"a magically crafted grimoire
of voodoo space blues"
(New Orleans Gambit)
"one of the first great albums of 2007,
and quite possibly one for the ages."
(jambase.com)
Fog City Records proudly announces the long-awaited return of Papa Mali,
and a strong reclaiming of our roots as we
circle back home
with a gang of
floor-knocking, head-bobbing grooves.
PAPA MALI
Do Your Thing
featuring:
Kirk Joseph
Henry Butler
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
with
Victoria Williams,
Chuck Prophet,
The Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians,
and
JJ Grey
‘‘
We played together live right there in the room, all of us sitting together,
and of all the things that I've been involved in musically it is perhaps my proudest moment.
Of all the things I've recorded that may be the highlight right there.
’’
Papa Mali's latest album
documents his pre-Katrina New Orleans summit
with some of the city's most celebrated and talented players,
brought together with one request: Do your thing.
More than a recording session, the atmosphere that developed feels almost like a seance,
as friends gather in a circle and invoke the ghosts of their pasts...
look deeper, and you can almost see those spirits weaving through the air like curls of smoke,
conjuring visions of snake handlers and tent revivals,
spy boys and street parades,
proceeding with a broke-leg swagger to a place that's less about being funky
and more about being Southern. Do your thing!
Beyond that, this record is a long overdue homecoming for Papa Mali,
a Louisiana native. Growing up in Shreveport, he spent his summers in
New Orleans with his grandparents, soaking up the musical flavor
and witnessing the heyday of The Meters,
The Wild Tchopitoulas, James Booker,
Professor Longhair and most of the city's now-legendary acts.
Although he himself has been playing the clubs of New Orleans for over 20 years,
this recording makes his musical roots more obvious.
Featured guests for the journey
are representatives from three of the Crescent City's deepest traditions:
Kirk and Robb negotiate the bottom end
Kirk Joseph - founding member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band,
Kirk is responsible in large part for the modern New Orleans brass band sound.
But we prefer to think of him as the James Jamerson of the sousaphone.
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux -
worldwide ambassador of the proud Mardi Gras Indian tradition,
Monk has been "masking Indian" since the 1950's and
performed at the very first New Orleans Jazzfest in 1970.
He appears on this record speaking, chanting, and playing his own percussion instruments.
As a further honor to "Pops" (as he refers to Papa Mali),
Monk enlisted his own tribe The Golden Eagles, leading them through the blistering call-and-response of Early In The Morning
and heading up a drum circle for Sugarland.
Do your thing, Henry
Henry Butler - referred to as "the pride of New Orleans" by Dr. John,
Henry Butler is no less than the singular New Orleans piano giant of his generation, and keeper of the torch previously held
by James Booker and Professor Longhair. Tears were shed when Henry finished performing Honeybee with the band --
perhaps most notably by the cameraman filming the event, who said he felt "unworthy to be in the room".
Papa Mali later reflected, "the recorded version with him on piano is so beautiful
that it will be hard to play that song live without him".
Fans of Papa Mali's live show will be pleased to see that the "caveman beats" of drumming phenomenon and longtime
touring partner Robb Kidd have finally been captured on tape. From the fury and power of uptempo drum workouts like
Early In The Morning to the dumpster-diving groove of My Name Is Moses, Robb blurs the line between "swagger" and "stagger"
and brings thunder to the weather forecast.
Papa and Victoria prepare the beat box
Victoria Williams started out as
a high school student singing
Neil Young songs with Papa Mali on the bayous of Shreveport Louisiana, and ended up opening for Neil Young and having her songs
recorded by Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, Soul Asylum and Lucinda Williams. Her ethereal vocals shine through when a ray of light is needed,
providing transcendance to songs like Hallelujah I'm a Dreamer and True Religion.
Chuck Prophet is a living legend and
no doubt one of the best guitar slingers around.
A West Coast native, Chuck knows his way around the great Southern recording studios better than most Southerners.
He and
MOFRO's JJ Grey slipped into the session
like visitors to a family reunion,
dropping off a plate of something they grew up with and then sneaking out the side gate, just because sometimes that's
the neighborly thing to do.
Do Your Thing
continues a long-term relationship between Papa Mali and producer/engineer
Dan Prothero. The two have worked together since
Papa Mali's critically acclaimed debut
Thunder Chicken,
and on this record they sought to retain "that sound", which Prothero characterizes as
"capturing the impact of live performance this caliber of musicians is capable of,
while allowing all that Papa Mali intrigue and wierd other-worldliness to come through.
Moments of vulnerability and moments of floor-shaking power. I think we got it all.
I know I'm grateful we had this opportunity before New Orleans was turned upside down."
"Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne is the kind of local character that would
be genuinely iconic anywhere else. Here in his adopted New Orleans,
though, where we historically curate a stellar permanent collection of
freaks, oddities and twisted brilliance, he simply fits right in. That's
not faint praise, either. The psychedelic swamp sounds on Do Your Thing
are New Orleans inside and out, and even if the sound didn't show it,
his guest list would. No less of a supporting cast than the Dirty Dozen
Brass Band's sousaphone player Kirk Joseph, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux,
award-collecting pianist Henry Butler, the Golden Eagle Mardi Gras
Indians, and the Reverend Goat Carson -- who's equally likely to be seen
sweeping up a Frenchmen Street bar in the early morning as playing in
one late at night -- appear on the record, which is a magically crafted
grimoire of voodoo space blues. Reminiscent of Night Tripper-era Dr.
