I was at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans and started chatting with the pianist after one of their sets, because he was just incredible, and I wanted to meet him and say how impressed I was. He was this old white guy with bushy eyebrows, and turned out to be a really interesting dude.
Anyways, he told me that he was going to be playing at the Windsor Court Hotel, on the Wednesday, so I decided to check it out, not knowing what was going on there. Turned out to be this super swanky restaurant called the Grill Room. He was playing background music for the dining guests. Anyways, the meal was the greatest meal I've ever had in my life, bar none. And then after every half hour of playing this guy would take a half hour break, and he would come to my table and just shoot the sh*t until he had to play again. I got to talk to him all about the local music scene, what it was like to be a jazz musician in New Orleans, everything he had to give up to do it, etc. It was the most amazing conversation I've ever had in my life, with the best food I'd ever eaten in my life. What a surreal experience. I'll never forget that.
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