Today, Orishas has cancelled. Locos Por Juana moved into their slot on Congo Square and Vivaz! moved into the slot vacated by Locos Por Juana. Here are my plans:

E.O.E. – 11:15 a.m. – Congo Square

Pete Seeger interview – 11:30 a.m. – Music Heritage Stage

Jim McCormick and the Rarelies – 12:25 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

Earth, Wind and Fire interview – 1:45 p.m. – Music Heritage Stage

Kinky – 1:50 p.m. – Acura Stage

Ebony Hillbillies – 2:05 p.m. – Blues Tent

Pine Leaf Boys – 2:55 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

Better Than Ezra – 3:10 p.m. – Acura Stage

New Orleans All-Star Revue – 3:30 p.m. – Blues Tent

The Avett Brothers – 4:15 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

Dave Matthews Band – 5 p.m. – Acura Stage

Earth, Wind and Fire – 5:30 p.m. – Congo Square

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – 5:30 p.m. – Blues Tent

               

 

Saturday started with the Tipsy Chicks in the Lagniappe Stage. Lynn Drury sang, “All is Forgiven on Frenchmen Street,” and I wonder if that’s true.

In the same Friday T-P story when Quint Davis talked about Jazz Fest being a family-friendly festival, he talked about how important it is to be on time. Unfortunately, neither Wynton Marsalis nor Erykah Badu got the memo; he was 20 minutes late for his interview and she was late for her set. In his interview, Marsalis made the interesting argument that “the definitive national rhythm is swing” – not a position I’m certain I agree with, but one interesting enough to contemplate.

At Congo Square, Ms. Tee’s set was a little run of the mill despite live DJ work on vinyl from EF Cuttin. During the ballad “Too Much to Lose,” I mentioned to a friend that every line in the song had appeared in 20 other songs, but she then surprised me and sang, “I shouldn’t have put the car in my name” and for a moment the song wasn’t simply a by-the-numbers empowerment ballad and the drama seemed real. The relationship between her and her user boyfriend actually existed, and we could understand it. Then she got back to the commonplace lyrics in the chorus and the relationship evaporated.

Was it weird for 5th Ward Weebie to rap “Bend it Over” to his midget dancer?

Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show had the Lagniappe Stage jammed to capacity, and it’s no surprise that the many “Threadheads” in the crowd loved it when he sang, “Be a Threadhead.” The lineup said more to me than the song did – guitars, bass, drums, piano, tuba, trumpet, trombone. With five vocal mics across the front of the stage, his show staged and gave voice to the notion of community that’s implicit in much of the city’s music. His show’s more inclusive than trad jazz or brass bands, though, in that it can include rock (Sonia Tetlow’s punky “Summertime”), gospel (Glen David Andrews’ “Walkin’ Through Heaven’s Gate” and his own psychedelic pop (”Sedation”).

I walked up to Big Sam’s Funky Nation during a bass solo. Nothing brings me down like a bass solo. Over the course of the afternoon, Big Sam’s set became something to chew on as it typified something I’ve been thinking about. It was exciting and energetic, but because everybody played constantly, it didn’t strike me as terribly funky. There are far worse offenders and “funk” bands that offer far less in the way of compensation, but the lack of space I heard was even more noticeable by contrast when Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk followed, leaving big, deep holes in their sound to create not just a groove but funk. Then during Galactic’s set, I wondered about the degree to which this phenomenon can be laid at their feet, but in their case, they also deserve credit for transcending their Meters-y origins and developing a rock-funk hybrid that seems to be pointing the way for some of the more interesting efforts in “funk” these days – Trombone Shorty and Orleans Ave. and, again, Big Sam’s Funky Nation. Obviously, my musings were far more about the state of funk than about Big Sam’s set per se, and the fact that he held my attention enough to stay with the set, start formulating thoughts and contemplate them all afternoon says there’s a lot right going on there – even when the contrasts didn’t favor him.

In the middle of that sequence of funk shows at the Gentilly Stage, I detoured to catch the end of Astral Project, who, apropos of my moment, played a very funky “Sidewalk Strut” with a brief detour in the 1960s-era burlesque club courtesy of Tony Dagradi’s momentarily bar-walking tenor.

Galactic returned from the land of hip-hop for this year’s set, augmented by Shamarr Allen and Corey Henry. They were impressive but not as impressive as their audience, which helped Henry body surf almost halfway to the sound board and back. Galactic crowds eat their Wheaties.

