{"id":2072,"date":"2010-08-15T08:45:26","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T12:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:41:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:41:53","slug":"clint-maedgen-musical-chameleon-straddles-the-line-between-tradition-and-rock-n-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/clint-maedgen-musical-chameleon-straddles-the-line-between-tradition-and-rock-n-roll\/","title":{"rendered":"Clint Maedgen, musical chameleon, straddles the line between tradition and rock 'n' roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
The men of Preservation Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nClint Maedgen is a musical chameleon.
\nHe is the respectful, awestruck student apprenticing with men up to nearly twice his age in the venerable New Orleans institution Preservation Hall Jazz Band<\/a>.
\nHe is also the audacious showman who fronts the punk cabaret act New Orleans Bingo Show<\/a>, a troupe that includes a burlesque dancer and foul-mouthed clown.
\n
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The new line up of New Orleans Bingo Show<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nSome nights he plays three sets of traditional jazz with Preservation Hall, then doesn\u2019t even pack up his saxophone, just walks with it on its strap through the French Quarter and right onto stage for a late Bingo gig.
\nPreservation Hall is the G-rated home of standards like\u00a0 \u201cWhen the Saints Go Marching In,\u201d<\/a> while Bingo Show might feature abstract multimedia or a trapeze artist and is no place for anyone offended by language or nudity.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t feel like I could do one without the other,\u201d Clint told me recently. They fuel different parts of his creativity, as does his one-man electronic work<\/a>.
\nHe probably couldn\u2019t have done Preservation Hall without Bingo \u2013 PHJB creative director Ben Jaffe<\/a> saw Bingo about six years ago and was so lovestruck by the energy of the show that he proposed a collaboration with Clint before they even knew each other.
\n\u201cI immediately recognized I was in the presence of true performers,\u201d Jaffe recalled last fall. \u201cI knew nothing about them but I was immediately touched by what they were doing.\u201d
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Clint hung out with me and John when he was in Brooklyn with Preservation Hall in July.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI asked Clint to talk to me for Newvine Growing because he\u2019s landed a full-time job with a revered NOLA band not known for taking on skinny young roll ‘n’ roll singers, and he balances that with his own side projects.
\nIt\u2019s a tale of dedication and luck.
\n\u201cMy getting this opportunity is like Willy Wonka proportions,\u201d he said with a laugh.
\nBoy meets saxophone<\/strong>
\nClint Maedgen was born Aug. 15, 1969. His parents divorced three years later and he lived a nomadic life with his mother and stepfather, moving to 12 different states before he was 10. He rattles off the names of the cities, including \u201csomeplace in Ohio.\u201d
\nThen he settled with his father in Lafayette: a Texan, ex-Marine, Vietnam veteran, deep sea diver. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of sensitivity happening with my dad,\u201d Clint said. \u201cI love him, he\u2019s half of who I am. We\u2019re just very different.\u201d
\nClint grew up singing, then his stepmother fueled his interest in music \u2013 she took him to concerts like Alice Cooper and KISS, and pulled Clint\u2019s dad\u2019s old high school saxophone out of the attic.
\nIt was not love at first sight with the sax. He hated playing for more than three years, joylessly learning scales, but then went to a friend\u2019s house and heard the friend\u2019s older brother playing sax solos inspired by Grover Washington Jr. \u201cI was like, \u2018Show me how to do that,\u2019and I was hooked.\u201d
\nHe went to University of New Orleans to major in music, but ended up doing more of his studies on the streets \u2013 he saw Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Bad Brains, Jane\u2019s Addiction, stayed up all night, slept all day.
\nAfter flunking out of UNO, he enrolled at Southern University, where he studied under Alvin Baptiste. \u201cUltimately, I\u2019m very glad that happened,\u201d Clint said. Although he laments his timing \u2013 just after he left, New Orleans icon Ellis Marsalis arrived at UNO to start a jazz program\u2013 Baptiste\u2019s tough love teaching style gave Clint some discipline he was lacking.
