Satcho SummerFest 2015. Photo by Laura DeFazio.
Satchmo SummerFest 2015, a French Quarter Festivals, Inc. (FQFI) event, sponsored by Chevron, was another great success and received unprecedented media attention this year.
This was the first year that Satchmo Fest charged an admission fee ($5 per person per day, with children 12 and under free) and FQFI reported that the requisite fiver didn’t affect attendance numbers too badly; 36,602 people still turned out for the event, according to their report.
This was consistent with OffBeat’s weekly reader poll, in which 86 percent of those who took the poll reported that they were planning on attending despite the fee.
Food vendor sales were down a bit this year, however, but it’s uncertain as to whether this was primarily because of the admission fee or the even-hotter-than-usual weather.
According to the FQFI, they received a few complaints about the fee, and many people voiced the opinion that it actually “created a better vibe.”
Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns at Satchmo Fest 2015. Photo by Laura DeFazio.
In addition to its usual smorgasbord of music and food (and the traditional Jazz Mass at the St. Augustine Church) the 15th annual Pops celebration commemorated Katrina’s one-decade anniversary with a special symposium of “musical first responders” who spoke of the work they did in the immediate wake of the disaster.
The FQFI also screened the film High Society to begin the weekend’s festivities, and they hosted a variety of interesting speakers such as Jewel Brown, the last surviving member of Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars.
This year marked the inaugural “Spirit of Satch Awards,” presented to “individuals and organizations who work tirelessly to support, educate, and celebrate Traditional Jazz and Louis Armstrong.” OffBeat is honored to have received an award this year for “Keeping Traditional Jazz in the News.”
Dancers at Seva Venet and the Storyville Stringband, SatchmoFest 2015. Photo by Laura DeFazio.
In addition to the traditional Louis Armstrong Tribute (led by Kermit Ruffins on Sunday evening), the festival also featured a Saturday night tribute (by Corey Henry’s Treme Funktet) to Trumpet Black, the popular trumpeter who passed away at age 28 in May.
As for the other musical offerings, it’s hard to know where to even begin. With his Storyville Stringband (and wearing a “Treme Brass Band” cap), Seva Venet led a six-piece band in covering a slew of Satchmo’s hits, including an interesting mazurka version of “St. James Infirmary Blues.” (A mazurka, as Venet explained, is in three-four time and differentiated from a waltz by its added emphasis on the third beat.)
Other performers included Robin Barnes, whose soulful voice and contemporarily jazzy band gave a fresh spin to traditional New Orleans tunes. Singing “Ooh Poo Pah Doo,” she sounded uncannily like Judy Hill (“Ooh Poo Pah Doo” writer Jessie Hill’s daughter, who performed with Corey Henry for the Trumpet Black Tribute.)
Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns were entertaining and powerful as always. Lake performed her “favorite love song,” Bessie Smith’s “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair.” Perhaps not everyone’s idea of romantic, but still totally stunning.
The festival also include trad jazz favorites by Steve Pistorious and the Southern Syncopators, a resounding brass set by the Free Agents, who covered “What a Wonderful World,” and countless others.
See you out there next year!
Sidney Bechet’s soprano saxophone, on display upstairs at the Mint. Satchmo Fest 2015. Photo: Laura DeFazio.
