Art and Photography Blog

Photos of My Top Twelve 2013 Jazz and Heritage Festival Sets: Part 1

This was my first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival so I bought a WWOZ Brass Pass to attend every day. I was not disappointed as there were some amazing performances. What follows are my favorite performances. The common thread in these was high energy and an intense connection with the audience. I saw many other musicians that I really like but these Jazz Fest sessions moved me the most. I could not pick a best so the following are listed in alphabetical order.

The first six are in this post and the next five follow in two days.

James Andrews packed high energy with a group of strong New Orleans musicians.

          

Roy Ayers did his smooth jazz magic and signed my CD at the end.

          

The Bolton Brothers were a strong Gospel group that got the audience engaged in their efforts.

        

The Campbell Brothers provided Gospel themed blues and provided a lot of power in their message.

        

Jimmy Cliff generated a lot of energy at the Congo Square stage in front of a muddy field.

        

George Duke and Stanley Clarke played some wonderful jazz together. I was sad to learn that George passed in August and feel fortunate to have seen him. 

    

  

Painting: New Orleans Acoustic Blues Guitarist

Here is a 24” x 24” acrylic painting of acoustic blues guitarist. It is Alvin Youngblood Hart playing at Chicki Wah Wah in New Orleans. It was playing with the contrast of shadow and light. This is part of a series I have been doing on New Orleans musicians including Ed Wills and Jon Cleary.

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

In New Orleans there are currently paintings hanging at two of my favorite New Orleans restaurants. One is the music club with great food, Buffa's. It is open 24/7 and is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave. (504) 949-0038.  Hera is a post on the opening: My Paintings Are Up at Buffa's Backroom. The other is  Riccobono's Panola Street Cafe. Here is a post describing the showing. It is located at 7801 Panola Street (504 314-1810). You can also contact me to see more of them. 

Photos of the Many Reasons I Love New Orleans: Part 3

In August we came back to New Orleans for four nights, three days after an extended road trip to the cool Northwest before heading to a Greek island, Samos. Now that I am back in town this is the third in a three part series summer delights in our city. I already listed over twelve reasons in the first two posts so this is lagniappe (aka known as a little extra) with twenty more reasons.

One: We arrived late on a Wednesday but found O’Henry’s open late for dinner. It is a neighborhood place I have driven by many times but had not yet stopped with so many other choices. The food was excellent and warrants a return. We had crawfish and corn bisque, fried catfish with crawfish Monica sauce, mushrooms and jambalaya, salad with shrimp. It is located at 634 S Carrollton Ave. (504) 866-9741

        

Two: The next night we went to the Three Muses for music and food. For food we had Bird’s Nest Shrimp salad, Serrano wrapped scallops, Korean BBQ ribs, peach almond mascarpone empanada with blueberry Creole cream cheese ice cream. It is located at 36 Frenchmen St (504) 252-4801. I had heard good things about the food there. I now think it is the best food on Frenchmen but I have a few more to sample.

        

Three: We also saw Sarah Quintana do a nice Happy Hour set at Three Muses. We have seen her before and have her CD. She sang several songs in French for some visitors. 

    

Four: Debbie Davis followed up Sarah with a quartet that included Alex McMurray (guitar), Josh Paxton (piano) and Matt Perrine (sousaphone).  I have heard her with the New Orleans Nightingales and the Pfister Sisters on several occasions. Her quartet was wonderful.

    

Five and Six: Walking back to our car we heard Water Seed at Vaso. Their sound was inviting and high energy. We stopped in for the rest of their set. My friend knew the bass player as she taught him in school. New Orleans is such a small town we often see people we know. They add flute to new school R&B. We bought their two CDs. Vaso is located at 1407 Decatur (504) 272-0929.

