Banu Gibson and the New Orleans Jazz All-Stars
Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 2pm
LIVE STREAM
Special one-time only live web-cast!! Internationally renowned New Orleans band leader and singer, Banu Gibson, will lead a trad jazz quartet of New Orleans Jazz All Stars. This one-hour live, web-cast concert will originate from the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Saturday, May 15 at 2 p.m. This is an all-too-rare opportunity to see and hear Banu. She last performed in-person for Tri-State in November 2015. The Jazz Museum is delighted to originate the event because it puts New Orleans players on the band-stand where they long to be, but because of the more than year-long pandemic, have been almost entirely shut out.
Tri-State Jazz Society is participating as a co-sponsor and co-funder of this event. The initiative was spurred by Washington D.C. area's Potomac River Jazz Club as part of its 50th Anniversary year celebration. Joining to present the concert are Queen City Jass Society based in Buffalo, NY, and the Basin Street Regulars of Pismo Beach, CA, organizers of the annual Jazz Jubilee By the Sea.
Live-Streamed on YouTube, and Facebook.
To our web-only audience: donations are gratefully accepted.
Listen to a sample of their music.
Background
Banu Gibson is a bandleader, vocalist, dancer, banjo/guitar player, director, choreographer, and manages her own record label, (Swing Out Records) Starting her career as a singer/dancer in Miami Beach, Florida she moved to New York City to tour for three years with Your Father’s Mustache road band. She then moved to California to choreograph and perform at Disneyland in a 1920s revue called “The Class of ‘ 27”. She moved to New Orleans where in 1981, she formed her own band and began a steady ten years of French Quarter and hotel gigs while also traveling the world performing at Jazz Festivals and performing arts venues.
In 1988 Banu and her band expanded to perform symphony Pops Concerts. This includes over 80 performances with symphony orchestras from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. Orchestras include the Boston Pops, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo, Norway, to name a few. Highlights of Banu’s career have been appearing on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, bringing in the millennium as the only guest artist of the Boston Pops, the 2001 Playboy Jazz Festival, and singing with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. She has appeared all over the world with her band and was the guest vocalist on both Wild Bill Davison European tour in 1986 and the World’s Greatest Jazz Band tour of Japan 1996. She has performed at the French Quarter Festival and New Orleans Jazz Fest since the 1980s. In New Orleans she has been honored in 2009 by the New Orleans Preservation Resource Center for her contributions to music, was a New Orleans Magazine’s 2007 Jazz All Star and was featured in the 2010 New Orleans Magazine as “Top Female Achiever”, and appeared on the cover of OffBeat magazine’s for June 2015.
Born in Chicago, Tom Fischer moved to New Orleans in 1989 to join Banu Gibson's band. He has performed everywhere from Preservation Hall to Carnegie Hall, Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Australia, and Japan. He received his formal training at Indiana University and his informal training in the jazz clubs of Chicago and New Orleans. Tom has been a featured performer at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, French Quarter Festival, Satchmo SummerFest, and many jazz festivals throughout the world. He has also appeared on many recordings on the Jazzology and Stomp Off labels and has recorded with many New Orleans artists including Al Hirt, John Brunious and Don Vappie and Banu Gibson. Tom teaches jazz clarinet at the University of New Orleans. Jazz Times Magazine called Tom “one of the best”.
New Orleans native Steve Pistorius began playing piano professionally at age 18. He is proficient in Ragtime and early jazz styles, especially Jelly Roll Morton. He has performed in Europe, Middle East, Asia, South America, and Canada and traveled with an extensive list of New Orleans musicians including the Humphrey Brothers, and Kid Shiek. Steve has recorded for Jazzology, Solo Art, Island, Stomp Off and Basin St Records. His career highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Apollo Theatre. He played for Eubie Blake. He also played in the off Broadway show One Mo’ Time. He leads his band The Southern Syncopators. During the pandemic, Steve has been keeping the music going with a series of jazz concerts from his front porch, accompanied by the occasional rumble of a passing streetcar.
Gerald French’s musical family lineage is almost as old as New Orleans itself. His grandfather Albert “Papa” French was the third leader of The Tuxedo Band, originated by “Papa” Celestin in 1909. His uncle, Bob French, is a talented drummer in his own right who succeeded “Papa” French as the leader of The Tuxedo Band. Gerald’s father, George French, is one of New Orleans’ premiere rhythm and blues singers and guitarists. Gerald started playing the drums at the age of 5. He is the current drummer for Ms. Charmaine Neville and is the co-founder and drummer of the rhythm and blues band Abstract. Gerald has performed with Leroy Jones, Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. John, Dr. Michael White, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, just to name a few. He also appeared on several recordings and television shows including Undercover Blues with Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quad and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Gerald has traveled around the world playing all types of music. He has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, and Montroux Jazz Festival.
Mark Brooks comes from a respected musical family and is one of New Orleans most talented, versatile and sought after bassists. Mark attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he pursued a music degree along with one of his close friends, Branford Marsalis. He has played and toured with Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Henry Butler, Lou Rawls, Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Mark is known for his diversity in styles of music, ranging from rhythm & blues, contemporary and traditional jazz to down home blues and gospel. Lightly prompted, Mark will issue forth with a credible vocal or two.