With the start of Jazz Fest 2017 only days away in New Orleans, fans have already secured their hotel rooms, booked their flights, circled their cubes and pulled out the vacation cash fund for food, food and more food. If it’s April, it’s time for the Laissez les bons temps rouler; in other words, let the good times roll. And there’s no better place to do that than at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
With a lineup full to the brim with national, local and Cuban artists, not to mention those gorgeously-outfitted Mardi Gras Indians, Jazz Fest is ready, willing and able to tempt your soul with more good stuff than is humanly possible.
For the 2017 Jazz Fest, Quint Davis and his team has put together seven days over two weekends of multi-cultural, multi-genre musical artists for the whole family. For the rockers, there’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Maroon 5 and the Revivalists; for the soul/R&B’ers, you have Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg and Patti LaBelle; for guitar improv you have Widespread Panic and the Trey Anastasio Band; for those with a hankering for more blues, there’s Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and John Mooney. There’s also Gospel, Jazz, Zydeco, Americana, rap, pop, marching parades, Native American Pow Wows, interviews and fun stuff for the kids.
Also this year, Jazz Fest welcomes the music and culture of Cuba with performances, exhibitions and demonstrations at the Cultural Exchange Pavilion, such as Benito Camejo Nodarse talking about tobacco and cigars in Cuba and Gloria Nápoles Veranes’ dolls and figurines inspired by Cuban traditions and daily life. It is well worth it to take the time to visit and see as many of these great treasures while you are wandering the Fairgrounds.
Snoop Dogg, Stevie Wonder and Buddy Guy are all returning back this year as their headlining sets last year were cancelled due to the torrential rains that hit the Jazz Fest grounds on the 2nd Saturday. Jonny Lang is back after having to pull out last year because his wife was about to give birth (John Mayall took his place). Beloved hometown singer/piano player Harry Connick Jr returns to headline opening day, Friday, April 28, while the legendary NOLA funk-masters The Meters will close the festival on Sunday, May 7th. A more recent favored son, Trombone Shorty, also closes on that Sunday, a tradition, which once belonged to the Neville Brothers, for the past several years. “It’s a huge honor that the festival has given us,” said Pete Murano, guitar player for Shorty’s Orleans Avenue.
Murano isn’t the only musician who loves playing Jazz Fest. Following in the footsteps of last year’s festival preview article, we have again collected some memories from past performers about their times playing the festival and about being in New Orleans. So if you won’t take our word for how much fun Jazz Fest is, maybe you will believe some of these.
Sarah Lee Guthrie – My funniest memory is laughing at myself for trying to block out Mavis Staples so that I would have the nerve to go on after her. My dad Arlo was to go on directly following, but at that time I had been opening all the shows and he didn’t see any need to change the set around. So they were going to introduce Arlo Guthrie and little me would walk out onto that big stage with a tent of five or so thousand people packed in out of the rain. But here I was, knowing myself quite well, if I had gone in and enjoyed a few songs of the legendary Mavis Staples, I would have collapsed internally knowing I could never compare. I kept saying to myself, “apples and oranges Sarah Lee, you got this, apples and oranges.” (hahaha) Well, lucky me. She left an energy in the room, the people’s energy in the room, carried me to one the highlights of my performing history 🙂 I could sing like never before. What a spirit.
Charlie Wooton [Zydefunk] – I’ve had the honor to play Jazz Fest a few times, once with Bonerama and three times with Royal Southern Brotherhood. All performances were epic. Not only getting to play Jazz Fest but getting to play with Cyril Neville was awe inspiring. Karl Denson sitting in was pretty awesome. But my favorite memory was my wife having a cigarette with an older gentleman sitting backstage. I asked her who her new friend was and she said, “Some old Englishman that bummed a smoke from me.” I said, “Babe, that was Robert Plant!” That’s what is so cool about Jazz Fest, you never know who you might run into.
Timothy B Schmit [Eagles] – I have been to New Orleans several times, starting from the early seventies, when I used to go there a lot and there used to be a great venue there called the Warehouse. I played there a lot in Poco and then several times with the Eagles and it’s really an understatement to say it’s a unique place. I didn’t get around that much that time [playing Jazz Fest in 2012] but what I remember about it is it was a very hot, typically hot and humid, New Orleans day that we played. And the crowd was great.
Pete Murano [Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue] – The first year we headlined the Acura stage is definitely on my list. It was that big and just an honor and a privilege just to play in that spot. I think it was 2013, 2014 – I’m not sure, maybe it was a little earlier. The first time I played Jazz Fest, we played in the Jazz Tent and then after that we were on Congo Square for a couple of years and then we were on the Gentilly stage and we did that for a while. I remember we played before Dead Weather one year and it was raining and it was a fun, rocking show (laughs). Then we moved over to the Acura stage. I feel like we might have played earlier in the day on Acura before we got the headlines. And now it’s a huge honor that the festival has given us. It’s a lot of fun. What would you tell people to go eat? Oh man, Crawfish Monica, obviously; the Crawfish Sack is so good, Crawfish Enchilada. You wouldn’t think the cheese and the crawfish would go together but it’s actually really good.
