(July 3, 2012) NEW ORLEANS, LA — My first full day in New Orleans lasted well into my second full day in New Orleans, which I think means I did it right.
It did not start auspiciously. As has been happening recently, I stayed up till nearly 3 a.m. I set an alarm for noon so I could hear a radio interview I did the other night that was being broadcast today in Alabama. I needn’t have bothered. I awoke at 7:30, read an email that made me a bit testy, and that was it. Up for the day.
I stayed on the couch for quite a while, doing some work for the tour, killing time, being in a daze, etc. The radio piece (an interview by Kyle Gassiot) came on at 12:10. Kyle’s a pro — he even used the theme song to my old radio show as the intro music for the segment.
Then it was time to get off my rear end and go exploring. With no particular destination in mind, I started to walk. After a while I looked at my phone to figure out in which direction the French Quarter lay and I started walking there down Frenchmen Street. I’ve written a poem about Frenchmen Street and heard about it from my pal Jeff Albert, who runs a music series in a club there. Walking down it, though, I was finally in touch with the colors, the sounds, the smells.
A guy stepping out of a bar into the hot July sun tried the old saw: “I know where you got them shoes.” But my friend Naomi had already warned me about that one. It’s a joke designed to allow the teller to say, “You got them shoes in New Orleans.” (As in, “that’s where you’re currently in possession of your shoes.”)
I stopped in a sushi place on Frenchmen and had lunch — various kinds of veggie rolls and some miso soup. A little while later, still on Frenchmen, I took a break from the heat in a cafe.
From there, I couldn’t really tell you where I walked, except to say that it was the touristy bit. The part of New Orleans where the visitors outnumber the locals on the sidewalk. I walked much of Bourbon Street because it seemed like something I should do. But I think once was enough. If I wanted to hang out with people from Ohio, I’d go to Cleveland.
By chance I came across the Iron Rail Book Collective. I can’t carry books because I’m backpacking, otherwise I could have found a lot to purchase from the store’s collection of leftist, anarchist reading material. I also spotted a copy of a book by Daniel Nester, a poet and writer I know from Albany. The book is about the rock band Queen, so I’m not sure how it factored in politically. I bought a gift to mail to a friend and also an Iron Rail pin to join the others on my backpack. (Packing tip: If you’re backpacking, put a small backpack inside the bigger one so you have a bag to use without having to carry the huge beast.)
I found some really beautiful postcards in a shop past the tourist section. They were designed by a local artist and they caught my eye in the display window as I walked past. Some of you tour donors will be receiving those postcards.
After four or five hours wandering around, it was time to head back to the air conditioning in the apartment where I’m staying. I did that, had some dinner, then waited for trombonist Jeff Albert to come by. I’d had some packages sent to his house — poetry books and business cards — and he was kind enough to bring them by and also to take me with him to his gig at the Blue Nile.
Jeff runs the Open Ears music series there, a series designed to bring adventurous improvised music to New Orleans, a town known primarily for other kinds of playing. Jeff books the series and sometimes also plays in it. Tonight was one of those times. Jeff was joined by saxophonist Joe Calabra, drummer Doug Garrison and guitarist Jonathan Freilich. They played a series of duets, mixing up the members of the band, then played a second set as a quartet. One thing I noticed was that even in this free setting, the music often found a pulse, something I yearn for in a lot of free playing in New York.
Jeff was kind enough to introduce me to many of the folks he knew at the club. I also had another small-world experience. My poetry book was published by FootHills Publishing. On their large roster is New Orleans poet Dennis Formento. During the set break, it turned out that Dennis was there at the club, sitting one table over. I learned this when Jeff (who didn’t know that we were on the same imprint) brought Dennis out to the balcony to meet me. Crazy.
After the gig I stuck around to talk music with the band. We had a debate about whether there are identifiable musical characteristics that mark music as being from New Orleans. And we ended the night in fine style, with Jeff blasting “The Job Song” by the Industrial Jazz Group (with my pal Jill Knapp on vocals) over the bar’s sound system.
I got home a little after 2 a.m. I’m back on the couch where I started as I type this diary entry.
You may have noticed a small Buddha statue cropping up in these photos. I carry it with me everywhere, but I always forget to take pictures of it for my series, Buddha In The Modern World. Today, though, I remembered. The photo earlier in this post is in Jackson Square. The one to the left is a special request from my friend Kim, who wanted a shot of Jeff and Buddha on the balcony at Blue Nile. And down at the bottom of this post is a shot of Buddha visiting a relative in a curio shop on Royal.
(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)
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