Piano Night, 4/27

Overall: Very good sound. They take some time to get the mixes right
but it's so much better than some years. DJs didn't interrupt w/
station IDs between every song or too often at all. THANK YOU!

Some good music, mostly in spots here and there but as usual I liked
David Torkanowsky's whole set, some of Marcia's. Dr John fired them
up. Zachary Richard's Sunset on Louisianne makes me cry...

But back to the beginning.

George Ingmire and Big D start out.

They switched between two stages in previous years...

Stage MC: "Let's welcome Pit Karaken"? Oh, that was Victor Atkins. Geez.

Special guest Jose Conte.

1st ID about a 1/2 hr into it. Good.

Jeff "Snake" Greenberg

Audio is dropping out. Stream seems ok. I'm guessing it's a problem
at their end.

They admit they are having technical problems.

Nigel Hall.

Left channel dropping out...

Mix sounds excellent! Now suddenly mono. Back and forth abit.

Nice blues. (You can hear the engineers f'ing with the signal. Was
nice and bright a little while ago. Now it's back. Now gone...)

Station ID, have to turn down the background a tad, guys.

Hope the hum doesn't get worse.

Now thew level is down. Is that where it's gonna stay? Nope, it goes up...

DJs on.

... that's 4 our time.

AJ is the MC
Henry Gray and Carol Fran

Can we hear her? Henry's missing notes. They keep losing her voice.
Now we have it.

Now he sings but he's not in the mix right. Nor is she.

Starting to do station IDs too often.

Oh dear, I fear Carol is doing something obscene up there.

They've got her voice finally.

Henry's voice is low still.

Carol is neither a quitter or a winner.

Henry's voice is still low. Oh well, I guess they aren't going to fix it.

I'm liking whoever's playing the organ. (Alright, it was Dave Torkanowsky!)

An anemic What'd I Say. And piano is real low...

ID

Leslie Smith, daughter of Michael Smith.
solo piano

Joe Krown
Nice.

Dr John arrives.

Yet to come is Joe Krown? (My comments edited out)

Professor Longhair...

Now Dr John. Vocals out of mix. Fixed.

One for Eddie Bo.

Great intro to Tipitina! The Dr is in good voice too.

Doin' The Mess Around.

Dr John's done.

David Torkanowsky on next. James Booker cut on now. St James infirmary.

Now to DT. "Give you all tv and you're happy..." Hot.

Zigaboo sings We Need A Little Gospel... David's speeding it up! Then
it slows down again. David makes a joke about Zigaboo's singing.

Stanton Moore starts out! Yes. Sounds great. Then David kicks in.
(Can hear David calling out the notes to someone...)

George Porter Jr comes on. How Did I Get So Far Gone.

I was just thinking, they aren't doing too many station IDs, and then
they do one.

Living For The City. Piano's kinda low in the mix. Nice bass/drum
exchange. Nice comeback. Vocals too loud.

They're done. Encore? Nope.

Eden Brent

Marsha Ball! (midnight NY time)

She's got WWOZ iPhone app.

Bucktown.

What to put on her gravestone? I wish I was in New Orleans. Then she
sings New Orleans is a party town...

Hot Tamale Baby. Still hot!

More Eden.

Joe Krown w/ Walter Wolfman Washington
- Nice.
- Frankie and Johnnie. Very nice.
"Love you. What's your number, baby?"
- Tipitina w/ WWW.
- Joe on organ now, Walter singing.
- another

DJ doesn't know how many times they've done Piano Nights.

DJ level higher than stage.

Cynthia Chin singing off key.

Sunpie Barnes
- Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor
- not a good singer.

Brings out David Torkanowsky. Junco Partner.

Reminds me of Henry Butler, not a good singer. Maybe a little more
on-key than Henry. But not enough for me.

James Booker - Slow Down/Bony Maronie/Knock on Wood/I Heard It
Through the Grape Vine
(I remember them playing this years ago... Great cut. Great album.)

Zachary Richard
My man. Sure wish he played accordion still.

-
- Crawfish, He goes off mic.
- PLAYING ACCORDION!!! Excellent! Dancing at DD's. (Dancing at Double d's)
- The beautiful Sunset on Louisianne (I sing along.)
Peace indeed.

I go to bed now as it's 2 am.

Jazz Fest 2010, SUNDAY, APRIL 25

The schedule, at least at the beginning of the day.

12:20 p.m. Lionel Ferbos & the Palm Court Jazz Band
1:40 p.m. Theresa Anderssen
Midnite Disturbers
5:40 p.m. The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong featuring Wycliffe
Gordon, James Andrews and Victor Goines

I start listening at 5 of 12 NY time. The Flash player page says
"World Journey with Suzanne Corley Saturday 4-6pm" is on now... Hazel
is on. Nice to hear her. I met her 10+ years ago...

