Enjoy this music memory from Charlotte Hunter, who lives in Caddo Parish near Caddo Lake.
Charlotte recalls how much she wanted a Gibson guitar when she was a teenager.
“The first job I ever had was on a little radio station in Minden. I was fifteen. The guy told me if I would do a spot for him, every afternoon, that he buy that guitar for me….I had that radio show until I got my Gibson guitar….. we did mostly USO tours and airbases and things like that when we did gigs.”
Charlotte recalls that as a child, her home was filled with music. He dad played the fiddle, and her mom played the guitar and bass.
Daniele Spadavecchia. Photo courtesy of http://www.dsjazz.com/
In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear some memories of a musical childhood from New Orleans-based gypsy guitarist Daniele Spadavecchia, who grew up in Italy.
Daniele loves to play acoustic gypsy jazz guitar, and when he first came to New Orleans (around 2003) he hooked up with Tony Green, another musician who shares sensibility and appreciation of gypsy jazz, swing, Mediterranean Flamenco, and European ethnic music.
Daniele has performed at dozens of festivals and venues in Italy and the United States, especially around New Orleans and San Diego (where he lived after Hurricane Katrina for a time). Today, you can catch him at the Tasting Room on Magazine Street, where he has weekly gigs.
In this interview, Daniele describes his childhood as freewheeling and adventurous, and his parents—”an Italian version of hippies”—shared their musical tastes with Daniele and his brother.
“Of course as kids, we were always traveling with my parents, and we would always have a tape player in the car. We didn’t even have a working stereo in the car so we would carry this predecessor of a boom box. So we would play all these tapes. My mama would play some music, and she would play every kind of thing…. all these fantastic rock ‘n roll or prog rock bands or psychedelic rock. And that thing really twisted my brain, in a good way. It taught me freedom of expression and the beauty of music, the power of music.”
Daniele has recorded various gypsy jazz CDs and also plays on the Confetti Park Player’s children’s CD. he is the featured guitarist on the song “Buttermilk Drop.”
In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a childhood music memory from David Rosser, a talented guitarist and multi instrumentalist who lives in New Orleans. Dave shares about how his big brother was one of his greatest musical influences—and how they bonded and he learned from listening to records—especially the Beatles!
Dave has toured the world several times with different musical groups. He also produces, records, and mixes at his studio, Chateau Daveaux. Among those who he has performed and/or recorded with are the Afghan Whigs, the Twilight Singers, Mark Broussard, Ani Di Franco, Gal Holiday, Terry McDermott, Mark Lanegan Band, and the Gutter Twins.
