As what feels like the entire spirit and cocktail world begins its annual exodus to New Orleans for Tales Of The Cocktail (who's manning the bars back home this week?), there's only one appropriate soundtrack to accompany packing: WWOZ 90.7 FM, NOLA's Jazz & Heritage Station. The DJs cover an incredibly wide range of what we may as well call soul--blues, Soul, Reggae, Dub, Trip Hop, jazz of all stripes. It's soul music, because it's so unabashedly real, felt, authentic and unvarnished: an exact antidote to the glossy, periptatic way of life in most northern cities, and a bracing dose of raw music that's a tonic after the pervasive electronic soundtrack that dominates modern life, whether it's from the radio or your cell phone. None of that here. While packing for Embury's first foray into the boozy, schmoozy educational fray of Tales Sunday night I was serenaded by Nina Simone, Black Uhuru and Massive Attack vs The Mad Proffessor. This morning it's rootsy jazz, just the kind you expect to hear wafting from open windows on a hot summer day in The Quarter. It's also soothing music after a big night; I expect nothing but from this trip. The constant announcements of shows around town are dizzying to a live music fan, and provide a sort of map of where to go to hear what--the station as a whole is a aural map of a town so unbelievably rich in music. Mike Kobrin, an old pal from our tech writing days in New York City, moved down to New Orleans last year and is now the Web Editor for WWOZ. He also plays jazz trumpet around town, thereby acheiving as serious a quality of life upgrade as any I've heard of in a while. He's been appointed to be the local Embury point person this week--and we'll be doing out best to stop into the station to see where the real magic still happens, too.
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