Darlin Come Back to New Orleans. Nice. Nostalgic.

Flash stream has lots of dropouts so I switch to the iTunes mp3 feed.
Sounds good and louder than Flash stream.

We got to the fest at 12:04 NY time. A dropout.

Missy Bowen on and (More stations listening today!) Lisa Barrios.

Website still has Midnite Disturbers. DJ said Mark Braud's New
Orleans Jazz Giants, Whatever.

Rebroadcasting Campbell Brothers from yesterday. Kinda nice.

iTunes stream is good. No dropouts anymore and no weird noises like on Fri.

DJs are also NOT breaking in after every song. Thank you! Am not
hearing many station IDs either.

Lisa reads the script ("with our ID"). Whoops.

Oh no, she's trying to explain something. Why not say make a CD...

"What's the portal for artists to reach you", which translated into
English is, how do people reach you. Lisa unnecessarily complicates
things whenever she opens her mouth.

A moving Susan Cowsill song. She sang this at the FQF.

Henry Butler - Orleans Inspiration, from 1996 Piano Night.

Lisa has a brain fart...

Lionel Ferbos & the Palm Court Jazz Band
Nice. Some nice tricks up their sleeves.

Guy singing off mic. Not fixed for awhile.... now it is. Thank you, sound crew.

Stream stops, have to restart it. Stops again. Buffering problem...

Having weird stereo problems. Image is becoming stereo and then not,
channels are popping in and out. Might be a stage feed problem.

A very sexy and wonderful enunciation of the Live Wire! What a
pleasure to hear someone who knows how to speak!

Some nice Louis Prima stuff.

Theresa Anderssen on now.

Pharoh's Army!?

Heard distortion. better now. Comptuer crashed for the second time in
10 minutes...

Still have distortion, It's like we're listening to it of the air. Static.

Her voice is too far back in the mix.

Ad/promo.

While I like that she is being experimental, the music isn't very
good although this Blue Skies with the (African/pygmy) vocalizations
is kinda neat.

4pm NY time
Charlie B and Suzanne Corley come on

Mark Braud's New Orleans Jazz Giants

Orange Kellin. Didn't know he was still playing locally. Wasn't her
playing back in the 70s?

We lose the stream, have to restart it.

Over at 4:50 pm NY time

(Levon Helm was on Sunday?)

The Midnite Disturbers will be on? (my head spins) Ah, a brass band.
Mix is getting worked out.

Still having mix problems... instruments low in the mix.

Nice to hear so much brass band music!! Oh, for the good old days.
(Mix is getting sharper, horns better defined. Kinda late isn't it?)

Wow, WOMR is on too.

Suzanne isn't very good about reading scripts...

Sexual Healing - Nice as an instrumental but the singing is too amateur.

1st zydeco I've heard so far. (Haven't heard any cajun. Sigh.) Most
zydeco I've heard (in the past 20 years for the most part) are tired
covers or just plain cheezy.

These promos are pretty jarring...

The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong featuring Wycliffe Gordon,
James Andrews and Victor Goines

Tin Roof Blues, Clarinet Marmalade, Black and Blue Blues (I sing
along to this!)..., all nice standards for Louis.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans. Hope I don't cry. Too
late, I am.

Overall: good mixes, not too manu station IDs, some good DJs,some
bad. So much better than some years. Musically some good stuff.

One suggestion: Make your promos less jarring. The bicycling one and
most of the others are really annoying coming out of a tune.

Looking forward to Piano Night.

Jazz Fest 2010, SATURDAY, APRIL 24

11:15 a.m. Grandpa Elliot
12:05 p.m. Tribute to Marva Wright
4:20 p.m. Campbell Brothers
6:00 p.m. Kirk Joseph's Tuba Tuba

11:30 NY time
I start listening to Sean's Music in the Glen
show. Glad to hear that's still on!

Flash player is stopping often and we have audio dropouts.

Never heard a brass band Irish tune... with
Scandinavian fiddle! Ah, Annbjørg Lien.

CD player jams. (Some stations would bring up a bed in the meantime...)

Surprise Me, Mr Davis, what a great name for a NO band!

They go to the fest. The laughing idiot is on.

Purple hearts! (for two or three hours of sleep)

Tin Men - interesting. I've wanted to hear their music.

Go to Grandpa Elliott at 12:21 NY time. I am not expecting to like this.

DJs aren't breaking in after each song to do IDs.
How nice. We can hear silence/crowd noise/stage
talk between songs. The way it'd be if we were
there.

