The New Orleans Jazz Vipers were founded in 1999 by alto saxophonist and singer Joe Braun, who grew up busking on Jackson Square with Tuba Fats and "Uncle" Lionel Batiste. The founding lineup — Braun, cornetist Jack Fine, guitarist John Rodi, bassist Clay Windham, drummer A.P. Gonzalez, and trombonist Genevieve Duvale — was the first band to play the Spotted Cat, and the Vipers became known as pioneers of the "Frenchmen Street Swing Renaissance." Their sound is early swing with a punk edge: hard-driving acoustic rhythm, spirited New Orleans horns, and no drum kit — the rhythm is driven by guitar and upright bass.
The band's tune "I Hope You're Coming Back to New Orleans" reached a national audience when the Vipers played it on HBO's Treme, with Irma Thomas guesting on the song, and it became the title tune of the Grammy-nominated Treme soundtrack. The band won OffBeat's Best of the Beat award for Best Traditional Jazz Album for 2004's Live on Frenchmen Street and took home a Big Easy Award for Best Traditional Jazz Band in 2005.
More than twenty years on, the Vipers remain a Frenchmen Street institution: a weekly Spotted Cat gig going back to the infancy of the scene, first-Friday shows at Vaughn's with Tuba Skinny, and dates at the Maison and the Starlight Lounge. Their catalog runs from The New Orleans Jazz Vipers (2002) through Is There a Chance for Me (2020), with Live and Viperizin' (2017) among the recent titles — all streaming and downloadable on the band's own Bandcamp page.
