[Dixielandjazz] The N.O. JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL

[Steve Barbone]

I guess most of us prefer the French Quarter Festival, but the NOJHF is
where the action is.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


NY TIMES - May 1, 2007
New Orleans Homecoming (for the Lucky Ones)
By JON PARELES

NEW ORLEANS, April 30 ‹ Every so often at this year¹s New Orleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival over the weekend, musicians would announce that they were
finally back in their old homes after being displaced for a more than a year
by Hurricane Katrina.

The queen of New Orleans soul, Irma Thomas, returned to her house two weeks
ago; Jean Knight, who had the hit ³Mr. Big Stuff,² said she was back; and
Brice Miller, the trumpeter for the Mahogany Brass Band, announced on
Saturday that he had just spent his first night in his old bedroom.

They¹re the luckier ones. They didn¹t live in destroyed neighborhoods like
the Lower Ninth Ward that are still virtually empty. And they can return to
a livelihood: jobs at clubs in the more-touristed parts of New Orleans,
which are back in business and ready to party.

The culture of New Orleans ‹ the thoroughly local music, food and rituals
that are connected to African processions, European carnivals, Caribbean
rhythms and America¹s history of slavery and intermingling ‹ is a draw not
just for tourists, but for New Orleanians. Through sheer perseverance, it is
being rebuilt. 

The 38th annual Jazzfest was its old celebratory self, with an undercurrent
of determination. Jazzfest, which continues this coming weekend, has stoked
the city¹s culture by gathering it for the outside world to see since 1970.
More than 80 percent of this year¹s performers are Louisiana musicians who
cover a century of music, from brass bands to bayou zydeco to hip-hop.

To hear the pianist Henry Butler splashing free-jazz dissonances and wild
whoops and hollers into New Orleans standards like ³Tipitina,² or to hear
the Hot 8 Brass Band mixing old-fashioned oompah with Latin and hip-hop
beats was to hear the continuity of a culture that faces its troubles with
rhythm and flamboyance. Only in New Orleans would a band ‹ Bob French and
the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, to be exact ‹ put a traditional jazz beat
under P-Funk¹s chant, ³Tear the roof off the sucker.²

The locals shared the first weekend¹s lineup with headliners like Norah
Jones, Bonnie Raitt, T Bone Burnett, Jill Scott, Ludacris, Brad Paisley,
Pharoah Sanders and the Mexican brass band Banda el Recodo. There were also
performers who were born in Louisiana, including Lucinda Williams, Jerry Lee
Lewis and Johnny Rivers, whose ³Secret Agent Man² had a touch of
bayou-country swamp-pop.

The visitors didn¹t forget where they were. They performed with New Orleans
musicians: Ms. Jones with Trombone Shorty, Mr. Sanders with the trumpeter
Terence Blanchard, Ms. Raitt with half a dozen guests for a weekend-closing
medley of New Orleans R &B.

Songs were addressed to the city for both its losses and its survival. When
Ms. Raitt sang her ³God Was in the Water,² an eerie song written before
Katrina, she dedicated it to the Ninth Ward, the rest of the city and ³all
the people still waiting for the help they deserved.²

Ms. Williams choked up as she sang her mournful ³Everything Has Changed,²
and Mr. Burnett sang apocalyptic imagery to swampy blues-rock riffs. The
zydeco and Cajun musicians from the bayou country to the west, which was
harder hit by Hurricane Rita, also sang about the storms; the Cajun rocker
Zachary Richard had a song that vowed, ³Seven generations we¹ve been stuck
here in the mud/But the only way that I¹m leaving Louisiana is if I¹m swept
away in a flood.²

As often happens at Jazzfest, the locals ‹ not all of them able to return
yet ‹ stole the show. On Sunday afternoon a set by the New Orleans Social
Club defined the heart of the festival. With George Porter Jr. and Leo
Nocentelli from the definitive New Orleans funk band, the Meters, along with
Dr. John and Irma Thomas, the group was an all-star contingent of New
Orleans musicians who had gathered in Austin six weeks after Katrina to
record a benefit album.

Their set reached back into New Orleans tradition, including the Mardi Gras
Indian song ³Indian Red,² which insists, ³We won¹t bow down,² and it mingled
anger and optimism. It also dug deep into the parade-beat rhythms that are
at the roots of jazz and New Orleans R&B and funk. And it had a huge crowd
dancing. 

Jazzfest has long since become a local ritual itself, one that became more
important after the hurricane made clear that New Orleans could not be taken
for granted. The festival is a nonprofit event, and its Jazz and Heritage
Foundation owns the license to the gloriously New Orleans-centric radio
station WWOZ-FM. 

It also supports, quietly and pragmatically, the street processions that
maintain New Orleans rhythms and communities. In recent years the foundation
has paid for police permits for second-line parades, which send brass bands
and fancy-suited Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs strutting through the
streets. The foundation has also started to buy plumes ‹ pricey ostrich
feathers ‹ for the Mardi Gras Indians who spend a year sewing the outsize
suits that they flaunt from Mardi Gras season in February through Jazzfest
in May. 

Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs and Mardi Gras Indian gangs arose in the
city¹s poorer neighborhoods ‹ including some that are still depopulated ‹
but they are tenacious. Last year the foundation bought plumes for 80
Indians; this year for 188. Among the Mardi Gras Indians parading at
Jazzfest were the Ninth Ward Hunters.

One of Jazzfest¹s staples is its gospel tent, where local church choirs and
touring gospel groups perform all day. The hurricane gave them another
reason to praise the Lord: making it through.

³You hurt me, Katrina, but I¹m still standing!² preached Bishop Paul S.
Morton, a dynamic singer and New Orleans gospel luminary who has worked with
Aretha Franklin. 

Then he added another message. ³If you are not from New Orleans,² he said,
³please don¹t forget about us.²