May 23, 2025 • 54 mins
Hy and Christopher are joined by Curtis Robinson of the Hunter-Gatherers podcast to interview the legendary David Amram. At 94 years young, the famed jazz and folk musician has played with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Leonard Bernstein. He invented jazz poetry with Jack Kerouac in Greenwich Village. And Amram explains why New Orleans is the most American city.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bie holes, the politicians, the dressed, the digitators and magicians.
Who's to see the money then you don't, there's nothing
to fill the holes while then are filling their pockets
bi holes, the politicians bouncing down the road, everyvider's wition
(00:24):
with no moment, corruption and dysfunction's gone on a table, Divide it, avention.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And God bless all out there. You are now listening
to the founders. So the voice of the founding fathers,
You're Founding Fathers coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the Big Easy,
that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, and high up
on top of that old Liberty Cypress tree way out
(00:54):
on the Eagles Branch. This is none other than your
Spngary Babba of the Republic Chaplin Hi mc henry.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
With Christopher Tidmore, your roving reporter, resident radical moderate and
associate editor of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at Louisiana Weekly
dot net and folks, we have a special show to
you today. We're coming live from the eleventh Annual Gonzo
Fest at the Garden District Bookshop, and we're about to
interview a musical legend. For those that do not know,
(01:22):
David Amram is the legend of jazz music, of classical music.
He actually created the jazz poetry with Jack. Jack Kirowack
was one of his best friends. He played with Dizzy Gillespie.
He played with Leonard Bernstein. He's written two operas. He
is one of the great legends of music. And he
(01:44):
is the greatest booster of New Orleans that I have
ever seen that didn't grow up here. He's joining us
in conversation along with Curtis Robinson. For those that don't know,
Curtis Robinson and I cohost Hunter Gatherers, the podcast of
Hunter S. Thompson's stories, and Hi and I are proud
to have us back with us along with our special
guest to do some Curtis, if you would.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Glad to be with you a getting Chris Fro, I'm
glad to be here at God and let me tell
you we were blessed by royalty. David Amram is here.
We're going to tease this and those of you who
came here because we tease it this way. We're going
to ask him about the Hunter Thompson UFO story from
upstate New York. And he knows I'm going to ask
about that because I love it so much.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
And you can.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
You can google him.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You will be shocked and amazed at the man's resume.
And he is, I guess you're you're probably tired of
being called a legendment David Amram is with us.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
It's how's your ganzo fest so far?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Well, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
We got here three hours plus late for the flight
being delayed naturally, so I was told they had a
substitute for me. I said, man, I got to be
on time and not just be a typical visitor Yankee
intruder carpet baker, even though I do own a carpet
bag and I have all my instruments in it. So
I said, I'm going to get there no matter what,
(03:05):
even if we have to go directly from the airport
and show up at the end. So we got here early, miraculously,
got to the wonderful place where we were staying, and
suddenly I saw a bunch of police cars at FBI agents.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I said, a holy cow, this is a weird at
your hotel.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
Yeah, the well, it's not a hotel it's a apartment
complex where all of them came because they thought some
of the escape convicts or prisoners had decided to go there.
So as a result, we were lucky that we got
the property manager to let us in. And then we
were told stay in your rooms. You're shut out, you're
(03:44):
locked up. I said, good lord, I've been coming to
New Orleans since nineteen forty three. I loved every minute
of it, and finally got busted. I was locked in
this wonderful place where we had food and everything but
couldn't get out. We somehow got out, and ever since then,
it's just been wonderful to see Hunter Thompson acknowledged in
(04:05):
New Orleans, the capital of America's good vibes, and those
who say it's a Caribbean city it's not American because
they got you interfern as. I said, Man, this is
the most American city in the world, because this is
where the soul of the United States came from and
is still here. Somehow, miraculously that spirit floods bad politics, oppression, racism,
(04:34):
all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
There's still a spirit.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Here where when I came in nineteen forty three and
saw a second line, saw communities, playing music on the
street and seeing young people being encouraged, and saw a
neighborhood sense of pride and a sense of beauty and
the world's people all living together in one city. I said, Wow,
(04:59):
what a place. And all the times I've been back
playing at different folk and jazz festivals, and even having
James go Away play my flute concerto with the symphony,
it's just been an honor. And tonight Herman Labaude and
two of his great friends are going to be joining
my son Adam and myself to play music, and we're
going to try to celebrate Hunters Thomas's legacy and the
(05:20):
roots of it all in New Orleans and the neighboring
city of Louville. That's also how an apostrophe Lewisville as
they call it Louville, and celebrate that as another one
of the treasures in the South, for the whole United States,
in the world, just as New Orleans always has been
(05:41):
not only the birthplace but still the soul center of
our whole country and our whole culture musical legend.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
David Aroham is joining us here on Hunter Gatherings, the
podcast of Hunter S. Thompson stories as well as WRN
and WSLA and the Founder Show and David I want
to say as the you know here the Garden District
Bookshop as the host. We came through and Chris came
up to me and she said, well, David's trapped in
his hotel.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She thought was.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Hotel with the convicts all around. I'm think he headlines
It basically boils down to the guard District Bookshop puts
on eleventh Gonzo fest kills musical legend, and I was like,
this is going to.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Be a great image for that the city of New Orleans.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Well, it gave me the idea because jazz is based
on celebrating the moment, including when you don't plan it
to be the moment. When Dizzey Gillespie and I went
with Earl Father Hines and staying against us the visitors
to Cuba, we had everything planned. We didn't know Fidel
Castro's sister who's going to be picketing us, But we
stayed anyway, and we were about to go and the
(06:44):
Empire Brass band came down to celebrate. Dizzy said, let's
go now and play with those casts. I said, Cibou
play here. I come and the captain said, we're going
to let you and he said, Dizzy said, don't worry, man,
they ain't going to leave without me. So we went
down and sat in with the band, and the ship
took off about an hour afterwards. Everything we had planned
(07:08):
we didn't do. But as Alfredo O'Farrell told Arturo O'Farrell
told me a wonderful note later on when I went
back forty nine years, Lady, you say, whatever you plan
isn't going to happen, But what does happen that you
don't plan is better than anything that you planned. And
that's the way it's been here. So as a result
of almost becoming a lunch trophy for any escape convicts,
(07:35):
I figured, well as Bob Kaufman's one hundredth birthday, so
I'll do a poem of his called No More Jazz
and Alcatraz, which not only I haven't played in public
in sixteen years, my son has never heard, and the
band's never heard. But I'm just I could go up exactly.
So sometimes what you don't plan turns out to you
better than what you do.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And let me give you credit. You're led and extends
in musical circles beyond everything, David Ebrahim. But I've got
to tell your your ability to articulate great ideas is
not not been exaggerated either, because here's the thing. You're
supposed to be on a panel, and everybody very this
asked questions. You came in because you felt guilty about
(08:16):
running a little late. You really weren't late. You show
up and you gave easily a ten minute monologue of
the greatness of you meeting Hunter Thompson, of his impact
on America, of his impact on you, and all this
free standing off your cuff, and you had you had
a standing ovation about this. So I got to say
(08:38):
that for somebody who had no plan, you planned it
pretty well.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
So well, thank you.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I hope the listeners w R N O and w
s L I listen as well as those listening to
the podcast and realize that all of us who were
here are lucky. And I not only knew Hunter s Thompson,
but Jack Kerowac and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Giles A
Monk and Leona Bernstein and played and Willie Nelson, whom
(09:02):
I still played with because he's still alive, which.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Is a big help.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
All of them were wonderful people who inspired me to
try to do what I'm doing. And now as I
approached ninety five, being a classical composer, which is hopeless,
playing jazz on the French horn, which was next to
hopeless except for Oscar Petterford's band and playing with Dizney
and Monk and other people, I never got to do that,
(09:26):
or Kenny Durham very much, and all the other things
I've loved to do, and folk music were considered to
be less sellable, less salable, and therefore not worthwhile. And
Hunter and Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and Leonard Bernstein
all said, man, if that's what you think you were
(09:48):
put here to do, go ahead and do it just
because it's impossible. So my hope is at this juncture
of my life, I can aspire other young people when
they're told by their career consulors in the ungracious manner,
go shove it because you suck, and there's no demographic
market for what you're doing. Do it anyway, And what
(10:09):
you do to make a living and pay your rent
has no bearing on your value as an artist and
to tell your own story. And if you admire someone
admire that they were able to tell their story, and
they're encouraging you and up me and everyone else to
tell their story.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
That I have to that it gives me chills to hear,
especially since my day job is, besides owning you know,
this bookstore and everything, my d job is being a
director of external Affairs of the New Orleans Opera. New
Orleans is the birthplace of opera North America, and I
deal with young singers every day who are basically told,
don't waste your time in this and all this, and
(10:48):
they have to be defiant for what it is out
of the part, and that kind of attitude is something
we need more of in this world.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
So well, I understand that I've written two operas, the
Finally Ingredient, there was a Holocaust opera done on ABC
television four years every passover and then canceled out because
they took all the black and white shows, thirty thousand
shows and put them in the dumpster, and there was
one copy left that I got. And also an opera
call Twelfth Night that's been done a lot of places,
(11:17):
and I was told before writing either of those operas.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Nobody wants to hear that.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
Well with all due respect for those authorities I think
a lot of people do. And all those people who
sing so well, God bless them. And I'm writing a
piece now for James Martin, great African American opera singer
and classical singer who's on his brochure puts down from
Bach to bebop and from Alvin Bergs to Leonard Bernstein,
(11:44):
and he can do it all. And two of the
people who are here Ron Whitehead. And it's someone who's
coming who wrote a book called Tom Piazza, who wrote
New Orleans Matters. I'm setting to music for part of
my called Five American Voices. Oh really, And that's a
stone classical piece, which supposedly no it is interested in,
(12:09):
but I was lucked out that twelve years after I
met James Martin, he got asked by this festival to
do it something and he said, I'd like to do
a new piece, and they mentioned my name and he said, yeah.
I worked with him a Moab twelve years ago. He's
a great cat like I like his classical music as
well as everything else. So we're doing a piece that's
(12:30):
inspired by this kind of music for New Orleans and
classical music coming from bach on up and there is
a relationship.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
And when I wrote the flu Concerto for.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
James Galway, the best review that I got was from
hermerld Laveaux, who was sitting in the balcony, and I said, Herman,
at the very end of celebrating music Ilespi in the
last movement, I want to put something about the second
line where the bass drum part and the snare drum
part are the way it's played, and not just give
a marginalized, yank ified Launder Matt berger King version of
(13:04):
New Orleans music. And I knew the Cajun music, and
I knew some of the stuff from Folk Sawai, but
I had never really gotten the roots. And he said, well,
he wrote it out for me. So I looked over
and when that part came in the orcus of you
heard the bass drum and the snare drum.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
He gave me a nod.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
And I said, Herman, that nod was better than the
great review in the Times.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Picky yun.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That is unbelievable for those who joining us David anram
musical legend as joining us ninety five years young coming
to the eleventh Gonzo Fest. That's what the poetry you
hear in the background that's resonating across the beams here
at the historic Rink as you are about to close
out Gonzo Fest. And that kind of leads us to
(13:47):
the subject of why you're here, your fifty year friendship
practically with Hunter S. Thompson, and so we want to
talk about kind of how you met.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Oh, well, that was a story. I was in Huguenot,
New York, or Cuddy back to Ville. They're all like
population about seven people, but they gave different names to
different people who lived there one hundred and twenty years ago.
