Bassist/Vocalist Thaddeus Celebrates the Music and History of New Orleans

By Andrew Schinder

originally published: 01/01/2026

Originally published in Jersey Jazz Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the New Jersey Jazz Society.

The City of New Orleans, obviously, holds a mythical status in the world of jazz. The genre (or at least the form with which listeners are familiar) was invented and developed there, and every jazz musician – from the swingiest to the most avant-garde – holds at least some debt to the bygone inhabitants of the Big Easy. However, while the city is rightfully revered for its place in jazz history, its musicians tell a more complicated story.

Many of NOLA’s most famous denizens – including Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Wynton Marsalis – all ultimately left the city. This inevitable exodus of New Orleans’ most notable musicians therefore begs the question: What is a jazz mecca without its most famous musicians? Is it merely a jazz museum, a place for music tourists to check the box before returning to the more cutting-edge jazz scenes of New York or Chicago? Is there a place for New Orleans in today’s jazz idiom?

Bassist/vocalist Thaddeus Exposé left New Orleans as well. Born and raised there, he has spent the past two decades living in Whippany, NJ, during which time he has been teaching music in the Newark Public School District. As a music teacher, Exposé (Thaddeus Exposé is, magnificently, his birth name) won the prestigious Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award in 2022, given by the Manilow Music Project, where he and his students were awarded grant money for new instruments and facilities. At age 63, Exposé is two years from retirement. He never intended to be a teacher, but he rose to the occasion and, as evidenced by the Manilow grants, touched dozens of lives.

Still, while Exposé has flourished in North Jersey, New Orleans has remained part of his core. Exposé’s music is firmly rooted in the Crescent City, and, upon retirement, he plans to re-dedicate his life to recording and performing. Exposé will be performing bass and vocals at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ, on February 7, 2026 during his fifth annual Mardi Gras celebration. He’ll be leading a large band including Wallace Roney, Jr. (trumpet), Evan Christopher (clarinet), Marty Eigen (saxophone), Peter Lin (trombone), Bernard Elliott (piano), Gordon Lane (drums), and Ayana Lowe (vocals). It promises to be a rousing, energetic celebration of jazz’s history, and the city that birthed Exposé, who is excited about the performance — especially the opportunity to share his origins with North Jersey music fans.

“I’m happy I came from New Orleans,” said Exposé. “It has so much to offer. Not only the food, the atmosphere, the weather is good, but the music is just extraordinary. There’s such diversity of styles of music. You walk down Frenchmen Street or Bourbon Street, you might hear some blues, you might hear some fusion music, you hear some New Orleans music, you may hear some straight-ahead jazz, you may hear some funk, you may hear some Cajun music.

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“So, it has a variety of different music. I love New York, too, but New Orleans – You know, when you hear music from New Orleans, you know exactly where it came from. It is the only style of music that you know is considered New Orleans music.”

Exposé’s father worked in a warehouse, but at home, he had several hobbies. He was excellent in math. He liked to fix cars. And he played the guitar. His father would play along with those classic soul/funk cuts of the 1960s and 1970s – the Temptations, the Bar-Kays, the Ohio Players. But while Exposé loved the guitar, what spoke to him were the basslines.

“There are two things I got from my parents that I learned,” he said. “I learned a work ethic from my father, and I learned how to love and treat people from my mother and my grandmother. Those are the things that I got growing up with a family.”

Exposé didn’t have formal music lessons at first, but he picked up the bass quickly, and by eighth grade he had joined a band that won second place in his school’s talent show. Consistent with the then-current soul/funk groups that were inspiring him, Exposé initially played electric bass. “During that time, if you went to the prom, you had a band playing, not a DJ,” he recalled. “You had all these bands then, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

He was in a band, but couldn’t read music. Like so many young people growing up in New Orleans, his family could not afford music lessons. Ultimately, a member of Exposé’s church congregation, who was also involved with music, recommended that he attend Xavier University, which had a strong music program. Exposé was a bit skeptical at first as to the prospect of attending college, but another local musician, guitarist Carl LeBlanc, convinced him otherwise.

“He said, ‘Do you have to go to school to become a doctor?’” began Exposé. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ Well, there you have it. So, he answered that question. After that, it was the pursuit of music full force.”

A Xavier professor introduced Exposé to New Orleans-based bassist Walter Payton (father of trumpeter Nicholas), who helped formalize Exposé’s playing.

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