Tuesday April 19th, 2005

Clarence Gatemouth Brown

Another shot of Gate at his home in Slidell, casually attired in Spongebob attire, and smokin' his trusty pipe, and I ain't saying what was in it. No one cares about that anyway.

New Orleans is truly the most magnificent place on earth, and I still fall on my knees from time to time to thank the Lord, whether it be he or she, for delivering me here.

Gate's health is declining and this will probably be your last chance to see him this Jazz Fest. He needs your support some come on and check him out.

Friday April 15th, 2005

Tambourine man Brison Colbert parading in front of the Backstreet Cultural Museum in the Treme

Sylvester Francis of the Backstreet Cultural Museum was honored yesterday. It was a great tribute which included the Treme Brass Band, Scott Aiges from the Mayor's Office, Big Chief Victor Harris from Fi-yi-yi, Big Chief Kevin from the Flaming Arrows. Pat Jolly, James Andrews and Karen Gant, Jacques Morial, Sydney Byrd, Mimsie, and hundreds of others attended.

Sylvester has spent his whole life as a photographer and videographer, collecting and maintaining suits, photographs, and memorobilia documenting the life in New Orleans. His work culminated in the creation of the Backstreet Museum .which is a center for information about the culture, especially distributing the invaluable route sheets for the Second Lines!

The party culiminated in a hourlong Indian jam with the boisterous drumming and tambourine playing working the lobby of the chic International House into a frenzy. With free Louisiana Rum on hand the fire was well-fueled.

Thursday April 14th, 2005

The Big 9 parade at Jazz Fest 2004

The Big 9 from the Ninth Ward will be parading on the first Saturday of Jazz Fest. Big Chief Edgar Jacobs (left) was inducted into the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame this year.

Wednesday April 13th, 2005

One of the bad things about digitial photographer is that we photographers have way to much ability to alter our photos. One of the good things about digital photography is that I was able to remove the Acura logo from the top of the Professor Longhair stage! Now if we could just prevent those annoying Tropical Isle banner flag airplanes from buzzing around the Fair Grounds as easily!

Tuesday April 12th, 2005

Its hard to believe but Jazz Fest 2005 is next week. For the next week I am going to be posting images from Jazz Fest 2004, like this one from the mist tent. Eventually I will get a "press pass" and photograph the performers, but for now I prefer to concentrate on the spirit and the atmosphere of the Fest, which is what makes it so special and different than all of the other festivals.

Saturday April 9th, 2005

First day of the French Quarter Festival yesterday! Coco Robicheaux was on the Coors Light stage sponsored by DBA (does DBA even serve Coors, hopefully not) with a great band including Dave Easley on steel pedal guitar, who has to be one of the best guitar players (if not musicians flatout) in the Big Easy.

Coco looked unusually pale, even considering his usual countenance outside the Apple Barrel, and mentioned something about "not to be surprised if (we) saw any UFO's," which made sense seeing that there was an solar eclipse later that afternoon.

Coco said his CD "Spiritland" had gone out of print between mumbling about "black cat bone" and Marie Laveaux and looking roughly in the direction of the North Shore.

I am off to pay a few bills in Bossier City, La. but will be back down by the river tommorow.

Friday April 8, 2005

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown on his front porch

Gatemouth Brown is playing at at Layfayette Square on Wednesday. Here is a shot of Clarence I took on his porch at Slidell, before he transformed himself into "Gate," for a potrait that appeared in Offbeat. More later....

Thursday April 7th, 2005

This is another image from the vault, a picture I took a few years ago of Henry Schmidt and Helen Ault at the annual Mother's Day New Leviathan Orchestra concert in the French Quarter, a world so removed from the one of the Treme street where Joe Williams was shot down, its hard to believe that all three had something in common: a love for the music. Jazz has a way of bringing people together, of bridging cultural differences and unifying people. In a few weeks more than a hundred thousand of us will get together to celebrate the music at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I won't forget Joe Williams, or Daniel Breaux, the Cajun dancer who was murdered on Ursulines Street near the Jazz Fest last year, both victims of the violence that pervades our society.

Wednesday April 6, 2005

Candles for Joe

I pulled this picture out of the vault, a picture of candles burning down into the Treme street where Joe Williams was shot down, with his hands stretched in front of him to surrender, as he was getting out of a truck he supposedly stole to drive to a Hot 8 gig. Violence is a way of life here, and the reality is if you run from the police you might get shot. This may seem incomprehensible elsewhere, but this is New Orleans and different reality.

