Haitian Drumming...

I like Haitian music. Sometimes you hear jazz with a real nice clarinet French Creole influence but then there is also the drum. The drum calls up the spirits and as you can see from the following photos of the group Kod Kreyol it's a serious business. 

You know all that twanging banjo, fiddle, steel guitar, dobro country music? Those instruments are descended from the instruments brought to America by enslaved people, Muslim people of sub Sahara Africa. The drum came to Cuba, Haiti and other places and these were brought, made and played by the forest people of Western Africa. That's kind of it in a nut shell but if you want way more than this click the link and buy this  BOOK.  

Speaking of calling the spirits takes us back to the very beginnings of the combinations of various musics and rhythms in the drumming and dancing that took place in Congo Square in New Orleans where the enslaved were allowed to gather on Sunday and basically formed the foundation of our pop music. 

Music and religion go hand in hand. Starting in African and gathering European, Catholic, Caribbean, Native American and Aztec influences you find Vodou. It's a real religion, not at all like the show biz, gift shop thing found in the French Quarter. It has a disinterested supreme being who does not interact with humans but there are other spirits called loas that guide us and have a special interest in watching over our children. I know, it's not Trinitarian but in my faith Heaven and Earth, all the angels and saints are joined in Communion. The dead do have something to teach us. I found a real good blog that explains Vodou, Skull and Bones and other things about New Orleans culture and history so click HERE

Each drum has a unique voice and role in the beat. They aint just banging. 

Saw this guy sing with a couple of different groups. 

This drummer also performed with different groups. I'll get around to blogging about other Haitian and African groups later. 

Marie Leveau alter. It was right by a St. Joseph alter in the Cultural Pavilion, which is a nice new little venue at Jazz Fest to see bands up close . Not a lot of difference in the two alters. Just shows that different people in the world develop similar ideas at the same time.  That's as good a notion as I know that we should all pay attention and respect what each person believes. That will take us all down a path that meets in the spiritual journey. 

     

Congrats Meagan and Sam...

All the family got together for our niece Meagan and Sam's wedding. Took a few photos of the event and tried to get as many of family as I could but I think it turned into mostly grand children photo ops.
The wedding party.

Meagan and Sam 

Great eats! 

Pop and Geneva with daughter in law Sandy and her daughters Samantha and Chandler. 

Peter, Katie and Wallace

Coraline. 

Cathy and her sister Margaret and Rose. 

The cousins! 

Morgan and Ali and that's Parker hiding in there. 

Proud dad and bride. 

Of course some had other interest instead of brides and grooms. 

Gypsy Jazz...

You may have got the idea there is all kind of music at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival if you follow these reports posted here. Here's a couple of bands I'll lump under the name gypsy because if not directly inspired by that pre war genre it is music inspired by a traveling, listening spirit.     

This band was called Tatiana Eve Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band. They are based in New York and are the prime example of the Paris Hot Jazz scene of the 30s and 40s as influnced by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. Look it up, you might like it.

The Avalon Jazz Band.

Tatiana Eve Marie. 

Gypsy Jazz Guitar. Django only used his thumb two fingers on his fretting hand. The other two fingers were paralyzed in the 1920s when the gypsy wagon he lived in caught fire. Never say can't. 

String bass

Fiddle

Here's the drummer. At the jazz fest I'm always on the look out for the guy doing something unusual. This drum kit is two small cymbals, a wood block and you may not be able to tell it but that's washboard laid flat. Sounded like a full set to me. This is a little lesson for you kids out there. You can go buy that name brand instrument you see your favorite guy or gal playing in TV but I got news for you. You won't sound like what's on TV. Throw together something odd or broken and make the music in your heart.   

This was the Tangiers Combo. Their web pages lists their inspiration for sound as French bal musettes, Latin waltzes, the great American songbook and Caribbean beats to connect South Louisiana, North Africa and 1930s Paris.  