And a place called the Superret I used to go
with my French horn in nineteen.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Fifty convenience store.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Yeah, it was sort of like a general store and
the owner was not what you call a talkie fellow.
So I would say, well, sir, could I ask some
kerosene to baked beans? And he said, So. That was
the conversation between us for a year. So I went
in one time and I said, sir, could I get
some more of those fine baked beans and kerosene police
(14:35):
because I was brought up to say please and thank you?
And he said I'll share them. And I said, what
was that, sir, And he said the saucer people in
the field over there, he said, I wouldn't tell nobody.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
They'd run me out of.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Town except that crazy writer on the cabin up in
the hill. Who the crazy writer was Hunter S. Thompson,
who told me that he was after I got to
know him a little better, that he was going to
be fired from the Middle Town Herald newspaper because he
got in a dispute with the vending machine and a
(15:09):
wrestling match get his dollar back. So he beat the
machine and the submission, got his dollar back. Yeah, yeah,
And they canned him from And he said it's lucky
because otherwise I'd still be working there perhaps or given up.
And then when he went to the Eastern Seaboard establishment,
George Plimpton type parties, since I was the pianist of
(15:32):
the residents, because I knew George in Paris, who was
a great cat and a gentleman himself of the Boston
Brahmin variety, liked Hunter Becaho was a gentleman of the
Southern variety. But all the other people who came to
the Eastern Seaboard establishment thought anybody with the Southern accent
was a moron, klu klux Klan, fascist, toothless, white trash,
(15:54):
no goodnick. So finally, when Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for,
I'm sorry to say, well, actually I'm glad I did.
But when she mentioned when she mentioned forty only.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You could actually say that statement in both things and
be right.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
When she spoke about forty million deplorables anyone south of
Maryland being a deplorable, I said, wait a minute. My
whole dad's side came from Savannah, and still the relatives
have there are scarce to be deplorable, and neither are
tons of other people I met, including the writers, poets, painters, artists,
and regular folks from the South. And without the South,
(16:33):
we wouldn't have anything, not only in the North, but
the whole world. Every place has something to offer. There's
no size one side versus the other. We're all part
of the human species and we all have something to offer.
So when I would mention I was going to New Orleans,
or Macon or Louville, which is also another great place
that's really under the radar, or many of the other
(16:55):
places that I have been blessed to go to and
learn from and be inspired by, I always got kind
of the cold shoulder because at that particular time, the
intellectual delite thought that anything south of Maryland was no
man's land. And that's people are entitled to feel that way,
(17:17):
but that's kind of a bigoted way of looking at stuff.
And the whole country is so beautiful and we've all
benefited from it. In New Orleans. For anybody in the
music world or any of the arts understands that this
is the sole center of where it all not only
came from, but still comes from. There's just some spirit here.
(17:38):
I don't even know what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
There's a creativity that comes up with the fumes from
the street, and it's the place where European syncopation met
the bamboo and everything that came in between it.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Before you know this when you go.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
When I saw a second line, my uncle was a
merchant seaman here and he took me down when I
was thirteen years old and I saw a second.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Line and I was saying WHOA. And I still.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
Remembered a power alls and the shoes the people wearing,
and the dancing, and how people in different neighborhoods all
got together and had neighborhood groups of all different types
of music, all of which fit into that drum and
which enabled anybody to be invited to be part of
that in some way. And it was very very inspiring,
(18:20):
still is very inspiring and is inspiring to a bunch
of young people. There's a young trumpet player I just
met in the audience who came from Massachusetts and he's
going to be coming down.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I said, man, come on to sit in with it.
She said really.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
I said, yeah, that's how I learned to play when
I was your age. I'll be ninety five and this November.
I didn't ask him how old he was, but he's
he's in the stilla's twenties.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
I'm sure if that.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
And you know, I looked at him, I said, well, boy,
I asked me sixty years ago. And I was invited
by all those giants that I played with as a
kid just to come and sit in see how I
could do. And that's not doing anybody a favor. That's
just the way it was and the way it is.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Musical legend.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
David an Raim is joining us here on w r NO,
w s l A, and of course on Hunter Gathers,
the podcast of Hunter S. Thompson Story Hunter dash Gatherers
dot com and the Founder's Show of course, the foundershow
dot com and Curtis Robinson. You you've known David for many,
many years, and ate your thoughts and his friendship with Hunter,
and I'll continue.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, I'll say this. I met David during the Matt
Moseley famous Matt Maisley Swim of Lake Ponta trained and
I knew, I knew auvum. I remember googling him because
I'm like, you know, I know that guy. But and
it was it was a little intimidating. So but we
did it. We did Matt Mosley did a swim. You
(19:43):
can find it at Wayne Ing Films. It's called Dancing
in the Water. The title comes from a song that
David wrote on the boat that night played it. He
comes on the boat, he plays for and I think this.
I think he played for six hours the third Well
we were on the boat for thirteen. You played for
at least though you ever played for all of the
whole thing, I mean just when and guys would come
(20:06):
with that. Matt has the kind of just.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
To say it. Matt was certified.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
He was trying to swim the length of Lake pontitrain
and get the certification.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And he did it. And he did it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
The best, the best story written about it was was
for the first time in the years a body came
out of Lake Poncher training over. I thought that was
very funny.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So so I was the observer.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I was the official observer, which I didn't know what
that was when I said yes, because Matt didn't tell
me what it was when I said this. But I
had to stay awake and watch him the whole time,
you know, and that's not as easy. But you know,
you can't complain because your friend is swimming, right, and.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Well, I thought.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
People said, aren't you tired now? I said, generally, I'd
take a break, But I said, after all, he was swimming.
I was just playing the piano. And every time I thought,
good lord, he's expired. How am I going to call
up his relatives to say I'm sorry. He'd come out
from under the order to say this is great, and
then disappeared and swim some more, and I said, whoa.
And then he got to shore and some how staggered
(21:00):
the shore and someone tried to help. He said, no, no,
I would say, against the swimming rules. Stood up, put
his hands over his heads like a champion, and someone
pulled one of those small alligators out of the water.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, they were alligators there because there'd been a big rain,
and big rain brings the alligators into Lake Pontre Train
and no one knew that. The thing I didn't know
is Lake Pontre Training is shallow, and that's why we
had those four foot swells all night. But I'll say
Matt's connections in New Orleans and stuff, that he had
some great musicians that would come out and they would
go as long.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
As they could.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
They'd play for an hour or two, and then the
boat would take him back and.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
David would take on the next.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Crew they came in, and it was it was fantastic.
But that's when you first told me about meeting Hunter
and upstate here. And what's odd about that is Hunter
and I totally independent years before because he knew it
was a bed a VFO. Nut told me about these UFOs,
and you know, he might have just been giving me
a little run, but he kind of believed. He kind
of believed that guy that there, you know, he said
(21:58):
there were certainly lights moving around over there.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
They had the big Honor for Hunter's memorial. Matt was
the one who was in charge of getting all the
press to come and sit outside at the Woody Tavern
and not go in and barge in because they didn't
Johnny Depp didn't want people making it into a Hollywood event,
but make it into a Hunter Thompson event. So since
(22:20):
I was playing, I was sort of the spy for
Dunlevy and some of the other wonderful reporters I knew
who were great guys. They couldn't get in and I
would sneak, you know, sneak in and do what I
was doing, and then come out and give them a
little information. And we met at the Woody Creek Tavern,
and first people said, wait a minute, Tom Levy, man,
he's famous writer. He was so great and buying everybody
(22:41):
drinks and telling stories that by the time I would
have come back to give him something of the story,
he was already the entertainer in chief at the beautiful
Woody the Woody Creek Tavern. And then the ceremony itself
was just amazing, was so formally beautiful, and pictures of
all the great writers from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
(23:04):
century and then second half, Sheriff Bob Browners got up
and danced, and I was honored to be chosen to
do the music for it, and I was really exciting
and beautiful. But Hunter had some way of also bringing
out the best of everyone, and because of the fact
that he had a sharp eye, he gave it the
(23:27):
left and the right wing a lot of heat anytime
any of us got out of line. As a result
of offending everybody. Is now appreciated by just about everybody
because he wasn't on the one side of the other.
He was on the side of decency and humanity and
basic good conduct.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
And truth, exact truth above all, defiance for authority, truth
above all, which I point out to people that you
know he basically, if Hunter were the people's one hundred
longed day, yeah, you're probably going off for Trump at
the same time he'd be going after the Democrats. He'd
be going after everybody, because that's what Hunter did, because
Hunter did not tolerate hypocrisy. And I mean, you knew him.
(24:09):
You were his friend long before he was ever Hunter Thompson.
You met him when he was a cub reporter, basically
a kid.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You both were.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
He was David Abraham.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
He was a great cat then and he remained that way,
and when you were with him, he would be that
way over the years, and then as soon as someone
would come into the room or wherever he was, suddenly
he'd go into his bed, con terrorist act to scare everybody,
at which people loved. And when he tried to be
a courtly southern gentleman and a cute, brilliant novelist and
(24:40):
a great intellectual, they said, don't give us that mister
Rogers stuff. We wanted to see Hunter S. Thompson. So
finally his act, that y stereotype, which made him more
famous than his writing, overtook everything in his life. And
now that he's not here, but we're beginning to see you,
especially this festival a celebration of him as a writer.
(25:03):
So I always ended up my big spiel by saying,
if you want to know about Hunter Thompson, read his books.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Oh you've become the mantra. You came in and said that,
and everybody's saying that. Now, I'm sure that we're gonna
have We're gonna have T shirts before long with that.
Now you also have a history with Gonzo Fest. You
were part of the famous ninety six Gonzo Fest. Yeah,
that welcomed him back to Louisville. Louisville always had a
fraud relationship with Hunter, because you know, if if the
(25:33):
Kentucky Derby's your biggest thing and someone writes the story
saying it's decade in and depraved, the Chamber of Commerce
doesn't really embrace that right away. Take it takes a
decade or two.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
And you know, the great thing is on YouTube they
show I made it. I was asked to do it,
a version of my old Kentucky home, and all of
us loved Stephen Foster, and of course that was Freder
mc douglas's favorite song, long before it became a racist
song that wasn't considered the way forc douglass loved the
melody and loved the original lyrics before they added all
(26:03):
the funky ones. And when we played that, they had
a real country singer whose name I can't remember, from
the West from the Hills, who sang so beautifully, and
Johnny Depp, who I'd never met, playing the slide guitar,
a wonderful pianist who also did a lot of Hunter's
(26:24):
music of famous rock and roll piano player that played great,
and a whole band of different people, and my job
was to create this arrangement or version where we could
all play together. And ad I had to rehearse each
group separately because of people had ever met before. And
they go down to the basement for five minutes and
(26:44):
then go and perform it. And it's still up on
YouTube and it still sounds good, and they show Hunter
wearing a barrister's wig in the middle of it, looking
up saying wow. And he was digging it because regardless
of whatever people thought, he always celebrated his southern roots.
