Jazz Fest 2009- The final chapter

Alright, I'm gonna try to put this year's fest to rest with this chapter (barring any untoward hospital interruptions!).

After the Toussaint interview session, at the end of which he autographed the bill of my Dooky Chase hat, I walked down the stairs and caught the very end of the set by a young band called Everest who were hand-picked by Neil Young to open his current tour. Must admit that I wasn't overwhelmed by anything I heard, but a few minutes at the Lagniappe stage with it's surrounding gardens is always a pleasure.

My next goal was to catch Aaron Neville's spiritual set at the Gospel tent. Aaron used to join the Zion Harmonizers on the last day of fest as a not so surprising "surprise guest", but for the last couple of years he's been doing his own gospel set. My attempts to see it last year were thwarted by the throngs of people that stacked up like planes over O'Hare outside the tent entryways.
This year I decided to try to beat the crowds, and not only did I succeed in getting a decent seat, but I was also treated to an inspiring set by The Greater Antioch Full Gospel Baptist Church Mass Choir (quite a mouthful, huh?).
As I've said before, I don't care what your religious perspective is, your soul will get some healing if you spend any time at this venue here at the Fest. As you can see by this picture, these kids are most definitely "in the spirit"!!!

The Greater Antioch Full Gospel Baptist Church Mass Choir Praising The Lord!!

After a short break, in which the Fire Department repeatedly threatened to shut down the Gospel Tent if the aisles weren't cleared (an event that would have surely sparked religious uprisings not seen since the Inquisition), Mr. Neville made his way onto stage to perform his solo gospel set. While he stretched the definition of what counts as a gospel song (including opener "Stand By Me" and a gorgeous "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), no one would argue that his voice wasn't angelic!! My personal favorite was a simple but heartfelt rendition of the classic children's hymn "Jesus Loves Me". Simply beautiful! Hard to believe that a man this big can sing so gently and beautifully!

Aaron Neville on the Gospel stage!

By this time I was really dragging---remember I'd only gotten to bed at 5:30 that morning--- but I still wanted to see one more act before hitting the buses.

Chris Thomas King is perhaps best known for his role as Bluesman Tommy Johnson in the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou" . In the film he not only accompanies the Soggy Mountain Boys, but also performs several numbers on his own.
His father Tabby Thomas is also a well known Delta bluesman and Chris was an early pioneer in combining blues and hip hop music. He has since moved on to a more traditional rock, blues, and gospel sound but he can truly make any style his own.
His varied set featured a number of songs from one of my personal favorite post-Katrina New Orleans records called "Rise", including the Gospel inflected "What Would Jesus Do", the brilliant blues number "Baptized In Dirty Water", and a mournful "Saint James Infirmary". This young Louisiana native ought to have a long and successful career!!


Chris Thomas King



This was a perfect closeout to Day 3 of the fest for me, so I headed back to the hotel trying to decide if I should power nap before we headed out to see Zachary Richard at his night show or just continue to ride the beast until it gave out from shear exhaustion!!

Wisely deciding not to try to sleep, we all headed out to the House Of Blues for a little bite to eat before Zach's show at the Parish. Now normally I wouldn't say much about a HOB meal, but how could you go wrong when they tossed a soft shell crab on top of a steaming plate of pasta already laden down with a boatload of shrimp and crawfish swimming in a cajun cream sauce!! It was actually a damn fine meal and Dave and Bob seemed pretty satisfied by their Shrimp po' boys too (inspired by Allen Toussaints repeated praises for the crustacean filled sandwich)!

Unlike the previous night, there was no wait for the doors at the Parish tonight! The crowd was also a little heavier, forcing us back to the front of the stage again despite our earlier plans to try to find a table and sit for this show. Turns out to be a good thing though, as we had the chance to really interact well with Mr. Richard and his band throughout their two set show.

As I said earlier, Zach is a native Louisianan with strong Acadian roots. He is very well loved here in New Orleans and was met by an enthusiastic crowd that was very happy to have their homeboy back in town, and Zach didn't disappoint. He riddled both set lists with fan favorites, including "Crawfish", "File Gumbo", and "Double D's" all of which had the crowds on their feet dancing and singing along. I was also happy to have him throw in a few wonderful new songs from his just released record like "The Levee Broke" and title track "Last Kiss". But the highlight for me was when he came out for his final encore and, accompanied only by himself on piano, closed out the night with a lovely version of The Band's "Acadian Driftwood" a song that chronicles the forced displacement of the Acadian people from the areas that are now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the 1700's. It is a powerfully sad song and Zach truly did it justice with his mournful version. It was the perfect end to another incredible day and sent us off in just the right frame of mind for some much needed sleep after our marathon 2 day stretch!

But as they say, "no rest for the wicked", and so we were up and at it again fairly early the next day. We all three agreed that after a quick bowl of gumbo we needed to get to the Interview stage early for the rare opportunity to sit in on a personal conversation with the Night Tripper himself, Dr. John!!

As I'd said, we all had a bit of concern about his health after his show at HOB on Friday night, but all those worries were set aside about 2 minutes into the interview. There's nothing that will get the Doctor fired up more than discussing the (lack of) response to Katrina by the powers that be!! Listening to Dr. John almost requires a translator!! He ranted about the atrocities the Army Corp of Engineers had "pergistrated" upon the people of New Orleans and later, while discussing his role as an Los Angeles session player for such players as Sonny and Cher and the band he referred to as The Buffalos (Buffalo Springfield) he discussed the "jobnocity" of working as a session man.

Dr. John pontificates on the "pergistrations" of the Army Corp!

