John Boutté (English version)
On Sundays as the red beans were soaking for Monday's dinner, John Boutte was awakened by the sounds of his New Orleans neighborhood. Voices carried over the fence from the church behind his home in the Seventh Ward, the home where he grew up, where most of his Creole family still lives and sings. Past the front yard, second-line parades rolled by, matching the madness of Carnival season and the transcendent joy of the jazz funeral. This roux of influences created John Boutte, and serves him to this day. During his school days John played coronet and trumpet, those clarions of life in New Orleans, in his junior high and high school marching bands. School also gave John the chance to sing, first at talent shows and then with street a capella groups, groups named -- listen -- "Spirit" and then "Remnant”. Stir in the spices of the music that was on the turntables of his older brothers and sisters, the music that ruled the street and raised the spirits: Ste...