Tag Archives: FEATURES

More rain, some of the coldest days ever experienced at the Fairgrounds, an inexplicable late opening, and schedule adjustment couldn’t come close to dampening the spirits of hundreds of thousands of festers. Here’s a look back at the second weekend of the 2013 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

After a week of wet weather, everyone expected a slog through a swampy bog at the Jazz Fest, and they weren’t wrong. Lakes of water and rivers of mud filled most of the New Orleans Fairgrounds on Thursday morning when the gates opened.

I spent much of the day at the intimate Jazz and Heritage stage where I saw often compelling and occasionally transcendent sets from the Black Seminoles and the Spirit of the Fi Fi Yi Mardi Gras Indians as well as the Forgotten Souls Brass Band.

The Fi Yi Yi and their associates, the Mandingo Warriors, released their first album this past week and it is an unexpected treat because it features top-flight New Orleans musicians joining the Indians.

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The first weekend of the 2013 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival featured one of the most crowded days ever when Billy Joel graced the Acura stage, two gorgeous, low humidity days, and a torrentially rainy day that created a swampy bog that was barely dried up a week later. Here’s a look back.

Friday began with a scorching set from the New Orleans Suspects and ended with the fascinating musical hybrid that is the Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra. The group features a who’s who of musicians and backing vocalists, Big Chief David Montana and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes.

What makes the group even more special is the addition of alternative stringed instruments, namely the cello of Helen Gillet and the fiddle of Harry Hardin (pictured above). The two classically trained musicians dug deep into their respective instruments, and gave the music an added depth. In the back, guitarists Sam Hotchkiss and Camile Baudoin were stellar as were bassist Reggie Scanlan and drummer Kevin O’Day.

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Weather was a factor on two of the four days, but even torrential rains on Thursday and massive thunderstorms on Sunday before the fest started could not deter thousands upon thousands of people from the music in the French Quarter.

Organizers continue to tweak the set up, and this year upper Decatur Street was closed to vehicular traffic, which theoretically opened up more space for pedestrians. However, adding a stage in the odd triangular intersection where Decatur and N. Peters diverge heading uptown caused additional, perhaps unexpected, problems. This area was completely gridlocked on Saturday. Chairs were set up in the middle of the street.

Another problematic issue is the haphazard way that pedestrians, some clearly intoxicated, bicycles and bike taxis navigate the wide-open lanes of Decatur. My suggestion would be some temporary bike lanes since it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious collision between people on foot and on people on two wheels.

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For the last two weeks since Cyril “Big Chief Iron Horse” Green passed away at the young age of 46, Mardi Gras Indians have been gathering nightly to perform the ancient rituals and remember the chief. Yesterday, April 2, 2013, over 30 Indians in suits and hundreds of mourners gathered to celebrate his life.

The setting was the historic Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in the St. Roch neighborhood. The hearse and a limousine were parked out front. Each vehicle had a poster on the back celebrating the chief’s life. Dozens of friends and members of the extended Indian community gathered on the steps and across the street. The church itself was filled to overflowing.

Around the corner and on various side streets, members of numerous tribes including the Fi Fi Yi, the Hard Head Hunters, the Young Cheyenne, the Red Hawk Hunters and Green’s gang, the Black Seminole, donned their massive suits.

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Even though the rest of the city is all atwitter about St. Patrick’s Day and the many parades and parties, Mardi Gras Indian aficionados are more excited about the St. Joseph Day celebrations.

Every year the Indians parade on the Sunday before St. Joseph’s, which happens to fall this year on St. Patrick’s Day. They also parade on St. Joseph’s night—this coming Tuesday.

The festivities begin on Sunday at A.L. Davis Park, formerly known as Shakespeare Park, on the corner of Lasalle and Washington Avenues in Central City at 11 AM. The parade doesn’t begin officially until 1 PM. I say officially, because times often deviate from what is announced.

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All things happen for a reason in music. Guitarist Blake Quick used to be in Flow Tribe. Now he’s not. But, he has a new band, the Quickening, and I had the opportunity to see them grace the stage at Tipitina’s.

His new band is decidedly different in instrumentation and sound than his previous ensemble. He still relies on a horn to add texture to his sound, but this time it’s a single trombone played with aplomb by Jon Ramm. He soloed admirably and punched up the arrangements in a style that was reminiscent of the work of Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews with his band or Corey Henry with Galactic.

However, the sound of the Quickening is more open and lyrical than those two bands that tend towards rock and funk respectively. Quick’s songs, which he plays with characteristic unpretentious grace, evoke an earlier era in music. Dare I say, the 1960s? Read More »