Lots of sunshine, a few tears and one fewer dancer have made this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival noticeably different from last year’s, whose rainy weekends ended with the tragic killing of Daniel Breaux, a Houma artist and beloved Jazz Fest participant.
Breaux was shot dead Saturday, May 1, 2004, during a failed robbery by four youths after leaving the festival. But his spirit and artwork live on at this year’s festival.
“A Dance with Daniel Breaux,” an exhibit of Breaux’s artwork — including oil paintings, watercolors, sculptures and costumes — will be on display in the Grandstand’s first floor exhibit area for the duration of the festival.
“You see the people walking through the exhibit,” said Bob Christopher, a radio journalist and fan of Breaux’s work. “You see their sadness that someone who was this artistic lost his life at the festival.”
The exhibit is full of Breaux’s self-portraits, many of him dancing with a woman — Claudia Dumestre, Breaux’s longtime dance partner and “paramour.”
“Yes, that’s me,” Dumestre said, pointing to a large painting of Breaux twirling her in a dance hall, her swirling skirt filling the canvas.
“The last time we danced was to Michael White at the Economy Tent,” Dumestre said, staring at that tent through the Grandstand’s doors. “That was the last time I saw him.”
Most of the pieces in the exhibit are from her home, but some are from the homes of Breaux’s friends and family, Dumestre said. Jazz Fest officials chose which pieces to display in the exhibit.
Breaux was also known for his carpentry and metalwork, Dumestre said.
She said Breaux made his own bed, his own wallpaper and his own fishing boats.
“He made me earrings for my birthday,” she said, pointing to the copper earrings on the exhibit walls and on her own ears. “I loved turtles, and he made these look like turtles, and these,” she said, taking off her right earring, “he made from copper pennies and nails.”
The display is clearly a testimony to Breaux’s work, but there is no mention of Breaux’s murder at the exhibition, Christopher said.
“This exhibit shows his skills,” Dumestre said. “That’s what it’s meant to do.”
Breaux was well known at Jazz Fest for “cutting up” on the dance floor in his red clogs, which are displayed at the exhibit, Christopher said.
“He would go to the smaller scale shows to dance,” said Cindy Christopher, Bob’s wife and a fan of Breaux’s work. “Everyone knew who he was.”