Initially, my day started off as it has for the last week, early in the morning at 8 a.m. at Dillard University for The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Then, Jill Abramson, managing editor for The New York Times, visited to help and talk with students about their feature stories.

The day went along, and Jill finally got to me. It was about 11 a.m. I began to tell her about my story idea to compare the older brass bands in New Orleans to the younger brass bands. The bands I planned to feature were the Treme Brass Band and the Soul Rebels Brass Bands.

Jill mentioned that she heard the Rebirth Brass Band play before and that she loved them. I replied saying that I was able to hear the Treme Brass Band already and I loved it and planned on going back out today shoot some more pictures.

She said it was OK, and sounded like a good project. Minutes later, she returned, saying she and her husband, Henry Griggs, wanted to accompany me on my assignment. We left at around 2:30 p.m. We first headed to the Sonesta Hotel in the 300 hundred block of Bourbon Street to catch the Treme Brass Band in a parade. Later, after finding out that they had started early, we figured we would catch them at the Treme neighborhood where they usually disband. Not knowing the parade was only about 10 minutes ahead of us, we decided to leave for the Candlelight Bar in the Treme neighborhood.

Once we arrived, we searched for people who knew when the band was going to arrive. After we found out they were coming in about 20 minutes, we decided to wait. The locals in the Treme neighborhood convinced Jill and her husband to buy gumbo for them and myself. The gumbo was so good. It had lobster and the great New Orleans rice with a little spice at the bottom. Then, as we sat and waited for about 45 minutes, we noticed that random people in the community started gathering. We had to stay to see what was going on and about 10 minutes later the brass band came down the street in their orange truck. A second line came right behind them. The crowd grew to about 300 to 400 people within 10 minutes. I was then able to get the location of where they were playing that night.

Later that day, Jill and Henry took everyone out to eat at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. The food was awesome. After dinner, we left to finally see the Treme Brass Band play. Once we arrived at Rosy’s Jazz Hall, the police officer was determined not to let me in the event, a wedding. I could not believe he would not let me in: I had Jill Abramson of The New York Times with me! Later, the manager, outside for a smoke, decided to let us in after I explained our situation.

The wedding reception was nice. The band played and I took pictures from the stage because initially I was limited to a small space. Then the wedding coordinator said that if I could get any good pictures of the bride, I should e-mail them to her. I took that as a ticket to move around and got some great shots.

On the ride back to Dillard, Jill, Henry and I just talked about our love for brass bands and the police officer who was such a stick in the mud.

Overall I enjoyed my day with Jill and Henry because they really got to know me. I appreciated meeting a managing editor of a national paper and also meeting Jill after hours.