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James Andrews: The Satchmo of the Ghetto |
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Saturday, 04 February 2006 23:12 |
James Andrews
The Satchmo of the Ghetto
By John Sinclair
James Andrews is a young man with a very old soul. The grandson of Jessie Ooh Poo Pa Doo Hill and great-nephew of guitarist Walter Papoose Nelson and his brother, the legendary Prince LaLa, James has been playing his trumpet in the streets of New Orleans since he was a child. Now 33, he's taken his horn all over the world, from Cuba to Japan to the United Arab Emirates, but he's still just as much at home here in the Crescent City as anyone you could think of.
Presently a resident of the near-by French Quarter, James is a well-known figure in the Treme neighborhood where he grew up into an extended family filled with musicians on both sides. His mother's brother, Big Fritz, is a key figure in the Money Wasters Social Aid & Pleasure Club; he has cousins who ve played in the Dirty Dozen, Re-Birth, New Birth, Li l Rascals and Forgotten Souls brass bands; and his own street-level experience extends back to the All Star Brass Band James led at the age of 10, with Nicholas Payton on second trumpet.
A long-time member of the Treme Brass Band as well, James first caught the ear of the public in a big way when his song Gimme My Money Back leaped off the Treme band's 1995 Arhoolie album of the same name to establish itself as a Mardi Gras favorite.
James was the lead voice of the New Birth Brass Band when they cut their great D-Boy album named for and dedicated to James late brother Darrell, a victim of street violence for NYNO Records in 1997. And his first album under his own name, Satchmo of the Ghetto, a swinging collaboration with Allen Toussaint and Dr. John from 1998, generated another local hit, New Love Thing.
Affectionately known as Twelve, a nickname inherited from his father, James has just recorded his second album as a leader and the first for his own Keep Swingin label, under an extensive production agreement with Louisiana Red Hot Records--that will showcase Andrews burgeoning skills as a producer.
When I got the chance to work with [Allen] Toussaint & Mac [Rebennack] on NYNO Records, he says, it gave me the opportunity to learn the knowledge of what to do when you re producing other people. It was a great experience, and it made me want to become a producer myself.
James association with NYNO began when I heard Toussaint had a new label he was startin up, and I approached him about the New Birth. Then it sprung off into a solo project for me, and Dr. John wanted to help me out on it because he was so close to my grandfather for a whole lotta years. They wrote a lotta songs together and had a publishing company together, so that inspired me too. I wanted to learn about publishing tunes and making records, so I paid close attention to what they were doing, and now it's starting to pay off for me.
James has always been close to his family. His grandfather introduced him to show business as a youthful tap dancer even before he picked up the trumpet, and he still marvels at how much he learned from the beloved Poops, an incredible character and much-loved musician who passed away several years ago.
Earlier this year James organized a benefit concert at CafΘ Brasil to raise money to buy his grandfather a gravestone, which he plans to erect at JazzFest time. James younger brother, Troy Trombone Shorty Andrews, co-starred at the CafΘ Brasil show with a smoking set by his band of fellow teenaged NOCCA musicians.
Yeah, James grins, we already cut Troy's album for Keep Swingin Records. It ll be called Swingin Gate, and it's got Latin jazz, second-line, and a new arrangement of Ooh Poo Pa Doo on it too. We used Troy's little band members from NOCCA and [guitarist] June Yamagishi, [bassist] Nick Daniels, [drummer] Doug Belotte, and Action on percussion. Troy even does my song, Zydeco Second Line.
James and Troy Andrews can also be heard on the very first Keep Swingin release, a live album recorded at a music festival in Berlin in 1998. That was Troy's first trip to Europe, James says, and I had a ball taking him around and showcasing him on stage with my band.
His first gig over there was at the Music of the World Festival in Basel, Switzerland, and he was at the International Children's Festival in Amsterdam too.
First seen in the early 1990s as a tiny seven-year-old trombonist, Troy is now 16, a tall, slender young man who is equally proficient on trumpet, tuba, drums, and just about any other instrument he can put his hands on.
People in the Treme neighborhood and on the New Orleans music scene have watched James mentor and shepherd his little brother through the intricacies of the entertainment industry for almost 10 years, and there's no mistaking the trumpeter's considerable pride in Troy's development as a skilled instrumentalist with an already mature improvisational style.
Now he wants to use this experience to establish an organization called Kids for Jazz: We d take our music into the schools, James enthuses, teach the kids how to play jazz, even record CDs of kids making their own music.
I d like to have maybe a jazz camp for kids here, and set up an exchange program with students from different countries so they can come here and study and then bring kids from New Orleans to their countries.
For now, though, it's Keep Swingin Records that has James most excited. He's been doing his recording with engineer Richard Byrd at George Buck's studio on Decatur Street, and everything's been going very nicely, but he hopes one day to be able to build a recording studio in Treme.
That's an ultimate goal, he admits, and for the immediate future, I m planning to produce 10 albums on Keep Swingin before the end of the year. My ambition for this label is to make the albums and then set up tours for the musicians we record so they can play jazz festivals all around the world and develop their careers in music.
I m always scouting talent, James concludes, looking for new artists, new ideas, new people.
New Orleans
April 2, 2002
(c) 2002, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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