The Big Easy - A Visit to New Orleans

What a fascinating city is New Orleans! The music, the food, the people, the history, the terrain, the trees, the bodies of water all around. While I’ve been to “The Big Easy” in the past for conferences, I never really had the opportunity to spend much time there. I was quite excited at the prospect of attending JazzFest for the first time in April/May of this year and spending 10 days in NOLA, my first longish stint in a southern city. And that too, the birthplace of its most beloved son Louis Armstrong, legendary trumpeter after whom the airport is named.

Preparation:

I love maps, and knowing where various places are in proximity to where I am staying. I dashed down to my local AAA office, picked up a tour book for Louisiana and Mississippi (which included a good section on New Orleans) and two maps: one of the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, and another of New Orleans. On the flight over from San Jose to Houston and then onward to New Orleans, I read my tour book and got increasingly excited.

Even though the tour book was somewhat “whitewashed” with barely any mention of the history of slavery in New Orleans, it was otherwise quite informative in terms of historical landmarks, cultural activities, architecture and food.

The Old Man River

As my flight approached New Orleans, I was thrilled to get a bird’s eye view of the winding Mississippi. The Old Man River. Even though I had seen it before, once in New Orleans and once in Memphis, I am always moved by its history. From its name, derived from the Native American Misi-ziibi (Great River) to its economic, cultural and literary significance.

I was warned by many of the weather in New Orleans. So warm, they said and worse, so humid! Having grown up in India, I was unfazed. You have to have the right clothes, I thought to myself, and packed all my usual India clothes. Loose light cotton. Walking out of the airport, I felt comfortable, as I always do in such climates. It reminds me of home. 

Arrival

I was immediately struck by the trees. Driving along the Esplanade to the Merigny where we were staying, they were beautiful, tall shade-giving trees lining the streets. Later on walks through the neighborhood and also in the garden district, I found out what the gorgeous trees were. Southern Live Oak. As beautiful as the California Valley, Oak and Live Oak, but with slightly different leaves. There were many beautiful magnolias, some with huge white blooms on them, as well as the elegant crape myrtles with somewhat pale, smooth trunks, reaching up into the sky with lovely leaves swaying. 

The architecture too is fascinating. The iconic French Quarter is lined with buildings with wrought iron balconies, and most people attribute it the style to France. Not so, I learned!  The French built less enduring buildings that would inevitably get washed away as the river rose. These more permanent structures by the Spanish colonizers. History of New Orleans | Spanish

Highlights

Music!

I had not attended the music festival before, and JazzFest is incredible. They were about a dozen stage of scattered across the fairgrounds. Jazz Tent, Gospel Tent, Blues Tent, Fais Do Do, the Gentilly Stage, the main Festival Stage and various others.

My favorite was The Economy Hall tent. It played music that was traditional to New Orleans, bringing such a feeling of contentment and well-being. I felt such calmness and joy pervade through my mind and body as I sat there listening. I could have sat there all day. I heard, among others, Treme Brass Band, Greg Stafford’s Jazz Hounds, the Paulin Brothers Traditional Brass Band, Tuba Skinny, and an unbelievable Louis Armstrong tribute for the Hot Fives and Sevens Centennial, featuring Nicholas Payton on trumpet and Dr. Michael White on clarinet.

For me, the most spectacular performer was Dee Dee Bridgewater. She performed with pianist Bill Charlap on one stage, and with Detroit Brooks on another. Her voice, delivery and ability to hold an audience is extraordinary. Lila Downs, vocalist from Mexico, was unbelievably spectacular.

Jake Shimabukuro from Honolulu was a magician on ukelele. He played “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the audience was entranced. Preservation Hall Jazz Band was outstanding as always. Diana Krall, oddly, was a big bust. Her pieces would have been better suited for a smaller, more intimate venue, certainly not the large Jazz Tent. They were all slow and dragging, and her mic was too soft. Quite a disappointment, and several people streamed out of the jazz tent as she performed.

