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South on CD

"Go to the Mardi Gras" by Professor Longhair is where it all begins. My brother Jeffrey, a drummer, and I would sit in with the Nat Krasnoff Trio on Mardi Gras ball gigs. The trio featured my "Parrain Nat" on accordion, Rick Denson (aka "The Witch Doctor") on bass, and my dad Phil Despommier on drums. On the bandstand, I learned tunes like this one by ear, as well as how to start a second line on the horn. After leaving New Orleans to attend New England Conservatory in 2007, I lost touch with the rhythms of the city in search of new sounds. But when I stepped into Marigny Studios in New Orleans in the spring of 2024, joined by the torchbearers of this music-David Torkanowsky, James Singleton, and Johnny Vidacovich, all featured on this album-the music from those halcyon days came back to me.