The New Orleans Suspects are, from left, CR Gruver (keys/vocals), Jeff Watkins (saxophone), Reggie Scanlan (bass), Jake Eckert (guitar/vocals) and Mean Willie Green (drums).Velvet Revolver. The Traveling Wilburys. The Highwaymen. The Justice League.
Every once in a while, the stars align to bind together some of a genre’s biggest names in a supergroup ensemble. About 4 ½ years ago at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, a group of artists assembled for an informal jam session with a collective resume that gives them a strong claim to being about as supergroup as it gets in the bustling Big Easy music scene.
The New Orleans Suspects, as they came to be known, consist of expats of huge names in the funk/jazz/R&;B world, including The Neville Brothers (drummer Willie Green), The Radiators (bassist Reggie Scanlan), Dirty Dozen Brass Band (guitarist Jake Eckert), Outformation (pianist CR Gruver) and James Brown (Jeff Watkins).
“We did have an advantage in that everybody came with a resume that was pretty good,” Scanlan says, adding that the group was able to ease into playing higher-caliber shows much earlier, as a result of name recognition. “It did pique people’s curiosity early on to come see what we were up to.”
Not that there haven’t been some growing pains for the artists, some of whom, like Scanlan, had 30 years or more experience playing with other groups.