This was supposed to be the Rolling Stones day, which we had opted not to attend due to the big bucks involved. However, in the end, Mick Jagger's heart procedure allowed us to go for the regular price, and we got to see some really great music. So, thanks Mick. And we're glad you got better so quickly.
We got all of our morning drill done easily, met Rachel, and we were off and at the Fair Grounds before 11 once again. Rachel has taken to Jazz Fest like she has been coming for years. Of course, she has had good advice!
The temperature was already 81 when we left the hotel this morning, but it went up just a couple of degrees as the day went on, to a high of 83 this afternoon. This evening it was a very comfortable 70. There was some cloudiness in the early afternoon, but the sun was shining brightly most of the day, hidden only by the occasional puffy white cloud. Humidity was around 70 percent all day, and there was a fairly steady 10-mph breeze all afternoon. The Fair Grounds were in great shape to start the second weekend.
Here are today's no-Stones cubes. There was a lot of great music so we are glad that we got to go today.
Food! Cajun rice with corn and crawfish
Jeff
Had Before: Day 3 in 2013, Day 4 in 2014.
The crawfish rice from Smitty's Seafood of Kenner, Louisiana, hits a sweet spot between shrimp fried rice and seafood jambalaya. The secret is the fresh corn that lightens it up ever so slightly. Throw some hot sauce on it and you are in Cajun crawfish heaven!
Food! Crabmeat-stuffed shrimp
Laurie
Had Before: First time!
This dish, by Cajun Nights Catering, who also serve an alligator pie and fried green tomatoes at Jazz Fest, is pretty simple. Tender crabmeat is found stuffed inside a perfectly fried shrimp.
Big Chief Charles and the White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians and Baby Dolls
Jeff and Laurie, at the Jazz and Heritage stage
Seen Before: First Time!
Charles Taylor, longtime Big Chief of the White Cloud Hunters, always dazzles the crowd, today in a white Mardi Gras Indian suit adorned with three-dimensional patches that looked like flowers. Then he wows the crowd again with his voice, distinct and clear.
While there is no shortage of Mardi Gras Indians at Jazz Fest, Taylor stands out because of his singular voice.
"Charles has always been the Chief with the golden voice. I've been following him my whole life," said Wendell Frazier of the Black Flame Hunters Indian tribe.
Charles Taylor Jr., who masks with his father, adds to the vocals. Before every number, Taylor Sr. chanted a traditional intro, filled with braggadocio and phrases in French Creole-Indian patois. He sang more verses than many Indians do. That's typical. According to Big Queen Connie Dorsey of the Blackfoot Hunters, "Charles is an old-school Indian Chief, so he knows all the old songs," she says.
Taylor also is old-school in appearance and demeanor. He doesn't pound his tambourine with a vengeance. Instead, he hits it the way he was taught, with the tips of his fingers and the palm of his hand. He builds Indian suits with neat beadwork and perfect color blends, created in the classic Downtown New Orleans three-dimensional style.
Taylor was born and raised in Tremé, at St. Philip Street and what is now Henriette Delille Street, across from what became Armstrong Park. He spent much of his childhood nearby, at his maternal uncle's house on Dumaine Street. That uncle, Thomas Sparks (1932-2018), Big Chief of the Yellow Jackets, first put Charles in an Indian suit when he was still a toddler.
At the time, Taylor said, the Yellow Jackets were one of the area's many Indian tribes, and all the tribes were big, usually 30 or 40 Indians. For 15 years, Taylor held the front position of Flag Boy, signaling back to the Chief about which rival tribe was approaching.
"A Big Chief would interview everyone who entered his tribe," he said. "He'd ask you, 'Why do you want to be an Indian?' And he'd say, 'Do you have enough nerve to be an Indian?'" Nerve was required back then because many Indians carried knives, guns, or hatchets. Even hatchets that looked pretty, usually handmade using roof tiles as blades, were sharpened to double as weapons if necessary, he said.
Suits were streamlined so the Indians could move easily, with smaller crowns and patches created using pieces of broken mirrors, costume jewelry, turkey feathers -- basically, anything Indians could get their hands on, including drapes from his mother's windows, used to make an apron, he said.
In the early 1980s, Taylor became Chief of the White Cloud Hunters. He now teaches beading and Mardi Gras Indian culture to a younger generation.
Taylor now does some of the old songs he learned years ago with his son by his side. To the audience, being an Indian may seem like a performance, he said. "To me, it's just how I was raised. That's the way I came up."
Audio/Video: Here's a video from today at the Jazz and Heritage stage. Prominent in this video are some "Baby Dolls," women who dress like, well, baby dolls. You can read some more about this interesting tradition on Day 4 in 2015.
