Jazz Fest 2008 - Saturday - April 27, 2008
Photos, videos, audio, articles: nola
Cameras in New Orleans:
Parade cam
Quarter cam
River cam
Reports live:
WWOZ
Radio:
Nola radio

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kids get the best seat in the house

Kids get the best seat at the Imagination Movers show - More photos in this gallery

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Billy Joel's singing in the rain
Posted by Keith Spera, Music writer, The Times-Picayune
April 26, 2008 9:10PM
Categories: Jazzfest

As Billy Joel plowed through "Keeping the Faith" at the Acura Stage, a roadie armed with a squeegee swept standing water off the top of the black grand piano. That tells you all you need to know about the weather Saturday evening at the Fair Grounds. A hard, steady rain fell throughout Joel's set. "Why, God, why?" shouted a guy standing in the puddle behind me. Joel, too, had some questions for the Almighty. More than once, he shook his fist and glared at the foreboding sky. "Is that the best you got?" he shouted at one point. "C'mon, bring it on." The weather was obviously a distraction for Joel and his band. But being highly paid professionals -- extremely highly paid professionals -- they carried on with a no-frills tour through the leader's extensive catalog of hits: "Don't Ask Me Why." "Allentown." "Movin' Out." "Matter of Trust." "You May Be Right." "River of Dreams," refitted with a few bars of "When the Saints Go Marching In." The deteriorating conditions called to mind fresh interpretations of various lyrics: "We didn't start the fire" -- but we'd like to, in order to stay warm. "A river so deep" -- like the one we're standing in. "I may be crazy" -- for not seeking shelter. "Even rode my motorcycle in the rain" -- while leaving Jazzfest. "Alone in your electric chair" -- can we not talk about electrocution, with all the lightning? "You've got us feeling all right" -- well, not exactly. With lightning flashing and the downpour not slacking, Joel's set would finish 30 minutes early. For "It's Still Rock 'n Roll To Me," he stepped to the lip of the stage while spinning his microphone stand, rain soaking his black sport coat. He returned to the piano for an epic "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," stamped with a Max Rivera sax solo. After "Restaurant," Joel took a bow as Jazzfest producer Quint Davis stepped to the microphone to proclaim this "a show none of us will ever forget." For a moment, Joel seemed unsure if he would be allowed another song. Of course, he was, and of course, it was "Piano Man." All across the muddy infield, goosebump-covered arms draped across sodden shoulders in a mass singalong. When Joel turned the chorus over to the audience, the rain, as if on cue, fell harder. By then, it didn't matter. All were wet and cold. Even the Piano Man. Photos: nola times picayune - Source: nola

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New Orleans invites you to 'Come Out and Play'
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — The city is hoping to attract more tourists with a new campaign to bring people in during the slower summer season. “Come Out and Play” is the theme of advertisements touting the city’s music, food and cultural and family attractions. Since Hurricane Katrina, tourism officials have tried to sell prospective travelers on the idea that the city is open for business, but they’ve often come up against concerns about violent crime, misgivings about having a good time when people are still rebuilding their lives and misperceptions that parts of the city are still under water. After pulling off a series of successful events and bringing up tourism numbers, officials now feel they’ve turned a corner, said Lea Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the Tourism Marketing Corp. fayobserver

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A jam-balaya of jazz in New Orleans
BY DAVID HANDSCHUH - Sunday, April 27th 2008, 4:00 AM

New Orleans Jazz Fest favorites Lil Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers kick off the fun before noon on May 3.

- Also on May 3, Jimmy Buffett will have Parrotheads searching for their lost shakers of salt.

Is Jazz Fest in New Orleans an amazing music festival with the best food around, or the most yummylicious food festival surrounded by the greatest music on Earth? You can answer that eternal question yourself as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival continues this week from Thursday to Sunday. But if you want to go, book your visit to New Orleans now. Flights are getting costly and rooms are becoming scarce as lovers of culinary and musical delights are planning their visit to the Crescent City. Returning this year to seven full days of music, Jazz Fest features more than 1,000 blues, rock, jazz, country, gospel and other musical performers picking guitars, strumming banjos, beating congas and joining voices on 11 different stages to entertain more than 10,000 visitors a day. And there's a full lineup of more than 100 food vendors to tempt the taste buds, quench the thirst and satiate the tummies of those moving to the beat. Sure, you can satisfy the basic yearnings for the New Orleans staples: po' boys, beignets, muffuletta, crawfish etouffée and ribs are all here. But Jazz Fest foodies are famous for trolling the fairgrounds and spying on people's plates looking for something new and different, as the sweet sounds of music mix with the aromas of things baking, broiling, frying, roasting and grilling on Toyota-size smokers. There's always someone pushing the limits with traditional Cajun ingredients. Look for the crawfish strudel, the white chocolate bread pudding or the spicy crawfish sushi roll. You'll find several different versions of gumbo, but none more upscale than the pheasant, quail and andouille sausage version. Make sure you sample the crawfish sacks from Patton's Caterers. Try the crepe beggar's purse stuffed with a spicy crawfish mixture and tied with a leek string. They sell more than 25,000 of these handmade delectables during the week, and you can be sure there will be a long line in front of their booth as an army of Patton relatives and their friends toil to serve the masses. It's great entertainment listening to the Brooklyn-like Cajun Patois as the orders are yelled by the waitstaff up-front to the cooks in the back. But the real sounds of Jazz Fest is the music, the big names that show up every year and are consistent crowd-pleasers: Buckwheat Zydeco, the Neville Brothers, Tower of Power, Marva Wright and the BMWs to name a few. Headliners usually perform the last set of the evening from about 5:30 to 7 p.m. This year, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Santana, Al Green, Diana Krall and the Raconteurs are scheduled to perform. But the real fun is wandering from tent to tent all day and hearing old-time jazz musicians and the glorious singing at the gospel tent, or catching shows by undiscovered newcomers, who usually play as early as 11 a.m. on any given day. Our pick? Look for Lil Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers opening the Gentilly Stage on Saturday at 11:25 a.m. You'll be able to tell your friends you saw the next Zydeco supergroup. For a schedule and roster of performers, go to www.nojazzfest.com
source: nydailynews

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Jazzfest in New Orleans: I'm Showing Up for the Party
Posted April 26, 2008 | 03:53 PM (EST)
Welcome to virtual New Orleans. It's a cool day, wild parrots are screeching in the back yard and we're waiting to see if it rains before heading to the racetrack. Bob French, proud owner of a Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village home, drummer for the longest running band in the city and the planet's most uncensored disc jockey on WWOZ is keeping listeners posted on Jazzfest weather. He says, "There will be no rain today," and his guest adds: "You listen to some of these weathermen with their gloom and doom and they say, 'we're all going to be under water . . . well actually we were under water that one time so maybe they're right." Radio New Orleans at its finest. Dr. John is a must-see at 3:20. He's been working in new tracks from The City That Care Forgot, and based on a sneak preview over the holidays this one will make him the most uncensored musician in New Orleans when it debuts in June. We listened to hundreds of tracks to compile the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit ReDefine 8/29 download and I thought I had my fill of post-Katrina songs. It turns out I haven't. The "Turbinton's House" Tribute is this afternoon in the WWOZ Jazz Tent to honor Earl "The African Cowboy" Turbinton and his brother, Willie Tee, who both passed away within the last year. Too soon, and both very missed. Each New Orleans musician is distinctive enough to each leave a void that can never be filled, but each also mentors a new generation in a way that no other city offers. They gather in a rolling sideshow of bands as exemplified by Paul Sanchez and his Rolling Sideshow. Paul's former band Cowboy Mouth also plays today. John Thomas Griffith of Cowboy Mouth was in The Fate Brothers with my husband Jeff, and all these ties reinforce the sense that everyone you love is just up the festival track. Jeff now plays bass with Bryan Lee Lee and the Blues Power Band. The Braille Blues Daddy mentored Kenny Wayne Shepard as a young prodigy, and Kenny Wayne will be playing the Fest next weekend. Bryan will rock the Rivershack tonight with Brent "The Maistro" Johnson on screaming guitar, John "The Wheel" Perkins on drums and Jeff "The Groove" Beninato. I love bands with nicknames. Then they head to festival season in Germany. Bryan is one of the many New Orleans musicians back on the road after losing a steady gig to the storm, and his "Katrina Was Her Name" is up for Best Contemporary Blues Album at next month's Handy Awards. But first Ingolstadt, Germany, the fictional (hopefully) home of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. [End of Band Wife Endorsement] Back at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, the rain is finally coming down and Big Jay McNeely, a founder of rock and roll, is taking the stage. Known for leading strolls out of clubs and around the block, he was once arrested for disturbing the peace on one of his second lines. His band kept playing until he was bailed out, came back to the club and finished the song. In the '40s, Big Jay once crawled from home plate to first base on his back while playing sax in an LA stadium. His stage show made him one of Jimmy Hendrix' biggest influences, and eventually got him banned from LA. He introduced his track 3-D, available from the nomrf Sax on the Web download, with: "When I was 21 I recorded this number. I'll be 81 on Tuesday, so here we go . . . " Yesterday Robert Plant played "Fortune Teller" as Allen Toussaint beamed backstage. He also loaded up on swamp pop at the Louisiana Music Factory, as any good visitor should. John Boutte just stopped by the WWOZ tent to thank New Orleans visitors for supporting its music. He also described the challenge of bringing music to fans ready to let the good times roll, while waiting for the recovery of your home town. "People are still dying from the devastation from the failure of the federal levees and they're dying in auto accidents trying to make it back home, they're dying from increased substance abuse, people are being thrown out of their homes, living in facilities, but yet here we are. We're still trying to make it through. Thank God we do have a little distraction, and thank the world for helping us." John specifically thanked the Threadheads, a jazzfest supergroup, for funding his and Paul Sanchez' new cd, and closed with "Showing Up for the Party": "I'm showing up for the party so everyone can see. I'm showing up for the party, but I know it's not for me." source: huffingspot