I’ve had this button on my Jazz Fest hat for a few years; there used to be a guy right outside the Fortin Street entrance selling buttons – this one appeared right after Bush started the war in Iraq.
For some reason, this year, I’ve been stopped by a handful of people commenting and who wanted to take a photo of the button. It’s timeless.
Sunday the wind was blowing and it was not typical JF hot. I started the day with a nice long bike ride and then a visit from Mom, who came bearing a Boston Cream Pie as condolences for Arlene.
I got to the Fest just as the Pine Leaf Boys were getting ready to come on. They were awesome – this video doesn’t do them justice because they were jumping all over the stage and really rocking the house. I then walked over to catch Robert Cray at the Gentilly stage but it was so crowded that even the walkway was impossible to maneuver. I was going to catch the Ebony Hillbillies but instead headed to the Blues Tent for the mist and shade and especially to watch the New Orleans All-Star R&B Revue with Al “Carnival Time” Johnson and Allen Toussaint, which was hosted by Deacon John. Very fun. When Al Johnson sang Carnival Time the entire tent stood up and started dancing.
Then it was over to Congo Square to hear Earth Wind & Fire, again Congo was packed and bleeding out into the track. I managed to get up on the first bridge from the track to the grounds and I watched the whole show with people who knew every word to every EWF song – they put on a great show and despite the crowd, it was worth it.
Yesterday, as I slunked around the fest enjoying music upon music, I was feeling sort of melancholic. I was missing Arlene and it is coming up on the due date of Ele (now Kiyelle) and I was watching all the parents out there with their babies. I ran into a neighbor and her baby who took her first steps yesterday at the Fest, and I wasn’t necessarily having a pity party, but I felt like damn it, we’re ready for our baby. I want my little cuksom strapped to me and swaying to the gumbo of music.
And I felt it all so fleeting anyway – this raucous party of music and people dancing and my little Bean now ashes on the counter.
I ran into another neighbor later in the day who said she was sorry to hear about Arlene and I said, “Thanks, it’s been rough.” And she said, “Well, you seem to be handling it well.”
Ha!
Left the fest and walked over to Swirl to meet T (who is not a big JF fan). Friends of ours were meeting us there and some of the VaVaVoom musicians were playing. It started off slow, I sat inside in the window with my feet up after standing most of the day and the crowd started to gather. Then the music and people’s happy feet found their groove – our friends’ son was the hit of the crowd and his little sister came in to join him:
Later, when it was time to leave to come home and eat the gazpacho we had made earlier, the boy asked if he could stay, alone.
I started the Fest yesterday with Astral Project and sat by a guy who said he has been watching them for 30 years. Wow, are they that old? Because I was gone from New Orleans for 16 years and hadn’t known much about them until Flower sent me a CD. They are an unbelievable talent collection.
Next I walked over and caught the tail end (no pun intended) of Chris Owens. She had just brought an elderly man on stage and was singing to him.
From there I stopped by the Gentilly stage and caught Galatica and then walked over to the Fais Do Do Stage to see The Del McCroury Band – they were great – and I ran into my neighbors – a bunch of them and they gave me shelter from the sun (much needed). This is their feet – I had to sit for a while as the heat had gotten me as it always does:
I followed the crowd to Eryka Badu and found her a little not my taste so went over to watch Ile Ayie of Brazil (a carnival band) that were romping and ended up at the Gospel Tent to listen to the St. Joseph The Worker Music Ministry, where the woman was singing, “I’ll pray for you. You pray for me.”
As I sat there in the mist floating inside the gospel tent and listen to her sing her heart out, I thought about Eryka Badu, that slick, sort of Whitney Houston sound. I have one Whitney Houston song – and it was written by Dolly Parton. Yes, she and Eyka can sing, but what is inside of them. There was something inside this woman on the stage at the Gospel Tent that was alive and raw and was coming out with all the life force of an avalanche.
GoGo made me a great belt buckle – it has POW on it for my Wonder Woman moods. She is at Jazz Fest the first weekend and if you don’t have a GoGo bracelet then just what are you doing in life? They are fabulous.
Below are Jazz Fest essentials – a good hat that you can add flourishes to that actually blocks the sun, a Brass Pass from WWOZ, cash, schedule, sunglasses.
When you walk outside the Fairgrounds you first hit Liuzza’s by the Track and a crowd that gathers there and even a goat, then you head down Ponce de Leon and there’s always something cranking at Swirl. First night of the fest it was the Mardi Gras Indians:
My dad’s having brain surgery today.
Last night, I set my hand on fire.
She’s not perfect.
Colton School … Blue Nile … Tip’s … Snug …
I grew up listening to a lot of Southern Rock and yes, it is what it is, but I happen to love it. On my birthday, I’ve actually given up the cute little derriere of Jon Bon Jovi and have chosen to spend it with the Kings of Leon instead – I’m opting for good music over good looks (not to say these boys aren’t cute, cuz they are).
But yesterday, at the start of Jazz Fest, I started the event with Drive-By Truckers – awesome – Booker T was sitting in with them and they made for a great say hello to Jazz Fest 2009 in my opinion.
A short bio on them is they are an alternative country band and although they have earned much critical acclaim, the band has nonetheless struggled for recognition. In 2001 music critics fell over themselves searching for new superlatives to describe their latest album: “Southern Rock Opera is a brilliantly realized double CD of raw, heartfelt rock that destroys Southern stereotypes while offering an insightful look at coming of age in Alabama in the 1970s,” wrote Larry Katz in the Boston Herald. The band’s mixture of styles, however, left the Truckers in a nebulous position: “Drive-By Truckers make music that is too rock for country, yet probably a little too country for straight-ahead rock fans,” wrote Dan MacIntosh in Country Standard Time. These blurred musical boundaries, combined with the release of Decoration Day in 2003 prompted Michael Long in the National Review Online to comment: “The Drive-By Truckers remain the best unheralded band in popular music today.”
Here is Patterson Hood singing a song from the Opera they produced. The guy smiling next to me knew every word to every song. He came over from Atlanta where he had just seen them three nights in a row: