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The Big Easy Needs You!
Can New Orleans be even better than it was before?
Almost two years after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, I'm in New Orleans, hanging out with the charming but occasionally prickly jazz trumpeter/vocalist Jeremy Davenport. I first met the boyishly good-looking Davenport in the fall of 2005 when he played a New Orleans benefit at the Shores Hotel in kitschy Daytona, Florida (so random). He may be one of the big fish of the Big Easy, having been mentored by legend Ellis Marsalis and toured for years with Harry Connick Jr., but there is nothing easy about Jeremy. His BS detector is always on high alert and conversing with him is a bit like butting heads with a mountain goat, but that's why I like him. Who else peppers smooth jazz standards with editorial about Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby?
Jeremy spends half his week in New York City, where he revels in being just another anonymous working musician getting coffee at the corner deli. Then he flies to New Orleans (via the super-smooth 2 1/2 hour Jet Blue direct flight from JFK) and dons the designer suit and tie for his long-standing weekend gig at The Ritz Carlton New Orleans. His show resumed in January when the hotel reopened, in all its grandeur. Sting and Lenny Kravitz have recently jumped on stage with Davenport, completely unannounced, and he draws everyone from elegant fifty-somethings to tube-topped twenty-somethings.
So, how does he feel about being back? "Not good,'' he sighs, sipping not his first scotch on the rocks of the night. "I love this town but at this point I wonder if its not a bit like polishing a turd."
I think (?) he's referring to the angry frustration that locals of all economic backgrounds feel toward stalled recovery efforts and rumored government corruption. I see evidence of it myself - though the French Quarter is in near pristine condition, meaning the strip bars and sex shops are ready for binge-drinkers to return in droves. But is that really the best the city can do? Here's an idea - maybe it should come back BETTER than before?
Jeremy spends half his week in New York City, where he revels in being just another anonymous working musician getting coffee at the corner deli. Then he flies to New Orleans (via the super-smooth 2 1/2 hour Jet Blue direct flight from JFK) and dons the designer suit and tie for his long-standing weekend gig at The Ritz Carlton New Orleans. His show resumed in January when the hotel reopened, in all its grandeur. Sting and Lenny Kravitz have recently jumped on stage with Davenport, completely unannounced, and he draws everyone from elegant fifty-somethings to tube-topped twenty-somethings.
So, how does he feel about being back? "Not good,'' he sighs, sipping not his first scotch on the rocks of the night. "I love this town but at this point I wonder if its not a bit like polishing a turd."
I think (?) he's referring to the angry frustration that locals of all economic backgrounds feel toward stalled recovery efforts and rumored government corruption. I see evidence of it myself - though the French Quarter is in near pristine condition, meaning the strip bars and sex shops are ready for binge-drinkers to return in droves. But is that really the best the city can do? Here's an idea - maybe it should come back BETTER than before?
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