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If I Were At The Jazz Fest Today (Day Three)...

Yeah...I skipped yesterday. But today I'd be found in the following places...

Your Jazz Fest Schedule for Sunday, April 27th, 2008

                                                                       

Time	Performer	Stage
11:30am  - 12:30pm	Little Freddie King Blues Band	Southern Comfort Blues Tent
12:15pm  - 1:05pm	David Egan	Gentilly Stage
2:00pm  - 3:10pm	Voice of the Wetlands All-stars feat. Tab Benoit, Dr. John, Monk Boudreaux, George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone, Johnny Vidocovich & Waylon Thibodeaux	Acura Stage
3:15pm  - 4:15pm	Davell Crawford's New Orleans R&B Orchestra	Gentilly Stage
4:05pm  - 5:15pm	Nicholas Payton Quintet	WWOZ Jazz Tent
5:45pm  - 7:00pm	Al Green	Congo Square "My Louisiana" Stage

Kind of a Jazzy sorta day. Which means, being me, I'd catch pieces of the sets and then wander off in search of killer food. The big draws for me would be David Egan, Voice of the Wetlands, and wrapping up with Reverend Al.

Mercy.

And then I'd go grab some vittles and make my way up to Carrollton Station tonight to catch Anders.

Sigh.

If I Was At Jazz Fest Today (Day One)...

...this is what I'd be doing...

Your Jazz Fest Schedule for Friday, April 25th, 2008

                                                                       

Time	Performer	Stage
11:20am  - 12:05pm	Susan Cowsill Band	Acura Stage
12:25pm  - 1:15pm	The Original Dixieland Jazz Band	Economy Hall Tent Presented by Peoples Health
2:15pm  - 3:15pm	Big Sam's Funky Nation	Congo Square "My Louisiana" Stage
2:55pm  - 3:55pm	Doyle Bramhall With C.C. Adcock & the Lafayette Marquis	Southern Comfort Blues Tent
3:35pm  - 4:40pm	Anders Osborne	Gentilly Stage
5:35pm  - 7:00pm	Sheryl Crow	Acura Stage

Currently listening to Anders Osborne, "I've Got A Woman" from the 2005 festival.

Sigh.

Just When I Get Too Damn Maudlin and Self-Involved...

...Henry Butler comes on the iPod, slappin' down the Professor Longhair classic, Tipitina.

Just listen to it, y'all. Feels like you're in N'awlins for a few minutes.

Get it at JazzFestLive.com

The Paradise of a Perfect Voice

Hey, y'all. A colleague was kind enough to bestow upon me an iPod Nano. Yeah...I've given in.

I of course went out and downloaded a truckload of tunes from Jazzfestlive.com .

Y'all do yourselves a favor. Follow that link and scroll through the 2007 Jazz Fest sets and get yourself the recording of John Boutte's gig at the festival. I'm not so bad as a singer. On my best day I've never gotten in the same zip code as this guy on his worst. And the 2007 festival ain't even close to his worst day. The whole set is fantastic but if you want to experience the euphoria...the paradise...of the perfect voice you have got to hear this man glide through a New Orleans-ized version of the old Steve Goodman tune The City of New Orleans.

Don't think about it. Just do it. It sounds sappy and it sounds like hyperbole but the first time I played this song...just a few minutes ago...it brought tears to my eyes from the sheer beauty of it. And if you ever get a chance to go catch him live...make your life a better place and get yourself there.

Crazy Ass Busy

I'm in the killer stretch, y'all.

Things are getting busy at the Fringe. Busy at the writing gig I do. And I've got the Jazz Fest Live recording series picking up steam now that we're five weeks out. Spending days with a phone glued to my head calling artists and artist managers and record labels trying to get permission to record folks. On top of that, for the last I don't know how many years, Virgin Megastore had run the record tent at the jazz fest. They're out this year as they've closed their New Orleans store post-Katrina and ain't planning on coming back. We put together a partnership with the Louisiana Music Factory (a great, great, great independent record store) to run the record tent this year. So, producing the live recordings, and running the whole damn record tent.

It's gonna get weird.

I suspect I won't be around blogging much for the next six weeks or so. If anyone is coming to New Orleans for the Jazz Fest, hit me with an email and we'll hook up over a bowl of crawfish monica and then go see Anders Osborne play. Or David Egan. Or John Goddamn Mooney. Or the Radiators. Or Cowboy Mouth. Or Dylan. Or Springsteen. Or Dave Matthews. Or Dirty Dozen. Or Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes (no, you've never heard of 'em but this is a great, great band). Or the subdudes. Or the Meters. Or Allen Toussaint. Or Troy Andrews. Or Steve Riley. Or Eric Lindell. Or Fats Domino. Or Paul Simon. Or the Wild Mags. Or any of the folks on Basin Street Records. Or Little Feat. Or Jimmy Buffett. Or Etta James. Or Galactic. Or Ani DiFranco. Or some other insanely perfect music.

Just shutup and get your ass to New Orleans, already. Last weekend in April. First weekend in May.

In totally trivial news, I'm going to be doing a guest appearance in Verbatim Verboten at the BLB on
April 13th.

Late Breaking Entertainment Update - Los Angeles

Folks in the LA area. Tonight at Fais Do-Do (5257 W. Adams Blvd) you have a chance to see Papa Grows Funk, one of my favorite New Orleans bands. Just got off the phone with John Gros (the Papa Grows of Papa Grows Funk) and found out about the gig. If you ain't doing nothin' tonight get your ass down to see these guys. They'll put a big dose of boogie in your blood.

To make sure you optimize your good time, start screaming Rat-a-Tang-Tang at every song break until he plays it. If you can find a more infectious groove than that song I'll eat my car.

For what it's worth, John is one of the New Orleans musicians who is willing to sit in with me one night if I make my show happen down in New Orleans this fall. He's a very nice guy. Go introduce yourself and tell him Rik from Jazz Fest Live sent you his way.

The Church

I have much to write about the last two and a half weeks. And I will as soon as I dig out from under the work that's piled up. But there is one thing I want to put up here that I don't think should wait any longer.

During the second weekend of the Jazz Fest I stumbled into one of those moments that, to my mind, exemplify what is beautiful and perfect about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Yes, there were great performances and the food was outstanding. Yes, the clubs were hopping at night (not that I had a chance to go to any of them). Yes, New Orleans in the spring has volatile weather but much of the time is warm and sultry and has an undercurrent of sex that is rather enjoyable.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

What the Jazz Fest manages to provide is a church. A Church of Music. It's an open church...all denominations are welcome. Blues, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Country, Bluegrass, Cajun, Zydeco, World Beat, Gospel. Doesn't matter what cult you belong to, you're welcome in the Church of the Jazz Fest.

It's not just the acts that appear and it's not just the wonderful atmosphere that the festival producers so tirelessly provide. It's the meeting of those things with an audience that lives and breathes music...people for whom music is not merely an entertainment but is, or can be, a transformational experience. Of course, that kind of heady emotional and spiritual experience doesn't happen every day on every stage.

But the foundation for it exists. If you choose wisely or if, through blind luck, you happen to be at the right stage at the right time on the right day the equating of music with religion is not consigned to the waste bin of flowery hyperbole.

If, say, you happened to be part of the throng gathered in front of the Sprint/Sanyo stage at about 4:30pm on Thursday, April 28th...well, you got a taste of beauty. Maybe you were there early to get a good spot on the infield for B.B King's set later in the afternoon. Maybe you were already there because you'd caught the smoking performance of Papa Grows Funk just minutes before. Maybe you were there on purpose, maybe you were there as a fluke.

But if you were there you got to see what is likely the final Jazz Fest performance of one of the greatest musicians to walk this rock we call home.

Jazz Fest

Hardest I've ever worked. Finally emerging and coming up for air, though we are a long way from done. The festival ended last Sunday. Since then there were a couple of travel days and then a boat load of followup as we fulfill orders we received during the festival.

But, goddamn, it was fun.

More soon...

Jazz Fest - April 22, 2005 JFL Artists

Here's who we're recording today:

• The Black Crowes
• John Mooney: he is far and away the most interesting blues artist currently playing. He writes new blues songs that don't follow the standard 12 bar structure. Amazing slide player. I've played the recording we got of him at the festival last year so much I feel like I live in it.
• Cowboy Mouth: The best rock'n'roll band you've never heard of. These guys are a ridiculously good time and put on one of the most energetic shows I've ever heard.
• Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience: I'm not sure how to describe Terrance. It's Zydeco (a musical form that combines Cajun, Carribean, and Blues) but with a classic soul edge. Beautiful edge. Last year he closed his set with an a capella version of the Star Spangled Banner that was beautiful, joyous, sad, and chilling.
• Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys: classic cajun music. Gorgeous melodies and arrangements that interweave accordion and violin.
• Sean Ardoin -n- Zydekool: Ass-kicking rock'n'roll Zydeco by a guy with the best raw edged soulful singing voice I've ever heard. First time I saw Sean I hated him because I will never, ever sing that well. Mind blowing. And, he shreds on the accordion...I know, I know..."accordion" and "shred" don't go together. Except when it's Sean Ardoin playing the accordion.
• Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys: 14 year old fiddle prodigy with a big singing voice and alot of charm.

Jazz Fest - The Prologue

So it begins.

The MunckMix posse has arrived in the Crescent City to begin preparations for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Today was the last easy day until May 2nd. We had to hunt down our credentials, see where our booth is, check out all 12 stages to see where we'll be setting up to record, make sure all our computers can connect to the Wi-Fi out on the fairgrounds.

For the next two weekends Team Munck is running the Jazz Fest Live Recording Series. What that means is we'll record about 70 bands, mix and master the same night, burn the CDs early in the morning, and then sell them to folks at the festival the next day.

Tomorrow the madness begins. We have to setup our recording rigs at 7 of the 12 stages, setup our sales tent, get the CD burning trailer in place, and continue to sign up bands. Friday, the first day of the festival, we have to be ready for an onslaught of about 60,000 people.

Should be interesting.

For those of you who are fans of the recently reunited Black Crowes, we'll be recording them this Friday. Due to existing business relationships we can only sell their CDs through May 1st. If you're interested, you can click here to order one for your ownself.

If we hold true to form, sometime tomorrow we'll hit an absolutely glorious clusterfuck. I'll keep you posted.