It was Friday, but Stephen King kicked things on Jazz Fest Day 2 off to serve that Sunday’s coming and the Congo Square Stage was the one to catch. Don’t sleep on his gospel hip hop, R&B group, a strong band including violinist Tanya Huang whom we know from playing on Royal Street “Refresh.” Top vocalist Casmé on lead was a highlight as was “Beyond the Grave,” which was so intense that the sound of the military jets overhead almost seemed part of the show.

Next up was Shaggadelic & Raw Revolution, dressed all in white, who brought the energy, from “Wait For Me” with the crowd singing along, to “Ain’t Lookin’,” which closed out the set. Ryan “Shaggadelic” Batiste has a unique lane of his own stylistically, and a band including heavy hitters like vocalist Eliza Sonneschein, saxophonist Anthony Ananias, drummer Jamal Batiste, and guitarist T.J. Nathan were bound to shine.

HaSizzle hit the Congo Square Stage strong. The King of Bounce with 20 years in the game had the crowd’s hands in the air from the first beat. I needed to make up for lost time, though, since I’ve not seen Leyla McCalla perform since way back when she was busking in the French Quarter. To put it mildly, a few things have happened since in her career, and now I see why she has acolytes who swear by her live show.

I walked up to the Fais Do Do Stage to hear the wry, “Some of my best collaborators have been from the 1800s,” to intro “Sun Without the Heat,” the title song from her new album, which began with lyrics from Frederick Douglass himself. McCalla added the cello midway through while the band tastefully augmented it. She continued impressing anyone within earshot by her version of Kendrick Lamar’s “Crown,” an intense slow burn with the mantra, “I can’t please everybody.”

It was right back to the Congo Square Stage for Shamarr Allen as he was sustaining a note for several bars while the band grooved, including his oldest son Jarrell on drums, who is exceptional in his own right. Allen was preaching love-ism and, preacher-style, asked the crowd to greet five people nearby and welcome them. It was great to hear his “Dance With Me” and a new song with great energy. This is a band that spends much of the year on the road, and the crispness shows.

How does one get a bite to eat when Donald Harrison Jr. and The ICONS are stepping up next on the bill? Answer, you don’t. Their performance was befitting a man both as cerebral and in the cultural streets as strongly as anyone in our time. Harrison sang, “Ain’t no party like a Jazz Fest party,” while a stellar band including Bill Summers on drum kit and Detroit Brooks on guitar took his “Soul to Soul” to a beautiful place. Other highlights were their version of Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and Harrison’s own “The Art of Passion,” which they did two versions of back-to-back, one sexy and soul, the other jazzy and swinging. Producer Deezle was also involved behind the scenes.

I would be remiss to leave out that I’ve not expected to hear “When the Saints Go Marching In” with such vitality and ingenuity that Harrison Jr. and (get ready) producer BlaqNmilD, singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon, Choppa and more left me staggered. How do you follow that up? While everyone is still on stage, you bring out five Mardi Gras Indian elders in full suits and bring the house down with “Pocky Way.”

It was time to pry myself away for sustenance, and it was clear where to go. Two-time James Beard nominee and current Top Chef competitor Chef Charly Pierre and his restaurant Fritai are new at Jazz Fest this year. Pierre said, “This is the biggest festival I’ve ever done. It’s going pretty well, so I can’t complain.” The Haitian Crab Macaroni au Gratin got the nod. In a case of great proximity, it was nicely paired with the Shrimp Yakisoba from restaurant neighbor Ajun Cajun in the Food 2 area. Both great dishes were washed down perfectly with a Frozen Cocoloco (find it next to the Ceviche and Empanadas) while Colombian hip hop group Kombilesa Mi played at the Cultural Exchange Pavilion.

While taking a stroll to stretch my legs, a stunning falsetto cut through to the Contemporary Crafts area. Turns out it was Naturally 7’s exceptional version of “This Women’s Work” by Kate Bush which was blessing the WWOZ Jazz Tent.

After enjoying all of this thoroughly, it was time to head back to the Congo Square Stage for Grammy-winning Mali singer Oumou Sangaré, the queen of Wassoulou music, a genre of West African music played mostly by women. Sangare is an exceptional vocalist, especially along with the harmonies of her background singers, and the power of the riff from a kora player—who was as talented as he was stylish—took the music over the top and thrilled the crowd.

