Comments on: Listening to the Water http://stuckbetweenstations.org/2007/08/29/listening-to-the-water/ Music matters as if music mattered Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:22:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: shacker http://stuckbetweenstations.org/2007/08/29/listening-to-the-water/comment-page-1/#comment-149 shacker Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:25:34 +0000 http://stuckbetweenstations.org/2007/08/29/listening-to-the-water/#comment-149 On a motorcycle trip across country in 1994 or so, I found myself trapped in New Orleans. Not due to any mechanical or financial meltdown, but because the city seduced me. On the first night, wandering the French Quarter, I wandered into a club where the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were playing, and got sucked quickly and deeply into the rhythms. The band came down off the stage and danced / conga-lined their way through the audience -- not just for a couple minutes, but for a good chunk of the show. The Meters meet Sun Ra. I had never felt so physically involved by jazz. Spent the next few days and nights finding music tucked away in every nook and cranny of the city. Also ate some bad shrimp and puked my guts out in a cemetery, but that's another story. I thought about that visit a lot in the wake of Katrina, and wondered if things would ever be the same. "The sound is in the water." I love that. Zigaboo, of course, is also the name of <a href="http://stuckbetweenstations.org/2007/07/21/monksdream/" rel="nofollow">Rinchen's</a> cat. On a motorcycle trip across country in 1994 or so, I found myself trapped in New Orleans. Not due to any mechanical or financial meltdown, but because the city seduced me. On the first night, wandering the French Quarter, I wandered into a club where the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were playing, and got sucked quickly and deeply into the rhythms. The band came down off the stage and danced / conga-lined their way through the audience — not just for a couple minutes, but for a good chunk of the show. The Meters meet Sun Ra. I had never felt so physically involved by jazz.

Spent the next few days and nights finding music tucked away in every nook and cranny of the city. Also ate some bad shrimp and puked my guts out in a cemetery, but that’s another story.

I thought about that visit a lot in the wake of Katrina, and wondered if things would ever be the same. “The sound is in the water.” I love that.

Zigaboo, of course, is also the name of Rinchen’s cat.

]]>