Retroactivity
Please see my subscription request form included with this fax for two years first class.
Would it be possible for my two-year subscription to begin retroactively with the October 1998 issue, which I am guessing was the “Part One of the 100 Essential Louisiana CDs” series?
I attended the Jazz and Heritage festival this year where I picked up your May issue and was fascinated with the “100 CDs” series. Now my problem is, how can I read about these 100 from Part 1 though Part 7?
Please let me know how we can do this. Thanks for your help and I love your publication.
Dean R. Lashbrook, Cooper City, FL
Retroactive subscriptions are possible. The complete Essential 100 Louisiana CDs will be published alphabetically in a booklet and offered as a subscription premium for our new and renewing first-class subscribers. Ed.
Lost And Found
I would like to say how much I loved my trip to New Orleans last November. It was truly an experience for me. When I saw that mighty Mississippi for the first time in my life, I cried, yea I did, I felt like I was home. I have never been down south at all, New Orleans has always been part of me, will always be. I love it.
Another thing-I stayed in the Quarters on Burgundy right in the hood; I didn’t get lost, didn’t know a soul, had a good time. Looking forward to coming back. See ya.
Jennifer A. Porter, Berkeley, CA
Congratulations! We’ve lived here our entire life and still get lost in the “Quarters.” Of course, the cocktails don’t help! Ed.
The Greatest
Time to renew; attached is my check for $35 and a copy of current mailing label. OffBeat is the greatest magazine in the world, so keep it coming! Also, please don’t forget to send me an OffBeat Festival ’99 CD when they’re ready. Thanks!
John Kinsock, Los Angeles, CA
Mr. Lee. R.I.P.
I was recently in New Orleans for the Jazz Festival and obtained a copy of your magazine. Could you reply to me as to the cost of subscription and postage (ordinary mail) of the OffBeat Magazine? Did you ever do a story on Lee Allen? (Fats Domino sax man) I know he passed away several years back but I can’t obtain any information on the man. Waiting your reply.
Jimmy Taylor, Sydney, Australia
Subscriptions to OffBeat are available for $40, one year, $71, two years (foreign surface mail) or $73, one year, $125, two years (foreign airmail). All foreign airmail subscriptions also receive the OffBeat Festival CD. The CD is a compilation of artists that appeared at Jazz Fest. A new and different CD is included each year as a premium for the foreign airmail subscribers and domestic first class subscribers.
OffBeat’s November 1994 issue contains two stories about Lee Allen, who died October 18, 1994. John Sinclair wrote a profile of Allen’s career and Derek Huston, saxophonist for the Iguanas, contributed a personal remembrance. Copies of this issue are available for $5. All can be ordered through the OffBeat website, www.offbeat.comEd.
Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
Thanks for mentioning our Jazz Fest set and for the nice things you said. But, as far as Henry Gray’s set goes, Mr. Gray wanted to open the show, do 15 to 20 minutes and go, as he had another gig at 6pm in Baton Rouge. I agree that he should have had his own set, but why put down the “Lil’ Pats of Butter” because of it? Those little girls sang their little asses off and you damn well know it! They were loved by the crowd, which included lots of kids, I might add! Have you ever heard of the Kids Tent, or Children’s Village?
J. Monque’D
I would like to further state that Mr. Henry Gray was not even booked on Jazz Fest this year, until I called the office and literally begged for him to be put on my show! They would only pay $200 for him and he had to drive round-trip from Scotlandville (200 miles or so) to get that. He was rightfully angry and upset and would only play for 15 or 20 minutes at the beginning! That’s not my fault! So, why make bad comments about the kids? Or that remark about “in hindsight?” I’m sorry Pop did not get his own set this year, but why bad rap my show?
J. Monque’D
Mr. Monque’D, one of the more opinionated musicians in Louisiana, seems to forget that writers are also entitled to their own opinions. Ed.
She’s Gotta Have It
I just got the February issue with the Neville Brothers on the cover. I have got to have a copy of that photo!! I am a long-time diehard fan of the Brothers. I collect all of the music, posters, photos, t-shirts-anything and everything with the Nevilles on it.
I really want a copy of this photo! I will gladly pay you for a copy plus postage. If I cannot get a copy from you, do you know how I can obtain a copy of it? If you could let me know, I would sincerely appreciate it.
Thank you so very much for your consideration. Keep up your great magazine. Thank you!
Jean Lee, Phoenix, AZ
The Neville Brothers photograph was the work of Michael Wilson and was provided to us by Bill Graham Management. Now if you’d like some provocative shots of Aaron in really tight cut-off jeans, taken 20 years ago in an apartment on Esplanade Avenue, give us a call. Ed.
The Final Solution
I would like to express my support for Mr. Bunny Matthews’ cartoon in the May issue. There are indeed locals like “Vic,” who consider Jazzfest to be an exquisite form of torture. I experienced nightmares for weeks after the loathsome performance by Phish several years ago at the Fest. My basic dream was located in a Dante’s style musical hell, inhabited by twenty-something slackers listening to a horrible cacophony of jam-band nonsense. “Vic’s” bad dream about being herded by the “FestiNazis” is a truly outstanding satire on the military-style regimentation and big money of Jazz Fest. I plan to have a copy of the cartoon framed, as it is destined to become a collector’s item, just like my cousin’s treasured pair of “Vic and Nat’ly” TV trays.
Bruce H. Ward, New Orleans
I’d like to commend Bunny Matthews for refusing to kowtow to an outlandish public demand for an apology for drawing a cartoon that two of your readers deemed offensive. If Mr. Matthews begins apologizing for his off-the-wall brand of humor, he’ll never have the opportunity to think up any more funny cartoons to draw. What a tragedy that would be!
I’d like to thank attorney Justin Zitler for advocating for all the music lovers who wanted their OffBeat to get the real “411” about what was happening around town during the Jazz and Heritage Festival and congratulate him for his success in court!
The letters your readers are writing are getting so paradoxical I almost forgot what magazine I was reading. But then I turned the pages and got back to the music. It’s still all about the music. And the stone-throwing, blame-blowing steam your letter writers are exhaling is just a little lagniappe from the theater of the absurd. It’s certainly not OffBeat’s fault some letter writers want to pontificate about their parenting skills or the atrocities of the Holocaust. I admire your decision to present the odd comparisons drawn, not only in Matthews’ cartoons, but on the letters page as well. Please enter my subscription and keep on informing us all about the music.
Robert Clemenz, New Orleans
Tell It Like It Is
Reading Mojo Mouth [June 1999] and the comment concerning the “changing demographics” and the troubles with the club attendance focused my mind on the experience that my wife and I had at the Fest this year. The core of that experience was that the real audience for whom the Fest seems to play is the fraternity set. Now, before everybody gets all defensive, let me say that we enjoyed some very fine performances at the Fest and we saw a lot of music lovers paying close attention to those performances. BUT, on more than one occasion, we were witness to musicians complaining from the stage that other venues were intruding into their performance. Invariably, the intruding venue was one which had its sound system cranked up way loud so the music could be felt and heard by the college set gabbing away in the audience.
Our most unfavorable experience occurred when we braved Ray-Ban for Marva Wright. Now, it isn’t what you might think. We had no problem with the crowd. We wended our way right to the sweet spot in front of the sound booth and we had enough space to be comfortable; one expects to get close to/with others at events such as this. However, the sound was too loud. It was so loud that it physically hurt! And there were the thousands having their gab fest above that onslaught. We had to leave. Trying to take refuge in the Gospel Tent was fruitless because the Ray-Ban sound dominated that venue as well. We had to wonder what the point really was for all those folks in front of that stage.
That gets me to the Mojo Mouth comment. I think that the expectations of the New Orleans club goer have become too, how shall I say it, clean. The Maple Leaf and Jimmy’s have always been just a little bit, what? Not dirty but…homey. The Bon Temps Roule… well that’s a neighborhood joint if ever there was one, and I remember Tip’s in another incarnation as a real messy place. Now the norm is the sort of almost squeaky clean atmosphere at which the House of Blues excels. And those who come in droves to Jazz Fest favor that ambiance. That leaves out a lot of the funkier venues.
What about the Fest? I am not so downhearted as the letter writer who sat in the grandstand and had the scales fall from his eyes and I didn’t have such a bad time at Earl King’s set as did your writer. I am sorry the Fest seems to be afflicted with the notion that bigger and bigger means better and better. At some point the limit has to be reached. I am hopeful that before that time the notion that yet more people in record numbers is the best metric for a successful Jazz & Heritage Festival will have been rethought.
Developing a qualitative assessment of the Fest will take a while; I don’t expect an immediate conversion to some new and as yet undefined evocation of the music and heritage of New Orleans. I do have two recommendations. First and foremost: TURN IT DOWN! There cannot be any legitimate reason to force the music of one stage onto any other venue. Disregard the complaint from the cocktail conversers that it ain’t loud enough. Maybe they’ll stop yakking and actually listen to the music those wonderful people on stage are putting out for them! Second, and this is right out of left field but I think it is appropriate: lower the monetary expectations from the Fest. I know, the Foundation pumps a god-awful wad of cash into great things in New Orleans. But my experience with the vendors, both culinary and artistic, is that they must be paying a whopping lot too much for their space. Prices are way up for art and portions of food are down. Something ain’t quite right, the way I see it.