\nClint studied at Southern for two semesters \u2013 long enough to rethink his dreams of becoming a bebop musician. \u201cIt would have taken me 20 years to get half as good as the gunslingers,\u201d he said.
\nHe got married, had a son, started his first band \u2026 but soon, New Orleans was calling him back.
\nDo you know what it means to miss New Orleans?<\/strong>
\nClint\u2019s family has roots in New Orleans back to the 19th<\/sup> century. His uncle was a cop who once arrested Lee Harvey Oswald on Canal Street for distributing controversial literature.
\n\u201cI always knew that NOLA was in the cards for me,\u201d Clint said.
\nHe got a job as a bike delivery boy for French Quarter fried chicken joint Fiorella\u2019s, where Bingo got its start. Using a set of bingo cards Clint found at a second-hand shop, an ensemble of musicians and performers began a weekly run at Fiorella’s that quickly grew in popularity.
\nIt was there that Ben first saw Bingo, and invited Clint to sing with Preservation Hall. \u201cThe electricity of Clint\u2019s voice and the entire experience stopped me cold,\u201d Ben said.
\nClint continued working at Fiorella\u2019s and fronting Bingo while doing guest appearances with PHJB, sometimes popping into the Hall to sing a song or two in the middle of a delivery. Eventually, Ben asked him to join the band full time.
\nIn some ways, it was like a marriage between two powerful musical families \u2013 today Bingo clown Ronnie Numbers is also Preservation Hall marketing manager Ron Rona by day, and the former Bingo keyboardist Madd Wikkid is PHJB recording engineer Earl Scioneaux III.
\n\u201cI think it has been great for both camps. We’ve obviously learned a lot and we love to share our talents with The Hall,\u201d Clint said.
\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dzVCHv6FSbg]
\nThe surreal life<\/strong>
\nJoining Preservation Hall was getting called up to the musical major leagues \u2013 Ben has memories of being chased by the Land Shark back stage at Saturday Night Live in the 1970s while his dad played on stage as the musical guests.
\nClint said the most surreal opportunity so far was singing the National Anthem at the BCS championship.
\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iP4E7RglzEo]
\nLast year, Preservation Hall played Madison Square Garden with an all-star line up for Pete Seeger\u2019s 90th<\/sup> birthday<\/a> and earlier this year, they released a CD collaborating with 20 artists<\/a> including Terence Blanchard, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ani DiFranco, Merle Haggard, Richie Havens, Jim James, Del McCoury, Bobby McFerrin \u2013 and Tom Waits.
\n\u201cTom Waits is my hero,\u201d Clint said, still awestruck by the experience of recording with someone who has so inspired him. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for me.\u201d
\n\u201cIt inspired me to such a great extent that I couldn\u2019t even look myself in the mirror if I wasn\u2019t pushing it as hard as I can,\u201d Clint said. \u201cI have to be able to believe in what I\u2019m selling.\u201d
\nThat moment of reckoning prompted Clint to shake up almost the entire roster of Bingo<\/a> just before leaving on an Australian tour. They had one rehearsal together before doing five shows in seven days, and the intense experience of 13 different airplanes in a week bonded them.
\nIt brought a freshness to Bingo songs going on a decade old.
\n\u201cI feel like it\u2019s just the beginning, even after nine years in,\u201d Clint said.
\nThe man in the fedora<\/strong>
\n
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The Edge performs with Preservation Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nClint rocks a very particular musical image \u2013 you\u2019ll often see him in a three-piece black suit with a fedora, his dark hair slicked back and the tiniest John Waters moustache. He\u2019s dressed the same whether it\u2019s 90 degrees in the sun at New Orleans Jazz Fest or a late-night bar show.
\nI asked him whether he was cultivating his musical persona and he laughed off the implication.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve worn a fedora forever,\u201d he said, recalling a time years ago when he and a friend both wore wife-beaters and fedoras into a bar, where the bartender asked, \u201cWhat is this, the Depression?\u201d
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Clint goes from spiked up to slicked down<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nAt least one part of the look is a conscious decision: he used to spike his hair straight up, like a startled cat, but in deference to the traditional vibe of Preservation Hall, he switched to combing it back.