And he liked Jack Carowac because well, he didn't wrote
(27:06):
in a different style. He loved the fact that Kerouac
was himself and all the writers from Servantes right up
to the contemporary writers of his time. He appreciated who
told their story their way and were honest and honorable
and did it how they felt. And he encouraged a
lot of people to do that. And I think now
(27:27):
the younger people reading his books that don't know about
all the mess that he had to go through, and
they're just saying, wow, maybe I can do something too.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Musical legend David Amro and has come to the eleventh
Gonzo Fest here in New Orleans. He's actually performing and
closing out the final night on Sunday, And I mean,
for us in New Orleans, this is a great welcoming
you here is welcome you in our hearts, welcoming one
of our great legends home, even though you're not from
New Orleans. We love your music in such a way
(27:58):
that we can appreciate it because it blends so much
of everything from classical to the soul and everything in between.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
Thank you well. It all comes from the same place.
Like different languages all express human feelings, and music is
just a series of different languages, all expressing that soulfulness
that we all have. And what that is is a mystery.
Otherwise they've merchandising soulfulness and everybody could bass them. It's
(28:27):
not that way. It's a different thing. It's of the spirit.
It's a mystery, but it's there and you know it
when you're there because you feel it. And that's what's
so beautiful about New Orleans. They still have that feeling
and that spirit and I have no idea what it is,
but since nineteen forty three, every chance I get to
come down here, I'm thrilled and honored just to be
(28:49):
here in the soul center of our whole country, and
that reminds us all around the country and around the
world of the beauty part of America. For the those
people to say here's a Caribbean shitty, I would say
it's the most American city in the whole country.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I should you have you have done the impossible.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You've made Curtis Robinson speechless.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I've got to give you credit.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
I should tell you this because someone will tell you
once you're on the podcast. We did lift not much
but a few seconds of your your rendition of my
old Kentucky home from from ninety six to lead into
this podcast. We've used it for for for I was.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Just not much.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I do recall when we were on the river you
you said I could use it, but I think it's
something else. I took that as total verbal provision to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Use sure podcast. Well that's what I didn't write, as
Stephen Foster did.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So we're using your version of it.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well I would, I would thank you.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
I was just lucky to be part of it, and
lucky to be part of your show and be on
w R and O ANDLA. So if there's any fifteen
year old person listening that I probably never meet, and
they're told by career counselors there's no demographics for classical music,
jazz or folk music, writing, painting, theater, dancing, or any
(30:15):
of the fine arts. That's fine to be given that
sage advice, But hang out with somebody else that tells
you to go for what you feel you're put here
to do and try to do it. Whatever you do
to pay your rent has no bearing on your value
as an artist, and just hang in there and do
what you'd love to do the best you can.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
And hope for the best.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
David anram I cannot possibly top to that ending. Thank
you for joining us so much on this podcast and
on the Founder Show. We are in your debt. Thank
you for a lifetime of service to music and the people,
and thank you from at the bottom of our hearts.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Well, I thank you in the bookstore too, God bless
you for the bookstores Central.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Talk about something you know you can't make a living at,
but you want to contribute because it's in your art.
The Garden District Bookshop twenty seven, twenty seven per tend
yea David Annraham, thank you so much for you. Take
care and I mckenry stepped out with the band for
a few minutes. He's up in the lobby. He's gonna
be joining us right after the break to give his
thoughts on David's appearance and this incredible experience of Gonzo Fest.
(31:20):
But more importantly, we'll talk a little bit about some
of the affairs of the day back after these important messages.
More of the Founder show here in WSLA and w
R and O. Right after this.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You heard us.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Reference the New Orleans Opera in our conversation with David
annram Well, folks, we have an incredible season planned for
next year. Terrence Blanchard, someone David knows very well New
Orleans jazz legend, is actually premiering his opera Fire Shut
Up in Your Bones in New Orleans in February. We're
doing Handles Messiah and December, and then on March. Between
March twenty fourth and April first, we're doing DeRozan Cavalier,
(31:55):
the famous Strauss opera dialogues of the Karmelites, the famous
Testimony of Faith that has done in opera where three
of the nuns recently became saints, and of Course, Carlile
Floyd's Pilgrimageical to Shultz Concert. All of this available right
now as season tickets at New Orleans Opera dot org.
That's New Orleans Opera dot org. Don't hesitate. Season tickets
(32:18):
are only on sale until the end of June, so
you don't have much time to get your tickets. After that,
you will only be able to get festival tickets. Many
of these operas are not going to be sold individually.
Only to season ticket holders. There's limited seating. They're only
six hundred to see Terrence Blanchard himself play his own
opera and be the lead player of that Fire. Shut
up in your Bones, take don't waste. Go right now
(32:40):
to New Orleans Opera dot org. Click on you know
buy tickets on the front page and join us for
the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth season of the
New Orleans Opera the two hundred and thirtieth anniversary of
opera in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Hey, folks, this is Choppenheim McHenry, and I'm here to
tell you about our MINISTRYAM Ministries. We're an intercity ministry
with an inner city formula and focus for inner city folks,
please go to our website lamb NLA dot com, lamnola
dot com and check us out. We work with very
very challenging situations, the inner city, inner city kids, the
(33:18):
urban poor, lots of tragedy, lots of challenges. We need
all the help we can get. So if you're interested
in this type of work, please contact us and let us.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Know what you like to do.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
We need prayer warriors, we need financial support, and we
need volunteers. Again. You can go to our website lamb
NLA dot com or just call me chaplin Heimich Henry
at area code five zero four seven two three nine
three six nine, and thank you so very very much.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Other's Day is soon coming upon us, ladies and gentlemen
on June fifteenth, and you want to get in your
orders for the perfect Father's Day basket. You know it's
always hard to get something for dad. I know this.
I knew this with my father, and one of the
things I used to get him was the basket from
Hillary's Florist. It had all kinds of sweetmeats, candies, assortments,
(34:11):
the perfect Father's Day gift and they delivered it straight
to the door. I didn't have to do anything. Call
Give them a call one eight hundred VI I L
L E ri E or Villariesflorist dot com and tell
them you want the Father's Day basket. You heard it
on the Founder's show. They will prepare it for you
can do all the work. It's perfect And for those
of us like me who lost their fathers. Actually, the
(34:32):
last time I had dinner with my dad was Father's Day.
He died about a week later, two years ago. What
I'm doing is I'm sending flowers to his grave. I
will go visit, but they'll be with flowers, will be
waiting there when I get there. And so it is.
It is his a dual purpose. Remember your loved ones
on this fantastic Father's Day. Fathers are everything to us, folks.
(34:54):
Give them a call. Villary's Florist delivered straight to the
graves as well as baskets. And if you have a
dad out there, don't waste it because you don't know
how long they'll be around. Please, folks, remember Father's Day,
Remember how much our parents gave to us. Get a
wonderful basket from Hillary's Floorest. Give them a call one
eight hundred VI I L L E RA or look
(35:14):
online at Villarysflowers dot com and tell them you heard
it here in The Founder Show. Welcome back to The
Founder's Show. You can always hear this program every Sunday
morning from eight to nine am, and Wrno ninety nine
to five FM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Friday, Monday
and Wednesday on WSLA ninety three point nine FM fifteen
sixty am twenty four seven three sixty five at our
(35:35):
website www dot Thefounders Show, twos's dot com, and of
course always on the iHeartMedia app. It's fantastic. It's the
best music and all around podcasting app in the world,
better than Spotify, and folks, you can get it, download it.
It's absolutely free and you can get it right in
your phones, and so our show will just show up
and you can listen to it whenever you want. I
(35:56):
actually found out that one of our listeners was listens
to us every year week live because you can actually
listen to the iHeartMedia app live five pm. He lives
in Dubai and he listens to us every week at
five pm, which is our eight o'clock broadcast in New Orleans.
It's an incredible app. I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wow, Christopher, what a fantastic show we put together here.
And I really want to thank our three guests, I
mean our two guests, Curtis Robinson and of course the
musical legend of America. I guess you could say living
still living. David Ameron at ninety five years of old
age and sounds like he's only, you know, in his forties.
(36:34):
Maybe the guys. You're amazing, David, and I want to
thank you so much for being on the show with
us today. And what a great gonzo fest we've had.
Oh my goodness, it's been fantastic. It's been amazing, amazing,
So my thoughts on all this, and I held my
questions because the questions were so good. I didn't know
(36:54):
how I could add to him. I just wanted to listen,
and I learned a lot. And what an experience to,
you know, just to enjoy a lot of this. I
already knew because I am an historian and certainly about
New Orleans and New Orleans music, and we have such
a musical tradition here, it's stunning. It's amazing. Like David
was saying, you know, just about every kind of music
in America started in New Orleans. Think of that for
(37:17):
America opera. Now you know opera was from Europe, so
we didn't start that. But what I mean is it
had its birthplace in New Orleans. Some say Charleston. There's
there's always a close race on these things, but many
hold to New Orleans certainly at the same time. And
then we with a birthplace, of course, of jazz. Some
even say the blues, but I give it to Memphis.
(37:38):
Really we did have a lot of blues here though.
And then and then the bambulla, which has ended up
becoming the most fundamental rhythm for just about all music
today all around the world. That's absolutely amazing. Bambulla came
from Congo Square via West Africa. It was a West
African rhythm and African American folks who were here in
(37:58):
New Orleans they revived it here in New Owns and
it took off like a rocket shipment's been going ever since.
That's the type of rhythm folks called the bamboula. And
then of all things, which is pretty much what all
popular music is today, rock and roll, rock and roll.
It's not called rock, but it all has its origins
in quote rock and roll, which has its origins at
(38:21):
the Do drop In and the Chitland Circuit. Do drop
In was like the epicenter of the Chitpland circuit where
black and white musicians met together and shared their various genres,
which then fused into a new genre that eventually became
known as rock and roll. It originally it was Chitland
vibes or Chitland tunes. Chitland comes from the food of
(38:45):
the poor folks of the South, black and white. It's
a part of the pig that if you treat it right,
it tastes good and it'll fill you up. It has
its own special nutrition, and but it's for the poor folks,
and it was all over the South chitlands anyway, what
an amazing story we haven't want us to tell about music.
(39:08):
And by the way, the reason we say it started
at Memphis is also claiming it. But I took to
one of the experts to task on this up in
Memphis and he finally acknowledged, y'all probably have us bottom nose.
So Memphis was right there with us as far as
who was starting rock and roll, and they were part
of the Chitpland circuit circus. I mean Shetlands Circuit. But
(39:28):
the rest of the story in rock and Roll goes
like this. It became very popular, was in the top
forty for a couple of years. It's from coast to coast,
across our further planes. Everybody was playing Chitland vibes. This
was in their early fifties. And then they had a
fell up in Ohio. He was a disc jockey for
one of the largest radio stations in the country, Cincinnati.
He'd loved and he kept playing it over and over again,
(39:49):
and he came over with a new name for it.
