Trombonist Jeremy Phipps (People Museum, freelance sideman) shares one of his standout memories of Frenchmen Street.
Jeremy Phipps: When we first started playing out there, I was still not legal to go inside the bars … so must have been around 2009. Shamarr Allen and this dude, we call him Struts, but his real name’s Steven Walker, used to play at Spotted Cat. Every week, we would go and sit outside the window at Spotted Cat. Me and Ashton [Hines] and my brother, Joshua. We would just watch.
I remember one night, I saw Steven Walker and Delfeayo Marsalis onstage. At the time—I don’t know, I had to be 17 or something, and it was like, “Delfeayo Marsalis! Struts! On the same stage!”
It was the trombone battle of the century. Still to this day, I don’t know if I’ve seen playing on that level. Just goin’ at it.
Interviewer: The tourists in there—whoever the lucky 200 people that night were—they had no idea.
JP: Probably no idea, yes. You remember they had the stage on the other side?
Int: On the right, when you came in the door.
JP: This is a small stage. It was tiny-tiny.
Int: I’m honestly amazed you could fit two trombones in there.
JP: It was intimate. We would go see Shamarr and him [Walker] every week, and then that happened. I don’t know. There haven’t been many moments as good as that.
[Stayed tuned for full-length interview! And check out People Museum’s music here.]