The audience for Wilco looked to be as dense and large as the audience for the Meters reunion in 2005, but it didn’t arrive as early. Actually, the final sets were crowded everywhere I went. Erykah Badu  had the Congo Square area packed to the back, and the track was almost closed by the overflow, and the soft rock stylings of James Taylor attracted a massive crowd as well.

I was a little surprised that Wilco didn’t play any new material, but the show seemed tailored to Jazz Fest, playing up the beautiful and rootsy and making the whisper-to-a-squall moments happen less jarringly. 

James Taylor played the hits and people sang along. The strangest moment, though – yes, there was a strange moment – when he sang “Steamroller Blues” through the side of his mouth, tightlipped, only partially articulating the words. It made me wonder if he had suffered a stroke that I didn’t know about and hadn’t noticed earlier. But no, the next song and the rest of the set he sang beautifully, so the only conclusion I can draw is that he thinks the way to sound like a blues singer is to pretend you’re palsied.

… and a last thought on Spoon and Friday. A reader at Nola.com said Spoon wasn’t Jazz Fest material. On the surface, I get that, but their songs have the same beautiful, clockwork quality of classic Meters – pieces written in such a way that the omission of any part would cause the song to fail. That doesn’t mean they’re the same as the Meters, but they’re not as far from Jazz Fest aesthetics as it might have seemed at first.

               

 

Today I hope to check in on the following:

Tipsy Chicks – 11:20 a.m. – Lagniappe Stage

Joe Krown, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste, Jr. – 11:20 a.m. – Gentilly Stage

Imagination Movers – 11:25 a.m. – Acura Stage

Big Sam’s Funky Nation – 12:35 p.m. – Gentilly Stage

Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show – 12:35 p.m. – Lagniappe Stage

Sharde Thomas and the Rising Star Fife & Drum – 12:35 p.m. – Blues Tent

5th Ward Weebie – 12:50 p.m. – Congo Square

DJ Jubilee – 1:10 p.m. – Congo Square

Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk – 2:05 p.m. – Gentilly Stage

Savoy Music Center of Eunice Saturday Cajun Jam – 2:50 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

Galactic – 3:35 p.m. – Gentilly Stage

Judith Owen – 4:15 p.m. – Lagniappe Stage

Del McCoury Band – 4:25 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

Wilco – 5:30 p.m. – Gentilly Stage

Erykah Badu – 5:40 p.m. – Congo Square

Creole Jazz Serenaders with Don Vappie – 5:55 p.m. – Economy Hall

               

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be at the Fair Grounds, but it sure seemed like the crowds were a little thin. I walked to the front of the stage easily for Drive-By Truckers and Booker T. before their set (though it did fill in as showtime neared), and the same was true at the swamp pop showcase and Spoon. Does that reflect on the lineup, the recession, or the serious work ethic of New Orleanians?

I saw and liked Lost Bayou Ramblers, David Egan and Christian Serpas and Ghost Town but have nothing to say about any of them that I haven’t said before. I tried to see DJ Hektik, but technical difficulties resulted in false start after false start, and even though my entourage wanted him to succeed and get his show going, and some point we bailed. There’s too much going on during Jazz Fest to watch techs check wires on a silent stage.

Yesterday in the Times-Picayune (two days ago online), Keith Spera asserted that people really aren’t that bothered by the VIP/corporate accommodations, but I know one woman who was really pissed off when she discovered that the largely empty, clean bathrooms in the Grandstand were waiting for Big Chiefs to use them, while the riff raff had to wait in a 20-woman line on the ground floor or face the portables. I guess she was okay with that and just didn’t know it. Later in the day, Britt Daniel of Spoon looked at the largely vacant tract of land in front of him and asked, “What is this end zone? Oh, VIP,” as if he’d just discovered he had mice.

In yesterday’s story, festival producer Quint Davis said Jazz Fest “should be safe, clean, well-behaved and run on time,” he said. “It should be good music, the best food on earth, and it should be an environment where you can bring your children and your parents.” Evidently no one gave the Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood that story; he walked onstage and the first words out of his mouth were, “Look at all you good-lookin’ motherfuckers!”

It’s hard to imagine that we’ll see a more emotionally complete show this Jazz Fest than the Truckers’ set. They started with a man contemplating suicide in a stomping, big rock “Lookout Mountain” and finished by celebrating the joy of living with “Let Their Be Rock.” The party gladiators could sing along to much of it, even “The Living Bubba,” the story of a musician Hood knew who refused to stop performing even as he was dying of AIDS. “I love how they get the frat boys to sing along with a song about a guy who died of AIDS,” my wife said. “That’s how you change the world.”