Joe Williams was a talented musician, from the Lastie family, and we burned candles for him for weeks, but in the end it was a wasted life, ended in a hail of bullets on a hot summer day in the Big Easy. Whether drugs were involved or not is irrelevant. He was getting ready to surrender and he was killed.

A few days later a young police woman would be shot dead trying to commit a troubled man who happened to be armed to the teeth. There was a benefit for her, and I attended, and we raised our spirits and some money for he family. Two deaths, two wasted lives, one shot over a truck, another trying to help a deranged man, one a cop the other a talented musician, both much loved, both missed.

It rained today, and it is cool, but summer is marching towards us, and the heat and the desperation will rise, with the tempers of those who maybe can't afford ac, or even a fan. The days are getting longer; the killing season is coming.

Sunday April 3, 2005

Super Sunday: Uptown Rulers
The Mardi Gras Indian gangs hit the street today for the annual uptown Super Sunday gathering. Under a very bright sun, and with only a faint breeze, the Indians paraded under the old oak trees on Washington Avenue down to the Calliope and back around to Shakespeare Park. The Wild Magnolias led the line with Queen and Mrs. Bo Dollis Sr. dressed out in a bright red suit and an even brighter smile.


The Queen of the Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians

Notably in attendance were the West Bank Mohawk Hunters, Wild Tschoups, Creole Wild West with bluesman J Monque D, and many others. Big Chief of the Jazzfest Quint Davis himself joined in the festivities in front of the Magnolia Street projects, chanting and dancing with one of the gangs.

After the troubles on St. Josephs Night, when the police ran the gangs off the street and locked down the park, the spirits of the Indians were both upbeat and defiant. Despite the efforts of the business community to usurp the images of the gangs as a PR tool, the very real significance of the Indians in the 'hood remains, and by the number of children dressed out feathers, will continue on long into the future.

The Queen of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians

Saturday April 2, 2005

The VIP SA&PC

Saturday was the Freret Street Festival uptown. It was a beautiful day in New Orleans, cool, with just enough sun to make you feel nice and warm. The street was lined with stands selling all kinds of crawfish dishes, barbeque chicken, tacos and all kinds of other good things. In the crowd I spotted Monk Boudreax, Geetchie from the Wild Magnolia, and James "Smoke that Fiya" Andrews. The music was on too, as Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth, The Batiste Brothers and Walter Wolfman Washington took turns getting on their the groove from stages that faced each other on opposite ends of Freret. The Batiste Brothers rendition of Purple Rain had the crowd swaying to the chorus, under a darkening Louisiana sky. If God loves music, and I am sure he or she does, God must have looked down and smiled at tiny Freret street, in the middle of the 'hood, cause the music was celestial.

The ladies must have been looking too, at the same fashion magazine though, as everywhere I looked was another pretty lady dressed in pink and green, or some shade of the two. It was a running joke between me and my running partner Trey, second liner and movie man, as we puffed away by the stage. The trend was set by the VIP Social Aid and Pleasure club two weeks ago when they paraded uptown in fluorescent magenta and green outfits.

Also in force is the New York look so popular in New Orleans. Maybe its the new-yawkish accent of the folks from Araby, or just that that Brooklyn and New Orleans people are entirely hip, whether they be Irish, Italian or African-American but rarely do I see an Lakers cap round these parts, not in Mid-City or in the Ninth, (although I guess that Tupac T might be a west coast thing.) Peace out.

Friday April 1, 2005

In New Orleans even the houses are named after guns. This is a view out the window of the house that I live in, which isn't a shotgun, but in which I awoke one morning to see these cotton balls of clouds out of my window. I grabbed the camera, made some images, and went back to sleep. Sometimes I wonder how a place so beautiful can be so brutal. But New Orleans is.

Thursday March 31, 2005

I took the photo when I was driving around the Quarter with my brah Carlo Ditta, I was snapping images out the window and he was driving in circles, also kinda driving me crazy as he was in one of those difficult periods that folks often have to endure. Its blue New Orleans and its edgy too, and it conjures up a stalker for me, like a still from a Hitchcock flick. Later.....

Wednesday March 30th, 2005

I poked my head out the window this evening after a day surfing the web. The clouds were tipped with red, like the end of a feather on an indian suit. I grabbed my camera and leaned out the window, and snapped off a few frames, or files, I suppose. For me photography is an intuitive process. I can't define a good photograph, and I rarely can compose one intentionally, but I know a good image when I see one, so I try to create as many possibilities and find the best image later.