The Basin Street Six was a Dixieland sextet founded in 1950 in New Orleans that had some famous members, including George Girard, Roy Zimmerman, Pete Fountain, Joe Rotis and Charlie Duke among others. They recorded for various record companies, including Mercury Records and 504 Records.
The band performed during the late 1970s, 80s, and 90s at the helm of famed New Orleans clarinetist Chuck Credo, who toured with the band through Europe, Singapore, and Asia. Credo's Basin Street Six recorded one official release "Jazzin' From New Orleans To Nashville" in 1984 to coincide with the New Orleans World's Fair. The album is still in print and available through WCIII Records. [1]
Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 to 1917. It was established by municipal ordinance under the New Orleans City Council, to regulate prostitution. Sidney Story, a city alderman, wrote guidelines and legislation to control prostitution within the city. The ordinance designated an area of the city in which prostitution, although still nominally illegal, was tolerated or regulated. The area was originally referred to as "The District", but its nickname, "Storyville", soon caught on, much to the chagrin of Alderman Story. It was bound by the streets of North Robertson, Iberville, Basin, and St. Louis Streets. It was located by a train station, making it a popular destination for travelers throughout the city, and became a centralized attraction in the heart of New Orleans. Only a few of its remnants are now visible. The neighborhood lies in Faubourg Tremé and the majority of the land was repurposed for public housing. It is well known for being the home of jazz musicians, most notably Louis Armstrong as a minor.
Louis Leo Prima was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s.
George Girard was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter. He was known for his great technical ability, playing in a style that combined traditional New Orleans Dixieland jazz with the big-band-style trumpet, and a member of the Basin Street Six.
Pierre Dewey LaFontaine Jr., known professionally as Pete Fountain, was an American jazz clarinetist.
Bourbon Street is a historic street in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Extending thirteen blocks from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue, Bourbon Street is famous for its many bars and strip clubs.
Kermit Ruffins is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and actor from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often accompanies his songs with his own vocals. Most of his bands perform New Orleans jazz standards though he also composes many of his own pieces. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Ruffins is an unabashed entertainer who plays trumpet with a bright, silvery tone, sings with off-the-cuff charm and never gets too abstruse in his material."
Jason Marsalis is an American jazz drummer and member of the Marsalis family of musicians. He is the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the late Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and musical educator. Jazz critic Scott Yanow said in a review that White "displays the feel and spirit of the best New Orleans clarinetists".
Basin Street or Rue Bassin in French, is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It parallels Rampart Street one block lakeside, or inland, from the boundary of the French Quarter, running from Canal Street down 5 blocks past Saint Louis Cemetery. It currently then turns lakewards, flowing into Orleans Avenue.
The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins, and classmates from Joseph S. Clark Senior High School, which closed in the spring of 2018, in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. Arhoolie released its first album in 1984.
"Panama" is a jazz standard. It is by William Henry Tyers, originally entitled "Panama, a Characteristic Novelty", published in 1912.
"Basin Street Blues" is a song often performed by Dixieland jazz bands, written by Spencer Williams in 1928 and recorded that year by Louis Armstrong. The verse with the lyric "Won't you come along with me / To the Mississippi..." was later added by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden.
George Porter Jr. is an American musician, best known as the bassist and singer of The Meters. Along with Art Neville, Porter formed the group in the mid 1960s and came to be recognized as one of the progenitors of funk. The Meters disbanded in 1977, but reformed in 1989. Today the original group still plays the occasional reunion but the Funky Meters, of which Porter and Neville are members, most prominently keeps the spirit alive.
Irvin Mayfield Jr. is an American trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator.
Theresa Andersson is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Jon Cleary is a British-born American funk and R&B musician based in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he has studied the "musical culture and life of New Orleans" according to his website. Cleary is an accomplished pianist as well as being a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter.
Dixieland, sometimes referred to as traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, fostered awareness of this new style of music.
Conrad Rodman "Connie" Jones III was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist from New Orleans.
Basin Street Records is a Grammy Award-winning independent record label based in New Orleans, Louisiana, that specializes in jazz, funk, and rhythm and blues (R&B).
Lena Prima is an American singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of singer, trumpeter and recording star Louis Prima and his fifth wife, Gia Maione.