1/21 The road to Red Stick. Long drive from St. Louis to Baton Rouge... Frozen water fall flows squeezed out of the layered rock formations on either side of the highway as we headed south, wishing our temperature gauge would rise as fast as our driving. A Boiling Point restaurant below Memphis provided our first taste of really good jumbalaya, and three kinds of cooked oysters, Rockefeller, Bienville, and St. Charles style. Biggest oysters I’ve ever seen. Chased them with a cup of the hottest gumbo we’ve ever eaten. Names like Bogue Chitto and Tickfaw kept us entertained during the constant rain.
1/22 Baton Rouge. A long way to go for no gigs, but dear friends are worthwhile to connect with no matter how far. I wanted to see my long-time musical mentor and instigator of inspiration, Jim Coday. I met him during an audition in junior high school when I was determined to get into his extra-curricular singing group called the “Choraliers” which had put on a spring “Broadway In Revue” show that I’d seen and flipped over. I sang with his high school groups at Blair High School in Pasadena, and with his “Vanity Fair” performing group. We went out to lunch at the French Market Bistro – excrellent! Jim is hale and hearty and thoughtful and as funny as ever. Just as ever, I’m trying to cajole him into taking a trip back to LA to visit many of his students over the years who still keep him close in their hearts. Some have even started a Jim Coday Foundation for the Arts group that funds efforts to enhance musical education in Pasadena.
Another dear friend and colleague of Scott’s, Jeannie Little, teaches trombone at Louisiana State. We attended a concert of their faculty brass quintet. They were adventurous and the evening’s repertoire included a Charles Ives piece and an original piece by another percussion faculty colleague. Later, Jeannie introduced us to a local brewhouse’s etoufee, a southern specialty made with crawdads. Yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment