I wish you could have all come to OffBeat’s Best of The Beat Awards. It was absolutely the best ever, with over 1,500 musicians and music lovers attending our big bash at the House of Blues on January 6th. (See pages 16 and 17 of this month’s issue).

My favorite moment was when Raymond Myles’ sister Joanna came up to accept her brother’s posthumous award and sang her thanks to the Lord and praised her brother. Hallelujah, and bless her heart. I love the Best of The Beat because it gives us a chance to honor local musicians and the people who support our music industry. Musicians get little enough appreciation and we need to let them know that they’re important to us in many different ways. You can show your appreciation by going out to hear live music more often, hiring local musicians and by buying their CDs!!

The Best of The Beat is my chance to see the people I talk to all year over the phone who I haven’t had a chance to visit with, and also to see some really great bands perform. This year, we had Johnny Angel & The Swingin’ Demons, who really went all-out at The Best of The Beat (my mama even loved y’all!!); Kermit Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. (who had some pretty amazing guests in David & Roselyn who just got mentioned in People Magazine this month–and Jo "Cool" Davis), and the simply amazing Walter "Wolfman" Washington and The Roadmasters. And last but certainly not least, Tricia Boutte and The Matt Hampsey Trio were really great. By the way, Dopsie, we apologize for the pix of your papa that got misplaced in the Tipitina’s ad for your OffBeat-sponsored show.

Thanks to Mayor Marc Morial for appearing at the Best of The Beat Music Awards and at The Best of The Beat Music Business Awards that were held at Ralph Brennan’s and Quint Davis’ new Storyville District on Tuesday January 5th.

We’re approached every year by a lot of people who want to come to OffBeat’s Best of The Beat Awards the show is by invitation only. We mail out roughly 3,000 voting ballots, then even more invitations to locals musicians, music businesses and OffBeat writers and advertisers. We’d love to be able to invite the public and maybe we will if we could fit any more people into the House of Blues. Perhaps next year we’ll donate proceeds from the event a charity that supports the music community, we’ll keep you posted.

OffBeat and Tipitina’s, along with sponsors Abita Beer, N.O. Rum, Café Rani and Café Rani, with the production skills of MojoFrame Productions and K Entertainment, will present a fund raiser at Tipitina’s Uptown this month on Saturday February 20th for Tricia "Sista Teedy" Boutte. Tricia, unbeknownst to many in New Orleans, has battled with cancer for many years with courage and spiritual resolve. Tricia is a fantastic musician and singer and is truly a gem in our community’s musical crown. Allen Toussaint, Cyril and Gaynielle Neville, Henry Butler, Iris May Tango, Leroy Jones, Les Getrex, The Zion Harmonizers, and Cool Riddims plus some very special guests will join together that evening to help raise funds to benefit Tricia for future treatments. Please come out this event for Teedy she’s a great talent who needs our support.

Tipitina’s may have ended its affiliation with its "Warehouse" (City Lights) location, but a new, even larger version of the "Big Room" is due to be unveiled in the Warehouse District in the upcoming months to take advantage of the downtown location and proximity to the convention center. The new site is across from the Praline Connection at South Peters and Diamond Streets. Look for some major announcements of upcoming shows at the new location, and expansion of shows Uptown and in the French Quarter.

OffBeat must be a great magazine writers who’ve have gotten their first writing assignments in New Orleans and have been steady contributors to OffBeat over the years have moved on to pursue their writing careers: Keith Spera our former editor who came to us fresh out of Texas A&M, is now the music critic for the Times-Picayune, and Michael Tisserand, who wrote his first music pieces in New Orleans for OffBeat and who contributed to us many times over the years, moved on to write the first-ever book on zydeco music, and is now GambitWeekly editor (see our old staff picture, circa 1992).

OffBeat is proud to provide some of the best music writing in the country about the best musicians in the world, and we love to give good writers to the chance to grow and be recognized. So it’s with sadness, mixed with a "mother’s" delight at seeing one of her children leave the nest, that I say goodbye to Scott Jordan, who as an intern started his career in New Orleans with OffBeat some five years ago, when we were still located in the old Maison Blanche Building on Canal Street. Scott is leaving OffBeat to pursue more varied writing assignments at another local publication: "I really want to be able to write about more things than just music," he told me. "I’d like to write hard news stories, stories about the Saints and sports, different types of writing." We’re sorry to lose Scott but know that he’ll succeed in whatever writing endeavors he pursues. We wish him the best.