Po Boy and the Groove

Po Boy
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

Last night, The Great Plotnik dreamt about the New Orleans Shuffle. He was eating an oyster po' boy, on a stage somewhere, playing in a band, when his turn to solo came up. He put down the po' boy and began playing a chorus of 12-bar blues, then another, then another, then another. Usually the dream cuts out before he can really get going, but last night he was allowed to play as long as he felt like it, in a New Orleans shuffle with the most comfortable and swinging groove. When he left a little space, the horns filled it in. At the end of every 12th bar the drums played the transition into Bar One of the next section. Whoever was playing bass knew Plotnik's fingerprints. It felt so good Plotnik never wanted to stop, but to do that he'd have had to keep dreaming.

When he awoke, his fingers were still twitching and the music was still in his head, where it is right now. He did not have to speak with Doctor Cigar to know the meaning of his dream.

In the end, New Orleans lives on, as strong as ever. The rhythm of the streets, the cries of the trombones, the smells of the river, the garlic, the gumbo and the oyster po' boys, the blare of the trumpets and the blood of the nation, live on. No puny little rain can stop it, no flood and no dislocation, as long as its groove cuts us as deeply as it always did, always does and always will.