And yeah, it is much harder to wander into the Gospel Tent. But, when next it floods your chair won’t sink into the mud like I’ve had it do in the Jazz Tent before the move. The many changes I’ve seen over the years give me hope that the Festival organizers will seek to redress the most egregious wrongs of this year’s Fest. There was, after all, a lot to like!
New Orleans is a great musical city. Your cover story on Astral Project bears witness to some of the best of that. Pedestrian commercialism needs not rule the roost. Here’s to a better day.
Harry Clark, Decherd, TN
Festival Productions? Jazz & Heritage Foundation Board? Are ya listenin’?-Ed.
Sonny Boy
Thanks so much for the great Jazz Fest issue. My wife and I attended our first Jazz Fest this year on Weekend Two and your magazine was fantastic. By the way, the info you had on your webpage was also a lifesaver in making evening plans for the trip.
My top highlight for the Fest (and that’s saying a lot, given all the many highlights) was finally getting to see and hear Sonny Landreth in person. He was great! So I enjoyed reading about him in the June column of Dominick Cross.
I was wondering how I can find out more information about Sonny’s plans for this summer. For example, where will he be appearing with John Hiatt in July and August (hopefully they’ll come to the D.C. area), and when will the two albums be released so I know when to start hounding Louisiana Music Factory?
Do you have any suggestions on who I can contact about these questions? Or does he have a webpage?
Thanks very much and keep up the great work!
Steve Lodge, Bethesda, MD
Sonny Landreth is managed by Dennis Lord (615-320-0055) and we suggest you give him a call to find out where and when his client might be in your vicinity. We gleaned this information from our annual Louisiana Music Directory, a volume that belongs next to the telephone of every serious Louisiana musical aficionado. Also check out OffBeat’s Louisiana Music On Tour, where we’ll publish Mr. Landreth’s itinerary, if we receive them from his managers and/or booking agents. Ed.
Marva-Lous
Congratulations on your victory in your free speech battle. I feel that this is a victory for our whole music community. Thank God for small favors and major victories. I’m told that the next fight is the noise ordinance: you know that we’re here if you need us.
Next, I recently received my June issue of OffBeat. While thumbing through the “Squeezing Out Sparks at Jazz Fest 30” section, I noticed the wonderful review of the Wild Magnolias’ performance on the House of Blues stage. As you may know, I manage the Wild Magnolias. It is always a greet feeling to have them recognized at home. Then, just a page or so further, I noticed the mention of another artist that I manage as well, Marva Wright. This article really puzzled me. For one, I didn’t really understand the point Jeff Hannusch was trying to make. This is now irrelevant since we’ve received so many calls, emails, and letters with the common theme being “how dare OffBeat and Jeff Hannusch’s attempt to tarnish Marva’s name in an effort to praise Earl King.”
Unfortunately, we live in a society where perception is viewed as reality. Unfit arrogance from Jeff Hannusch, someone who many perceive as an authority on New Orleans and roots music. The truth be known, Mr. Hannusch is a non-native New Orleanian. I imagine that my thoughts would be more forgiving if Mr. Hannusch wasn’t familiar with Marva Wright’s background. He wrote the liner notes on Marva’s latest release, Bluesiana Mama. Incidentally, he interviewed her for this project.
I realize that all reviews will not necessarily be good; but why use or should I say misuse Marva and the House of Blues stage as a scapegoat for what Mr. Hannusch feels is wrong with Jazz Fest or our friend Earl King’s placement? You must realize that this is damaging and irresponsible journalism. He not only tried to discredit Marva, he also tried to discredit the House of Blues stage. Was he also attempting to nullify the Wild Magnolias’ review as being on an insignificant stage? I suggest that if Mr. Hannusch has any criticism about Jazz Fest policy-he should direct his opinions to Festival Productions, the festival’s non-profit [sic] component. I also feel that Mr. Hannusch should realize that it is in very poor taste to attempt to praise someone by criticizing someone else.
Glenn A. Gaines, New Orelans
Jeff Hannusch responds:
I was not trying to tarnish Ms. Wright’s name by questioning the assignment of Ms. Wright and Mr. King’s respective performance stages at the recent New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. I was merely puzzled by their placement.
The fact is the Ray-Ban stage can accommodate several thousand more viewers than the intimate confines of the House of Blues stage. Although Ms. Wright deserves a high profile stage because she is a very popular and accessible entertainer, certainly Mr. King does as well. He is a key individual in the development of this city’s music, and rarely makes local appearances, having done so only once between the 1998 and 1999 festivals. He certainly can attract a large audience and has done so in the past. In addition, he deserves the same honor of a large stage given Ms. Wright. I was contrasting size of stage, not size of talent.