John, Coco Robicheaux or C.C. Adcock's latest gritty ghost-rock effort,
Do Your Thing runs the gamut from prayerful blues on tracks like the
haunting, understated closer True Religion to psychedelic, almost
Beatles-esqe fuzz guitar on I Had The Dream. All in all, a powerful,
glowing globe of swamp gas.
"
‘‘
Any fan of New Orleans music needs to buy this CD as soon as humanly possible."
- Hittin' The Note
‘‘
Dreadlocked magic man Papa Mali's sophomore effort begins with a crazy,
echo-basted beat that reaches us like slow movin' sunlight, warming our
bones and reminding us, quite rightly, to always do our thing. A thick
haze - dangerous and satisfying as good ballin' - hovers over this
shifting, hallucinatory landscape. Papa ruts with our earholes, and
children it feels real good.
Do Your Thing was almost seven years in the making.
Thunder Chicken
announced a wild-eyed swamp monkey who high-fived you with a
crusty mojo hand. Eclectic, electric, and frequently exciting, his debut
stirred expectations for the future. Well, sometimes the future is a
long time coming. Good news is the fermentation process for Do Your
Thing has produced moonshine with a 100-proof kick.
Papa Mali (aka Malcolm Welbourne) and boffo producer
Dan Prothero
(MOFRO,
Tim Bluhm,
Galactic)
conjure an atmosphere equal to early '70s
Curtis Mayfield and Night Tripper-era Dr. John. There's the unmistakable
feeling you've wandered into someone else's dreamtime - a place of sharp
shifts in mood, where sex and nightmares entwine with the slapping feet
of Mustang Sally and Hand Jive Willy. The ground beneath our feet
rumbles, and we find ourselves disoriented, shuffling off towards a
blood red horizon.
Besides the mesmerizing opener, there's "Honeybee," a sweet slice of
mos' scocious Mac Rebennack-erie, and "I Had The Dream," a Hendrix
homage so good it could slide onto Electric Ladyland. While there's no
missing his influences - toss in floorboard rattlin' John Lee Hooker,
Hound Dog Taylor, and Tony Joe White - Papa Mali has his own sumptuous
thang happening. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes an original so
original but you know it when you hear it. You pick up on it in the
rambling intro to "Little Moses," in the exuberant, headlong rush of
"Early In The Morning," and especially in the simmering heat of "Girls
In Bossier City." And, there's the aching acoustic closer "Hallelujah
I'm A Dreamer," which equals the best wistful moments of Ry Cooder or
John Hiatt. Something in his temperament, his delivery, and his
undisguised freakiness distinguishes Malcolm from the other papas.
Aiding and abetting on Do Your Thing are Dirty Dozen co-founder Kirk
Joseph on sousaphone, New Orleans keyboard master Henry Butler, and
Mardi Gras maestro Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. But, the real MVP here is
Mali's longtime drummer Robb Kidd, who is percussion perfection on every
cut, pounding down levees one minute and then whispering like a firefly
the next. Also in the mix are Victoria Williams, JJ Grey, and Chuck
Prophet, who lays down some seriously mean electric guitar on "True
Religion."
In the liner notes, Papa Mali says, "Some folks have called me a
catalyst for 'that-which-is-not-really-explained'. Perhaps. But this
much I will admit: I welcome those who occupy the spiritworld - and they
know it." This perfectly explains the roughshod ghost dance feel of Do
Your Thing, one of the first great albums of 2007, and quite possibly
one for the ages."
‘‘
This driving, echo-drenched polyrhythmic joy ride transforms the traditional
Mardi Gras march into a contemporary slice of voodoo electronica."
- Offbeat Magazine
"ThereÕs a thick, hot, humid,
mind-altering atmosphere to his music both live, and, miraculously, in
the studio (where many a good vibe can die); and the crazed, gonzo, go
for it attitude displayed on Thunder Chicken makes it still one of my
favorite albums.
On Do Your Thing, Mali again worked with Fog City honcho, recording
facilitator, and tone authenticator Dan Prothero; and in many ways it
offers a sonic continuation of the first CD: often reverb drenched and
echoplexed; overdriven and vibrant as a fever dream or lowdown, dark and
ominous as moonless midnight in the South Louisiana swamp.
To me, this is a deep summer, windows open, still sweaty at
midnight, heat lightning playing tricks with your mind kind of record,
to be enjoyed and explored after indulging in this or that effective
intoxicant of choice, or however you wish to free your mind. Papa Mali
offers a worthy modern day expression of the sanctified psychedelic
hoodoo of Dr. JohnÕs early days, as captured on the Gris Gris album of
the late 1960Õs. This man learned serious stuff from the late John
Campbell, a blues/voodooist so intense that it still spooks me to listen
to his records.
All that said, IÕve decided to feature the exceptional exception to that
mood, ÒEarly In The MorningÓ, a full-tilt run and gun riff on a Mardi
Gras Indian theme, featuring the incredible drum attack of the truly
gifted, surely possessed Robb Kidd. This song seems to have been
inspired by the Indian song, ÒLetÕs Go Get ÔEmÓ, written by Bo Dollis
and Monk Boudreaux (whoÕs in on the vocals), but amped up to the
extreme. ItÕs a wild ride and an impressive turn for all
concerned.
As IÕve said, Papa
MaliÕs influences are manifold; and I could go on. But I think his modus
operandi can be simply summed up. He makes music spontaneously
overflowing with the spirit of the old (and, we hope, the new) New
Orleans and the re-imagined Louisiana of his youth. Check this stuff
out."
![[cd artwork]](http://www.fogworld.com/papamali/images/FCCD009.340.jpg)
Click here to download a printable copy of this album cover
Click here to download a promo photo of Robb Kidd
Click here to download a one-sheet in PDF format
