Putumayo Presents: New Orleans

Purchased my first copy when at the Audubon Zoo in N.O. and love the variety of music styles and musicians. Have since gotten additional CDs of works by individual musicians featured on this CD. This particular purchase (2nd copy) was to give to my brother for Christmas.

This is another CD I found at my friend Regina's shop, Art and Soul. It is a collection of New Orleans style music featuring Louis Prima with "Basin Street Blues" and Louis Armstrong with
"Tin Roof Blues," and a number of other artists for a total of 11 cuts (Dr. John also performs an arrangement of Basin Street Blues). It gives you the spirit of the Big Easy. The CD starts with Kermit Ruffins' "Drop me off in New Orleans" (playing time 4:28) and ends with Gregg Stafford & Dr. Michael White in a combination, "Bye & Bye/Saints" (playing time 8:02) -the latter being the traditional end of a New Orleans style performance (it was played at the end of a friend's funeral service).

There is a small booklet inside the PC case giving informatin on the various artists (in English, Spanish, and French). As a bonus, it includes a recipe for Seafood Gumbo.

Overall it is an excellent music collection. A sticker on the outer wrapper indicated that Futumayo is giving their proceeds from the CD to New Orleans Relief.

My main objections are that the CD case does not snap closed tight, and the CD takes over your PC if you play it on a PC Media Player (also, for some reason, the sound quality was not good when I tried playing it on my PC). It played well on the CD player in my car, and on a separate CD player at my house.

Great music... I have listened to a vast amount of New Orlean's numbers and find this music very entertaining.

If you're not familiar with New Orleans music, this is a great place to start. It's an authentic collection of the type of music that the city is genuinely home to (accurately, no zydeco or cajun tracks are included here, as those are imports from Southwest Louisiana) and it's a nicely rounded collection, at that.

The music of New Orleans is only one of about a million things that make the city so special, and this is a great place to get started. If you're already a die-hard New Orleans music fan, you'll probably find that you have most of these tracks in your collection anyway, but for the beginner, this collection is perfect.

I've always loved the music that flourishes in New Orleans, and this CD contains examples of some of the best music the Crescent City has always offered to the world, from such legends as Armstrong and Prima, and from wonderful current artists like Kermit Ruffins. The music may seem poignant now in the face of Hurricane Katrina, but it also contains a defiant merriness that leaves no doubt that New Orleans will recover and rise again from this disaster. Best of all, producer Putumayo has stated that all sales of this album will go to relief efforts in New Orleans -- as good a reason to own and revel in this CD as any!