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| SOGGY PO BOYS Pay Tribute to Professor Longhair in Local Concert Series The Soggy Po Boys' Honoring a Tradition Series has been gone so long, but ask anyone who's been to one before and they'll assure you: it's well worth the wait. Highly anticipated and bound to sell-out, these lecture-performances differ from the usual Po Boys gig in that they focus on the cultural contributions of one of NOLA's many musical giants, prefaced with a presentation to provide biographical context. Grab your notebook; this one will be especially educational as the boys go back to school with the rumba-boogie stylings of Professor Longhair (also known as Henry Roeland Byrd) on Saturday, November 3 at The Dance Hall in Kittery, ME. Endearingly referred to as Fess, Longhair's output is a gumbo of sorts, a tour of New Orleans music, blending mambo and other Caribbean genres with barrelhouse blues and second line. Dr. John, one of Fess' many "students, " would further claim that Fess "put funk into music, " experimenting with a rhythmic vocabulary that would directly influence the music of James Brown. His most famous songs–"Big Chief" and "Mardi Gras in New Orleans, " to name only a few–are steeped in local tradition, and while the great majority of them never cracked the mainstream, they are locally loved with timeless reverence much like a hymnbook for all of Orleans Parish. If you already know about Professor Longhair then please excuse the choir preaching–I'll assume you saved the date somewhere around "rumba-boogie." However, if Fess wasn't part of your previous curricula then we've got a lot to cover. No need to be a teacher's pet but a little studying wouldn't hurt. Class starts at 7 PM on Saturday, November 3. Don't be late. Better yet, get there early so you can get a seat right at the front of the hall. You might just learn something. Advance tickets are $12 and can be purchased here, or you can pay $15 at the door. For more details visit The Dance Hall website. About the band: Born on a snowy Fat Tuesday night in 2012, the Soggy Po Boys have been honing their craft of New Orleans music in their Tuesday residency in their hometown of Dover New Hampshire. The septet doesn't just play their weekly gig and call it at that; they fit in more than a hundred shows every year, from festivals and concerts to politically-relevant burlesque collaborations and street parades. Part of the beauty of New Orleans music is that it's celebrated and appreciated wherever it goes, from the street to the theater. The Po Boys are doing their part to spread the greatest music on earth around their home in New England and when touring, throughout the rest of the country. The Soggy Po Boys serve their jazz messy, mixing brass-fueled mayhem with spirituals, Meters-style old-school funk, and the Caribbean side of the New Orleans tradition. CONTACT: Stu Dias – stuartf.dias@gmail.com – (203) 219-0545 – soggypoboys.com WHO: Soggy Po Boys WHAT: Honoring a Tradition: The Soggy Po Boys Present the Life and Music of Professor Longhair WHEN: Saturday, November 3, 2018, at 7 PM WHERE: The Dance Hall, 7 Walker St Kittery, ME 03904 write your comments about the article :: © 2018 Jazz News :: home page |