I always enjoy playing at the Blue Nile. It's one of the three clubs in New Orleans that I consider landmarks in my musical career. When I was in high school I played every Sunday at the Maple Leaf with Trombone Shorty to next to nobody. It's also where I played less than 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina... when we paraded around uptown not knowing what was in store for us. When things started to pick up, we played almost twice a month over at the Blue Nile. The crowds ranged from sparse to sold out. It was home. We used to play 5 hour sets !! How did we ever accomplish that!? Eventually, through the Tips Foundation and the ever growing shows I played there with Trombone Shorty, Tipitinas became a favorite of mine. Each of these buildings are special not only to me but to anyone who frequents them.
Blue Nile was special last Friday when, for the second time, I played there with my own band "Happy Jack Frequency", warming up the stage for the Soul Rebels. The air was vibrant; the music and energy flowing before the first downbeat was ever counted off. The Saints were at 13-0, still undefeated and there was an NFL Network camera crew set up to tape excerpts of the show.
Armed with our Saint's t-shirts and a new set list that we had been rehearsing diligently over the past few weeks we hit the stage opening up with the Beatles' Come Together and The King's of Leone's Use Somebody. Man, did we sound good. Hands down, this was our best show as a group. Accompanied by the tremendous efforts of our bassist Charles Lumar learning the music only one week before the show (our other bass player is in national guard boot camp right now), the band hit a musical high. Guitarist Matt Clark and I worked out some vocal harmonies and I even brought my saxophone to take some solos. Why hadn't I been doing that before?
Looking back at the last decade of my musical career, (the weekly gig at Maple Leaf began in 2001) so much has changed. Record companies have died, MTV no longer plays music, and youtube and facebook have become (what seems to be) the source of everything. And all this without mentioning 9/11 or Katrina, or anything else. It was never simple, but I feel as if things are less clear cut right now; which is both beautiful and appalling at the same time. Where do we go from here? To where do I, as a musician or a band leader chart my course? The future is now and the slate has been wiped as clear as it will be for our lifetimes... most likely.
The truth is that we have nowhere to go, but have the ability to go anywhere we could (or couldn't) possibly imagine.
The time is now... this little project of mine, is about to become 10 times greater than before but i won't count those eggs before they're hatched so...
stay tuned to the Happy Jack Frequency.
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