Événement

John 'Papa' Gros Band at the Rives Theatre

Wed., Nov. 7th
John 'Papa' Gros Band
Tickets $15 adv // $20 day of show
Music starts 8 pm

Born in New Orleans, John "Papa" Gros has spent more than a quarter-century championing the music of the Big Easy. He's played it all New Orleans funk, rock & roll, jazz, blues, Americana, pop/rock, and he swirls those styles into a genre-bending gumbo that pays tribute to his influences while still pushing ahead into new territory. Like Allen Toussaint and Dr. John, Gros is a proud local who carries on the tradition of New Orleans music, both honoring its past and helping to shape its future.

After kicking off his career as an organist and pianist, for George Porter Jr.s Runnin Pardners, during the 1990s, Gros formed the funk group Papa Grows Funk in 2000. When that group disbanded in 2013 (the Rives Theatre hosted the band on its final tour), Gros worked as a sideman for many Nola artists, including Better Than Ezra, Anders Osborne, The Metermen, Raw Oyster Cult, and Bonerama, and playing organ during a pair of all-star tributes to Dr. John and the Neville Brothers.

He's been a sideman. A bandleader. A frontman. A solo artist. A singer. An instrumentalist. The roles have been varied, but the goal remains the same: to honor the music he's been living his whole life, and to add his own page to New Orleans' history book.