Question: What's the strangest thing you've ever seen at Jazz Fest?
Answer: A wedding, on stage at the Gospel Tent.
Question: What's the second strangest thing you've ever seen at Jazz Fest?
Answer: The crowd at the Fais-Do-Do stage dancing the horah, complete with people being raised on chairs.
Both of these things happened today at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. As John Lennon said, strange days indeed, most peculiar. Of course, he was the Walrus.
After the morning prayer at the Gospel Tent ("Battle Hymn of the Republic"), and as the Morning Star Baptist Church Mass Choir took the stage, I noticed a woman in a brides gown, and about five or six bridesmaids in various canary yellow dresses (see tomorrow's post; what's up with yellow?), with other family types also wearing yellow trickling in behind them. "I've seen it all now," I thought. That's not the sort of thing you usually see at the Jazz Festival, so I immediately became curious about what was happening. Not long to wait, as the announcer stated that there would be a wedding on-stage later in the day (after joking that she hoped there was a groom too). They sit up front, talking with staff-looking types near the stage as audience members like me gawk. The Choir was great, as are nearly all Gospel Tent acts. Not such a traditional gospel church choir, but more influenced by funk and R&B than usual. The Church's minister is also the organ player, and had previously led a very thoughtful morning prayer. Later in their set, they break out with a "Greek chorus" of about four people in black gowns and whiteface (a nice touch; Al Jolson is still rolling in his grave) looking like they were trying to Renew in Logan's Run.
Mime is money, of course, so it was on to the Fais-Do-Do stage for the Berard Family Band. This group, from Cecilia, Louisiana is a pretty straight-on Cajun, right down to the triangle player. As visions of Ed Grimley dance in my mind, I wonder whether this is a family band like the Partridge Family or the Von Trapp Singers were a real family (or at least they were on the show; by the way, who was the bigger loser-Danny Partridge or Jan Brady? Both were bitter, jealous middle children unable to see beyond their pathetic incompetence and accept being outshined by their older star siblings...or is it just me?). Right at that moment, Al Berard introduces the band, and sure enough, it really IS a family band.
After coming back to the real world, I returned to the Gospel Tent to check on the wedding, and happily managed to catch the conclusion of the Rocks of Harmony show. These guys, long-time New Orleans gospel performers, sound similar to the famous Five Blind Boys of Alabama. The Gospel Tent was completely crowded, unusual for such an early show, and on its feet.
The wedding followed. More pictures are on flickr. The crowd loved it. It was pretty tasteful and serious, given the surroundings, and the crowd was enthusiastic and cheered, but appropriately I thought. The bride kept crying during the ceremony. Lets hope those were tears of joy. Later that afternoon, I saw the whole wedding party on the track near the Gentilly Stage for the Cowboy Mouth show. Quite the contrast.
After getting loaded up on jama jama, chicken and fried plantains (like dessert), I made yet another effort to appreciate Zachary Richard. And failed. My very close friend Donna (who I see about once a decade now), is a huge ZR fan, and based strictly on that alone I've tried several times over the years to develop some affinity or appreciation for one of the acknowledged masters of zydeco. Maybe its that all the songs sound deadly serious. If he WAS the master of zydeco, now he's the Joan Baez of it. Maybe its the lack of fun in his performing style. Or maybe its the following description from his web site: "Militant environmentalist and cultural activist, poet and singer-songwriter." You know what, how 'bout shutting up about Rwanda and play something we can dance to?
Having met once again with failure, I moved on to Gina Brown at Congo Square. This is where I should have been the whole time. Brown has a voice reminiscent of Gloria Gaynor, with some sweet dance moves to go with it. The crowd was on its feet and getting down with its bad self to the jazzy funk sounds.
