Jazz Fest 2009- Part 3

Don't know how far I'll get with this, but since I've been tardy getting it done I thought I'd at least get started again.

We left off after a busy Day 1 of the fest had ended, and day 2 didn't slow down a bit. In fact, it turned out to be a marathon day, ending at around 5 the next morning!!

Things started off pretty leisurely. We heard a little Fredy Omar getting off the bus and onto the grounds, but per usual heading straight for the gumbo. It was a pretty good fest food day. After gumbo I had a new item at the fest--- the Cajun Duck Po' Boy! It was as tender and flavorful a duck as I ever ate and the baguette it was on was delicious. Damn near as good as the soft shell crab po' boy!

First music of the day was the famed cajun/zydeco band BeauSoleil with Michael Doucet. These guys may be the most famous Cajun band to come out of Louisiana. A BeauSoleil show is always a good place to be if you want to dance and shake it a bit!

Dancers at BeauSoleil set.

After a bit of zydeco to get the blood flowing, I made my way over to the jazz tent to see the James Rivers Movement. Rivers is one of the 17 artists that was at the first fest (this is the 40th!!) playing this year too. In fact, Rivers has actually played all 40 festivals!! Unbelievable!!



James Rivers 40th appearance at Jazz fest!



I snapped this pic during the James Rivers set. This father and 8 week old baby girl are both first-timers and came all the way from Australia! Let's hope she's here for the 80th anniversary of the Fest!!

After a quick detour to the Gospel tent where Trombone Shorty and Paul Sanchez made a surprise appearance to do "I'll Fly Away" with Shorty's brother Glen David Andrews, I hustled back to the Acura stage for the New Orleans queen of the piano, Marcia Ball. Ball plays much in the style of famed New Orleans piano greats Professor Longhair and Fats Domino and is always a real treat to see. Since I'd really missed out on her free Lafayette Square set on Wednesday, I felt the need to make it up at the fairgrounds. She treated us all to a lot of "Peace, Love, and BarBQ"!!

Marcia Ball

From there the pace truly quickened for me as I managed to see a least parts of 5 more acts before the day was over!
First up was legendary songwriter/picker, Doc Watson. Doc, blind since before his first birthday is an extraordinary flatpicking guitarist, who at 86 years of age has lost none of the nimbleness in his fingers or power in his voice. Highlights included "T for Texas" complete with yodel, and the first of 2 versions of the Gershwin classic "Summertime" that I'd hear before I finally went to bed the next morning at 5 am!!

Doc Watson!!

After a few songs from Doc, I trotted over to the Jazz tent just in time to see the seemingly ubiquitous Paul Sanchez join local jazz vocal favorite John Boutte for a killer version of Paul Simon's "An American Tune" John is a little guy stature-wise, but has one of the more powerful voices and stage presences you'll ever see!

John Boutte belting out "An American Tune"

I'm afraid I'll have to pick up the next chapter a bit later. Dinner at NOLA calls---and I'm never one to miss a meal, especially not if Emeril Lagasse is the host!!! Catch ya'll soon!