brass and tourists
Allright, so enough of this politics-wonk stuff about the coming election. Those of us who’ve had the luxury have been thinking more about music for the past two weeks anyway.
Jazz Fest ended on Sunday. I had forgotten why I don’t go to big concerts- because they are overpriced, though $45 per day is not as expensive as usual in the era of the Ticketmaster monopoly, but more because they attract an aging frat boy demographic, in this case hundreds of thousands of them. It’s depressing to look around you at the sea of folding canvas chairs, straw hats and t-shirts emblazoned with lame statements (my personal favorite was Homer Simpson inside a deadhead symbol- an admittance of the owner’s lack of creativity and intellect, or a statement about American cultural decline?) and to realize that these are the people who drive the New Orleans economy- whether at Jazz Fest or on Bourbon and Decatur streets. I know, this is our hustle, one that the whole city is in on- but having to deal with these fools must bring even the girls at Hustler Club down at times.
And the beer selection- since Miller was one of the main sponsors, you had to walk half a mile to get anything but Miller Lite at the one hidden but widely-used tap that had Pilsner Urquell, unadvertised of course. And I thought waiting in lines to get one standard, low quality product was something from the former Soviet Union.
Regardless, the music… Irma Thomas belting it out made the hairs on the back on my neck stand up. I have to admit that I often enjoy listening to recorded music more than the imperfections of live performances, especially ones this large, but Irma was tight.
As usual what was much better was the late night shows at the clubs. Fema Kuti was at One-Eyed Jacks, and Kermit Ruffins played at Blue Nile- both sharp performances, both on top of their game, but the highest praise I have to reserve for the Soul Rebels Brass Band who played at Café Brazil. There isn’t really a local band that I’ve gotten excited about since I first saw the Morning 40 Federation three years ago, and they’ve gotten boring. But the Soul Rebels one of those rare bands that pushes limits artistically and succeeds. The blending in of hip-hop, the contemporary New Orleans music into brass band, the old-school New Orleans music, is so natural as to seem obvious in afterthought and is done with grace and intelligence. And there is still something in there that I have to categorize as soul- at times the meter is slow enough and the horn section drops into moody melodies.
I don’t know what will happen with these guys, or if this will evolve into a style. It would be interested to see if anyone else can pull it off like they do.