Booker T. slid onstage unobtrusively during “Lookout Mountain” and accompanied the band with equal discretion. His contributions to their songs were rarely noticeable, but about 20 minutes in, Hood announced Booker for a mini-set drawn almost entirely from Potato Hole, his new album on which he’s backed by the Truckers. The night before at a television taping in a room small enough to hear the guitars from the amps, the band sounded as rowdy as the Exile on Main Street-era Rolling Stones under Booker’s beautiful, floating organ lines. Yesterday, they sounded more like heavyweight MGs channeled through the PA, but the songs gained power and size outdoors. The Booker set could probably have been a song shorter, but it finished with a version of “Time is Tight” that made sense for the Drive-By Truckers, raving up in the end and turning everything they touch into something that can flourish on the big stage.

I ended the day at Spoon, and they were clearly not a typical Jazz Fest band. I don’t think any song followed typical blues changes, and the only solo I can recall was a strangled, noisy, often dissonant break by Britt Daniel. Otherwise, the tight, clockwork-like compositions were the thing, and they worked over and over again because of the inventive arrangements. The airy and effects-laden “The Ghost of You Lingers” from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was simplified for the stage and became relentless and vaguely menacing in the process.

The Dirty Dozen Horns joined them for a handful of songs, but a wind tunnel effect seemed to roll right through their end of the stage, playing hell with their sheet music. Still, they soldiered on and added classic soul fanfares to “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” and “Rhythm and Soul.” Those touches, though, suggested that Spoon wasn’t as out of place as it might have seen. The audience that stayed put for most of the show says they were doing something right, but ultimately, Beatles-era British pop is central to their sound and they’re just as rooted in the pop/rock tradition as anyone on the Fair Grounds. They just weren’t grounded by their roots.

On our way from Drive-By Truckers to Spoon, we walked by Congo Square where Wynton Marsalis was leading the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Yacub Addy and Odaadaa through the 2 1/2 hour-long “Congo Square”. On our way from Spoon to our car, we passed Congo Square again and it was just finishing up. People I know that have heard it say it’s amazing, but from the start it seemed hard to imagine that people would sit for the whole piece, and it turned out they didn’t. The audience was solid to the soundboard, at which point there was more and more space between people who seemed to be checking it out curiously before moving on.

               

 

Here’s what I hope to see:

High Ground Drifters – 11:15 a.m. Fais Do-Do Stage

The Vettes – 11:30 a.m. Gentilly Stage

Como Now – noon – Gospel Tent

Lost Bayou Ramblers – 12:20 p.m – Fais Do-Do Stage

Spencer Bohren – 12:20 p.m. – Blues Tent

David Egan – 12:35 p.m. – Acura Stage

DJ Hektik/Freedia and Nobby – 1:35 p.m. – Congo Square

Christian Serpas and Ghost Town – 1:50 p.m. – Lagniappe Stage

- a good time to eat & take a break, though I’ll probably look in on Marc Broussard and/or Amanda Shaw

 Henry Butler – 2:55 p.m. – Congo Square

MyNameIsJohnMichael – 3:05 p.m. – Lagniappe Stage

New Orleans Nightcrawlers – 3:15 p.m. – Jazz & Heritage Stage

Drive-By Truckers with Booker T. – 3:35 p.m. – Acura Stage

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave. – 3:45 p.m. – Gentilly Stage

Warren Storm, Willie Tee and Cypress with Tommy McLain and T.K. Hulin – 4:20 p.m. – Fais Do-Do Stage

- I’d like to think I’ll look in on Wynton Marsalis’ “Congo Square” at 4:40 at Congo Square, but realistically, there’s too much else going on, and I know I won’t commit almost 2 1/2 hours of Jazz Fest to the piece.

Spoon – 5:30 p.m – Gentilly Stage

Gringo do Choro – 6 p.m. – Lagniappe Stage

Will I see all of that? I doubt it, but that’s the tentative plan. Everything could change once I’m on the ground and/or hear something cool.

               

 

The reader who sent me his hotel booking experiences also sent this line from a New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation email:

“The lineup is amazing, tickets are selling at a record pace and the festival starts in just a few days.” 

Now we know what to expect.

