by Jim Bennett
Sometimes, you’re capturing photos in torrential downpour and it takes using a hair dryer for 10 minutes per shoe the next morning to dry them out somewhat. Sometimes, you forget to reapply sunscreen and get a near-sunburn on your nose. Either way, you’re gonna have a good time at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Everywhere you turn, there’s a good show. In the span of a single hour on the final day, the following bands played on various stages & tents: Kermit Ruffins, Mavis Staples, Steve Earle with a backing band put together and headed up by Anders Osborne, Herbie Hancock, Trombone Shorty, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tedeschi Trucks Band and a number of others. IN THE SAME HOUR. 14 stages in all!
The really remarkable thing about Jazz Fest is this: For all the iconic musicians you recognize, it’s often the names on the schedule that *don’t* jump out at you that just knock your hairpiece off. For instance, on the second Saturday, mid-afternoon, there was a band I hadn’t tracked called “Midnite Disturbers.” A colleague who lives locally gave me the tip to check them out. Turns out, this was one of the single best hours of music I experienced all weekend. It’s effectively a supergroup of New Orleans musicians, maybe 20 in all, from every brass band and funk outfit: Multiple trombones, trumpets and saxophones, guitar, drums, percussion, sousaphone, everyone taking turns soloing, everyone singing, and everyone wearing a shirt paying homage to someone they want to shout out. Member of Rebirth Brass Band, Hot 8 Brass Band, Galactic, Skerik (can’t tie him to one band) and many others. Something that just can’t be understood unless you’re present, taking it in, dancing with everyone else.
Weather was a major factor this year. The first 2 days, the festival shut down several hours early due to major rainfall and other weather nonsense. I stayed long enough to capture the first 3 songs of the Black Keys set on Friday, and it was by far the wettest shoot I’ve ever done in 19 years of shooting shows (see a couple shots of rain mayhem celebration below).
In the end, that didn’t deter anyone. Jazz Fest is an embarrassment of cultural riches. You might be in the Blues Tent, listening to Mavis Staples cover Kevin Morby’s “Beautiful Strangers” like the gentle gospel song it clearly is; then later, you might wander past a tent that sounds like a party is going off and find Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans inside leading a full-on second line parade through the aisles of the Economy Hall tent while the band keeps playing on stage, the long line of audience members spinning their parasols and stepping along singing at the top of their lungs. Irma Thomas might floor you with a rendition of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” with a 4-person choir in the Gospel Tent, then Teddy Swims opens his set on the main stage with “The Door” sporting a New Orleans Saints jersey and a Cheshire Cat grin.
Factor in a massive array of regional food specialties (Cochon Po Boy, anyone? Boiled Crawfish? Trout Baquet?) and the focus on cultural celebration and preservation (instrument makers, Black Masking Indian parades, Native American dances, mural painters, etc) and the unknowable majesty of New Orleans begins to reveal itself just a little. It’s remarkable.
Finally: When you leave the grounds (by 7:30pm), the night is young and the party continues in the surrounding streets. Walking on one street a few blocks from the grounds of Jazz Fest, I passed 4 different bands playing on their front porches or in their yards. All had happy, loose crowds dancing in the street, some had food cooking nearby, one filled an entire intersection for half a block in all directions.
I don’t know New Orleans much, but my god do I like what I know and Jazz Fest serves it all up with a big ass grin.
