- Events
New Orleans jazz standards in a free two-hour concert Saturday (FYI, Jan. 16)
[Special Events] - Our History
Louis Armstrong, Buddy Petit, Bunk Johnson, Kid Ory, and the Fritz Brothers are just some of the legends who performed at the Dew Drop. [Our History] - Directions
Only blocks from Lake Pontchartrain, the Dew Drop Jazz Hall survives in a neighborhood in Mandeville, Louisiana.
[Directions]
Special Events
Area jazz lovers have a rare opportunity to hear a French band playing traditional New Orleans jazz standards in a free two-hour concert Saturday (FYI, Jan. 16) at the Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Jazz Hall on Lamarque Street in Mandeville.
The 1-3 pm concert will culminate several days of live recording at the Dew Drop by the band La Planche A Laver.
The four piece band specializing in New Orleans jazz spent much of the week working with Covington-based but internationally known jazz musician Don Vappie recording their second CD at the Dew Drop.
"We intend to also use some of the selections from their live concert Saturday on the CD so we hope we can fill the historic jazz hall and have a lot of audience clapping on the CD for the live selections,'' Vappie said.
The projected record, which will feature a picture of the Dew Drop on the front cover, will be released and distributed in Europe but some are expected to become available at some future point in the United States.
The recording session and free concert is being hosted by the volunteer group, Friends of the Dew Drop.
La Planche A Laver, which translates into washboard in English, is a four piece group consisting of a washboard, banjo, bass saxophone and clairnet. The four French players have been staying at Mar Villa Guest Host in Mandeville and working daylight hours recording at the Dew Drop.
Vappie has also arranged for video to be shot of some of the recording session and and he said live cuts of the band working in the Dew Drop are to be released on the group's French language website, www.laplanchealaver.com and on You Tube.
"This all began taking shape more than a year ago when band member Armel Amiot, a banjo picker, ordered one of my CDs online because I was playing banjo on some of the cuts. He then contacted me in Covington about the possibility of me helping them with recording a record if they came to New Orleans,'' Vappie said.
"I suggested using the Dew Drop in Mandeville because of its history in the evolution of this music and the fact it is the oldest still standing and still used rural jazz venue in the world. They jumped at the chance,'' Vappie said.
It took many months, he said. for all the arrangements to be made.
The Dew Drop, built in 1895 by the Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Association of Mandeville, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
La Planche A Laver is led by Amiot, a native of Cherbourg, France, who initially studied American blues guitarists such as Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher before discovering the legendary New Orleans banjoist Johnny St. Cyr which led him to switch to the jazz banjo.
Michel Cousin plays the banjo and cowbells and other percussion; Sebastien Vallet plays the bass saxophone and started as a youngster playing in a municipal band in Percy, France but became a professional jazz player in France shortly after turning 15. Gilles Vernon on clarinet began playing classical guitar before discovering the clarinet and mastering the clarinet styles of New Orleans legends.