
Tamara Jackson from Silence Is Violence and Mary von Kurnatowski from the Tipitina's Foundation appeared on the WWL Eyewitness Morning News today to talk about the May 23 concert at Tip's for The 19 Fund.
Gambit's nonprofit arm, the Foundation for Entertainment, Development and Education, has teamed up with The Tipitina’s Foundation, the United Way and Silence Is Violence to help the 19 victims of the Mother's Day shooting with a benefit concert Thursday featuring some of New Orleans’ top musicians, including Donald Harrison Jr. leading the Congo Square Nation Mardi Gras Indians, Hot 8 Brass Band, Stooges Brass Band, Bonerama and others. The event is hosted by honorary co-chairs Fats Domino, Wendell Pierce and Harrison.
Tickets to the benefit are $40 in advance and are available online.
All proceeds from the May 23 benefit concert — and all funds raised by The 19 Fund — will be turned over to United Way, which will serve as fiscal agent for The 19 Fund at no charge. Silence Is Violence will coordinate victim services, which will include financial aid as well as help accessing other free and discounted social services from governmental and nonprofit sources.
Lil Wayne announced a new Big Tymers project earlier this month — founding member and longtime Cash Money producer Mannie Fresh, however, won't be a part of it. Co-founder Birdman told MTV, "Not at all."
Big Tymers — the multi-platinum supergroup duo responsible for "Get Your Roll On," "#1 Stunna" and "Still Fly" — dissolved in 2005, following the 2003 album Big Money Heavyweight. In a Skype interview with MTV's Sway Calloway, Fresh said "the people have spoken."
"I think Drake is a great artist, I think Wayne is a great artist, but they not the Big Tymers. It's kind of like doing a Jackson 5 album with Boyz II Men," he said. "Two different eras, great artists, but Boyz II Men is not the Jackson 5. ... You can call it whatever you want to call it but you can't call it a Big Tymers album."
Calloway asked Fresh "what went wrong" with the group and the label, from which Fresh split in 2005.
"At the time, we was young," he said. "All I'm striving for is to get what I deserve. ... I'm too wise to be making shots at anybody. But the thing is, I'm a businessman. I don't have no problems with Cash Money, no problems with the Williams brothers, I just want what I deserve, plain and simple."
On recovering from Porgy and Bess:
Well, [the show] ended and then a week later I got married, so I was kind of planning a wedding at the same time I was closing a show. After the wedding, then I fell down for a good long time. Porgy and Bess was a very draining show. Quite honestly now I’m just starting to get my strength and health back from doing it. Just even leg injuries and all of that, it took a lot out of me. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world and it was an incredible experience, but living Bess’ life for over 250 performances was a strain, but an incredible one.
New Orleans party bender funk outfit Flow Tribe releases its five-song EP Painkiller at The Maple Leaf on May 18, but you can stream it here. Watch the video for the single "Hungry for You" here.
Soulful singer-songwriter Andre Duhon just released his third LP The Moorings. Stream the single "Rest on her Shoulder" here, and listen to the title track here.
Rapper Curren$y, on the heels of the anticipated Live in Concert collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, released the video for "New Jet City," the title track from his February mixtape, which you can download for free here.
Koan lent his raps to the documentary Shell Shocked on a track of the same. The documentary explores violence in New Orleans from neighborhood, police, children's and city officials' perspectives. Watch Koan's video below:
More music below the jump.
Your Thursday weekend planner, Noah Bonaparte Pais, stopped by the WWL Eyewitness Morning News today to break down your entertainment options. Among them: Father John Misty (former drummer of Fleet Foxes), Titus Andronicus (the band, not the Shakespeare play), Blancanieves at Chalmette Movies, Much Ado About Nothing (yes, the Shakespeare play) at the NOMA Sculpture Garden, Forestival and more.
Noah Bonaparte Pais made his regular Thursday stop on the WWL Eyewitness Morning News and brought Eric Paulsen a music-heavy selection of Gambit weekend picks for the second weekend of Jazz Fest. (Bonus: they talk Mud — the Matthew McConaughey movie, not the kind currently pooling on the track at the Fair Grounds.)

Making its debut tonight, along with seven brand new bands, is Not Enough Fest, a production of No More Fiction. Since 2009, the group has supported and produced LGBTQ and feminist punk rock and DIY bands with shows typically benefiting local nonprofits.
With Not Enough Fest, inspired by the Portland, Ore. music and art festival, bands must meet a few requirements: they must be brand new and be composed of at least half women-identified and/or queer-identified people. Event organizers encouraged novice musicians to meet, learn, and play together as a group. The end result is the debut of seven bands — Spring Break-Up, Pregnant, Mans, Goat, Arabella Arabella, Osedax, and If So, Uh-Oh.
Over the last several months, No More Fiction hosted mixers where musicians or soon-to-be musicians could meet like-minded players, share ideas and music interests and start putting together groups. Organizers also hosted workshops, where budding musicians could learn guitar, bass, drums and vocal skills. The event is meant to "encourage the participation of women and queers in DIY music making in our town."
The event also features a screenprinting demonstration, and all proceeds from Not Enough benefit Ashley Volion, a Lafitte woman with cerebral palsy who was denied by the state to live and work in Chicago while pursuing a PhD at the University of Illinois for disability studies, the only program of its kind in the country.
The all-ages event begins at 7 p.m. at 3 Ring Circus' The Big Top Gallery (1638 Clio St.). Admission is $5-$25.