Goin' Home: An Evening Honoring Fats Domino and the Music of New Orleans.

TIPITINA'S FOUNDATION PRESENTS GOIN' HOME: AN EVENING HONORING FATS DOMINO

AND THE MUSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

A BENEFIT CONCERT TO PRESERVE THE MUSICAL HERITAGE OF NEW ORLEANS


What: Goin' Home: An Evening Honoring Fats Domino and the Music of
New Orleans.
A benefit concert to preserve the musical heritage of New Orleans.

Who: Tipitina's Foundation and Pink Elephant

When: Thursday, November 8, 2007 @ 8:00pm

Where: Pink Elephant
530 West 28th Street (Between 10th and 11th)
New York City

Artists performing include: Ivan Neville, Leo Nocentelli (The Meters), Eric Krasno (Soulive), Adam Deitch, Olu Dara, Toots Hibert of Toots and the Maytals, special guest Lloyd "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" Price, Robert Randolph and special surprise guests.

The Tipitina's Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving the cultural legacy of New Orleans through music education for the youth and providing programs that support working musicians of New Orleans and the Gulf Region. Since Hurricane Katrina, the Foundation has donated over one million dollars worth of instruments to New Orleans Area schools as well as programs that benefit musicians of all ages.

Rock and Roll pioneer and New Orleans music legend Antoine "Fats" Domino is making his first trip to New York City in over 20 years to celebrate the release of Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino (Vanguard Records) compilation CD. An all-star cast of musicians will assemble on Thursday, November 8th at the Pink Elephant for a concert honoring his life and benefiting the Tipitina's Foundation, a New Orleans based non-profit that Mr. Domino works closely with to preserve the musical cultures of New Orleans.


My dad was kind enough to drop me at the venue at around 7:45pm. I walked up to the venue to meet up with Syncere...my escort and photographer for the evening. Before I reached him I passed actor Rueben Santiago-Hudson (Shaft, Lackawanna Blues) outside waiting for someone as well....I rolled up on him...greeted and introduced myself and then kept it moving. Syncere was right out front and we got our wrist bands and made our way inside. There was a cocktail hour before the event so we hung out at the bar and just chilled until showtime. I was dismayed to find that I would have to er...STAND for the entire event...now ya'll know my shoes generally have a limited warranty on how long I can stand in them...lol.

We caught a few songs from the band and then Mayor Bloomberg took the stage to speak briefly about Fats and then present him with an award. And then the man himself sat down at the piano and began to play "Blueberry Hill". He played and sang all of one verse and the chorus and then was like "Thank You!! Good Night!) and he went right back to his VIP Table on the balcony....lol. THAT'S how you do it!!!!!

Anyway, my evening wound up being cut short after a brief phone call from my Mom, I needed to get up town and tend to a family situation.

Syncere and I quickly made our way to the coat check (where I got some great shots with the staff...Thanks ya'll!!) and made my way outside.

I never did wound up personally thanking the woman who was responsible for my invite (I think she was running like crazy) So I'd like to take a moment and say thank you now!!!

Smootches Fam!

"Greatness comes by a thing seen, heard, read or something inside and then God wraps it and presents it to society."