{"id":23104,"date":"2016-05-17T11:35:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23104"},"modified":"2016-05-17T11:58:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:58:58","slug":"23104-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/23104-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Al’s Spring Break"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Savoy

Savoy Truffle<\/p><\/div>\n

I spent the last 10 days of April in Louisiana: 5 days in New Orleans, 3 days in Cajun country, and 2 more in NoLa.<\/p>\n

Thirty years ago, I learned about Festival Tours International<\/a><\/strong>, a small operation that does music-based tours. And 29 years ago I convinced my fianc\u00e9e that a 23-day music tour of England and Scotland was perfect for a honeymoon. And it was!<\/p>\n

Festival Tours is run by Nancy Covey<\/strong>. She has lots of connections in the music world, especially from having booked the music at McCabe\u2019s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles during the 1970s and early 1980s. Her tours are very un-tour like\u2014not rigid, skipping lots of the touristy spots, and heavy on local experiences only possible because of Nancy\u2019s research and connections.<\/p>\n

This England & Scotland tour used to be an annual event, tied to Fairport Convention<\/strong>\u2019s annual musical festival in Cropredy. I\u2019m not sure how often Nancy does that tour now but I know it\u2019s no longer annual. One is planned for 2017 to tie in with Fairport\u2019s 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Many of her tours are one-offs; she\u2019s done one to Russia, one to Sardinia, one to Zimbabwe that I can recall offhand. We\u2019ve been interested in all of them but kids and work and life have always gotten in the way.<\/p>\n

RTHers with better memories than I have might recall that my wife and I went to Cuba in February 2014, on Nancy\u2019s initial tour of that island; she has since done two others there. This was before the recent thawing and the trip was spectacular. Cuba is filled with music; it is literally everywhere you turn in Cuba (and I am using the word \u201cliterally\u201d in the true sense of the word, not the way it is often used nowadays). With Nancy, it was special. For example, we got to visit the studio where the Buena Vista Social Club<\/strong> album was recorded and to speak with two of the players from those sessions (not the big names\u2014I believe they have all passed away\u2014but with studio musicians). This was made possible because Nancy knows Jackson Browne<\/strong> from back in the day and he was able to facilitate this.<\/p>\n

Well, another tour that Nancy does every year is to New Orleans, coinciding with the Jazz & Heritage Festival<\/strong>. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve wanted to do since that England tour in 1987, and finally, with an empty nest here at home, we\u2019ve checked that off the bucket list.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As I did research in the weeks leading up to it I feared I might have waited 20 years too long. Was I up for 100,000 people on a racetrack, 8 hours in the heat each day? I didn\u2019t think so. In the event, I was, although I confess to cutting back the 8 hours by arriving late and leaving early.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I packed enough music into the trip to make me feel like fellow RTHer\u00a0Geo<\/strong>, for whom my quantity of live music this trip is a typical 2\u00a0weeks for him.<\/p>\n

The first full day was Thursday. The Festival wasn\u2019t starting until the next day and we traipsed around the city, stumbling upon an afternoon performance at the US Mint in Louisiana. [Side bar: This mint, no longer functional, is the only mint in the US to have been the mint for three different countries – the United States, the Confederate States, and the short lived Republic of Louisiana for whom money was printed during its 2-month existence, after seceding from the Union and before joining the Confederacy. Who knew? I\u2019ll bet BigSteve<\/strong> did; anyone else?]<\/p>\n

The featured performer was Leroy Jones<\/a><\/strong> on trumpet and vocals along with a pianist and bass player both of whom were local but had never played with Jones before. I\u2019d never heard of Jones before but he was great. A great trumpeter and a really special vocalist. Not necessarily the best voice but a great singer. In both his playing and his singing he reminded me greatly of Chet Baker.<\/p>\n

That evening found us – on Nancy\u2019s recommendation – at Buffa\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> for the weekly gig of Aurora Nealand<\/strong>\u00a0& Tom McDermott<\/strong>. This video will show you why I was blown away by them.<\/p>\n