He thought a better name would be rock and roll,
and hence the name stuck. And so from now on
we know it was rock and roll. But it started here,
as started not just at the do drop in, but
very shortly thereafter. The first rock and roll recording was
that Cosmo Motasa's recording studio, and the first am broadcast
(40:11):
radio broadcast for rock and roll song again with some
Cosmo Montasa's radio station right across from Congo Square on
top of a washet Aia. What a scene, What a scene? Well, folks,
the so nu Orleans has God has blessed his city
with great musical talent. And ability. It's just amazing to
(40:32):
think of what came out of the city. When it
comes to music, I've heard other famous musicians say, you
want to learn about music, go to New Orleans. New
Orleans is a heartbeat, it's the soul. It is the
inspiration of all American music. Now, you know, I said
everything but bluegrass. I can't say we started bluegrass, which
(40:52):
is basically the birth of gave us country Western that
definitely came from the Appellations and from the East Coast,
and came from the the tunes and songs of our
Northwestern European ancestors who came to the America's or in
the very beginning, starting to Jamestown, they brought their own
(41:13):
music that was a lot like bluegrass, and bluegrass came
out of that. And bluegrass is interesting because it has
no percussion instruments. It only uses stringed instruments. Think of that,
the banjo, the guitar, several other I can't think it's
unusual instruments by all, and certainly the violin, and that
they're able to use those instruments with short, little note
(41:35):
blasts to create rhythm. It's amazing to hear it and
by plucking, strumming or on the on the violin, the
little short like they do with the violin, and that's
how they gave put rhythm in bluegrass. Bluegrass is fabulous.
And yet you know, I say, we really had nothing
to do that, except I gotta say one thing. We
didn't start it. But it was in New Orleans earliest
(41:56):
music memory. Why because the kane Tucks were coming down
on the river by the thousands to increase the population
of New Orleans. It was, of course the French and
Spanish colony, mainly French population wise and culture and all that.
But the kane Tucks up new ones and they would
anybody coming down the river, if you're an American in
New Orleans, you would called a cane Tuck. Why they
(42:18):
did that, I have no idea, but that's the story.
All I can think of is that those Kentucky folks Curtis,
he's from Kentucky's Kentucky Boy, along with Hunter Thompson. Those
Kentucky folks must have been so outrageous, so outspoken, so
bold and amazing that they gave all Americans their name
(42:40):
Kane Tucks. And maybe that's the way they pronounced it,
and that's why we call them that here New Orleans.
But so we even had bluegrass in the very early
days of America of New Orleans, but not we didn't
originate it. All these other music forms we created. This
is astounding, folks, this is an amazing story. New Orleans
should have the greatest recording studios. We should have the
(43:00):
greatest recording broadcast, you know, music broadcast. We should have
the greatest music museum in America. And I'm calling this
city to do that. It's a long time overdoing. We've
got facilities where we could put it. So put that
in your pipe and smoke it and think about it, folks.
All right, well, we're getting close to our next break,
and I want to thank y'all again for listening to
(43:22):
the show, and I want to thank our guests again,
David and Curtis for being with us. Y'all have done
such a great job. Christopher, you did such a great
job at coordinating all this and bringing it all together,
especially having the Hunter Thompson Gonzo Fest at your very
own establishment, the Garden District Bookshop. So, folks, without further ado,
we're gonna take a brief break and we'll be right
back for the final part the chaplain by by Patriotic
(43:44):
moment and chaplin by by a gospel and testimony time.
It's a great, great rest of the show. We'll see
in a bit.
Speaker 7 (43:52):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Work Orleans
Mission take to make a positive impact on the homeless
problem facing the greater New Orleans area. We are committed
to meet this need through the work being done at
the New Orleans Mission. We begin the rescue process by
(44:15):
going out into the community every day to bring food, pray,
and share the love of Jesus with the hopeless and
hurting in our community. Through the process of recovery, these
individuals have the opportunity to take time out, assess their life,
and begin to make new decisions to live out their
God given purpose. After the healing process has begun and
(44:40):
lives are back on track, we walk each individual as
they re engage back into the community to be healthy, thriving,
and living a life of purpose. No one is meant to.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Live under a bridge.
Speaker 7 (44:53):
No one should endure abuse, no one should be stuck
in addiction. The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone
out of that life of destruction and into a life
of hope and purpose. Partner with us today go to
www dot New Orleans Mission dot org or make a
(45:13):
difference by texting to seven seven nine four eight.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Got ows.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
The two shows?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, folks were back, and it's now time for us
to go into our chaplain by by Patriart moment where
we just take a brief moment to remind you of
the biblical foundations of our country, our Judeo Christian jurisprudence,
and today we're going to cover another then Johann Sebastian Bach,
certainly one of the greatest, if not the greatest, musical
(45:46):
composer of all times. They say, almost all music today
they can trace our origins all the way back to Bach.
And I am going with Sebastian Baki was He lived
from eighteen you know, he lived in the first half
of the sixteen eighty five to seventeen fifth. And he
was not an American, of course, he was a German
born composer considered to be the master of masters. Because
(46:07):
the impact of his work on all music, I mean,
it's just absolutely amazing and very aggressively expressed. The Fervency
of his faith in Christ's at turning work on the Cross.
In fact, one of those songs was Jesus Mind Food,
and that means Jesus my joy. He wrote so many
(46:28):
great works. In fact, I understand. Classical penists told me
that you don't really learn piano till you first have
to study Bach. That's the foundation. And she was a
classical pianist and with a doctorate from two Lane in
music and when she's brilliant gal and I learned that
many years ago from her her personal experience. So Bach
was great. Now, yeah, he's not an American. He wasn't
(46:49):
one of the founding fathers. Of course, I don't always
go to founding fathers or Americans, and I don't necessarily
go to the founding period. I start pre founding all
the way back to the James Colony where they dedicated
their colony to God, just like the Pilgrims did about
seventeen years later. I also go to even before that,
because there was a fellow who discovered America the first
(47:12):
as far as we know, European and I'm talking about
Saint Brendan the Navigator, an Irish monk in the seventh century.
The six hundreds was here and he wrote his document
is his journal about it, and it's absolutely fasting, Fasting
where he says he found the land that God had
blessed and would one day be the light upon a
hill and bring the Gospel to all nations. You know,
(47:34):
America has done that. Literally, it's amazing. It's absolutely studying.
So I'm like, over ninet percent of all charity, public
and private comes out of the United States of America.
It's absolutely amazing. So folks, I pick any time period
or any person that had an effect on this country,
and certainly Bach did in our music, because the music
of the world is so influenced by Bach. Some of
(47:57):
his other great works were Passion according to Saint Matthew,
the Passion according to Saint John. In expressing his convictions
concerning the purpose of music, Johann Sebastian Bach said this,
the aim and final end of all music should be
none other than the glory of God and the refreshment
of the soul. If he is not paid to this,
(48:19):
it is not true music, but a diabolical bawling and twanging.
I think he thought God needed to be in things,
didn't he, Well, so did our finding follows. That's why
they put God right in the middle of government. Now,
they didn't do it institutionally. They didn't want that. The
Bible teaches against that. But they did it philosophically, and
that became the backbone and the conscience, as Martin Luther
(48:41):
King called it, that the Church was a conscience of
the government. It became the inspiration and the guiding light
for virtue and marals in our government. The Holy Bible.
So folks, you can see we have a very biblical foundation.
But let me ask you something. How about you? Where
are you and all this? Do you know the Lord
Jesus Christ is your personal savior? Are you born again?
(49:04):
That word born again? It means that your dead and
dye spirit has become fully alive because you've trusted Christ
as your savior. And it goes like this, For I
declare unto you the gospel that Christ died for all
of our sins, according to scripture, that he was buried,
and that he rose in the dead, according to the scripture.
That's plain and simply the God. It's that simple children
get it really easily, soaken adults. The scripture also says
(49:27):
a gospel is the power of God into salvation to
whosoever believeth So it gets done to believe in, folks.
And there are two types of believing for saving faith
to be saved from a burning hell and guaranteed heaven
and everlasting resurrection life. There's two phases. Are there two
sides to you faith? The first one is where you
believe not and which you believe not? Is you believe
(49:50):
you can't save yourself. You believe your hopeless and helps
Without God, you're destined to a burning hell. And no
matter how good you are now, how holy, how religious,
how rich or whatever you got, how charming you are,
none of that is going to get you into heaven zero.
And when you come to realize just how much of
a zero you really are before your creator, how lost
you really are, you just repented. And it's part of
(50:11):
your faith. It is belief. It is not an action.
It is not turning from your sins, clean up your life,
or whatever you might want to come up with. It's
none of that. It is none of that. It's not
getting baptized, not walking the aisle, it is none of that.
It is just plain and simply believing you can't save yourself.
That is the true definition of repentance. The Greek word
there is metonoia. It means just change your mind. Change
(50:31):
your mind. Before you thought you were cool, you could
do it. Guess what you're not. All your religion in
gonna get you. And haven't you get baptized so many
times tad poles will have you a social security number.
It won't do you any good. So, folks believe you
can't save yourself. First phase, that you believe. Second phase,
believe that only he can, that he did, and that
he will save you from a burning hell and guarantee
you everlasting life. The split second, you believe that Jesus
(50:54):
died for all your sins, was buried and rose of
the dead. The split sucking you do that you've just
become a child of God. God puts in the palm
of his hand. Jesus said to God the Father, and
then he says, I'll put you in a poem my hand.
Now God's got a double grip on you. You going
nowhere until you get to heaven. I don't care what
you do. You might backside, you might do this and
do that, and that's a terrible thing to do. But
you're still God's child and you're still going to heaven.
So folks, if you've never done this before, do it now.
(51:17):
Don't wait till it's too late. Like the old country
preacher said, and like the Word of God says, the
Bible says it now. Today is the day of salvation.
Remember Jesus's blood has watched away all your sins. Well, folks,
it is now time for us to do our chaplain.
Bye bye testimony. Time when I just take a brief
moment to remind you some amazing person from the ancient
(51:39):
world or even current times, and didn't want to talk
about a guy, another great musician named Curtis Mayfield. This
is the music, so folks, I'm sure you can see it.
Curtis Mayfield, I believe, one of the greatest rock and
roll singers of all the times, one of the greatest
soul singers of all the times. I love to death.
He's just such an amazing man. He won so many awards.
Some of these awards and do you know that to
this day he is labeled in the Rock and Roll
(51:59):
Hall of in Rolling Stone and in a famous music
rating magazine the name won't come to me right now
as the most influential his song people get Ready, they say,
is the most influential song ever written in rock and
roll for rock and roll. People get Ready. What is
that about? Well, it's about a train heading for the river,
(52:22):
going to cross the river, and you need to get
on that train, the song says. And guess what. You
can't put any baggage on it. You can't even pay
for it, because it's already paid for. You just need
to get on it. Don't miss that train, folks, because
then you'll miss the train that's crossing Jordan. And when
you're crossing Jordan, accord to the Bible, and of course
certainly in many great African American churches, that means going
(52:43):
to Heaven. When you're crossing Jordan, the Jordan River, and
the Jews cross the Jordan River to come into the
Promised Land. Folks, the Promise Land is waiting for you.
You need to get on that train. It's free. Don't
try to pay for it. They won't let you on.
And don't bring it baggage because there's no place toy page.
You won't need it. When you get to Heaven, you're
gonna have the greatest wardrobe known in the history of
the universe. You'll even have beautiful robes of righteousness. So folks,
(53:06):
just get on the train, because there's a trainer coming. People,
get ready. The song goes, get on the train because
there's a train a coming. If you've never done that before,
you need to get on that train, folks, and you
know how to do it. Just believe that Jesus died
for all your sins, was burter and rose dead, and
you're on the train on your way to glory. Well not, folks,
It's time for us to close with a mind Saint
Martin singing a creole goodbye, and God bless all out there.
