musicians who perform them) hold a place very near and dear to me. This album, however, has the most moving renditions of the old classics I've ever heard.... from "Yes we can can" to "Back Water Blues".. Unlike other tribute albums that have been released since the storm, this is not merely a collection of old recordings. Every song was recorded by New Orleans artists -- many of whom lost their homes -- in the weeks immediately following Hurricane Katrina... and the raw emotion that comes through in each performance brings new life and new meaning to old music. Each piece is incredibly moving and well performed. Beyond the simple fact that the proceeds from the CD will benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina, this is a must-buy CD for the simple fact that it reflects some of the very best of what New Orleans has to offer in music and culture. Before anyone writes-off New Orleans as just another washed-out city, they must hear this album!
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