Ceci n’est pas un blog

Got back from DC today in time to join my honey and a bunch of his church buddies at a gorgeous concert by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Scrumptious. (If you’re in NYC you can catch the band at the Blue Note next week, the Blind Boys are off to Ottawa, and then Australia and New Zealand).

Everything was lovely, but favorite bits included PHJB bass player Walter Payton coming down front to sing I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (I hope I can shimmy like Walter Payton when I’m that age) and the Blind Boys’ wonderful version of “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” (watch a video of them doing this number).

Cognitive dissonance: Preservation Hall’s program notes go weirdly, unnecessarily over the top in their self-celebration of the hall itself: “To this day, Preservation Hall has no drinks, air conditioning, or other typical accoutrements strictly welcoming people of all ages interested in having one of the last pure music experiences left on the earth.” I’m not sure that’s true even if you limit your understanding of “earth” to the French Quarter.

And I was just sad reading this phrase from the Blind Boys’ bio: “The Blind Boys’ audience – once rigidly segregated and confined to traditional Gospel venues – now reflects the group’s eclectic, global following…” while noticing that Symphony Hall had somehow managed to attract to this event an audience that looked to be about 98% white. I wonder if we could get the Blind Boys to cover Lou Reed’s “I Wanna Be Black.”

Those quibbles aside, a marvelous time was had by all.
Image: Jazz at the Preservation Hall
Uploaded to Flickr on January 7, 2005
by rickz