With marginally more focus than last week and with my family still in Florida, this has been another week of diligently doing difficult things. The morning meditations feel impossible, the workouts are brutal, the language lessons leave me languished. But the piano playing is progressing.
Oh, the splendor of progress!
I owe part of my progress to my teacher, Eric Pan. I’m not sure how I lucked into to such a generous and inspiring instructor. But he’s mine!
And with his support, I have been back to playing soul music, listening to the blues, and obsessing over the most American of American art forms.
Now some of you might well be hip to the glorious sonic gumbo of Nawlins. And if you’re hip, you’re hip. Your bones already rattle with the folklore, myth, and legend of the Crescent City and this week’s newsletter might be me preaching to the choir. But that won’t stop yer boy from preaching. So here goes…
This week, the song Tipitina has been on repeat. Originally written and recorded by Professor Longhair (aka “Fess”) in 1953, it has since been covered by numerous artists, each adding their own touch.*
Tipitina’s endurance can be attributed to its infectious rhythm, its raucous party vibe, and the emotions it evokes in anyone with a soul.
Tipitina is a perfect American song. It encapsulates the vibrant fusion of African, Caribbean, and European influences. The syncopated jazz rhythms, soulful blues melodies, and hints of Afro-Cuban beats weave a musical tapestry that personifies the American melting pot.
The piano mastery. The syncopation. The polyrhythms. The complexity.
The simplicity. The playfulness. The joy.
The soundtrack of my week, Tipitina has brought me great joy. Me being me, I want to share my joy with you. So…
I present to you, my dear reader, a very short Tipitina playlist. 1 song. 4 versions. All live.
Paul McCartney, who wrote the hit song for the Bond movie Live and Let Die (filmed in New Orleans) became a Fess fan and persuaded the Louisiana native to perform on a ship in Long Beach, CA. The result is Professor Longhair from Live On The Queen Mary (1975). Tipitina is the first track.
In 1996, I was driving south on Western Avenue, going to pick up my pal Scott Robbin for a Friday night thing. We were 20 with fake IDs. It was a lifetime ago. But it feels like yesterday. I flipped the dial on the car radio to the local NPR affiliate WBEZ to stumble into an interview with this cat who was talking about being a photographer. A blind photographer. My interest was piqued. Turns out he was also a professor at Eastern Illinois University, not of photography but of music, and he was on WBEZ to promote a gig he was playing that night on the west side. He played solo piano live in studio. I had never heard anyone play the piano quite like this before. The raw power of it floored me. Scott and I scratched our plans, got to Rosa’s Lounge in time for front row seats to see Henry Butler perform the best solo piano show I’ve ever seen. This version of Tipitina is from his 2008 release, PiaNOLA Live. It’s a journey through the history of music, to Bach and Back again.**
Dr. John is on my Mt. Rushmore of piano players. He’s also a great storyteller. As a young man he played guitar for Fess and for Allen Toussaint. In 1960, age 19, he got in a bar fight before playing a show in Jackson, Mississippi, where had the ring finger of his left hand almost shot off. As he told Smithsonian Magazine, “a guy was pistol whipping Ronnie Barron, our vocalist. Ronnie was just a kid and his mother told me ‘you better look out for my son.’ Oh god, that was all I was thinking about. I tried to stop the guy, I had my hand over the barrel and he shot.” He slowly recovered the use of his finger, but it limited his guitar playing. So he became a pianist. The first time I ever heard him play guitar was on this 1997 album, Dr. John Trippin’ Live. But the highlight of the show? Yup. Tipitina!
Bonus Track: Self-professed disciple of Fess, Allen Toussaint’s 2005 version. Elegant. Sophisticated. Maybe a little flirtatious. Fun Fact: the first song my daughter fell in love with was Allen Toussaint’s Last Train from the underappreciated 1975 R&B concept album Southern Nights. So many dance parties!
This week I have been obsessed with Tipitina and you should be too. So I am inviting you to rollick with Tipitina. Again, here’s my short playlist. Please enjoy. It tastes of gumbo and is as American as apple pie. It’s a perfect song. It caresses you. It’s a party. Have lovely weekend.
Oh. Hey! On Tuesday, I posted my conversation with Hugh Williamson, the Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. It is an important conversation and he is such a wonderful conversationalist that this is the second time he’s been on the podcast. If you listen, you will also feel heartened that good people do hard work to defend human rights. So please do listen.
Yours,
-DL
* You know I love a cover song, per this post I wrote on the topic and this playlist made by Sabbateur readers.
**Fess recorded an album called The Bach of Rock.
A note on The Sabbateur: I’m learning how rituals that mark time matter to me. So this year, I am carving out one hour on Friday, the Sabbath of my ancestors, to sit quietly and ritually reflect on what I have been obsessing over that week. If you enjoy this weekly reflection please subscribe so I can send it to you every Friday.