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The first weekend of the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans has come and gone with an incredible bang. Not only did a reunited Beach Boys close out the first day but Tom Petty dug his heels into some blues on day two and Bruce Springsteen amassed a congregation thousands strong on day three as he preached and prayed, boogied and rocked. It was a weekend of legends not ready to settle down slowly.
Petty and his Heartbreakers had to follow a spirited Louisiana jam by the Voice Of The Wetlands All-Stars, which featured such Deep South heroes as Dr John, Cyril Neville, Tab Benoit and the impossibly untamed guitar fire of Anders Osborne. But Pettt, the gravel-voiced Florida gator, decked out in a royal blue striped suit, had no qualms of letting his Heartbreakers swim in the swampy Mississippi River blues and cast a wicked spell over a late Saturday afternoon.
Enter “Lover’s Touch”, six songs into his set. After nabbing fans with pop hits “I Won’t Back Down”, “You Wreck Me Baby” and “Here Comes My Girl”, Petty poured a seductively bluesy backwoods hanky panky riff that slowly went swirling down via a Mike Campbell sleepy mojo spell. It was a move he would keep going back to during his two hour set.
Despite the crowd singing loudly on familiar Petty classics like “Free Fallin”, “Refugee”, “Yer So Bad” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, it was his hunkering down and releasing his inner old bluesman that caused chills in the 90 degree temp. With Campbell playing in a slow-rising fever tone, reminding the minions why he is one of the most over-looked guitar players in music, the essence of what the Heartbreakers were raised on came bursting forth. The afore-mentioned “Lover’s Touch”, the JJ Cale penned “Travelin’ Light” and an excellent “Good Enough” made the outdoor venue feel like a smoky old juke joint on the outskirts of town around closing time.
Petty formed a nice rapport with the people: storytelling in his laid-back manner about wandering into the old Cypress Lounge in Gainesville where “there were guitar thieves in there” (“Spike”) and despite running over their allotted time, simply explained that “They’re about to pull the plug but we’re going to play this one” and launched into “American Girl”. Honoring Bo Diddley via “I’m A Man”, pulling out a few oldies like “Something Big” from Hard Promises, an album that rebelled against rising vinyl prices in the early 80’s, slowing down to an acoustic pace with “Learning To Fly”, and introducing “I Shoulda Known It” with “Let’s do some headbanging”.
Sunday’s dawn brought the Joie de vivre that it was going to be an extraordinary day. Following Petty’s closing set was not going to be easy. Gates opened with people literally running to claim a consecrated spot as close to the main stage as possible. This would become coveted ground come about 4:30 when Springsteen, wearing a working man’s church attire of tight jeans, dark blue button-up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a neatly-pressed vest, would begin to hold the crowd in the vice of the E-Street Band.
For those who stayed put at the main stage all day, they were treated to an early morning Johnny Sansone set that featured Anders Osborne on guitar, a red hot Trombone Shorty with his Orleans Avenue Band, and an always satisfying Dr John.
Whereas Petty played with more of a blues vibe, Springsteen brought out the full gospel of being an everyday man in a changing world. From the songs he chose to the foot-stomping energy he whipped up, Springsteen proved that he might be arguably the most engaging and energetic live performer in the history of rock & roll.
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Springsteen last played Jazz Fest in 2006, evoking a chilling spiritual mass after the horror of Hurricane Katrina, but that was with his Seeger Sessions Band. This time, with his infamous E Street Band brothers, the atmosphere would be of a different bump. Part gospel revival and part dirty rock & roll, people came from just about every state, even New Jersey, from England and Canada – just for this one night. It was almost incomprehensible the magnetic lure Springsteen beholds and it is an almost unattainable lust that is at the same time remarkably approachable.
Walking out a few minutes behind schedule, Springsteen opened with “Badlands” and kept barreling full speed ahead, slowing down at sublime intervals for higher power callings and giddy snippets of interaction with fans. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he wore a smile on his face, even when stumbling backwards and falling, when crowd-surfing across the front section, when pulling a young man up on the catwalk with him to sing “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day,” when leading his horn section in an almost second line march, and when holding tight to a sign he pulled from the crowd that read “New Orleans loves Clarence”; an act of heartbreaking emotion experienced by every breathing soul who raised their hands and their voices skyward in honor of The Big Man who passed away last June.
Dr John joined the band for “Something You Got”. “It’s all about that groove,” Springsteen explained after the song ended and looking visibly excited by the elder statesman’s presence. “You can’t make that groove exactly in New Jersey. That’s all there is to it …your sexual organs are stimulated.” And after Nils Lofgren stumbled and fell, something he himself would do two songs later, Springsteen grabbed his guitar player in a choke hold and said with a big laugh, “It’s dangerous up here”.
Getting to see Jake Clemons step into his uncle’s spot was bittersweet, but he handled the passing of the saxophone into his humble hands with spunk and sincerity, garnering loud cheers that undoubtedly boosted his confidence and calming any nerves. Familiar faces Steven Van Zandt, drummer Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan and Garry Tallent, were all cooking some smooth grooves of their own, despite the Boss claiming “I told you we didn’t practice.” There was an easy common law vibration filtering through the band, whose core members have played with Springsteen since the mid 70’s.
For example, take the song “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep”. Beginning with a Charles Giorddano boogie woogie piano beat and Soozie Tyrell on violin, it built into a full horns, jazz-influenced hymn, perfect for the New Orleans setting. “Born To Run” surged into a souped-up jam, “Rocky Ground” blended into a surreal casting of “When The Saints Go Marching In” before hopping back onto the “Rocky Ground” beat. And when introducing “My City Of Ruins” he said it was a song “about calling up ghosts.”
But what Springsteen really conjured up was a set that never wanted to end. Song after song after song, he showed no signs that he wanted to quit. Minor glitches be damned, he laughed off tripping and playing in the wrong key (“Can’t be too far out of tune at Jazz Fest”), he touched every hand he could reach, danced with the sign language gals during “Dancing In The Dark”, and harkened the angels to watch over such people as “Johnny 99” and those who struggle: “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live”, “Land Of Hope And Dreams”, “Jack Of All Trades” and “We Take Care Of Our Own”; before finally skidding to a rousing stop with a bombastic “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”.
Music may not be able to save the world and Springsteen has never been one to use his voice and his karma for soufflé-light songwriting. Instead he uses his gris gris gift to empower the people who so humbly stand out there in the darkness, and for almost three hours we were all one of those people.
photos by Nancy Lasher