Mardi Gras Indian groups don't really come off all that well in the videos, unless they are those that come out with a full funkified band behind them, like Monk Boudreaux (see Day 5) and Bo Dollis Jr. (see Day 12) With the smaller groups, it's more about emotion, the history, and the chants. And the suits. It can all give you chills, believe me.
Now Laurie was off to the WWOZ tent, while I, of course, was off to the Fais Do Do stage a dose of some Cajun music.
Brandon Moreau and CajunGrass
Jeff, at the Fais Do Do stage
Seen Before: First Time!
Brandon Moreau is a bit of an anomaly in the world of Cajun music, at least as I have experienced it, in that he lives in New Orleans and has done regular gigs on Bourbon Street at the Tropical Isle bar and at Mulate's Restaurant down by the Morial Convention Center. He's originally from Basile, just west of Eunice.
CajunGrass is a concept that he came up with a sort time ago, when he decided to stop with mundane cover bands and to mesh traditional folk music with Cajun music. The new band is a great mashup of Cajun, honky-tonk, swing, and bluegrass. It may sound crazy, but it works. When they perform you get hot toe-tapping two-steps, tear-jerking honky-tonk, and lots of lagniappe. And what better place to do that than New Orleans, a place for all music that sees the best of the best in every style and genre.
All of the music was really good, but the highlight of the show was when drummer Matt Swiler tapped out a beat on the neck of Moreau's fiddle, while Moreau was playing the melody and singing. I can't find any info about the technique, but he said it originated somewhere in Appalachia. It was really fascinating, another one-of-a-kind experience at Jazz Fest!
Audio/Video: Here's my video from today at Jazz Fest, and here is another, with two songs from today. Here's a bit of a show at the Maison club on Frenchmen Street.
I always love the Fais Do Do stage first thing on any Jazz Fest day. You can get close up to the music or, because there's plenty of room, there are lots of dancers, and you can stand back behind them and watch the music and the dancing as well. Laurie and I met back at the Jazz and Heritage stage.
Pocket Aces Brass Band
Jeff and Laurie, at the Jazz and Heritage stage
Seen Before: Day 3 in 2016, Day 2 in 2017
The Pocket Aces are great fun. We have seen them close the Jazz and Heritage stage a couple of times and both times made a great ending to the day there. They are basically just a bunch of friends who shared a passion for music in middle and high school, reconnected, and recruited a couple more musicians that shared their vision of honoring the New Orleans brass-band tradition.
Their brass-band music encompasses jazz, hip hop, rap, rock, and R&B, and makes a point of representing New Orleans seriously by reflecting all the good of the city's culture and distinctive music that they grew up with. All while taking it to the next level and inspiring future musicians to keep playing and striving for more.
Members of the band are Jimmie Reamey (trumpet), Geoffrey Guillot (sousaphone), Kyle Scivicque (vocals), David Melancon (trumpet), Justin Pardue (trombone), Miles Lyons (trombone), Daniel Camardelle (snare drum), and Tomidee Guillot (bass drum).
Audio/Video: Here's my video from today at Jazz Fest, and here is one from the other side of the stage. Here are the Munck Music excerpts of every song in today's set, and here is a full page of Pocket Aces music.
At this time, we bopped off to the brass-band beat, Laurie to the Acura stage, and I to the Jazz Tent for what turned out to be two great performances.
Anders Osborne
Laurie, at the Acura stage
Seen Before: Day 3 in 2016 and Day 9 in 2017; also at Tipitina's on Day 5 in 2013 and with the Voice of the Wetlands All Stars on Day 3 in 2013, Day 9 in 2015, Day 8 in 2017, and Day 4 last year (and later this weekend, too).
Osborne is one of those singer-songwriters who writes, sings, and plays stuff that reaches us, over and over. Today he produced rip-roaring guitar solos a bit into his set on "Big Talk," and lit into Led Zeppelin-type grooves on "Had My Reasons." "I got a limited amount of time so I won't chat too much just play some music," Osborne said after "Reasons." Noting that Thursday is locals day at Jazz Fest, he said, "It's like a whole family reunion here."
Osborne's new LP Buddha and the Blues has a distinct Laurel Canyon vibe and the Mamas and Papas sound on "Traveling With Friends" bore that out. About that album, he says, "There was a general atmosphere where rock 'n' roll took a romantic turn and has lush harmonies. It has a fresh approach, not necessarily a muscular approach -- a romantic, breezy feel to it. It feels good; it feels familiar like a pair of blue jeans, just a little frayed."
