Carlo Ditta
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Carlo Ditta

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"Press Release for NYC shows 10.19.09"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2009

NEW ORLEANS’ CARLO DITTA & JOHN SINCLAIR TO PLAY NYC
New Orleans, LA – Two stalwarts in the New Orleans scene, music producer Carlo Ditta and underground poet John Sinclair, will appear together for two exclusive dates in New York City in November. Performances will be held at Terra Blues in the Village on Wednesday, November 4th (7-10 pm) and at the Bowery Poetry Club on Friday, November 6th (8:30 pm). Carlo Ditta, owner and producer at Orleans Records, will feature songs from his forthcoming album including the singles “Pray” (originally recorded by Mighty Sam McClain) and “Try a Little Love.” John Sinclair will present poems from his new book, It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader (HeadPress, London) and CD, Detroit Life (No Cover Records) backed by Ditta and friends.
Carlo Ditta is most known as a producer and revivalist of some of Louisiana’s greatest hidden musical treasures, digging up gems such as Danny Barker, Guitar Slim, Jr., Willy DeVille, Marva Wright, Lenny McDaniels, Roland Stone, the Original Pinstripe Brass Band, Ironing Board Sam, Coco Robicheaux, Little Freddie King, and “The President of Soul” Rockie Charles. Ditta’s work has garnered international fame as well a Grammy nomination. With the downturn of the music industry, Ditta recently returned to his first love – writing and performing - but this time, he is front-and-center showcasing some of the New Orleans R&B repertoire that shaped Ditta’s career. Now a seasoned stage performer regularly featured at nightclubs and festivals, you can often find Ditta in concert with his old friend, the internationally-acclaimed poet/political activist John Sinclair. Sharing the stage, Sinclair and Ditta bring a cool combination of avant-guard roots, beat, and love – all in the name of music.
For more information about Carlo Ditta, please visit www.sonicbids.com/carloditta www.orleansrecords.com ; or John Sinclair, visit www.johnsinclair.us . For more information about Terra Blues, visit www.terrablues.com (149 Bleecker Street, New York, tel: (212) 777-7776); and the Bowery Poetry Club, visit www.bowerypoetry.com (308 Bowery, New York, tel: (212) 614-0505).


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- Frost Music Mgmt.


"Blurbs: Orleans Records"

"Combing Louisiana's bayous and barrooms for acts from R&B's colorful past, Orleans' Carlo Ditta presents a sampler of tracks by the likes of Roland Stone and Blu Lu Barker. Worth a listen.".... People Magazine, April 12, 1999

"Carlo Ditta's Orleans Records is definitely in the very first rank of New Orleans record companies active in the '90s. For fourteen years Carlo has labored to produce a series of fine recordings by overlooked or under-recorded artists whose works are now recognized as important and colorful strains of the rich musical fabric of New Orleans. One-of-a-kind characters...are Carlo's specialty and stock-in-trade.... Taken as a whole, the Orleans Records catalog represents a remarkable achievement by a young man whose love of the music shines through his label's every release. The songs excerpted on this sampler themselves present a wildly various and richly rewarding tapestry of sounds from the Crescent City today. So stretch back and relax, enjoy the sounds of Orleans Records, and listen with your inner ears as Carlo Ditta takes a little mental stroll through the label's history."..... John Sinclair, New Orleans, 1988


Roland Stone
Remember Me

RS: 4of 5 Stars

Roland Leblanc became Roland Stone when he joined the Skyliners, led by teenager Mac Rebennack, in 1959. After recording a series of singles that were popular primarily in and around New Orleans, Stone disappeared from view, while his mentor went on to become Dr. John. When Orleans Records' Carlo Ditta located him, Stone was living quietly in the Crescent City, running a family cleaning business. But Remember Me is no mere comeback album. With the help of a splendid small combo that includes original Skyliners Dr. John and bassist-guitarist Earl Stanley, Stone has made one of the most stylish, soulful and grittily convincing New Orleans R&B albums in years.

From the first authoritative whip crack of John Vidacovich's snare drum and the opening flourishes of Dr. John's down-in-the-alley piano, it's evident that for these musicians, '50s-style rhythm & blues never died. Then Stone's rich, tensile marvel of a voice comes sliding in sideways, wrapping a different texture around every note and finding an eccentric but appropriate spin for every phrase, and idiom seems irrelevant.

Stone and friends rock and roll their way through a well-chosen program of uptempo covers, but the ballads are the heart of the matter. And Stone is one guy who really could keep you entertained singing the phone book, a singer's singer who can throw in a playful turn of phrase or lavishly embroider a single syllable without ever compromising the integrity of a strong melodic line or the emotional imperative of a telling lyric. "The Masquerade Is Over," "Try the Impossible," and Dr. John's sly after-hours original "Remember Me" are ballad performances that are fresh, musical and thoroughly inhabited. Dr. John himself is fully in his element, playing piano with a restless, probing intensity that makes most of his recent recordings sound almost tame. Remember Me, a heartfelt gem of an album, is hard to forget.

-Robert Palmer
Rolling Stone Magazine

- Frost Music Mgmt.


Discography

TBA - LP
Release Date: mid-November 2009
Orleans Records

Photos

Bio

New Orleans singer-songwriter Carlo Ditta first made his mark when his composition “Pray” was voted “Best Gospel Song” at the American Song Festival in the 1970s. The Crescent City native took soul singer Mighty Sam McClain into the studio to record the song, beginning what would become a long and exceptionally fruitful career as a record producer.

First Carlo continued to pursue his calling as a songwriter and performer during stints in Nashville, California, and New York City, where he collaborated on projects with Dorothy Goodman, Willy DeVille, and Motown composer Nick Zesses - but New Orleans kept calling out to him, and Ditta went back home to concentrate on making records with neglected Louisiana performers for his award-winning Orleans Records.

Carlo produced the classic Danny Barker album Ham & Eggs and then received a Grammy nomination with Story of My Life by Guitar Slim, Jr. Willy DeVille’s Victory Mixture won a Gold Record in France, and he produced albums by Marva Wright and Lenny McDaniels for Virgin Records before scoring with a series of Orleans Records on overlooked artists like Roland Stone, the Original Pinstripe Brass Band, Ironing Board Sam, Coco Robicheaux, Little Freddie King, and “The President of Soul” Rockie Charles.

When the record industry began to tank Carlo thought hard and went back to playing his guitar, singing and writing new songs, telling the story of his life through his own compositions and the New Orleans R&B repertoire that shaped his musical outlook. Now he’s a seasoned stage performer regularly featured at nightclubs and festivals and often in concert with his old friend, the internationally-acclaimed poet John Sinclair.

Artist Representation:
Frost Music Mgmt.
(405) 694-3700
frostmusicmanagement@live.com
www.myspace.com/frostmusicmanagement