PRESERVING & PROMOTING
NEW ORLEANS ART , MUSIC & CULTURE
By Kim Welsh
Founded in 2014 , Gallatin Street Records is a record label of the New Orleans Jazz Museum directed toward the continued preservation and promotion of New Orleans music , art , and culture . The name , drawn from one of New Orleans ’ original dens of sin , designates a two-block stretch near the river once called Gallatin Street that was adjacent to the New Orleans Mint . For most of the 1800s , Gallatin Street was home to all sorts of vices . It was packed with cheap housing , rambunctious dance halls , and prostitution , a booming business . Drawn to the cheap housing near the port , many immigrant families lived around Gallatin Street . It was dirty and unregulated , leaving room for rampant crime . Despite the danger , Gallatin Street still attracted many people . While the original buildings are gone , no one has forgotten the imprint Gallatin Street has left on New Orleans
Gallatin Street Records was conceived as a means of preserving archival recordings from the Jazz Museum ’ s collections that are in the public domain or that have never been made public before and making them available to a larger audience . Since then , Gallatin has evolved into a boutique label concentrating on limited run vinyl pressings of performances recorded at the museum . Gallatin
Street Records is housed at the Ruth U . Fertel Jazz Lab , a component of the New Orleans Jazz Museum ’ s Education Center . This state-of-the-art center provides the almost 200-year-old building with progressive technology . Allen Eskew , architect of the venue , described it as simply “ the best of both worlds .”
One recent project of Gallatin Street Records is My Name Is Bo by Bo Dollis , Jr . and the Wild Magnolias , recorded at the New Orleans Jazz Museum . Bo Dollis , Jr ’ s entire life has been shaped and spurred by Mardi Gras Indian culture . He masked for the first time at the age of ten , taking his first steps toward becoming a Big Chief . Bo took on the title of Big Chief in 2006 , and assumed leadership of The Wild Magnolias in 2012 as requested by his late father . Bo Jr . has masked and performed with the band throughout most of his life in venues all over New Orleans as well as at multiple Jazz Fests . My Name Is Bo is an ambitious two-part project recorded at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and released on Gallatin Street Records . The album is divided into two distinct halves . One disc is done in the traditional Mardi Gras Indian style , with chants and little instrumentation other than tambourine and acoustic percussion . The second , more contemporary , fully amplified half
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