Out of New Orleans

Some friends I met years ago in Central Asia very very generously decided they wanted to pick me up from New Orleans and take me back to their place in Rayne (just next to Lafayette, Louisiana). What a cool journey!!

It turns out Louisiana is incredibly flat. With a lot of short trees (including heaps of cypress trees which have all sorts of incredible properties which I was told about but totally forgot!) and swamps and bayous. And real live alligators in the wild. I saw my first alligator (admittedly a tiny one) on this car trip. And I saw an amazing red bird (all red) which was my immediate favourite. Forgot what its called. Again.

Really, in New Zealand we are totally lucky with our scenery... wow. Here I missed home a bit. No mountain, no sea for ages. A big Palmy, but with swamps and short trees ; ) hahaha

My friends were so generous. They took me around and showed me rice fields and Crawfish fields - the general scenery, up a few bridges to see across the country, oil wells in the making, major trading rivers, etc. Once I got there they took me to see touristy things, and made sure I got me to a bible study on Wednesday night- we had to check out whether there was singing!! (church experience blogged seperately). All round, it was really cool. And I felt overwhelmed about the generosity I was shown.

I found the swaps amazing. They are moss green, with still, quiet water. Sun reflecting on water, on clouds on trees, creating cool shadows. Trees with lichen-looking tufts of fluff hanging from them creating an eerie kind of feel. In Lafayette I went on a swamp tour and ABSOLUTELY LOVED it!! It was really fun.

Here's my best Alligator pic. Yep, I got quite excited about the Alligators...

Observations from Rayne- I figured out why shops look so different: their doors are all closed because of the air conditioning. I figured out why you need a car in America. Because it is gigantic, and because things are so spread out. And people drive everywhere. Shopping centres are huge, and most have false frontages so you can't see the roofs. There is so much land. Everything is big, and way away from other things. It is a really different kind of layout when you are not smack bang in the middle of a city. Veerrryyy different. And they drive on the wrong side of the road!! And there are not many footpaths - people don't seem to use them - cars really ar the thing!

My most significant memory in Rayne was the company. And home cooked meals, and Louisianan delicacies. But it was amazing to catch up with two girls, well young women now - my age, who were my best mates for a year, yonks ago. It was great that we still got on really well. It was so fun!! And getting to know their parents as an adult and having grown-up relationships. And meeting their siblings and grandparents, and hanging with their kids and enjoying some adventures and meals together. It was totally priceless. And completely unbloggable. It was just friendship in the making. Thanks y'all.

Gospel Church #2 - The Sixth Baptist Church

The Sixth Baptist Church was just down the road from where I was staying. So I went and checked it out...

I totally have not got the start times of church sussed out yet - this one started at 9.30 so I missed the singing - I showed up at 10. The sermon was very entertaining... it was for girls aged 8 - 21 and was about how they are worth something. There was stuff in there about not getting their identity wrapped up in guys, finishing high school and becoming independent financially from their parents so that they had options and opportunities. The preacher was halarious and entertaining - it is a story telling kind of style that I find really refreshing! And honest. Oh my goodness. There were things said in that 'house of god' that were never said in mine growing up!! And men not afraid of being men - being honest (and funny) about the nature of attraction and how it affects them... I really appreciated that. I think the NZ church goes overboard trying not to be offensive that it turns out a little bit neutral sometimes on a subject that totally isn't!!! (I think it causes problems for both men and women- for themselves and for each other... anyways, my views on 'asexual men and women in the NZ church' is not worth talking about in great detail here, but if you're interested, ask me!!...)

Anyways. The way this subject matter talked about the value of women made me realise that I was in a different community than I was used to. Talking about finishing high school - any expectaion that we wouldn't is not my experience at all.

To be honest, the most I can say about this experience was that I found this church entertaining. It was genuinely fun, frank and halrious. I liked it. Unfortunately, no-one really talked to me (including the pastor), except another woman who used to go to this church, but now lives in North Carolina. It was a bit awkward, and I felt really shy. I was the only white person there. I also didn't take my bible to this church - EVERYBODY had one, and I felt like a total tourist. Which I kind of was I guess. But anyway. The major thing I took from this church was that it was really telling about the area I was in. The area had been re-built after the hurricane, so all the houses were new. Everyone seems to drive a flash car. It was really hard to tell exactly what kind of area I was in. The sermon helped.

