Oliver "Who Shot The La-La" Morgan was a true New Orleans original. Every show of his I ever saw featured an umbrella and a second line. I have a vague recollection of him playing trumpet at one of the earliest shows of his that I attended but it was really the party atmosphere that he generated that sticks in my mind. Tad Selzer, along with my wife and I, attended a particularly fine show at Tyler's leading the crowd in a parade all over the club and finally spilling out into the street.

We played with Oliver "Who Shot The La-La" Morgan at the 1st Annual Ernie K-Doe R&B Tribute on May 2nd, 2002, at the Mother-In-Law Lounge and, of course, he did his hit as well as a few other NOLA standards that we all knew.

Tad and his brother John witnessed the the event that has put Mr. Morgan into our "most memorable character" category. While performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the late 80s he appeared dressed in one of the T-shirts with the black iron-on letters you might buy at a mall T-shirt shop spelling out his name... only it said O-L-V-I-E-R instead of O-L-I-V-E-R. After that we always referred to him as Olvier Morgan. I didn't muster the courage to ask him about that old shirt at the Mother-In-Law Lounge but I did refrain from calling him "Olvier".

Who Shot The La-La - I don't know (repeat until ecstatic!)

Click here to read a nice remembrance of Mr. Morgan.