Jazz & Heritage

It's that magical time of year: Jazz Fest has been going since last Friday and I've been going every day taking pictures for WWOZ. I've taken a lot more than these but some highlights that might be of interest to this blog:

Classie Ballou

Grandpa Elliot

has been popular because of some youtube video. He's a New Orleans street artist but his knee slappin' and demeanor was a pretty cool way to open the day

Voices of the Wetlands

was a supergroup of sorts and very well arranged. Check these two favorite characters out

Robert "One String" Gibson

is another New Orleans street artist, but of particular interest because of all the Unitar love I spread on this blog

Campbell Brothers

Lil' buck Senegal

since Mardi Gras Indians are so fun to shoot

Creole Wild West

And some general dancing at the Fais Do-Do Stage

Apologies for the oversaturation, it didn't look that way on my laptop screen.

Let me know if there's anything you want me to catch or want to know if I did catch. You can check out a few others either shot by me or anybody else at wwoz.org

WWOZ bloggin'

here's a very slim version of how jazz fest has been going for me

and here are some of the extras. For the most part I've been spending only a few minutes as each thing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunterkingnola/tags/wwoz/
I'll organize them some other time, there's still plenty to do tonight

Double bad news: Snooks Eaglin is dead and so is Morning 40

I don't like doing obituary posts because there's always somebody that does them better. I had never listened to Snooks Eaglin until word came about of his failing health. WWOZ put on a pretty good campaign for him, suggesting that you donate blood and put the proceeds in his name and celebrating his birthday with at least one Snooks-themed show that helped me realize what a great asset he was to this city and music in general. He had a hand in all sorts of genres and from what I've heard, it's all been excellent. I hate catching up with an artist's work when they die, but I'm certainly going to be doing that these coming weeks.

I'm sure some great tributes are going to show up on my blogroll in time, but for now here's Nola.com's write-up which is certainly pretty lengthy and if you want to hear some songs, last.fm has some good ones.

Meanwhile, Morning 40 Federation announced that they will be playing their final show on Friday. I became a fan of theirs when I was interning at Piety St. recording studio where they were recording their last album. It was at least a year between that and its release and I couldn't wait for it to hit. Despite a pretty accessible alternative rock sound, they were distinctly New Orleans and extremely fun. I remember convincing my high school friends to check out their CD release party and for the first time not only saw one of them dance, but all of them dance. 

Though you could check out the link on Youtube, I'll direct you to NolaFunk NYC who reminded me about this and alerted me to Snooks' death

What the hell sort of Mardi Gras is this?