Climbing the Musical Networking Ladder

There are countless musicians in New Orleans, yet only a few make it to the “top”. Locally, musicians gain their own tier of fame, and most New Orleanians gauge this to be the only method of measure necessary and important. Anything outside is well, outside.

Variations on a City

I missed last night’s “Networking with Jazz” event at the Playhouse.  It’s a shame, as this year is winding down for me, including my employment with the New Orleans Jazz Institute. I’ve learned so much and I am so grateful for this past year’s experiences – even the intensely stressful situations that came with it.  It was well worth it, as was the reason that I missed last night’s event.

Elysian Fields Suite Recap

IPhone post: NOJO sounded fantastic last night at the premiere of “Elysian Fields; Jazz Suite”. I understand what Irvin meant the day before about wishing he had more time. The piece(s) were fresh and quintessentially New Orleans.

NOJO’s Elysian Fields Premiere

My world this week has been surrounded by this. Irvin’s kicking off his Carnegie Hall tour today by premiering this Jazz Suite w/ NOJO.  Originally it was one nine-movement piece, a commission funded by an Atlas grant ($45k). It looks like it’s taking shape as a 9+piece NOJO album w/ a New Orleans theme.  Tonight is the private premiere & reception, followed by the commencement in Jazz address at UNO’s spring commencement tomorrow, and the official full premiere at the foot of Elysian Fields at Washington Square Park on Saturday.  

Hello there, WordPress…Virtual U-Haul Time!

I have this propensity to discover a particular webspace, get snug with its look and feel, feed and nurture it, then up and abandon it. I’m constantly renting virtual U-Hauls for myself. It’s a bit peculiar, as it doesn’t seem to translate into any other aspect of my life. I’ve been on this great hunt for an aesthetically pleasing customizable blog host now since livejournal first launched ten years ago – before the word ‘blog’ was coined. Yet, this particular blog’s function stands to minister to my professional development as a maturing ethnomusicologist. I need an online office space where I can post musical memories and experiences.  I do believe one of the roots of my virtual space shifts is that I don’t yet trust hosting services completely – I’m afraid of losing work and memories.  I don’t trust hardware either.  Of course, most people would say I just think too much about it. So far, I’m remarkably at ease and enjoying the mobile capabilities of wordpress. Cheers!

***Please note that I’m adding posts from previous blogs and back-dating them. Anything prior to this post has been back-dated according to its original post date 🙂