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Title:
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benefit the bayou!
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START DATE:
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9/27/2010
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START TIME:
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6:00 PM
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Duration:
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3 Hours
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Location:
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wellfleet, ma
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Location Details:
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This event takes place in WEllfleet, Massachusetts, but will be broadcast live on our community radio station WOMR and WWOZ will provide a live link so that people can listen online
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Event Topic:
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Environment
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Event Type:
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Concert/Performance
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Contact Name:
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melinda krasting
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Contact Email:
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mkrasting@gmail.com
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Contact Phone:
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508 349-0379
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DESCRIPTION:
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download PDF (999.2 kibibytes)
Benefit the Bayou
Casting the Net from Cape Cod to the Gulf
For immediate release --
September 9, 2010
On Monday evening, September 27th at 7PM, New Orleans piano legend Henry Butler will perform a benefit concert at the Wellfleet Congregational Church, as a way for one historical fishing community—Wellfleet and the outer cape—to assist another: the Gulf coast of Louisiana, which has been devastated by the BP oil spill.
Outer Cape Cod and the bayous around New Orleans are communities whose destiny has been shaped by the waters and wetlands that surround them. They are tourist destinations, but primarily and historically their economies are based on the fishing industry. As a result, both communities share a deep understanding, reverence and respect for the natural surroundings on which they depend.
They also share a sense of pride in their own histories, the arts and individuality. Both have vital community radio stations – WOMR in Provincetown, and WWOZ in New Orleans - which refer to themselves as ‘sister stations.’ And the town of Wellfleet is in the process of renovating an historic church in the center of town to create their own ‘Preservation Hall’.
So, when the BP disaster threatened the livelihood of the Gulf fishing industry, there was immediate interest and concern in the Cape Cod fishing communities. Melinda Krasting, a Wellfleet resident who is also active with the Jazz Foundation of America based in NY, was able to convince Henry Butler come to Wellfleet to perform.
Mr. Butler, who grew up in New Orleans and still calls it home, lost nearly everything, including his 1925 Mason Hamlin concert grand piano, when Katrina hit. He has been actively campaigning since then to keep concern and awareness of the issues facing New Orleans and the surrounding regions in the public eye, working all the harder now that a second crisis not only threatens a unique way of life for fishermen on the coast but could reverberate throughout the entire region as a consequence of severe economic hardship brought on by the BP disaster.
To quote The New York Times from earlier this year: “And then there was Mr. Butler. Percussive in his attack, ostentatious with his technique, he was the picture of stubborn mischief — and, not coincidentally, of New Orleans pianism. He obliged the spirit of the occasion with his own stylistic consommé: billowing whole-tone glissandi; furrowed, Monkish hiccups; boppish two-handed octaves; flare-ups of funk and Chopin.” It would be hard to find a more exciting performer.
Once Mr. Butler said yes, the idea grew into a full evening’s program called Benefit the Bayou, which will also feature the wildly popular Chandler Travis Trio and a reading by acclaimed local author Heidi Jon Schmidt, whose book set in Wellfleet, The House on Oyster Creek, was published this summer.
And so, on Monday evening, September 27th at 7PM, a concert will be held at the Wellfleet Congregational Church. The church venue, which is a picturesque and historical building in the center of Wellfleet, has excellent acoustics, seats over 400 people, and best of all, contains a Steinway concert grand piano for Henry Butler to play.
The concert will be broadcast live on WOMR, and WWOZ in New Orleans will provide a link to the event on their web page. All proceeds from the event will be divided between the Gulf Relief Foundation, which was started by WWOZ and which focuses on the human needs that have resulted from the oil disaster, and the Restore the Earth Foundation, which, among other things, supplies Gulf Saver Bags. These are burlap bags filled with tree humus, infused with oil-eating microbes that are plugged with new march grasses, which are deployed by out of work fishermen.
Tickets have just gone on sale, and are available online, at select locations in the area and, if they have not sold out in advance, will be available at the door. The concert will be broadcast live on WOMR and WWOZ in New Orleans will provide a link to the event on their web page. Tickets can be purchased and donations can be made online at http://www.benefitthebayou.org.
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