This is being written from Holbrooke, AZ, which is really no place to be after New Orleans but we have to go through nowhere try to get somewhere, eh? or is it like Sun Ra said?- "If we came from nowhere here, why can't we go somewhere there?"

It's impossible to wrap up such a great Summer spent back home. I was so glad to hang and play with all my artist friends and partners (and non-affiliated), new and old:

James Singleton, Jeff Albert, Doug Garrison, Joe Cabral, Alex Mcmurray, Luke Allen, Rod Hodges, Helen Gillet, Aurora Nealand, Anthony Cuccia, Kourtney Keller, Goat and Angela, Mike Dillon, Carl LeBlanc, Cousin Dmitri, Michael Dominici, Sue Zemanick, Martin Krusche, Zack Smith, Chris Lane, Jeff Rains, Ben Ellman, Stanton Moore, Mark Bingham, King James and the Special Men, Scott Aiges, Adam Shipley, Matt Goldman, David Foster, Dr. Eric Whitfield, Derrick Freeman, Doug Belote, Chris Kohl, Jimbo Walsh, Dave Capello, Ray Moore, Johnny Vidacovich, Kate Mcnee, Tom McDermott, washboard Chaz, Andrew Wolf, Derek Douget, Michael Skinkus, Cassandra Faulconer, Marcello Bennetti, Brian Coogan, Bill Malchow, Dan Oestreicher, Tim Green, Rick Trolsen, Oliver Manhattan, Joan Long, John Swenson, Davis Rogan, Dave Bandrewski, David Rebeck...(I can't list everybody, dammit! Don't feel excluded!)

And, all the others who helped out and kept me on gigs from days of old...like the folks out at Bacchanal giving me my old Monday weekly back for the summer.

Thankfully, a good deal of "the best minds of my generation" haven't "been destroyed by madness" and aren't "starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix." Sometimes, though, it's been closer to that than you'd think.

New Orleans seems to be undergoing some severe personality alterations as a vast new wave of gentrification takes hold. Everyone is aware of the pros and cons but in New Orleans, if history is a guide, "improvements" usually entail vast cultural loss. It's still got a shocking music scene- let's hope it doesn't keep devolving into tourist music, where the payoffs are temporarily attractive enough that even the artists agree to lose their personality!

On the other hand some things seem to be thriving in mysterious directions; I can't wait to get back.

Los Angeles will just never understand its relative trailing position in the civilization racket.

Firstly, I'll be back.

Secondly, it definitely feels like the end of a chapter and it's caused some amount of reflexive pondering. There were a lot of warm send off parties and parting gigs, and I can't express what it I felt like to receive that sort of attention from friends and colleagues. Thank you for all those who sent me off so well and made me feel some sense of accomplishment. It's nice to leave thinking that some musical efforts really have been understood.

...Now I find myself here in California, on the precipice of the Pacific, thinking so hard and gratefully about the last 22 years in New Orleans. I would always rather be there but I suppose musical exploration is driving me right now, more than location. New Orleans offers both in a way I love, but there are some directions that, artistically and, yes, even in music, that the city doesn't really foster at this juncture. There are, of course, still other well known features where the city shows itself to have no ceiling. I feel lucky to have benefitted a great deal from those limitless directions.

The music community that accepted me so easily when I first got to town is really composed of individuals. I can't really say enough about these figures. On the outside we spend a lot of time talking about the groups. And that is important from the outside, as music goes a long way in describing co-effort and harmony within groups. Yet, from the inside, particularly while playing, one is really feeling the

On leaving New Orleans again

To New Orleans- half open letter

Jonathan Freilich Presents