Friends of the Cabildo will host a special screening of rare 16mm film footage from the first-ever New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Wednesday, April 23. The event, part of the ongoing FOC Film Series, will take place in the third-floor performance space of the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The one-night-only screening will feature seven short films captured at the inaugural 1970 Jazz Fest, showcasing footage of legendary performers such as Duke Ellington, Pete Fountain, Danny Barker and Mahalia Jackson. The films, originally shot by Don Perry—a co-founder of the New Orleans Jazz Club and a former WDSU cameraman—were donated to the Louisiana State Museum in 1978 and digitized in 2012 for preservation.

As described by the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, “i[n] April of 1970, Mahalia Jackson, often called the greatest gospel singer, returned to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square (then known as Beauregard Square), she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the event, came upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of second-line revelers through the Festival grounds. George Wein, producer of the Festival, handed Ms. Jackson a microphone, she sang along with the band and joined the parade… and the spirit of Jazz Fest was born. This spontaneous, momentous scene—this meeting of jazz and heritage—has stood for decades as a stirring symbol of the authenticity of the celebration that was destined to become a cultural force.”

“From the very beginning, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was envisioned as an important event that would have great cultural significance and popular appeal. The Festival was the culmination of years of discussions and efforts by city leaders who wanted to create an event worthy of the city’s legacy as the birthplace of jazz. A couple of other festivals were held in the years leading up to the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, but those events, different in format, did not take hold as the Jazz & Heritage Festival would.”

In 1970, George Wein, jazz impresario behind the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Folk Festival (begun respectively in 1954 and 1959) was hired to design and produce a unique festival for New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established to oversee the Festival.

To enhance the viewing experience, the Band-In-A-Pocket Jazz Trio will perform live during portions of the films that do not contain audio. The screening will be moderated by Jon Pult.

General admission is $25, with a discounted rate of $15 for Friends of the Cabildo members. Tickets are available through the FOC Office at (504) 523-3939 or online at friendsofthecabildo.org.