It’s music with spice

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

While the sweltering heat and thick-as-a-sponge humidity of the last few days may make Philly’s streets feel like the Big Easy, we’re still a long way off from New Orleans.
But on Thursday night (July 19) at Ortlieb’s Jazz Haus, patrons will have a hard time distinguishing that fact.
From 8 p.m. till the early hours of the morning, the Third Street bar will host the kind of swinging and intimate jam sessions most often found in the backwater joints off the banks of the Mississippi.
With local sextet The Puzzlebox Experiment leading the way, the long-running local jazz spot will be home to an especially spicy evening.
Dubbed Philly to New Orleans, the night of hot jazz is part of an ongoing effort to support the Louisiana city’s slow recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
The movement, a musical and charitable exchange between New Orleans and the City of Brotherly Love, was founded by Robin Perry almost one year ago.
Perry, a resident of Maple Shade, N.J., organized the first benefit show at the World Café Live last August after returning from the still flood-ravaged city a few months before. Touched by the solidarity and strong spirit that she witnessed, Perry left the city driven to do something for an area that has given so much to American society. Her plan was to use its music-rich culture as the main channel for healing.
Her first efforts involved bringing New Orleans bands up to Philadelphia for shows, giving the musicians work outside of their still-recovering home turf and introducing Philly music fans to some very persuasive tourist ambassadors.
Soon, her group also began sending Philadelphia musicians to the Big Easy for gigs and volunteer work.
And now, a year into the experiment, musicians and music fans from both cities are keeping the network alive with shows to raise money for the continued rebirth of one of America’s greatest jazz cities.
Tonight’s gig at Ortlieb’s is one of a number that have taken place outside the World Café Live venue in University City since November, but it is hard to think of any place in Philadelphia better suited for such an occasion.
For one thing, the rehabbed brewery bar provides one of the most tight-knit, off-the-cuff jazz experiences you can find anywhere. With the stage tucked snugly into the center of the slender restaurant and bar, patrons have little choice but to be drawn into the jams that take place.
And unlike some other places that advertise live jazz as part of the menu, Ortlieb’s truly provides lively, if not furtive, jazz jams.
Not that that kind of experience is purely associated with New Orleans, which is largely considered the birthplace of the musical form. Kansas City, New York, Chicago and a whole host of other cities can boast hot jazz joints too.
But in Philly, there is really only one place that ties that kind of atmosphere with the Cajun and Creole cuisine that New Orleans is famous for.
And that’s Northern Liberties’ own Ortlieb’s Jazz Haus.
Those who come out to Ortlieb’s for tonight’s benefit show will find a one-of-a-kind Philly/New Orleans jambalaya: blackened catfish and sweet potato fries served amid smoking compositions by one of the area’s hippest jazz sets.
Wash that down with some locally brewed beer — and the satisfaction that your cover charge is helping to rebuild one of the world’s most influential music cities — and it’s hard to think of a better way to spend a stuffy July evening.
Even were it not for all those perks, it’d be worth it to catch the Puzzlebox Experiment in action.
At the forefront of the Philly "New Jazz" scene, Puzzlebox features local greats like trumpet player Kimbal Brown, pianist Anam Owili-Eger, bassist Keith DeStefano, saxophonist Dan Peterson, drummer Peter Gaudioso and jazz-guitar wizard Matt Davis.
Having played together since 2004, these musicians are well on their way to finding their own groove, and they dish out a style of jazz that will please traditionalists and the avant-garde crowd alike.
And in the tradition of all good jazz joints from here to the Mississippi, fans can expect a couple of unannounced performances to complement the Puzzlebox sessions. ••

Check it out!

Who: The Puzzlebox Experiment sextet and a few as-yet unnamed local cats.
What: Local musicians playing for the Philly-to-New Orleans benefit fund.
Where: Ortlieb’s Jazz Haus, 847 N Third St., near Third and Poplar in Northern Liberties.
When: Thursday, July 19, at 8 p.m. The $10 door charge contributes to a fund that sends local artists on volunteer-work expeditions to New Orleans.