Collectively the French Market All-Stars have accumulated more years
playing New Orleans style jazz than the venerable Dew Drop Social &
Benevolent Jazz Hall in Old Mandeville where they will hold forth on May 17.
Between them the seasoned quintet can account for 247 years as
professional musicians, making the historic Dew Drop built in 1895 seem
like a mere youngster as a music venue after only 144 years.
But like the old building in the 400 block of Lamarque Street when its
wide shutters are thrown open and live music reverberates from its
seasoned wooden stage, both it and the All-Stars will sound younger than
springtime.
The All-Stars, a musical mainstay in the French Quarter for years,
will perform at the Dew Drop from 4-5:45 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10
and will be available at the door. Music fans are invited to sit inside
the Dew Drop or bring chairs and enjoy the music outside under the
ancient live oaks that frame the old elegant building. The Dew Drop is
on the National Register of Historic Places and is the oldest virtually
unaltered rural traditional jazz dance hall in the world.
The concert, sponsored by the Friends of the Dew Drop, a volunteer
non-profit organization, will cap a busy weekend for the organization.
On Saturday from 5-8 pm the Dew Drop will host the Reggie Sanders Jazz
Quintet in a free concert at the large public gazebo on the Mandeville
lakefront as the final event in a day-long celebration sponsored by the
city commemorating the 175th anniversary of the auctioning of lots in
the lakefront area laid out by Bernard Phillipe Xavier de Marigny de
Mandeville who founded what is now the city bearing his name.
The French Market All-Stars bring a lively and dance happy mix of
traditional jazz and other musical idioms long identified with New Orleans.
Leader and guitarist Ronnie Snow has been with the All-Stars for 11
years and in a long professional career has played with Edgar Winter,
Joe Tex, Dr. Michael White, Rusty Kershaw, Jimmy Bellero, Greg Stafford,
Lucian Barbaran, the late Lloyd Washington who once sang with the Ink
Spots, Bob Havens of the Lawrence Welk Show, Chick Moore and the Cowboy
Troubadours, Wendell Eugene and he has been on stages at Tiptina's,
Hotel Intercontinental, Royal Sonesta, the former Roosevelt Hotel and
the Mediterranean Club among others.
His brother, Sidney Snow, known to legions of fans as Doctor Guitar,
has played over a 47-year music career with Freddy Fender, Edgar Winter,
Johnny Adams, Frankie Lane, Tommy Ridgley, Slim Harpo, Bob Hope, Eartha
Kitt, Danny Barker, Wallace Davenport, Ernie K-Doe, Tiny Tim, Dianne
Carroll, Huey Piano Smith, Eddie Bo and on stages at the Blue Room of
the old Roosevelt Hotel, the Show Bar, Crazy Shirley's, Cafe Brazil,
Dream Palace and Mediterranean Club among others.
Drummer Milton Rich who has been a regular at clubs on Bourbon Street
for 56 of his 60 years as a professional musician, has backed Blaze
Starr at the Show Bar and played with Phil Campo, Doc Severinson, Murphy
Campo at Crazy Shirley's, Frank Assunto of the Dukes of Dixieland and a
member of the All-Stars for three years.
Curtis Johnson on tenor saxophone has been playing for 50 years and in
additional to tours of Rome, Paris, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece and
Canada, he has more locally played with Irma Thomas, Johnny Adams, Sonny
Boy Williamson, Roy Brown, Oliver Morgan, Papete and David Lastie, Al
Johnson and at the historic New Orleans rhythm and blues club, the Dew
Drop Inn on LaSalle Street. He has also made music with the Algiers
Brass Band, the Pinstripe Brass Band and the Olympia Brass Band.
Bass player Rick Diamond, in his 40-year career, has played with
Ronnie Kole, Charles Neville, Irma Tomas, Lou Sino, Frank Sinatra Jr.
and has been a member of the Boston band Wild Lettuce. A member of the
All-Stars for five years, he has also played at the Maison Bourbon in
the French Quarter.
The Dew Drop's spring season will end on May 31 with a 4-6 pm free
concert featuring St. Tammany students selected to participated in a
musical Master Class program under the guidance of Don Vappie and
sponsored by the Friends of the Dew Drop with a grant from the state
administered through the St. Tammany Office of Cultural Affairs.