FRENCHMEN AND BOURBON

I read your [Jan Ramsey] latest “Mojo Mouth” and for the most part agree with you. Frenchmen Street is a much more interesting destination musically than Bourbon Street. However, I find that there is a great inconsistency in the quality of music available there. While there is certainly good music going on, more often the bands are jam bands, slogging their way through tunes that everyone in the band may or may not know. I feel the people booking the clubs there are at fault, as they take the easy way out—booking people they know, rather than taking chances on new talent. You see the same faces in many different bands, and the common denominator is that the bands are unrehearsed, and often unmusical. I can understand that there is little motivation to change, as the Frenchmen Street crowds are strong, regardless of the bands playing.

Getting back to Bourbon Street, at the risk of being accused of self-promotion, there is something going on there of interest. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop has hired a new crop of piano players that are taking the music there in a new direction. Rather than the typical piano bar fare, the piano players are going back to the classic New Orleans piano style, reminiscent of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Tuts Washington and others. Pianists Jeff Spence, Mike Hood and myself are there 7 days a week and we each have our own approach. I only hope that one day, another club will recognize the need for this kind of music and have full bands based on it.

—Jeff Greenberg, New Orleans, LA

My wife and I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Satchmo SummerFest and while we were in N’awlins, I read your editorial about the musical changes that have come about on Bourbon and how Frenchmen Street is the new area for live music.

My wife and I have been visiting New Orleans two to three times a year for well over a decade, and we could not wait until we were able to get back after Katrina. In fact, we try to give back to the city by contributing funds to the volunteer work currently going on, and we continue to volunteer our time at water booths during the French Quarter Festival and Satchmo SummerFest.

We thought it was only us feeling that Bourbon Street has so dramatically changed, and that going to Frenchmen Street returned our faith in N’awlins live music. Not so, after reading your editorial. It’s great to know that an “expert” on Big Easy music sees it the way we have been feeling for several years.

We remember being able to go from one Bourbon Street club to another… listening to blues in one, going across the street and listening to Cajun in another, and walking down the street for jazz. I can’t tell you the number of times we “closed” a club because of listening to the very end of a group’s final set. But now, you walk down Bourbon and it’s “3 for 1” signs to entice young visitors into clubs that play CDs or have bands that cover rock groups. We now find ourselves strolling cautiously to Frenchmen Street to be able to go from one club to another to listen to a wider array of music.

—Mark and Molly Jacobson, Hershey, PA

CORRECTIONS

In August’s “The New Professors,” we incorrectly identified John Dobry as Larry Dobry, and Jim Markway and Frederick Sanders were not recent hires in Tulane’s jazz performance studies. Markway has been teaching there for 16 years. For personal reasons, Sanders has left Tulane, and he’ll be replaced by Jesse McBride.

Our August cover artist was incorrectly identified as Matt Rihner it should have been Matt Rinard.