JazzFest

The 1st of May saw us at the New Orleans Jazz Festival... Opened at the Fais Do Do (Cajun dance party) stage with The Creole Zydeco Farmers... You can see a film of them right here



...don't know if it does anything for you but it got us up and dancing.

Next we saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops; a group of young black musicians who play Bluegrass music (guitar, harmonica, jug and lots of banjos)... A form which is associated with the poor, white, Celtic immigrants in Appalachia, and has at times seemed to be the music of the racist south. But the Chocolate Drops are evangelical in their desire to explain that in the nineteenth century this music was played and enjoyed by all... Their 50 minutes saw them move from academic oddity to the breakthrough hit of the festival, standing ovation from a packed Blues Tent.

We finished with native son Randy Newman who spent 90 minutes reminding us that the American people are not well represented by this administration... Wise, self-deprecating, funny and packed with irony.