Nobody Swings This Hard

This photo was taken from my seat last night at the Jazz Center, the piano player's dream seat. Allen Toussaint occupied the piano bench for most of the night and Rickie Monie started and finished there when he wasn't playing B-3 organ. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band swings harder than ANY band ANYWHERE, especially with that tuba on the bottom.

And Allen Toussaint is a lot more piano player than I realized. From my perch I could have taken a video and then woodshedded for the next three years or so just to figure it all out.

They played a lot of Toussaint songs, including "Workin' in a Coal Mine" and even 'Southern Nights," which they managed to rock hard, but the highlight was definitely "St. James Infirmary," which they did twice, back-to-back, in completely different versions.

Without doubt, this was the best concert we've seen in ages, and it makes next Spring's trip sound like a no-brainer: NOLA and JazzFest. We haven't been there in nearly fifteen years. Time? Overtime.

PS -- this one row on top of and in back of the stage -- there can't be a better seat in any concert venue in the world.  'WAY better than those hard benches in the real Preservation Hall. And the band sounds a lot better here too.