Jazz saxophone great David “Fathead” Newman can’t make it to Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium this week after breaking his hip in a fall.
Word from Duke is that drummer and New Orleans native Herlin Riley is coming in to play the Friday, Sept. 30 show with the Duke Jazz Ensemble instead. Riley, a member of Ahmad Jamal’s group from 1984 through 1987 and Wynton Marsalis’ band from 1988 to 1994, is a regular performer at Lincoln Center. The show starts at 8 p.m. Proceeds will benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Blown Away
Hurricane Katrina may be the end for a lot of musicians in New Orleans.
“We lose a week’s worth of gigs and that’s pretty much it,” says saxophonist Jimmy Carpenter. A former Greensboro native who recently moved to New Orleans, Carpenter played with several local bands before joining Jimmy Thackery’s Drivers and then going solo recently. It’s tough on newcomers, he discovered, with Bourbon Street gigs going for $15 to $25 per set. “You do at least four, and sometimes six a night,” he says wearily.
Because of the hurricane, Carpenter finds himself not only gig-less, but possibly homeless as well. Carpenter, who lived uptown off Carrolton, doesn’t know if he has anything to go back to. An elderly neighbor reached by phone yesterday told him the area hadn’t flooded, but massive oak trees had the street and his house completely blocked from view.
In the area for a short Chubby Carrier tour, the saxman was stranded with only the clothes he has with him and his horn. “If my house still has a roof, the looters can have anything left inside.”
For the foreseeable future, returning home is not an option. “From watching the news, the last place I want to be is in New Orleans,” Carpenter says. “Right now, I’m just trying to figure out where I can land and work.” –Grant Britt
This just in
In late-breaking show news, two leading powers in the Pox World Empire–Schooner and The Sames–pair up for a Hurricanes Katrina & Rita Benefit at the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham on Friday, Sept. 30. The event is presented by Duke University and will happen just outside of Tyler’s Taproom at 324 Blackwell St. A $10 donation is requested.
