The Adventure began with a trip to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, armed with our
WWOZ Brass Passes. We were able see many many performers and groups, from Ruthie Foster to Marcia Ball to Kermit Ruffins to Sunpie. One of the best performances by far had to be that of Kenny Neil. After a year and a half battle with illness he is back with a new album and a sound that moves the soul. A slide show of the many photographs Amy and Turgay took can be seen by clicking on the Jazz Fest Picture to the right.
Amy and Turgay couldn't say enough about how wonderful Bettye LaVette was but Pa' and I were busy wandering other tents and didn't catch the whole show. We all spent most of our time wandering from stage to stage, and tent to tent. There is so much to see and to eat and to listen to at the festival we could never manage to stay in one place for very long. The crafts this year were outstanding, Amy bought another "Jazz Fest" hat and they both decided to buy a Robert Johnson print.
Amy and Turgay also raved about how delicious the food was. Their favorites were crawfish bread from
Panaroma Foods, which they described as spicy cheesy goodness and the absolute food winner for Jazz Fest 2008 was Creole Cream Cheese Cake topped with fresh strawberries from
Minnie Pearl Pies and Pastries.
In between the two festival weekends we manage to catch the WWOZ piano night. Everyone can check out who played and get info about the artists and the event from the
WWOZ piano night web site. The show was wonderful as usual but a few technical difficulties and poor ordering of the artists made it last too long, but we would all go back again next year and the year after because I doubt you can see that much incredible piano playing in one night anywhere else.
We also caught a little music at the
Louisiana Music Factory, which features live in store performances by local New Orleans artists, we also caught a few other shows around town.
