The evening of the kids' performance at the
competition was to be the fulfillment of a dream that Dick Brunelle had for
years, that of taking a group of his jazz choir kids onto the streets of the
French Quarter and just having them perform at the drop of a hat, as he
imagined people did there. It wasn't quite what he expected.
With boom box and piano accompaniment tape in
hand, we joined the crowds at the Jazz Festival in the French Quarter and
discovered that trying to keep 28 people together in a crowd of drunks was
well nigh impossible. Bourbon Street, we discovered, had become quite
sleazy and was one t-shirt/junk souvenir shop after another, with a club or
two thrown in, many of them playing what sounded to me more like rock than
jazz.
The streets, in places, reeked of vomit and
from the smell, the crunch of the crowd and the overall feel of the place,
one of the girls started feeling ill and wanted to return to the hotel.
But we pushed on and actually found a fairly empty spot on the street, where
the kids decided to do Birdland. The show choir from Alabama
was also there and helped form a circle so the kids could get started.
They did their whole number, some more
embarrassed than others (Comment from Jeff afterwards: I've done
some embarrassing things in my life--and this is one of them!) The
Alabama group then put on one of their tapes, a rap number, and did some of
their own dancing. It was all kind of silly, but fun and memorable,
and it was nice for the interaction between the two groups.
By now some people were getting disgruntled
at all this stifling "togetherness," especially Jeff, who longed to get into
a club and listen to some jazz. Dick seemed to be feeling a little
unhappy that it wasn't all going well. We left Bourbon Street to go to
Royal Street, which was a little less sleazy and Dick suggested that Walt
and I take Jeff and David and whoever else wanted to go to a club and just
go off quietly on our own. But just at that time, we met Darrell Johnson.
Johnson was standing on a corner and started doing a tap dance for us as we
passed by. The kids crowded around him and someone encouraged Mara to
dance with him. Soon Mara and Patrick were both dancing.
At the conclusion of the dance, Johnson said
he was going to "sing a song for y'all" and launched into a Louis Jordan
song. Louis Jordan happened to be Jeff's favorite singer in the world,
so Jeff started singing with him, with the choir singing the verse.
This turned into about a 15 minute jam session and was by far the highlight
of the whole trip.
 |
| This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. |
At the conclusion of the singing and dancing
with Johnson, the kids decided that since he had performed for them, they
would perform for him. Out came the boom box, Johnson blew his police
whistle to direct traffic so that it wouldn't run the kids down, and they
went through about four of their numbers, drawing an audience and collecting
more money for Johnson.
As the fourth number was ending, a police
officer came up to ask if anyone had a license. That pretty
effectively ended the show, but it was truly one of those moments that just
"happen," that can't be planned, and that help erase any discomfort or
inconvenience that has gone on before or might come after. It was a
night we will all long remember
By now it was getting late, we were all on a
high and we decided that jazz in any club would be anticlimactic, so we just
headed back to the hotel, stepping over the bodies on the ground and trying
not to notice the foul odor or pile of excrement on the streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment