INTERVIEW: Cullen Landry wants to resurrect NOLA R&B
Cullen Landry, the original bass player for The Jokers, has been having a lot of musical fun since 2003. That’s when he made a longtime idea a reality and founded Cullen Landry and the Midnight Streetcar Band. The group is made up of many Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductees, like Landry himself, and they strive to resurrect early NOLA rhythm and blues.
Their album from 2010 includes such songs as “Have You Heard the News,” “The Fat Man,” “Reconsider Me” and “DeSoto Street Woman.”
Landry has shared the stage with man a musical genius, including Bobby Mitchell, Professor Longhair, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, Ernie K-Doe and Roland Stone, among many others. To honor his own days in The Jokers and the music that formed him in the 1950s, he has set out on a lofty mission to bring old-style R&B to a new generation.
Landry and the Midnight Streetcar Band will perform at this year’s French Quarter Fest. They are slated to appear at 11 a.m. Friday, April 7 on the Abita Beer Stage. “Carnival Time” will be their special guest for the 75-minute concert.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Landry about his past successes, present schedule and plans for the future. Here’s an edited sample of that conversation:
“[The audience] can expect a continued effort, an effort that will develop to a great extent the preserving of New Orleans rhythm and blues, which actually eventually came in and became rock ‘n’ roll. We have continued through the years. We started in 2003 when I put it together, and we put it together with Louisiana Music Hall of Fame members, including myself. And we all got into this to preserve New Orleans rhythm and blues by playing it authentically and to being absolutely true to the sound of Cosimo Matassa, Dave Bartholomew and especially the Dave Bartholomew Band. I will continue to play upright bass because that’s what Frank Fields in the great Dave Bartholomew Band did.
“Our first CD, [Crescent City Transfer], was one where we brought that music to a new generation, and we’re going to continue to do that. There’s also going to be a lot more gigs that we’re going to do with Al ‘Carnival Time’ Johnson, a man who I first played music with when I was 16 years old going to Jesuit High School in New Orleans, and he had just come out with ‘Carnival Time.’ Through the years, we have become really good friends, and we’re going to continue to collaborate. And Al ‘Carnival Time’ Johnson is going to be on stage with us, and he’s included in the big letters on this thing because he is one of the legends that still exists here.
“The guys in my band … most of them are Louisiana Music Hall of Fame members, and when we were young and when we first fell in love with this music, we had the opportunity to backup people like Smiley Lewis and Professor Longhair and Al ‘Carnival Time’ and people like Ernie K-Doe, and so this is where we came from.
“And when I put this band together, that’s what I put it together for. I want to bring this music to new generations of Americans and Louisianans, and I want them to understand what this Cosimo sound was and how important it was to American music.
“After World War II, there was that big band era during the war, and then what happened, people like Cosimo Matassa in the French Quarter here took smaller bands. Dave Bartholomew’s Band was not one of these gigantic bands, but it was big enough. And so that’s why I put a band together that was big enough.
“We dedicate today the work that we do to people like Cosimo Matassa, Dave Bartholomew and, of course, Fats Domino. Now we went into business right before [Hurricane] Katrina, and immediately in the aftermath of Katrina, we came back to New Orleans as soon as we could. And there I met Antoinette K-Doe who had the Mother-in-Law Lounge, and she fell in love with our band. And when they reopened the Mother-in-Law Lounge after the hurricane and everything, she had us as the lead house band for that opening, and that was quite an honor. She could have any band in the city, but she chose us. And I think she did it because she knew that we played music with Ernie as kids and that we could put that music out there the way it’s supposed to be, authentically.
“We have a great drummer. We have a great piano player. These are all natives of New Orleans. We have a saxophone player by the name of Johnny Pennino, who had his own band in 1957-58, and he continued his band. It was called The Emperors, so Johnny and I got together about this time last year. And he said, ‘Look, I want to give you first priority.’ Because he plays almost every weekend with a lot of bands. ‘But I want to give you first priority because I know and I understand what you’re trying to do.’
“Unfortunately, 2016 was not good to us. We lost one of our great performers, Phat 2’s Day, and he passed away from cancer. … And so if we wanted to go forward with the band, we had to continue. We have a great vocalist who does incredible Johnny Adams material. His name is Laurin Munsch, and he’s been in the business for 40 years. And he’s played in places like Las Vegas but loves New Orleans, stays here and works here.
“The Jokers became one of the most popular bands in the city of New Orleans at the time. I went with them in 1958 and stayed with them through 1961 going into 1962 because I was preparing to go to law school, and I left the Jokers to go to law school. … I worked one time as a special agent of the FBI. I came back here six years after that and always had a burning desire to listen to the music and also to play the music, so right before Katrina, my dad passed away. And he left me enough money to purchase an upright bass, and I wanted to get the sound of Frank Peters and the great Dave Bartholomew Band.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Cullen Landry and the Midnight Streetcar Band will play this year’s French Quarter Fest. They are slated to appear at 11 a.m. Friday, April 7 on the Abita Beer Stage. Al “Carnival Time” Johnson will be their special guest for the 75-minute concert. Click here for more information.