Osborne has called his songwriting a public diary, and some of his albums have addressed recovering from addiction and other difficult subjects. Buddha and the Blues sounds like Osborne is in a good place, even if the title track suggests nothing has come too easily.
"The songs are more existential than topical," he says. "It's not about redemption or drugs or love affairs. It's more about acceptance of 'here it is.' I've lived my life, I'm at this point and everything is great."
He ended his set with "Black Tar" and "Isis."
Audio/Video: Here's a video from today at Jazz Fest, just to see the scene. Here are Munck Music's excerpts of each song in his set, and here are a bunch more from this year, all complete: an album release party at Tipitina's, featuring Dave Malone of the Radiators and Amy Helm; his Holiday Spectacular show with Steve Earle, Helen Gillet, and Leyla McCalla, with Alvin Youngblood Hart on before Anders, also from Tipitina's; a full show from Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California; and a short acoustic set from the Louisiana Music Factory.
Anders Osborne is a great talent, and luckily we will be able see him again before this Jazz Fest is over. Meanwhile, at the Jazz Tent ...
Kyle Roussel: History and Future of New Orleans Piano
Jeff, at the Jazz Tent
Seen Before: First time as a leader, but have seen him with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Day 10 last year), Blodie's Jazz Jam (Day 3 in 2016), Charlie Gabriel and Friends (Day 8 in 2017), and Khari Allen Lee's group (Day 11 in 2017).
Kyle Rousel put together a great quartet with Keenan Turner on bass, Peter Bonneville on drums, and the awesome Khari Allen Lee on tenor and soprano saxophone. They worked their way through all of the city's piano masters (Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, James Booker, Allen Toussaint), as well as interpretations of some classic pop songs ("Eleanor Rigby") and some Roussel originals.
The band was tight and very soulful. Lee is an accomplished reedist and added beautiful interludes to fit the mood of each of the tunes. Roussel is a brilliant pianist. When he played Toussaint's "Southern Nights" you could tell the entire audience was moved. Add Lee's soprano sax to it and it turned into one of those special Jazz Fest memories.
Roussel is an example of a modern New Orleans musician forging his own path while collaborating with a variety of what in New Orleans can only be called masters, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Christian Scott, Donald Harrison Jr., and many others. The 30-year-old graduate of the famed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the University of New Orleans began playing the piano at age nine, studying classical music before moving on to perform in church and explore jazz in his teenage years. Now, he is equally adept in the worlds of jazz, classical, funk, gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock. His diverse influences shape his personal musical identity and provide inspiration at every turn.
Audio/Video: Here's mine from today in the Jazz Tent, and here he is in the WWOZ studios paying tribute to Dr. John and Toussaint.
This was a performance where you wanted to take a few minutes after it ended to just sit and let it soak in, which I did. Then it was off to the Blues Tent to meet Laurie.
Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band
Jeff and Laurie, in the Blues Tent
Seen Before: Day 10 in 2013
Fife and drum is, suprisingly, a popular form of music in the Mississippi hill country by way of West Africa. With a cane fife and a trio of drummers, Sharde Thomas plays this surprisingly lovely, trance-inducing music. The granddaughter of the legendary Otha Turner (below), Thomas adds her own twists to the traditional music, and it is completely unique and thoroughly enjoyable.
In the years before the American Civil War, military fife and drum bands provided a rough framework that black musicians would fill with African and African-American influences to create a new music.
Black fife and drum music persists in a stretch of Southern states stretching from northwest Georgia to northern Mississippi. The music is infused with Euro-American military drum tradition and distinctly African polyrhythms, talking drum influence, and call and response patterns. Performers play blues, marches, minstrel show pieces, popular music, instrumentals, and spirituals such as "When the Saints Go Marching In," "When I Lay My Burden Down," "My Babe," and "Sitting on Top of the World." While spirituals are sometimes played, gatherings of drum and fife music are not religious in nature and not held on Sundays or in church.
Alan Lomax first recorded black fife and drum music in 1942. He found a group, including Sid Hemphill, near Sledge, Mississippi, consisting of a cane fife, two snare drums, and a bass drum. Read more about this fascinating music here.
Audio/Video: Here's my video from today in the Blues Tent, and here is another, from an outdoor picnic in Mississippi, which is more like where this music would probably be heard.
Keeping the theme of unusual music going, we next headed over to the Jazz and Heritage stage, where a group from South Africa was performing
Crocodile Gumboot Dancers
Jeff and Laurie, at the Jazz and Heritage stage
Seen Before: First Time!
