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If there is a spot in heaven for lovers of good music,
good food, and a 24/7
party atmosphere, it's bound to resemble the "New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival." Wild, wine-soaked, Bacchanal
revelers are quick to sing the praises of Mardi Gras, Carnivale,
and New Year's in Times Square, but for the last weekend in April
and the first weekend in May, New Orleans throws the biggest,
best, most outrageous party the world has seen.
Collectively known as the Jazz and Heritage festival, it
offers a sample of
New Orleans' culture, and the good life, to suit anyone's tastes.
The
fairground area, where the festival is held annually, offers
eight stages of
music. Listeners are treated to blues, gospel, jazz, zydeco,
reggae, country, folk music, and rock and roll. Although many
band names are unfamiliar, the music at every stage is exuberant
and entertaining.
In addition to the music, there are 100 plus food booths,
where local
restaurants and catering services show off samples of their culinary
specialties. These stand side by side with some of the work of
New Orleans' finest artisans and craft-makers. It is quite literally
a buffet for the senses, and if you leave the festival without
feeling you've seen everything this great city has to offer (and
also if you leave with any money whatsoever) you've done something
wrong.
Due to time constraints, we were only able to attend the
last three days of the festival, but we managed to consume enough
food and beer, and soak in enough sun and music, to make up for
the days we missed. (I managed to soak in enough sun, in fact,
to leave me blistered for several days after the fact.)
When you walk into the fairgrounds, and see the crowd for
the first time,
it looks like you've arrived at a giant beach party. You're greeted
by the
smell of beer, sunscreen, and cajun cooking, and with eight stages
going, you feel like you're totally engulfed by the music. People
arrive early and camp out at various stages, using all manner
of banners and flags to mark their area for friends who want
to find them in the crowd. If you're not immediately inspired
to let go and lose yourself in the experience, you will be when
you finish that first Foster's or that first helping of red beans
and rice.
Speaking of food, and at risk of making this into some
sort of epicurean
gourmet column, the food at Jazz Fest is one thing that's absolutely
not to be missed. With over 100 food booths, as I mentioned earlier,
there is something for everyone's tastes. Food ranges from the
cajun staples, such as gumbo and jambalaya, to Southern staples
such as fried green tomatoes, to more varied and adventurous
dishes such as alligator pie.
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I haven't heard bad reviews of any of the dishes there,
but some of the
must tries are as follows: red beans and rice (This is a classic
New Orleans
dish, and only one booth offers it. It's very well done.), the
BBQ oyster po-
boy, the aforementioned fried green tomatoes, and the bread pudding.
Also well worth trying is a booth that offers a combo plate featuring
crawfish beignets, crawfish sacks (crawfish and spices cooked
in edible "sacks"), and an oyster patty (oysters, vegetables,
and spices nestled in a puff pastry). This dish is absolutely
heavenly. Since the mercury tends to hover just above the damn
hot level for most of Jazz Fest, other good places to visit are
the various lemonade and ice cream stands. (One of my personal
favorite "cool off" treats is the simply delicious
mango freeze.)
However, as wonderful as the food is, and as perfect a
complement as it is
to everything else Jazz Fest offers, the main reason to attend
is for the
music. (And since this is a music magazine, it might be a good
idea for me to touch on that.) There are, as I said, 8 different
stages, each generally
focusing on a different style of music. There are 2 stages of
"headliners,"
the Ray Ban stage, and the Fox/Polaroid stage. We spent most
of the festival camped out at the Ray Ban stage. (If there are
acts you want to see at a certain stage later in the afternoon,
it's generally best to keep one or two people in your group camped
out at that stage from the time the gates open. This way, when
the crowd starts really swelling later in the day, you still
have good seats. You can move around from your home base to catch
other acts as you see fit.)
We were treated to a variety of genres of music at the
Ray Ban stage.
Friday's highlights included Wayne Toups and the Zydecajuns,
Emmylou Harris and Buckwheat Zydeco. Wayne Toups and Buckwheat
Zydeco obviously specialize in zydeco music, a style of music
that belongs to New Orleans. Both bands were enjoyable to watch
and the crowd really appreciated this dose of local music, letting
the party atmosphere that was generated overtake them.
Emmylou Harris was also a treat, and though I'm not generally
a fan of
country music, I can't deny that she has a phenomenal voice.
I didn't
recognize any of the songs, since I've never really listened
to her music, but her voice was totally captivating, seeming
to rise above everything else that was going on. She left the
crowd hanging on every note she sang, and time seemed to stand
still while she was performing. (This could be due to the fact
that I was standing in a very slow moving food line at the ime.....but
I still enjoyed listening to her.)
On Sunday, we were treated to two more pleasant surprises:
Dave Bartholemew and his big band, and Ani DiFranco. The big
band part of Dave
Bartholemew's name is not an understatement, since the band consists
of some 22 members. They play a hybrid of dixieland jazz, blues,
and feel-good swing. Dave is a master showman and had the crowd
singing and dancing to every song he played. We were consistently
amazed at how tight a sound the 20-plus member band had. People
who had been sprawled out on blankets and beach towels for earlier
acts, soaking in the sun and letting the music wash over them,
jumped up and joined the rest of the crowd in cutting a rug (or
cutting a section of grass, as the case may be.) The band left
the stage to thundering applause, and we left to race across
the fairgrounds to the Fox/Polaroid stage for Ani.
Ani was a huge surprise for us, and well worth seeing if
she comes to your
area. She takes socially conscious folk music, and makes it into
her own
music, by adding punk elements, alterna-heaviness, and even snatches
of hip- hop to it. She seemed genuinely excited to be playing
at Jazz Fest, saying she was glad to be a part of a community
festival that was about making good music, as opposed to a rock
festival that was in quest of box office sales.
Her set mainly featured songs from her new album, "Little
Plastic Castle,"
and though she has yet to achieve mainstream success (something
that doesn't bother her in the least), fans seemed to know the
words to every song, singing along enthusiastically. She opened
her set with the title track from her new album, a song which
begins unassumingly, with just Ani and an acoustic guitar, then
explodes into a rollicking barrage of guitars, drums, and horns.
From the opening lines the audience was entranced, and she blazed
confidently through an hour-long set.
Some other highlights of her set included "Fuel"
and "Gravel," both from
the new CD, and "Cradle" and "All," from
her CD "Not a Pretty Girl." "Fuel" is
a song in which Ani expresses her anger at various problems in
today's society and then says that beneath everything "There
is a fire just waiting for fuel." "Gravel" is
probably the hardest rocking song she played, and includes the
classic line "You were never a good lay, and you were never
a good friend." The audience responded enthusiastically
after every song was finished, and she seemed to really appreciate
the audience response. As with the other artists I was lucky
enough to see at Jazz Fest, I hated to see her set end.
The other real highlight for me came on Saturday afternoon,
when I got to
see Jimmy Buffett play. His Caribbean drunk rock music seemed
to symbolize the spirit of Jazz Fest as much as anyone who played
there, and his show Saturday produced the largest crowd I've
ever seen at Jazz Fest. If you moved even the slightest bit during
his set, it's only because the rest of the audience moved with
you.
He opened the set, surprisingly, with one of his lesser
known numbers,
"Saxophones," from the "Living and Dying in 3/4
Time" album, and then he and the Reefers launched into their
version of the CSN classic "Southern Cross." By this
time everyone in the audience was singing along, and that whole
area of Jazz Fest turned into one colorful, insane island cocktail
party. This song was followed by another surprise, "Pascagoula
Run." I've seen him live quite a few times, and this was
the first time I've heard him do that particular number. As always,
Jimmy remained the consummate showman, and at one point in the
show, he read a sign that some creative parrot head campaigners
had made that said "Jimmy Buffett for President." He
smiled at the crowd and said "Not with my past!!"
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I wanted to single out highlights, to keep the Buffett
portion of this article from growing as long as the rest of it,
but this is difficult, since he played so many great songs, and
since Jazz Fest is the ideal atmosphere to see his style of music.
Suffice to say, I'm sure that every fan of his there heard their
favorite Buffett song or at least one of their favorites. He
and the Reefers did timeless classics like "Margaritaville"
and "Why Don't We Get
Drunk and Screw?," moving ballads like "A Pirate
Looks at 40," "Come Monday" and "Biloxi,"
and fun party tunes like "Cheeseburger in Paradise"
and "Volcano." The band also did several cover tunes,
including "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Sea Cruise."
I am a loyal parrot head, and though I wouldn't have traded away
any of my Jazz Fest experience, this was my favorite part of
the weekend. I highly urge everyone to see Buffett the next time
he plays Jazz Fest. (E- mail me for the set list if you're interested.)
To further illustrate the diversity and quality of the
music at Jazz Fest,
some of the performers we missed (due to our aforementioned time
constraints) included: Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews Band, the
Neville Brothers, Ziggy Marley, Irma Thomas, and John Fogerty.
Keep in mind that these are just a list of artists that played
the headlining stage, and that there were eight stages of music
going at all times. Jazz Fest in New Orleans is something I encourage
all music lovers to see at least once in their lives.
Some tips on enjoying Jazz Fest to the fullest: Arrive
early. Bring sunscreen. Try as many different foods as time,
money, and your stomach will allow. If you like a particular
genre of music, set up a base "camp" at that stage.
I guarantee you won't be disappointed by any artist or musician
you see. Even if you set up a base "camp," spend some
time walking around. Check out some of the smaller stages. There
are so many quality local acts at Jazz Fest that you'll find
some pleasant surprises in your wanderings. Check out the arts
and crafts booths. Walk single file and hold hands. (Whoops!
Scratch that last one!)
We're already making plans to go down next year. We'll
be there the entire
second weekend of the Festival (first weekend in May.....Thursday,
Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday.) If you make it down, look for us. We'll
be camped out by the Ray-Ban stage, and we'll be the ones with
the big "Club Cuervo -- Two Shot Minimum" flag. (With
any luck, the flag will also say "This Party
Sponsored by AMZ MusicZine") Come join us! (And bring beer
and crawfish.) |
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