For the second year in a row, TVD is a media sponsor of the French Quarter Festival. So, we have an offer for our readers. Leave a comment describing your favorite musical moment from a French Quarter Festival in the past and we will pick a winner at random on Thursday morning (4/12) before the festival begins.
To get you motivated, here’s one of my favorite French Quarter Festival moments. About ten years, Astral Project was playing on the main stage in Woldenberg Park. This was when the pianist David Torkanowsky was still in the band. It was a gorgeous spring day. The sky was peppered with thin clouds and there was very little humidity in the air.
During a particularly spunky original tune, the calliope on a nearby paddlewheel boat began braying rather loudly. All of the musicians and much of the crowd noticed the interference. But rather than fight the intrusion, the whole band began vamping along with the steam-driven melody.
Then Torkanowsky turned his solo into a call and response chant with the player on the riverboat. It gave new meaning to the notion, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and the musicians earned a hearty round of applause after the calliope finished its chorus.
