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The Isle of Orleans

Snug Harbor CD release party, June 2003

MY THOUGHTS

I wanted to record this album for many reasons, but three pop into mind. The first, was timing. This year(2003) marks my 20th year as a professional musician and my 40th birthday, so I had to do something special, at least for myself.

Second, I wanted to separate my self from the crowd. Musicians are always trying to find ways to stand out or to scream, "Look at me." Instead of playing faster, louder and higher, I began writing new songs and I noticed people enjoying hearing them.  I think people would remember a tune more than any solo I played. After all, if it's new, there is nothing to compare it to. These songs I've written are in no way groundbreaking, but I'd like to think of them as part of New Orleans jazz for the twenty-first century.

Third, and most important was to start a movement. If we want to see this music move forward, we have to have new songs. New songs mean new ideas. Traveling has helped me accomplish this and I don't think yet another version of "Muskrat Ramble" is going to help the popularity of New Orleans jazz, even though I still enjoy playing those chestnuts. I'd like to see musicians more talented than myself writing new songs. They're doing it in Nashville, New York and L.A. Why shouldn't we do it in New Orleans?

The songs:

• "Dumaine Street Breakdown"- In the summer of 2002,  I moved to the French Quarter. This was the first song I wrote in my new place, reflective of one hellacious move-in experience in the heat of July and recalling my first night without air conditioning.
• "Restless Heart"- a musical self portrait, disguised as a semi-sweet love song. I get bored pretty easily when I play the same tunes or routine night after night. New Orleans is blessed with so many great musicians with different styles and I like to benefit from this.
• "Suburban Street Parade"- my nod to Paul Barbarin ("The Bourbon Street Parade"), who wrote some of the old-style brass band anthems that are so popular today. With a title like this, I had to have at least one Barbarin perform on it. Mardi Gras is now a big part of the suburbs, which is cool if you have kids, but it's still not the same.
• "Blues for Faz"- homage to one of my favorite New Orleans clarinet players,  Irving Fazola. Faz was one of the exponents in the bridge between the early traditional style and swing. He had a great swinging style and the "fat sound" mostly notable with other New Orleans greats like Johnny Dodds, Omer Simeon, Leon Roppolo and Jimmy Noone. Both Pete Fountain and I say, "No him, no me."
• "I Know I'll See You Again"- I enjoyed writing this song a few years ago. I'm a big fan of composer Richard Rodgers. His beautiful, interesting intervals and lyrical melodies are timeless and I thought of these when I wrote this. The words were written the day before the recording.
• "The Gentilly Strut"- as a boy, I grew up in a neighborhood called Gentilly Woods, the premier post WWII suburb of New Orleans. The melody and easy feel of this song paint a pretty accurate picture of a most happy childhood.
• "March Of The Uncle Bubby's"- for some musicians in New Orleans, the term "Uncle Bubby" is an endearing reference to any older New Orleans gentleman set out to having a good time. He's the one usually dancing with the best looking girl in the place and never hesitates to buy you a beer on your break. After writing this one, I pictured twenty or thirty of them coming down the street, dancing. Now, that's funny!
• "It's My Love Song To You"- this is one I wrote in the middle of the night, during Hurricane Isadore (Sept.2002), thinking about somebody very near and dear to me, even though she lives in another town. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to relationships and often don't express myself the way I'd like. Typical  musician.
• "The Isle of Orleans"- every native knows we have our own way of doing things- our own food, music, dances, weddings, funerals, driving laws, open container laws, language, agendas, politics, parades and holidays are just to name a few. Plus we're pretty much surrounded by water. After Reconstruction (1866), New Orleans had close to one hundred nationalities inhabiting it, and yet, became its own little island. I'm so glad I grew up in New Orleans. Mama told me," you're ready for the world, kiddo."
• "Magnolia Dance"- on November 19th, 2002, I got a call to hire a six-piece band for a scene in the motion picture "Runaway Jury." Then they asked, "Oh, by the way, do you have an original song for the scene?" Finding five musicians in two days kept me busy enough. Well, I was able to accomplish that and write this tune. As of this writing, we're still haggling over some of the little stuff so I don't know if it will even be heard in the flick. Show biz.
• "Crescent City Moon" - this is the only tune that I recorded prior to this CD (Talkin' Swing- Jazzology Records). I have always wanted to write my own sentimental song about New Orleans. One night, while performing on a river boat, I noticed a bright crescent moon over the New Orleans skyline. Voi la.
• "Monkey Hill"- for those of us who grew up in New Orleans, most kids of all ages have gotten their share of grass stains having rolled or slid down Monkey Hill. Located in Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo is home to the highest point in New Orleans. During WWII, the WPA built it to show kids from New Orleans what a hill looks like. No, really! On our school field trips, it's easy to see how Monkey Hill got its name once we were let loose.

Enjoy!

Tim Laughlin

Liner Notes by Tom McDermott

If you live in New Orleans and make your living playing traditional jazz, you have some choices as to what music you're going to play.

You can cave in completely to tourist demand and blare out nothing but the Dixieland Top 40 ("Saints", "Muskrat Ramble", etc.), then complain about how little you're working.

Or you can excavate the mustiest regions of the repertoire, perform (rightfully?) neglected works by the l923 "Hog Jowls" Jackson band, brag that nobody else ever plays this stuff, then complain about how little you're working.

With 20 years' experience in the music wars, New Orleans native Tim Laughlin has done some of both. He's played a thousand "Saints" as well as lesser-known pieces by Jelly Roll, James P. Johnson and King Oliver.

Fortunately he also, around 10 years ago, started writing and performing his own tunes. "If I'm going to play obscure music, it might as well be my own," he jokes: a self-deprecating remark and an important statement. For if music like traditional jazz is to survive, it not only needs fresh performers and audiences, but new melodies to keep things from getting stale.

Some of the songs ("Suburban Street Parade", "March of the Uncle Bubbies") are simple Paul Barbarin-like struts that clearly reveal Tim's good-natured New Orleans temperament. Other pieces "Crescent City Moon", "It's My Love Song to You") are a little trickier, perhaps reflecting his interest in the music of Bob Wilber, the great swing clarinetist and composer. Trickier still is "Blues For Faz" (for the brilliant 1930s New Orleans reedman Irving Fazola); the opening and closing choruses create a veritable labyrinth of surprising but satisfying harmony.

Maybe most "New Orleans" of all is "The Isle of Orleans." It's got that Spanish Tinge, that New Orleans Rhumba, that Half-Clave: the latin thang that has for a century made New Orleans jazz sound different from trad jazz played in other parts of the world.

The band is a mix of long-time running pardners and fresh faces. The superb drummer Hal Smith, a veteran of many of Tim's ensembles, was flown in from California. Another long-time collaborator, the ever-lyrical cornetist Connie Jones, contributes the sharpest solos of the session.

The newer faces include Jason Marsalis, raising the groove quotient with some of his first recorded vibraphone solos, and the boisterously swinging trombones of Rick Trolsen and Lucien Barbarin. Sharing the vocal chair are avuncular Preservation Hall veteran Neil Unterseher and one of the Crescent City's outstanding stylists, Philip Manuel.

Soaring over it all is the beautiful tone of Tim's clarinet. It's not at all surprising that someone whose improvising is so tuneful would eventually put out an album of his own fine melodies.

Satchmo and Jelly Roll - not to mention Hog Jowls Jackson - are just going to have to wait until next time.

Back to Tim Laughlin's Discography