[Dixielandjazz] New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Write-Up

[Steve barbone]

Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. New Orleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival seems to get panned by most of us on the DJML. Yet it
would appear to be sqauarely in the mainstream of New Orleans Music. Below
are some snips from: "Offbeat", an on line resource for New Orleans Music.
They contain references to Dixieland and/or Dixieland musicians.

e.g. The paragraph about Pete Fountain is wonderful news, as are mentions of
Evan Christopher, Tim Laughlin, a Louis Armstrong tribute etc.

To see the entire article which is very long and very informative, go to:

http://offbeat.com/artman/publish/article_1540.shtml

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



Overheard: Jazz Fest is ³Woodstock with Walkers.²‹JI

There must be something about Jazz Fest that brings out extraordinary
courage in its older performers. Three years ago, hooked up to an oxygen
tank, Herbie Mann bravely gave his final performance before passing on two
months later at the age of 73. This year it was 76-year-old Pete Fountain, a
recent recipient of quadruple bypass surgery, taking center stage and giving
a stellar performance. It wasn¹t the usual, chatty, ebullient Pete Fountain
of years past, but it was him in the flesh nonetheless ‹ and looking fit and
trim with 50-75 pounds less of it. He didn¹t disappoint anyone who jammed
the Economy Hall Tent beyond capacity that final Sunday, playing some of
their favorites ‹ ³Blues in the Night,² ³Muskrat Ramble,² ³Up a Lazy River,²
³It Had to Be You,² ³The Blues² (with guitarist Alan Young on vocals) and,
of course, his signature song, ³A Closer Walk With Thee.² Joined onstage by
local favorites, Tim Laughlin on clarinet and Connie Jones on trumpet, every
song was met with a standing ovation.‹DS

When Bruce Springsteen sang ³Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,² began with just
his own voice and acoustic guitar, as if he were performing in a 75,000-seat
coffeehouse. Soon the banjo and fiddle joined in and now the old hymn that
Bob Dylan recorded as ³Gospel Plow² sounded like an Appalachian string-band
number. Then half a dozen harmony singers leaned into their mics and it
became a choir selection. Then the tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and tuba
jumped in and it was a brass-band parade tune. It was a remarkable
demonstration of how New Orleans¹ carnival music and Dixieland can find its
place in what we usually think of as folk music and how easy it is to leap
from one branch of that tree to another.

Members of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra came into town from all over the
country to perform at the fest. On this day, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield led
the ensemble along with his very young son Irvin Jr., who took his job as
assistant conductor very seriously mimicking his dad¹s every gesture. The
ensemble was stop-on-a-dime tight while loose during solos and in its sense
of enjoyment. Evan Christopher wove his clarinet through ³A Portrait of
Louis Armstrong² and guests such as saxophonist Donald Harrison and
trumpeter Kermit Ruffins jumped in to the swinging affair by set¹s end.‹GW

In 1970, late in his career, Duke Ellington composed and recorded ³The New
Orleans Suite,² an underrated collection that transformed the raw materials
of Crescent City jazz into sophisticated big band arrangements. It made a
lot of sense that Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra would
begin their Fair Grounds show with two selections from that suite ‹ ³Second
Line² and ³Portrait of Louis Armstrong² ‹ for this group is trying to
transform the same raw materials into a similar elegance.