It Ain't My Fault in the Times-Picayune!

Great article here by wonderful New Orleans music writer, Keith Spera.

With any luck, the track will be up on iTunes tomorrow!
(Fingers crossed - and we'll definitely shout it from the rooftops when it happens!)

Lenny Kravitz, Mos Def and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band remake 'It Ain't My Fault' as Gulf Aid fundraiser

Published: Monday, June 14, 2010, 6:05 AM
Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

Early on May 12, Preservation Hall Jazz Band creative director Ben Jaffe was still fuming about the previous day’s U.S. Senate hearings on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

The spectacle of BP, Transocean and Halliburton executives shucking and ducking responsibility warranted a response, Jaffe decided.

A certain New Orleans rhythm & blues classic sprang to mind: “It Ain’t My Fault.”

Written by legendary New Orleans arranger Wardell Quezergue and drummer Smokey Johnson in 1964, “It Ain’t My Fault” is now a Mardi Gras and brass band standard.

Less than 24 hours after the idea first struck Jaffe, a new version of “It Ain’t My Fault” featuring Lenny Kravitz, Mos Def, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, actor Tim Robbins and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band had been recorded and mixed.

Jaffe hoped to release the song immediately on iTunes to benefit the nonprofit Gulf Relief Foundation, created to promote coastal restoration and assist families affected by the spill.

But creative processes often move more quickly than legal processes. Weeks later, the various parties involved still were securing necessary clearances and lobbying iTunes to waive its percentage of sales. Meanwhile, a video of the late-night recording session at Preservation Hall circulated online.

Barring another delay, “It Ain’t My Fault” should be available via iTunes on Tuesday.
Its existence is a testament to the ability of technology to facilitate creativity — and the musical possibilities available at any given moment in New Orleans...

FULL ARTICLE HERE