SARDINE FEST

A bunch of us were recently sitting around fondly remembering the days before Jazz Fest became the Acura/VH-1 Sardine Fest, and someone posed a simple question: Does the Fair Grounds have a legal occupancy limit during Jazz Fest?

Following this past spring’s news that organizers dangerously and greedily crammed 160,000 people into the festival on a single day, one has to wonder what the NOPD lists as the maximum number of people allowed by law—or does the law allow Jazz Fest to keep selling tickets until the Fair Grounds explodes from overcrowding?

And, much more importantly—when will Jazz Fest recognize that we have one of the fines local breweries anywhere, and start selling Abita?

Inquiring minds want to know.

—J.F. Samuel and friends, New Orleans, Louisiana

 

In response to your Letter to the Editor, the Festival offers the following:

There are no mandated capacity limits at the Fair Grounds Race Course during the Jazz Festival. The Festival works closely with the New Orleans Police Department, the New Orleans Fire Department and all city agencies to monitor attendance levels.

The New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course manages beverage sales at the Festival and decides which brands are sold.—New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

STATUESQUE BECHET

I want to applaud John Swenson for his article about Sidney Bechet. Having served as Secretary to the “Sidney Bechet Centennial Committee” chaired by UNO’s Dr. Joe Logsdon in 1997, I am keenly interested in all efforts to highlight the remarkable contributions made by the “Wizard of Jazz.”

Mr. Swenson concludes his article stating “[Bechet’s] name is attached to no airports, but a statue of Bechet graces the town square in the beautiful seaside French Riviera city of Antibes.”

I wonder if Mr. Swenson is aware that an exact copy of this Bechet statue exists in our own backyard—Congo Square! To fund this project, with considerable support from New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial and the University of New Orleans, our committee raised the necessary funds from the private sector, most notably the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation and the estate of Jules Cahn. Utilizing these resources, we commissioned the bronze replica after purchasing the rights from the widow of the original French artist. This bust was cast at a foundry outside of Paris where notably all contemporary Rodin sculptures are fabricated.

We erected the statue in Congo Square because Bechet himself attributed importance to this site in his autobiography when he discusses his slave ancestry. We unveiled the Bechet monument (including a Duke Ellington quote on one of its plaques) with Mayor Morial and the French Ambassador to the U.S. officiating. Even BBC-TV filmed this event for a documentary on Bechet.

It may be interesting to note that our magnificent bronze bust of Bechet is positioned in Congo Square in such a way as to look over the shoulder of the Louis Armstrong statue and beyond to his roots in Tremé and to St. Augustine Church where he was baptized over a century ago.

—Marc J. Cooper, New Orleans, LA, Director, Vieux Carré Commission

 

Thanks for the information. Mr. Swenson divides his time between residences in New Orleans and Brooklyn, and was unaware of the New Orleans Bechet statue. There is also a Parisian street named after Sidney Bechet. –Ed.

 

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

I read your publication regularly and find your articles on jazz and blues musicians interesting. I cannot say the same for your articles about rock music. I keep seeing the same names month after month. Most of these bands (not all) are pop-rock bands who are more interested in commerce rather than art. I don’t have a problem with this. I can only hope that bands that are not afraid to push the envelope will be seen, heard and perhaps even written about. Groups such as Dirty Mouth and the Boo LaCrosse band are worth catching. You only need to bring yourself and a sense of humor. You can either join the party now or you can be the person who hops on board later. The folks who miss the boat are usually the ones who believe that the bands’ self-titled album is its first when really it’s their fifth. Don’t worry, the diehard fans will keep ’em straight. Nuff said.

—Pete Alba, New Orleans, LA

 

1. Any musician who charges a cover, takes a percentage of the bar, takes a flat fee or accepts free beer is factoring “commerce” into the art equation in some way. Anyone selling a disc and not giving it away has similar financial considerations. Money may not be the prime motivation, but the false constructions of “purity” need to be “nipped in the butt,” as a friend says.
2. The intersection of art and commerce is the most interesting point in any discussion of art because it’s where the artist’s vision and the audience’s receptiveness meet. At that point, we often learn as much about the audience as we do about the artist.
3. I wrote about Boo LaCrosse in the November 2000 issue.
4. This is the first I have heard of Dirty Mouth. I’d appreciate it if they could add me to their mailing list when they take a break from pushing the envelope because it’s much easier to cover shows I hear about. –Alex Rawls

 

LARGER AND BETTER

Can you use larger print and better paper? It’s hard to read.

—John Lippincott, Greenwich, CT

 

In a perfect world, OffBeat would utilize typeface sizes that could be easily read by anyone with the typical vision of a 98-year-old and printed on fine paper usually reserved for diplomas and limited editions of obscure, wealthy poets. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. We are attempting to use larger typeface sizes. OffBeat is caught in the trickbag of being published in two editions: an edition for subscribers printed with slick covers and superior paper than the newsprint utilized in the free edition distributed in Louisiana. –Ed.

 

MASH NOTES

Here ’tis. My check for a first class two-year subscription renewal to my favorite music publication. I want to make absolutely sure not to miss the 2001 Jazz Fest issue (always by far the best issue each year). I am also looking forward to the 2000 CD with its cover picture that matches the numbered Matthews/K-Doe poster featured prominently in my den along with the 1966 OffBeat Fess poster and the commercial crawfish masterpiece from the early 1980s when I started attending the Fest. Is there any chance of your slipping the other 2 CDs being offered first time subscribers into my package? Or, am I asking for too much of a good thing?

Let me repeat my ongoing appreciation of the magazine which seems to be increasing in quality and interesting information with every month. You are all doing an excellent job. Thank you.

—J. Walker Coleman II, Charleston, SC

 

It’s really great to be able to check club listings for future dates. We have friends coming in from St. Louis in a couple of weeks and I forwarded them the link. Thanks, OffBeat.

—Cindy Cripps, New Orleans, LA

 

Since I recently moved from New Orleans to New Jersey, OffBeat is one of my favorite connections to Louisiana and I love the music you put together on CD.

—Geoffrey Goyette, Allentown, NJ