“Jazzfest Week One”
On Wednesday evening we ventured over to something new – the Constantinople porch stage to see River Eckert give a solo performance.
That turned into a good decision. Kenny, Kara and Nina met us and we enjoyed some classic River songs. Heartbreakingly, Marcia Ball was in the audience. She is one of my all time favourite musicians, has ALS and can no longer talk. River did a nice job of recognizing her.
That was a nice and casual warm up for the crazy days ahead. I like this sign that they put out during the porch concerts.
We tried something new on the first Thursday (referred to as locals day because of the reduced ticket price for local residents) and set up under the large tree at the Fais Do-Do stage. What on earth is that? Well…in French it is an affectionate phrase used to tell young children to “go to sleep.” I don’t think that’s what they’re going for with this stage. In this case it refers to a lively, traditional Saturday night country dance. These were family affairs and mothers would say “fais do-do” to their children so that the dancing could continue. We set up here in order to enjoy Shinyribs when he closed out the stage later in the afternoon.
I usually start Jazzfest with a plan and things get less and less organized as the days pass. Here were the things I was interested in for the first day:
We started out with a walk over to see Gov’t Majik at the Festival stage. They had an interesting and varied set.
We followed that with a little bit of Johnny Sketch and then heard some of Vieux Farka Toure in the Blues Tent. He is a Malian singer, composer and guitarist. He is the son of Malian musician Ali Farka Toure. There was an album years ago by Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure that I really enjoyed:
We made our first stop into the WWOZ tent – iced coffee, water, all kinds of fruit, and very well maintained bathrooms. This was all very pleasant – a small oasis amidst the crowds.
Our next stop was the grandstand (main viewing area for the horse racing track) to watch an interview of Jon Batiste by David Fricke. This was a very popular and poorly planned event. Organizers should have readily predicted that this would be popular and used the many TVs to broadcast throughout the grandstand rather than in just one small section. It was hopeless to try and listen with all the chatter around us and so we left to find something better to entertain us.
The Blind Boys of Alabama in the Gospel tent quickly helped us forget about the mess of the interview.
Just an excellent set from start to finish.
We sampled a short amount of Kings of Leon on the main Festival stage. Diana and I looked at each other and agreed that they were not our thing at all – sounded terrible. We beat a hasty retreat to listen to some Shinyribs. One of our group talked way too much during this set – very annoying. On our way out, we listened to some of Raye, a young English singer. She was excellent – a huge and talented band, good songs, and had a great talent for endearing herself to the huge crowd between songs.
The first day was in the books and our brass passes seemed to provide some benefits.
Friday set up was at the Festival stage – our new preferred spot up against the front of the Big Chief viewing gallery – better views and easier access than our previous spot.
Julie’s dress made it out to the festival.
We started with sets from local groups Naughty Professor and The Rumble – both very good performances. Then the last of the Nevilles who still performs in New Orleans, Cyril, put on a very strong show.
Here’s a clip of a young family member with a fancy suit:
After a solid set from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, it was time for what we hoped would be a festival highlight – Jon Batiste. Things started off well with the Blind Boys of Alabama kicking of his show.
Batiste’s set was a little bit all over the map with some things I loved, Hallelujah:
And some other sections that weren’t what I was looking for. Overall, a very good day 2.
For Saturday, Day 3, we set up at the Gentilly Stage. The first band up was The Deslondes – my favourite from the last few years. I decided to go up front and get a close up experience.
They closed with a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Drifter’s Wife.” Really excellent stuff to start the day.
The Crowe Boys, another local band, was a new one for me. I was quite impressed with their performance.
Jason Isbell and the 400 unit followed that with a solid set – just nothing close to the one I saw in Telluride when I became an instant big fan. I don’t have any videos to share because he apparently has folks trolling around looking for short video clips from a festival and blocking them for copyright – what a ridiculous waste of resources.
Tyler Childers finished out the day on the Gentilly stage. He’s a country/Americana artist that has become very popular lately, especially with the kids. Jack and Mason joined us to watch. We gave it a few songs and were not impressed at all.
We decided to walk around the track and catch some of Stevie Nicks at the Festival stage. That turned out to be quite the undertaking, the track being completely blocked by people watching the show from outside the field. We fought our way through and were able to listen to a few songs. Stevie still sounds very good. And is clearly just as popular.
Back at Gentilly to pack up, Childers was sounding much better. Mason confirmed that he picked up about half way through, but was upset that he hadn’t played any of his very popular songs.
It was back over to the Festival stage on Sunday, Day 4. Some rain threatened as we waited in line and didn’t come to too much.
After setting up, we made our way over to the Blues tent to see River Eckert and his band absolutely kill it in their first ever Jazzfest performance. Several more thousand people than our living room or the Constantinople stage.
The two big closers on Sunday were both octogenarians – Irma Thomas and Rod Stewart. So impressive to still be performing at a high level in their 80s. Here’s Irma with her classic “Time is on my side:”
And “Forever Young:”
Moving on to the next act, Rod Stewart.
He insists on being “piped” on stage with “Scotland the Brave” and has the Celtic football team logo on the bass drum.
This was very much his Vegas residency type show and I enjoyed it all. There’s nothing wrong with cheezy if well executed.
My favourite was this old Faces song:
You do have to smile at his choice of backup singers, all great musicians also playing harp, violin, and guitar:
Phew!! Week One is in the books. Let’s do it again next weekend.