Photo by flickr user Infrogmation
Historic Music Venues: Tipitina’s
With New Orleans now celebrating its annual Jazz & Heritage Festival, we thought we’d bring back this Historic Music Venue piece on Tipitina’s, one of the Crescent City’s most iconic stages.
By Steve Hochman
The Beginning: Back in the 1970s, a bunch of young music fans in New Orleans rued the fact that there was no regular place for the great pianist Henry Roeland Byrd — known to anyone who loves New Orleans music as Professor Longhair — to perform in the twilight of his great life and largely underappreciated career. So they created one. Dubbing themselves the Fabulous Fo’teen, they set up a joint on the corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas uptown, and named it after one of Longhair’s best-loved songs. And that was that.
Longhair died in 1980 at 61, but the club lived on (with one mid-’80s interruption) and soon became a mainstay of the community; a regular gig for the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, the Radiators and other local favorites. It eventually became a cherished stop for national and international acts, from Buddy Guy to Nine Inch Nails, without ever losing its local flavor. Now it stands as what is arguably the signature Crescent City club. Heck, you might even see someone in Prague or Tokyo wearing a T-shirt bearing the Tip’s logo, in which the stylized capital “T” extends below as a hand holding a half-peeled banana.
Banana? The club originally sported a restaurant and juice bar; the latter being the inspiration for the logo. It was the ’70s.
The Song: The rumba-tinged “Tipitina” was first recorded by “Fess,” as Longhair is often known, in 1953. The meaning of the title remains open to speculation, per a colorful investigation undertaken by Tipitina’s Foundation co-op director Todd Souvignier, and it may in fact be nonsense syllables. The Library of Congress selected Longhair’s original 1953 recording for its National Recording Registry in April 2011 as one of 24 recordings of cultural significance.
The Look: It’s a room. What else can we say? Rectangular, with a tall ceiling and a raised stage at the far end, a large bar on one flank and a smaller one on the other, and a narrow wrap-around balcony above providing the best sight-lines (if you can get one of the coveted spots up there). No need for anything fancy – the music and audience provide plenty of ambience. Word is that the building previously housed a gambling den and a brothel, although that’s said of pretty much any older building in New Orleans. It also was used as a gymnasium at one point, with a basketball backboard and hoop now mounted on the balcony as homage amid the many posters and handbills from shows of yore.
Rub the Fess Head: A bronze bust of Professor Longhair is mounted on a low pedestal between the entrance and the main floor. Locals and visitors alike ritualistically rub the pate for luck as they move by; the smooth shine along the top attesting to the affectionate caresses — New Orleans’ answer to the right foot of St. Peter’s statue in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica.
Uneasy: Want to make a local fume? Just say you know about Tip’s from the 1987 movie The Big Easy. Among the many Louisiana things that the otherwise fine thriller got wrong, few rankle as much as the scene in which star Dennis Quaid’s Cajun-Irish police detective character and Ellen Barkin’s district attorney jump the orderly line waiting to get past the velvet rope (orderly line? velvet rope?) and make their way into a sedate nightclub with wine served on tables (sedate? tables?) as zydeco accordionist Terrance Simien performs (though Quaid’s character said they were going to see the Neville Brothers). In fact, the movie was shot at a time when the club was temporarily closed due to financial issues; the interior scene was shot at a nearby warehouse that had doubled as a nightclub. Still, that’s no excuse. At least the hit soundtrack included Longhair’s “Tipitina” (but also a couple of performances by Quaid).
Civic Duty: Even before 2005’s floodwaters receded, the Tipitina’s Foundation stepped forward to address the immediate and long-term needs of musicians and the wider community. The former, naturally, were a particular focus as the Foundation upped its already strong presence in supporting artists and music education to crisis mode, tackling housing and medical needs too. The official mission statement of the Foundation, established in 1997, states that it’s dedicated to supporting “Louisiana and New Orleans’ irreplaceable music community and preserve the state’s unique musical cultures” through childhood education and development of adult musicians’ careers.
Here Dey Come: The showcase fundraising event for the Tipitina’s Foundation is the annual Instruments a Comin’ concert and auction, usually held on the Monday after the first weekend of the city’s spring Jazz & Heritage Festival. It benefits band programs in the area’s beleaguered schools — traditionally the breeding ground for the great musicians New Orleans has produced for generations. Many of the city’s best-known acts have performed in the lengthy shows, and this year’s event is no exception, with Galactic, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Ivan Neville, Big Sam’s Funky Nation and sax man/music educator Donald Harrison on the bill. Arguably, the highlight comes before the show, when said local school bands engage in a lively battle on the street, with crackling percussion, blaring horns and shimmying cheerleaders. If you’re in town at the time, it’s a must-see.
On the Record: The excitement of a night at Tip’s has been captured on many live albums. Among those that belong in any New Orleans music fanatic’s collection are the Neville Brothers’ Live at Tipitina’s 1982, Dr. John’s Right Place Right Time: Live at Tipitina’s 1989, Anders Osborne’s Live at Tipitina’s (1998) and Galactic’s We Love ’Em Tonight: Live at Tipitina’s (2001). Those wanting to go deeper should check out offerings from the archives-oriented Night Train label, notably a newly issued version of Tuts Washington Live at Tipitina’s recorded in 1978, James Booker’s typically eccentric United Our Thing Will Stand from the club’s earliest days, and what is perhaps the essential Tip’s artifact, Longhair’s Byrd Lives collection of 1978 performances.
As Fess himself sang, “Tipitina tra la la la, whoa la la la-ah tra la la.” And let’s not forget the further immortal words, “Oola malla walla dalla, tra ma tra la la.”