Mike Mills |
ALL-AMERICAN
BARBECUE
Fire ‘n Smoke
Stoke Interest
In Jazz At Lincoln Center
By Edward T. Callaghan
 HE
legendary barbecue pitmaster Mike
Mills told us all you need for a great barbecue were ”fire,
smoke and water.”
The fire and smoke were
there courtesy of America’s greatest barbecue kings and queens
and Mother Nature hailed their arrival with sporadic, massive
downpours. Still, the
1st Annual Big
Apple Barbecue Block Party on East 27th Street
was a smokin’ success and is sure to reign again for years to
come.
Blue Smoke restaurant,
the Jazz Standard and the Union Square Hospitality Group decided
to have an all-American barbecue.
Never to do things in a
small way, restaurateurs Danny Meyer
and Michael Romano
invited all to sample a rich array of regional barbecue from the
country’s top pitmasters (that’s the barbecue world ‘s
equivalent of executive chef).
North Carolina’s Ed
Mitchell and a crew of some 35 family, friends and fellow
churchgoers pulled in with a tractor trailer bearing the family’s
portraits on the side and their treasured barbecue inside.
Ken
Callaghan, Blue Smoke’s New York executive chef, went
through 3,000 chickens that weekend and ignored the downpours
claiming it would “help smoke the pits.” Ken served up the
smokiest, most succulent birds and best potato salad in town.
Rick
Schmidt, leading the family-run Kreuz Market from Lockhart,
Texas, spiced things up with pickled jalapeno peppers with beef
shoulder.
Alabama was represented
by Big Bob Gibson Bar-b-q and their spicy beans!
Smokin’ food wasn’t
the only item on the menu. There
was continuous live jazz by musicians from New Orleans, Kansas
City, St Louis and New York.
Bob
Belden wailed on his sax,
The Fins set the crowd to dancing in the streets, and Bernard
Purdie with The Hudson River Rats kept
the “groove” going.
Outstanding were the
sounds of Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra, under the direction of David
O’Rourke,
that knocked everyone out.
Formed only six months ago, the orchestra connects New York
City school children and the jazz art form in a hands-on manner
that has a lasting impact.
Proceeds from the event
are earmarked for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Maker Relief
fund. Blue Smoke
Co-owner Danny Meyer hopes “to promote the cultural value of
American barbecue and launch an annual tradition in the Big Apple.”
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