    

Seven: The next day for lunch we went to Willie Mae’s Scotch House for the best fried chicken in America (as voted by several organizations), along with a salad, excellent smothered veal and fried okra. It is located at 2401 St Ann St. (504) 822-9503

    

Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven: Then we stopped at the Louisiana Music Factory for some presents to bring to my friend in Greece. He has James Brown as his ring tone so I wanted to give him some NOLA R&B. The second volume of the Cosmo Matassa collection supplied 112 songs that I supplemented with some Dave Bartholomew, Heavy Sugar, and a Fats Dominocollection. It is located at 210 Decatur St. (504) 586-1094.

Twelve: Next it was on to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for a cruise through of their extensive collection. It is located at 25 Camp St. (504) 539-9600.

Thirteen: On the way home we stopped at Rouse’s at 4500 Tchoupitoulas, a Louisiana food chain for some fresh local drum for dinner. They always have a good selection of local products.

Fourteen: Once home we watched the Saints win their second exhibition game over the Raiders. The starters looked great and had a 23-7 lead at the half. The subs held on for a 28 – 20 win. This could be the season to repeat 2009 now that the coach is back and they have a new defensive coordinator.

Fifteen: For lunch the next day we truned to our neighborhood convience store, Oak Discount. It as fine fried chicken to go and excellent poboys made to order. The 16 inch fried trout poboy is only $7 and inlcudes a free 12 oz drink. For a few dollars more you get fried shrimp or fried oyster. The 16 inch is usually only 2 dollars extra over the 8 inch and easily makes lunch for two. There are many small neighborhood stores with similar food and prices around the city. You can see the two halves below and then one openned. 

  

Sixteen and Seventeen - Spontaneous second lines can happen at any time. We were walking over to see the silent auction to support the Krewe of Oak and its mid summer Mardi Gras parade on August 31. I donated a couple of paintings to the effort. The Krewe of Oak operates out of the Maple Leaf Bar and has been marching during carnival for some time. There are a lot of expenses to cover for the August event. On the way we encountered a band coming up to the street to honor the openning of a new doctor's office on Oak Street. 

        

Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty: That night we went to the New Orleans Botanical Garden for an August garden party with Johnny Sansone with Alex McMurray. Johnny does some powerful blues harmonica and accordian. Alex was doing very strong bluesy electric guitar, quite different than his gig with Debbie Davis two nights ealrier. They were followed by Bonerama, a well known brass and funk group. We have seen both groups at other festivals before. It got dark so here is an earlier shot of Bonerama at Bayou Bogaloo. 

      

  

This was a lot to pack into three days and four nights but this is normal for NOLA. 

Photos of the Many Reasons I Love New Orleans: Part 2

In July we came back to New Orleans for eight nights after an extended road trip to the way too hot Northeast. We need our fix of New Orleans music before going to Seattle at the beginning of August so we did eight bands over six nights. It was to be nine but the Circle Bar did not update their web site to let us know that Emily and the Velvet Ropes did their last set at the Circle Bar last week. The OZ calendar was also wrong. We learned to actually call in the summer to see if the musicians are really going to play.

Despite the two no-shows in the heat of late July the city brought a rich and varied selection of styles and venues, including some of our favorites and some new ones for us. We also sampled a little food but having eaten a lot of road food we kept that to three places.  Here is part two with the last twelve. There are also four others bands mentioned that we see when we can.

Seven and Eight:  When we were in Vermont we saw that Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses were playing at the Fourth of July celebration in Montpelier. We could not stay as we had to be done the road for dinner. We were pleased that she and her band had their usual gig at Maison on Monday night. When we got there we found out that Aurora was still In Vermont with another band. However, the real Royal Roses with a new clarinet player did a nice job of trad jazz and we still pleased we came. We also see Aurora with Tom McDermott at Buffa’s on Thursday on a regular basis.

  

Nine: We live near the Maple Leaf and used to go the 101 Runners drum practice where one of neighbors played at 8pm before carnival but most of the bands appear later than we like. We make do exceptions for bands like the 101 Runners when the full band plays late. So we were very pleased to see than one of our favorites, Jon Cleary with the Absolute Monster Gentlemen had taken over the Papa Grows Funk Monday slot and moved up their start to 9PM. We often saw Jon do his solo act at d.b.a and Chicki Wah Wah but his whole band is extended joy. They even actually started at 9. It was a great show and we look forward to making it a regular Monday night visit this fall. I have done two paintings of Jon based on photos I took at Chicki Wah Wah seen below.

