New Orleans Wrap up (Updated 4/14) and on to Cajun Country

The Tulane Campus was very pretty and full of amazing trees

Our last few days in New Orleans included a trip to the Voodoo Museum and a visit to the Jazz Archives at Tulane including a lengthy discussion with Bruce Raeburn, the director of the Archives.

The day after Mardi Gras we collected our wits, ran a few errands and in the evening we met with Skip Henderson. Skip is very involved in trying to save the cemetaries that are connected to Black churches throughout Mississippi. In some instances these churches are no longer there having been burned down or abandoned. Skip has also been very involved with the installation of headstones for some of the legendary blues men buried in these cemetaries Unfortunately he also had a bad experience trying to turn the Clarksdale train station into a blues cultural center 10 or 15 years ago and has a very hostile attitude toward the current Clarksdale scene which we soon learned is indeed a mixed bag. Skip was so hostile about Clarksdale that he told us not to even go there, even after I explained that I was interested in the commodification of the blues as much as the real thing. It was a kick to chat with him none the less

On Thursday we played around and went to the Voodoo museum which was quite a trip. In the evening we went to a great French Quarter restaurant and finished up with yet another set of jazz at our new favorite hang the Palm Court where I had the pleasure of chatting with Herman LeBeaux, Alan Tousaint’s drummer.

I have been quizzing all of the musicians I met at the Palm Court about the preservation of New Orleans traditional jazz and whether the younger players were learning the idiom. Herman was convinced that very little was really being past on . He found it ironic that everyone comes to New Orleans for the rich jazz and music culture and history and yet the powers that be don’t seem to get the importance of maintaining and perpetuating the culture. Herman said “ I travel the world and everyone wants to come here and knows about the music and yet the education system could care less about the music or teaching it!!” Traditional jazz is not being transmitted to the next generation. There is a more contemporary scene going on at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts where the Marsalis family is in major leadership positions, but by and large the traditions are ignored and only those who are super passionate about the scene and committed to their music are really working to maintain it.

On Friday, I got a call from Ray saying that he had hooked me up to meet with Bruce Rayburn director of the Tulane Jazz Archives. Bruce proved to be very accessible and we sat down and chatted about the roots of New Orleans Jazz for an hour. I have studied quite a bit about the roots of New Orleans jazz and wondered if he agreed with my interpretation of the story and indeed he did was some subtlties that I had not considered. The classic story that Creoles of color taught darker skinned blacks how to read music and that the ear players taught the creoles how to play hot is way oversimplified although there is some truth to the story as well. The archives is in the process of digitizing all of their information which includes hundreds of hours of interviews from the early 20th century that soon will be available by topic. This will make it possible to research virtually any subject covered in these invaluable first person interviews.

Friday night had another great night at the Palm Court listening to one of New Orleans finest trumpeters Wendell Brunius

On Saturday we finally headed out and backtracked to Cajun Country. We headed to Lake Fosse Pt State Park for a real Louisiana Bayou/ Swamp experience. Ray got a few recommendations of clubs for us to attend and we were off. Our good fortune continued on this new leg of our journey. The park was fantastic and proved to be an excellent base camp.

The "bead tree" in the middle of campus

The Grand Zombie 

and now you know the rest of the story . . . .

Close up of the Grand Zombie 

The Voodoo Museum was a bit chaotic but actually chock full of very serious information about the African cultural roots of voodoo and was definitely worth the visit. New Orleans is such a rich cultural environment that we were only able to scratch the surface but that is what travelers do. Now on to our next adventure. . . .