Carlos Santana was a big draw on the main stage with extraordinary drummer Cindy Blackman, also his wife.

I visited the Jazz Museum which is in the same building as the New Orleans Mint. Before viewing the exhibits, I caught the tail end of a splendid concert featuring Herlin Riley, drummer and New Orleans treasure. After the museum closed, just outside, I enjoyed a free International Jazz Day concert with a colorful audience, and student bands.

A joyous and wonderful thing in New Orleans: there seemed to be street music everywhere! There were terrific bands on Frenchman Street and in the French Quarter, and even a mobile piano.

Whitney Plantation and the History of Slavery

I went on an extraordinary tour of the Whitney plantation outside of New Orleans. It was a sugarcane plantation that has now been converted into a museum from the perspective of the enslaved people. There was no sugarcoating or whitewashing here.

The plantation house was built to allow the cooling breeze from the Mississippi to blow through it.

The back-breaking, life-sapping work of harvesting and purifying sugar was evident in the large pans lined up in a row, in which boiling hot molten sugar was transferred from one pan to the next.

There are memorials there. One to a slave uprising, that ended with 20 of the rebels being beheaded. Another was a large space, with what appeared to be tombstones with names etched in of all the people who lived and died there. They were quotes from many of them. Deeply moving.

The General Store was a devious way to keep people enslaved. They could buy provisions at extraordinary high prices, and high interest rates, so they would never save enough money to buy their freedom. It was sobering to see the dark history of America, and the horrors under the genteelness of the south.

On the way to the Whitney Plantation, we caught a glimpse of St. Joseph Plantation where the movie 12 Years A Slave was filmed as well as Oak Alley and Laura Plantation. These are all sugarcane plantations: the worst kind of hard labor. You can see some slave cabins in one photo.

River Boat Cruise

On a river boat cruise on the Mississippi on the Creole Queen, we heard about the Battle of Chalmette fought in 1815 , where Americans fought off the British, and also saw the battleground. On the way we saw the biggest sugar refinery, Domino, still functional.

On the way back the guide, Charles Chesnutt, an extraordinary storyteller, recounted over 30 minutes a day-by-day account of Hurricane Katrina. What preceded it, what happened morning and evening on every day after it struck, and the complete failure of so many systems. We went by the Ninth Ward which is very close to the river, with mostly Black residents. When the river rose, the neighborhoods were flooded and people died or lost everything. In stark contrast, of course to the Garden District, mostly inhabited by white people, where the waters did not reach. The story of America yet again.

It turns out the tour guide Charles,  self-described “recovering lawyer”, is an amateur historian and has a podcast called Storied History which you can find on Spotify, Audible etc.

Literary adventures, Theatre

Several lovely little bookstores are scattered through the French District and other parts of the city. I had to buy Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Glass Menagerie.”

I was speaking with owner of a pop-up book stall, Olivia’s Apothecary, and asked her about her favorite bookstores and playhouses.  On the latter, she mentioned Le Petit Theater.

New Orleans’ most historic playhouse, Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré, was showing “Doubt.” A charming playhouse and a well-enacted play.

One evening, we went to Bayou Bar at Hotel Pontchartrain, where there was a free performance by bassist Peter Harris with Ashlin Parker, lead trumpeter of Trumpet Mafia, and there happened to be Jason Marsalis on drums! Exceptional performance.

The most incredibly amazing thing happened at the Hotel Pontchartrain. I was walking around the hotel lobby between sets and came upon a framed page from A Streetcar Named Desire, with Tennessee William’ handwritten notes, on the hotel’s parchment paper!  It turns out he used to write at the hotel. What a special collectible.

We took a Streetcar back: it was not named “Desire.”