Speaker 8 (53:32):
They call you cREL goodbye. They think we're just wasting
out the time. All three sibon lovey, there's time for
(53:54):
a creo goodbye.
Bie holes, the politicians, the dressed, the digitators and magicians.
Who's to see the money then you don't, there's nothing
to fill the holes while then are filling their pockets
bi holes, the politicians bouncing down the road, everyvider's wition
(00:24):
with no moment, corruption and dysfunction's gone on a table, Divide it, avention.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And God bless all out there. You are now listening
to the founders. So the voice of the founding fathers,
You're Founding Fathers coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the Big Easy,
that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, and high up
on top of that old Liberty Cypress tree way out
(00:54):
on the Eagles Branch. This is none other than your
Spngary Babba of the Republic Chaplin Hi mc henry.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
With Christopher Tidmore, your roving reporter, resident radical moderate and
associate editor of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at Louisiana Weekly
dot net and folks, we have a special show to
you today. We're coming live from the eleventh Annual Gonzo
Fest at the Garden District Bookshop, and we're about to
interview a musical legend. For those that do not know,
(01:22):
David Amram is the legend of jazz music, of classical music.
He actually created the jazz poetry with Jack. Jack Kirowack
was one of his best friends. He played with Dizzy Gillespie.
He played with Leonard Bernstein. He's written two operas. He
is one of the great legends of music. And he
(01:44):
is the greatest booster of New Orleans that I have
ever seen that didn't grow up here. He's joining us
in conversation along with Curtis Robinson. For those that don't know,
Curtis Robinson and I cohost Hunter Gatherers, the podcast of
Hunter S. Thompson's stories, and Hi and I are proud
to have us back with us along with our special
guest to do some Curtis, if you would.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Glad to be with you a getting Chris Fro, I'm
glad to be here at God and let me tell
you we were blessed by royalty. David Amram is here.
We're going to tease this and those of you who
came here because we tease it this way. We're going
to ask him about the Hunter Thompson UFO story from
upstate New York. And he knows I'm going to ask
about that because I love it so much.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
And you can.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
You can google him.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You will be shocked and amazed at the man's resume.
And he is, I guess you're you're probably tired of
being called a legendment David Amram is with us.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
It's how's your ganzo fest so far?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Well, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
We got here three hours plus late for the flight
being delayed naturally, so I was told they had a
substitute for me. I said, man, I got to be
on time and not just be a typical visitor Yankee
intruder carpet baker, even though I do own a carpet
bag and I have all my instruments in it. So
I said, I'm going to get there no matter what,
(03:05):
even if we have to go directly from the airport
and show up at the end. So we got here early, miraculously,
got to the wonderful place where we were staying, and
suddenly I saw a bunch of police cars at FBI agents.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I said, a holy cow, this is a weird at
your hotel.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
Yeah, the well, it's not a hotel it's a apartment
complex where all of them came because they thought some
of the escape convicts or prisoners had decided to go there.
So as a result, we were lucky that we got
the property manager to let us in. And then we
were told stay in your rooms. You're shut out, you're
(03:44):
locked up. I said, good lord, I've been coming to
New Orleans since nineteen forty three. I loved every minute
of it, and finally got busted. I was locked in
this wonderful place where we had food and everything but
couldn't get out. We somehow got out, and ever since then,
it's just been wonderful to see Hunter Thompson acknowledged in
(04:05):
New Orleans, the capital of America's good vibes, and those
who say it's a Caribbean city it's not American because
they got you interfern as. I said, Man, this is
the most American city in the world, because this is
where the soul of the United States came from and
is still here. Somehow, miraculously that spirit floods bad politics, oppression, racism,
(04:34):
all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
There's still a spirit.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Here where when I came in nineteen forty three and
saw a second line, saw communities, playing music on the
street and seeing young people being encouraged, and saw a
neighborhood sense of pride and a sense of beauty and
the world's people all living together in one city. I said, Wow,
(04:59):
what a place. And all the times I've been back
playing at different folk and jazz festivals, and even having
James go Away play my flute concerto with the symphony,
it's just been an honor. And tonight Herman Labaude and
two of his great friends are going to be joining
my son Adam and myself to play music, and we're
going to try to celebrate Hunters Thomas's legacy and the
(05:20):
roots of it all in New Orleans and the neighboring
city of Louville. That's also how an apostrophe Lewisville as
they call it Louville, and celebrate that as another one
of the treasures in the South, for the whole United States,
in the world, just as New Orleans always has been
(05:41):
not only the birthplace but still the soul center of
our whole country and our whole culture musical legend.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
David Aroham is joining us here on Hunter Gatherings, the
podcast of Hunter S. Thompson stories as well as WRN
and WSLA and the Founder Show and David I want
to say as the you know here the Garden District
Bookshop as the host. We came through and Chris came
up to me and she said, well, David's trapped in
his hotel.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She thought was.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Hotel with the convicts all around. I'm think he headlines
It basically boils down to the guard District Bookshop puts
on eleventh Gonzo fest kills musical legend, and I was like,
this is going to.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Be a great image for that the city of New Orleans.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Well, it gave me the idea because jazz is based
on celebrating the moment, including when you don't plan it
to be the moment. When Dizzey Gillespie and I went
with Earl Father Hines and staying against us the visitors
to Cuba, we had everything planned. We didn't know Fidel
Castro's sister who's going to be picketing us, But we
stayed anyway, and we were about to go and the
(06:44):
Empire Brass band came down to celebrate. Dizzy said, let's
go now and play with those casts. I said, Cibou
play here. I come and the captain said, we're going
to let you and he said, Dizzy said, don't worry, man,
they ain't going to leave without me. So we went
down and sat in with the band, and the ship
took off about an hour afterwards. Everything we had planned
(07:08):
we didn't do. But as Alfredo O'Farrell told Arturo O'Farrell
told me a wonderful note later on when I went
back forty nine years, Lady, you say, whatever you plan
isn't going to happen, But what does happen that you
don't plan is better than anything that you planned. And
that's the way it's been here. So as a result
of almost becoming a lunch trophy for any escape convicts,
(07:35):
I figured, well as Bob Kaufman's one hundredth birthday, so
I'll do a poem of his called No More Jazz
and Alcatraz, which not only I haven't played in public
in sixteen years, my son has never heard, and the
band's never heard. But I'm just I could go up exactly.
So sometimes what you don't plan turns out to you
better than what you do.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And let me give you credit. You're led and extends
in musical circles beyond everything, David Ebrahim. But I've got
to tell your your ability to articulate great ideas is
not not been exaggerated either, because here's the thing. You're
supposed to be on a panel, and everybody very this
asked questions. You came in because you felt guilty about
(08:16):
running a little late. You really weren't late. You show
up and you gave easily a ten minute monologue of
the greatness of you meeting Hunter Thompson, of his impact
on America, of his impact on you, and all this
free standing off your cuff, and you had you had
a standing ovation about this. So I got to say
(08:38):
that for somebody who had no plan, you planned it
pretty well.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
So well, thank you.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I hope the listeners w R N O and w
s L I listen as well as those listening to
the podcast and realize that all of us who were
here are lucky. And I not only knew Hunter s Thompson,
but Jack Kerowac and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Giles A
Monk and Leona Bernstein and played and Willie Nelson, whom
(09:02):
I still played with because he's still alive, which.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Is a big help.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
All of them were wonderful people who inspired me to
try to do what I'm doing. And now as I
approached ninety five, being a classical composer, which is hopeless,
playing jazz on the French horn, which was next to
hopeless except for Oscar Petterford's band and playing with Dizney
and Monk and other people, I never got to do that,
(09:26):
or Kenny Durham very much, and all the other things
I've loved to do, and folk music were considered to
be less sellable, less salable, and therefore not worthwhile. And
Hunter and Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and Leonard Bernstein
all said, man, if that's what you think you were
(09:48):
put here to do, go ahead and do it just
because it's impossible. So my hope is at this juncture
of my life, I can aspire other young people when
they're told by their career consulors in the ungracious manner,
go shove it because you suck, and there's no demographic
market for what you're doing. Do it anyway, And what
(10:09):
you do to make a living and pay your rent
has no bearing on your value as an artist and
to tell your own story. And if you admire someone
admire that they were able to tell their story, and
they're encouraging you and up me and everyone else to
tell their story.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
That I have to that it gives me chills to hear,
especially since my day job is, besides owning you know,
this bookstore and everything, my d job is being a
director of external Affairs of the New Orleans Opera. New
Orleans is the birthplace of opera North America, and I
deal with young singers every day who are basically told,
don't waste your time in this and all this, and
(10:48):
they have to be defiant for what it is out
of the part, and that kind of attitude is something
we need more of in this world.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
So well, I understand that I've written two operas, the
Finally Ingredient, there was a Holocaust opera done on ABC
television four years every passover and then canceled out because
they took all the black and white shows, thirty thousand
shows and put them in the dumpster, and there was
one copy left that I got. And also an opera
call Twelfth Night that's been done a lot of places,
(11:17):
and I was told before writing either of those operas.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Nobody wants to hear that.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
Well with all due respect for those authorities I think
a lot of people do. And all those people who
sing so well, God bless them. And I'm writing a
piece now for James Martin, great African American opera singer
and classical singer who's on his brochure puts down from
Bach to bebop and from Alvin Bergs to Leonard Bernstein,
(11:44):
and he can do it all. And two of the
people who are here Ron Whitehead. And it's someone who's
coming who wrote a book called Tom Piazza, who wrote
New Orleans Matters. I'm setting to music for part of
my called Five American Voices. Oh really, And that's a
stone classical piece, which supposedly no it is interested in,
(12:09):
but I was lucked out that twelve years after I
met James Martin, he got asked by this festival to
do it something and he said, I'd like to do
a new piece, and they mentioned my name and he said, yeah.
I worked with him a Moab twelve years ago. He's
a great cat like I like his classical music as
well as everything else. So we're doing a piece that's
(12:30):
inspired by this kind of music for New Orleans and
classical music coming from bach on up and there is
a relationship.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
And when I wrote the flu Concerto for.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
James Galway, the best review that I got was from
hermerld Laveaux, who was sitting in the balcony, and I said, Herman,
at the very end of celebrating music Ilespi in the
last movement, I want to put something about the second
line where the bass drum part and the snare drum
part are the way it's played, and not just give
a marginalized, yank ified Launder Matt berger King version of
(13:04):
New Orleans music. And I knew the Cajun music, and
I knew some of the stuff from Folk Sawai, but
I had never really gotten the roots. And he said, well,
he wrote it out for me. So I looked over
and when that part came in the orcus of you
heard the bass drum and the snare drum.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
He gave me a nod.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
And I said, Herman, that nod was better than the
great review in the Times.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Picky yun.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That is unbelievable for those who joining us David anram
musical legend as joining us ninety five years young coming
to the eleventh Gonzo Fest. That's what the poetry you
hear in the background that's resonating across the beams here
at the historic Rink as you are about to close
out Gonzo Fest. And that kind of leads us to
(13:47):
the subject of why you're here, your fifty year friendship
practically with Hunter S. Thompson, and so we want to
talk about kind of how you met.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Oh, well, that was a story. I was in Huguenot,
New York, or Cuddy back to Ville. They're all like
population about seven people, but they gave different names to
different people who lived there one hundred and twenty years ago.