I enjoyed the string bass sound. He had the much sought after tuba tone. You know, it sounds like a tuba but it's not. I guess you don't know. As I listened to this band I thought to myself I think I could cover these bass lines on tuba or bass. Makes me wonder how things would have been if I had fell in with a band like this instead of spending so many hours trying to cop "Whipping Post." 

When you saw jazz I bet you thought this was about Kenny G. 

Most people say there is no new good music. How about go out and catch some different music. 

Another Fishing Reort...

On a trip that was me, Cathy and her brother Matt we put 51 catfish and 1 bream in the boat. They were deep. We tried a shallow water spot for about a half hour when we first arrived but no bites. That's not to say they are not shallow. They are everywhere, deep or shallow. They are aggressive.  I was fishing a double hook rig and this little blue cat took both hooks. 

Fishing is good for all. On the left branch you see a big gizzard shad carcass that the ospreys in the nest above have saved for later.   

A cormorant dries his wings

Cathy unhooks. 

Bent pole for Matt. 

Cathy and Matt with a double. 

The tub shot. 

Blackened catfish and grilled garlic butter catfish. 

I'd give a more detailed report but people are hollering about hot grease. 

You Gonna Fish or Write Some Hoodoo Blues Song...

From the swampy looks of this fishing spot I might just have come up with a hoodoo blues song. All you need is a few words about mud, catfish, a woman with a skeeter hawk tattoo on her hip (wait a minute, Tony Joe White done used that) and laying down at the waters edge while it is on a steady rise. Make it an E, G, A progression and you will be good to go. We lazed around on the lake yesterday and I did not really write a song but we went into the water for a swim and caught 14 catfish. We could have kept a few more but with the warming weather we just wanted to make sure we were on the fish when Matt comes for a fishing visit this weekend.  

The bait store tried to sell us some minnows with a report that the crappie are biting at the 147 bridge pilings. They probably are but I typically don't do as well fishing when I try to chase what everybody else is doing. While in the store two guys leaving the lake stopped and reported the catfish had stopped biting when the wind calmed. We got to the lake there was a nice cooling breeze and they were biting. Fish bite all the time. Maybe not where you are at the moment but they bite somewhere. You just got to be there. 

Forecast says 92 tomorrow so we tried out one of our deep spots. There were a few fish there including this nice solid channel cat I caught. Feels kind of good to get my photo on the blog holding a fish for a change. 

Of course there are bird photos. 

Osprey perches on a stick up with a nest in the hazy distance. Not a whole lot of horizontal limbs left in the old dead standing timber to perch on.  

That's not bothering this fellow who is actually the same bird as the last photo. I wondered how many time I have taken the photos of the same birds that hang around my fishing areas. 

Back to that hoodoo thing. I caught three kinds of fish yesterday. Catfish of course, a bream and this gaspergou on a crappie jig. That should be called a Texas Three Toed Pete.  

Sights on the Lake...

Took a canoe tip to the lake today for a little light tackle bream fishing. I caught 30 bream on beetle spins and short paddle tail crappie sliders. You know they say that the famous blues man Howlin' Wolf could eat 50 bream at a sitting. Good thing he won't be over tonight. 

It was a very good day and here are some of the sights. 

This little boat was tied up at the Hank's Creel boat dock this morning. Pretty cute and all rigged for fishing. 

Later after fishing in the campground cove I was headed out and this guy was headed in. My guess he was a camper. The campground dock is out of commission with a missing walk way section so he could not tie up there. 

How the lake looked at 7am. 

These fat boys wanted to play today. In addition to the 30 we kept I had quite a few throw backs. There are no restrictions on these fish but it does not hurt to let the little ones grow a bit. 

Of course an osprey watches it all. 

Blue heron fishes for the same thing I do. 

With a canoe you get up closer than when in the big boat. Not gonna swim in my belly. 

Here's supper. Soon to be swimming in my belly.