    
  

Ten: On Tuesday we met a friend at the High Hat Café for lunch. This is one of the many neighborhood places that have been around for a while. It serves food from the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana. There is a long list of neighborhood places we have been to but this was new for me. We will return for sure. We had BBQ Shrimp with Pimento Cheese Grits and Spicy Seared Gulf Red Fish with New Potato and Shrimp Hash. We could resist sharing a piece of Chocolate Chess Pie with vanilla ice cream for desert. The High Hat is located at 450 Freret Street, New Orleans. 504-754-1336. 

        

On Tuesday we had planned to start at the Circle Bar but when we got there we found out that they did not update their web site to let us know that Emily and the Velvet Ropes did their last set at the Circle Bar last week. We had seen Emily last year at Mimi’s in the Marigny and was pleased to see that she was back, although that was an illusion. As I mentioned, having been burned twice in the same week, we learned to actually call ahead and speak to a person in the summer to see if the designated musicians are really going to play.

Eleven: So we stopped by and checked on out second planned stop for the night, John Rankin at the Columns Hotel and they confirmed his 8PM start. John is a friend and we have enjoyed his Columns set several times. He brings in different guests so there is a good variety. This night John was solo and this is also a very relaxed and pleasant experience. He did some Spanish guitar, along with a lot of old New Orleans stuff and several of his own songs.  My grandmother ran the Columns Hotel in the 1950s and I have many childhood memories of the place. There is a majestic stained glass skylight at the top of the stairs going up to the rooms. She lived on the top floor so I saw it every time I went up to her room.

    
  

Twelve: Chiba is one of our favorite places in New Orleans and it is one of the twenty great places within walking distance of our home. Here is an early post I did: Chiba: Great Japanese Food with a New Orleans Twist. This night we did small plates: cucumber seaweed salad, pork and crawfish fried dumplings, vegetable tempura, freid oyster, shrimp tempura, and short rib steamed buns, bananas foster egg roll with icream, blue berry bread pudding with ice cream. It was all fresh and wonderful.  Chiba is located at 8312 Oak Street (504) 826-9119. They do take out but we enjoy sitting at the bar watching all the new drinks being prepared. If you are coming to the city, add it to your list of places to eat.

          
    

Photos of the Many Reasons I Love New Orleans: Part 1

In July we came back to New Orleans for eight nights after an extended road trip to the way too hot Northeast. It was ironic that New Orleans was cooler than New York, Boston, Vermont, and Quebec. We need our fix of New Orleans music before going to Seattle at the beginning of August so we did nine bands over six nights. In the heat of late July the city brought a rich and varied selection of styles and venues, including some of our favorites and some new ones for us. We also sampled a little food but having eaten a lot of road food we kept that to three places, two favs and one new. There are many other places to eat with over 1330 now, up from 800 before Katrina. The three covered here are all great but just happen to be the ones we fit into our July stay. 

One: The first night we saw Alvin Youngblood Hart playing at Chicki Wah Wah on Canal Street. He played a solo acoustic set of roots blues. I had seen his full band at French Quarter festival where he had a more of a hard rock edge. This night Alvin focused a lot of his guitar playing and revoked a feeling of early Mississippi Delta blues. I though about how in New Orleans there is no greater concentration of working musicians than in any other city I have experienced. I did a painting that you can see below of Alvin based on one of the photos I took. This was just the first night.

