New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

And I think that's a big part of it too.

The people that are around you, like Sherry and I went to Jazz Fest in New Orleans.

We're just enjoying the music.

And then some guy comes up like in front of us and just starts dancing wildly.

As human beings, it's not just about therapy and treatment, right? We have to have purpose and we have to have social outings.

So we're able to take individuals to Jazz Fest, to Saints Games, to the lakefront, to all these other things that every other person in our community can access.

What will these tiny homes be like?

Well, again, so there's going to be one bedroom tiny homes and they're actually for individuals that prefer, right, there will be two bedroom homes, but they're going to be designed differently, right? So we're setting aside some specifically for veterans because we, you know, from our phone calls and our referrals, we know that you know there's a high rate of individuals who are veterans who are in need of these services and for other individuals in the community who are in need of these services again the design will uh certainly be uh therapeutic but being mindful of of the needs of the individuals that we serve

More than anybody else I know in New Orleans literary history at all, he held up the iconic pieces of New Orleans and then looked at them from lots of different kinds of directions.

So whether it's Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest or jazz or music or tourism itself, that was something that he did that...

I just don't know anybody else who did it anywhere near where Bunny did.

And he did it controversially at times.

Yeah.

Right, two people in a Schweigman's line.

Although the first real life, not real life, the first for sure, was very Stan Mackian, the line at Jazz Fest.

Yeah, it was still one

nice

and i don't know if that's ever happened to you but you see it happen to other people and it feels the way you hope it would feel yeah he does eye contact it's like you feel like you're the only person in the room and then at the end of the show i was like so close to the stage that i got the set list too but i gave it to some other dude because i was like i already have the harmonica i feel like yeah i don't want to be greedy but then i went to the jazz fest show in new orleans i which is always a great place to see.

And it's also probably my favorite city in the U S after Philly and maybe after New York, but it was one of my favorite cities.

Yeah.

But this was my first time.

I had a friend there that I was staying with.

And we got, we went to Jazz Fest and we kind of pushed our way to the front of, they separate the GA, there's VIP GA, a barricade, and then regular GA.

And we pushed our way to the front of that GA.

To list all of Ben's accomplishments would occupy the entire show, so I'll just note this appearance on Madison Bookbeat follows episodes on his books, The Ballad of Tommy LaPuma, about the colorful and successful music producer, There Was a Fire, Jews, Music, and the American Dream, about those three things, and his memoir, A Life in the Music.

As George Wein, the legendary founder of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival once told me, now Ben Sidron, he writes real books.

It is always a pleasure to see and a special pleasure to welcome to Madison Bookbeat our friend Ben Sidron.

Stuart, thank you so much.

Well, I came to New Orleans every year in the beginning, and I still try to visit New Orleans once a year.

It was, of course, the Jazz and Heritage Festival there that has a wonderful collection of not only jazz in various forms, but also folk music from Louisiana, which is very interesting to listen to.

And I've also been going to Sedalia, Missouri, which was Joplin's hometown when he wrote his famous pieces like Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer, and other pieces.

And they have an annual Scott Joplin Festival.