Event
Limehouse Blues
This event has already occurred. This page is provided for reference only.
Fee:
Free.Dates & Times
Date:
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Time:
2:00 PM
Duration:
1 hour
Type of Event
Performance
Virtual/Digital
Description
Arrowhead Jazz Band featuring Charlie Gabriel: "Limehouse Blues"
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park presents the Arrowhead Jazz Band. The Arrowhead Jazz Band is an ever flowing musical ensemble featuring National Park Rangers. The program is used to demonstrate musical elements that helped nurture New Orleans’ role as the birthplace of jazz.
Known to friends and relatives as Charlie 'G', Charlie Gabriel was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a fourth generation New Orleans jazz musician. Charlie has played authentic New Orleans music with top traditional musicians such as Kid Howard, Kid Sheik, Jim Robinson, George Lewis and others on Bourbon Street, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and around the world.
Charlie came to Detroit at the age of fourteen. He was so experienced that he was asked to join the Lionel Hampton band at age sixteen. In the early '70s, Charlie was a member of Aretha Franklin's Orchestra. He continued to play throughout the states and abroad, also working with Nancy Wilson, Joe Simon and JC Heard. Charlie has worked in and around many of the most famous venues on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
"Limehouse Blues," written by Philip Braham and Douglas Furber, originated in the early 1920s when it appeared in the British stage musical A to Z, starring Gertrude Lawrence. It was set in the Limehouse district of London, which contained pottery works (limehouses) and also bordered on Chinatown. The latter fact was reflected in the show’s staging and also in the decidedly non-PC lyrics used in the original song. Throughout the years the song has been recorded by just about everybody in jazz with moody and mystical arrangements to bouncy and lively renditions. The song has even crossed genre lines and been performed by performers who might be better known for a different kind of music. As Louis Armstrong was famously quoted, "There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind." We believe that this song and our rendition falls into the "good" category as well.
More information
Reservation or Registration: No
Make Reservation or RegisterImage Gallery
NPS photo