Music lovers from all over the world came to New Orleans for the 50th annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. During the second weekend, the four-day fest extravaganza happened from May 2 to May 5 every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the racetrack, but those music-filled days were not the only attraction in town.
For those who weren’t worn out by trying to hoof it back and forth across the 1.5-mile racetrack to hit shows on all 12 of the stages that make up Jazz Fest’s unique appeal, there’s lots more going on every night. The hardy festgoers who looked to extend their partying late into the wee hours had plenty of choices, for many of NOLA’s favorite bars, nightclubs and other venues offered up amazing shows, some that went on until the early a.m. hours the next morning – and we mean going until 4 a.m. or later!
Being of hardy stock, we went all over town to enjoy the post-fest night shows that featured a diverse mix of music.
On Thursday, May 2, we headed to Tipitina’s for North Mississippi Allstars, who always put on exciting live performances. Brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson seem at home at Tip’s, since it is reminiscent of the deep south juke joints they grew up in. Bassist Carl Dufresne, whom Luther lovingly refers to as the “Bayou Buddha,” has moved seamlessly from bass player in Anders Osborne’s band into NMAS.
The trio welcomed some special guests for their Tip’s show. Cedric Burnside, who has recorded and performed with the band over the years, sat in on drums for a few songs. Marcus King joined the group and displayed his impressive guitar skills and vocals on a cover of the Robert Johnson blues classic “Crossroads.” Marcus King’s drummer Jack Ryan took over for Cody Dickinson when Cody grabbed a guitar and sang the classic “Deep Elam Blues” and the Grateful Dead’s “Going Down the Road.”
After Friday’s day at Jazz Fest, we had a busy night moving between two clubs. We started at the beautifully restored Saenger Theatre for Foundation of Funk. The legendary rhythm section of The Meters, made up of drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste and bassist George Porter Jr., gathered together some of their New Orleans brethren to pay tribute to the classic funk music they created.
Ian Neville on guitar, Ivan Neville on keys and vocals and Tony Hall on guitar and vocals joined the band. Anders Osborne also chimed in on guitar. This six-piece band played Meters classics for a sold-out house that danced in the aisles and clapped loudly after each song.
Later, we hustled over to the business district to catch Oteil & Friends at the Civic Theatre. Oteil Burbridge was the bassist for the Allman Brothers Band and Tedeschi Trucks Band for several years, so he has serious jam chops. More recently he has been the bass player for Dead & Company, so when he put together an all-star jam band, we knew that we had to check it out.
Burbridge gathered major heavyweights from the scene. The group included Melvin Seals on keys, Eric Krasno and John Kadlecik on guitar, Adam Deitch on drums, Jennifer Hartswick on trumpet and vocals, Natalie Cressman on trombone and vocals, Weedie Braimah on percussion and Alfreda Gerald on vocals. Besides doing fantastic Grateful Dead covers, the band played Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody,” the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come.” Gerald was incredible on vocals throughout the show, but truly shined on Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”
We reluctantly missed Burbridge’s second set so that we could return to the Saenger for Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. The Americana and R&B crooner, along with his amazing band, kept the crowd at the Saenger singing and dancing to tunes from their recent albums. The biggest applause and singalong occurred during “S.O.B.,” as the theater shook from the collective dancing and foot stomping.
We had marked our calendars for the evening of Saturday, May 4, knowing it would be a special night. Galactic playing at Tipitina’s has always been special – it is their unofficial home and they have played hundreds of shows there. However, during Jazz Fest, it is like a family homecoming and this year it was even more special, since the band members made it officially their home by buying the club at the end of 2018.
To celebrate this extraordinary night, the core five-piece group added frequent collaborators Corey Henry on trombone, Eric Gordon on trumpet and Mike Dillon on percussion. Erica Falls belted out the vocals on more than half the songs. Fantastic instrumentals, tight horn arrangements and scorching solos by Ben Ellman on saxophone and harmonica all went to the core of the band’s special sound.
Guest vocalist Boyfriend did an explosive take on “Dance at My Funeral,” a song she recorded with the band for their recent Already Ready Already album. Lyrics Born, another guest vocalist, rapped his “Shake It Off” and drove the crowd into a frenzy. At the end of the show, Falls led the charge on a trio of funky tunes – “Does It Really Make a Difference,” “Clap Your Hands” and “Dolla Diva.”