Soon enough, it was time for headliner Jon Batiste, a true force of nature. The Gentilly Stage crowd was in full anticipation for the hometown hero. Batiste, a consummate showman, strutted out in shiny suit, beaming and rocking out on an electric guitar to “Tell The Truth.” The plane-pulled banner overhead that read, “Moonbeam, Marry Me” seemed apropos for what was about to come.

“Freedom” wasn’t just a tour de force by Batiste. It was a legit marvel in being purely New Orleans while also having fresh vision. Preservation Hall brass instrumentalists Charlie Gabriel, Ben Jaffe, Ronell Johnson and Clint Maedgen hit the stage along with the Jonettes dance group, and eventually Batiste’s young nephew, who brought his fine footwork to the front of the stage. Batiste hit the lab for “Raindance” and “Worship” from his newest album World Music Radio. After a beautiful Professor Longhair meets classical intro, Batiste performed “Tipitina” and “Ain’t That A Shame.”

No doubt, the second half of the set was equally exceptional, but I had a date in the Louisiana Folklife Village to chat with internationally-awarded and acclaimed quilter Cecelia Pedescleaux who’s had over 20 years at Jazz Fest. Pedescleaux came up on Johnson Street, between Allen and Annette Streets, an area known as By The Cut. She said, “I’ve been around fabric all my life. My aunts and their friends did all sorts of seamstress work. Some of my friends made Zulu costumes and ball gowns. I never really sewed then, because anytime you made a mistake, they would rip it and you had to start over. For that reason, I didn’t start doing my own thing until I was a little older.”

Ms. Cecelia, who had eventually gotten into knitting, was watching shows on PBS and learned from them. She recalled, “One year for Christmas, I went to (S.H.) Kress, the five and dime on Canal Street and bought a package of potholders and aprons for a dollar. If I can make potholders and aprons, then I must be able to make quilts.”

What got her focused on quilt making was a visit to the Tulane University library when her daughter was in junior high. Ms. Cecelia came across a book explaining how enslaved people would take the cloth used to strain wine and use it to make quilts and clothes. She explained, “I read more books and went on a journey to learn more about Black Americans and quilting. That’s how this madness got started.”
—Michael Allen Zell

 

Jenn Howard at the Lagniappe Stage kicked off an 86-degree, sunny second day with a weather-appropriate breezy, warm, and bright set of her rockin’ soul music, with blistering, Claptonesque guitar work from Felix Wohlleben, Howard’s musical “partner,” and enthusiastic organ solos from Frankie Burqhart, and robust backing vocals from Kate Swann. Howard brought a great rhythm section, too, including two saxophones and a trumpet punching up the high-powered vocals. Her voice bled into the nearby Gospel Tent—and vice-versa—but blended almost seamlessly. “I’m gonna give you an Allen Toussaint song,” she said before a rare, brief pause. “I feel like that’s appropriate.” Later, she sang “I’m on a mission.” That mission carried us out into the rest of the day.

“Some of my best collaborations are with people from the 1800s,” Leyla McCalla said with a laugh. She immediately clarified that some others were with living people, including the guys from her band, whom she loves. But the title track for her new record starts with a verse written by, of all people, Frederick Douglass. Played acoustically and solo on the album, “Sun Without The Heat” popped up in McCalla’s Jazz Fest set with upright bass, unobtrusive electric guitar, and brushes over drumsticks.

“I wish I wrote this song, but I didn’t,” she says before covering Kendrick Lamar’s “Crown,” in a sparse arrangement, featuring McCalla on cello. On other songs, the all-male three-piece backing band kept a shoegaze-y sound, with spacey guitars, low-key drumming, and a funky 80s electric bassline. In-between songs, she made speeches about Haiti and the Haitian Revolution, saying “I’ll never stop talking about it,” as well as the state of the world and how we all need to have “faith,” not in deities but in ourselves and our fellow humans. “You want the ocean without the roar of its waters,” she sang gently. “Can’t have the sun without the heat.”

