Skip to main content

NEW ORLEANS NIGHTS with ALLEN TOUSSAINT - November, 2010

In the interest of full disclosure, be it known that my wife Cathey's mother's family were natives of New Orleans, that Cathey was born in New Orleans, and that I have visited the Crescent City on multiple occasions since the early 1970s. So while I'm a Yankee through and through, I have great appreciation for the music and the culture of that fair city. That's why Cathey and I were so excited when we learned that the Zoellner Center for the Performing Arts in Bethlehem announced 'New Orleans Nights with Allen Toussaint'. We immediately bought a pair of tickets.

I am obliged to say that the show was a disappointment.

Toussaint didn't arrive on stage until after the intermission. The Joe Krown Trio began the show - from New Orleans, true, but with a Hammond B-3 as the centerpiece, never a true New Orleans jazz instrument. It's also true that Wolfman Washington is a dynamite guitar player. But the blues tunes on which he was featured were just that, blues tunes that had no particular New Orleans flavor to them.

After three or four numbers, trumpeter Nicholas Payton joined the band. The three or four tunes that he fronted were straight ahead jazz, again without particular New Orleans flavor.

Allen Toussaint's set was about half and half. The tunes that came from the heart of New Orleans were spell-binding, including a lengthy bit of solo noodling on the piano and a touchingly sentimental duet with Payton.

Don't get me wrong, to the uninitiated the show was an unmitigated success. But it was not a show that presented the music of New Orleans. As Cathey put it, "It was a show for Yankees." And while the Yankees in attendance seemed perfectly satisfied, THIS Yankee felt it necessary to point out its deficiencies.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats.  So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up?  It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

CONGRATULATIONS, DUNCAN AND FIONA: JUNE 1, 2019

We've known Duncan since he was about 5 and were honored to be invited to all of the festivities surrounding his wedding to Fiona. The wedding was held in a magazine converted to a military museum in Gosport. Duncan's dream...a wedding in a place where they used to blow things up. I've never been around so many uniforms. Live Long and Prosper! A kiss was the price to continue... That's Duncan's sister Clair arriving on the right. Grandparents...headed for 100 and sharp as tacks. Reception in an old magazine/museum. Mom baked the cake and made the ducks to order. Not from the wedding but seemed appropriate.

2004 BURGMAN 400 SPARK PLUG CHANGE

No, there won't be a video. Changing the spark plug was a relatively simple operation except for the fact that it was the first time that I took off any of my plastics. If you want a video tutorial, they're all over YouTube. I watched one before I got started AND I took my laptop into the garage and punched up the service manual. You can't be too prepared. And being prepared meant knowing that the fasteners holding the plastics together are likely to break when you mess with them. That's why I went to a dealer and picked up six before I started. Worked out well. Four broke. While I was buying parts, I made certain that I had all that I needed for my next oil change. And of course, I bought the plug, an NGK CR7E. The manual says to replace the plug every 7,500 miles. It's been a bit over 6,500. Close enough. My intention is to change the plug at every other oil change. The object of the exercise is to remove the left side leg shield to get at the spark plug. So,