Black Cat in New Orleans
Notes written by Dr. Lyn Schenbeck
I was down in the Bywater, not far from the French Quarter at a club called Vaughan’s Lounge, listening to some funky New Orleans brass. I walked outside and sat down. I looked across the street and I saw this black cat just staring at me. I started thinking about what it would be like to be a wild and crazy black cat in New Orleans.
Strangers were always dropping crumbs to eat. I had so much crawfish I could barely slink down the street. I just kept imagining myself as a black cat in New Orleans. It evoked a superstitious feeling in me with mysterious Voodoo vibes. Good thing I had 9 lives.
You can feel the black cat walking about as the song opens with Junebug on percussion and Ramone Pooser on the upright bass, playing the line created by Junebug. The rhythm and the bass under everything unify the entire song.
Diane slinks in like a black cat and points to Yoel Yehuda’s haunting organ tones. New Orleans native Craig Klein brings magical improv in the upper register of the trombone that takes us back to Diane as she begins her lyric. Craig’s repetition of the vocal phrases provides a perspective of what the mysterious cat is thinking. Tyler Neal reinforces the Voodoo vibes with his sensual, circular guitar riffs.
Feel the heat as the entire band comes together to engage us in the land of the black cat, Voodoo, and “creepin down to Frenchmen Street,” the musical essence of being in New Orleans!