New Orleans Jazz Band: Dag :: essays research papers

New Orleans Jazz Band: Dag "They have a word down South to describe the way you feel when your packed into a crowded dive at 1:00 AM, where the cigarette smoke is so thick it makes its own weather; and the waitress is slinging bourbon and Fritos while some bad-ass Jazz Funk band rocks the house as hard as Blue Ridge granite, and the sweat flows down from the stage like the cloudy waters of Pamlico Sound. There's a word for how you feel when you hear live Jazzy-funk music so sweet and hot, you just gotta shout something. The word is: DAG!" - Columbia Records There is only one place on earth where I though I could go to experience the true meaning of Jazz and to try to place myself in the shoes of all of the artists I have studied over the past semester. New Orleans, Louisiana is just that place. On April 10, 1996, I boarded a United Airlines plane bound, non- stop, for the "Home of Jazz." My goal in New Orleans was to try and have a comparable experience to that of one of the popular Jazz artists would have had upon his/her first visit to New Orleans in the early 1900s. Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, Jimmy Buffet's Maragaritaville, The Flamingo, the Garden District, and Moolate's all helped me to get into the proper frame of mind of experiencing true Jazz. The focus of this report will be on my life changing experience at a little place known as The House of Blues. This amazing combination of bar and stage created one of the most conducive atmospheres to music listening that I have ever been involved with. The stage, similar to the Fox, in Boulder and the bar/restaurant, similar to nothing both had a character and charm unique to itself. The ceilings in the bar area were covered by sculpted silhouettes of every major Jazz/Blues artist that ever played there. Images such as Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Dizzie Gillespie, Buddy Bolden, Horace Silvers, and Jelly Roll Morton adorned the walls and ceilings of the HOB (House of Blues). Every beer on tap was a Louisiana original and the only kind of cooking done there was absolutely Cajun. On Thursday, April 11, 1996, I and 5 friends ventured into the legendary house of Blues. Headlining was a band entitled "Dag." This up and coming Blues/Jazz/Rock band has been touted as New Orleans newest small success story. With a label on Columbia Records and an album entitled Righteous, Dag is certainly a force in the Jazz industry.