\n\u201cWhen I cut my hair, it opened doors for me,\u201d he said, recalling that the older band members saw it as gesture to fit into their world. \u201cHad I known it would be received that well, I would have done it years ago.\u201d
\nAlso part of his unique appearance is a white ceramic saxophone. Ben asked Clint what kind of sax he\u2019d play if he could have any in the world and he immediately replied he\u2019d want a Selmer<\/a>. He picked a limited edition white sax, but then had to try about 30 mouthpieces to get a decent tone. The ceramic was deadening the sound, making it sound like a kazoo.
\nToday it\u2019s as much a part of him as the fedora, though he also plays clarinet, keyboards, drums, bottle, theremin and electric guitar.
\nAnd, of course, he sings. Vocals like this one below put Clint on the short list of vocalists — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jim Morrison — that I could listen to for hours and never get bored.
\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hcaiNCYcFAQ]
\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yDYGIeZDMyg]
\nOff stage<\/strong>
\nAfter Clint remarried, he and his wife, Tara, briefly lived in Los Angeles, with Clint commuting to New Orleans for PHJB and touring while Tara spent time with her family in her hometown.
\nToday they’re back in NOLA — “just had too much happening to be somewhere else,” Clint said.
\nHis son, Trinity, lives in England with his mother, and they talk frequently via Skype. Clint misses having a closer relationship, like the days when he drove to Baton Rouge weekly for visits, but Trinity talks him through it.
\n“He’ll say, “C’mon dad, you’ve got a chance to build something really cool, just stick with it.'”
\nAnd, of course, he’s following in Dad’s footsteps and wants to be a musician. Clint is trying, unsuccessfully, to talk him into pursuing a practical day job. Seeing his father get international recognition as a musician makes it tougher to see the merits of choosing another career.
\nLooking forward<\/strong>
\n
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Among the instruments Clint plays is the bottle. Here he’s teaching John to play. It’s all in the bottom lip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of plans, a lot of ideas,\u201d Clint said, somewhat cryptically. \u201cThe next five years are going to set the direction of my next 30 years.\u201d
\n\u201cP-HALL has some major goals and it\u2019s an honor to be part of the machinery making it happen. Stay tuned, we are just getting started,\u201d Clint wrote in a follow-up e-mail. \u201cBingo is getting closer and closer to the experience I’m trying to get across. Best received Off Broadway or some theatrical setting — a listening audience that dances, too.
\n\u201cMy one-man show is part of the future as well. I’m really only just now getting started on so many things,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhat a great feeling!!!\u201d
\nHe doesn’t mind the manic pace of 150 dates on the road with Preservation Hall and another 100 or so at home. He feels he’s only 20 percent the sax player he’d like to be so the more time on the horn, the better.
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John was apparently a good student. He and Clint did an immediate duet of the Batman theme.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n“Music makes me feel euphoric. I’ll do anything and go anywhere to get that fix,” Clint wrote. “Nineteen-hour day? No problem. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Surfers seem to have the same level of addiction.”
\nNow that he’s collaborated with his musical hero, Tom Waits, who else is on his fantasy list?
\n“Can I just keep working with Tom? \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Dylan, Prince, Beck, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Al Green, Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Hermeto Pasqual, Thom Yorke, REM…..”
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Clint with his musical mentor, Charlie Gabriel<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nClint also loves playing side by side with Preservation Hall clarinetist Charlie Gabriel. He shows off pictures of Charlie on his iPhone like some people brag up photos of their kids. Does he see himself growing into the Charlie Gabriel of his generation in Preservation Hall?
\n“I’d LOVE to be a member of PHALL for the rest of my life. Such a beautiful feeling bringing New Orleans to the rest of the planet. I love my job!!!!”
\nIf 2,000 words ain’t enough:<\/p>\n