Weekend One, Day 3 and beyond

Hard to believe the first weekend was almost over---didn't we just get here???

Anyway, day 3 was one I'd truly been excited bout since the line-ups had been announced. One of my very favorites, Levon Helm, was making his first appearance at Jazz Fest since he appeared with a later version of the Band prior to our coming down here!

As is habit, the day at the grounds began with a bowl of Pheasant Gumbo, followed by some Crawfish Sushi (courtesy of the good tastes of my lovely spouse).

Cajun Sushi!


After a little chow we made our way to the Gentilly stage to catch the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band. They just released a terrific record to benefit the Hall and there educaton foundation. Entitled "Preservation", it features numerous guest artists and vocalists and today's set was to feature a few of those, including My Morning Jacket's Jim James, and New Orleans own Terence Blanchard, a great jazz trumpeter and composer.

Words escape me to say how much I enjoyed watching these stellar players pay homage to New Orleans unique version of Jazz. It's heartening to know that new young players are constantly stepping forward to keep this music alive and contemporary!

PHJB

Terence Blanchard and Jim James with PHJB

Despite my desire to see any number of other acts, I then decided to make camp across the fairgrounds at the Acura stage so I could assure a good spot to see Levon. We got there in time to see the last song by Louisiana Leroux, leaving me wishing we'd gotten there just a bit sooner. But my disappointment was short lived when the Voices of the Wetlands All-Stars took the stage. This is a collective of New Orleans players under the leadership of Tab Benoit, who formed the group to promote his passion for the restoration of Louisiana's wetlands. He is joined by Johnny Sansone, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, George Porter, Jr and a host of others. All the players contribute songs and take lead vocals, making for one of the finest sets of the Festival!



Big Chief with VOW All-Stars

As great as that set was, the real treat of the day was still to come! Levon Helm was the drummer and one of the three voices in the legendary group, The Band. His is the voice of "The Weight" and "Up On Cripple Creek" amongst others. That voice was nearly silenced forever when he was struck by cancer of the vocal cords in 1999. While he continued to play drums at his now famous Midnight Rambles, it wasn't until 2004 that his voice had recovered enough from the intense radiation used to cure his cancer to allow him to sing again. Even so, he has ups and downs with his singing abilities and after a couple of years on the road and at his Rambles, his on again/off again vocal abilities are a bit strained, limiting his singing. Fortunately, Levon has assembled one of the finest group of musicians I've had the pleasure to see so that it is hardly an issue! Led by Larry Campbell, who spent years on the road (as did Levon) with Bob Dylan, the group also includes Campbell's wife Teresa Williams, Helm's daughter Amy, Byron Isaacs (who is in the terrific band Ollabelle with Amy), keyboardist/vocalist Brian Mitchell, former Band guitarist Jim Weider, and a crack horn section led by the legendary Howard Johnson! In addition to all of these amazing players, the day saw guest appearances by Art Neville (who basically played the whole show), Dr John (performing "What A Night") and Allen Toussaint who did his classic number "A Certain Girl". The smile that seemed permanently glued on Levon's face all day said it all!!


Levon on Mandolin

The horn section parades during "All In A Mardis Gras Day"

And while I'd initially planned to hold my spot for the Allman Brothers, who were closing out the day at the Acura stage, the sun and my weary legs got the best of me, so Kim and I took off to see what else we could find.

One of the nicest areas at the fest is a little stage set up in a courtyard around and behind the grandstand. Called the Lagniappe stage, it is set in a beautiful garden and is always a nice spot to grab a seat and take a load off (to quoteLevon) for a bit. As it happens, Susan Cowsill was winding down her set at the time. In addition to being a part of the 60's band bearing her last name (the inspiration for TV's the Partridge Family), she was also a longtime member of local favorites The Continental Drifters. We got there just in time to see her bring up guests Paul Sanchez and her brother Paul Cowsill to sing on one of my favorite Drifters numbers "The Rain Song".

Susan Cowsill

We then tried to get to the Gospel tent to see a little bit of the Blind Boys of Alabama, but the crowd was pouring out of the tent, so we went over to the Blues tent to close out the day with a couple of numbers from guitar phenom Jonny Lang.

Jonny Lang

But the fun didn't end when we left the fairgrounds on Sunday. There were tasty treats to come that night as the entire group gathered for a final meal together before the ladies and the Rock's headed back home on Monday.

We went into the Quarter in advance of our 9:45pm reservation at NOLA, Emeril's restaurant in the French Quarter. This is where we ran into Grandpa Elliott again singing on the street. We also went to the Cabildo where a public memorial service was being held in honor of Bobby Charles, local Louisianan who wrote such great songs as "See You Later Alligator" and "Walking To New Orleans". While I made the mistake of leaving the service early, several in my group saw performances in his honor by Shannon McNally and Marcia Ball.

Our appetites were certainly primed by the time we were finally seated at NOLA! Good thing too, because the serving sizes here are truly remarkable. No one goes home hungry!

Dinner at NOLA!

My meal started with a New Orleans style crab cake followed by Emeril's famous buttermilk fried chicken with bourbon smashed sweet potatoes, country ham cream gravy, and sauteed sugar snap peas. And while I truly wanted dessert, I did not want to lose any buttons on my trousers, so I managed to resist. As you can see, there was nothing but smiles from this crowd!!

Katie, Kevin, Nick, Bob, Kim, Greg, Joyce, and David at NOLA.

We managed to close down NOLA and then said our goodbyes to Katie and Kevin Rock before calling it a night and getting ready to send off Kim and Joyce and Nick the next day.

Monday is always a bittersweet day, and having the girls go was tough. I think they had a great time and we'd have loved to have kept them around. We did have some time for fun though, as their flights weren't until early evening.

As usual, we spent most of the morning doing some last minute shopping, including in the French Market where we picked up some colorful pins and earrings from one of our favorite Jazz Fest artisans, Oscar. We eventually wound our way to the Marigny where we had a traditional Monday luncheon at The Praline Connection, a local soul food mecca. Being Monday, several of us had the "wash day" special of Red Beans and Rice. Joyce had a very interesting bowl of file gumbo, complete with a whole crab!

Now that's gumbo!!

As we moved back through the Quarter after lunch, we stopped by Cafe du Monde for a little dessert of Beignets and Coffee.

Nick approves of the Beignets at Cafe du Monde!

I'll leave you now with some pics that Kim took as we strolled back to the hotel to see them off before David, Bob, and I moved to our new hotel and began preparing for the week ahead!