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Harris Rea & Louisiana Red Hot Records |
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Features
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Sunday, 05 February 2006 07:20 |
Harris Rea & Louisiana Red Hot Records
By John Sinclair
Based in New Orleans and distributed nationally, Louisiana Red Hot Records is dedicated to bringing the great music of Louisiana to the rest of the world whether it's rock, jazz, funk, blues or zydeco, it's all red hot.
Founded in 1996 by New Orleans music business veteran Harris Rea, Louisiana Red Hot Records has developed an impressive roster of New Orleans and regional artists whose independent productions are manufactured, distributed and promoted by the label's staff to expose their music to the listening public at large.
Louisiana Red Hot's burgeoning roster of New Orleans artists includes the Re-Birth Brass Band, Cyril Neville & the Uptown Allstars, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Wardell Quezergue & His Slammin Big Band, Jeremy Lyons & the Deltabilly Boys, Kipori Baby Wolf Woods, New Orleans Juice, Fredy Omar con su Banda, the Al Belletto Big Band, Luther Kent, Leroy Jones, Roderick Paulin, Red Hot & Blue and numerous others, and they ve reissued important historical recordings by Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and other originators of jazz in New Orleans.
When Harris Rea organized Louisiana Red Hot Records, his long years of experience in the local music industry as a promoter, record distributor and community activist had led him to conclude that there was a gaping hole in the local industry.
While several New Orleans labels had established national distribution networks for their own productions, the many locally-based artists and producers who create and finance their own recordings had no reliable outlet through which their productions could find a national audience. Even if they could come up with the money to press their CDs and offer them for sale, their market was generally limited to local and regional record retailers.
Thus Louisiana Red Hot set out to serve the New Orleans music community in several essential ways:
" By partnering with local musicians and record producers to gain national exposure for their productions, Red Hot offers them a chance to reach a much wider audience than could otherwise be anticipated.
" By assuming the costs of manufacturing and promoting their recordings, Red Hot makes it possible for local producers to concentrate on making the music and following up with live performances in areas where their products are being marketed.
" And by entering into agreements with Red Hot which are generally limited to specific productions, the artists and producers are free to seek further recording opportunities with labels outside the local region.
Now in its eighth year of operations, the company now boasts a richly varied catalog of more than 200 albums by a brilliant array of Pelican State blues, jazz, rock, R&B, Cajun and zydeco artists.
Manufacturing and distribution deals with outstanding artist/producers Cyril Neville, Bruce Sunpie Barnes, Nat Simpkins, Johnny Vidacovich and Ronnie Kole have brought their product lines under the Louisiana Red Hot umbrella, where they re joined by the works of established regional record producers like Wardell Quezergue, Mark Bingham and Jerry Brock.
The label also provides Louisiana productions with a high level of promotional support carefully targeted to reach the radio stations and music publications that specialize in the kind of music each album represents.
Each release comes complete with a full-color poster, a traditional one-sheet and artist biography which serve to introduce artists unknown outside their local or regional base to program directors, disc jockeys, magazine editors and music writers throughout the country.
One of the secrets of the label's success is Louisiana Red Hot's commitment to building market share for local artists in several musical genres. Their traditional jazz catalog is particularly strong, with beautifully remastered classics by early jazz giants augmented by releases by Leroy Jones, the Dixieland Ramblers, Don Vappie's New Orleans Jazz Band, Tim Laughlin, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, The Rag Pickers, New Orleans All-Star Stompers, and Dave Badie.
New Orleans central role in the contemporary jazz scene is underlined by Red Hot releases by the Al Belletto Big Band, Troy Trombone Shorty Andrews, Coolbone Swing Troupe, Roderick Paulin, John Ellison, Mark Griffith, Eric Johnson, Gary Hullette, Henri Smith, Nick Rolfe, Dave Braham, Lines of Reason, The Jazz Expressions, and Johnny Vidacovich, plus a handful of outside productions by Nat Simpkins and the John Handy Quintet.
The Crescent City is sometimes called the home of the blues, and Red Hot delivers a strong contemporary blues line that features recordings by Kipori Baby Wolf Woods, Jeremy Lyons & the Deltabilly Boys, Jo Jo Reed, Red Hot and Blues, Burton Gaar, John Lisi, Joe Nadeau, Bill Pierre, L.J. Porter, and Melissa Sigler.
Louisiana's burgeoning Cajun and Zydeco movement has found a welcome home at Red Hot Records, with both its traditional and contemporary wings well represented by Chubby Carrier, Willis Prudhomme, Mamou, Sunpie, the Zydeco Bone Shakers, Vin Bruce, Brad Paul Frank, Keith Frank & The Creole Connection, Hunter Hayes, Lil' Malcolm & the House Rockers, J. Paul Jr. & the Zydeco Nubreedz, Zydeco Warriors, and La Bande Feufollet.
New Orleans and Louisiana R&B and roots-rock releases enjoy special attention at Red Hot and benefit from unprecedented national attention. Established local artists like Cyril Neville & the Uptown Allstars, Tommy Malone, Irene Sage, the Forever Fabulous Chickenhawks with Big Luther Kent, and the late lamented Bluerunners are matched with emerging artists like Harry Anselmi, Buckshot, Diamonds, Vance Gilbert, Jonas Risin', idletime and Deff Generation.
Contemporary brass band music is represented by the popular Re-Birth Brass Band, the city's Latin music community by Fredy Omar Con Su Banda, the funk and jam movement by New Orleans Juice, and modern folk music by Rhudabega and Patrick Weathers.
The label has also brought New Orleans into the national market for Christmas music with seasonal releases by Frankie Ford, Ronnie Kole, Andre Codrescu, and imaginative compilations from Louisiana Red Hot catalog artists, including Christmas Greetings from New Orleans, Seasoned Greetings from Louisiana and Santa Claus Wants Some Zydeco.
And Red Hot's Music Is the Language of New Orleans series of catalog samplers draws from the label's disparate releases to showcase artists by category and genre:
Volume I: Music: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 2: Jazz: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 3: Blues: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 4: Trad Jazz: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 5: Zydeco: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 6: Cajun: The Language of New Orleans
Volume 7: Mardi Gras: The Language of New Orleans
Louisiana Red Hot Records has come a long way in a short time, and the company has built a firm foundation for future growth and continuing success in the fiercely competitive independent recording industry of the early 21st century.
Harris Rea and his energetic staff have opened up a window onto the world for a rich selection of the first-class musical talent currently based in New Orleans, and a whole new national audience is now hearing the many-splendored sounds of the Crescent City like it's never heard them before.
New Orleans
March 8, 2003
(c) 2003, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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