After Saturday’s remake of Rush Hour, Jazz Fest wrapped up its final weekend with great music and a large but manageable crowd that fit the contours of the race track comfortably. The New Orleans Suspects bid farewell to Reggie Scanlan, the great local bassist who founded the group and played his last gig with the band Sunday. Scanlan, also a charter member of the legendary Radiators, decided to stop touring for health reasons but will continue to play locally. His interplay with drummer “Mean” Willie Green is something truly special and will be missed.
Photo by Willow Haley.
Two of Scanlan’s partners in the Rads played in another group, Ed Volker’s Quintet Narcosis, later in the day. Volker founded the Rads and called on his childhood friend and Radiators partner, guitarist Camile Baudoin, for his latest project. The band also includes Iguanas bassist Rene Coman and saxophonist Joe Cabral as well as master percussionist Michael Skinkus. Volker led the group through a repertoire of intriguing covers, using the blues technique of grafting lines from different songs together to make new constructions. Towards the end of the set he played one of his newer songs, “Go Down Swinging,” then a slow, ethereal version of his classic “Lost Radio.” He appended an as-yet unreleased song to the latter, “Gone World,” which had his fans dancing ecstatically in front of the stage. Joe Cabral played several outstanding baritone sax solos. He and Coman then finished out the day with the Iguanas at the Fais Do Do stage.
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux also did double duty, joining the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars in full Indian regalia for their set on the Acura stage, then closing out the day at the Jazz & Heritage stage with his gang, the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians. The Indians, resplendent in their blue feathered and beaded suits, paraded onto the stage to the funk theme of “They Don’t Know,” with Monk telling his story. Then, after singing the invocation to the sacred Mardi Gras Indian theme “Indian Red,” Monk spoke to the audience.
“Sometimes people ask me, ‘What are the Indians saying?’ Well, it’s passed down to us. It’s who we are. ‘Almighty… I got the fire!’ Because we Indians. Indians of the nation.
“We all family,” says Monk, gesturing to the ten costumed Indians flanking him on the stage. “This is my family, the next generation. I still teach what I was taught and I keep the tradition going. Every Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest we have a family reunion. They taught me well. Just check out the Black Indians. We come in all colors. It’s an honor to be up here and have so many of y’all out there. What are they saying? We been coming up! Now I’m gonna let my grandson sing one.”
Monk’s grandson began singing “Little Liza Jane” and the Mardi Gras Indian tradition took its next step into the future.
