neworleans: January 2009 Archives

(I'm sure I'll steal from myself below in a future print piece, but I wanted to say this today):

On New Orleans, jazz culture, and a renewed America...

When trombonist Glen David Andrews sang "I'll Fly Away" during a memorial procession to honor tuba player Kerwin James in late 2007, on North Robertson Street in New Orleans's Tremé neighborhood, he ended up in handcuffs along with his brother, snare drummer Derrick Tabb. The charges, eventually dropped, included parading without a permit and "disturbing the peace in tumultuous manner," and the incident fit part of a larger pattern of intimidation and stepped-up regulation of time-honored black street-culture traditions in that city since Katrina.

Andrews offered up that same hymn near the end of Spike Lee's 2006 documentary "When the Levees Broke," changing up the final verse to state, "New Orleans will never go away." "A declaration," he called it, in a moment of existential doubt for an entire city.

The annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) holds their annual convention in New York this week. Fittingly, some of the best of New Orleans talent is being showcased -- an opportunity for industry professionals to get hooked and music lovers to get their fix.