Rooted back in the dark gold mine tunnels of South Africa, gumboot dancing has come full circle. Backed by an acoustic guitar, fiddle, and keyboard, this group of 10 men, wearing the kind of boots that would be perfect for a wet day at the Fair Grounds, stomped and marched and stepped in syncopated unison while the fiddle keened behind them. Initially a codified tap used by black workers in gold mines who were deprived of conversation, gumboot dancing today is one of the most expressive South African dance genres.
Gumboot dancers are commonly seen on the streets and plazas of tourist areas in South Africa, such as the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. Many of the steps and routines are parodies of the officers and guards who controlled the mines and barracks of South African gold miners. Like other forms of African dance, Gumboot utilizes the concepts of polyrhythm and total body articulation, drawing from the cultural dances of the African workers that manned the mines. It is a percussive dance made by idiophones or autophones (objects of the everyday life vibrating by themselves), and is similar in execution and style to forms of "stepping" done by African-American fraternities and sororities.
Audio/Video: Here's a brief look at this performance. We weren't really close enough to get the full gumboot dance experience(that is, the stomping). Here is a full performance from the Festival International this spring in Lafayette.
After some of this, we split for awhile, Laurie to the Acura stage for one performance, and me, of course, to fit in five.
Dumpstaphunk
Laurie, at the Acura stage
Seen Before: Day 2 in 2012, Day 3 in 2013, Day 11 in 2014, Day 3 in 2015, Day 11 in 2016, Day 10 in 2017, and Day 11 last year. Also at Tipitina's on Day 5 in 2013, The Hamilton in DC in August 2012, and Gypsy Sally's in DC in November 2017
Dumpstaphunk would have been the perfect lead-in to the Rolling Stones. Ivan Neville has played keyboards in Stones guitarist Keith Richards' solo outfit, the X-pensive Winos. Today, they welcomed saxophonist Karl Denson, who has been a regular touring member of the Stones band, for a cover of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," a nod to the would-have-been headliners. Dumpstaphunk bassist Nick Daniels donned a tie-dyed Stones shirt for the occasion.
Anyway, Ivan Neville and Daniels, along with Tony Hall (bass and guitar), Ian Neville (guitar), and Alvin Ford Jr. (drums) did their usual great set. Other tunes they did were "Street Parade," "Gasman Chronicles," "Do Ya," "I Wish You Would," "United Nation Stomp," and the awesome "Justice."
Audio/Video: Here are the Munck Music excerpts of all the songs from today's set. And, because we love Dumpstaphunk, here's an entire concert from this year at the Ardmore Music Hall in Philadelphia.
While that was going on at the Acura stage, I was bouncing around, getting a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but certainly nothing as funky as that.
Food!
Grilled tofu and vegetables
Laurie
Had Before: Day 3 in 2014, Day 8 in 2015, Day 9 in 2016, Day 3 in 2017, and Day 10 last year.
After Dumpstaphunk, Laurie headed to the food area near the Congo Square field, a spot that has some of her favorite Jazz Fest dishes. This one, served up by Gambian Foods of New Orleans, is a bowl filled with chunks of spicy tofu and squash with shredded carrot and cabbage. It is served over couscous with a peanut sauce.
Lena Prima
Jeff, in Economy Hall
Seen Before: Day 4 last year
Prima is the daughter of music royalty doing a personalized take of classic songs, from her dad and elsewhere. This show was thoroughly enjoyable, a little New Orleans and a little Las Vegas, with a side trip to Little Italy.
The family history is hard to avoid. She does a few of her father Louis Prima's greatest hits, like "Jump, Jive and Wail," "Just a Gigolo," and "Pennies from Heaven," and she'll drop a few nuggets of family history in the song intros. And when she includes some of her dad's humor, like in an ad-lib about ravioli, you can hear her delighting in the absurdity, just as she probably did as a child.
As a recording artist, she's been a bit of a chameleon. She's devoted a couple of albums to her father's repertoire, but also recorded some non-Prima jazz standards and a mostly original album of locally rooted funky rock. From New Orleans she's gotten the freedom to try all these approaches; in turn New Orleans has gained a vocalist who can do them with personality and joy.
Her latest album is less a tribute to her dad than a warm embrace of the Italian pop tradition, mostly from pre-rock eras (while her father sang quite a few of these songs, none are obvious signature tunes). There's a lot of affection for family and culture, but she's also claiming a musical niche that's anything but crowded these days.
"I had a strong feeling about taking these songs and passing them on to this generation," she says. "Italian people definitely relate to these songs. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin always sang Italian songs. Until I moved back here, I didn't realize how much Sicilian immigration there was in New Orleans and how many Italian-Americans live here. My dad always addressed the importance of my heritage, and that's gotten stronger for me over the years. My dad really became a hero to Italian-Americans because he did these songs. It wasn't always good to be Italian back then, and he made everyone feel proud about their heritage -- which included being able to laugh about it."
