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New Orleans Comes to Lima
By James Rudolph

New Orleans came to Lima on Friday night, October 7th at the Zum auditorium of the Universidad de Lima with a concert headlined by the traditional jazz from the “Big Easy” of the Tim Laughlin Quartet.

The United States Embassy sponsored this extraordinary “evening of jazz and thanks” together with the Universidad de Lima. The cover of the program proclaimed that “the people of the United States offer this concert in thanks to the people of Peru for their support and solidarity for Hurracane Katrina.”

Tim Laughlin was born and raised in New Orleans, whose remarkably competent clarinet style is reminiscent of the classical dixieland jazz sounds of the great Pete Fountain. His quartet was rounded out by Tom McDermott on the piano, Bradford Truby on the acoustic bass, and Ronnie Magri on the drums.

Warming up for the quartet was Peru's Orquestra Juvenil de Musica Nueva, a 16-piece orchestra dedicated to finding Peruvian expressions of jazz under the direction of Rafael “Fusa” Miranda. Its set culminated with a delightful number that took the audience on a train ride from the sierra down to the coast that was marked by jazz renditions of “El Cóndor Pasa” followed by criollo and musica negra themes played to driving jazz rythms.

The set by the Tim Laughlin Quartet was pure New Orleans jazz. Many of the tunes were Mr. Laughlin's own compositions. My personal favorite song was a soulful New Orleans blues classic called “Lonesome,” in which Mr. Laughlin effectively displayed his awe-inspiring talent on the clarinet.

A touching moment was the performance of the Louis Armstrong classic “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans,” during which Mr. Laughlin spoke its sentimental lyrics:

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
And miss it each night and day
I know I'm not wrong... this feeling's gettin' stronger
The longer, I stay away.
….
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
When that's where you left your heart
And there's one thing more...I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans.

In the midst of his set, Mr. Laughlin shared with the audience that when Katrina hit his home town, he had been playing at a jazz festival in Paraguay, where he suffered and of the awful anxiety of not knowing the fates of family members who had not evacuated. He also offered thanks to Ambassador Struble who, when he found out that Laughlin was in Paraguay, invited him to play in Lima before returning to his home base in New Orleans. This was Mr. Laughlin's second visit to Lima. I, for one, hope it's not his last.

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