The Move to New Orleans - Part IV - Local Saviors

Living in the 9th ward shows a whole other side to the city I fell for and things can get pretty sketchy with serious issues day to day with race, guns, crime, poverty and weather,  Really a few of the local bands saved me from going crazy for the first 6 months. Chris Polacek and his Hubcap Kings started hiring me as a sideman and we were really busy for my first year here. Not once did I hear the guys in the band gripe about the light money getting even lighter with me joining the band. Not once.  I really owe Chris and Andy Rogers big time and I had a blast blowing on their spaced out blues trips.

King James & the Specialmen are and were my escape every Monday night at BJs and provide a sound like an old 45 from Cosimo Matassa's studio. Such discipline and respect for the old New Orleans RnB is rare especially without being stiff and too reverent like a lot of white musicians, They know what they are doing and its a trip watching them grow and the young people digging them so much.

And finally the brass bands blow my mind almost daily and I really am listening to the horn players for their phrasing and their sound,  There is nothing more hair raising than a street brass band blowing and swinging with a bunch maniacs parading behind them around the streets of New Orleans.  It has to be experienced first hand and I cannot really explain the feeling I get. I guess it's similar to the "tight stomach" feeling you got when you went to parades as a kid. The chops these horn players develop come from blowing so hard and long on those second lines, just sheer power.  Right now Kenny Terry is my favorite horn man, (he has a roughness I love) and I am toying with the idea of getting a shirt that says "President - Kenny Terry Fan Club".

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