Blues at Britomart

Jane Phare talks to Orleans music man Greg Tell.

Step into Orleans in downtown Auckland and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in Louisiana's Big Easy.

The soul music, the soul food, the voodoo dolls, the dark cave-like space with wooden floors and ceilings, it's New Orleans in Britomart. That's the whole idea, says American drummer Greg Tell, Orleans' entertainment co-ordinator.

It's here, listening to live music four nights a week, that punters dine on Southern American food like fried chicken waffles, fried green tomatoes, spiced squid, curly fries, fried okra, spicy Cajun chicken, steak with dirty rice or beef po'boys.

Back in 2013 when the idea of Orleans was first mooted, the Britomart Hospitality Company sent their chef to New Orleans to soak up Southern American recipes, imported a container load of authentic photos, voodoo dolls, beads and trinkets, and told Greg Tell that making the music happen was his baby.

And make it happen he does. It helps that he has contacts that go way back in the music world.

Before Tell moved to New Zealand 15 years ago he played with bands all over the world with entertainers like Renee Geyer, Marcia Hines, Julie Anthony, James Morrison and South African musician and singer Hugh Masekela. He pelted out hits with the Younghearts band at Whisky a Go Go nightclub on Sunset Boulevard and played major stadiums throughout America with R & B/soul group The Sylvers who had hits like Boogie Fever.

He's worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber, playing in the musical Five Guys Named Moe in London, Broadway and Australia.

In Australia he played with Kiwi entertainers John Rowles, Mark Williams and Angela Ayers. Now Tell gets to sign up acts, call on old friends from the music world and play drums four nights a week at Orleans with the club's backing band the Big Easy. What could be better, he says, than being paid to do what you love.

The music at Orleans is "that real soulful thing," he says, but wide-ranging; some New Orleans Groove, a little rumba, jazz, Latin, blues, Brazilian.

"We play pop songs that people know but we put a soul groove on it."

Sometimes the entertainment is impromptu like the night the musicians from the Michael Jackson history show visited Orleans, many of whom Tell had worked with in Australia. They ended up playing the whole night.

Likewise, B.B. King's backing band came off a cruise ship in Auckland and dropped by - 15 musicians and singers. "So I said 'organise yourselves and do a set for us' and they did. It was amazing."

And old friends, like Ron LaPread, bass player for The Commodores, play when they're available.

For Tell, drumming has been a life-long passion. He was five, living with his grand parents in a small country town near Chattahoochee on the border of Georgia, when he first heard the drums played. "I saw my older cousin playing the drums and I thought 'this is what I want to do.'"

Orleans
48 East Customs St (Roukai Lane), Auckland.

Open Monday to Friday 11.30am until late; Saturday - Sunday 4pm until late.
Live music on Wednesday 6pm - 9pm; Thursday 7pm -10pm; Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm to 10.30pm.

www.orleans.co.nz

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