A Brain, A book, and A Ballpoint Day Two - MO Fest and Frenchman St.

When I woke up, though not fully rested, I could not go back to sleep for on the coffee table before my eyes there was a pear or an orange or some kind of citrus fruit bubbling and rotting with the tenants of fruit flies circling above. Thus interrupting my train of sleep, so I got up and we all took turns taking showers. There were six people in their group five band members and one merch girl. So showering took awhile.

We all ate and were on our way downtown to MO Fest where Skerik was playing with Robert Walter (keys in Greyboy All-stars and 20th Congress), and Stanton Moore (Drums in Galactic). They jammed on their respective bands tunes including tunes they wrote together (improvised and un-). One highlight was their rendition of Led Zeppelins Good Times Bad Times in which Skerik switches between the vocal and the guitar melodies on his sax.

Again they started on musician’s time but had the excuse of waiting for the Mayor of Nawlins to introduce them and give a Short Speech. After all this was the Mayor’s Office (MO) Festival. He thanked the local trio for coming out and playing with all the other local musicians. The rest of my Nalgene was being drained of its rum so I proceeded to shout out

"Ain’t that boy from Seattle?"

Turns out Robert Walter just moved to Nawlins so I couldn't yell out any California remarks.

After this trio was done they had a B3 Summit. For those of you who don’t know what a B3 is, it is an organ that most organist use and if they don’t usually salivate in the presence of one. Made by Hammond in the good ol days it has become a staple in the world of Jazz and Blues for decades.

The Summit included a band that backed up the organists and three B3’s set up. They cycled through with Ivan Neville, Robert Walter, Art Neville, Rich Vogel (of Galactic), Willie T, and Dr. John all taking turns at the Helm. After that the Merch girl and I walked around the French Quarter looking for a club to sneak into. The Band went back to nap so they could play their 2 am to 6 am slot at a club. We were standing outside one club called One Eye Jacks when my friend Red walked up. We met in Madison when I was playing down in a little coffee shop called Fruit of the Earth every Sunday - were my musical career began.

"Hey what’s happening?"

I esthetically questioned.

"I’m just working as the road manager for Signal Path. I have work to do though."

"Can you get me in?"

"No, sorry our list is full."

So that club was out. When we made it down the Preservation hall they were selling tickets for $35 and I didn’t want to pay that so I listened outside for a while. The Merch girl decided to head out to the bands gig. After a while Jonathan Freylick and Mark Sutherland walked up, the Bass and Sax players from the Malachy Papers. I chatted with John for a while as I had the night before, though now we could get along with other topics of conversation since we had talked shop already. So after they went in I headed on down towards Frenchman St. where the Austin band was playing and a few other shows were going on. Robert Walter had a gig as well as some members of Galactic and the Naked Orchestra which included a good 20+ Musicians.

I jumped around from the DBA and Café Brazil and settled in at the Austinites show, fighting off slumber as the couches in the Café Brazil were comfortable. Towards the end Brian Jordon (of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe) and Brian Haas (of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and Dead Kenny G’s) walked in with their girlfriends and watched the music. I chatted with Brian shortly before he settled in on one of the couches.

After the show was over they all packed up, and Robert Walter walked by. We fished the keys to their van out of the drain in which the drummer had dropped them and went back to sneak into the house again.