Eddie Zip may be a name you’re not familiar with right now, but that’s about to change.
About a month ago, I was chatting backstage with Ed White, who is one of the most well-known booking agents in the Gulf South. He was telling me an idea for a band that was a New Orleans “show” band…meaning….there is no real New Orleans group that highlights their show and their music. Most New Orleans musicians are naturally talented enough that an idea of a “show” is not something that comes up. Most musicians in New Orleans are satisfied to stroll on stage, play two hours, and stroll off.
In contrast, go sit in Las Vegas at Legends in Concert. This is the pinnacle of Vegas shows…a total imitator act of the mega stars…Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Elvis. The band is tight musically and there is an entire scripted show.
As far as I know, this has never been done before with New Orleans music. Until now.
The entire idea is to make a band that will play for convention work…tourist coming in from out of town that want to hear the classic New Orleans songs. Locals often shy away from the standard artists for some reason (hard to be a hero at home, ya know). Having just played two conventions with Amanda Shaw in the past two weeks, I saw the potential of a band like this in the New Orleans convention market.
There’s a fine line though with show vs. performance. You don’t want to make the experience too campy or put-on. It needs to have that same talent level that you’d see walking down Frenchman St at 3am, but with a lot more direction to it. To pull this off, we needed someone who was the REAL DEAL.
AND we found him!
Jonathan Hoerner is the guitar player from The Bag Of Donuts. He’s also the guitar player for Newsflash: The Huey Lewis Experience with me. He’s also a great friend and one hell of a nice guy to know. Jonathan’s uncle is a man named Eddie Zip. I am ashamed to say that I was unaware of Eddie before we had a conversation about this new band.
Eddie was one of these guys who was around in the 60s when black R and B was rolling in New Orleans. Unlike a lot of the white population, he wasn’t scared to get to know and associate with black artists. Eddie’s main axe is the piano and, as I say sometimes, “man, that cat can JUMP!” He’s comes from the same influences as the best New Orleans piano guys in town: Professor Longhair, Dr. John, John Cleary, Joe Crown, Huey Smith, Allen Toussaint…
He’s the real deal.
Eddie left New Orleans to head to California when he was a young man to do session work. His list of albums and artists is most impressive: Stevie Wonder, Sly and The Family Stone, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, the list is endless! He’s also worked with Derek and The Dominoes drummer Jim Gordon, which I have yet to ask him about but cannot wait to hear the story about Jim (considered one of the best rock drummers, he killed his mother in the mid-70s after the breakup of the Dominoes and is now in solitary confinement in Atlanta.)
Eddie has since moved back to New Orleans and is doing some solo gigs. We had our first practice last Thursday with this new group…it was quite an experience. Rob Schulte on drums, Jerry Christopher on bass, Jerry Sr. on guitar, Jon Hoerner on Guitar, myself on Hammond Organ, keys, and guitar. The horn guys are coming in soon too…I am very excited about this project as it develops.
Zip and de doo da’s for a name? I doubt it, but it’s a good working title right now.
The best thing about this group…
IT’S NATURALLY NAWLINS!
Click here to see Eddie Zip do his thang