               

 

I received the following email from a reader. I can’t vouch for his sources, but he suggests the recession may be having an effect on Jazz Fest attendance:

Alex…I don’t know whether the business writers of T-P or the weekly business magazine do any preview reporting, but I have anecdotal evidence:  Hilton Riverside offered its low prices via priceline.com 10-14 days earlier this year [on 3/26 @ $65] compared to 2008/2007 [prices were $55 last year, $60 in 2007, sometime around April 7th].  Other chains followed, again earlier than usual; I’m at the Residence Inn New Orleans for $60 for the first five nights, then at the Hilton for the final eight nights.  This may only mean that in the previous two years this Hilton had a convention during JazzFest [last year I was lucky to find ANY room downtown on the final Saturday] and this year they don’t, so perhaps this is not an indicator of JazzFest attendance.  Marriott Convention Center for the days between the weekends went for $43 on priceline.com, lowest I can remember!  Maybe those who drive in from nearby regions will offset any loss of attendance from those who need to pay for airfares.  But it’s also telling that only one evening concert sold out in advance thus far [Galactic boat cruise], unlike last year when others were gone very quickly.

               

 

The L.A. Times has a story today on the festival business, which has been hard hit by the recession. A number of festivals including Langerado in Florida cancelled for this year; others have had to make tickets available on a layaway basis or, like Voodoo, absorb the various fees and service charges to make tickets more affordable. The good news is that Coachella – which takes place this weekend – is on track for the third-best selling festival yet; it will be similarly interesting to see how the recession affects Jazz Fest.

               

 

In a statement released Wednesday, Dr. John clarified his position regarding Shell, Jazz Fest and the wetlands. In it, he said:

“I’ve got to figure some kind of way to keep it separate. I don’t want to hurt the Jazz Fest per se. I’d just like to keep an awareness of what’s going on.”

Later, he said:

“Whatever other issues I may have with the oil companies, we can all agree that Shell’s rescue of Jazz Fest after Katrina and their continued support of the festival is a good thing for the community, our music and our culture. I hope that we can all find better ways to do our business and bring back our vital wetlands.”

Predictably, the first respondent to Keith Spera’s reporting of this at Nola.com wrote, “Nice crawfish move, Mack! Way to cover your ass!” However, Dr. John’s position is pretty similar to that of  Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network – the group behind his video. In a blog posting by Viles that I linked to yesterday, he wrote:

Shell does care. They have a long history in our community. I used to park my car (yes, I drive a car) in the parking garage at One Shell Square, the tallest building in NOLA. They are the largest corporate sponsor of the America’s Wetland/America’s Energy Coast PR effort. They bring you Jazz Fest. They built ice houses after Katrina/Rita destroyed fishing (and energy) infrastructure. They apparently lobbied Congress in favor of OCS revenue sharing with the affected coastal states. Just because they care, we can’t let them off the hook for their direct impacts. Shell mad eover 40 billion dollars in profit last year – the company needs to pay for real, on-the-ground coastal restoration to make up for the damage they’ve done. 

Shell has been a leader in our community, they need to keep leading. One of the oil companies needs to step forward, and say, we’ll pay. I think Shell is the most likely to actually do that, but it won’t happen without a public outcry.

Though the timing suggests an effort by Dr. John to get a little distance from the controversy, his position is consistent with the people he was supposedly distancing himself from. The most unfortunate part of the statement is the implication that someone put words in his mouth when he read someone else’s copy. Does anybody really believe that Dr. John can be manipulated like that?

               

 

[UPDATE BELOW]

Belyin pointed me to this exchange regarding Dr. John’s pro-wetland/anti-Shell email and video. It’s fascinating but sad to watch the catalogue of responses to the awkward problem Threadheads face as an artist they love calls out the sponsor of the festival they love. What to do? Some question the tactics, some question Dr. John’s ethics, some wonder if Shell’s side of the story is being properly represented, some wonder if Mac’s words are really Mac’s, and some figure the problem’s just too big or complicated. If there’s a way to dismiss what Dr. John said, then there is no problem.

Interestingly, no one questioned the possibility that Jazz Fest might have still existed in 2006 without Shell, and that it didn’t save Jazz Fest. Maybe what it did was improve the profitability of the festival. Without Shell, the 2006 might still have gone on – not in the form it did, and likely without a Bruce Springsteen, but it’s curious that Dr. John and the critics of the oil companies’ roles in damaging our wetlands are subject to scrutiny, but the words of festival organizers are accepted without question. Maybe Jazz Fest couldn’t have continued without Shell, but the instinctive defense of the festival and its sponsors isn’t good for anybody but the festival and its sponsors.

Update: 2:35 p.m. – Aaron Viles, campaign director for the Gulf Restoration Network answers some Threadhead questions here.