Our NOBB weekend was filled with great music, New Orleans School of Cooking jambalaya and bread pudding, and Cafe du Monde bignets with iced cafe au lait. We met some NOMLers for the first time. Even your N'awlins mayor came down from a S.F. meeting to introduce the Neville Brothers on the last day. The weather was the best ever, as perfect as it ever gets in the Bay area -- even the performers remarked about it. For two days of extremely large crowds I did not see any disorderly behavior. People were courteous whether they were being bumped or doing the bumping. Everyone waited with good humor in very long lines for food and/or beer, etc. Many families with small well-behaved children were there, and having a wonderful time. NOBB was dedicated to "Doc" Cheatham this year.

Saturday morning began with a typical Preservation Hall concert -- followed by half the band parading up and down the steps of the amphitheater with some of the crowd 2nd lining behind them. Earlier, however, as they were setting up on stage, Paul asked a young woman to let the Kimballs know that we were out front. So, as we have done before, we watched Narvin Kimball and the band with his wife, Lil, beside us in the front row. It is amazing to me that this 88 year old man can still sing "Georgia" in such clear, sweet tones and continue to strum that banjo with such vigor.

While Paul was 2nd lining he found himself next to another Pet de Kat Krewe shirt in the audience. It was Mark Katz, who joined him, and the two of them came up on stage where Lil and I had gone to speak to the band. The band was leaving to fly to Denver to play for the President's meeting there. Since we were going back stage with Lil to say goodbye to Narvin, we said we'd see Mark later. Our chat was all too brief. Mark is just as nice and friendly in person as he is on the board.

Later as we were sitting in the audience a stranger came up and began talking about Paul's shirt and Steve Apple. It was Bill Huey! Paul saw him again today, Sunday, while I was looking for something to drink. This time Paul said that Bill was wearing his Pet de Kat shirt.

Steve, if you are reading this, I just want to tell you that someone came up to Paul on Saturday while we were listening to the Nicholas Payton Quintet. He obviously had a little too much to drink and wanted to know where Alan was. He was from New York and recognized the shirt from Jazz Fest. We think he thought Paul was you, perhaps, although a much older version. Paul has brown curly hair, too, and a mustache and a beard and wears glasses. I didn't see him, as I was listening to my neighbor ( who had traveled with Nicholas Payton in the Wynton Marsalis band on tour) rave about the excellent sax player in the Quintet. I think the name was Quint Davis. Rob has returned to Seattle . So I can't ask him to refresh my memory. Can anyone verify this name?

Los Van Van was the big draw for some of the people on Saturday -- first tour for this big band in the U.S. from Cuba. They were followed by Beausoleil with Michael Doucet. I did not care for him the first year, but after five years he has grown on me to the extent that I actually enjoyed his concert. Watching the dancers on stage was more than half the fun for me. Paul has always liked him and left me with Soul Rebels so that he could catch their entire act. I really liked the Soul Rebels Brass Band, their funk music, their energy and dissonance. Paul and I do not always agree on music and he disliked theirs. We both enjoyed Sunpie Barnes & the LA Sunspots. I had discovered him at Jazz Fest in '93 . Really enjoyed hearing him sing again. Heard just a snatch of Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, but we were either too hungry or tired to endure standing in the sun to listen to him and left after a few minutes.

Sunday was terrific. The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir has the most amazing blend of voices and they began the entertainment for the day at 11 am. Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi -Rollers were to follow, but never made it. Their bus broke down in 1000 Oaks. We took a break and a woman came up to Paul and asked about his shirt. I thought that maybe it was Helen. But actually it was a friend of Helen's named Debbie, who knew all about the Pet de Kat shirts. Helen was there someplace but we never did find each other. Sorry, Helen. Let's try again next year.

We were pleasantly surprised by Zigaboo Modeliste & His Classic New Orleans Band. But the most fun was Terrance Simien. He really plays to the crowd -- throwing beads, coming down into the audience, making sure their attention doesn't waiver. The Staple Singers were not for me and I wandered around the grounds for awhile while Paul saved our seats. The Soul Rebels were playing again, but you couldn't get near them. Sunday's crowd had to break some kind of a record. Of course, most had come that day because of the Neville Brothers.

The Neville's were very balanced, I thought. No one Neville seemed to get more attention than any other. A non-Neville almost stole the show with his prancing and dancing antics while Charles played "Old Man River" on his sax. Their hour ended on a religious note when Aaron sang his version of "Amazing Grace". I was very moved as it reminded me of another unusual interpretation of this song -- played as a solo on a saxophone at our daughter's wedding. They seemed to leave everyone with a sense of peace after their final number. Maybe it's shtick, but it works for me!

We met Brian from the NOML, with his very pretty, petite friend, Nancy, this afternoon. Brian saw Paul's shirt and came up to us wearing his own Pet de Kat shirt. He said that he, also, met Bill Huey. We could see Brian's shirt clearly whenever he and Nancy were dancing on the stage. We were finally able to talk to them at the end of the day (and be heard) for a few minutes as we were leaving Shoreline. It was a real lagniappe to be able to meet some NOML people -- Bill, Brian, and Mark -- this weekend. Hope more of you can come next year.

Rita on the Left Coast

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