There was a youth choir at the end that sang a song that I knew. At that point though, everyone on the side (where I was sitting) walked towards the back of the church, then I got ushered down the middle of the church, up the front and then up the other side of the church. I still don't really know what that was for. Perhaps I was supposed to put some money in the bucket at the front for a tithe? Otherwise I figured I could have left out the backdoor like half the locals did to skip the notices. Oh well, in my new spot I was closer to the choir.

No regrets ; )

New Orleans - Louisiana

New Orleans was an interesting place to hang out in. There were some beautiful buildings in the French Quarter, which took you back in time. Wrought Iron trimmings on houses, balconies overflowing with flowers in flower boxes, high ceilings with long slim windows graced by elegant and functional shutters... Mmmmmm I liked it.

In my part of town there were houses with front porches which were well used in the evenings, or by older people who watched the street... These houses tended to be two storied, and had high ceilings with pillars out front - in plantation style architecture. More of those lovely shutters. If you know what to look for, you can tell how rich someone is by the number of pillars, and/or the width of the houses (trad. taxed on pillars or width of street frontage), and what religion and/or denomination by the colour of the shutters...

There were definately parts of New Orleans that were not so savoury. Much of the city is still not back to normal post-hurricane Katrina. It is still a well talked about event - cab drivers talk about it, bus drivers talk about it... people you meet on the street talked about it. It has affected the reliability of public transport (still), the type of people living in the city - apparently there are a lot of abandoned houses and warehouses with who-knows living in them, families are fractured - one man was talking about how he saw his mamma everyday, but now she lives in Dallas, Texas (millleesss away). A change of life for all concerned.

But still, there is music everywhere. On street corners, spilling out of bars, streets blocked off for music and crazy artistic goings-on. And it is awesome music. We went out a couple of times to check out the local scene - we found a crazy pianist in the oldest pub in town. He asked us for song requests - someone from our group wanted Britney Spears, so we got a mock-Britney song. Very entertaining. Another night we found a classic jazz club and had a drink or two there enjoying every moment ; ) Happy with those evenings - they delivered what we had hoped New Orleans would deliver.

Oh, I have to tell you about a bus trip. There were a few of us who had made friends at our accomodation coming back from the jazz fest together - a couple of NZers and a couple of Pommes. We were singing random NZ and UK songs on the bus on the way home.... A few of the locals were wondering where our screws had come loose... We took suggestions - one lady said 'Shut Up' - so I sang the Black Eyed Peas version. We thought we were halarious. I think she was slightly amused but more exasperated. She told us not to quit our day jobs... WOOOOPPPSSSS!!! ALL OF US HAD. We laughed and laughed.

Anyways.... there is some random stuff about New Orleans during jazz fest season. I think there is less music when the jazz fest is over - it brings in quite a lot of money, and a lot of musos work during this time...

A fun experience. Really enjoyed it... The N.O. church experience has its own entry.

Need New Listening Material?

There really were a raft of incredible artists at Jazz Fest. Here's some that you might be interested in checking out:

Jazz - Trombone Shorty (um... trombone); Leah Chase (chick singer); Germaine Bazzle (chick singer); The James Rivers Movement; Esparanza Spalding (keys); Sharon Martin is probably worth checking out.

Gospel - seriously, Tyrone Foster ruled. There were good shows from a few others incl. Irma Thomas, Mavis Staples and Pamela Landrum - but these guys because of their voices rather than the show I have to say. The Anointed Jackson Sisters on the other hand put on a good show- try U-tube for those ladies!

Blues - didn't really catch much of the blues, but John Mooney was GREAT. Etta James (not BLUES blues) was okay for a while too.

Zydeco - Buckweat Zydeco was fun to watch and an energetic concert. Want to learn more about Zydeco music...

Dunno the category - Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Bon Jovi - good times.

Final comments - Ben Harper live is really over rated. Heaps of people left his show, including me. Dr John is kind of past his prime, but his music still rocks ; ) I actually enjoyed some country- oh my goodness!!! - I could handle Emmylou Harris. Actually, I enjoyed her music. Oh, and Earth Wind and Fire still know how to rock and rock and rock and make the crowd rock...

But, if anyone needs inspiration, look up the jazz fest web site www.nojazzfest.com and look at the performers list. Get into some of that!!

Yay, jazz fest. And, that's all I'm going to say about it. Done. Finished. New topic for the blog.

