The first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival culminated in a roux of cultural mixing, a multi-genred range of top-tier talent and all shapes and sizes of fun to satisfy festival-goers until the second wave of massive performances invades the city next weekend.
With a musical lineup and a cultural exhibition nearly as diverse as its attendees, Jazz Fest saw fans pressing the barricades in anticipation of acts from Grammy winners like Bon Iver to hometown heroes like hip-hop artist and University alum David “Dee-1” Augustine, who returned for his third year at the festival.
“Every time I come to New Orleans, the fan base grows and the hype gets bigger,” Augustine said. “Each time the crowd was bigger and the response was better, so when I come back here it gives me a gauge of how my name is buzzing in the city.”
The New Orleans native graduated in 2007 and taught middle school in Baton Rouge before deciding to pursue a full-time hip-hop career.
“I want to reach the youth, but I want to do it on a larger scale than just teaching in the classroom,” he explained. “I chose to stop teaching in order to reach this bigger platform as a hip-hop artist.”
Other locally rooted groups with longtime fan bases emerged with fervent performances to satisfy hungry admirers. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews unleashed a barrage of seemingly unending trumpet and trombone solos and elicited crowd interactions using call and response, while beckoning fans to throw their hands in the air. Trombone Shorty also invited saxophonist Dave Koz on stage, who ripped out lightning-fast notes to supplement a solo battle from the band.
Despite his old age, the 71-year-old New Orleans native Dr. John demonstrated he hasn’t lost any musical touch, launching into chilly solos on several different pianos and even whipping out impressive guitar solos despite his damaged left ring finger. The night tripper danced across the stage while tapping his alligator boots, waving his arms and snapping his fingers.
Givers, a Lafayette group, placated their constantly growing nationwide fan base Friday with a lively set of gyrations, a parade of multi-instrumental jamming and the all-in attitude fans have come to expect from the band. Along with other danceable grooves, the group covered Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place,” which sent fans into appendage-swinging whirls.
The band’s energetic vibe proved a warm-up for a jaw-dropping performance in which Justin Vernon proved Bon Iver could rock high energy as well as mellow ease. After a synthesized saxophone solo battered the crowd for several minutes, the sound was joined by an eruption of brass and percussion to kick off “Blood Bank,” eventually bleeding into a guitar solo Vernon used to cap off the song. He then brought fans back down from an electric high with the mellow sing-along “Skinny Love.” While the entire band chimed in for the chorus, the many vocals seemed to include the crowd’s voices as well, creating an ultimate sense of oneness.
“This is the greatest musical festival in the world,” Vernon proclaimed, having visited Jazz Fest several times since his childhood. “I mean it. If I didn’t mean it, that would be some pandering shit.”
As Bon Iver intimately engaged its crowd, The Beach Boys happily bounced along their set at the other side of the festival, transitioning through one fun tune after the next as beach balls soared across the crowd. The set received a surprise introduction courtesy of actor John Stamos, president of the Beach Boys fan club.
“They represented America when the whole world wanted to be America,” Stamos said. “This band’s songs were written in the deity of America.”
Saturday and Sunday saw much larger but somewhat weary crowds, with a continuously beaming sun beating down and big time acts like Cee Lo Green, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band and Al Green drawing in an even wider range of fans.
Some fans may have regretted grabbing food before returning to main stages for iconic groups like Tom Petty. These masses of fans forced attendees to bulge into walkways bordering the stage and into the dirt track surrounding the infield where the festival was held. Viewers at the very back pressed against the chain-link fences of the track, jumping up to at least see the large screens, which broadcasted the performers’ images.
These stresses proved two-fold for Springsteen, with frustrated fans forced to set up camps on the edge of the track long before the rocker emerged. But these frustrations seemingly fueled The Boss with enough passionate energy to belt out lyrics and jam on his guitar with intense bravado from the get-go, with his extensive band showcasing talented trumpets, trombones, saxophones, violins and even an accordion.
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Contact Austen Krantz at [email protected]