Needless to say, I had a great time at Friends of the Cabildo’s Hidden Treasures: Music Edition w/a performance by Henry Butler last Wednesday night. What a night, especially for the middle of the week. Started out with happy hour cocktails at the Spotted Cat courtesy of FOC, as thanks for the volunteer tour guides’ efforts during Tauck’s Ken Burns Jazz Experience. FOC’s Special Projects Manager, Jason Strada, (a really great guy who is making terrific strides for FOC & treats the volunteer tour guides wonderfully) handed out Tauck’s thank you gifts.
I have to admit, I expected some lame swag with Tauck’s logo on it, but to my surprise, we got a lot more than that! The bag included the Best of Ken Burns Jazz CD (a partner to his jazz documentary which inspired Tauck’s Jazz event in nola), signed by Ken Burns, himself. We also each got a copy of Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans DVD signed by the filmmaker, Lolis Eric Elie. We’d all watched this DVD while preparing for the jazz tours. I was seriously impressed & very pleased with these gifts! Of course, there was also a pair of cheesy black & gold jazz themed Mardi Gras beads & a box of mints with Tauck’s logo, for good measure…but that’s just a little lagniappe, obviously, the CD & DVD were the main event.
After happy hour, we all walked down Frenchman St. to the Old U.S. Mint for FOC’s Hidden Treasures event. There was more free wine & beer, plus food…much needed after starting off the evening with several drinks on an empty stomach. Once we’d all stuffed ourselves & gotten a few refills, it was time for Henry Butler in the Mint’s brand spanking new performance space (it’s fantastic). Henry Butler plays a mean piano, he had us all tapping our feet…us tour guides appreciated the performance even more after acquiring so much knowledge of nola jazz for those tours, & that appreciation was acknowledged by many proud nods & smirks at each other during the performance.
Fortunately, like any proper nola event, the bar was back open after the performance, so we could drink & schmooze a bit more. That’s when I had the opportunity to meet the great Henry Butler. I heard him ask if there was anymore wine available (BTW, in case you’re not aware, Henry Butler is blind). The bar was just being closed up as Henry asked for some wine, so I asked him what he’d like & then got FOC’s official volunteer tour guide/bartender to pour Mr. Butler a large cup of white wine. I guess he took a liking to me after that…but it was the least I could do, the man had just put on a great performance, & this is New Orleans for god’s sake…guests must be served drinks (even if they don’t perform first)! So, we chatted it up for a bit, we even discussed the fact that I’m a non-practicing Jew that identifies with Woody Allen, my love for nola, his take on NYC (where he currently resides)…I quickly realized that he was hitting on me, I’m pretty dense most of the time, but he wasn’t too subtle. When I say this man is like the nola version of Ray Charles, I’m not at all kidding! The situation was even more odd & amusing b/c FOC’s assistant director had been Mr. Butler’s right-hand lady while he was visiting, she was even holding his walking stick for him. So, she was right by his side while he was putting the moves on me. We exchanged quite a few glances & raised eyebrows, occasionally holding back a giggle. I made a comment about it on Facebook & she later noted that he “LOVED” me & would “treat you right if you ever come up to NYC”. Hey, what can I say, it ain’t a bad connection to make, right?
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