Carl Broemel [My Morning Jacket] – I think that was only the second time [2016] but I remember the first time being there and seeing Bonnie Raitt the first time and thinking she was fantastic. It’s always been so hot and I remember my son was with us the first time and we were walking around together and enjoying Jazz Fest and that was cool. Walking around the French Quarter with him was hilarious. But I think the most important thing that happened to me and my band in New Orleans was getting to know the people that are involved with Preservation Hall. Ben Jaffe and everybody there, they’ve really taken us in. We were just at Ben’s house last week swimming in his pool and hanging out. But we just feel lucky that they’ve been able to show us the deeper parts of New Orleans and the actual real deal music that is happening and the tradition that they are involved in and preserving is so inspiring. So just being around those guys is like a big time mutual admiration society there, where we’re just in awe of them and what they do, like all their outreach stuff and all the music and how many people have played there. It’s like our magnet when we get there. We feel like we’ve got to go hang with Ben and go to the Pres Hall and spend time there.
Jake Clemons [Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band]- I was just thinking about the heat. That was the first thing that comes to my mind (laughs). The first year, especially. I’ve been to New Orleans several times before that show but the time previous to that show, 2012, would have been maybe 2008, I think I went, and to see how little the community had recovered from Katrina was a big shock to me. So when we went back in 2012, I remember the commute. I remember going from the hotel to the venue and just seeing the people’s faces, and as we got to the festival itself, there was still a sense in the air of like a struggle but also of safety that I didn’t feel the time I was there previously and that was a very powerful experience for me, that show.
Jonny Lang – I just love New Orleans in general. It’s an incredible city. I don’t know, just the people. I think probably the biggest thing of playing there for me, anytime I’ve been there, people just really understand music there and show it in a way that’s so unique. And to be somebody performing it for people like that is really a special thing because you get the feeling that the people in New Orleans, they understand what you’re doing, what you’re trying to say; where sometimes you get the feeling that people just want to be sort of entertained and you don’t feel like that in New Orleans. You really feel like the folks are a part of what you’re doing with you. But yeah, we were right at the end of my wife’s pregnancy [2016] and had to cancel.
Chris Shiflett [Foo Fighters]- It was really fun. I have a bunch of special memories from that day because that festival is sort of unlike most festivals that we play. I seem to recall we were kind of on in the middle of the day when the sun was out. It was my birthday and my wife brought a cake out onstage and the crowd sang me Happy Birthday, so that was nice. Then I also remember the incredible food at that festival, like unlike any other festival I ever been to, there was like this gigantic food court area and we just ate and ate and ate and it was incredible. Another happy memory of that day is later that night we were sort of killing time waiting for Steve Earle, who played that night over at Preservation Hall kind of late. So I went to that gig with my wife and some friends but prior to that we took like a horse and carriage ride around town and got like the super-tourist tour of things. It was a good time for sure.
Johnny Radelat [Gary Clark Jr] – We’ve played at least three times; might have been four times. It’s hot but I actually enjoy playing in that kind of heat though. I do hot yoga and shit like that so I like the heat. I actually like the challenge of the heat. But the most remarkable thing about playing the main stage at Jazz Fest for me is that I used to come to Jazz Fest because I was in regional bands based out of Gainesville, Florida. We would come play Jazz Fest and play like aftershows at like DBA or something, which we all still go to after the festival, and that stuff doesn’t start till like two or three in the morning but you see a lot of great musicians from the festival come down and sit in. But I was in college doing that and I used to come out for Jazz Fest and I remember the first time thinking, I’m here and I’m actually part of the main stage, and that was really cool. And seeing Bruce Springsteen the first year we played was pretty amazing. I think that was in like 2012.
Doyle Bramhall – I played once, in 1989 with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. We showed up, and I remember that we opened for the Nevilles. We had already played and we got off, then Dr John was sitting in, and I think it was with the Nevilles, so he went onstage or whatever. And I was listening backstage, I couldn’t really see anything but I started listening backstage, and I heard this most incredible guitar playing and guitar tone. I was like, who is that? That’s like the best sound I’ve ever heard. And I walked over and I saw that it was Dr John playing guitar. It just blew my mind. I was like, holy shit. I didn’t know he was a guitar god (laughs). But he was getting some of the deepest tones and playing some of the most soulful stuff I’d ever heard on guitar. It was incredible.
