Give Up the (NOLA) Funk!

For some time now, I've been wanting someone to call attention to the burgeoning funk scene in New Orleans. I didn't think that that someone was me because I don't live there, don't know where to see the bands, and have to stay on my toes to keep up with the latest releases. I also can't write with any great insight about the finger-popping bass techniques, minor chord progressions, and other trademarks of funk. On the other hand, I know what gets my head nodding and my feet tapping, so maybe I'm as qualified as anyone else.

New Orleans funk is a mad, cross-racial concoction of what one might think of as traditional funk rhythms augmented with R&B, rock, jazz, NOLA brass band, and even blues. The exact mix depends on the band, and each band appears to plunder merrily from whatever styles suit it. They're all different and they're all connected; the groups I've been listening to include Trombone Shorty, Galactic, New Orleans Nightcrawlers, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Groovesect, and Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk. The first four have all have recent releases that display the dazzling array of influences and emphases on NOLA funk.

Trombone Shorty's Backatown, arguably the strongest of the four, favors brief TNT blasts of music that run into each other and form a coherent whole. The 24-year trombonist and trumpeter is a formidable musician, and leads a powerful septet through a series of ensemble pieces that draw heavily on NOLA brass charts laid over a driving beat. Backatown is the most ambitious of these CDs, and meets its own high standards across the board.

Big Sam's Funky Nation holds court with King of the Party. This time around, the Nation is a stripped down quintet with a sound constructed around the soloing of Big Sam Williams on trombone and Takishi Shimmura on guitar. Of the four albums, King of the Party draws the most heavily on rock; it's unique NOLA flavor comes from the joyous, expansive nature of the improvising. Trust me, a centenarian in an Alaska rest home would get up and dance to this one.

I'm usually skeptical of albums with a roster of guest stars. It often hides weak material behind the neon, and half the time the guest material is recorded in a remote studio. But on ya-ka-may, Galactic takes advantage of the deep and wide river of New Orleans talent -- the album includes turns by Irma Thomas, Glen David Andrews, the Rebirth Brass Band, and sissy rapper Katey Red, among man others -- to unify the many strains of NOLA music around a percussive funk sound. Sprawling and always in danger of losing control, ya-ka-may in the end succeeds in offering a new way of listening to the NOLA music.

The New Orleans Nightcrawlers Slither Slice is at once the most traditional and the most eccentric of these offerings. The Nightcrawlers take the traditional brass band sound and explore blues, improvisatory jazz, and funk. In fact, that funky, second-line step is ever present regardless of what byway these guys explore.

This is a quick, incomplete summary of today's NOLA funk scene. You can download an excellent Dumpstaphunk live set from iTunes. Groovesect began as teaming of graduates from the Tulane and University of New Orleans music programs. Englishman Jon Cleary migrated to New Orleans and formed a jazz-funk ensemble featuring himself on piano and vocals. There have to be more, and some day I'll return to NOLA to personally explore this vitality of this scene. Until then, I listen to these albums and eagerly anticipate the next release...

It's Bobby's world...

It's also Corset Friday...

Sometimes, the good guys win...

Wordless Wednesday...

Don't miss these amazing Eyjafjalljokull photos...

Whatever happened to the Republican party?...

A small community park near the Fairgrounds...

Big Sam's Funky Nation is "Hard To Handle":

The Republican Home Buying Scam

There's been a great deal of attention given Senate approval of a provision to the recovery bill that gives a $15,000 tax break to anyone who buys a home before the end of calendar year 2009. Originally proposed by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), it's the kind of legislation that Republicans and real estate developers love and that Democrats fear to oppose. Analysts expect the measure to cost about $19 billion.

At first blush, this seems like a good idea. After all, Economics 101 says that this will encourage people to buy homes, and that the increased demand will serve as a firewall against a continued decline in the value of existing homes. Thus, homeowners who aren't looking to buy will benefit as well.

However, the effect of the tax break is unlikely to be so cut-and-dried. To begin with, a large portion of the current crisis stems from too many people buying homes. One might argue that the tax break can only exacerbate the problem by encouraging people who can't afford a home to buy one anyway, thus inevitably adding to the number of foreclosures, which will in turn cause another downturn in prices.

Moreover, unemployment is now 7.6%, the highest since 1992. (As this statistic counts only the number of people actively looking for work, the real number is higher.) People who are out of work and people who are afraid of being out of work do not buy homes. So, whatever benefit the tax break provides, it's going to go the people who are economically secure and/or to bottom feeders scooping up foreclosed homes on the cheap. They are already getting a good deal; adding fifteen grand to their take is like spending money to feed a dog's fleas.

Beyond that, consider the elemental math amidst a climate of -- at best -- uncertainty. No one knows what will happen to home prices in 2009. We do know that they cratered in 2008 despite a favorable outlook at the beginning of the year. Last year, the median (average) value of a house declined 13.1% to $181,300. Thus, a home buyer considering the purchase of a median priced house (again, $181,300) must consider at this stark reality: If 2009 home prices drop 13.1% again, the house she is considering will be worth $157, 550 at the end of the year, or $23,750 less than when she bought it. Even adding in the $15,000 tax break, she's behind where she was when she started out.

It turns out that home prices can decline no more than 8.25% for the tax break to begin to look attractive to most buyers. And that might be a good bet. It might not be, either. In any case, it doesn't address the most basic question of all, which is: If you think home prices will decline any amount in 2009, why buy now? For most people, their home is their savings. They're not inclined to gamble, and who can blame them? After all, the housing market is not stable: It remains in an uproar. 

In the end, this tax break is a typical Republican dodge that benefits the affluent and the economically secure at the expense of everyone else. Even in this day and age, $19 billion goes a long way, and we can use it on much more deserving and productive expenditures...

Conservatives think that money for mass transit will not stimulate the economy. Think again....

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? The human cost of the Bush war in Iraq can now be measured:

• Number of Iraqi deaths attributable to the war: 800,000 - 1.3 million
  
• Number of displaced Iraqis: 4.5 million
• Number of war widows: 1-2 million
• Number of orphans: 5 million
• Per cent of Iraqi households with access to clean water: less than 40%
• Per cent of children in Basra who cannot attend public school: 40%
• Per cent of children in Baghdad who cannot attend public school: 70%

I don't know how anyone can argue that this portrays a people free from terror or that this somehow merits the dubious claim that Bush's war made America safer...

The GOP's nutso claim that the government doesn't create jobs...

Friday's Choice: It's the first weekend of Carnival in New Orleans, and "We Will Walk Through The Streets Of The City" with Glen David Andrews and Trombone Shorty: