Sunday, April 28, 2013

A U T H O R ' S    N O T E :
This was the Corndancer Photo of the Week number 15. The current version is number 292. I was in New Orleans for the French Quarter Fest, a great two-day party in the middle of April every year. In New Orleans, you don't need much of an excuse to have a party. After all, it's New Orleans, it's spring, the weather is pretty — so let's have a party. These two musicians were part of groups strategically placed around the French Quarter to ensure that attendees should not forget that the party was on.
 
I wrote this article before there was as a Weekly Grist Blog, so there is no corresponding blog article to this one, but if you like you can click and see and old case steam tractor I stumbled across in Benton, Arkansas, a couple of weeks ago.
 
Enjoy yourself,
 
Joe

Originally Published on Sunday, November 25, 2007

The first time a musician puckered up in a fiberglass sousaphone mouthpiece, ol' John Philip Sousa probably did a contortionist trick in his grave. But unless I am mistaken, the oom-pah-pahs emanating from the blasphemous instrument have virtually the same delightful rumble as their brass counterparts. At least to the unrefined ear. And most ears are, I surmise.

The sounds coming from this pair of players on a corner in New Orleans left nothing to be desired. I had to stop patting my foot to get the shot. The musicians, as well as their instruments, were a study in contrast.

The trumpeter (or cornetist, I still can't tell the difference) was doing his best Dizzy Gillespie routine, while the sousaphonist was going about his business in a workmanlike fashion. The results were exactly as one would expect from a Crescent City street performance. A rich rolling bass and a piercing treble. Ear candy. These two were the prime visual targets. The sax, clarinet, and assorted other instrumentalists made up the rest of the group, but lacked the panache of this pair.

The event was a planned performance as part the annual French Quarter Fest, but the sounds were from a jam session where each musician was in lock step with the rest of the group, all unaware of anything other than themselves and the tune.

The sousaphonist is a protégé of the late Anthony Lacen, better known as "Tuba Fats," a legend in New Orleans. This young man is a testimonial to Tuba Fats' long history of supporting and encouraging young musicians.

When you visit New Orleans, you will, in all likelihood, see him playing in the band on the bench across from St. Louis Cathedral. Drop a few bucks in the bucket. Keep the tradition going.

N O T E S:  
Nikon D200 / spot metered / Nikon f2.8 80-200 D Zoom / post processed in Photoshop CS3 and Photomatix HDR

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Most of the time, there is more to the Photo of the Week story than can be told in an essay. And most of the time there are more pictures to be seen. Presuming that some folk will enjoy being privy to this trove of information, I have created a blog, “Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind,” where I am showing and telling “the rest of the story." There are also some blatantly commercial mentions of some of the things we do to earn our beans and taters. Click on the Weekly Grist logo and go to the blog.  — J. D.