ROGER LEWIS, KIRK JOSEPH, DP, ALEXEY MARTI, HERMAN LEBEAUX on Drums-Set behind DON VAPPIE.
July 26, 2025
“Transcendent!” said one who knows me well about the Band’s first set at Snug Harbor in New Orleans two nights ago. “Fabulous! All of you played fabulous!” said another who’s come to shows before. ‘What a performance!’ text-messaged another who also approached us from her table with a smile and congratulations as we stepped off the Stage, she one who owned and a ran a Club here from the 1990s into a few years “after Katrina”. “It was so great—I couldn’t believe it!” “Thank you! Thank you!” we heard from several. “You know I love the album, but I think that this was even better!”
Well, it was good, I think—the show on Thursday night, between New Orleans’ July rhunder-showers, with beloved DPRAM’MERS.
ROGER LEWIS on Baritone and Alto Saxophones. KIRK JOSEPH on Sousaphone. Both of them Multiplying Harmonies and Choruses and Adding Accents to Rhythms through their Pedal-Effects Boards. Hall-of-Famer DON VAPPIE on Guitar and Slide-Guitar and Banjo. HERMAN LEBEAUX of the Allen Toussaint Orchestra and his own found-sounds for further creativity on Drums-Set. ALEXEY MARTI on Congas and Cajon from Cuba and everything that’s entailed through studying Music in Academies and in Circles there.
First Set, 7:30 to 8:50
”Get Your JAM On!”
“Louisiana Days, Louisiana Nights” and “The Bands Are Bringing Everyone Home”
’Marsha’s’
‘Jack Groves’
”Something You Got”
‘My Mother’s Spirit Speaks to Me, Whispering of Eternity’
Second Set, 9:30 to 10:45
”Get Your JAM On!”
’The DREAMERS and the BELIEVERS’
“Some Rain Tonight”
“Louisiana Days, Louisiana Nights” and “The Bands Are Bringing Everyone Home”
’Marsha’s’
Pictures from a Train
Sly Intelligence in and from each of DPRAM’s musician On-Stage surrounds. Everyone poised with Forward Sympathy. Ready to deliver.
HERMAN upright on his stool, gaze cocked, chin upright. HERMAN like a Pilot over his kit, hands flashing, crushing runs, squint keen-eyed, and smiling smiling smiling as we, as he’s said, “ride the wave.”
ALEXEY on the Cajon as if it’s a Crown for two hands to control and shape into Beats that fly like their cues for both dancers and an Orchestra. ALEXEY with a grin and his “I got you!”
DON VAPPIE listening with the sage suspension of Faulkner’s V.K Ratliff and attending with constant focus. Don darting and bending his fingers into the most evocative Chords and Notes he can find.
KIRK blowing both Bass Lines and Harmonies and the most foundational of Rhythms as each Piece progresses. KIRK with eyebrows lifting, and pupils widening or narrowing to tell. what he’s feeling.
ROGER LEWIS seated and facing us from the Stage’s inner side and handling his Baritone or Alto with the aplomb come with seven decades of performing. Roger with chosen mouthpiece launching toward heights of the “Do what It Do.
All locked and lifting. Responses to Calls and Calls of to more Response and Rolling and Flowing with the energies received from the stares and the smiles, the nods and the claps, the ENERGIES in concert from those with us ahead!
And that’s how it GOES and that’s how it WENT.
Much, much THANKS, as always to MARYSE. To GILDA and RHONDA for being so tireless in promoting the show. To JASON and KENDRA at Snug for booking and presenting the show. To JEHU of Snug and to NATHAN, the Tech for Kirk and Roger, for working astutely on the Sound, and to GUY and JORDAN and all the Snug Staff!
KIRK JOSEPH, a photo-portrait by NANCY OCHENSLAGER
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