Lena was born in 1965, the daughter of Louis Prima and his fifth and last wife Gia Maione, who was also the singer who replaced Keely Smith as his featured duet partner. As a child Lena lived both in Las Vegas and New Orleans, attending St. Peter’s in Covington and Covington High School. They also lived on Esplanade Avenue for a time, and during the summers she'd accompany her parents to their Vegas residencies, a life that she says wasn't as glamorous as it sounds. "My dad lived in Las Vegas but it was outside the actual city, and he had a golf course there. So I never had that showbiz feeling, it was more like growing up on a farm."
She was, however, a devoted fan of her dad, and keeps affectionate memories of their short time together (he lapsed into a coma during brain surgery when she was 10, and died three years later). "I looked up to him like he was the most important person in the world. My mom too, I'd watch her putting on her makeup like she was a movie star. It was always exciting to go out with my dad, because he was a joyful, excited guy all the time. We'd drive up and down the strip and he'd say, 'Hey, look where you are right now! Everybody wants to be right here!'"
Though they had good moments together, she also connected to him via TV and radio, and got to know all the Louis Prima records the public largely missed -- like his 1968 cover of the Lovin' Spoonful's Bald Headed Lena, which bugged her because she wasn't bald. "The gargling solo was great though -- how often do you hear that?" She also remembers the first time she heard Pensate Amore, a song she revives on the new album. "I was watching the Flintstones on TV, Fred was singing to Wilma at a tower in Rome, and I swore I heard my dad's voice dubbed. So I ran to my mom and she said I was mistaken, she said 'He never did anything for Hanna-Barbera.'" It wasn't until decades later, when researching a book about her childhood she's working on, that she discovered via Wikipedia that Louis did indeed sing the song in a Flintstones movie. "And I loved it. That's what my dad's message was -- 'Everything is about love. Don't think about the future, look at the moon.'"
Another tune she resurrected for the album, See That You're Born an Italian," is even more obscure, but there exists a mid-'60s clip (not on YouTube, alas) of both her parents doing it with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé on the latter couple's TV show. Her version preserves the bit where the band quotes from Arrivederci Roma." Says Lena, "My dad and mom recorded it together, so that was another 45 that I had to search for. It's such a cute song though, and that '60s version is just so '60s."
New Orleans willingly gave Prima the kind of reception she never really could find as a singer in modern-day Las Vegas. She was booked for Jazz Fest in 2010, where she, her brother, and Keely Smith all played separate sets to celebrate Louis Prima's 100th birthday. For Lena it was a pivotal trip that felt just like coming home.
"We booked a couple of dates around that Jazz Fest and it was amazing. WWOZ played the whole show live, I got to play the Louisiana Music Factory and the Jazz Playhouse. It was all a completely different feeling in regards to the music I was playing and what I was. And when we got back to Vegas, there was a distinct difference in the way it felt. In New Orleans there was always music, there was art and a vibe, there was something going on. In Vegas I didn't have that feeling. It was more about the gambling and the money and the big corporations. So my husband and I just said, 'Let's move.' We couldn't even afford to do it, the market was really bad. We sold our house to a real estate investor and got half of what we wanted -- but we didn't care." And it didn't take long before the move paid off: They took residence in New Orleans on Christmas 2011, and she started a regular show at the Hotel Monteleone on January 6.
Lately she has wound down the Monteleone gigs to concentrate on touring. She's also formed a nonprofit, CIAO Women!, which honors Italian-American women who've done positive things in their communities. Between that and the album she seems set to carry on the family business of spreading a little Italian-style cheer and carrying on the family business of taking Italy to the world.
Her band is also ready to take things to the next level. "I think she's really elevated her performance as well as her individuality, taking it from the bar scene to the concert stage," says Lawrence Sieberth, her music director and arranger. "There are a lot of offspring performers out there, and they don't all have an easy time. My feeling, and my hope, is that she's elevated herself to the point where it's less about her being Louis Prima's daughter, and more that he was her father."
Audio/Video: Here are my excerpts from today at Jazz Fest, and here she is at the Louisiana Music Factory doing, among other things, "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)," which her father did in voicing King Louie in Disney's Jungle Book movie.
Lena Prima's shows are delightful. The Italian heritage songs are a real hoot, and it's great that she is keeping them alive. As I headed back to the tents, I stopped at the Jazz and Heritage stage for some brass.
The Sons of Jazz Brass Band
Jeff, at the Jazz and Heritage stage
Seen Before: First Time!
