swag
06-15-2008, 09:34 AM
Something Odd Happens Over a Full Weekend of Jazzfest.
Between performances and parades, and the geography of where stages are situated, it's virtually impossible not to run into a brass band, Mardi Gras Indians or both. I assume that's by design; those traditions infuse all sorts of other New Orleans music and they are the main heritage in “Jazz and Heritage."
To see so many groups maintaining their street-level music after Katrina is heartening, and their tunes are incorrigibly upbeat. Yet after a few days the novelty wears off: oh, yeah, here come more Indians. And then Jazzfest is over and I'm headed back to New York, where Indian gangs don't vow to “set your flag on fire" over a tambourine beat and there's not a brass-band gig somewhere every night of the week. There's not even one a month. Like other things that make New Orleans so utterly singular, what's commonplace within that one city should never be taken for granted.
This is excerpted from a NY Times blog from post-fest that got republished this weekend. Full article: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=19436
Between performances and parades, and the geography of where stages are situated, it's virtually impossible not to run into a brass band, Mardi Gras Indians or both. I assume that's by design; those traditions infuse all sorts of other New Orleans music and they are the main heritage in “Jazz and Heritage."
To see so many groups maintaining their street-level music after Katrina is heartening, and their tunes are incorrigibly upbeat. Yet after a few days the novelty wears off: oh, yeah, here come more Indians. And then Jazzfest is over and I'm headed back to New York, where Indian gangs don't vow to “set your flag on fire" over a tambourine beat and there's not a brass-band gig somewhere every night of the week. There's not even one a month. Like other things that make New Orleans so utterly singular, what's commonplace within that one city should never be taken for granted.
This is excerpted from a NY Times blog from post-fest that got republished this weekend. Full article: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=19436