A Larger Instrument

A National Park ranger plays the trombone on the Arch grounds. The whole area is a national park, technically the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It's about the 1803 purchase of a huge tract of land west of the Mississippi from France (including St. Louis)  by President Thomas Jefferson. It nearly doubled the size of the U.S. Napoleon needed money for his pastimes.

A trombone is rather less subtle than an blues harmonica but has more power. The ranger did a pretty good job.        

The Blues

No, nothing to do with the hockey team, which has been quite successful in the first round of the playoffs.

There was a blues band playing in the new extension of the Arch grounds. This man was easily the most visually interesting. He is playing a harmonica, a blues harp in musical terms. The sounds he could make were quite amazing.         

Bluesweek

More like Bluesweekend. This event took place on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday of our Memorial Day long weekend. We've had blues festivals in different formats for years. This version is, in part, to promote the National Blues Hall of Fame, under development here.

At lot of local events that are behind a barrier (because of alcohol sales) have a "no professional cameras" policy, enacted just to annoy me, I'm sure. Turned out not to be a problem yesterday but I took my little Olympus E-M5 just in case. These pictures were all taken with it. Stunning quality in a little package. Right, Grace?        

Blues For 2011

.

More entertainment from First Night, the very hot but oddly named Blues Inquisition (All right! Let's give it up for Torquemada on lead guitar!). They played contemporary work, Bo Diddly and a slow country-blues version of the Rolling Stones Satisfaction that kept everyone guessing until the lyrics began. The performance was given in the sanctuary of the grand Third Baptist Church, a place I have never had the opportunity to visit. The show gave new insights on the nature of the sacred and profane.

We got day-glo office buildings today on Downtown St. Louis 365.

The Blues

.
From the St. Louis Festival of Nations. American blues certainly counts as part of the spectrum of international musical art. This picture is one of the early shots in my hands project. Those arched fingers cover a harmonica, a blues harp. So simple an instrument, yet so capable of the sound of human melancholy.

TOMORROW: K KK KK KK Kat... (guest photo). Time to head way, way east. No Arch picture this week.