[Dixielandjazz] Was there a New Orleans Jazz Festival before NOJ&H Fest?

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and serious Jazzfans list & DJML

From: Norman Vickers

 

Marek Boym asked on DJML why his Turk Murphy liner notes said his group
played New Orleans Jazz Festival when New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
hadn't started then.

Thanks to Charlie Suhor, author of Jazz in New Orleans: the Postwar Years
through 1970  for clarifying the issue

 

Marek Boym's query: 
First New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1968? I have a Turk Murphy LP
which purports to have been recorded at the New Orleans Jazz Festival
in November 1955!

 

 

Charlie Suhor writes:

From: Charles Suhor [mailto:csuhor at zebra.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 12:33 PM



 

Here's the context for the 1955 Turk Murphy concert that Marek cited. It's
of a different lineage from the gala Jazzfests that started in 1968. The New
Orleans Jazz Club (NOJC) sponsored jazz concerts pretty regularly beginning
in 1948 and was a key to sparking the great local revival of the late
40s/early 50s. Some NOJC concerts were broadcast on national radio, but none
were of the scale of a massive festival. The Turk Murphy concert came as the
local revival was dying and was described in the NOJC's Second Line magazine
as the worst in attendance in the club's history. Rhythm & Blues, by
contrast, was on the rise. More about all this is in "The Local Revival
Declines" (pp. 147-150) and "The New Orleans Jazz Club-From Ragtime to
Riches" (pp. 55-59) in Jazz in New Orleans: The Postwar Years Through 1970. 

Re the Jazzfests, there were two false starts in the 60s before the 1968
extravaganza (pp. 34-43). The NOJC was supportive (despite Al Rose's open
attempt at sabotage), but was basically on the sidelines. Willis Conover
called Jazzfest "the only all-jazz jazz festival." Today Jazzfest is a
moneymaker (1968 broke even; 1969 lost money) and a great party, but as you
know, jazz is a relatively small part of the program.

I suspect this is more than you wanted to know, but I love talking about
this stuff.

Charlie Suhor

 


Norman's note to Marek---
On Feb 2, 2009, at 5:46 PM, 

Marek: I'm referring this to Charlie Suhor for definitive answer. However,
noNew Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival  until the Civil Rights act was
passed.
So 1955 wouldn't be applicable.

George Wein'a autobiography speaks directly to this.

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