From the Big Apple to the Big Easy: The Concert for New Orleans
If anything good can be said to have come out of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, it'sFrom the Big Apple to the Big Easy, an ideal union of musicians, songs, and a worthy cause that results in one of the best benefit concerts in years. The music at this Madison Square Garden extravaganza (another show took place that same September night at Radio City Music Hall) on behalf of the people of New Orleans and the battered Gulf Coast isn't just good, it'sright. What we witness over the course of some three hours is more than the usual passel of big stars showing up to do the right thing and drum up some cash and support for the unfortunate and the dispossessed; some of these folks actuallyarethe dispossessed, and the majority have an authentic connection to the Crescent City. The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, the Meters, Irma Thomas, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Clarence "Frogman" Henry: these are performers who are steeped in the astonishingly rich tradition of the place that gave us Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, and so many others who helped weave the dense fabric of American music. And while the show takes a little while to hit its stride, by the time it climaxes with "When the Saints Go Marching In" you'll be partying like a drunken reveler during Mardi Gras. Highlights are almost too numerous to list here, but they'd have to include Thomas' "Time is on My Side" (the early Rolling Stones hit) and the Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko," both included in a segment devoted to what actress Jessica Lange calls "the bad girls of the Big Easy"; guitarist Ry Cooder's "Hello Josephine," part of a blues set with Buckwheat Zydeco and Lenny Kravitz; John Fogerty, who breathes rocking new life into "Born on the Bayou" and "Proud Mary"; the Dirty Dozen's rollicking "St. James Infirmary," one of New Orleans' signature songs; and a gorgeous "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which finds Art Garfunkel (reunited with Paul Simon for the occasion) sharing the lead with the angel-voiced Aaron Neville. And that's to say nothing of Bill Clinton, who helped spearhead relief efforts with George H. W. Bush and whose appearance receives the most prolonged ovation of the night. The concert raised a reported $9 million, and 100% of net proceeds from the sale of this two-DVD set will continue to raise money and awareness for Katrina victims. That alone would justify buyingFrom the Big Apple to the Big Easy, but the music makes it a no-brainer.--Sam Graham