IN OUR MIDST
Congratulations again and again for being such a fine publication and right here in our midst.
—Allen Toussaint, New Orleans, LA
HONESTLY
I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the wonderful, honest gentleman at the GREAT Louisiana Music Factory who retrieved my purse, which, in haste (and after a few drinks at the Napoleon House!), I left behind in the restroom. After racing back to the store in a panic, I discovered it hanging safely behind the counter with ALL contents intact! I could have found myself in major dire straits had he not been so honest. This was during the second week of Jazz Fest, there were so many people in the store, I was very lucky he was the next person after me in the restroom. What an incredible city New Orleans is, so many good, honest and helpful people there. I love the Louisiana Music Factory. We never go home without making numerous trips there. Love the in-store performances and inevitably always load up on too many CDs! Many, many thanks to this honest man. I foolishly neglected to get his name, I hope somehow he reads this. I can’t wait to go back to New Orleans!
—Meredith Murray, San Marcos, TX
PICTURE THIS
My friend and I were the two ladies featured in the article entitled “Jazz Fest 2004 Redux.” We were the chicks holding our guitars with the saxophone hats in the color photo by Earl Perry at the beginning of the article on page 35 of the June 2004 magazine. We are so EXCITED to have our picture and wanted to see if there was any way to get two photos so we could frame them. We have attended the festival for the last 25 years NONSTOP! We always wear a crazy hat and we are from Texas. Many Thanks!
—Therese Kosary, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
MODERN PERRILLIAT
In Geraldine Wyckoff’s last “Jazzin’” column, she writes: “If it were not for that happening, a lot of cats would be like Buddy Bolden,’ suggests Battiste of what he fondly describes as his little label. For instance, the only recordings of the late saxophonist Nat Perrilliat blowing modern—his first love—rather than rhythm and blues exist on AFO.”
However, I own a CD reissue of the Nat Adderley Sextet’s In The Bag album from 1962, recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s studio and originally released, I believe, on Riverside Records. The cover reads, “In The Bag: Nat Adderley Sextet with Cannonball Adderley, Sam Jones, recorded in New Orleans, and introducing three down-home new stars from New Orleans: Nat Perrilliat, James Black and Ellis Marsalis.”
It’s all modern jazz, except for the last two bonus-track tunes, which are a tacked-on single, “The Popeye,” b/w “The Gospel Truth,” featuring Harold Battiste on piano (!), both songs being very reminiscent of the Eddie Bo/Huey Smith “Popeye” tunes of the day, but more modern.
Unless these tracks appeared on AFO Records in some form, I don’t think one can say that the only instances of Nat Perrilliat’s modern-jazz blowing exist on AFO alone: Because he’s featured on this modern-jazz CD.
—Patrick Davis, New Orleans, LA
THE CONTENTS OF OUR SOUL
C’mon, let’s be honest. Any woman who constantly talks about her supposed physical attributes is trying to get attention. I’m all for nudity, but not silly packaging. If someone wants to be seen naked… just do it. Don’t pose with a silly teenage pout and a coy hand over boob… and a contradictory claim that you don’t want to be known for your “great” legs! It seems to be a marketing ploy or an identity crisis.
Remember, every one’s opinion is different. No matter what statements and image you put out, some will see you as attractive, others won’t. What is actually lastingly important and attractive is the contents of our soul.
—John Hartman, New Orleans, LA
WHERE IT IS?
I have received your magazine for a number of years, and live about 100 miles from New Orleans in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Recently when flying into MSY [Louis Armstrong International Airport] on a Thursday night I saw that ReBirth Brass Band was playing at Le Citron, according to your club listings just about every Thursday night. But no one knows where it is! It’s not listed in your club directory either in the magazine or on line, nor is it in the phone book. What gives? Is it out of town? If so, where?
—Lawrence Leake, Ocean Springs, MS
Le Citron, “New Orleans’ latest upscale night spot,” is located at the corner of Religious and Orange Street, 1539 Religious Street, to be exact.—Ed.
THE FUTURE OF FRENCHMEN
While I am not a resident of the area or even Louisiana, I was glad to hear that there is an effort to keep the music scene alive on Frenchmen Street. During my last visit to New Orleans my wife and I discovered a bar that quickly became our favorite place in town for music, the Spotted Cat. We also discovered two bands that now I can only enjoy on CD: the New Orleans Jazz Vipers and Linnzi Zoarski. The Spotted Cat was the go-to bar for good drinks and great live music. While there we also frequented many other area establishments such as Café Negril and saw Nicholas Payton at Snug Harbor.
