My trip to The Big Easy
Next month I'm off to New Orleans with my Dad.
This will be quite an important trip for me, for various reasons.
Reason 1: The music:
I visited The Big Easy back in 1999 with two very good friends and was absolutely blown away by the place. My expectations had been very high and they were vastly exceded. Jazz and blues of every type, was everywhere. And to extremely high standards. Buskers on street corners performed at levels that I was used to paying very good money for on my then regular trips to London's trendy muso venues.
In New Orleans I remember lots of bars that were almost a parody of what one would expect, but for me, given the standard of musicianship was obviously so high, yet another ragtime band on Bourbon street was absolutely lovely, thank you very much. It was like a jazz themepark. And of course, take a few steps off the beaten track and all the top notch musicians who had been earning their crust a couple of hours earlier doing their shift in some mainstream bar on Bourbon Street were now playing in the more innovative underground bars near Louis Armstrong Park.
So all in all, absolutely lovely.
I had my Dad in mind during the trip. He's more into blues than jazz, but there was plenty of that in New Orleans too. He's never been to New Orleans and I was pretty sure he would enjoy the place. I metioned this to him on my return, but didn't think much more about it for a while.
Reason 2: Catharsis / affirmation / manning-up.
Like most men, I both delight in and endure a unique type of relationship with my Dad. Fortunately for me he's still alive. I'm 42 and he's 71.
We have very meaningful, enjoyable and safe chats about Warren Galtand's Wales selection policy for the latest 6 Narions campaign, and the state of Brains beer since the brewery's relocation to other side of Cardiff city centre.
A part of me is veryy relieved that he's a bit old-school: neither emotionally gushing, nor prone to overt relational exertions. But, another part of me is somewhat concerned that something very important in our relationship suffers ongoing unacknowledgement. That may be it will never be acknowledged.
There was a time when I silently and cowardly blamed this unackowledgement on him. Why didn't he hug me? I did quietly and privately verbalise this blame a few times to others. I feel very ashamed of those utterances now. They seem skewed and unfair.
But, pleasingly a few years ago I did eventually realise that I was an adult too now. That nowadays I could be an active partner in my personal relationships.
So I spoke with my Dad about he and I making a trip to New Orleans. Just he and me. And he said he thought that would be nice.
We are flying out on 29th March.
I am looking forward to it very much. I am hugely looking forward to the music, but I am also hopeful about something between dad and I finding some acknowledgement. I have no clear idea of what that might look like in practice; how explicit or implicit it might be, but it's making me feel excited.
This will be quite an important trip for me, for various reasons.
Reason 1: The music:
I visited The Big Easy back in 1999 with two very good friends and was absolutely blown away by the place. My expectations had been very high and they were vastly exceded. Jazz and blues of every type, was everywhere. And to extremely high standards. Buskers on street corners performed at levels that I was used to paying very good money for on my then regular trips to London's trendy muso venues.
In New Orleans I remember lots of bars that were almost a parody of what one would expect, but for me, given the standard of musicianship was obviously so high, yet another ragtime band on Bourbon street was absolutely lovely, thank you very much. It was like a jazz themepark. And of course, take a few steps off the beaten track and all the top notch musicians who had been earning their crust a couple of hours earlier doing their shift in some mainstream bar on Bourbon Street were now playing in the more innovative underground bars near Louis Armstrong Park.
So all in all, absolutely lovely.
I had my Dad in mind during the trip. He's more into blues than jazz, but there was plenty of that in New Orleans too. He's never been to New Orleans and I was pretty sure he would enjoy the place. I metioned this to him on my return, but didn't think much more about it for a while.
Reason 2: Catharsis / affirmation / manning-up.
Like most men, I both delight in and endure a unique type of relationship with my Dad. Fortunately for me he's still alive. I'm 42 and he's 71.
We have very meaningful, enjoyable and safe chats about Warren Galtand's Wales selection policy for the latest 6 Narions campaign, and the state of Brains beer since the brewery's relocation to other side of Cardiff city centre.
