2010-05-05: New York City
Some of the hardest lessons I had to learn quite early during my ten days at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival were the following:
-- You can't see everything-- You can't eat everything-- You can't drink everything
Lord knows, we all tried our best. Not only does the festival itself last for 7 days with five or more bands playing each of the ten main stages (go ahead, do the math. I'll wait) but also there are also endless clubs with incredible lineups each night lasting well into the wee hours. It's no exaggeration to say that there are over a hundred shows during the ten days that would be one of the best things you might see all year. And yet you tend to see three or four songs by any given band and then move on in search of the next thrill that lies 50 yards beyond. My baseball brother Scott McCaughey who was in town (along with the rest of REM who were there working on their next album) called it the musical equivalent of "channel surfing." My hand was on the remote for the entire 240 hours I was there.
It's not enough that there are so many incredible bands and legendary performers, many of whom you would never have a chance to see outside of the New Orleans city limits. But there are also the attention span land mines of dozens of food kiosks each serving the epicurean equivalent of seeing the Beatles back Bob Dylan (or more appropriately, the Meters backing Lee Dorsey). Repeat after me: you can't eat everything. But you can try.
We managed to sneak in a few hours to record the third installment of the Broadside Ballads, the one-a-month musical baseball blog that the Baseball Project is doing in conjunction with ESPN (it will hit their-and this-site next Monday, I believe). The song is called "30 Doc," a meditation on the chances that Philadelphia pitcher Roy "Doc" Halladay will win 30 games.
I usually end these posts with a list of "recent faves" and usually I find around ten things that are thrilling me at the moment. This list, I'm afraid, will be a little longer this time. If you haven't been to Jazz Fest (this was my first), you should book your ticket right now for 2011. See you there next year.
Jazz Fest faves:
- Levon Helm (festival)
- Zigaboo Modeliste's The Drummers Cometh (Howlin' Wolf)
- Cochon de Lait Po Boy (festival kiosk)
- Van Morrison (festival)
- Irma Thomas (Precinct club gig)
- Boudin balls (festival kiosk)
- Muffaletta at Maspero's
- Terry Reid (One Eyed Jack's)
- Shrimp Po-Boy at Commerce
- Ohio Players (festival)
- Galactic featuring Cyril Neville (festival)
- Cochon (restaurant)
- Crawfish Monica (festival kiosk)
- Sagbohan Danialou of Benin (festival)
- Rebirth Brass Band (festival)
- Gumbo AND fried chicken at Dooky Chase (restaurant)
- Red beans and rice at Coop's (restaurant)
- Rosemint tea (festival kiosk)
- Paul Sanchez (festival)
- Dixie Cups (festival)
- Bonarama with guests Scott McCaughey and Mike Mills (Tipitina French Quarter)
- Patti Smith Group with guests Peter Buck and Michael Stipe (Tipitina's)
- George Porter Jr with Johnny Vudokavich (dba)
- Pete Fountain (festival)
And, of course, much more. But you get the point. Now it's time to hit the gym, skip the fried foods, finish some lyrics and get ready for the shows and studio sessions ahead. Don't be surprised if most of the songs are about fried oysters.