Frenchmen Street was the highlight of our stay and hope that it will be again in the future. To lose small music venues like the Spotted Cat and others would be tragic. While Snug Harbor may be a great place to see a show, the rest of the area will make you want to spend the entire evening.
—Craig Fitzgerald, Akron, OH
FREEDMAN RESPONDS; WON’T RESIGN
It is the belief of the management of WWOZ that any and all of us who care about the music and culture which make our city so special, should and must do whatever we can to sustain and nourish that culture. As we look around us, we see more franchises and parking lots where once the unique life of this city thrived. The same is happening in broadcasting. While our colorful print media expands—there are at least six serious publications dedicated to our local music and entertainment scene, the opposite is happening in radio. New Orleans used to be a great radio town—we can rattle off the names of Groovy Gus, Poppa Stoppa, Dr. Daddy-O, Jack the Cat, Larry McKinley, Henry Dupre, Nut and Jeff, and on and on. These personalities could march to their own drummer because they were on locally-owned “mom-and-pop” radio stations. Unlike the print media, there can only be so many radio stations because there are only so many spots on the dial between 88 MHz to 106 MHz. And only a handful of those stations can be very powerful—50,000 watts or more. So, when Federal “deregulation” allowed one company to acquire the licenses of over 1,200 radio stations in America, including many of the most powerful signals here in New Orleans, this city lost many of its most unique voices. The truth is, just like many shops and food outlets, a lot of radio in New Orleans just isn’t local anymore.
WWOZ is dedicated to resisting this trend by continuing the tradition of being the independent, local voice of our unique culture. Not the cookie cutter, but the hand rolled. Not the eight-item menu, but pages and pages of exotic fare, much of it brewed up right here in the Crescent City. It is for that reason that we are proud of our 75+ volunteer show hosts, each of whom brings their own unique flavor to the presentation of the music. Each one of them is a root into this community. It is for this reason that WWOZ does not have playlists. Whatever you hear on WWOZ comes from the heart and the passion of our aficionado-show hosts played for our aficionado-listeners.
All of us, WWOZ, OffBeat and all the other music-related businesses that really care about this city and its very special blessings, all of us are in this together. We agree with OffBeat. This is not about the money. This is not about squabbling with each other while the city becomes more and more homogenized, stripped of its uniqueness and recreated in the image of Anywhere, USA. We welcome OffBeat’s expression of friendship and support for WWOZ and, as stated in a recent meeting with its publisher, we have a great admiration for the work and dedication with which OffBeat has supported the local music scene. We believe that we all have a responsibility to everything that is great about living in New Orleans, and, for that reason all of us who care about what is special about New Orleans have a responsibility to each other.
As many of your readers know, WWOZ operates through the contributions of its listeners and through grants. For the past 11 years, we have received an operational grant of $100,000 from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, this year, Jazz Fest (and the Foundation) lost money for the first time in 35 years, and for the first time since 1984 we did not receive a grant from the Foundation. We have had to make cutbacks, and, in fact, will have to borrow money to stay on the air until the Fall Fund Drive. We look forward to the day when we can again afford to publish a newsletter in OffBeat. Until that time, we hope that you will accept our appreciation for all that you have contributed to the music scene: A monthly publication burgeoning with information and reviews, the mother of all Jazz Fest issues, the yearly Musicians’ Directory, the Best Of The Beat awards and the political forums and musician workshops to name a few of OffBeat’s outstanding contributions. You have a lot to be proud of. We wish you well.
—David Freedman, WWOZ, New Orleans, LA
While we welcome David Freedman’s conciliatory response, we maintain that WWOZ and its current management are not inseparable. The music community in New Orleans and Louisiana should work together forming alliances that benefit the community. Our 11-year alliance with WWOZ was severed without any notice whatsoever, without any consideration of how OffBeat could help WWOZ in its time of reduced financial support from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation and without any consideration of the impact to the music community. After three months and repeated requests to discuss the situation, the management of WWOZ met with OffBeat only to declare OffBeat “not a friend to WWOZ.” David Freedman has not only behaved in a very unprofessional manner, but he has done a disservice to the entire music community.—Ed
