I've had some informative and heartfelt email correspondence about the plight of New Orleans with Christine Ohlman, who blew us away at the Meriden Daffodil Festival with her band Rebel Montez. She attended this year's Mardi Gras and kept a journal that was the cover story in the New Haven Advocate - read article here.
Article covering this past weekend at Jazzfest in today's NY Times (here) covering Springsteen's appearance, but also noting, rightfully so, that...
| the heart of the festival wasn't in the visiting stars: not in Mr. Springsteen's set, or in having the Edge, U2's guitarist, jamming with the Dave Matthews Band, as he did on Saturday. Jazzfest's essence was in the gathering of a 50-woman choir from the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, which sustained $9 million in damage and now holds services for part of its congregation in Houston, part in Baton Rouge and part in New Orleans. Some choir members had not seen one another since the hurricane. They, and other performers at the festival, kept saying, "It's like a reunion." The Mahogany Brass Band was playing for its first time since the storm, and it was the first time all its members — dispersed as far as Phoenix and San Francisco — had seen one another. He started a strikingly emotional "St. James Infirmary" alone as a tearful solo trumpet dirge; when he sang the lyrics, about seeing a lover's dead body, he interjected, "My baby's New Orleans!" |
Amen.
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