A New Orleans Pre-Funk with Holotradband

If you are a listener of my radio program, you have no doubt heard my excitement about my first trip to New Orleans next week. Listeners have been emailing with their suggestions of places that I HAVE to visit, raising that excitement to an unreal level.

Being the overwhelmingly impatient person that I am, I needed to get some sort of New Orleans fix, any New Orleans fix in before I left.

I found my fix.

I am ashamed to say that I have never ventured to the New Orleans Creole Restaurant in the Pioneer Square district of downtown Seattle on a Tuesday night before. For six years, a seven piece group named Holotradband has been performing a wonderful blend of New Orleans and Chicago style jazz. It took my own selfish desires to finally seek out this band, and I realized immediately that I had been missing out for way too long.

My friend (the friend who I am heading to New Orleans with) and I sat down, and our table was soon filled with orders of pan-fried oysters, pan-fried catfish strips with creolaise dip, and ice-cold Hurricanes. The food and drinks paired perfectly with the music of Holotradband, who with their three-horn front delivered the early sounds of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Clarence Williams.

A couple got up to dance. My friend asked if I danced, and I reminded her that I am regularly the tallest, most untalented dancer on the dance floor, but I might consider it. Shortly after, about six younger dancers, dancers that appeared to have been in lessons since birth, made their way to the dance floor. I was forced to revoke my previous consideration, knowing now that  I would not only be shown up, but tragically embarrassed. Truthfully, it remained impossible to keep, at minimum, from tapping my foot. The band communicated, not only with each other flawlessly, but with the audience as well.

All in all, it was a great night out, and a wonderful way to prepare for my trip, and I will no doubt will return in the future when I simply need another fix. The food was affordable and tasty, the cover was free, and the band was fantastic.

Holotradband has CD’s available. When speaking to a band member about them, he said that “they might not be perfect studio quality, and will sound a lot like what I was listening to tonight.”

“Perfect”, I said. “I wouldn’t want them any other way”.

You can visit Holotradband’s website at www.holotradband.com, where you can read up on the band, hear their music, and purchase CD’s.