We left Tip’s well past midnight and drove over to a special gig by D.J. Williams, the guitarist from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. He was performing with his side project, Shots Fired, at a pop-up art exhibit/photo gallery space. Williams played dance-friendly tunes with a few of the funk scenes top musicians including KDTU bandmate Chris Littlefield, Nth Power’s Nate Edgar and saxophone maestro Skerik.
Jazz Fest 2019 ended on Sunday, May 5. That night, the clubs were humming and many musicians played their final shows in town. We split our time between Mid City Rock ‘n’ Bowl and The Maple Leaf Bar. Rock ‘n’ Bowl has done a Sonny Landreth and Tab Benoit show to close the fest every year for at least ten years. Sonny Landreth’s distinctive and impressive slide guitar playing always draws oohs and aahs. He played a number of his zydeco-influenced blues songs and drew loud applause from both new and old fans.
After Landreth’s set, we zipped over to the Leaf to catch a special show. Nikki Glaspie, the former drummer for Beyoncé and Dumpstaphunk and current drummer for The Nth Power put together one of her “Homies” shows. Glaspie pulls in friends from the funk, soul, hip-hop and rock worlds when she does these spectacular gigs. She curates a set list rich in old-school soul and funk covers. For the Leaf show Glaspie had Steve Lands on trumpet, Khris Royal on trombone, Paul Robertson on trombone, Nigel Hall on keys, Shea Pierre on keys, June Yamagishi on guitar, Uriah Duffy on bass and Ty Coombs on percussion.
Several vocalists, including DJ Soul Sister, Kayla Jazmine and Adam Joseph joined Glaspie and Hall in singing songs by The Commodores, SOS Band and The Gap Band. “Oops Upside Your Head” had the tightly packed crowd bouncing. The Homies closed out the show with Glaspie’s signature version of The Brides of Funkenstein’s “Birdie.” The crowd exited the Leaf onto Oak Street singing “tweet, tweet, tweet.”
We raced back to Rock ‘n’ Bowl to see Tab Benoit play his unique bayou and delta blues. As expected, Benoit put on a magical display. He played several of his excellent blues songs and brought out Landreth for some dueling guitar riffs. The show wrapped up with a rousing “Night Train.” The club owner is known to hula hoop on the picnic tables, jump on stage and do pushups and occasionally belt out a tune at the end of this traditional show. On this special fest-closing night, he sang Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” and ripped off his shirt while dancing onstage to Benoit’s rapid-fire guitar playing.
Even though Jazz Fest ended on Sunday, New Orleans is a year-round, 24/7 party town. For years, local favorites Papa Grows Funk had a Monday night residency at The Maple Leaf Bar. Their show the day after the conclusion of Jazz Fest was always a hot ticket. The band has been on “indefinite hiatus” since 2013, but did a reunion show at the Leaf in 2018 that was so oversold that for 2019, they moved the show to Tipitina’s, which meant about five times the capacity for this in-demand reunion.
On Monday, May 6, Billy Iuso and the Restless Natives opened the Papa Grows Funk Tip’s show. They got terrific guest support from saxophone player Jimmy Carpenter. Iuso’s set of funky, blues-rock got the audience warmed up for Papa Grows Funk. Led by vocalist and Hammond B3 wizard John Gros, the five-piece band played many of their hard-driving, funky tunes like “Rat a Tang Tang,” “Stanky” and “Make It Right Now.”
Guitarist June Yamagishi and saxophonist Jason Mingledorff traded fiery solos. Bassist Marc Pero and drummer Jeffery “Jellybean” Alexander blasted chest-thumping beats. Gros’ vocals and melodic work on the keyboards rounded out their amazingly tight sound, especially for a band that has only performed together once before in the last six years, but who built their reputation as an exceptional live band. It seems you can go right back to it, if you’re all as talented as this group.
The show concluded with “Needle In the Groove,” the 2012 title track from their last studio album. After a short break punctuated by loud pleas from the crowd for more, the band came back to perform “Junker Man” before they finally called it quits. For us, it was also the end of a marathon two weeks of Jazz Fest, daytime crawfish festivals and nightclub gigs all over New Orleans. There is no place else in the world that draws together such a talented, diverse array of musicians over a two-week period of time. We are already counting down the days until Jazz Fest 2020.
Live photos courtesy of Andy J. Gordon ©2019.
