Thoughts, observations, and opinions from the Fairgrounds about Jazz Fest 2015 from Web Editor Stephen Maloney.
If you are ever slated to play Jazz Fest on a rainy day, make sure you will appear on a stage inside a tent.
As a downpour of Biblical proportions washed out the music on every outdoor stage on Day 2 of Jazz Fest 2015, throngs of music lovers flocked to the Jazz Tent, the Gospel Tent, the Blues Tent, and the NOCCA Pavilion.
Photo by Stephen Maloney
In the Jazz Tent, Ellis Marsalis took the stage just as the hardest of the rain began to fall, which audience members close enough to see the raindrops on the back of his signature vest could clearly see.
Jason Marsalis joined his father on drums, a blur of constant movement with the precision of a Swiss watch.
Saxophone player Derek Douget and trumpeter Ashlin Parker took turns soloing at the front of the stage before cycling back out of view of the capacity crowd.
Each time Douget, Parker, or the elder Marsalis branched the musical conversation off into an interesting and lively tangent, the crowd responded with cheers and applause.
The wave of noise emanating from the rear of the massive tent as the storm outside reached its apex had more to do with fear and concern than with an appreciation for jazz, but the rippling of the tent’s massive roof soon subsided as the winds died down.
Elsewhere on the infield of the Fairgrounds, trumpet prodigy John Michael Bradford took full advantage of the crowd packed into the NOCCA Pavilion to deliver a rousing set to a much bigger crowd than he was expecting.
“It was amazing!! So packed!!” the high school senior gushed to me in an email.
Not too shabby for Bradford’s solo Jazz Fest debut.
Earlier in the afternoon, before the rain came down, Raw Oyster Cult delivered a solidly rocking set of funky New Orleans soul on the Acura Stage while Tony Hall powered through his James Brown Tribute on the Congo Square Stage.
Photo by Stephen Maloney
In the middle of the set, Dave Malone and company pumped out an energetic cover of the Allman Brothers classic “Revival (Love is Everywhere)” that got everyone up and boogieing in their rain gear.
When Malone takes the stage, he sets up a small fan at his feet to keep him cool as he plays. The fan also blows his considerably disheveled hair up in interesting ways.
I saw Malone walking along the racetrack yesterday, and his hair was blowing back just like it does onstage, even without a fan.
Photo by Stephen Maloney
He has to have the best hair in the city outside of Rob Ryan.
It’s hard to overstate the talent of Tony Hall.
The Dumpstaphunk bass player has played with everyone and toured the world, but he can also get down with the best of them.
Clad in a bright red jacket, Hall, playing guitar for a change, led his crack band through hit after hit from the Godfather of Soul.
Everyone from the “dude, bro” frat boys in the crowd to the cleanup crew stopped to jam to James Brown for a little while.
It was just what we needed to boost us up before the rain came down.
It’ll be muddy as hell tomorrow, but at least it shouldn’t rain.
That’s something, right?
