Jazz for Early Risers

Last night we listened to John Cleary play his magic at d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street. He’s an amazing one-man show – a legend in New Orleans – stirring the crowd of all ages and all walks of life to movement and joy, as he played that piano and sang to us – giving it his all. Pure magic! After the show, we had drinks at Tujague’s, dinner at Evangeline, and were in bed before midnight. Like some other talented musicians in New Orleans, Cleary started his show at 7p.m.

This morning, we read in the Times Picayune, that another Jazz trumpet legend, Kermit Ruffins, announced that he would begin playing his weekly gigs at Vaughan’s (a traditionally late-night watering hole) also at the very reasonable hour of 7p.m., so that he too could get to bed by midnight! We’re all getting old. We want to go to bed early and get up early. Kermit wants to walk his daughter to school in the morning. I have always been an early riser - and the world has just now caught up to my early-rising habits. We can have our jazz and rise early too! Thank you Kermit! Thank you John Cleary! Jazz makes life worth living and we can now get it live – and early!

Today is Veterans’ Day. I’m thinking of it more now, as history repeats itself. We went to the renowned New Orleans World War 2 Museum this past week, and reviewed once again the horrors and devastating losses – 65,000,000 dead throughout the world! The Museum displayed all too vividly the battles at Normandy, the bombings, the endless horrors throughout the Pacific, the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war. And we walked out of there feeling glum and uneasy. Humans study history so as not to repeat human mistakes, and yet we just do not learn. We just cycle around again, as if determined to self-destruct our species.