And a place called the Superret I used to go
with my French horn in nineteen.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Fifty convenience store.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Yeah, it was sort of like a general store and
the owner was not what you call a talkie fellow.
So I would say, well, sir, could I ask some
kerosene to baked beans? And he said, So. That was
the conversation between us for a year. So I went
in one time and I said, sir, could I get
some more of those fine baked beans and kerosene police
(14:35):
because I was brought up to say please and thank you?
And he said I'll share them. And I said, what
was that, sir, And he said the saucer people in
the field over there, he said, I wouldn't tell nobody.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
They'd run me out of.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Town except that crazy writer on the cabin up in
the hill. Who the crazy writer was Hunter S. Thompson,
who told me that he was after I got to
know him a little better, that he was going to
be fired from the Middle Town Herald newspaper because he
got in a dispute with the vending machine and a
(15:09):
wrestling match get his dollar back. So he beat the
machine and the submission, got his dollar back. Yeah, yeah,
And they canned him from And he said it's lucky
because otherwise I'd still be working there perhaps or given up.
And then when he went to the Eastern Seaboard establishment,
George Plimpton type parties, since I was the pianist of
(15:32):
the residents, because I knew George in Paris, who was
a great cat and a gentleman himself of the Boston
Brahmin variety, liked Hunter Becaho was a gentleman of the
Southern variety. But all the other people who came to
the Eastern Seaboard establishment thought anybody with the Southern accent
was a moron, klu klux Klan, fascist, toothless, white trash,
(15:54):
no goodnick. So finally, when Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for,
I'm sorry to say, well, actually I'm glad I did.
But when she mentioned when she mentioned forty only.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You could actually say that statement in both things and
be right.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
When she spoke about forty million deplorables anyone south of
Maryland being a deplorable, I said, wait a minute. My
whole dad's side came from Savannah, and still the relatives
have there are scarce to be deplorable, and neither are
tons of other people I met, including the writers, poets, painters, artists,
and regular folks from the South. And without the South,
(16:33):
we wouldn't have anything, not only in the North, but
the whole world. Every place has something to offer. There's
no size one side versus the other. We're all part
of the human species and we all have something to offer.
So when I would mention I was going to New Orleans,
or Macon or Louville, which is also another great place
that's really under the radar, or many of the other
(16:55):
places that I have been blessed to go to and
learn from and be inspired by, I always got kind
of the cold shoulder because at that particular time, the
intellectual delite thought that anything south of Maryland was no
man's land. And that's people are entitled to feel that way,
(17:17):
but that's kind of a bigoted way of looking at stuff.
And the whole country is so beautiful and we've all
benefited from it. In New Orleans. For anybody in the
music world or any of the arts understands that this
is the sole center of where it all not only
came from, but still comes from. There's just some spirit here.
(17:38):
I don't even know what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
There's a creativity that comes up with the fumes from
the street, and it's the place where European syncopation met
the bamboo and everything that came in between it.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Before you know this when you go.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
When I saw a second line, my uncle was a
merchant seaman here and he took me down when I
was thirteen years old and I saw a second.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Line and I was saying WHOA. And I still.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
Remembered a power alls and the shoes the people wearing,
and the dancing, and how people in different neighborhoods all
got together and had neighborhood groups of all different types
of music, all of which fit into that drum and
which enabled anybody to be invited to be part of
that in some way. And it was very very inspiring,
(18:20):
still is very inspiring and is inspiring to a bunch
of young people. There's a young trumpet player I just
met in the audience who came from Massachusetts and he's
going to be coming down.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I said, man, come on to sit in with it.
She said really.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
I said, yeah, that's how I learned to play when
I was your age. I'll be ninety five and this November.
I didn't ask him how old he was, but he's
he's in the stilla's twenties.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
I'm sure if that.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
And you know, I looked at him, I said, well, boy,
I asked me sixty years ago. And I was invited
by all those giants that I played with as a
kid just to come and sit in see how I
could do. And that's not doing anybody a favor. That's
just the way it was and the way it is.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Musical legend.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
David an Raim is joining us here on w r NO,
w s l A, and of course on Hunter Gathers,
the podcast of Hunter S. Thompson Story Hunter dash Gatherers
dot com and the Founder's Show of course, the foundershow
dot com and Curtis Robinson. You you've known David for many,
many years, and ate your thoughts and his friendship with Hunter,
and I'll continue.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, I'll say this. I met David during the Matt
Moseley famous Matt Maisley Swim of Lake Ponta trained and
I knew, I knew auvum. I remember googling him because
I'm like, you know, I know that guy. But and
it was it was a little intimidating. So but we
did it. We did Matt Mosley did a swim. You
(19:43):
can find it at Wayne Ing Films. It's called Dancing
in the Water. The title comes from a song that
David wrote on the boat that night played it. He
comes on the boat, he plays for and I think this.
I think he played for six hours the third Well
we were on the boat for thirteen. You played for
at least though you ever played for all of the
whole thing, I mean just when and guys would come
(20:06):
with that. Matt has the kind of just.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
To say it. Matt was certified.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
He was trying to swim the length of Lake pontitrain
and get the certification.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And he did it. And he did it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
The best, the best story written about it was was
for the first time in the years a body came
out of Lake Poncher training over. I thought that was
very funny.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So so I was the observer.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I was the official observer, which I didn't know what
that was when I said yes, because Matt didn't tell
me what it was when I said this. But I
had to stay awake and watch him the whole time,
you know, and that's not as easy. But you know,
you can't complain because your friend is swimming, right, and.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Well, I thought.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
People said, aren't you tired now? I said, generally, I'd
take a break, But I said, after all, he was swimming.
I was just playing the piano. And every time I thought,
good lord, he's expired. How am I going to call
up his relatives to say I'm sorry. He'd come out
from under the order to say this is great, and
then disappeared and swim some more, and I said, whoa.
And then he got to shore and some how staggered
(21:00):
the shore and someone tried to help. He said, no, no,
I would say, against the swimming rules. Stood up, put
his hands over his heads like a champion, and someone
pulled one of those small alligators out of the water.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, they were alligators there because there'd been a big rain,
and big rain brings the alligators into Lake Pontre Train
and no one knew that. The thing I didn't know
is Lake Pontre Training is shallow, and that's why we
had those four foot swells all night. But I'll say
Matt's connections in New Orleans and stuff, that he had
some great musicians that would come out and they would
go as long.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
As they could.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
They'd play for an hour or two, and then the
boat would take him back and.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
David would take on the next.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Crew they came in, and it was it was fantastic.
But that's when you first told me about meeting Hunter
and upstate here. And what's odd about that is Hunter
and I totally independent years before because he knew it
was a bed a VFO. Nut told me about these UFOs,
and you know, he might have just been giving me
a little run, but he kind of believed. He kind
of believed that guy that there, you know, he said
(21:58):
there were certainly lights moving around over there.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
They had the big Honor for Hunter's memorial. Matt was
the one who was in charge of getting all the
press to come and sit outside at the Woody Tavern
and not go in and barge in because they didn't
Johnny Depp didn't want people making it into a Hollywood event,
but make it into a Hunter Thompson event. So since
(22:20):
I was playing, I was sort of the spy for
Dunlevy and some of the other wonderful reporters I knew
who were great guys. They couldn't get in and I
would sneak, you know, sneak in and do what I
was doing, and then come out and give them a
little information. And we met at the Woody Creek Tavern,
and first people said, wait a minute, Tom Levy, man,
he's famous writer. He was so great and buying everybody
(22:41):
drinks and telling stories that by the time I would
have come back to give him something of the story,
he was already the entertainer in chief at the beautiful
Woody the Woody Creek Tavern. And then the ceremony itself
was just amazing, was so formally beautiful, and pictures of
all the great writers from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
(23:04):
century and then second half, Sheriff Bob Browners got up
and danced, and I was honored to be chosen to
do the music for it, and I was really exciting
and beautiful. But Hunter had some way of also bringing
out the best of everyone, and because of the fact
that he had a sharp eye, he gave it the
(23:27):
left and the right wing a lot of heat anytime
any of us got out of line. As a result
of offending everybody. Is now appreciated by just about everybody
because he wasn't on the one side of the other.
He was on the side of decency and humanity and
basic good conduct.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
And truth, exact truth above all, defiance for authority, truth
above all, which I point out to people that you
know he basically, if Hunter were the people's one hundred
longed day, yeah, you're probably going off for Trump at
the same time he'd be going after the Democrats. He'd
be going after everybody, because that's what Hunter did, because
Hunter did not tolerate hypocrisy. And I mean, you knew him.
(24:09):
You were his friend long before he was ever Hunter Thompson.
You met him when he was a cub reporter, basically
a kid.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You both were.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
He was David Abraham.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
He was a great cat then and he remained that way,
and when you were with him, he would be that
way over the years, and then as soon as someone
would come into the room or wherever he was, suddenly
he'd go into his bed, con terrorist act to scare everybody,
at which people loved. And when he tried to be
a courtly southern gentleman and a cute, brilliant novelist and
(24:40):
a great intellectual, they said, don't give us that mister
Rogers stuff. We wanted to see Hunter S. Thompson. So
finally his act, that y stereotype, which made him more
famous than his writing, overtook everything in his life. And
now that he's not here, but we're beginning to see you,
especially this festival a celebration of him as a writer.
(25:03):
So I always ended up my big spiel by saying,
if you want to know about Hunter Thompson, read his books.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Oh you've become the mantra. You came in and said that,
and everybody's saying that. Now, I'm sure that we're gonna
have We're gonna have T shirts before long with that.
Now you also have a history with Gonzo Fest. You
were part of the famous ninety six Gonzo Fest. Yeah,
that welcomed him back to Louisville. Louisville always had a
fraud relationship with Hunter, because you know, if if the
(25:33):
Kentucky Derby's your biggest thing and someone writes the story
saying it's decade in and depraved, the Chamber of Commerce
doesn't really embrace that right away. Take it takes a
decade or two.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
And you know, the great thing is on YouTube they
show I made it. I was asked to do it,
a version of my old Kentucky home, and all of
us loved Stephen Foster, and of course that was Freder
mc douglas's favorite song, long before it became a racist
song that wasn't considered the way forc douglass loved the
melody and loved the original lyrics before they added all
(26:03):
the funky ones. And when we played that, they had
a real country singer whose name I can't remember, from
the West from the Hills, who sang so beautifully, and
Johnny Depp, who I'd never met, playing the slide guitar,
a wonderful pianist who also did a lot of Hunter's
(26:24):
music of famous rock and roll piano player that played great,
and a whole band of different people, and my job
was to create this arrangement or version where we could
all play together. And ad I had to rehearse each
group separately because of people had ever met before. And
they go down to the basement for five minutes and
(26:44):
then go and perform it. And it's still up on
YouTube and it still sounds good, and they show Hunter
wearing a barrister's wig in the middle of it, looking
up saying wow. And he was digging it because regardless
of whatever people thought, he always celebrated his southern roots.
