infrogmation: (Default)
2006-01-07 03:19 pm

January

At a New Years Day party I was again struck at the wealth of interesting stories around town last year's events gave rise to. Major projects of recording New Orleanians' stories could produce some amazing oral history.

More frivilously, at the same party I was playing around with one of my friend's collection of old junk instruments, a slide trumpet. Uh, now I sorta want one. After a couple minutes (after I usually stopped trying to extend the tiny slide out so far that it slipped off) I could noodle some simple blues on it. I'm also enjoying messing around with the baritone horn I picked up in Austin, though I have no idea yet what I'm doing with it (my only brass instrument experience being with the slide trombone).

Students are starting to come back to town. A neighbor grad student who I was never able to contact after evacuating knocked on my door the other day. The great crepe place a short walk from here reopened.

Neighbor up the street still doesn't have the key for the FEMA trailer that's been in his front yard for 5 weeks.

Also, King cake season has arrived. Yay!
infrogmation: (Default)
2004-10-12 11:00 am

Old School

Sunday the WWOZ party was a Chez Voudoun on Rampart Street, a fairly new club with an interesting rich Voodoo and Buddhist decor. I don't think I've ever seen a really upscale Voodoo temple before.

I had even more fun, however, at the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra dance at Cafe Brasil. It's always a kick when the band plays tunes that are a cakewalk or one-step, and some of the crowd actually knows how to do those vintage dances (and the rest of us just have fun dancing).

A scholarly aquaintance mentioned she's started playing a 1915 vintage Albert-system clarinet, and we came up with the idea of starting a jazz "period music ensemble" using original instruments pre-1930. Hey, it seems to work in the Baroque music world. Forget about the conflicts between musicians who want to play more modern stuff in trad, go retro all the way. Hmmm. Suddenly I feel my 1925 silver Conn trombone is just barely sufficiently aged.