There’s no waiting around for the Gregory Agid Quartet’s debut album, Mystery Blues, to begin. Clarinetist Agid jumps right into the melody on the first and title track, and before you know it, guitarist Josh Starkman is confidently picking his way through a solo.

It’s our state’s 200th birthday, which means it’s also the bicentennial of our nation’s oldest African-American neighborhood and cultural epicenter, the historic Tremé.

Ralston Crawford was not an artist limited by medium.

While we are still mourning the Radiators, we'll be able to find some solace in those other NOLA godfathers of funk, the Original Meters. While the Band has had a few different names, (-Don't get us started! Don't even-) the lineup remains the one you love two Nevilles, one Porter, on Zigaboo, and Leo Nocentelli all shaken... vigorously. The band does not play together often these days, and there rare appearance at Bonaroo last year was a disapointment to many y'ats. So, enjoy 'em while you can.

Scotty Robertson, the first coach of the New Orleans Jazz, died yesterday in Ruston from an illness he suffered for the last years of his life, Da Paper reports. Robertson, 81, became the first coach of the New Orleans Jazz in 1974, until he was relieved after a 1-14 record. (Subsequent seasons would absolve Robertson as the Jazz posted many losing records without him.)

In honor of Louis Armstrong's birthday, NoDef sat down with local musicians Kermit Ruffins, Irvin Mayfield and Shamarr Allen to talk about Louis Armstrong's legacy among the town's working musicians.

As the tents are broken down this week and the Fair Grounds begins its inevitable turn back toward horseracing, another JazzFest zealot has sprung from the gate to criticize NOLA’s annual spring rite.

Once upon a Black History Month, NoDef issued a black heritage walking tour of New Orleans. One of those sites that had to be included on said tour (or any black history roundup of New Orleans, not to mention America) was Congo Square. That place, once in Treme and now located in Louis Armstrong Park (don't go there), where slaves gathered to sing spirituals and dance without a partner or string quartet was probably the biggest early influence on American music as we now know it. Yet, in this age of historical correctness, Congo's official name remains that of a Civil War general who fought to deny the freedom that the colonial Sundays in the Square inspired. For at least one more day, it stands on the record as Beauregard Square, named after General P.G.T.

Attempting to understand New Orleans through a black-and-white prism is inevitably a fool’s errand. Even when attempting to consider black history in the city, there’s simply not one narrative.

MARIGNY TRIANGLE - Tonight, the Jazz and Heritage Foundation will be unveiling the lineup for Jazzfest 2011. NoDef will be here to bring you the details along with reactions from the Burgundy Street Irregulars, and the locals out on Frenchmen Street.