Jenavieve and the Winding Boys • sleepy time dream team

Many albums from New Orleans are recorded in houses in the 9th Ward, supplying a poetic mental image of the festivities, but this one actually feels like a home jam for the city’s street musicians. That’s appropriate as the Winding Boys got their start on Royal Street, and though you can find videos of them fronted by Jenavieve Cooke Kachmarik at least as far back as 2015, they have not recorded much. The only other offering on their Bandcamp page is a four-tracker from 2015. That is to say, they haven’t recorded much as a band, the musicians on this album are all over the place in New Orleans, leading or backing on other sets, and the sets on YouTube feature others passing through. It may be safe to say when Jenavieve is there singing and leading on trumpet it is a Winding Boys set. Not having albums to cover we have missed as a paper her familiar face in the New Orleans scene. The Winding Boys play all over town and have for a decade. Yet the only mention Jenavieve has gotten in our 100 issues was in the (very long) list of musicians appearing with the Wit’s End Brass Band. Her story can be found on Pops Coffee’s old blog. It is an exciting if somewhat familiar one for the generation that landed in New Orleans and learned traditional jazz in the years following Katrina. A Navy brat who moved frequently as a kid, Jenavieve Cooke got into swing dancing in high school in th