Ernie K-Doe: The R & B Emperor of New Orleans;Louisiana Musicians Biography (Louisiana Artists Biography Series) - Hardcover

Sandmel, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0917860608 ISBN 13: 9780917860607

Publisher: Historic New Orleans Collection, 2012

Synopsis

Ben Sandmel

About this title

About the Author:

Ben Sandmel is a New Orleans based journalist, folklorist, drummer, and producer. His articles about Louisiana music have appeared in national publications, including The Atlantic, and have been anthologized in such collections as Da Capo Best Music Writing 2000 and From Jubilee to Hip Hop: Readings in African American Music. Sandmel has written liner notes for over a hundred albums. He is also the author of Zydeco!, a collaborative book with photographer Rick Olivier. Sandmel has worked for the Louisiana Folklife Program as a field researcher and writer documenting traditional music and occupational folklore. He produces the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, an oral history venue at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has produced and played on four albums, including the Grammy-nominated Deep Water by the Cajun/western swing band the Hackberry Ramblers.

Review:

I love this book. Ben Sandmel has captured and conveyed the loopy genius, linguistic and musical, that was Ernie K-Doe, self-anointed Emperor of the Universe, and a character par excellence in a city full of larger-than-life characters. Ernie K-Doe put them all in the shade, and Ben Sandmel tells you how. The prose is lively, the quotations generous, the photos and graphics spectacular. This is one of the five essential books on New Orleans culture. You gotta get it. --Eric Overmyer, cocreator of HBO s Treme

Ben Sandmel tells K-Doe s story for real here, plus the stories of lots of other cats that I knew and gigged with and loved. This is a very cool book. --Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), Grammy-winning musician and songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

Ben Sandmel tells Ernie K-Doe s tale with respect and sensitivity, scholarly research, a musician s inside understanding, and considerable wit. A compelling, lively and well-written. look at the irresistible music and street culture of New Orleans, as performed and lived by one of its most memorable talents. --Tavis Smiley, Broadcaster, philanthropist, and author of the best-seller What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America

A vital, loving chronicle of the colorful life and frequently hard times of the New Orleans R&B singer and self-styled Emperor of the Universe. To many, Ernie K-Doe (1936 2001) is a one-hit wonder: His evergreen oldie Mother-in-Law topped the pop and R&B charts in 1961. But to New Orleans journalist Sandmel (Zydeco!, 1999), the vocalist was much more, and this smart, funny and richly designed and illustrated book makes a rousing case for the musician as a quintessential Crescent City figure. Born Ernest Kador Jr. in the city s Charity Hospital, K-Doe authored his hit single and other lively R&B tracks for local Minit Records, but a follow-up smash proved elusive. While he maintained a hometown profile as a hardworking performer in the James Brown/Joe Tex mold, K-Doe was best known for years as a DJ on New Orleans WWOZ. There, his lunatic manner, unique lexicon and stream-of-consciousness raps cemented his status as a NoLa institution. Megalomania, alcoholism and a propensity for professional bridge burning left him virtually homeless by the late 80s. However, he enjoyed a second act in the 90s after he opened his famed Mother-in-Law Lounge with wife Antoinette, who restored him personally and professionally. The club, which often doubled as the K-Does living room, attracted a crowd of tourists, oddball locals, young musicians and journalists (including the New York Times Neil Strauss, who had a notorious set-to with the eccentric proprietors while on assignment in 2000). K-Doe s saga didn t end with his death: He maintained a bizarre afterlife at the Mother-in-Law and around town in the form of a life-sized sculpture created by local artist Jason Poirier. Though severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the lounge was restored and run by Antoinette until her death in 2009. Despite a multitude of personal faults, K-Doe emerges here as hilarious, complex and indomitable a larger-than-life character altogether worthy of inclusion in the pantheon of his city s oversized musical titans. A vital, essential addition to the shelf of great books about New Orleans. --Kirkus, starred review

Ben Sandmel tells Ernie K-Doe s tale with respect and sensitivity, scholarly research, a musician s inside understanding, and considerable wit. A compelling, lively and well-written. look at the irresistible music and street culture of New Orleans, as performed and lived by one of its most memorable talents. --Tavis Smiley, Broadcaster, philanthropist, and author of the best-seller What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America

About this edition

• Publisher: Historic New Orleans Collection
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0917860608
• ISBN 13: 9780917860607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304