Jazz Fest always features a number of tributes each year to music icons on the hundredth anniversary year of their birth.  However, I don’t ever recall a tribute being given to a musician while he’s still alive and actively pursuing his profession. Thatss right my friends, let me tell you about trumpeter and vocalist Lionel Ferbos who performed with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra the first Saturday of Jazz Fest, and the Palm Court Jazz Band the second Friday of Jazz Fest at age 99 and 7/8 years young. This musician played at the first Jazz Fest in 1970 and has played all but two Jazz Fests during his career.     Mr. Ferbos was born July 17, 1911 and grew up in the downtown Creole section of New Orleans. A late comer to music in that city, he took up the trumpet at age 15 and has been blowing N‚walins style Dance Hall Jazz ever since. He’s known as “The Melody Man.” In the early days of his career he playe... » Click here for the full story.

    My son, David, got suspended for the first time in second grade the day before I attended my first CHADD national conference held in D.C. that year. CHADD stands for Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder. David had been patiently waiting in the bus line to go home and was fidgeting with a pencil (kids with ADHD often have a fidget item to help curb their hyperactivity). According to other kids in line that day, a fourth grade bully had pushed David from behind three separate times before David turned around on the fourth push to push back. I think this took amazing restraint on David’s part (for any kid’s part for that matter) and where were the teachers when the bullying began? Because David had a pencil in his hand when he pushed back, the pencil was considered a weapon and David was the one who got suspended. Worse than that, my son said to me when we got home, “I’m sorry I’m such a bad boy. Mrs. Feeney (the Vice Princip... » Click here for the full story.

   Do you recall me talking about my long-time friend Bryan Lee, The Braille Blues Daddy, several weeks ago? Katrina left its mark on so many musicians in New Orleans and released their creative juices as a means to deal with the pain caused by the storm and its continuing aftermath. Bryan released his first CD after the storm and titled it after the heart wrenching title track song “Katrina Was Her Name.” Bryan said that song was recorded in only two takes. When I arrived in New Orleans for Jazzfest in ’08, Bryan was leaving the next morning for a tour in Germany.  We made plans to have dinner when he returned just before he was heading for the annual Blues Awards (formally the W.C. Handy Awards) in Memphis.  Bryan was so excited that his album, Katrina Was Her Name, was nominated for album of the year.       Well, Bryan became deathly ill in Germany so we missed our dinner and he missed the Blues Awards. The organizers of the... » Click here for the full story.