BY ALEX HO

In print | November 29, 2007

On Saturday, Nov. 17, the usual obscure indie fare at Olde Club was refreshingly absent to make way for an excellent showcasing of some serious Swarthmore talent in the NOLArize Benefit Concert that rounded out New Orleans Week. The line-up featured a whole range of acts that either paid homage to the rich musical heritage born out of the city with covers of easily recognizable pop songs or went straight for an impressive facsimile of genuine Mardi Gras music.

Tigest Tamrat ‘08, responsible for amassing the night’s talents, said, “We wanted soul, we wanted jazz. Obviously, punk rock would not be acceptable. Anything that involved trombones, brass instruments, that’s what we wanted.”

The concert was held for the cause of “supporting communities in New Orleans,” NOLArize founder Marissa Davis ’08 said. Specifically, the donations raised by the concert are, Davis said, “going to supporting an effort to buy computers for the Cut-Off Community Center” where Davis had spent this past summer building a youth library.

The night began with a cover band that included keyboardist Jonathan Jaquette ‘11, bass guitarist Dan Vail ’11, guitarist Ari Klafter ’11 and vocalist Eva Amesse ’11. The group took full delight in playing undeniably pop, but also undeniably R&B-inspired songs: Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable,” doo-wop classic “Stand by Me” and Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” Amesse’s powerful voice put a new spin on “Crazy,” forgoing Cee-Lo’s scratchy, falsetto-replete vocals, and Jaquette improvised on the keyboard in “Feel Good Inc.” The group ended with the guitar-heavy “House of the Rising Sun,” which had the strongest connection to New Orleans.

Next up were Taleah Kennedy ’10 and Sunny Cowell ’10, whose performance of “When You Believe” quickly became an all-out melisma extravaganza, easily comparable to the powerhouse collaboration that inspired it. Crowd members shouted, “Whitney, Mariah, give me a break!”

The next act was a bona fide Dixieland combo straight out of the 1910s. The band featured Garth Griffin ’09 on the keyboard, Harry Russin ’09 on the banjo, Hannah Epstein ’10 on the clarinet, Dan Vail ’11 on the bass and Ed Dewey ’10 on the trombone. Griffin, taking on an old-timey persona, guided his band through each of their songs, which gave each of its members a solo with plenty of opportunities to improvise. In one of their numbers, “Down by the Riverside,” the drum solo quickened the tempo to the point that when the entire band morphed the song into “When the Saints Go Marching In,” it seemed completely on the fly.

Then, Ben Bradlow ‘08 took the stage, singing and playing the acoustic guitar, with Russin on the accordion and Lucy Warrington ’10 on the violin. Bradlow introduced each of his songs with a little discussion of its historical context, at one point sheepishly adding, "I really shouldn’t be allowed to talk." The first song “Down in the Flood” by Bob Dylan, though written in 1967, could just as easily have been about the heartache after Hurricane Katrina with lyrics like “Momma, ain’t you gonna miss your best friend now.” Next, Bradlow took on Louis Armstrong’s Dixieland staple “St. James Infirmary Blues.”

Bradlow also played a song of his own, but it was hardly a reprieve from the bluesy tragedy of his other songs. “I’m Not There, I’m Gone,” featured Bradlow singing, it seems, about the complications of a relationship — “If there’s a time when you had no idea what you wanted me to be / If there’s a time when you feel but just can’t see.” Bradlow enlisted Warrington and Russin for simple, elegiac backup singing, while he himself displayed a nuanced vocal performance with a soulful warble that recalled Antony and the Johnsons. Bradlow ended with “James Alley Blues,” a song about what was “back in the day … the roughest part of New Orleans,” Bradlow said.

The next act was a duo with keyboardist Mark Loria ‘08 and trombonist Marc Engel ’09. Engel, who donned a beret, reminded his audience, "Y’all put money in that box." The duo’s act was easily the most immersed in jazz experimentation, playing “Search for Peace” by Philly jazz pianist McCoy Tyler, which Engel said honored the musical roots of New Orleans in a “diaspora kind of way” and John Coltrane’s “Johnny’s Lament.” The concert then switched gears to a funk-oriented band, again with Dan Vail on the bass, guitarist Matthew Shen Goodman ‘11, drummer Aukosh Jagannath ’11 and keyboardist Bert Elysee ’11. Their rendition of “Superfreak” was, out of the blue, interrupted by Ben Starr ’11, who jumped onto the stage and grabbed the mike, saying, “Hold on now fellas!” in a distinctly James-Brown-esque manner. Sure enough, Starr took the band a notch up in tempo with a rendition of “Sex Machine” that had both Vail and Jagannath in crazed improvisation sessions. Starr’s barks of “Get on up!” sure enough had Reed Weatherhill ’11 getting up on the stage and playing the cowbell. "

The audience was awaiting the next act on the stage when suddenly there was a cry from the balcony above: “Does anybody know what time it is? Mariachi tiiime!” Swarthmore’s own mariachi band had congregated on the balcony — guitars, violins and trumpets alike, and proceeded to energize the audience. The standout of the group was Samuel Garcia ’08, with his cavernous opera voice.

Marissa Davis was fittingly the final act of the concert. Davis was ready to sing the spiritual “Give Me Jesus,” but unfortunately the sound system was not cooperating. Davis promptly said, “Alright, I’ll do it a cappella, but you guys need to help out.” She had the crowd snapping their fingers and the emcee G. Patrick ‘10 beat boxing as she sang, “In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.” The last song of the night was a reggae piece to "take it back to Jamaica where I’m from," Davis said. “Just voodoo, whatever.” The lyrics were as warm as Davis’s voice — “No matter where you’re from, just know that I love you.”

From frenzied bluegrass to soulful yearning blues to the jubilation of Davis’s humble last act, the NOLArize Benefit Concert was a fine ode to the music of New Orleans.

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