The Sons of Jazz Brass Band could arguably be called the fourth generation of the brass band revival that began in earnest in the 1960s. This group of young musicians rolled through tunes from the brass band canon with a vigor reminiscent of the early days of the Rebirth Brass Band. With three trombones and two trumpets, I'd definitely call them more traditional than funk or hip-hop oriented, despite their age. They had one ringer in the group in the form of Tyrus Chapman on trombone. He's a veteran of Rebirth and the founder of his own Highsteppers Brass Band.
Audio/Video: Here's my video of this fun brass band from today at Jazz Fest, and here's another one from a different angle.
Next I was heading to the Blues Tent, but as usual got pulled into the Gospel Tent for a few minutes.
Isabel Davis
Jeff, in the Gospel Tent
Seen Before: Day 9 last year.
Isabel Davis is a native of Texas who is now Worship Pastor at the City of Love church in New Orleans. To say she, her three singers, and her band are dynamic would be an understatement. This to me is modern gospel music at its best.
Audio/Video: Here's proof of that from today's performance in the Gospel Tent.
Next door in the Blues Tent was something equally dynamic.
Glen David Andrews
Jeff, in the Blues Tent
Seen Before: Day 11 in 2014, Day 12 last year. Also in Armstrong Park on Day 1 in 2013 and Day 1 in 2017.
Glen David fronted a three-trombone rock band with two backing vocalists and percussion. He rolled out with a 20-minute version of "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" that had the crowd on its feet and screaming from the get-go. GDA always brings his best game to Jazz Fest and he was his usual self, arriving onstage in an iridescent green jacket, which he quickly disposed of, and running around the stage, waving a towel, urging the audience to react to his bandmates after each solo.
Toward the end it was a marathon version of "Knock Wit' Me, Rock Wit' Me," and its refrain "Gimme a dime (I only got eight)" that really got the crowd going as GDA sent his two fellow trombone players into the crowd to second line. GDA lets all of his band have their turn in the spotlight and the whole thing was a ton of rowdy fun. The man is a New Orleans treasure, for his music and his story, and we just love him and his band.
Audio/Video: Here's some of the scene in the Blues Tent today, although it is not easy to capture a performance like this! Same with the Munck Music excerpts, but here they are anyway.
From this wild show I headed to the Jazz Tent for something completely different.
Nicholas Payton and the Light Beings
Jeff, in the Jazz Tent
Seen Before: Day 9 in 2013, Day 2 in 2015, Day 9 in 2016, Day 11 in 2017, Day 5 last year. Also with Terrace Martin on Day 9 last year and with the Trumpet Mafia on Day 11 in 2016 and Day 8 last year.
Trumpeter and keyboardist Nicholas Payton debuted his latest project, the Light Beings, today. The inspiration for the ensemble's name comes from the science fiction writer Octavia Butler who often explored the flaws in humanity in her works. With local stalwart Cliff Hines on modular synthesizer and guitar and the psychedelic bassist Mono Neon, Sput Seawright on drums, and John Maestas on guitar, the new music pulsed with intensity as Payton, wearing what appeared to be a bullet-proof vest, roamed the stage followed by an interpretive dancer. At other points, he sat at his Fender Rhodes while simultaneously playing his trumpet, as he often does.
This was exceptional modern music. Mono Neon, who played with Terrace Martin last year on Day 9, and Seawright, who also plays with Snarky Puppy, helped give some songs a P-Funk vibe, particularly when matched with burbling synths from Hines and Payton. Call it cerebral funk, with tricky rhythms and cascades of deep grooves.
Near the end of the set, Payton offset a keyboard riff reminiscent of his Afro-Caribbean Mixtape project with a quote from "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing," without straying from the funk foundation. It felt as if multiple moments in his creative trajectory had come together at once. And who can guess where it will lead next.
I would hesitate to call Payton a philosopher, but his blog contains some provocative writings. Here is what he says about Light Beings:
There is little kind about humankind.
"Humanity" is a fairly modern construct designed to separate people from their Light within.
Without a connection to Light, people are in darkness and need to design a hierarchal pyramid and put others down in order to feel better about themselves.
As long as this false, "human" hierarchal pyramid construct exists, there can be no collective consciousness or evolution.
The higher-ups have folks fooled that being human is cool, when humanity is the root source of the problem.
"Human" is a race, and as long as humanity exists, racism exists. Human beings will always defer to a hierarchal and oppressive system. Only light beings can ultimately transcend and evolve.
While you're waiting for God to save you, God is waiting for you to save yourself.
God, The Light, is within.