Cabbage Alley! (Bonerama, but I love the David
Torkanowsky version from Piano Night a few years
ago better.)

Promo comes on loud. ok level but sounds loud. Jarring.

Bolero? Oy.

The laughing idiot knows his music. I was
impressed at his playing of some band called
Pnobo? at the FQF. When he talks he's alright.
When he gets giddy, watch out.

DJ level is a little lower than CD.

Tribute to Marva Wright

DJ does ID, 1:28 NY time

Nice set. Thanks!

Laughing idiot (Andrew) is actually interesting
(and not laughing maniacally, thank goodness.) He
needs to stop talking every once in awhile
though. Dean is interesting too and doesn't have
the problems that most OZ DJs have.

repeat of Tuxedo from yesterday...
Wow, Dave Bartholomew. Tenderly but still good to hear he's still around.

Bradley and Jack next

Horn Man Blues! by ?

Station ID

Piquante...

Leroy rebroadcast (w/ some mix problems)

A gracious Careless Love. Then a very brash promo. Oy.

Whooping Blues second line. (Sounded like Whoopin Booze...)

(I go out to get mail and check out the garden...)

Campbell Brothers begin at 5:31 NY time
Sacred steel.

Flash player is stopping alot. A pain.

At 6 I listen to Prairie Home Companion but will check back here and there.

"It's off the chain", whatever that means.

Go to Kirk Joseph at 7:08 NY time.
Some nice grooves but not that interesting.

Trout Meunière! Great name.

Ends at 8pm NY time.

Jazz Fest 2010, FRIDAY, APRIL 23

11:20 a.m. Kipori Woods
2:05 p.m. Leroy Jones & New Orleans Finest
4:30 p.m. Lena Prima
Bob French closes out/Original Tuxedo Brass Band

I tune in at 11:12 NY time. A nice trumpet tune
is on. Nice to hear organ in the group,
dixieland/trad group. (Lionel Ferbos!)

DJ nonsense (Keith): "You're entuned to..."
Entuned? (We'll be hearing "Keep it locked right
here", etc, another awful cliche. Yep, just did.)
Entuned - not a word. The word is "tuned".

Funny Touro Synagogue listing in the Live Wire, added on after it was recorded.

12:04 NY time
They go to the Fairgrounds
DJ Charlie and Missy
KUVO in Denver is broadcasting this amongst others!

I should count the number of times they do a
station ID... Probably 3 so far in, no, 4 now, in
two minutes.

Silence... after talking about Facebook

"Dashboard of your computer." Another awful cliche used by WWOZ DJs.

I hear a brass band in the distance.

Little Freddie King story. Hearing some weird
noise on a regular basis, kinda like rubber being
scuffed. Can't imagine what it is. Some sort of
digital problem? Hearing it during music or
speech.

I don't see anything on the KUVO website about
this broadcast, supposedly a simulcast. What
explains that? (As amateur a station as OZ?)

The strange noise continues with the DJs on mic.

Stream is hiccupping frequently, audio dropping
out for fraction of a second every minute or so.

Go to stage, Kipori Woods, 12:30 NY time. Excellent mix.

Stream still hiccupping and hearing other strange noises frequently enough.

Hey, the song ended and the DJs didn't break in
to do a station ID! How rare is that?

Roger Lewis playing with him!

Do station ID after a song begins at the top of the hour. Repeat OZ twice.

Set over 1:10 NY time. We're going to hear
station IDs for each station so maybe OZ won't
repeat their ID so often. Maybe they'll try to
sound more professional with all those others
listening...

Lots of weird noises.

Cochon de lait segment. Got the Yin and Yang! George talks very slow.

Marcia Ball, Torkanowsky pronounces it Mar-see-a. I thought it was Mar-sha?

James Rivers, another jazz bagpipe player (described as bagmen, airmen).

Lots of strange "eurp" noises... Kinda sounds like a cat sneeze.

DJ level much higher than stage.

Missy: "Renard Poché's closet never left the 70s!"

Do station IDs for all those stations.

Jon Cleary cut peaking at -10db whereas DJs on
mic = 0db. Probably the same for any non-DJ feed.

Dan Dyer track from 2007, peaking at 0, averaging -10.

Audio dropouts continue. Strange noises too. Both
happening more often. (I'm using the iTunes mp3
stream.)

Lots of sex in these songs, Black drawers, Fine Brown Frame...

Next cut a little hot (levelwise)

Flash stream has dropouts but the weird noises
seem to have disappeared. And I'm using less CPU
not having iTunes open.

Nice version of Must Be Hercules...

