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Billboard Magazine

PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

A New Orleans Trombonist And A Savvy Nonprofit Label Rebuild

Mar 14, 2009
Billboard Magazine by Larry Blumenfeld

Two years ago, trombonist Glen David Andrews could scarcely look up as he described his months "in exile" in Houston and the Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer he shared with relatives after Hurricane Katrina ravaged his hometown. "I feel ground down," he said then. But at last year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, he bounded from the stage, gazed up and gleefully announced, "It's my time."

 

It may well be. Andrews' renewal is evident on his new album, "Walking Through Heaven's Gate" (Threadhead Records), which was released Feb. 24. These songs, mostly hymns, reveal the same fire Andrews brings to street parades and bandstands throughout New Orleans, and they open a window into an important piece of the history that defines Andrews and his close clan of powerhouse musicians-the church roots of their music.

 

One track, "I'll Fly Away," is related to a particular strand of Andrews' story within the musical history his CD references.

 

After he sang the hymn during a memorial procession for a fellow musician in late 2007, he found himself in handcuffs. The charges, eventually dropped, included parading without a permit and "disturbing the peace in a tumultuous manner." Andrews performed the same hymn in Spike Lee's 2006 documentary "When the Levees Broke," changing up the final verse to state, "New Orleans will never go away."

 

The new album was recorded in concert at Zion Hill Baptist Church (where Andrews was baptized) in Tremé, which many consider the oldest black neighborhood in this country. It's filled with songs that Andrews "learned while sitting in the third pew back."

 

The album also reflects Andrews' collaboration with song writer Paul Sanchez on the title track, Walking through Heaven's Gate, which the two co-wrote.

"I heard Glen David's voice before I saw his face," Sanchez says. "It grabbed me by the throat and made me listen. He's got a massive presence and a massive sweetness that comes through despite his troubles."

 

Sanchez and Andrews have produced albums with the help of Threadhead Records, a nonprofit label created by a group of local music fans who initially gathered informally through a Web site. In 2006, they began organizing raffles and fund-raisers for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC). In 2007, they decided to start funding the music itself, beginning with the singer John Boutté's "Good Neighbor."

 

"It was never really our intent to develop a label per se," label head Chris Joseph says, "just to do whatever we could to support these artists and get these CDs made." Yet, as a label, Threadhead has begun supporting its projects with local New Orleans performances and print advertisements and label-sponsored industry showcases in Los Angeles.

 

The formula is simple and sincere: Threadhead loans a production budget, to be recouped through proceeds, along with another 10% as a donation to the NOMC. According to Joseph, the loans the label made for the first two CDs are 90% paid off, including the charitable contribution. Among Threadhead's spring projects are two new CDs from singer/songwriter Susan Cowsill and an album by trumpeter Shamarr Allen.

 

"It's the least we can do," Joseph says. For Sanchez, who has had a CD and a book, Pieces Of Me, funded by Threadhead Records, "it's a way to rebuild, one song at a time."