I've seen Payton in a straight-ahead trio setting a couple of times, a couple of times with his brilliant Afro-Caribbean mixtape, and then with his Too Black project last year. Every time has been fantastic. This set was again completely different and truly memorable.
Audio/Video: Here is my video from the Jazz Tent today.
This day in the Jazz Tent was only going to get better, but first I was going to meet Laurie at the Jazz and Heritage stage for a dose of funk, and before that it was time for some ...
Food!
Alligator sauce piquant
Jeff
Had Before: First time!
Fireman Mike (Mike Gowland) came up with this recipe many years ago when he was a firefighter cooking at his station house. Laurie has enjoyed Fireman Mike's shrimp and grits many times over the years.
It's not a gumbo, it's not a stew. It's sauce piquant, a dish that belongs to its own quadrant of Louisiana cooking. The alligator tail meat is blackened, packed in seasoned olive oil to marinate and finally cooked into a dark, burnished-red sauce, with the tangy-sweet flavors of onion and tomato and peppers, with a backbeat of piquant heat. Large chunks of meat give it that distinctive mild marine gator flavor and texture. It's served over rice.
Jeff and Laurie, at the Jazz and Heritage stage
Seen Before: Day 9 in 2016, Day 8 in 2017
Laurie showed up at the Jazz and Heritage stage with a Bloody Mary from one of the daquiri-type stands around the Fair Grounds. I'm pretty sure that is the first time either of us have been to one of those stands. She reported it as surprisingly good.
What more can you say about the 101 Runners than they are Mardi Gras Indian funk to the max. They aren't really a Mardi Gras Indian tribe, but over the years have become a happy reinforcement to that culture as they provide good times and a great vibe.
Among the musicians on the stage today were founder and leader Chris Jones on congas, June Yamagishi on guitar, Raymond Weber on drums, Tom Worrell on keys, Boubacar Cissoko on djembe, Daryll Johnson on bass, and Khris Royal on sax.
Audio/Video: Here's my video from today's awesome blast of funk from the 101 Runners, and here are the Munck Music excerpts of the tunes in today's set. For a bit more, here’s 10 minutes from the Fiya Fest in New Orleans a few years ago.
We were about to close the day in tents, Laurie to Blues and me to Jazz, after a final stop in the WWOZ Tent. On my way, of course I got pulled into the Gospel Tent again.
Audrey Ferguson and the Voices of Distinction
Jeff, in the Gospel Tent
Seen Before: First Time!
This gospel group from New Orleans was established just over three years ago, although the individual members have long lifted their voices in praise. Audrey Ferguson and her daughter Dremetericus "Dede" Thurmond, both of whom step out as lead vocalists, organized the ensemble that includes Ferguson's cousin Geraldine Hickerson and her daughter Tasha as well as Dina Peters. The vocalists get solid support from their band of organ, keyboards, bass, guitar, and drums and feature traditional gospel tunes. It's pure, old-time gospel singing, performed with conviction and with an emphasis on tight harmonies.
Audio/Video: Here's my video from today in the Gospel Tent, and here is their entire performance at last year's Jazz Fest.
After this nice funk and gospel interlude, I was off to the Jazz Tent again.
Regina Carter's Southern Comfort
Jeff, in the Jazz Tent
Seen Before: Day 2 in 2012. Also with Terri Lyne Carrington on Day 3 in 2012
Regina Carter is considered the foremost jazz violinist of her generation, but there is more to her than that, believe me. Her curiosity, passion, and quest for beauty brought to every stop taken on her musical journey are more apparent than ever on her latest project, Southern Comfort, in which she explores the folk music of the South.
Southern Comfort thematically connects Carter's earlier albums, I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey, which features her mother's favorite early jazz standards, and Reverse Thread, which celebrates the tradition of African music re-imagined for violin, accordion, bass, drums, and kora. That was the performance we experienced in 2012, and it was nothing short of brilliant.
In this project, Carter explores the folk tunes her paternal grandfather, a coal miner, would have heard as he toiled in Alabama, as well as other folk tunes of the region.
Intent on bringing the past to the present, she sought out distant relatives and books about the era in which her grandfather lived.
From there, she went to the Library of Congress and the renowned collections of folklorists such as Alan Lomax and John Work III, digging deep into their collected field recordings from Appalachia. Thus she interprets her own roots through a modern lens.
"When I would hear some of these field recordings, if I heard something that touched me I put it on the list," said Carter. "I had maybe 50 tunes that I felt strongly about, and I finally forced myself to work more on those to stop myself from collecting more."