Do Watcha Wanna's got me dancing. Haven't heard
it in awhile. (I'm sure it gets overplayed but
this a good version.)

Nice poetry/reading of NO musician names to Miss Liza Jane.

We were hearing two tunes/CDs at once right
before they went to the stage for Leroy Jones.
Did they know it? I doubt it. So, instead of
turning down what was airing so it wouldn't
compete with what I'm guessing was coming from
the stage, they left it. Stupid. If someone
actually listened to what was airing, mistakes
like this wouldn't be made.

My favorite Dirty Dozen tune, The Lost Souls of Southern La.!

Then, how obnoxious can you get, they start doing
promos OVER IT! Jesus F'ing Christ. Idiots.

Dropouts are getting longer.

Looks like some serious rain on the radar... I
bet the rest of the day is cancelled.

They go to the stage! Leroy plays schmaltz, well. (Dinah)

Set over? No, technical problems.

Swingin' 60s tune.

Leroy's back. No DJ tells us what's going on. We
hear the rain still. We hear the stage announcer
then the DJ comes on. OK.

That Old Rugged Cross. Nice. (Treme Brass Band)

New DJ. David Kunian. A good man.

Another, same version of Must Be Hercules? Is it that popular?

Lose audio yet player shows content... (again)

I reload that page much later and it works.

Dmitri says sim-ul-cast. Sim, as in The Sims. Should be Si, as in Sigh.

Lina Prima on at 5:39 NY time.

O Ma Ma!

This is cheering me up...

WWOZ music player stops again...

It stops a few times later as well.

Bob French manages to insult Indianians. Way to
go Bob. True to form. An a-hole.

I didn't hear much of these shows but overall the
mixes are good, the DJs not too bad. I'm looking
forward to better music but we'll see.

YLC Wednesday at the Square, 4/14

Caught this show on WWOZ. Lost Bayou Ramblers were good enough though dull. (They could lose that rhythm guitarist and it would be a great improvement, playing one note, maybe two, all through each song.) Jon Cleary was excellent as usual. WWOZ did a good job with the mixes but their DJs still do station IDs WAY too often. 9 IDs in the first hour, 5 in the next and 2 in the next half hour. And the DJ had the good sense to keep his talk short.

Oh, and the stream only died once, at 7:19 NY time. Came right back.

French Quarter Festival on WWOZ, Sun, 4/11

I start listening at 11:30 NY time. They go to the stage at about 11:35. 2 male DJs.

Friendly Travellers are a gospel group. Too much repetition and God for me but some good singing and piano playing.

The surprise hit for me was Susan Cowsill. I was very impressed. I am not sure I'd heard her music before but not only is she a great singer, her songs were good. I kept thinking about her losing her brother in the flood and how rough it's been for her so the songs were doubly emotional. I'll recommend her to my friends.

Another nice surprise was John Boutte! Ever since Jazz Fest 2006 I've been a big fan of his, though I've known about him for longer than that. His Lousiana 1927 at that Jazz Fest was the highlight of the fest for me. He, and Lillian, put on a good show though nothing stood out as much as that Jazz Fest performance. I'm sure HBO will love his promo of Treme, which I am hoping to see too (especially the Davis Rogan character...)

Joe Krown wasn't that interesting. I was hoping for better.

Johnny Sketch was interesting for awhile. They kept reminding me of Brave Combo with an Arabic tilt.

Overall the sound was good. The stream only lost audio once or twice and never stopped. Many of the DJs are still idiots but some have brains and use them. I wish OZ would do fewer station IDs. We don't need to hear the station's name twice each mic break every 5 minutes. The mixes were MUCH better than in the recent past. Lets hope this continues.

Now, I'm looking forward to some of the Wednesday at the Square shows!

French Quarter Festival on WWOZ, Fri, 4/9

I listened to the French Quarter Festival on WWOZ today. WWOZ did a
good job. The mixes were excellent. (I REALLY hope that continues
through Jazz Fest.) The DJs weren't obnoxious. They didn't give out
station IDs too often until Keith Hill gave one 5 minutes after
another at 9:25 pm (NY time). The music isn't that interesting and
probably won't be all weekend but I'll try to listen to as much of it
as I can.

The audio is dropping out abit. The stream is fine but we're losing
audio often enough. Once per song on average, starting with Russell
Batiste.

Musically, Ensemble Fatien was borderline interesting, especially
their version of St James Infirmary. Russell Batiste is kinda awful
with his covers though Jealous Huy was interesting. I'm not holding
out high hopes for the rest of his set once they get the feed back
but I'll hang in there to see.

Ok, they're back. Something then Feel Like Making Love with some
awful singing. Some more crap then it ends. Good.

Tomorrow?

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