Newvelle Presents: The New Orleans Collection

Newvelle Records is proud to present The New Orleans Collection, Newvelle’s set of four new recordings from the greatest generation of New Orleans artists. Recorded in the spring of 2020, each album is now available exclusively on vinyl—recorded and pressed with the uncompromising quality that Newvelle fans have come to expect from the label.

The legacy and breadth of New Orleans music is beautifully represented in this limited edition collection of four single sleeved records. Newvelle New Orleans includes albums led by the soul queen herself Irma Thomas, the inimitable Delta blues guitarist Little Freddie King, the wildly expressive funk and R&B pianist Jon Cleary, and the joyful jazz pianist, and musical mentor to many, the late Ellis Marsalis.

The New Orleans Collection is a physical testament to the vibrancy of New Orleans music—preserving the legacy of New Orleans for generations of listeners, present and future.

Newvelle Records is proud to present The New Orleans Collection, Newvelle’s set of four new recordings from the greatest generation of New Orleans artists. Recorded in the spring of 2020, each album is now available exclusively on vinyl—recorded and pressed with the uncompromising quality that Newvelle fans have come to expect from the label.

The legacy and breadth of New Orleans music is beautifully represented in this limited edition collection of four single sleeved records. Newvelle New Orleans includes albums led by the soul queen herself Irma Thomas, the inimitable Delta blues guitarist Little Freddie King, the wildly expressive funk and R&B pianist Jon Cleary, and the joyful jazz pianist, and musical mentor to many, the late Ellis Marsalis.

The New Orleans Collection is a physical testament to the vibrancy of New Orleans music—preserving the legacy of New Orleans for generations of listeners, present and future.

The New Orleans Collection

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New Orleans Collection LPs

Irma Thomas

Love is the Foundation

COMING SOON

Little Freddie King

Going Upstairs

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Jon Cleary

So Swell

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Ellis Marsalis with Jason Marsalis

For All We Know

COMING SOON

Now Available: Single-Album Release of Jon Cleary's "So Swell (2021 Newvelle Records)

NEW: Individual Album Release

HEAR ICONIC NEW ORLEANS SOUND,

CAPTURED ON VINYL LIKE NEVER BEFORE

 

Jon Cleary's 

So Swell

Get exclusive access to this limited single release from The New Orleans Collection

"Cleary shows his total assimilation of the New Orleans tradition, rolling out the pianistic barrel on the Stephen Foster Rosetta Stone of 'Swanee River Boogie,' following with his own R&B shuffle 'Two Wrongs,' then charging on into Stevie Wonder’s 'I Call It Pretty Music,' everything played the way he learned it listening to James Booker at the Maple Leaf." – John Swenson, OffBeat Magazine

"Music isn't a choice for me. It's a bodily function." – Jon Cleary

Funk, jazz, R&B—these genres are so deeply rooted in New Orleans that it’s no wonder the young British pianist Jon Cleary was compelled to move to the city to play. In the early 80’s, he was painting the bar at the famous Maple Leaf Bar, where he listened to James Booker play live every week while soaking in the sounds of New Orleans piano greats such as Huey “Piano” Smith, Mac Rebennack, Fats Domino, and Professor Longhair. Now, four decades later, New Orleans has fully embraced Cleary as one of its own. Coming full circle for this recording, Cleary is backed by James Booker’s rhythm section—from his last studio album Classified—James Singleton on upright bass and Johnny Vidacovich on drums. They are joined on several tracks by James Rivers, a legendary New Orleans saxophone player who played on many New Orleans funk and R&B classics from Big Chief to Carnival Time.

Legendary New Orleans saxophonist James Rivers with Jon Cleary.  Photo by Daymon Gardner

Side A

Swanee River Boogie

Two Wrongs

I Call It Pretty music

Just Because

So Swell When You’re Well

Second Line on Monday

Side B

We're No Exception

I Get The Blues When it Rains

Lottie Mo

Pony Boy

Tuburculucas and the Sinus Blues

Since I Don't Have You

Jon Cleary: Vocals, Piano, B3 Organ, Percussion

James Singleton: Upright Bass

Johnny Vidacovich: Drums

James Rivers: Saxophone

Produced by Ben Chace

Photography by Daymon Gardner

Graphic Design by Sudio Mococo

Recorded by Misha Kachkachishvili at Esplanade Studios New Orleans March 10-12 2020