Among the works she performed were her interpretations of Cajun fiddle music, early gospel, and coal miners' work songs in addition to some more contemporary tunes. "In the Appalachians there were Scottish and Irish descendants, slaves, and Native Americans. It was a cultural hodgepodge and the music resulting from it is intoxicating. This project was to pay homage to my family," said Carter, "But it turned out to be so much more."
The musicians with Carter today were guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassist Chris Lightcap, accordionist Will Holshouser, and drummer Alvester Garnett.
Audio/Video: My video is in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) because I just could not put the camera down. You just don't get to experience performances of this quality, even at Jazz Fest, where the bar is set pretty high. Here is the Southern Comfort album.
Laurie was in the Blues Tent, and fortunately when I got there, Mavis Staples was still on stage. Naturally it was really crowded in the tent, so I found a spot outside where I could see the video screen and hear the end of her performance.
Mavis Staples
Laurie and Jeff, in the Blues Tent
Seen Before: First time!
Mavis Staples' career has followed quite a path. The gospel-folk of the Staples Singers made her a star, particularly when the group moved to Stax Records and recorded the songs that made her reputation. That stretch ran from 1971 and "Respect Yourself" through 1975 and included "I'll Take You There." As a reminder of how good they were, Here are the Staples performing those two songs at their 1999 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, disco and changing times soon left the Staples Singers adrift, so much so that they changed their name to the Staples. Mavis' rich, profoundly human voice remained a remarkable instrument, but it wasn't always used to best advantage. On 1984's Turning Point, the lead track was the Chic-like "This Is Our Night." However, that recording also included a cover of the Talking Heads tune "Slippery People" that tapped into the connections that thread through the Staples Singers' classic material.
When Wilco's Jeff Tweedy helped Mavis get back to her folk-gospel-soul in 2010 on Have a Little Faith, she had a career renaissance. The limits that age started to impose on her voice gave her performances an authority and wisdom that comes from experience. She returned to Civil Rights-era folk songs and gospel songs with a surer musical footing than she had demonstrated for a couple of decades, and she seemed to enjoy herself.
One change that played out today in the Blues Tent was a return to the classic sound of earlier Staples Singers songs with a throbbing, insistent bassline that gives Mavis plenty of room to express herself. She revisited Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" (here), which the Staples Singers recorded for Stax in 1967, and that bass substrata made it and much of the set powerfully funky.
Mavis got a little help from Trombone Shorty, who joined her for a song and reminded you just how musically intelligent he is. When the time came for his solo, he lit into with the biggest, brassiest note he could manage. He matched his intensity to hers and ratcheted up the excitement from there. The moment didn't require elaborate melodic construction, so he didn't offer it. Instead, he rode the energy and fueled Mavis in the process.
She clearly had limits. She sat down when she could, and did so more as the set went on. But after the classic "Reach Out, Touch a Hand," she finished with "No Time for Crying," around which she weaved a political riff. "We need a change," she said. "I'm gonna have to run for president," she enthusiastically announced. "Would y'all vote for me?" The answer, as you may guess, was a resounding yes!
Audio/Video: Here's my video of the last minute or two of Mavis Staples today, and here's the Trombone Shorty portion of the set. Here is a nice version of "Respect Yourself" from a little later this year in Belgium.
And so ended a great day at Jazz Fest. We easily found Rachel at the back of the Gentilly field on the way out of the Fair Grounds and had an uneventful bus ride back downtown.
Tonight Laurie and I made our eighth visit to Emeril Lagasse's NOLA Restaurant on Saint Peter Street in the French Quarter. We've been there every year of our New Orleans adventures. It was a late reservation, for 10 p.m., and that may have been a bit too late because for the first time the service here wasn't good. The timing of serving the courses was off, and they really didn't seem to be that interested, where usually you feel like they can read your mind as far as what you need.
We were seated on the second level looking over the entrance, a spot we've been at before, and it is usually pretty nice, but tonight it afforded us a view of the garbage cans being rolled out to the street, trailing liquid, and general cleanup on the first floor. We had to step over said liquid on the way out. I know it was late, but if you are going to take reservations for that hour, you should be prepared to give those customers the same experience as those who dined earlier.
All that said, the food was, as usual, very good. Our appetizers were wood-oven roasted octopus with corn salsa and cotija cheese for Laurie and kung pao alligator bites with mirliton and sesame for me.
Laurie had shrimp and blue-corn grits with smoked mushrooms, eggplant, and skillet tomatoes for her dinner. I had a the day's catch -- swordfish steak with a Parmesan crust, served with fresh peas in an onion gravy.
Dessert was a peach and strawberry crisp with house-made vanilla ice cream.
Onward, to Day 10!
