Jazz Fusion Ahead
Though the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival lasts for a total of seven days spread over two weekends, sadly my schedule only permitted me to take a short trip to New Orleans. So while I was only able to attend two days of Jazz Fest, those two days were able to give me the flavor of the festival experience. Located a short drive away from downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter, Jazz Fest attracts some 60,000 people each day to upwards to ten or so stages, featuring an ecelectic mix of music. Whiles acts like Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, and Bon Jovi headline each day, the focus of much of Jazz Fest are the lesser known acts earlier in the day. I’ve never seen such a long list of acts and known so few already, especially considering the size of the festival. Many of the artists are jazz themed or at least jazz influenced, including many local acts. Though the die-hard improvisational jazz fan could certainly find plenty of more traditional improvisational jazz, many of the most popular acts, including those I came to see, are more of the jazz influenced variety, who fuse elements of rock, blues, and funk into their style.
Our Jazz Fest experience started early Friday afternoon, several hours after the gates had officially opened for the day. We made our way to the Gentilly State, one of the larger at the venue, for Buckwheat Zydeco, named for the zydeco music he plays, a style developed in New Orleans creole style of music with fast tempos and featuring the use of an accordion and washboard. We next wandered to the slightly smaller Congo Square stage for another local act, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers.
A big part of the “heritage” element of Jazz Fest is sampling the local cuisine, so I shared some alligator stew with my brother as we sat in the grass and listened to 90’s two hit wonder Better Than Ezra. I couldn’t help think, “Play ‘Desperately Wanting’ and ‘Good’ and get off the stage,” though I refrained from voicing it at a decibel level audible above our little group. Clearly, I need some more Jazz Fest heritage, that is, their policy of providing guests with leftover cardboard boxes full of ice for your beer that you’ve bought in bulk. Like any festival, the most popular acts are always stacked up at the tail end of the day, but no one objected to making our way to a more minor stage for the bluegrass band, The Steeldrivers. We then finished our day at the main stage, finding a great spot not far from the stage where some other guests left their large tarp staked in the ground. Since Arcade Fire was the only band of the trip whose catalogue I am intimately familiar with, it was certainly the highlight of the day for me.
On Saturday, we again made our way into the Jazz Fest festival grounds in the early afternoon. We started our day at local act My Name is John Michaels, which despite being a terrible name for a band in my humble opinion, was a good way to start off the day. Next up for the day was another local band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a brass band who I was already familiar with and had seen at several festivals before. They were the epitome of my previous statement regarding the style of the festival, jazz influenced fused with other genres. I also happened to run into some friends from college, which was a pleasant surprise.
For the last set of the day, I split my time between Jimmy Buffett on the Acura Stage and Lauryn Hill on the Congo Stage. Jimmy is of course always fun but I was not, shall we say, in the right state of mind (i.e drunk enough) to have the full experience at a Buffett concert. Nonetheless, it was fun briefly. Michael wasn’t too into it; I don’t think he really knew any of the songs. Lauryn Hill was also fine, but nothing special. It was a much different crowd, both in demographics and temperament. Far away from her stage, there wasn’t much to see and truth be told, we really weren’t that into the whole thing. So not the best way to close to the festival for us, but nonetheless another good day overall.
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