New Orleans Radio

Johnny Sansone's music is a treasure chest of Louisiana culture. The award winning songwriter is back with his eighth album, Lady on the Levee, another stellar collection of down home folk tales, deep swamp harmonica blues, front porch cajun accordion and classic R&B tunes that add to his impressive legacy. The recording was produced by Anders Osborne and recorded at the Parlor Studio in New Orleans with a cast of Louisiana greats including guitarist Osborne and John Fohl, Sansone Osborne and Fohl are bandmates in an acoustic trio that has been woodshedding at the New Orteans songwriters showcase Chickie Wah Wah since 2009.

The unrivaled Soul Queen of New Orleans – a title officially bestowed by local officials, no less – Irma Thomas ranks among Crescent City R&B's greatest and most enduring musical ambassadors, never enjoying the coast-to-coast commercial success of contemporaries like Aretha Franklin and Etta James but nevertheless breathing the same rarified air in the minds of many soul music aficionados.

This exceptional recording features such legendary jazz artists as Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson, Chet Baker, Anita O Day, Billie Holiday, The Nat King Cole Trio and many other wonderful artists singing some of your favorite songs. Most of the songs were recorded in the 1950s and as a result, 21st century technology (re-mixing and re-mastering) has benefited the original sound quality. My Baby Just Cares For Me sung by Nina Simone opens the program. Her instantly recognizable vocals and her piano playing are a sure reminder of what this inimitable singer brought to the jazz genre.

Aficionados of Bing Crosby's '50s recordings have often looked in vain for more material along the same lines. Crosby's artistic highlights of the era, outings like 1956's Bing Sings Whilst

Herlin Riley's 'New Direction', sees the New Orleans drummer with a fierce musical intelligence and prodigious skills, lead a fine group of outstanding young musicians, including players from Haiti and Jamaica. Veteran guitarist Mark Whitfield and Cuba's Pedrito Martinez on percussion are Herlin's special guests.