Debbie Davis, filling in for Rainy Eyes, took the stage with only a keyboard player, and jazzed up a zoned-out Rhythmpourium Tent. Her vocals alone were so powerful—and “New Jersey loud,” as she joked—that earplugs were needed right away. Soon, she brought up some all-stars who could have led their own bands in solo sets, including Alex McMurray, Kimberly Kaye and Josh Paxton, as well as Matt Perrine. It was the perfect vibe for the tent: torch songs, piano backing and plastic flutes of cold wine after 2:30 p.m.

Esther Rose, the former Lost Love Lounge (R.I.P.) bartender and Jack White-collaborating Americana artist, started out with a trio of vocalists, including Sam Doores of the Deslondes, stage left, as the entirety of her band. Soon, she brought on other surprise guests to replace them, most of whom sported cowboy boots and perfectly matched Rose’s sweet harmonies and ethereal melodies. They kept things pretty, even on “Chet Baker,” about the singer and a bar called the 8 Ball, a “dirty dive,” she explained before the song. “Don’t ever go there,” she said with a smirk. Soon after, her guest vocalists returned—this time, grabbing their instruments, with Doores

sitting at the keyboards and playing a maraca.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: For once, the penultimate act on the Shell Gentilly stage wasn’t just there to warm up the crowd, although this one very much did so. After overcoming technical problems that appeared to delay their start time, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band kicked into their set with a surprising, near-total focus on their own songs. While plagued by winds that ricocheted the sound of instruments across the field and kept others undetectable in the mix, the 10-piece band kept things simmering. recent viral video sensation Joshua Starkman, hung back and thus stayed out of the spotlight, his guitar licks never show-offy or distracting. Sax player Charlie Gabriel

received the biggest ovation following a solo vocal spotlight. And Ben Jaffe occasionally rested his (otherwise) standup bass on its side to join the singers upfront, but it was the audience that took over lead vocals, chanting back in synch: “She’s got the money, and I got the honey.” An imagined Jon Batiste guest appearance sadly did not materialize.

Stadium rock band The Killers burst upon the state—literally—to the strains of The Who classic “Eminence Front,” and without waiting for the track to fade out, kicked off their Jazz Fest set with “Mr. Brightside,” maybe their best-known hit. The band, perhaps Vegas’s most beloved export, never let up in the early half, knocking out smashes like “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Somebody Told Me” among the first half-dozen songs. Singer Brandon Flowers then told the band he was reworking the setlist, calling for them to trot out their cover of Randy Newman’s slow, touching, and short “Louisiana 1927,” to give himself a breather. (The band had played it at their semi-secret Tipitina’s show a few nights earlier.) “Louisiana,” he told the capacity crowd at the Festival Stage, “They’re trying to wash us away.” Luckily, there is no rain in the forecast for the rest of Jazz Fest.

Jon Batiste didn’t appear in Preservation Hall’s set… because he brought them out as part of his own set. The Jon Batiste Experience (which I now trademark) is all about spotlighting family and celebrating the city. On “Big Chief,” his Professor Longhair cover, he brought out a younger African-American pianist to take over for his own legendary playing, then leapt in halfway through to jam, side-by-side with him on a dueling piano solo. After “Ain’t No Sunshine,” he jumped into the crowd, where a young fan gushed into his microphone: “I love you!” and then repeated themselves. “I feel good today, I feel free, I feel fine just being me,” he intoned, alternating phrases with his melodica as he hopped into the massive crowd. He got fans singing this mantra back to him, and made his way back through the Grand Marshal section and back to the stage. The second-line continued for more than five minutes, until it was seven o’clock and time to say goodnight.

Oumou Sangaré of Mali was one of those show-stealing, show-stopping performers that you remember in Jazz Fest years to come. Her stunning, rhythmic, and entirely propulsive set literally stopped festgoers in their tracks– on the track, and sent them running to the Congo Square Stage to see her band, which took up every inch of the stage. They quickly realized they were in the presence of “The Songbird of Wassoulou,” a Grammy winner and mostly unknown in this country– until now. May she fly back for Jazz Fest next year… and every year.

Take a look at all the photos by our photogrphy team, Kim Welsh and Noé Cugny on OffBeat’s Flickr page.