Originally Posted by Eurosocialist

Benjamin is a Jewish name, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Yes. It means "Son of The Right Hand."

Ben

Originally Posted by Eurosocialist

Ewww.... that must suck, you being a left-winger...

Originally Posted by Anselme

I would have like to visit New Orleans just to see the french heritage, I know that there is not much left, but to see some french names around there is funny... like Baton Rouge, lac Pontchatrain? did I got the spelling right? I even heard that they were a bar there where people spoke in some sort of old french, it would have been funny to hear them speaking

Originally Posted by Sucre

There absolutely nothing French about NO - except some old language remains and district names, and the most funny is that people don't know what they refer to (like large towns in France, famous personalities etc.) and the prononciation make these words sound phony but definitively not French : when I was in NO and pronounced these street names actually correctly, nobody understood me . The French quarter looks Spanish, the Cajun food is a typical product of the place & climate, jazz is an original production and the 70% black population was imported after the French had left. So much for the "Frenchness" of NO - It's a wonderful city and I hope it will recover after this nightmare is over.

Originally Posted by Eurosocialist

I've never visited New Orleans, but I'm a bit of a jazz fan and I've always wanted to join in the Jazz Fest and the Carnaval.

I've always been interested in the history of black and creole musical cultures in the US and in Latin America at large, and New Orleans is of course a central hotspot in this history.

From the earliest Lundu in Brazil over the Afoxê to the Forró (I'm just showing off here), from Jamaican griot, to ska and reggae or from American rural blues over ragtime, to all kinds of jazz to contemporary hip hop -- Afro-latin music is a truly fantastic tradition.

Of course, New Orleans had a unique musical culture and was central to many different styles. (Even its contemporary bootyshaking ghetto fests are very interesting from a historical and anthropological perspective, - it traces back to African fertility dances... I'm going to write a scientific study about this, so I can study those booties close up... )

Somehow, the music was inextricably tied to the atmosphere of the city, to its historic quarters and very mixed community.

Would all of this be lost now?

Americans can assess this better than I. Was there still a vibrant and creative community of musicians in the last decades, or did it dry up and become too commercialized, for tourism purposes? I bet not.

Of course it will be impossible to rebuild a copy of a community and its culture, because it was so tied to that city.

So I hope that the peepz from New Orleans get together again soon, and take up this brilliant tradition and find new power to rebuild their creative world.

Tragically many historic buildings are lost, but thank God, music and creativity is locked away in people's minds and can be revived simply by bringing people together.


If anyone knows of any specific donation campaigns to support the community of musicians in New Orleans, please let me know.

Originally Posted by panteth4H2o

It's heartbreaking because I have been there a couple of times and it was quite an experience. I went a couple of weeks before Mardi Gras, and the city was starting to warm up for it, so there was quite a feeling of electricity building up in the air. Lots of live blues and jazz playing on almost every turn or stop. Quite a few artistic people on the corners playing instruments, doing skits, etc. It was first time I had seen kids tap dancing with smashed soda cans stuck to the bottom of their running shoes. (The little guys were quite talented ) The food was damn good, and the culture was something of a shock for me at first. Dallas is quite a conservative and clean city, so rarely do we see folks drinking in crowded bars in the middle of the day, especially when you consider that Bourbon street never slept. I also had to get used to how certain folks spoke.

New Orleans was a little on the dirty and dingy side, but after a while, it just absolutely grew on me. Lots of history, old gravesites, and buildings over there, so my imagination just ran away on me.

It's quite sad to see it like this.

Originally Posted by Eurosocialist

So back to the music topic. I just found a connection, but I don't want to be a pain in the pooper again. Would you agree that when you mix black with catholic (latin) cultures, you automatically get great music? (It's the mix that makes the music.)

I don't know of the same vibrant musical traditions that have resulted from protestant cultures mixed with black culture.

Would there be a correlation? Catholicism being more sensualist, more at ease with passion? (After all, the word "passio" is derived from Latin mass traditions and catholic rites...)



[I hope Matt doesn't read this, he'd be furious and accuse me of being a protestant basher, which I'm not; I'm an Afro-Latino-Catholic lover instead! ]

Originally Posted by Eurosocialist

I don't know of the same vibrant musical traditions that have resulted from protestant cultures mixed with black culture.