Blue Vipers!..let’s talk about “trad”

I went with some friends to Chez Oscar in Fort Greene to see the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn - a “trad” (more on that horrible term later) street band from New Orleans...I had heard them on New Sounds on NPR and found out they play every Monday night. Turns out my friend Matt had been a fan for a while and so we all went to check it out. Some of Matt’s other friends joined who know the band well, and then their friends joined, and soon we had the whole corner table crowded with listeners! Great time and I definitely recommend everyone check them out.

The percussionist plays all these metal trinkets, baking pans, and a washboard with metal thimbles on his fingers all of which he holds on his lap...totally sicko...like a miniature, four-on-the-floor Elvin Jones...

Earlier before this evening I had had a discussion with Matt about their style - they play an interesting mix of older songs plus some originals - one of my favorites is “Five Guys Named Moe” by Louis Jordan. Louis’ version is a little slower..the Vipers add the chunking guitar that is reminiscent of Django Reinhardt (who borrowed from Charlie Christian?)...then I was trying to understand this mixture, and proposing that it seems to be a modern aesthetic to mix these styles. I mean these are younger musicians...20’s and 30’s. Sure, they are originally from the musical time capsule of New Orleans, but they are young and believe it is okay to mix in some other influences...they even sound like the Stray Cats sometimes, who link to Elvis, and so on...

So how do you classify this music? Why is it New Orleans? The music that New Orleans created flowed on to Miles Davis, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock (from Herbie to Tribe called Quest, The Roots, Michelle N’degeocello...) to then to all this younger generation...the Marsalis’, etc. What is “Authentic” here and what’s the purpose of even using that term? Why call it “trad”...? “Trad” seems like a deceptively destigmatized version of the word “Authentic” which is a dangerous territory to get into (just ask any ethnomusicologist!) . What is the “Authentic” New Orleans music, and who makes it? Who originally made it, when it was just “music”? Since it inspired so many other musicians who are not from New Orleans, isn’t this music all self-reflexive? From New Orleans to Louis Jordan to Elvis to the Stray Cats to the Blue Vipers...where is the authenticity?

-md