Quote
Javadave
I caught Irma Thomas' set yesterday at Jazzfest. She performed "Time Is On My Side", and afterwards wished Mick a full and speedy recovery. She also mentioned that she released her version first. Her band was first-rate with a 4-piece horn section. Loved their renditions of "Ruler Of My Heart", "It's Raining In My Heart" and a Second Line medley that included "Hey Pocky Way" and "Iko-Iko".

A little earlier in the day, I caught Irma and Bonnie Raitt sitting in for a tribute to Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino, had some Shrimp and Okra Gumbo and checked out some of the Arts & Crafts exhibits before circling back to the Acura Stage for Irma's set.

They had expanded the VIP area in front of the stage from when I attended the Fest in 2017, perhaps to accomadate the Stones? It was still pretty easy to get close to the stage on the far right side if you walked around the racetrack.

Bonnie played a great set. Another tight band. She had sit-ins from Ivan Neville to pair with her own fine keyboardist Jon Cleary, and had Boz Scaggs join her and Cleary for a wonderful, stripped down cover of Allen Toussaint's "What Do You Want The Girl To Do".

The weather was great, just about 80 degrees with mostly sunny skies and an intermittent breeze, keeping the humidity low. The Fairgrounds are quite large, so pleasant weather made the walking easier.

I ducked into the Blues and Gospel tents, catching a particularly rousing group in the Gospel Tent, took in some of the Treme Brass Band's set in the Economy Tent, and got a dozen Oysters on the half shell in the Pavilion Courtyard before heading back to the Acura stage to see Van Morrison.

The crowd was much more packed in for Van's headlining set, but I was still able to get pretty close on the right side. I stayed for versions of "I've Got My Mojo Working" and "Days Like This". Van played saxophone on the latter, which he handled well, but afterwards he seemed a little under the weather.

I decided to head over to the Jazz Tent for the Marsalis Family Reunion, featuring Ellis Marsalis and his sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, who played an excellent Hard-Bop set. Ellis has been a musical mentor and educator for years in New Orleans, and to emphasize this, they were joined by three of his very young students on trumpet, alto and tenor saxophones, and one young blind girl on jazz vocals who all delivered the goods and got standing ovations. It was a nice way to end a full day of music.

Went to the Howling Wolf club Saturday night to see Big Sam's Funky Nation, Rebirth Brass Band, and a Led Zeppelin tribute set from Bonerama who were joined by a dynamite vocalist named Elise Testone who has a great set of pipes and nailed the Robert Plant parts.

I'm here through Friday and am looking forward to catching a lot more music and savoring the food, culture and spirit of New Orleans, and digging for R&B and Blues records to take back home.

The weather forecast for this Thursday, when the Stones had been scheduled is calling for rain, which at best makes for a muddy Fairgrounds and at worse a cancellation of the festivities, so perhaps it's all for the best things panned out the way they did. Getting Mick back to full health is more important, and there will be no lack of great music at this festival.

Quote
Javadave
NOLA Jazzfest just confirmed next year's 51st Anniversary dates. They will be using the same expanded 8 day format with an extra first Thursday as they had this year.

2020 La-La Licks?

[jambands.com]