Jazz Fest 2010-- 1st weekend/day 1

Hello my friends!

It's that time of year again and this year it's even better than ever.

In honor of my traveling companions 20th anniversary here at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (my 18th), we came down for both weekends this year and I even convinced my lovely wife Kim to join us. David's wife Joyce also came along. And our friend Kevin Rock
(from Los Angeles) brought his wife Katie along too. It certainly made for a much better looking group of travelers than usual! We also brought along a delightful 18 year old kid, Nick Kotz. Nick is the son of some good friends of David's (and ours) who truly loves music and has gone through some recent rough times. No better place to ease your woes and heal your soul than New Orleans!!

Our flight was bright and early on Friday morning, getting us into the Crescent City just in time to drop our bags at the hotel, change into shorts, and trot to the buses for the Fest.

The first day was, at best, a bit soggy. The sky was pretty grey as we had the traditional first Gumbo at the Prejean's booth.

Joyce, David, Nick, Bob, and I eat first gumbo


Kim and I decided to run over and see a little of New Orleans singer-songwriter David Egan's opening set on the large Acura stage to start things off. David isn't well known outside of Louisiana, but has written a lot of songs recorded by folks such as Joe Cocker, Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball, and many others. He also played for a time in the Cajun band File' and with New Orleans collective Lil' Band O' Gold.


David Egan opens Jazz Fest



Opening sets always draw a few interesting characters and today was no exception:


The dancing wasn't to last for long though! As it sometimes goes in New Orleans, the weather doesn't always cooperate like we'd wish it would. Fortunately, the grandstand provides not only shelter from the elements, but also the Allison Miner interview stage. Allison Miner was one of Jazz Fest's early treasures. She was involved from the beginning and is credited with originating the Fests archives which collected and store photos, videos, interviews, etc from Fests past. After her untimely death in 1995 the Interview stage was named for her and has served as a venue for musicians to come and share their own stories and pay tribute to those who've come before.
While taking our shelter from the storm, we managed to hear interviews with early funk and soul musicians Chocolate Milk and the legendary and hilarious mastermind of Parliament/Funkadelic, Mr. George Clinton.

P-FUNK!

This managed to keep us occupied till around 3:00. Plans to see Dr. John and The Black Crowes got washed out, but nothing was going to keep me away from the Jazz tent to see my friend Miss Leah Chase work her magic. As prior blog readers know, Leah is the daughter and namesake of the chef of the famed New Orleans restaurant Dooky Chase. While very few people outside of the city know her, she is considered one of the great female voices in this city. I heard her at my first fest 18 years ago and would not miss her come hell or (in today's case) high water! Her set is always varied and contains a few surprises. This year's highlight for me was a very moving version of Randy Newman's heartbreaking ballad "Marie".

Miss Leah Chase


Unfortunately, the poor weather conditions and a 6:30 dinner reservation/night show led to an early departure on day one----- not a perfect day, but hey, I'm in New Orleans, so how bad can it be!!

Dinner was a typical amazing Emeril Lagasse meal at his Delmonico Steak House off of Lee Circle. It started with the Peppadew Peppers stuffed with house made sausage, followed by the most amazing entree of Pork Shoulder sitting on a bed of Vidalia Onion Hash. And if that's not good enough, they threw a fried egg on top of it all just for grins!!! My cholesterol will pay the price, but my taste buds were simply delighted!! And of course, you can't leave without dessert, and what could be better than a tableside flambe' of Banana's Foster. Okay, so my cholesterol was eclipsed by my blood sugar,but who's counting??

Now you'd think we'd have the good sense to call it a night and head home after this gluttonous meal, but no...... there's more fun to be had at the Howlin' Wolf!!

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings were one of the early soul revival bands of the early 2000's, gaining a modicum of fame with their 2006 record "100 Days, 100 Nights". Sharons backing band, The Dap Kings, were also the uncredited backing band for Amy Winehouse's "Back To Black" record from the same year. To say that they are stellar players would be an understatement and to say that Miss Jones is an energetic performer would be woefully inadequate. Despite being stranded for several days in England by the volcano eruption in Iceland, they made it to town in time to put the Howlin' Wolf crowd through the paces!! This woman never stopped moving the whole night and just wore our tired asses out with their hour and a half soul set!

Sharon Jones with Dap King's bassist Bosco Mann

At this point, despite the fact that Dumpstafunk was yet to come, we deiced that a 20 hour day was all we old folks could handle and so we called it a night and crawled back to the Queen and Crescent for a few hours of well earned sleep before embarking on day two!

To be continued.......