A part of me is veryy relieved that he's a bit old-school: neither emotionally gushing, nor prone to overt relational exertions. But, another part of me is somewhat concerned that something very important in our relationship suffers ongoing unacknowledgement. That may be it will never be acknowledged.
There was a time when I silently and cowardly blamed this unackowledgement on him. Why didn't he hug me? I did quietly and privately verbalise this blame a few times to others. I feel very ashamed of those utterances now. They seem skewed and unfair.
But, pleasingly a few years ago I did eventually realise that I was an adult too now. That nowadays I could be an active partner in my personal relationships.
So I spoke with my Dad about he and I making a trip to New Orleans. Just he and me. And he said he thought that would be nice.
We are flying out on 29th March.
I am looking forward to it very much. I am hugely looking forward to the music, but I am also hopeful about something between dad and I finding some acknowledgement. I have no clear idea of what that might look like in practice; how explicit or implicit it might be, but it's making me feel excited.
Comments
(And don't worry about my being stripped to the waist. In any photos posted here, I will be fully stripped.)
Very excited. 8.2/10.
Am finding myself over planning and researching attractions, bars, clubs, gigs, when I know when I get there I'll want to explore, discover and be spontaneous.
Am piling tunes on to my phone for the flight.
3 sleeps to go!
I'm very aware of my difficulty in communicating what it's like be here in a relatively brief post.
Part of that is that I'm taking very seriously my embassadorial role for chews very seriously on this trip! :-)
Reasonably disciplined last night. Checked in to our hotel at 8pm local time (2am UK). Nipped out for just a few beers in a couple of bars (one jazz one blues) on Bourbon Street (a little more commercial / populist than I remember, or perhaps I haven't noticed my becoming more snobbish over the past 15 years) and strolled down to the Mississippi (quite magical at night) before getting to bed by 11pm local.
Slept like shit (my bodyclock is a creature of entrenched habit), but ready to go again now. :-)
Looking forward to breakfast.
Will work on getting up some pics.
Thanks for everyone's vocalise interest. It's genuinely adding to the experience for me.
I've never been so pour those piccies in.
Maybe some of the local live acts sell CDs of their work? Would be good for memories.
DF Snr is so far behaving himself.
Not sure why I had to travel thousands of miles to make the opportunity. But here we are. :-)
Have posted up some of the pics.
Will type a few thoughts later. :-)
Bow lower, Rosam! ;-)
Everyone has places, people, values, practices and evocations that for some reason, can connect them with something special. For me, New Orleans provided all of those connections.
There is a lot more to New Orleans than live music. The city boasts several excellent museums, boat tours along the Mississippi, gorgeous food and sumptuous parks. All of which I enjoyed. But, I'll stick to the music bit here!
Locally, nationally and internationally, The place acts as a mecca for both those wanting to provide musical performance and those wanting to witness it. Artist and audience come together in New Orleans in a mutually enhancing musical experience. The talent and the atmosphere there are outstanding.
Musically, the city is based firmly in the French quarter. Which is exactly as you would imagine New Orleans to be. Balconies, vibrancy and live music everywhere. And, not just in the bars. Street corners acts as stages for some astounding talent. I was moved to tears by this lot.
Their rendition of "House of the rising sun", and especially the vocalist's clarinet solo was simply incredible. Later, there was even a sousaphone solo that brought more tears. And these musicians were "just" buskers for goodness sake.
Like any tourist destination there is a consumerist part of the French Quarter: Bourbon Street, which offers a neon-lit, happy-hour version of the city. Worth a look, certainly. But, really the part of town which presented exactly what I was seeking is Frenchman Street. Like everywhere else in town live music is provided by bars largely free of charge: bands pass around a tip bucket to punters at the end of every set so one can contribute whatever one wishes to.
Most of the photos above in this thread were taken there.
It would be wrong for me to recommend New Orleans to everyone, simply because the place bewitches me. There will be many who find their own magical nexus elsewhere, in other places, different company and through difficult cultural expressions. But, my visit has reinvigorated my feeling that best life has to offer can often be found in our points of real and genuine connection with the world around us, wherever we can find them. The closing sentences in this plaque from the "Katrina" exhibition in the city's museum makes the point better than I can: