2014 marks the 45th Year of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, one of the world’s longest running music events; and for yours truly, it marked my second visit to the iconic event. Every year, over seven days spread across two weekends, the musical world descends on New Orleans for some of the world’s finest music, food and the unique culture of the city. This year was no exception with acts like Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Phish and many, many more, performing at the event spread over 12 stages and encompassing just about every genre.
There are seated tents for Blues, Gospel and Jazz. There are stages dedicated to local musicians, African music and even one just for the kids. On the main stages, meanwhile, you’ll see and hear just about everything, from the legendary voice of Robert Plant to members of the Neville Family, Allen Toussaint and contemporary superstars like Foster The People and Solange.
I attended just three of the event’s days this year, over the second weekend, and barely know where to begin with my coverage. Well, I suppose I’ve already kicked off my coverage; you can look at my five musical “discoveries” HERE, while over this review series I’ll look at some of the weekend’s more well known acts. But first, I’d like to put it all in a bit of context for you.
Unlike most festivals, this event is exclusive to the day. Taking place on the New Orleans Fairgrounds and Racecourse, the huge venue is in operation between 11am and 7pm daily. This means you leave the festival while the sun is still out, giving you time to explore the city for dinner, before you touch yourself up (in other words, rid yourself of the sun cream, dirt and sweat that hours in the Louisiana sun creates) and head out for one of the many shows that happen nightly in the city. On Friday night, for instance, we caught the legendary Buddy Guy, fresh from his Australian tour, at the House of Blues. Not playing the festival itself, this was the only chance to see the man in action in New Orleans. The next night, Grouplove and MS MR would be playing the same iconic venue. But this isn’t exclusive to Jazz Fest. The music of New Orleans seems to happen 24/7, in venues big and small, all throughout the year. No matter when you come to the city, you’ll never be starved for musical options.
But that’s not to say you come to New Orleans to see Grouplove – or even acts like Eric Clapton, for that matter. The appeal of the city and its festivals are the inclusion of local artists you won’t see anywhere else. Take the Gospel Tent for starters, where you’ll see local choirs like the Ninevah Baptist Church Mass Choir or the Franklin Avenue Music Ministry (who we ended our festival with on the Sunday afternoon) bringing you their soul, their faith and their music in the unique environment.
Be you a religious person or not, it’s a spiritually uplifting experience and always a great place to escape the heat and the madness of the tens of thousand of people clamoring for a good spot at one of the outdoor stages. A particular highlight of the Gospel tent was seeing the incomparable Irma Thomas performing a special Gospel set, bringing the crowd to their feet. As she belted out incredible versions of songs like “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands” and “I Found The Answer” by Mahalia Jackson, it was hard not to get swept up in the moment.
It’s a similar story in the Jazz and Blues tents, and like the Gospel Tent, these are places where you can sit, relax and enjoy the music as described by its label. In the Blues tent, I caught local “Big Al” Carson (pictured) performing with The Blues Masters, who was performing a rendition of a Howlin’ Wolf song as we found ourselves some seats. One of my personal favourite tracks – The Animals’ classic “House of the Rising Sun” – was not just one of the standouts of the set, but of the whole weekend, and received a well deserved standing ovation. Then there was Muddy Water’s “I’m Ready”, Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” and some of his own material off his record 3 Phat Catz and 1 Skinny Dogg, including “School Boy Crush”, making for a varied set that showed off the killer vocals from the big man.
Catching glimpses of Jon Baptise and Stay Human as well as Ellis Marsalis and Al Jarreau in the jazz tent during the final day of the festival were all spellbinding experiences. 74 year old Jarreau can still impress! You almost would never have known that Bruce Springsteen was playing just across the dirt road… and then there was Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaries, who closed the blues tent on the Friday night. What is there to say about this amazing performer that hasn’t already been said? Wearing a black jacket, sparkling in gold and without a shirt underneath (it seemed the buttons may have broken earlier in the set), Bradley looked every part the frontman, channelling the late, great James Brown along the way. Tracks like “Ain’t It A Sin” and “Strictly Reserved For You” were highlights of a set that was full of stand out moments from start to finish.
Closing the festival out of the same tent on Sunday afternoon was recent visitor to Australia for our own Bluesfest, Aaron Neville. It’s long been tradition for The Neville Brothers to close the festival’s main Acura stage, but for the last two years this torch has been passed over to Trombone Shorty, who we’re told (unsurprisingly) blew the theoretical roof off the place. But Neville fans were still able to get their fill with Ivan and Art Neville performing on the main stage earlier in the day, and Charles Neville joining Aaron (as he did in Australia) for his Blues Tent closing performance. Neville’s iconic and unmistakable voice was in fine form, as we ran through tracks like “It’s Alright”, “Summertime” and “Everybody Plays The Fool”.
And a much deserved mention must go to the Fais Do-Do stage, which had some of the best Cajun music of the week, alongside groups like the Splendour bound The Head and the Heart, who unfortunately we missed. One of our highlights of the stage, in addition to those already mentioned in the discovery article, were the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, with tonnes of fiddle, accordion and a whole lot of cajun fun.
So now that we’ve covered the tents, and some of the smaller stages and our discovery artists, it’s time to move onto the main stages. But you’ll have to wait for part two for that…
Photos by Zack Smith and Douglas Mason, respectively from top to bottom.