And he liked Jack Carowac because well, he didn't wrote
(27:06):
in a different style. He loved the fact that Kerouac
was himself and all the writers from Servantes right up
to the contemporary writers of his time. He appreciated who
told their story their way and were honest and honorable
and did it how they felt. And he encouraged a
lot of people to do that. And I think now
(27:27):
the younger people reading his books that don't know about
all the mess that he had to go through, and
they're just saying, wow, maybe I can do something too.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Musical legend David Amro and has come to the eleventh
Gonzo Fest here in New Orleans. He's actually performing and
closing out the final night on Sunday, And I mean,
for us in New Orleans, this is a great welcoming
you here is welcome you in our hearts, welcoming one
of our great legends home, even though you're not from
New Orleans. We love your music in such a way
(27:58):
that we can appreciate it because it blends so much
of everything from classical to the soul and everything in between.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
Thank you well. It all comes from the same place.
Like different languages all express human feelings, and music is
just a series of different languages, all expressing that soulfulness
that we all have. And what that is is a mystery.
Otherwise they've merchandising soulfulness and everybody could bass them. It's
(28:27):
not that way. It's a different thing. It's of the spirit.
It's a mystery, but it's there and you know it
when you're there because you feel it. And that's what's
so beautiful about New Orleans. They still have that feeling
and that spirit and I have no idea what it is,
but since nineteen forty three, every chance I get to
come down here, I'm thrilled and honored just to be
(28:49):
here in the soul center of our whole country, and
that reminds us all around the country and around the
world of the beauty part of America. For the those
people to say here's a Caribbean shitty, I would say
it's the most American city in the whole country.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I should you have you have done the impossible.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You've made Curtis Robinson speechless.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I've got to give you credit.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
I should tell you this because someone will tell you
once you're on the podcast. We did lift not much
but a few seconds of your your rendition of my
old Kentucky home from from ninety six to lead into
this podcast. We've used it for for for I was.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Just not much.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I do recall when we were on the river you
you said I could use it, but I think it's
something else. I took that as total verbal provision to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Use sure podcast. Well that's what I didn't write, as
Stephen Foster did.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So we're using your version of it.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well I would, I would thank you.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
I was just lucky to be part of it, and
lucky to be part of your show and be on
w R and O ANDLA. So if there's any fifteen
year old person listening that I probably never meet, and
they're told by career counselors there's no demographics for classical music,
jazz or folk music, writing, painting, theater, dancing, or any
(30:15):
of the fine arts. That's fine to be given that
sage advice, But hang out with somebody else that tells
you to go for what you feel you're put here
to do and try to do it. Whatever you do
to pay your rent has no bearing on your value
as an artist, and just hang in there and do
what you'd love to do the best you can.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
And hope for the best.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
David anram I cannot possibly top to that ending. Thank
you for joining us so much on this podcast and
on the Founder Show. We are in your debt. Thank
you for a lifetime of service to music and the people,
and thank you from at the bottom of our hearts.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Well, I thank you in the bookstore too, God bless
you for the bookstores Central.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Talk about something you know you can't make a living at,
but you want to contribute because it's in your art.
The Garden District Bookshop twenty seven, twenty seven per tend
yea David Annraham, thank you so much for you. Take
care and I mckenry stepped out with the band for
a few minutes. He's up in the lobby. He's gonna
be joining us right after the break to give his
thoughts on David's appearance and this incredible experience of Gonzo Fest.
(31:20):
But more importantly, we'll talk a little bit about some
of the affairs of the day back after these important messages.
More of the Founder show here in WSLA and w
R and O. Right after this.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You heard us.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Reference the New Orleans Opera in our conversation with David
annram Well, folks, we have an incredible season planned for
next year. Terrence Blanchard, someone David knows very well New
Orleans jazz legend, is actually premiering his opera Fire Shut
Up in Your Bones in New Orleans in February. We're
doing Handles Messiah and December, and then on March. Between
March twenty fourth and April first, we're doing DeRozan Cavalier,
(31:55):
the famous Strauss opera dialogues of the Karmelites, the famous
Testimony of Faith that has done in opera where three
of the nuns recently became saints, and of Course, Carlile
Floyd's Pilgrimageical to Shultz Concert. All of this available right
now as season tickets at New Orleans Opera dot org.
That's New Orleans Opera dot org. Don't hesitate. Season tickets
(32:18):
are only on sale until the end of June, so
you don't have much time to get your tickets. After that,
you will only be able to get festival tickets. Many
of these operas are not going to be sold individually.
Only to season ticket holders. There's limited seating. They're only
six hundred to see Terrence Blanchard himself play his own
opera and be the lead player of that Fire. Shut
up in your Bones, take don't waste. Go right now
(32:40):
to New Orleans Opera dot org. Click on you know
buy tickets on the front page and join us for
the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth season of the
New Orleans Opera the two hundred and thirtieth anniversary of
opera in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Hey, folks, this is Choppenheim McHenry, and I'm here to
tell you about our MINISTRYAM Ministries. We're an intercity ministry
with an inner city formula and focus for inner city folks,
please go to our website lamb NLA dot com, lamnola
dot com and check us out. We work with very
very challenging situations, the inner city, inner city kids, the
(33:18):
urban poor, lots of tragedy, lots of challenges. We need
all the help we can get. So if you're interested
in this type of work, please contact us and let us.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Know what you like to do.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
We need prayer warriors, we need financial support, and we
need volunteers. Again. You can go to our website lamb
NLA dot com or just call me chaplin Heimich Henry
at area code five zero four seven two three nine
three six nine, and thank you so very very much.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Other's Day is soon coming upon us, ladies and gentlemen
on June fifteenth, and you want to get in your
orders for the perfect Father's Day basket. You know it's
always hard to get something for dad. I know this.
I knew this with my father, and one of the
things I used to get him was the basket from
Hillary's Florist. It had all kinds of sweetmeats, candies, assortments,
(34:11):
the perfect Father's Day gift and they delivered it straight
to the door. I didn't have to do anything. Call
Give them a call one eight hundred VI I L
L E ri E or Villariesflorist dot com and tell
them you want the Father's Day basket. You heard it
on the Founder's show. They will prepare it for you
can do all the work. It's perfect And for those
of us like me who lost their fathers. Actually, the
(34:32):
last time I had dinner with my dad was Father's Day.
He died about a week later, two years ago. What
I'm doing is I'm sending flowers to his grave. I
will go visit, but they'll be with flowers, will be
waiting there when I get there. And so it is.
It is his a dual purpose. Remember your loved ones
on this fantastic Father's Day. Fathers are everything to us, folks.
(34:54):
Give them a call. Villary's Florist delivered straight to the
graves as well as baskets. And if you have a
dad out there, don't waste it because you don't know
how long they'll be around. Please, folks, remember Father's Day,
Remember how much our parents gave to us. Get a
wonderful basket from Hillary's Floorest. Give them a call one
eight hundred VI I L L E RA or look
(35:14):
online at Villarysflowers dot com and tell them you heard
it here in The Founder Show. Welcome back to The
Founder's Show. You can always hear this program every Sunday
morning from eight to nine am, and Wrno ninety nine
to five FM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Friday, Monday
and Wednesday on WSLA ninety three point nine FM fifteen
sixty am twenty four seven three sixty five at our
(35:35):
website www dot Thefounders Show, twos's dot com, and of
course always on the iHeartMedia app. It's fantastic. It's the
best music and all around podcasting app in the world,
better than Spotify, and folks, you can get it, download it.
It's absolutely free and you can get it right in
your phones, and so our show will just show up
and you can listen to it whenever you want. I
(35:56):
actually found out that one of our listeners was listens
to us every year week live because you can actually
listen to the iHeartMedia app live five pm. He lives
in Dubai and he listens to us every week at
five pm, which is our eight o'clock broadcast in New Orleans.
It's an incredible app. I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wow, Christopher, what a fantastic show we put together here.
And I really want to thank our three guests, I
mean our two guests, Curtis Robinson and of course the
musical legend of America. I guess you could say living
still living. David Ameron at ninety five years of old
age and sounds like he's only, you know, in his forties.
(36:34):
Maybe the guys. You're amazing, David, and I want to
thank you so much for being on the show with
us today. And what a great gonzo fest we've had.
Oh my goodness, it's been fantastic. It's been amazing, amazing,
So my thoughts on all this, and I held my
questions because the questions were so good. I didn't know
(36:54):
how I could add to him. I just wanted to listen,
and I learned a lot. And what an experience to,
you know, just to enjoy a lot of this. I
already knew because I am an historian and certainly about
New Orleans and New Orleans music, and we have such
a musical tradition here, it's stunning. It's amazing. Like David
was saying, you know, just about every kind of music
in America started in New Orleans. Think of that for
(37:17):
America opera. Now you know opera was from Europe, so
we didn't start that. But what I mean is it
had its birthplace in New Orleans. Some say Charleston. There's
there's always a close race on these things, but many
hold to New Orleans certainly at the same time. And
then we with a birthplace, of course, of jazz. Some
even say the blues, but I give it to Memphis.
(37:38):
Really we did have a lot of blues here though.
And then and then the bambulla, which has ended up
becoming the most fundamental rhythm for just about all music
today all around the world. That's absolutely amazing. Bambulla came
from Congo Square via West Africa. It was a West
African rhythm and African American folks who were here in
(37:58):
New Orleans they revived it here in New Owns and
it took off like a rocket shipment's been going ever since.
That's the type of rhythm folks called the bamboula. And
then of all things, which is pretty much what all
popular music is today, rock and roll, rock and roll.
It's not called rock, but it all has its origins
in quote rock and roll, which has its origins at
(38:21):
the Do drop In and the Chitland Circuit. Do drop
In was like the epicenter of the Chitpland circuit where
black and white musicians met together and shared their various genres,
which then fused into a new genre that eventually became
known as rock and roll. It originally it was Chitland
vibes or Chitland tunes. Chitland comes from the food of
(38:45):
the poor folks of the South, black and white. It's
a part of the pig that if you treat it right,
it tastes good and it'll fill you up. It has
its own special nutrition, and but it's for the poor folks,
and it was all over the South chitlands anyway, what
an amazing story we haven't want us to tell about music.
(39:08):
And by the way, the reason we say it started
at Memphis is also claiming it. But I took to
one of the experts to task on this up in
Memphis and he finally acknowledged, y'all probably have us bottom nose.
So Memphis was right there with us as far as
who was starting rock and roll, and they were part
of the Chitpland circuit circus. I mean Shetlands Circuit. But
(39:28):
the rest of the story in rock and Roll goes
like this. It became very popular, was in the top
forty for a couple of years. It's from coast to coast,
across our further planes. Everybody was playing Chitland vibes. This
was in their early fifties. And then they had a
fell up in Ohio. He was a disc jockey for
one of the largest radio stations in the country, Cincinnati.
He'd loved and he kept playing it over and over again,
(39:49):
and he came over with a new name for it.
