Funky Friday: Lagniappe from the Meters
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Lagniappe is a Louisiana French word, derived from American Spanish la napa, (with a tllde above the "n"), or the gift; a variant with Indo-European roots+ napa (variant of yapa, gift, from Quechua, from yapay, to give more).
Just because it's in the forties tonight, under cold drizzle in New York City on my first Funky Friday, and still in the mid-seventies in the heart of some of the best weather during the year down New Orleans way right now, here's another rarely-heard gem from 1975's Fire On the Bayou. Leo Nocentelli often talks of his early aspirations towards jazz guitar, and counts Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, Charlie Christian and George Benson (pictured with Nocentelli, below) among his guitar heroes. Middle Of The Road shows off some of Nocentelli's impressive chops in an homage to his heroes.
Lagniappe came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean "an extra or unexpected gift or benefit." Mark Twain writes about the word in a chapter on New Orleans in LIfe On the Mississippi (1883). He called it "a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get":"We picked up one excellent word - a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word --lagniappe. hey pronounce it lanny-yap. It is Spanish - so they said. We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth. It has a restricted meaning, but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose. It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a "baker's dozen." It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure. The custom originated in the Spanish quarter of the city. When a child or a servant buys something in a shop - or even the mayor or the governor for aught I know - he finishes the operation by saying — 'Give me something for lagniappe.'The shopman always responds; gives the child a bit of licorice-root, gives the servant a cheap cigar or a spool of thread, gives the governor - I don't know what he gives the governor; support, likely.""When you are invited to drink - and this does occur now and then in New Orleans - and you say, 'What, again?-- no, I've had enough;' the other party says, 'But just this one time more - this is for lagniappe'."
The interplay between Leo and Art Neville on Middle Of The Road is especially sweet, and while George and Zig are away from their usual comfort zone, they're both no less solid in the pocket. Porter, speaking in 1997 to Offbeat about his session work with Tori Amos, said "I tend towards being able to play in all the musical fields. I like playing, and I consider myself a musician's musician, I don't just play funk. Hey, if they've got a country and western session out there, I'll play it, and not only that, I'll know how to play it."A little something extra...a perfect tune to end a Funky Friday, deep into Saturday morning on towards dawn...enjoy!
Just because it's in the forties tonight, under cold drizzle in New York City on my first Funky Friday, and still in the mid-seventies in the heart of some of the best weather during the year down New Orleans way right now, here's another rarely-heard gem from 1975's Fire On the Bayou. Leo Nocentelli often talks of his early aspirations towards jazz guitar, and counts Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, Charlie Christian and George Benson (pictured with Nocentelli, below) among his guitar heroes. Middle Of The Road shows off some of Nocentelli's impressive chops in an homage to his heroes.Lagniappe came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean "an extra or unexpected gift or benefit." Mark Twain writes about the word in a chapter on New Orleans in LIfe On the Mississippi (1883). He called it "a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get":"We picked up one excellent word - a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word --lagniappe. hey pronounce it lanny-yap. It is Spanish - so they said. We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth. It has a restricted meaning, but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose. It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a "baker's dozen." It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure. The custom originated in the Spanish quarter of the city. When a child or a servant buys something in a shop - or even the mayor or the governor for aught I know - he finishes the operation by saying — 'Give me something for lagniappe.'The shopman always responds; gives the child a bit of licorice-root, gives the servant a cheap cigar or a spool of thread, gives the governor - I don't know what he gives the governor; support, likely.""When you are invited to drink - and this does occur now and then in New Orleans - and you say, 'What, again?-- no, I've had enough;' the other party says, 'But just this one time more - this is for lagniappe'."The interplay between Leo and Art Neville on Middle Of The Road is especially sweet, and while George and Zig are away from their usual comfort zone, they're both no less solid in the pocket. Porter, speaking in 1997 to Offbeat about his session work with Tori Amos, said "I tend towards being able to play in all the musical fields. I like playing, and I consider myself a musician's musician, I don't just play funk. Hey, if they've got a country and western session out there, I'll play it, and not only that, I'll know how to play it."A little something extra...a perfect tune to end a Funky Friday, deep into Saturday morning on towards dawn...enjoy!
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