Let the Games Begin... Again.

Traditions are an important thing here in New Orleans. The local corner convenience store guy could probably give you a 150 year history of the spot you'd be standing in at that moment. The people take a great pride in the sordid past of their city which is full of colorful characters like pirates, slaves, French soldiers, musical pioneers, and so on. It truly is like no other city in the world.

Back to the future in 2007, we have our own JazzFest traditions that must be upheld. One for me is the Wednesday night show at Tipitina's with Garage A Trois in the hopes of hearing the beautiful melody of "Angel Nemali" that I fell in love with at JazzFest years ago. This quartet has undergone a personnel change and instead of the bass/guitar sounds of Charlie Hunter, joining Skerik, Stanton Moore, and Mike Dillon this time is Marco Benevento = Garage A Benevento.

So what is gone without Charlie? Well, that "Angel Nemali" for one. The mellow island vibe is pretty much gone. They could bust it out again possibly but it just doesn't feel like it's ever around the corner. What we do gain with Marco, though, is pretty outta sight. It seems as though he is pushing the rest of them to take it up one more notch. He's leading the charge much of the time doing his seamless segues from one tune to another. The best little cover bust-out theme was The Zombie's "She's Not There" which made an appearance in the first set and then again in the second set. Skerik started to do some flow about the color of her hair and that the fact that she was not there. It got pretty raucous and then they went into "Gimme Some Lovin." There was a little Bustle bust out with Zep's "What Is and What Should Never Be" which made me miss Joey, Dave and Scotty a little. But it was so great to see this band rock it without even really missing a guitar at any point. Pretty cool shtuff.

Skerik and Marco came out for a lovely piece of music - not sure what it was - but featured the straight up beautiful sax without the phonics. Sometimes it can just make you melt. Maybe that "Angel" will come back someday anyway.