Parks

I visited the Louis Armstrong Park, with statues of Louis Armstrong, and Buddy Bolden. Within the park is the historic Congo Square, which was deeply moving. I sat there on a bench, soaking in the fact that hundreds of years ago, enslaved people gathered here, made music, and traded on Sundays, when by decree of the French Government, they could not be made to work. And the music and dance of those days has transformed into the unique, incomparable music of New Orleans today. 

City Park is a large beautiful park with the New Orleans Botanical Garden, and Sculpture Garden. There I learned, among other things, that the LOVE sculpture is by Robert Indiana, not Keith Haring as I mistakenly thought for years.

Lafayette Park in the Central Business unit has free music on Wednesday evenings, as well as food and art stalls. A great place for people and non-people watching.

One art stall had stunning artwork with pelicans. Remarking that I love pelicans, and surprised at seeing so many depictions of them, I was astonished to learn from the vendor that the pelican is the state bird of Louisiana!

Food!

Well, let me start by saying the New Orleans offers many seafood delicacies.  I, ahem, am vegetarian. But I got by, and even had some delicious meals.

• Adolfo’s on Frenchman Street. It offers Creole-Italian Cuisine, and live music at the Apple Barrel Bar downstairs. I had cannelloni, with spinach, ricotta and mozzarella, and it was delicious.

• Gumbo Shop. The restaurant is in a historic colonial townhouse. From the website: “Just as gumbo is a blend of many cultures, so is the origin of the word. Below sea level and shaped like a crescent on the Mississippi River, this land was originally home to the Choctaw Indians. They introduced “kombo” (powdered sassafras, also known as filé) to settlers as a staple for one of many styles of the indigenous soup we call gumbo! Their word came from the African word for okra, “ki ngumbo”, which can be used as a thickener for gumbo, just like filé.” I had rice and beans and it was a and simple and tasty meal.

• Commander's Palace. I had a butternut squash velouté, a Sardou with poached eggs over crispy corn-fried artichoke hearts, with hollandaise, over spinach. And dessert was Ponchatoula Strawberry shortcake. The strawberries in Louisiana are famous, I learned, but the shortcake was not great. I tasted the pecan pie that one of my dining companions ordered, and that was delicious. The mimosas were lovely.

• Shaya Restaurant The fluffy hand-crafted pita bread was unbelievable, and the halloumi salad with peaches, pepper, honey, bastilla nuts, mint was exceptional. We also enjoyed the muhammara, baba ganouj, hummus and labneh.

• GW Fins - Premier Seafood Restaurant New Orleans. They “threw together” some veg items for me, and it was ok.  My dining companions enjoyed the seafood fare for which the restaurant is known. I ordered a French 75 cocktail, with cognac, lemon juice, simple syrup, prosecco, and didn't think it was all it was advertised to be. 

• Arnaud’s French 75 Bar. My companions insisted that we go across the street to the Arnaud’s French 75 bar where the drink was invented, that it was best with champagne, not prosecco. The bar was crowded and loud and the drink was still…just ok. (Courvoisier VS, Sugar, Lemon Juice, Moët & Chandon.)

• Tableau Restaurant and Bar, where we stopped for a drink after watching “Doubt” at the Petit Theatre. I had pommes frites, with truffle aioli, sauce Bearnaise, and a brandy.

• The Ruby Slipper Cafe served a hearty and tasty brunch, and has a delightful sign on the wall, "There's only one side here, the Sunny Side", a play in eggs and Louis Armstrong's famous song "The Sunny Side of the Street."

Fun signs and Street Sights

• On a T-shirt:

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.

 —History”

• “Keep your friends close and your enemies in your cauldron.” sign outside the Golden Lantern Bar in the French Quarter.

• “I always want to be Bayou”, sign in a window.

• The Fleur-de-Lis (Flower of the Lily) is the official symbol of Louisiana. In July 2008, then Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a law making it so.

  

  Fleur de lis

• And everywhere, the motto of New Orleans “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler”

Let the Good Times Roll!  What a city.