Benmont Tench [Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – I have good friends in New Orleans, because I’ve gone back to New Orleans over the years since I was in college. I went to Tulane for a couple of years. So I just think of friends when I think of playing at Jazz Fest, because I had friends there. It’s also an honor to play Jazz Fest. I felt like a bit of an interloper because I know the makeup of the festival has changed but it’s still called the Jazz & Heritage Festival. We all grew up on music that was from New Orleans or influenced by music from New Orleans. Everything is influenced by music from New Orleans. We all grew up on that. We aren’t a particularly New Orleans inflected band so I was kind of like, we’re playing the Jazz & Heritage Festival? I’m in but why are we playing the Jazz & Heritage Festival? (laughs) To me, it’s like all the greats, past and present, living or dead. But it was a joyous occasion. And I went back the next year just to go to the festival and that was really, really terrific and great fun. It’s such a wonderful festival because it’s arts and food and music and camaraderie and all sorts of music and parades. It’s like nothing in the world; New Orleans is like nothing in the world.
Jonathan Pretus [The Breton Sound] – I’ve always had a deep love for Jazz Fest. When I was a young kid, starting around six or seven, my mom would always call my school on opening day and say that my sister and I were sick. We’d go line up outside the gate on Gentilly and spend the entire day hopping from stage to stage, catching as much music as we could. When I was a teenager, my friends and I would go both weekends; tickets were a lot less then, and doing extra chores could pay for my ticket. We’d sneak some booze in and then get drunk, smoke cigarettes, try, and usually fail, to meet girls, and try, and always fail, to look as cool as possible while sweating profusely.
I don’t say it often but Cowboy Mouth at Jazz Fest in 1994 was probably the first time I can recall thinking to myself, “I wanna do that. I wanna play music for a living.” Flash forward to 2008, I can still remember the butterflies in my stomach as I walked on to the Gentilly stage for the first time as the guitarist in that band. Equally, if not more vivid, was the feeling I had after we played the Acura stage in 2010 and realizing it was time for me to move on to something new. Standing there watching Simon & Garfunkel was the moment I decided to leave that band, for reasons much longer than this piece will allow.
So you can imagine, I felt an immense sense of pride when my band, The Breton Sound, played Jazz Fest for the first time in 2013. It felt like, even though with CM I’d played at Jazz Fest three times before, doing it with MY band, with OUR music, that was the moment of feeling like I’d done proud by my thirteen year old self. It wasn’t a career changing, life-altering show, far from it. We were on the Lagniappe Stage, first band of the day on opening day. But whatever. We’d gotten in there. It felt good. It still does.
We played again in 2016, and had what may be a top-5 all-time romantic moment. My wife and I got trapped in the artist’s merch tent while a monsoon rolled in. While we were standing there watching the rain fall and grounds flood, a song from The Breton Sound’s third EP, one I’d written about her called “Love You More,” started playing over the tent’s PA. It was surreal and cute and we hugged and laughed and just stood there waiting for the rain to stop. Like I said, may be a top 5 all-time moment.
And to circle it all back to the beginning, my wife and I took our nephew, who was seven at the time, to his first Jazz Fest. His first concert actually. I kept him on my shoulders and we watched Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers from a million yards back, and he was mesmerized. The next week, he got a goldfish and named it “Tom Petty.” He’s a cool kid. Hopefully he gets to make some memories at the Fest like I’ve been able to do.
So there you have it. Any doubts you may have had about dishing out the green for tickets, parking, food, souvenirs, snowballs, beignets, crawfish, shirts, hotel rooms and band-aids for the blisters you’ll get walking around so much, should have dissipated by now, replaced by that excitement that, hey, you’re going to Jazz Fest.
Here are a few of our picks to see each day, sans the main headliners on the Acura and Gentilly stages, because you already know who those bold letter names are.
Friday, April 28: Kristin Diable & The City, Leon Bridges, Johnny Sansone, Deacon John, Helen Gillet, Leila Phillips, NAS and the Pine Leaf Boys.
Saturday, April 29: Jonny Lang, Johnnyswim, Amos Lee, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, Kenny Neal & The Baton Rouge Blues Revue, Honey Island Swamp Band and the Treme Brass Band.
Sunday, April 30: Little Freddie King Blues Band, Mia Borders, Pitbull, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, The Clark Sisters, and the Magnificent 7.
Thursday, May 4: Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton, Herb Alpert & Lani Hall, Yvette Landry, Eric Lindell and George Porter Jr & Runnin’ Pardners.
Friday, May 5: The Revivalists, Bonerama, Feufollet, Anders Osborne, Rhiannon Giddens, Sonny Landreth and Margo Price.
Saturday, May 6: Big Sam’s Funky Nation, the Lone Bellow, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Maggie Koerner, Savoy Family Cajun Band, John Mooney & Bluesiana, Big Freedia, Willie Sugarcapps and Snoop Dogg.
Sunday, May 7: Buddy Guy, Cowboy Mouth, Patti LaBelle, Blues Traveler, Erica Falls, Galactic, Dawes, Irma Thomas, Tab Benoit, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Kings Of Leon and Robin Barnes.
Follow Glide on all our social media for photo galleries, reports and tweets from the grounds all throughout Jazz Fest. Also check out the official website for everything you need to know = http://www.nojazzfest.com/
Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough
