Dear Reader, peace to you and yours today.  It has been a long, long journey traveling through life since I last spoke up here. I'm glad you made it thru too!

I'm in the City of Angels – which is not too far from Maison Musique – as I am blessedly visiting with my family. It's the perfect time to tell of what I know, and what I love.

My father was a good man. A good man in the true sense. And as his third and youngest son, last of all his children, I…

You've got to fight – and party – for your mind.

Dear Reader, yours truly am a man of few words today. Here, out from under T.S. Lee [Allen] all is cool... almost calm, and necessarily collected. Labor Day '11... so far, so wet... and not as wild as one would expect.

Honestly, I feel more threatened by the storms of “Peak-Media-Season '11” than by any force of nature.…

“Eat the rich!”

Welcome back Dear Reader; and Happy August to you. While I have long maintained that happiness (as in: “the pursuit of...”) is highly overrated, I do sincerely hope that you are now and have been playing it cool... all the way; and I submit this small buffet of thought.

A quarter of a century ago, the phrase, “eat the rich” first entered my consciousness by way of a song which was written and recorded by one of America's truest originals.…

There is a great awakening occurring now.

In my times as a New Yorker, I had the opportunity to work as a member of the cast of a musical entitled, A Tapestry of Dreams. This play was conceived and written by a man named, Nat Bucknell; the music was composed by the noted, Carol Hall.

In one scene, I delivered the line, “The Japanese character for crisis, also means enlightenment.” This is, as far as I can tell, a great truth of nature which the Jazz man is…

Dear Reader, with summer '11 upon us, and the Mississippi river subsiding within us, and storm season again taking its rightful place, [ALL HAIL...!] I say: Here's to time!

I am glad to be back home in New Orleans; where one can't go too, too far without bumping into to some sign or plaque acknowledging our history. [I can't help but joke about the sign which was placed, not too long ago, at the end of my block stating the name of my neighborhood as the "Suburb…

“Roll with the punches!” 

Danny Barker had a bold, and oftentimes, daring perspective on seemingly anything and everything under the sun.

He unflinchingly viewed the foibles of human life with a wry sense of humor and a deep self-knowing; both of which were hallmarks of his singular style.

He summed up his life's ethos as the quintessential Jazz journeyman, offering the words which with I open this day's very special post. Danny Barker…

My fellow Americans... and dear Readers everywhere, let us take a few moments to hear Mr. Barker's address: The State of the Smile.

Smile.wav

And the whole world will smile with you!

Peace & Pops,

Esquizito

Maison Musique, New Orleans

esquizito.com

My Catalogue of CD's Available Thru A Locally…

Eleven. 

One up...…