What is Engagement Anyway?
My parents came into town this weekend. Like any good son would do, I introduced them to the tourist-infected, horse crap-covered mess that is Bourbon Street. However, before doing so and risking their skepticism about my actual purpose in New Orleans, I opted to take them to one of my favorite jazz clubs, Snug Harbor on Frenchmen Street. I know I’ve already written a blog on jazz music and I like to keep my blogs fresh, but I feel like this Friday’s performance can’t go without mentioning.
The band was a quartet led by Badal Roy. We hesitated to pay the $20 cover ($10 for students) but were finally convinced when Snug Harbor’s ticket-seller (bouncer? host?) mentioned that Roy has toured in the past with stars such as Miles Davis and The Beatles. Roy’s troupe played an interested Indian jazz, with some blues and funk mixed in. Roy himself played the tabla and did vocals, an interesting mix. I’ve seen plenty of jazz by now, but several things set this show apart from the rest. For one, Badal Roy: despite touring with Miles Davis, I think the only thing he shares in common with the trumpet genius is incredible talent. Davis often played with his back to the audience; the reason is still disputed, but many think it was a show of arrogance. Badal Roy, on the other hand, is the type of person I would feel comfortable approaching after the show and talking to on a first-name basis.
Badal showed up in a gold Indian dress, sitting cross-legged in front of his tabla. He’s old, at least in his sixties, his hair is gray and long, and he always has a toothy grin on his face. Badal likes to stare out at the audience; several times he stared right at me, with his left eye barely open and that same toothy grin on his face. He seemed to want the audience to enjoy the music as much as he was, and I couldn’t help but reflect his grin every time he looked at me. Badal may be old, but his hands are lightning quick, jumping from drum to drum effortlessly with his vision focused elsewhere. He started singing in what I first took to be Hindi, but I quickly realized he was singing along to the beat of his drum. He paused at one point to explain to the audience the language of this drum – different seven or eight beat combinations that form distinct rhythms and set the tone for the sax, guitar, and bass. “Ta, gin, ta, gay…” he would sing in chorus with his tabla.
The rest of the band was impressive as well, playing a fusion of traditional Indian music and contemporary Mississippi Delta jazz and blues that worked quite well. The music was intimate and yet animated, perfect for the cozy atmosphere of Snug Harbor. Even so, Badal stole the show with his unique personality and musicianship.
Saturday started with a Duke favorite, brunch at Slim Goodie’s. The sweet potato pancakes and fried plantains are unbeatable. We toured Uptown and the French Quarter a bit, then headed back to the Garden District for Franky and Johnny’s, a cheap hole in the wall Creole restaurant with quite impressive beans and rice. As mentioned before, we then hit up Bourbon Street because you simply can’t visit Nawlins without a taste of Bourbon.
Contrary to popular belief, there are actually a few good haunts in the Bourbon area, one of them being Preservation Hall. After grabbing a few green and red NOLA specialties from Bourbon, we headed in to watch the New Orleans Jazz All Stars. This band was actually not a band but a collection of talented local musicians that varies every week. We lucked out and this group happened to mesh very well together, playing audience requests that the members amazingly have memorized from decades of practice.
After saying goodnight to my parents, I met up with some Duke kids at Bacchanal, a place we haven’t been yet since it’s out in Bywater and a bit out of our comfort zone of Uptown, the Garden District, and the French Quarter. The place had a cool patio area with live music, another intimate setting where the audience feels close to the musicians. Actually, in this case the two merged with a few Duke girls testing their voices on the mic. The band even gave a shout out to Duke University, probably glad to see some privileged college students venture out to a poor, predominantly black area of town. Likewise, it was nice to have a new experience in an unfamiliar location.
We talk about the “Duke Bubble” all the time at school – the idea of Duke being a kind of dreamworld where students are out of touch with reality. Part of Duke Engage’s purpose is to pop this bubble by sending students worldwide to places of vast cultural difference. While my friends in Bangladesh don’t have much of a choice to hide from this culture shock, it takes more of an effort on our parts here in New Orleans to truly engage the surrounding community. I had a conversation with Madison Li on Friday about my fears during this program – namely, not experiencing any kind of significant personal growth. I’ve been here four weeks and only five remain, and I don’t want to have any regrets when it’s too late and I’m back in Asheville. Going to Bacchanal to sing and dance may not directly benefit the community we are here to help, but experiences like this are essential to the Duke Engage experience.
The question is - is it enough? Duke Engage is about engaging foreign cultures, which theoretically leads to change within oneself. Am I really undergoing any kind of significant personal transformation simply by watching jazz artists and meeting locals? I came into this program as an optimist, ready to have a great experience and come back home with greater self-awareness and a more holistic view on life. While I am certainly enjoying myself down here, I feel like I'm the same person I was before I left. Is the problem that I'm not truly engaging the community, or is it just unreasonable to expect a 2-month domestic program to lead to some kind of enlightenment? I want to have no regrets about how I spend my time here, but foresight rarely matches with hindsight.
More to come on this later…