Things I learned from Jazz Fest

Jazz fest for me was awesome because it exposed me to so much music that I had never thought about before. There are so many cool types of music in the world, and it's awesome that I got to see so many. And to think that most of that music came from the Louisiana region!!

It was exciting to hear the different styles, and to see the showmanship of the different artists.

In an earlier entry I had said how gospel music makes sense here. Actually, I think a lot of the music was like that - Eryka Badu's lyrics made sense when I saw her on the stage with the crowd she had, and she shared some of her experiences and pain through her songs and 'in between' talking; Theresa Andersson's music was creative and incorporated beats that had been 'created' in New Orleans; Zydeco music incorporates accordians, harmonicas and crazy metal breastplate things with corroguated type ridges all down the front (they must have a name!) that are used to create rythmical, full, expansive music, and they do it well... that is a bit of creole and cajun (french influence that is quite significant in parts of Louisiana)... It is just of and from the people (and of course with worldwide influcences as well, I'm sure).

Jazz fest has made me think about my own music quite a lot, and the styles that I like. It has really opened my eyes up to a much bigger world of music than I was exposed to, or thought too much about previously... And it's lots of up beat, dancy kind of music that rocks ; )

I can really see that music shaped by your own background, upbringing or experience is the best kind of music you can make. I really value having seen that...

The Jazz Fest

It's been aaages since I have updated my blog. I have been a bit busy catching up with old friends, and doing heaps of stuff, as well as not having much internet access. But I want my blog to be fairly chronological, so even though it's a few weeks back - we're back to the jazz fest...

The jazz fest in New Orleans was fabulous. What a great event - so much music and food and people.. it's a great time!

I hung out in the Gospel tent quite a lot in the first weekend (jazz fest is 7 full days of music, over two weekends). I heard heaps of styles of gospel, from the 'I have a gospel voice and know how to sing and here's me and my band' (like Mavis Staples), to family shows (like the Anointed Sisters), to man groups (like Sherman Washington and the Zion Harmonizers), to a gospel choirs - the whole traditional thing.

My absolute favourite performance from the whole of Jazz Fest was Tyronne Foster and the Arc Singers. What a sound. It was like a great horde and throng of people singing with rich voices, even though there were only about 30 of them. They were excellent and sharp and professional, and had obviously sung together for a long time. I loved it. It was not so much what they sang but how they sang it. Their conductor (Mr Foster) was awesome and entertaining, and had command of the choir so that it could do anything dynamics-wise. Wow. I have tried googling these guys, but they are elusive... if anyone finds anything of his/theirs, please let me know. I would love to share some sound clips of this with you if I could find some on line (nope, didn't record the show myself). For me, this was one of those shows I will never ever forget... one of those musical moments that makes time stop because the music is taking you over.

Second best musical moment was hearing Theresa Andersson play. She is a solo artist who plays violin, guitar, drums, etc. while singing - yep she does. She records herself on stage and loops herself. So she might start of with a wee guitar line, add some drums and then sing for a bit; when she gets to the chorus, she'll record and loop in the main line, then sing a harmony, record that and sing another line over the top, and/or sing and play the violin at the same time. All of this while delivering a convincing show, keeping everything in time, and making some magical music. It was kind of like live composition (except all pre-planned). It was awesome!! I bought one of her CDs and a DVD.... am happy to lend it when I'm home if anyone's interested.

Those were my favourite shows. Another highlight was discovering John Mooney. He is a blues artist... I just happened upon his show in the blues tent. That was superb. I can't remember if I bought his CD yet or not - might have decided to pay NZD for that... Anyways, he's awesome. If you need some blues inspiration, look him up.

One of my favourite times at the jazz fest was when I was trying to find a friend-to-be at the jazz fest. I had been in contact with a friend of a friend of a friend who was going to jazz fest, back when I thought I would be going solo... We had great fun trying to find him for an hour or so waving the New Zealand flag and shouting out his name. We met a lot of people, got in some strangers' photos and generally had a darn good laugh. We didn't find Fred till a wee while later, but sometimes it's all in the trying.

Gluten free food was a bit tricky to find inside the grounds, but the people on the door read my Dr's note and let me bring my own food in. That was cool. I did find Lamb Tagine, and these fabulous boiled Crawfish... yum yum yum. That was a bit of an adventure that also made us a few friends - heroic fullas who wanted to show us how to eat them ; ) Apart from that, the most consumed item were strawberry dacqaries... mmmmmmmmm!!!

I liked the jazz fest a lot!