Tipitina's Celebrates 40 Years

"Every time we played there it was like church."

- John Wirt

In 1977, a gang of young local music lovers founded Tipitina’s. One of New Orleans’ legacy music venues, Tipitina’s will mark its 40th year on November 24 with “A Neville Family Groove - Celebrating 40 years of Music at Tipitina’s with the First Family of Funk.”

Tipitina’s’ Neville connections date to the venue’s early days. Neville brothers Art, Cyril and Aaron lived on nearby Valence Street. Both the club and the Neville Brothers band began in early 1977.

The 40th anniversary event at Tipitina’s will be historical, Cyril Neville said. “I’m glad they reached out to us to do this,” he said. “That was one of the first places the Neville Brothers played. We were one of the bands that helped put it on the map.”

Various Nevilles and the founders of Tipitina’s collaborated before Tipitina’s opened on January 14, 1977. The venue’s founders previously presented parties in houses, union and VFW halls and other on-the-fly places.

The roots of Tipitina’s can be traced to Hank Drevich, a Miami native who moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. In his junior year, Drevich discovered the local music scene. “I realized that musicians I’d listened to on a little AM radio when I was a kid in Miami were New Orleans stars like Fats Domino and Irma Thomas and Ernie K-Doe,” he said.

A concert on the Tulane campus, presented by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, set more wheels in motion. “A bunch of us went,” Drevich remembered. “It was Professor Longhair. He blew me away.”