        

Two: On our second night we went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for their After Hours program. Dave Malone who did vocals and guitar with the Radiators. The Radiators were together for 33 years and had a strong cult following in NOLA. He was there with his daughter, Darcy on vocals, and a base player and keyboard player. They did many great covers of songs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, what Dave called the “golden decade.”  There were also a few recent original songs by Dave. There were sings by the Kinks, Beatles, BeeGees, Surpremes, and others, along with a great three-song medley featuring Darcy on vocals then went from the Ronnettes to the Kinks and ended up with the Shirelles. Dave did the Beatles on a banjo. Dave seemed to be having so much fun, it was catching. We will be back for more Ogden After Hours programs.

  

Three: On our third night we saw Robin Barnes at the Carousel Lounge at the Monteleone Hotel. It was a bit more upscale than the places we tend to go. Her band included her father on electric bass, a drummer and piano. We had seen Robin at French Quarter Festival and became an instant fan. She sings Soul music in a style similar to Roberta Flack but is certainly her own singer. The venue was a bad place to actually hear music, as the crowd was more interested in hearing their own conversations and the acoustics are bad. 

We managed to pull a big chair up between us and the crowd that was close enough to Robin to hear and her band. They did a great show of mostly R&B covers. On the last number she did Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” and a large group of young men next to us joined in to show that there was some life in the crowd. We look forward to hearing her in better venues, as Robin is one of the young NOLA singers who will certainly do well.  At one point she gave the vocals to her father for Mustang Sally, leaning over to hold the mic for him.

  

  

Four: We were going to see two familiar solid trad jazz bands on Frenchmen Street on Saturday night (Panorama Jazz Band and Smoking Time Jazz Club - they could be reasons 13 and 14). However, we had friends from Mississippi in town and we ate at Boucherie in our neighborhood, another reason why I love New Orleans.  Among other dishes we had Crispy Skin Duck Confit with Summer Succotash & Roasted Garlic Toast and Smoked Wagyu Beef Brisket with Garlicky Parmesan Fries. It is located at 8115 Jeannette Street, just off Carollton.504-862-5514. 

Five: On, Sunday, the fourth music night, we did a double header to make up. We also knew we had trad jazz on Frenchmen well covered on Monday as you will see in my next post. First, there was Cajun dancing to Bruce Daigrepont at Tipitina’s. We go to his Sunday Cajun Fais Do-Do several times a month. There was good crowd for a hot Sunday in July but the AC helped and we danced the first set. Bruce is great and we really love his fiddle player shown below. 

      

Six: Next, we went to Vaso hear electric blues from Ed Wills and his band, Blues4Sale. Ed added a wonderful harmonica player from Japan, along a new bass player, his usual keyboardist and drummer.  Ed is another musician we see frequently as I feel he plays the best classic electric blues in the city. We often see him at BMC on Wednesdays but this was the second time we caught his Sunday set at Vaso. Here is a post on his last BMC set. I did a painting of him based on a photo from BMC and you can see it below. 

  
    

Painting: Boat in Port of Ormos Greece

I am spending some time in Mytilini, a mountian village in the island of Samos, Greece. Samos is located a mile off the Turkish coast. Here is a 16" x 20" arcylic paining of a the front of a boat in th eport of Ormos on the island. 

I an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday September 28 is the next market. I will be back in New Orleans then and will have a booth and offer paintings for sale.

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

Painting: Church in Mytilini Greece

I am spending some time in Mytilini, a mountian village in the island of Samos, Greece. Samos is located a mile off the Turkish coast. Here is a 16" x 20" arcylic paining of a the front of a boat in th eport of Ormos on the island. 

I an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday September 28 is the next market. I will be back in New Orleans then and will have a booth and offer paintings for sale.

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

Photos of Jeffersonville VT's Fourth of July Parade

We were in Jeffersonville Vermont to visit my daughter who is the Editor-in-Chief at Alpinist Magazine with its office in the town.  The town held a robust celebration as described on their website. “An old-fashioned July 4th celebration begins with a parade at 10 a.m., followed by carnival with games and vendors, kids' games, food and live entertainment by the Starline Rhythm Boys at 11 a.m. Don't forget the world famous frog jumping contest! Starting at 5 p.m., Smugglers' Resort hosts a Firemen's Barbecue on the Green. Goodtime Charlie spins tunes for all ages on the Green from 6 to 8 p.m. The Vermont National Guard 40th Army Band plays a mix of classic favorites and patriotic tunes beginning at 8 p.m. At dusk, enjoy the spectacular fireworks against the backdrop of the Green Mountains.”

