Little Georgie and his little 11 member big band (AKA THE SHUFFLING HUNGARIANS: an homage to the late great Professor Longhair) made quite an international stink for a few years in the mid to late '90's...not bad for a little label that basically started out selling recordings out of the trunk of a car, and holding a steady Wednesday night gig at a Barbeque joint.

Little Georgie and the Hungarians ended up gracing festival stages world wide, spreading their “Resurrection/Re-invention/and Redemption through the vehicle of wretched Bacchanalian Excess” philosophy as they went…. it was a great ride, for the band as well as the fans.

Widely reviewed, praised and damned alike, in 1998 Georgie put the band and label on temporary hiatus. He left the environs of Central New York to embark on an Odysseus-like voyage to the center of his personal muse to study at the feet of it's masters…New Orleans, Louisiana (“The City That Care Forgot”, or as Georgie puts it, “The Vortex of Lost Souls”)

Accepting an offer to co-produce the 25th anniversary recording for the legendary Mardi Gras Indian Tribe, THE WILD MAGNOLIAS (“Life is A Carnival”, Code Blue / Blue Note Records), Georgie not only was able rub musical elbows with many of his personal childhood heroes (Big Chief Bo Dollis, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Allen Toussaint, Mac Rebennack/ a.k.a Dr. John, Wardell Querzeque, Cyril Neville, Robbie Robertson), he also got tremendous exposure to the incredible session musicians that worked on that recording (Russell Batiste, Mark Brooks, Brian Querzeque, June Yamagishi, “Mean” Willie Green, Nick Daniels, “Bunchy” Johnson, “Geetchie” Johnson, Michael Ward, Davell Crawford, Dave Ellington….too many to name) and realized that his journey was going to take a lot longer than the allotted time for producing the recording….and decide to stay in “The Big Sleazy”.

 

 

The band’s hiatus became permanent.

Many have wondered what happened to Little Georgie over the past ten years….and many rumors have circulated, from heroin addiction to dancing with a succubus to a descent into madness to Death itself….all will be revealed in subsequent blog posts.

We can tell you this much now, however…. The stone has been rolled away…Little Georgie and the traveling side show known as The Shuffling Hungarians are getting ready to assume their rightful title of “The Greatest Band You’ve Never Seen or Heard”.