It was amazing to bear witness to his incredible memories. Numerous times the interviewer would ask him if he could play a sample of some obscure song that he'd either been involved with in his early days or that he'd been influenced by as a youth, and each time, despite his protestations that he wasn't sure he could really recall it, he would shut his eyes, lay his hand on the keys and simply nail it dead on!!!

Reachin' back!!

I can't recall ever spending so much time at the interview stage before but you just don't get many chances to be this close to the likes of Dr. John and Allen Toussaint and it was well worth the time to hear these legendary players discuss their roots and play in such an intimate setting!

And speaking of Mr. Toussaint, he was about to take the stage at the Acura site and so it was off and running again!

But first, I had to make a quick stop in the jazz tent to catch the final moments of a guy that had grabbed David's attention last year. Shamar Allen is a young trumpet player whose roots are in the New Orleans Brass band tradition, but he also has the jazz and swing chops to be asked to join Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel on their current Texas swing concert tour. I was disappointed to arrive at the stage only to find Allen closing out his set without my really geting to hear him. Next year!!!!


Shamar Allen

So I made my way on over to the Toussaint set just in time to hear him do a medley of his early hits (including Workin' In A Coalmine, A Certain Girl, and Yes We Can Can) and follow this with a masterful song "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further" from his collaboration with Elvis Costello (The 2006 record "The River In Reverse"). As fun as it was to see him play solo at the interview stage, it was a blast to watch him front a 13 piece big band!!

The Allen Toussaint Orchestra!!

A.T. and background singers!

From there I made the mad run across the fairgrounds for my last chance this year to see Dr. John perform live, this time with the collective known as The Voice Of The Wetlands All-Stars, a band of activist musicians including Dr. John on keys, guitarists Tab Benoit and Anders Osborne, Jumpin' Johnny Sansone on accordian and mouth organ, Waylon Thibodeaux on fiddle, George Porter, Jr on bass, Johnny Vidochovich on drums, and the Neville Brother's own Cyril Neville on percussion! They all share vocal and songwriting duties and truly represent a New Orleans super group if ever there was one!! Can't wait to order the live recording of this set when it becomes available!!

VOTW All-Stars

Anders Osborne, Waylon Thibodeaux, Dr. John, and Waylon's Dad on washboard!!

I could only watch a few songs from the All Stars if I hoped to get remotely near Neil Young who was making his first ever Jazz Fest appearance at this 40th anniversary weekend, so I was off across the grounds yet again. This certainly explains the 12 plus miles a day that David and his wife Joyce clocked each day of the first weekend, a number I suspect we matched the 2nd!
I was lucky though, because my dear friend Laura Murnen, whose brother Tom lives in NOLA, had come down for the Fest this year. I neglected to say that she and I had spent a wonderful Friday together at the Fest and now I was going to join her and Tom's extended clan of family of friends at the base camp they'd set up at the Acura Stage where Neil was appearing.


Laura and I at Jazz Fest 2009!!

The Truvee clan (Tom with wife Liz, brother Chris, and sister Laura)!

Despite being a modest distance from the stage and the ever threatening rainclouds gathering, we really had a great location for Neil's blistering hit heavy set. He started out with a loud, grungy "Hey Hey My My" and in quick succession reeled of hit after hit including "Love and Only Love", "Cinnamon Girl", "Needle And The Damage Done", "Heart Of Gold", " Old Man" and on and on!!!! I'd planned to only stay for 30 or so minutes of his allocated 2 hour set but found myself still there an hour and fifteen minutes later!

Neil Young rockin' the free world at Jazz Fest!

Neil Young

Still, there were other things I had to see so I reluctantly bid my farewells to Laura and Neil and moved on to the Fais Do-Do stage to see a folk/country music icon every bit as large in stature as Neil is to the rock and roll world, Mr. Guy Clark! This masterful songwriter wrote such classics as "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting For A Train", the former of which I got to see him perform!! Clark was accompanied onstage by longtime friend and sideman Verlon Thompson.

Verlon Thompson accompanying Guy Clark.

As I was wandering away to catch the last of Los Lobos set on the Gentilly Stage I had one of those fortuitous magical moments at the Fest when I stumbled upon Times Picayune reporter Chris Rose sitting at the side of the Fais Do-Do stage. Rose chronicled the Katrina tragedy in a series of aticles for the Picayune that were later compiled in the book "One Dead In Attic", the finest book on the aftermath of Katrina that I have read. This was the first chance I'd had to thank him for this book that had left me in tears on more than one occassion with his heartfelt and deeply personal tales of the city and his own personal journey of recovery from the tragedy. He nearly had me in tears again after I expressed my appreciation and he asked if I ws fromdown there. When I replied no, that I was from Ohio, he reached up and took my hand and said "Welcome Home". It was all I could do to shake his hand and say my goodbyes without blubbering like a baby. If you haven't done so and you care in the least about the city of New Orleans, I strongly encourage you to pick up this book and give it a read. If you know and love New Orleans already, you will love it even more deeply, and if you don't know it, you'll wish you did!!

With that prelude, I ambled to the Gentilly stage where the East Los Angeles band Los Lobos was winding down their fest set. This is a band that is most widely known for the version of La Bamba they recorded for the movie of the same name but play a broad range of musical styles from R&R, R&B, Tex-Mex, and Chicano music.



Los Lobos!


As I wandered away I shot a few final photos of the fest to the strains of "Kiko and The Lavender Moon" and made my way to the bus and bid Jazz Fest 2009 a fond Adieu!












Until next year :