Although I have lived in New Orleans and studied and written about New Orleans music for 20 years, I have never portrayed myself as an authority on it, but as its student and admirer. As for my not being a native New Orleanian, place of birth has long been known not to guarantee authority of knowledge on anything, and in fact is often totally irrelevant. You can rest assured that Marva Wright’s reputation will not be damaged by Earl King’s being given a large stage at Jazz Fest.
The Panic’s On
I’m one of those once-a-year New Orleans pilgrims who’s always there underfoot during Jazz Fest clogging the streets, jamming the clubs, and mobbing the Fair Grounds. But unlike most, I’m determined to keep track of what you folks are up to the rest of the year. So I’ve been a subscriber as long as you’ve been there.
But the wonder of your operation is that, even after all the years (and growth) I can still call to renew my subscription and get a real person-very often one of the top brass, and none of you has ever been too busy for small talk about New Orleans with someone who would like to be there. (Are you never on panic deadline in that office?)
But I’m not through. I want to praise your web site. It was the single most valuable resource for pre-Jazz Fest info this year. And this seems like a golden opportunity to tell you about the Recall Music web site. We promote independent roots music, and we have a new New Orleans photo feature running right now.
Thanks to all of you. Boogie On.
Ellen Griffith, Los Angeles, CA
Panic?! The word, incidentally, is derived from Pan, who was highly skittish around mortals. Ed.
Charity Case
I have been an avid first class subscriber since 1996 when I first heard of your magazine. I had lived in New Orleans in the ’80s and went to school at Charity Hospital. I fell in love with the music of New Orleans and adopted New Orleans as a second home. I miss the live music scene and try to pick up Louisiana CDs at local music stores whenever I can. I have not been to Jazz Fest since 1995 and hope to get there in 2000. That should be a great party. Thanks for a great magazine.
Mike Ruppel, Scottsdale, AZ
Plastic Rapping
I picked up a copy of OffBeat during the Jazz Fest this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Being a New Orleans native I decided to subscribe to OffBeat so I could keep up with the New Orleans music scene up here in Colorado. Since then I’ve been anxiously awaiting delivery of my first copy, so you can imagine how disappointed I was when the June 1999 issue (I assume that’s what it was) arrived totally destroyed.
The postal service had what remained of the magazine wrapped in plastic with an explanation that it was improperly prepared for shipping and became damaged in their machinery. I’ve noticed that on occasion other magazines I subscribe to are enclosed in a protective wrapping of some sort. In the future, could OffBeat do the same? This would help ensure damage free delivery and give those postal workers no excuses for incompetence. I’d really appreciate it if something could be done. Also, would it be possible for you to resend me the June issue? The parts of the articles that I can read look interesting.
OffBeat is the only magazine I enjoy reading from cover to cover. It brings New Orleans a little closer to me and I look forward to picking one up every Jazz Fest. Getting it at home will be a treat. Keep up the good work. Thanks.
Ricky J. McCoy, Westminster, CO
A pristine copy of the June issue has been mailed to you and we are debating the merits of sheathing the magazine in plastic. Our staff environmentalists are against it, but then they’re opposed to CDs, internal combustion engines and mink coats. Ed.
Beatle Bob Hacked-Off
This letter is in regards to Beverly Hacker’s comments to OffBeat on my non-association with St. Louis’ community radio station KDHX 88.1 FM. Contrary to station manager Hacker’s letter, I’ve never claimed to be either a regular volunteer or paid employee of the station. What she fails to mention, however, are all of the KDHX specials that I’ve hosted throughout the years-along with my usual partner Tony C.-since the station’s inception in 1987. The most popular of these specials, being The Phil Spector Marathon-a four-hour special that airs from 4-8 pm on the last Wednesday of December.
Ms. Hacker also has failed to recognize all of the prizes I’ve given away to KDHX listeners over the years, not to mention some of the station’s special guests that I arranged to appear, including Louise Harrison (Beatle George’s sister) and the lead singer of Riverdance, Katie McMahon, to name a few.
If Ms. Hacker can’t even remember what I’ve done for the station, it’s no wonder she’s been unable to quell the bitter in-house back-stabbing politics caused by some members of station management. This dissension within the ranks has been well-documented in the St. Louis print media in recent months.
By the way, if your readers would like to hear some of my specials, they can send me a cassette and I’ll be more than happy to make them a copy. First ten requests receive a free Beatles gift! Your Fab One.
Beatle Bob, PO Box 771034, St. Louis, MO 63177
Whoa. No wonder Beatle Bob leaves St. Louis to go to festivals so often.-Ed.
