I wrote a review of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here for today’s Washington Post. I think it may be the best album of the young year. (I didn’t bother to listen to many January releases, so I can’t say this with certainty). After a veritable drought recently, this week’s new release schedule is full of good stuff to listen to: I recommend the new Sade and Jaheim albums, though I haven’t had the chance to spend much time with either yet. One release that I have jammed quite a bit is Galactic’s Ya-Ka-May, a great, sprawling and accessible overview of New Orleans music in all its variations, which I covered in a Post profile that ran on Saturday.

In that article, I focused on Galactic’s collaborations with bounce artists like Big Freedia and Cheeky Blakk. Another interesting subplot that ultimately got omitted was the story behind the title, a variation on a popular New Orleans soup that is little known outside the city called ya ka mein, and Mardi Gras Indian-inspired record titles like the Meters’ Look-ka-Py-Py. Here’s how guitarist Jeff Raines explains ya ka mein, a.k.a. “old sober,” which reportedly was pioneered by local soldiers returning from the Korean War:

If there’s a second line or one of the big Mardi Gras Indian days happening, you’ll find there are people out selling this quite delicious soup surrounding the event in a truck or something. But you can also buy it in corner stores down here. Basically it is a chicken stock broth and there will be noodles, just straight up spaghetti usually; an egg; collard greens and various meats. There’s this one lady that makes it that we all have been eating at for years. She was working at Tipitina’s for a while after the storm cooking at Tip’s because I think she lost her truck.

Bassist Robert Mercurio elaborated on the thought process behind the title:

We wanted to come up with a title that sounded like New Orleans and encompassed the idea of the album. The term that would have been most appropriate would be gumbo but it’s such a played out thing that is associated with New Orleans. One of our friends mentioned ya ka mein. We thought the proper spelling m-e-i-n was too Asian sounding and would confuse people so we were like let’s make up our own word based off of that. There’s been albums by the Meters called Look-ka-Py-Py and Dr. John had “Gumbo Ya Ya.” It’s that Mardi Gras Indian thing, it just is associated with New Orleans. The title started to have more and more meaning.

Honestly, I had never listened to these guys before. I assumed they were jam-band hacks, and on some of their earlier releases they may come across that way. I don’t know. Ya-Ka-May is dead on, though.

Here’s the jarring, beautiful video for Gil Scott-Heron’s “Me and the Devil.” Yet another reason to go out and buy this today: