The long awaited New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival did take place beginning April 29th through May 8th and delivered all that was promised! We arrived a few days earlier to enjoy some calm before the “storm” both literally and figuratively. First stop at the Maison Bourbon to meet up with Dave Ruffner (tb), Danny Rubio (tuba), Josh “Jams” Marotta (dr) and Lee Floyd (bj) with their special guest Cheryl Thurston (p). Cheryl is very active with the Arizona Classic Jazz Society and attended the earlier French Quarter Festival. It was fun to see her in a different environment and enjoy her enthusiasm as a great kick-off to our visit. Next stop was Fritzel’s to catch Tom Fischer (cl), Simon Lott (dr), Chuck Brackman (bs), Jamil Sharif (tp) and Leslie Martin (p) to complete the rousing start to our two week adventure.
The following day we were strolling down St. Peter to be stopped by our friend from Belgium, Norbert Susemihl (tp). We had not seen him for three years and he was going to be busking with John Joyce (bs) (see Joe Bebco’s column reviewing the two new CDs for John Joyce and the Secret Six in the May, 2022 issue of this paper) at the corner in about an hour. We got back to the hotel and stowed the items we bought at Rouses’ Market and went to meet u
