DISAPPOINTED WITH NOLA
Your [Jan Ramsey] Mojo Mouth “Reviving Music in the Quarter” in the March issue was interesting because the problem hit me, too. I am Fritz Neidlinger, a trained musician from Heidelberg, Germany and for 30 years a program assistant at a German radio station. I’m retired since 2005.
Jazz (especially Dixieland and swing) was and is my vocation/hobby, and that’s why I’ve come to New Orleans since 1998 for two weeks every year—playing tenor sax, sitting in with Tom Fischer, Tim Laughlin, Chuck Brackman, Dwayne Burns, Linnzi Zaorski, the Vipers, the Dukes of Dixieland and others.
The problem in New Orleans is worldwide. It happens in my hometown Heidelberg, in Berlin, in Munich, I think, everywhere. The authorities should be more involved, and at the moment, I am very disappointed with NOLA’s authorities.
Playing at Maison Bourbon is very hard because the club opposite (Krazy Korner) and the club next door play their music so loud to the street, that the audience in Maison Bourbon sitting next door hear more from outside instead the music onstage.
—Fritz Neidlinger, Heidelberg, Germany
MARVA’S HEALING VOICE
I hope that everyone in New Orleans—even younger ones interested in more “progressive” genres than blues and gospel—realize how much the city owes Marva Wright. My first Jazz Fest in 1990 opened my eyes to so much wonderful music, but it was Marva that was the biggest draw for many years. She helped spark a love for this city that led me to spend at least 160 days of vacation time in New Orleans over the next 20 years. Whenever I came, I went to see her if she was playing, but I also went to see a lot of other musicians live, bought a lot of CDs, ate lots of wonderful food and spent a lot of dollars in hotels. I love the whole city, but it was the music—beginning with Marva’s—that kept me coming back.
I hope the politicians and developers that don’t accept that the music of all kinds is what fuels most of the repeat-visit tourism see this letter. I saw a man’s cap at Jazz Fest early in the’90s that said, “The blues healed me.” Marva’s voice and music healed me. I like to think of her today as strutting around in her best Glitter-Queen clothes and most intricate weave singing “Walk Around Heaven.” God bless her for all of the joy she brought to so many people.
—Markeeta Brown, Dallas, TX
OUR BELOVED HOME
I usually don’t reply to negative comments about my husband [Letters, February 2010]. Cyril was never angry at his beloved city where he was born and raised for the last 58 years, but the politics that even a blind person can see have been the main discrepancy of this city. If you don’t live here, you don’t know. There was a malfunction in the way things were handled during and after Katrina where Cyril, I and a mass of people were angry. Maybe he spoke out of anger, but he has never talked ill of New Orleans as a city but the ills that the city has. I am sure you have some issues with the city that you live in; no city is perfect.
New Orleans is and always will be our beloved home and city. We represent New Orleans everywhere we go. So if you never saw Cyril speak first hand about the city, maybe you should get your facts straight.
No one should be in denial about the wrongs of their city; it doesn’t mean we don’t love our city.
We didn’t leave on our own. We were forced out like everyone else, including being ripped off by contractors and everything possible you could imagine. I don’t care what people say about our family, I just refuse to allow people to say erroneous information.
—Gaynielle Neville, Austin, Texas
