WWOZ Tricentennial Music Moments

In 2018, New Orleans is celebrating 300 years. In honor of this milestone, we're featuring Tricentennial Music Moments, on-air and online, all year long. Learn more about the stories and people that have shaped the Crescent City.

New Year's Eve, Louis Fires A Gun: Tricentennial Music Moment

Wed, 12/26/18
On December 31, 1912, in New Orleans, an 11-year-old boy took his stepfather’s gun without permission, and in all the excitement of New Year’s Eve, he fired six blanks into the air. This impulsive action likely changed the course of music forever. Read more

'High Society' Changes Jazz: Tricentennial Music Moment

Sat, 12/15/18
If you play clarinet, the one song you have to master is ‘High Society,’ because there’s a solo that proves you can call yourself a clarinet player in the New Orleans style. Read more

Mahalia Jackson: Tricentennial Music Moment

Sun, 11/11/18
Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans, and grew up singing in church, at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in the Black Pearl neighborhood uptown. As a teenager she left the city, but her remarkable voice will be forever woven into its music and history. Read more

The Meters and the birth of funk: Tricentennial Music Moment

Sat, 10/06/18
Through their own recordings and then on other people’s albums, The Meters' danceable New Orleans sound helped launch and define the funk genre in the early 1970s. And New Orleans music was never the same again. Read more

The Beatles play City Park and meet Fats Domino: Tricentennial Music Moment

Fri, 09/14/18
It was a hot day in September 1964 when the Beatles took to the stage in City Park-- and screaming fans from around the Gulf area greeted them. But the Beatles themselves were more excited to meet one of their heroes: Fats Domino. Read more

Lil Hardin Armstrong: Tricentennial Music Moment

Tue, 07/31/18
Louis Armstrong may have never become a household name if not for the ambitions of his second wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong-- a supremely talented musician in her own right. She was a member of the Hot Five and Hot Seven, and composed a number of their biggest hits. Read more

New Orleans Musicians Clinic opens its doors: Tricentennial Music Moment

Sun, 07/15/18
In the 1990s, somebody decided it was time to do something about the health issues plaguing New Orleans musicians and culture bearers. On May 1, 1998, the doors opened for the unparalleled New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Read more

Harold Battiste + AFO Records: Tricentennial Music Moment

Sat, 07/07/18
All For One Records (AFO) was a collective label, completely owned by New Orleanian African-American musicians, including Harold Battiste, Chuck Badie, Alvin Red Tyler, Melvin Lastie, and more. They set up shop at the corner of Claiborne and Orleans Avenues in 1961. Read more

Clifton Chenier's Zydeco Road: Tricentennial Music Moment

Thu, 06/14/18
Clifton Chenier recorded over two dozen zydeco albums, toured the world, performed at nearly every Jazz Fest in New Orleans, won Grammys, and more. All because he took a chance and decided to get in that rickety old car with his band in 1954. Read more

The Heritage Fair: Tricentennial Music Moment

Mon, 04/30/18
George Wein, Quint Davis, and Allison Miner had a vision for the first Heritage Fair, of a festival that was uniquely New Orleanian, a place where the best of New Orleans culture was gathered together in a way everyone could experience. Read more

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