Mixed by Marc Urselli at East Side Sound, New York City

Mastered by Alex DeTurk, The Bunker New York City

180 Gram clear vinyl

Pressed at QRP in Salinas Kansas

Old style Tip-on Full Color Gatefold Jacket

Made at famed Stoughton Printing in Los Angeles

BUY YOUR COPY NOW

(limited availability)

Walter Wolfman Washington - My Future Is My Past (Anti- Records April 20, 2018)

New Orleans Luminary Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington Announces New Album

NEW ORLEANS LUMINARY WALTER ‘WOLFMAN’ WASHINGTON SIGNS DEAL WITH ANTI- RECORDS, ANNOUNCES INTIMATE NEW ALBUM MY FUTURE IS MY PAST

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS IRMA THOMAS, IVAN NEVILLE AND JON CLEARY

PRODUCED BY BEN ELLMAN OF GALACTIC, NEW ALBUM IS SET FOR APRIL 20 RELEASE

“I’m used to playing with another person. To do something like that by myself, I was kind of nervous,” said Walter “Wolfman” Washington, sitting in a chair in his living room and talking about his new record My Future Is My Past, produced by Ben Ellman of Galactic. He smiles and continues, “Oh man, it was really a thing. I had never done something like that. I had to really discipline myself where I couldn’t really underplay and really overplay, so I had to stay really in the middle which was a trick for me. I was amazed at my own self at how it turned out.”

Now 74 years old, Walter “Wolfman” Washington has been a mainstay in the New Orleans music scene since the early 1960s. He cut his teeth backing up some of the best singers and performers in New Orleans history including Lee Dorsey, Johnny Adams, and Irma Thomas before putting together his long time band The Roadmasters, who have been burning down and burning up local and national stages since their first gigs in the 1980s. This new record confirms what fans have known for years: Walter “Wolfman Washington has soul to go along with that fire.

My Future is My Past is a different kind of record than his playing with Lee Dorsey or The Roadmasters. Washington had to take more care with these songs. He explained, “When you’re with a band, you have to really punch it out. When you’re alone, you have to pay attention to your notes and pronunciation and stuff. And then you have to put your soul into it and your feelings. Each one of the songs is a story. You can actually picture things like that happening. I had to fix my mind into each of the situations in the song.”

Songs like “Lost Mind”, ‘Save Your Love For Me’, and ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ are subtle and heartfelt. “I always liked jazz,” he says, ‘What a Difference A Day Makes’? It’s a happy song. It’s a song about how you found someone who makes you feel different, and each day represents the way you feel, and that day you feel different. That particular song was a song I used to do when I was playing with the AFB (All Fools Band) back in the 1960s. There were a lot of jazz songs at that time in the world of real musicians. I came in on the tail end of when a lot of those musicians were going out, and I had a chance to meet most of them. It was fun to play with them. Big Joe Turner and all those cats. It was a thrill to me when I could play with them. And those were the songs they played.”

Washington has always embodied both the wildness and sophistication of New Orleans, but finally we have a set of songs that reflects the yin to Walter’s bring-the-party yang. This is the record that we all have known he has in him. This is the night after that party, or maybe just the after party. He’s been given free rein to express himself, and that’s special. Producer Ben Ellman has assembled a sympathetic group of musicians from keyboardists Jon Cleary and Ivan Neville to a versatile and sensitive rhythm section of bassist James Singleton and drummer Stanton Moore. When asked about being in the studio with these musicians, Washington’s enthusiasm comes through immediately.

“To have all those cats in there at one time, and they are playing behind me! That was one of the most thrilling things for me. While we were doing the album and what has become of it, that’s even better. That’s what happens when you have certain musicians that are qualified to do that. There aren’t but two cats that really amaze me when I saw James and Stanton. I said, ‘Man, there they are!’ I had Jon Cleary playing too, and then when I saw that David Torkanowsky is going to be there! Man!!!!”

1 Lost Mind

2 Even Now

3 What A Diff'rence A Day Makes

4 Save Your Love For Me

5 I Don't Want To Be A Lone Ranger

6 Steal Away

7 She's Everything To Me

8 I Cried My Last Tear

9 I Just Dropped By To Say Hello

10 Are You The Lady