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New Orleans Piano Players.

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New Orleans Piano Players. DVD. [n.p.]: American Music, 2006; distrb., City Hall Records (San Rafael, CA). AMVD-3. $39.98.

New Orleans Piano Players makes no promises or claims aside from its title. It is solely about a handful of local piano players, most of whom are not very well known outside New Orleans and even then probably only to New Orleans music aficionados or people of a certain age. None are legendary in the same sense as Professor Longhair, James Booker, or Allan Toussaint, though a few may certainly be local legends, and it's debatable how influential any one of them may be.

Given the obscurity of the musicians in New Orleans Piano Players, and the video's uneven production quality, this documentary may be most appropriate as an addition to an exhaustive collection on the history of New Orleans music. If that's the case, then it is indeed fortunate that the producers have captured a few of the performances.

The full story of New Orleans music has yet to be told. It is too vast and too rich to be captured completely, and its influence is immeasurable. The New Orleans musical "feel" is unique and distinctive, and it continues to have an irresistible power to move people to dance. New Orleans drummer John Vidacovitch has described it as like being in a canoe with someone and when they lean one way you instinctively lean the other way to compensate. You...

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