Tipitina's

I’m finally leaving New Orleans… the Crescent City welcomed me and wouldn’t let me leave.

I arrived in New Orleans in time to make it to the House of Blues only to find out that Babalu’s was NOT a band but the name of Latin music dance night… not my scene. I don’t know if that little boy in Belle Chasse was ‘yanking my chain’ or if he was really clueless. I tend to believe the former, because everyone in New Orleans’ orbit knows the local music scene.

After the disappointment of Babalu night, I decided to stick around the Quarter for a while and sample the famous Creole food. Cafe Mesparo has some of the best sandwiches and the oyster po-boy (fried oysters on a French bread) was no exception.

The next morning I walked around the French Market checking out the fresh produce. The French Market has been around since 1791 and began as a Native American trading post. It is America’s oldest city market.

I bumped into some old friends in the quarter and was told that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band* was launching a new CD called ‘What’s Going On?’, a reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye's classic LP at Tipitina’s Saturday night. I had no choice but to stick around for that.

Well… it was worth postponing my walk. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band put on a great show to a packed house. They announced that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each CD will go to the Tipitina’s Foundation, benefiting the music community of New Orleans. Along with many others along the Gulf Coast, the members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band lost their homes to Katrina. Their take on What's Going On is not only an attempt to express their feelings about this tragedy and other current events, but also a tribute to the spirit of their hometown of New Orleans.

So now it’s Monday morning and I find myself a little heavier (gonna miss the food) and slower of foot. I’m on the western fringe of New Orleans following the meandering, muddy river towards Baton Rouge. The stretch of River Road leading to the state capital is lined with refineries and industry. I’m not looking forward to my next 100 miles, but I should be losing my newly found poundage…

* In 1977, the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club in New Orleans began showcasing a traditional Crescent City brass band. It was a joining of two proud, but antiquated, traditions at the time: social and pleasure clubs dated back over a century to a time when black southerners could rarely afford life insurance, and the clubs would provide proper funeral arrangements. Brass bands, early predecessors of jazz as we know it, would often follow the funeral procession playing somber dirges, then once the family of the deceased was out of earshot, burst into jubilant dance tunes as casual onlookers danced in the streets. By the late '70s, few of either existed. The Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club decided to assemble this group as a house band, and over the course of these early gigs, the seven-member ensemble adopted the venue's name: the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.