Here are photos from the parade. Like New Orleans parades, they even threw stuff to those on the streets. It was mostly candy but there were some beads and we managed to obtain some. The phrase "Vermnot strong" was prominent, as were fire engines from many of the surrounding towns. At the bottom you can see the sunset over the Green Mountains and the firewroks, 

                                         

Photos of Paleo Karlovasi and Potami on Samos Island, Greece

Last year I spend the month of April in Samos, a Greek island just a mile off the Turkish coast. I participated in three excellent day-long experiences with Giorgos Matthaiou (Γιώργος Ματθαίου) and Samos Outdoors. Here is a link to a post on each of them: Central Mountains,Interior of Western Mountains, and Hike to Seitani Beaches. Now that I am back in Samos again, I reconnected with Giorgos and his new partner, Dimitris Dermanis (Δημήτρης Δερμάνης)  for more outdoor experiences and to learn more about the island, its people, and culture. The first day included exploring Paleo Karlovasi and the falls at Potami with a nice hike in between.

We met Dimitris in the port of Karlovasi and made our first stop at a fish shop. Giorgos was in Athens for the week but we will see him on our next trip. You pick your fish and then they cook it so it is still fresh and warm at the arranged pick up time. The next stop was at the traditional settlement (the old part of the town) of Karlovasi or Paleo. It was set back from the sea and up in the hills to offer protection from the pirates. The town climbed several hills with a church at the top of the highest one, as you can see below. As with most of the towns there were a number of churches, mostly small. You can usually see several in any direction you look. We stopped at two on the way up the hill out of town. People would offer small metal tokens with an image of their wishes, such as a repaired leg or a new baby as you see in the first of the second set of pictures. 

    
          

Then we hiked to the Agios Antonios cave, to go to the little church built inside. We needed headlights as the cave goes deep into the hillside and the church is in total darkness. There were many stalactites. Dimitris said they can take hundreds of years to form. The cave was used by the resistance during World War Two.

        

After the cave, we hiked on down the hill to the more modern church at Potami and the wide beach.  This trail was the only way to get to Potami until the built the auto road thirty years ago.  The trail is likely thousands of years old and it had a very ancient feel. The walls that created the terraces beside the olive trees are also ancient as are many of the trees themselves. Every few years they cut the top branches so that new shoots arise from the trunk and trees does not get too tall to make harvesting the olives difficult. You can see the beach below the pictures of the trail and the intense clarity of the water.

    

  

Next we went to the Byzantine church of Metamorfosi and then to the waterfalls of Potami for a swim. Along ther stream are some very large and hollow Maple trees. Dimtris said that there are three things that are required for a Greek villages: a church, a large Maple tree in the middle of the village sqaure (or sometimes a Plane tree) and a taverna or cafe under the tree. The walls of the narrow canyon close in on the stream before the falls and you have to wade through the water to get to falls. Getting into the steam was a cool refreshment after our hike. There are a series of three falls.

        

We stopped at the Karlovasi winery for a tasting and picked up a few bottles before getting our fish. We ate the fresh cooked and still warm fish in a small park over looking the old town completing our circular journey. We had the view shown in the very first picture at the top of this post. 

        

On the way back to our friend’s house in Mytilini we stopped at the pastry shop in Aghios Konstantions recommended by Dimtris for some immediate ice cream and pastries for later. There is a statue of a large ice cream cone eating another smaller ice cream cone. We had melon and vanilla on one and pistachio and cherry vanilla on the other. It was a great day and we look forward to our next experience with Dimtris and Giorgos at Samos Outdoors. This time we plan to hike between two mountain villages and Giorgos will join us also.  I highly recommend a visit to Samos Island and engaging Samos Outdoors when you go there.