VANICOR

I read [“Cajun Iron Horse,” October 2013] on my iPad. Wonderful! Read it to my daddy. He was extremely touched—he teared up. Thank you [Dan Willging] for such a wonderful article.

—Linda Marcantel, Milton Vanicor’s daughter, Creole, LA

MUSICAL HEAVEN

Enjoyed David Kunian’s keeping Booker’s music and mystique alive [“Why Does James Booker Matter?” October 2013] and Jim Scheurich’s photos add spice and more knowledge [“Seeing Booker,” October 2013]. The gems that speak of the “third hand” and “Ray Charles meets Chopin” still resonate well into this century. My friend Tom McDermott reminds us not to forget the voice of the polymorphous talent. Tom’s description of “Black Night” is an incisive, witty acknowledgment of the artist’s “tremendous emotional power.”

Booker’s best “power” remains his stunning New Orleans Piano Wizard. At his low points, friends found James playing only the applause. Over and Over. Instead, we are again reminded of his finale, Classified. Yeah, great, ’cause I was there. This tragic session was no deaf Beethoven creating thunderous beauty, but someone weak in recovery from yet-another breakdown.

In 1979, Jimmy Anselmo set up a night where James and I swapped sets. Giving the college crowd spelling lessons, Booker favored showing up at the end of my nights, when two pianos were next to each other. Just when you thought you were in musical heaven at its max—he made the blues sound beautiful—he’d glance at your keyboard shouting, “Yeah, I hear ya.” The word comes to us from heaven. We’ve been living in it. New Orleans musicians—what a life!

—Al Farrell, Metairie, LA

AMERICANA

I was at the Americana Festival, too [“Americana Music and New Orleans,” Jan Ramsey’s September 25 blog post]. I went to the clubs at night and walked around a lot. Nashville is really a wonderful city with great restaurants, super friendly people, a happening, beautiful downtown, and amazing architecture. On a Monday night, virtually every club had live music bursting out to the street. Shockingly, gigs actually started on time. What a novel idea!

New Orleans could learn a lot from it. I appreciated the cleanliness of the streets and the no-smoking policy. It’s time New Orleans joins the rest of the country in updating smoking laws. I hate coming home from a club reeking of cigarettes. Imagine having to work in that environment night after night. Also, I didn’t see a lot of shops with tee shirts sporting ignorant phrases bragging about one’s level of intoxication or sexual ability. Those shops really declassify a neighborhood, in my opinion.

In short, New Orleans could clean it up a bit. Nothing of its charming character would be lost.

—Holly Wright, Wilmington, DE

NUMBING AND AGONIZING?

I appreciate that John Swenson wrote a review of my book A Higher Fusion: The New Orleans Modern-Jazz Group Astral Project at 34 [October 2013], but I would like to speak in defense of its unusual format, which also includes interviews and descriptions of events. He calls me a “classical music journalist,” but actually I am a retired music reference librarian. He perceives the reference-book and detailed-history aspects of the publication, but then criticizes its “almost numbing” detail—something that tends to be found in reference books and detailed histories. The descriptions of the recordings in which he finds “agonizing” detail are set in separate chapters that can easily be skipped. I hope the mixed format proves more entertaining than most reference books. The review didn’t say where the book can be purchased; see instantharmony.net/music.

—David Lasocki, Portland, OR

SHORTY

Today started out great—got my new Trombone Shorty CD in the mail. (It was awesome!) Started thinking about food (like I always do!) and remembered the September issue was the food issue. My OffBeat is a HUGE part of the better part of life!

—Deb Kyle, Souderton, PA