After next catching the end of the Pinstripe Brass Band at the Jazz and Heritage Stage, enjoying the mean stepping of a four year old boy in the crowd dressed in a baby blue suit, I embarked upon an afternoon trifecta of Bonerama, Feufollet and Deacon John. All three played at last year's Festival and I wrote about them then. Bonerama is led by three trombonists, and have a very Nevilles/funk groove. They've developed something of a cult following, as borne out by the unusually dense crowd for this time of day. Feufollet, at the Fais-Do-Do stage, once again was a real treat. These are young guns, playing traditional Cajun music but with a modern sensibility. If you get the impression from the flickr pictures that I might begin stalking their guitar player, Anna Laura Edmiston,you may be right. Mainly I have to see if I can work it into my busy schedule (work, my existing stalking commitments, running, bothering my friends' kids, watching sitcom repeats, hiding from marriage, and playing solitaire on my ipod-I've got a lot on my plate and its not easy for me to just add something without careful reflection on how it will affect the big picture). Finally, Deacon John was one of my big "finds" from last year (strange for a 70 year old man to be found after a 50 year career). He plays a scorching blues and rock guitar, and has a full backing band with horns. John wears a suit, pork pie hat, and bow tie, and occasionally breaks into a Chuck Berry duck walk mid-solo. He's promoting a CD called "Jump Blues" This is the stuff that Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan grew up listening to, especially John's nasty slide technique.
Once that concluded, it was on to one of New Orleans' premiere party bands, Cowboy Mouth. This band should have made it big just on dynamism alone, but the lack of original songs, personnel instability, and the general demise of rock and roll, have kept them regional. No one can get a crowd going like their "frontman," drummer Fred LeBlanc. Oh, and the bass player looks like Gogo from Kill Bill. This group bills itself as the Neville Brothers meet the Clash. Lots of punk feel. The place was packed with young twenty somethings; it could well have been a Tulane/LSU mixer.
Aaron Neville then began his solo Gospel Tent performance, except that instead of using a backup tape as he did last year, he had a four-piece band on stage. At first, I thought it was great he'd sprung for a full band, til I found out he's been touring as the Aaron Neville Quintet recently (with brother Charles on sax), so the Gospel Tent was just another gig for them. The Gospel Tent was literally overflowing with people. You can see on flickr a picture of crowds outside of the tent just trying to hear. The performance was excellent, although I've never been a huge Aaron Neville fan. Something about the falsetto/vibrato combination fails to move me to tears, unlike for most others. He mixed in some secular songs, but by and large it was spiritual. Ave Maria was particularly compelling. Oh, and by the way, this is the second time at this festival I've heard someone sing "A Change Gonna Come." I thought the change had come in the form of Barack Obama. Wasn't that the deal? He's the change? Isn't milk and honey flowing yet? Has Obama paid that poor grandmother's mortgage that he met on the campaign? What are people still complaining about? The "change party" has a firm grip on Congress and the White House. Obama's even complaining because the Republicans aren't strong enough to constitute an effective opposition. They're taxing the rich to give to the poor. I guess nothing's ever going to be enough for some people.
What an extreme shift to go from that to the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars. Basically, they play funky Jewish music and wear traditional hats. The music is borderline crazy dissonance, without any vocals. The craziness infected the crowd. A bunch of young people started dancing the horah, the traditional Jewish wedding dance performed in a circle. A bunch of frat chaches started hoisting each other in a chair, as a Jewish wedding party might for the bride and groom. I made a couple of videos of it, also on flickr.
I meant to conclude the day with the O'Jays, the trio from the 1970s with hits "Love Train," and "Back Stabbers," "I Love Music," and "Used to be My Girl." They were late getting on stage though, but sang all the hits and wore matching cream linen suits with gold embroidered stripes and designs. Most of the songs had choreography, a la the Temptations or the Pips, which was pretty cool.
On a chance, I decided to end the day, unexpectedly, at the Blues Tent listening to John Mayall. Mayall, now 75, was a huge figure in the British blues revival during the 1960s, which spawned Eric Clapton, Brian Jones, Jimmy Page, the Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, even the Who. Clapton joined his band after he left the Yardbirds, contributing to Mayall's biggest hit, "Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton." Again, the tent was packed with people spilling out into the surround walkways. Again, I'm not a huge blues fan, but this was blues by an englishman so it had a certain structure to it missing from some of the American players. As the show concluded, I walked out of Jazz Fest sated, anticipating the next concluding day.
Tomorrow-Neil Young, Dash Rip Rock, D.L. Menard, Neville Brothers, and plenty of late afternoon rain.
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