French Quarter Festival – Pick your groove and move

6th April 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

When compared to its older, more illustrious sibling, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the French Quarter Festival, Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, April 12, used to be considered easier to navigate – almost quaint. When it started 32 years ago, all it took was walking from Jackson Square – then considered the “big stage” – to the small bandstands along Bourbon Street. Its first expansion was out to the Mississippi River, then it headed down to the French Market and the Old U.S. Mint. This year, it travels further upriver and even across Canal Street (out of the French Quarter!) with the addition of a new venue at Spanish Plaza.

So while it’s still possible for the ambitious to run from Jazz Fest’s Gentilly Stage to the Acura Stage – the ones that are the furthest apart from each other – a person would need to be a marathoner to catch two closely scheduled acts playing at, say, the Spanish Plaza and a brass band performing down at the Mint. Just forget it.

The point is, unless one is a “stroller” – casually walking around catching what ever music might be offered – or a “sitter” – staying in one place all day, the French Quarter Festival takes a different kind of planning than the Jazz Fest. It could be called “area planning” rather than primarily “performer planning” as is common at the Fair Grounds.

As many of the “outer” stages don’t kick off until Friday, Thursday is the easiest day to just be “headquartered” in the Jackson Square/Woldenberg Park/Decatur Street area. However describing the Fest’s opening day as the “easiest” might be misleading as two of the biggest names in New Orleans music, pianist Ellis Marsalis and pianist/vocalist Allen Toussaint, are bound to draw large crowds this day.

In 2006, Marsalis performed at the French Quarter Festival for the first and only time. It was impressive to see the large, often somewhat boisterous crowd, gathered in front of the big riverside stage sit down and attentively listen to his set of modern jazz. The genre, unfortunately, isn’t well represented at the Fest with only a scattering of New Orleans’ wealth of contemporary jazz musicians on the schedule. Marsalis proved that day, as he will undoubtedly do on Thursday at the Jackson Square Stage (12:45 pm) that if you bring the music to the people, they will come – and enjoy,

The last time pianist, vocalist, composer and producer
Allen Toussaint performed at the French Quarter Festival was in 1998. The legendary New Orleans musician was on the Jackson Square Stage, which at the time before the Fest’s expansion, was the event’s largest venue. This year, Toussaint and his band with drummer Herman Lebeaux (his son-in-law), bassist Roland Guerin, guitarist Renard Poche and saxophonist Gary Brown, will play on the big stage on the bank of the Mississippi River (3:45 pm). “Of course, any setting in New Orleans, as far as I’m concerned, is pretty close to perfect,” the always gracious Toussaint offers. He promises to do many of the hits he wrote for other artists like Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-In-Law” and Lee Dorsey’s “Working in a Coal Mine” as well as material from his recent albums.

Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) will be omnipresent at the festival. Each day at the Abita Beer Stage (still referred by most to as the “big river stage), the Grammy-winning ensemble will present music with specific themes. On Thursday, they’ll work on material from Stevie Wonder, the Beatles and the Grateful Dead (5:20 p.m.). Friday’s show (5:25 p.m.) promises “special guests,” Saturday (12:35 p.m.) the theme is children’s songs and on Sunday (2:10 p.m.) music from the “New Orleans Songbook” will be featured.

Walking from the river to Jackson Square via Decatur Street allows a stop at the dance-heavy Cajun/Zydeco Stage that’s been successfully located at the “Bienville triangle.” The convenient location has worked great in the last several years as it gives two-steppers room to move.

All that, and we haven’t even gotten into the weekend yet. Saturday it might be time to move a little further down river. It’s less jammed down there and master New Orleans drummer and vocalist Shannon Powell leads his Traditional All-Star Band (4:15 p.m.) at the classic jazz headquarters in Dutch Alley. Nearby, the Stooges Brass Band slams near the Mint (5:45 p.m.).

Ditto can be said of hanging tight in the French Market/Mint era on Sunday with banjoist/guitarist/vocalist Carl LeBlanc (12: 45 p.m.) leading a set of traditional jazz. Sometimes it’s difficult to image that LeBlanc was once best recognized in the avant garde jazz world as a member of the brilliant Sun Ra Arkestra. LeBlanc, a New Orleans native, brings similar spirit to whatever the genre. Trombonist Corey Henry, whose singular tone and rhythmic intuition enhances all his work from the rock/funk of Galactic to the street beats, closes out the brassy Old Mint stage (5:45 pm) leading his own, super solid Treme Funktet.

This is naturally a super quick glimpse at all that is offered at the French Quarter Festival, that welcomes everyone with its free admittance. There are films, panel discussions including the aptly named “The Magic of Cosimo Matassa” with brilliant author John Broven (“Rhythm & Blues in New Orleans”) and Toussaint onboard, kids’ activities and a kick-off second line on Thursday starting at 10 am at the 100 block of Bourbon. Pick your spot, pick your groove, pick your food, pick your fun. Or as the Rebirth Brass Band would put it, “Do Whatcha Wanna.”

This article originally published in the April 6, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.