Live at the Old Point Bar

Personnel:
Barney Floyd, trumpet & flugelhorn
Kevin Clark, trumpet
Craig 'Sparky' Klein, trombone & vocals
Rick 'Neslort' Trolsen, trombone
Jason Mingledorff, tenor sax, clarinet
Ken 'Snakebite' Jacobs, baritone sax
Matt 'Tubop' Perrine, soulsaphone
Kerry 'Fatman' Hunter, snare drum
Tanio Hingle, bass drum
Big Chief Smiley Ricks, percussion & vocals

Special Guests:
Debbie Davis, vocals & percussion
Tom McDermott, piano

1-Can of Worms (5:33)
Matt Perrine, BMI
arr: Matt
solos: Rick and Craig

2-90.7 (5.10)
NONC, Not So Serious Music, BMI
arr: NONC
solos: Barney, Jason

3-Oye Como Va (7:01)
Tito Puente, ASCAP
arr: Kevin
solos: Barney, Kevin, Matt, Chief Smiley

4-Red's Cap (6:41)
Jason Mingledorff, Not So Serious Music, BMI
arr: Jason
solos: Craig, Snakebite

5-Mardi Gras Mumbles (7:17)
Jason Mingledorff, Not So Serious Music, BMI
arr: Jason
solos: Jason, Craig, Chief Smiley

6-Stone Puppy (6:28)
Matt Perrine, BMI
arr: Matt
solos: Barney, Rick

7-Sidewalk Strut (7:32)
Steve Masakowski, Equity Music, ASCAP
arr: Tom McDermott
solos: Kevin, Snakebite, Rick, Craig

8-Martin's Mambo (8:51)
Tom McDermott, Dermitunes Music,BMI
arr: Tom McDermott
solos: Tom McDermott, Snakebite, Kevin, Barney, Matt, Tanio & Fatman

9-Tchfuncta/On That Day (6:26)
Stanton Moore, Galactic Funk, BMI/Chief Smiley Ricks, 1.5 Sound, ASCAP
arr: Evan Christopher & NONC
vocals: Craig, Chief Smiley

10-Band Intros (1:04)

11-Black Water (6:53)
Patrick Simmons, Lansdowne Music/WB Music Corp. ASCAP
arr: Matt
vocals: Debbie Davis
solos: Snakebite, Kevin

The Nightcrawlers blasted onto the New Orleans brass band scene in the mid-'90s with an extremely interesting premise: could an all-star ensemble of musically mature, highly skilled transplants from all over America with backgrounds in ragtime, funk, traditional jazz, bebop, R&B and swing make an authentic contribution to the long-established native brass band idiom?

The Nightcrawlers' eponymous initial recording for Rounder Records provided a most positive answer. Boasting impressive original compositions and arrangements, imaginative improvisers, precise ensemble playing and a contagious joie de vivre all their own, the Nightcrawlers quickly established themselves as a popular addition to the city's extensive menu of memorable musical offerings.

Because its member shave always stayed extremely busy with regular work in bands from the Dukes of Dixieland to Dr. John, the Nightcrawlers' live arrangements have been relatively rare. Yet the ensemble has continued to grow through regular rehearsals and their occasional public performances: adding new materials replacing key players, getting looser and ever more comfortable with the brass band context and the band's permanent repertoire.

Finally, for their third album release, the Nightcrawlers have decided to show off their exuberant on-stage sound with this exciting program of new and tested material played for an enthusiastic crowd at the Old Point Bar in Algiers, an ancient sector of the city situated across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter and downtown New Orleans.

The new incarnation of the Nightcrawlers includes the dynamic drum team of Tanio Hingle (New Birth Brass Band), Kerry 'Fat Man' Hunter (Sixth Ward Big Shots) and Howard 'Smiley' Ricks, a long-time Mardi Gras Indian Chief from the West Bank who has traveled the world playing percussion with Dr. John and his band.

The new New Orleans Nightcrawlers are on fire here from the opening cut, and they flame ever brighter as the set unfolds, unveiling splendid new works by Matt Perrine (Can of Worms, Stone Puppy) and Jason Mingledorff (Red's Cap, Mardi Gras Mumbles), throwing a collective salute to WWOZ Radio (90.7), swinging the hell out of Kevin Clark's compelling arrangement of the Tito Puente/Santana favorite Oye Como Va and the now-familiar Tom McDermott arrangements of Steve Masakowski's Sidewalk Strut and his own Martin's Mambo.

The set peaks in the true brass band fashion when Martin's Mambo erupts into a fervid chant and segues into Stanton Moore's soulful Tchfuncta, triggered by an exultant recitation of New Orleans funk history by Craig Klein which proudly connects the Nightcrawlers to the tradition they have so enthusiastically embraced. Then Chief Smiley Ricks takes everything to a fever pitch with this impassioned, wholly idiomatic delivery of the Mardi Gras Indian anthem On That Day, and vocalist Debbie Davis emerges to close the show over the band's rousing reading of the wildly self-referential Black Water: "I wanna hear that funky brass band and dance that honky tonk!"

This is the place to find it, dear friends, with the New Orleans Nightcrawlers in full flight at the Old Point bar across the river, and like they say in the Sixth Ward, it ain't gonna be nothing nice. Put on your honky tonk clothes and your favorite dancing shoes, turn up the volume on your CD machine and get ready to kick 'em up high. This is what brass band music is all about.

--John Sinclair
New Orleans, April 10, 2000

John Sinclair, founder of the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in the '60s, is the managing editor of Blues Access, programmer at WWOZ 90.7fm, a contributor to publications around the country, and is a poet and performer in his own right.

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