Bobby Love, lead vocalist and keyboard player for The Market Café Jazz Band, started out in one of New Orleans’ hottest 1970s bands: Deacon John & The Electric Soul Train, a widely recognized major influence on The Meters.

While serving as bandleader in the 1980s for soul singer Johnnie Taylor (“Who’s Makin’ Love?” and “Disco Lady”), Love relocated to L.A., where he also became a much-sought-after studio musician.

Returning to New Orleans in the mid-1990s, he released nearly a dozen well-received CDs on his own record label, among them a classic pair by Willie West, a close friend and legendary New Orleans soul man.

After Hurricane Katrina, Love sought refuge in Houston. In 2008, he was recruited to join the Market Café Jazz Band back in New Orleans where the band was a staple on the famed French Quarter scene. He subsequently reworked the traditional New Orleans jazz repertoire to modernize the band’s sound.

“Back when I used to play on Bourbon Street,” Love explains, “they called this music Dixieland. But to me, it always was, and still is, just New Orleans-style music.” So call it funkified Dixieland or call it New Orleans-style music: either way, you’re guaranteed sweet sounds that put a smile on your face.