He thought a better name would be rock and roll,
and hence the name stuck. And so from now on
we know it was rock and roll. But it started here,
as started not just at the do drop in, but
very shortly thereafter. The first rock and roll recording was
that Cosmo Motasa's recording studio, and the first am broadcast
(40:11):
radio broadcast for rock and roll song again with some
Cosmo Montasa's radio station right across from Congo Square on
top of a washet Aia. What a scene, What a scene? Well, folks,
the so nu Orleans has God has blessed his city
with great musical talent. And ability. It's just amazing to
(40:32):
think of what came out of the city. When it
comes to music, I've heard other famous musicians say, you
want to learn about music, go to New Orleans. New
Orleans is a heartbeat, it's the soul. It is the
inspiration of all American music. Now, you know, I said
everything but bluegrass. I can't say we started bluegrass, which
(40:52):
is basically the birth of gave us country Western that
definitely came from the Appellations and from the East Coast,
and came from the the tunes and songs of our
Northwestern European ancestors who came to the America's or in
the very beginning, starting to Jamestown, they brought their own
(41:13):
music that was a lot like bluegrass, and bluegrass came
out of that. And bluegrass is interesting because it has
no percussion instruments. It only uses stringed instruments. Think of that,
the banjo, the guitar, several other I can't think it's
unusual instruments by all, and certainly the violin, and that
they're able to use those instruments with short, little note
(41:35):
blasts to create rhythm. It's amazing to hear it and
by plucking, strumming or on the on the violin, the
little short like they do with the violin, and that's
how they gave put rhythm in bluegrass. Bluegrass is fabulous.
And yet you know, I say, we really had nothing
to do that, except I gotta say one thing. We
didn't start it. But it was in New Orleans earliest
(41:56):
music memory. Why because the kane Tucks were coming down
on the river by the thousands to increase the population
of New Orleans. It was, of course the French and
Spanish colony, mainly French population wise and culture and all that.
But the kane Tucks up new ones and they would
anybody coming down the river, if you're an American in
New Orleans, you would called a cane Tuck. Why they
(42:18):
did that, I have no idea, but that's the story.
All I can think of is that those Kentucky folks Curtis,
he's from Kentucky's Kentucky Boy, along with Hunter Thompson. Those
Kentucky folks must have been so outrageous, so outspoken, so
bold and amazing that they gave all Americans their name
(42:40):
Kane Tucks. And maybe that's the way they pronounced it,
and that's why we call them that here New Orleans.
But so we even had bluegrass in the very early
days of America of New Orleans, but not we didn't
originate it. All these other music forms we created. This
is astounding, folks, this is an amazing story. New Orleans
should have the greatest recording studios. We should have the
(43:00):
greatest recording broadcast, you know, music broadcast. We should have
the greatest music museum in America. And I'm calling this
city to do that. It's a long time overdoing. We've
got facilities where we could put it. So put that
in your pipe and smoke it and think about it, folks.
All right, well, we're getting close to our next break,
and I want to thank y'all again for listening to
(43:22):
the show, and I want to thank our guests again,
David and Curtis for being with us. Y'all have done
such a great job. Christopher, you did such a great
job at coordinating all this and bringing it all together,
especially having the Hunter Thompson Gonzo Fest at your very
own establishment, the Garden District Bookshop. So, folks, without further ado,
we're gonna take a brief break and we'll be right
back for the final part the chaplain by by Patriotic
(43:44):
moment and chaplin by by a gospel and testimony time.
It's a great, great rest of the show. We'll see
in a bit.
Speaker 7 (43:52):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Work Orleans
Mission take to make a positive impact on the homeless
problem facing the greater New Orleans area. We are committed
to meet this need through the work being done at
the New Orleans Mission. We begin the rescue process by
(44:15):
going out into the community every day to bring food, pray,
and share the love of Jesus with the hopeless and
hurting in our community. Through the process of recovery, these
individuals have the opportunity to take time out, assess their life,
and begin to make new decisions to live out their
God given purpose. After the healing process has begun and
(44:40):
lives are back on track, we walk each individual as
they re engage back into the community to be healthy, thriving,
and living a life of purpose. No one is meant to.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Live under a bridge.
Speaker 7 (44:53):
No one should endure abuse, no one should be stuck
in addiction. The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone
out of that life of destruction and into a life
of hope and purpose. Partner with us today go to
www dot New Orleans Mission dot org or make a
(45:13):
difference by texting to seven seven nine four eight.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Got ows.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
The two shows?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, folks were back, and it's now time for us
to go into our chaplain by by Patriart moment where
we just take a brief moment to remind you of
the biblical foundations of our country, our Judeo Christian jurisprudence,
and today we're going to cover another then Johann Sebastian Bach,
certainly one of the greatest, if not the greatest, musical
(45:46):
composer of all times. They say, almost all music today
they can trace our origins all the way back to Bach.
And I am going with Sebastian Baki was He lived
from eighteen you know, he lived in the first half
of the sixteen eighty five to seventeen fifth. And he
was not an American, of course, he was a German
born composer considered to be the master of masters. Because
(46:07):
the impact of his work on all music, I mean,
it's just absolutely amazing and very aggressively expressed. The Fervency
of his faith in Christ's at turning work on the Cross.
In fact, one of those songs was Jesus Mind Food,
and that means Jesus my joy. He wrote so many
(46:28):
great works. In fact, I understand. Classical penists told me
that you don't really learn piano till you first have
to study Bach. That's the foundation. And she was a
classical pianist and with a doctorate from two Lane in
music and when she's brilliant gal and I learned that
many years ago from her her personal experience. So Bach
was great. Now, yeah, he's not an American. He wasn't
(46:49):
one of the founding fathers. Of course, I don't always
go to founding fathers or Americans, and I don't necessarily
go to the founding period. I start pre founding all
the way back to the James Colony where they dedicated
their colony to God, just like the Pilgrims did about
seventeen years later. I also go to even before that,
because there was a fellow who discovered America the first
(47:12):
as far as we know, European and I'm talking about
Saint Brendan the Navigator, an Irish monk in the seventh century.
The six hundreds was here and he wrote his document
is his journal about it, and it's absolutely fasting, Fasting
where he says he found the land that God had
blessed and would one day be the light upon a
hill and bring the Gospel to all nations. You know,
(47:34):
America has done that. Literally, it's amazing. It's absolutely studying.
So I'm like, over ninet percent of all charity, public
and private comes out of the United States of America.
It's absolutely amazing. So folks, I pick any time period
or any person that had an effect on this country,
and certainly Bach did in our music, because the music
of the world is so influenced by Bach. Some of
(47:57):
his other great works were Passion according to Saint Matthew,
the Passion according to Saint John. In expressing his convictions
concerning the purpose of music, Johann Sebastian Bach said this,
the aim and final end of all music should be
none other than the glory of God and the refreshment
of the soul. If he is not paid to this,
(48:19):
it is not true music, but a diabolical bawling and twanging.
I think he thought God needed to be in things,
didn't he, Well, so did our finding follows. That's why
they put God right in the middle of government. Now,
they didn't do it institutionally. They didn't want that. The
Bible teaches against that. But they did it philosophically, and
that became the backbone and the conscience, as Martin Luther
(48:41):
King called it, that the Church was a conscience of
the government. It became the inspiration and the guiding light
for virtue and marals in our government. The Holy Bible.
So folks, you can see we have a very biblical foundation.
But let me ask you something. How about you? Where
are you and all this? Do you know the Lord
Jesus Christ is your personal savior? Are you born again?
(49:04):
That word born again? It means that your dead and
dye spirit has become fully alive because you've trusted Christ
as your savior. And it goes like this, For I
declare unto you the gospel that Christ died for all
of our sins, according to scripture, that he was buried,
and that he rose in the dead, according to the scripture.
That's plain and simply the God. It's that simple children
get it really easily, soaken adults. The scripture also says
(49:27):
a gospel is the power of God into salvation to
whosoever believeth So it gets done to believe in, folks.
And there are two types of believing for saving faith
to be saved from a burning hell and guaranteed heaven
and everlasting resurrection life. There's two phases. Are there two
sides to you faith? The first one is where you
believe not and which you believe not? Is you believe
(49:50):
you can't save yourself. You believe your hopeless and helps
Without God, you're destined to a burning hell. And no
matter how good you are now, how holy, how religious,
how rich or whatever you got, how charming you are,
none of that is going to get you into heaven zero.
And when you come to realize just how much of
a zero you really are before your creator, how lost
you really are, you just repented. And it's part of
(50:11):
your faith. It is belief. It is not an action.
It is not turning from your sins, clean up your life,
or whatever you might want to come up with. It's
none of that. It is none of that. It's not
getting baptized, not walking the aisle, it is none of that.
It is just plain and simply believing you can't save yourself.
That is the true definition of repentance. The Greek word
there is metonoia. It means just change your mind. Change
(50:31):
your mind. Before you thought you were cool, you could
do it. Guess what you're not. All your religion in
gonna get you. And haven't you get baptized so many
times tad poles will have you a social security number.
It won't do you any good. So, folks believe you
can't save yourself. First phase, that you believe. Second phase,
believe that only he can, that he did, and that
he will save you from a burning hell and guarantee
you everlasting life. The split second, you believe that Jesus
(50:54):
died for all your sins, was buried and rose of
the dead. The split sucking you do that you've just
become a child of God. God puts in the palm
of his hand. Jesus said to God the Father, and
then he says, I'll put you in a poem my hand.
Now God's got a double grip on you. You going
nowhere until you get to heaven. I don't care what
you do. You might backside, you might do this and
do that, and that's a terrible thing to do. But
you're still God's child and you're still going to heaven.
So folks, if you've never done this before, do it now.
(51:17):
Don't wait till it's too late. Like the old country
preacher said, and like the Word of God says, the
Bible says it now. Today is the day of salvation.
Remember Jesus's blood has watched away all your sins. Well, folks,
it is now time for us to do our chaplain.
Bye bye testimony. Time when I just take a brief
moment to remind you some amazing person from the ancient
(51:39):
world or even current times, and didn't want to talk
about a guy, another great musician named Curtis Mayfield. This
is the music, so folks, I'm sure you can see it.
Curtis Mayfield, I believe, one of the greatest rock and
roll singers of all the times, one of the greatest
soul singers of all the times. I love to death.
He's just such an amazing man. He won so many awards.
Some of these awards and do you know that to
this day he is labeled in the Rock and Roll
(51:59):
Hall of in Rolling Stone and in a famous music
rating magazine the name won't come to me right now
as the most influential his song people get Ready, they say,
is the most influential song ever written in rock and
roll for rock and roll. People get Ready. What is
that about? Well, it's about a train heading for the river,
(52:22):
going to cross the river, and you need to get
on that train, the song says. And guess what. You
can't put any baggage on it. You can't even pay
for it, because it's already paid for. You just need
to get on it. Don't miss that train, folks, because
then you'll miss the train that's crossing Jordan. And when
you're crossing Jordan, accord to the Bible, and of course
certainly in many great African American churches, that means going
(52:43):
to Heaven. When you're crossing Jordan, the Jordan River, and
the Jews cross the Jordan River to come into the
Promised Land. Folks, the Promise Land is waiting for you.
You need to get on that train. It's free. Don't
try to pay for it. They won't let you on.
And don't bring it baggage because there's no place toy page.
You won't need it. When you get to Heaven, you're
gonna have the greatest wardrobe known in the history of
the universe. You'll even have beautiful robes of righteousness. So folks,
(53:06):
just get on the train, because there's a trainer coming. People,
get ready. The song goes, get on the train because
there's a train a coming. If you've never done that before,
you need to get on that train, folks, and you
know how to do it. Just believe that Jesus died
for all your sins, was burter and rose dead, and
you're on the train on your way to glory. Well not, folks,
It's time for us to close with a mind Saint
Martin singing a creole goodbye, and God bless all out there.
Speaker 8 (53:32):
They call you cREL goodbye. They think we're just wasting
out the time. All three sibon lovey, there's time for
(53:54):
a creo goodbye.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.