Woke up Sunday morning and got ready for Fest. We all knew it was gonna rain, but it hadn’t started yet when word came down that the opening would be delayed. When some 3-4 inches came down sideways during the space of an hour around midday it was hard to believe the gates would open at all. But by 3 pm the rain had stopped and they were letting people in. The crowd at the main gate was out of control so it took quite a while to actually get in. As a result we missed Dr. John, who was treating Jazz Fest to a look at his revived New Orleans band with special guest Charles Neville on saxophone. Mac is part of the life blood of the city’s music so it’s wonderful to see him reconnect with it. Everyone I talked to who saw the set loved it and remarked on how happy Mac seemed. I’m happy for him.

Ed Volker. Photo by Kim Welsh.

Rainy days certainly have their downside, as Little Milton well knew. More than half of the scheduled performers had their gigs cancelled, and acts who could have played but didn’t included Pitbull and George Benson, both major draws, so their fans were bummed. Nobody took it harder than Dave Malone of the very interesting All Star lineup Magnificent 7, which includes his brother Tommy Malone, John Gros, Mark Mullins, Robert Mercurio, Raymond Weber and Michael Skinkus. Dave and Mark were part of the recent Last Waltz tribute tour, and I was looking forward to hearing them play “Cripple Creek.” And of course the vendors and food merchants were pretty much wiped out. If you ordered the Jama Jama you got enough spinach on the plate for three people.

On the other hand a philosophical bent might lead to – even – a sigh of relief. Alex McMurray, who had played three gigs until 4 am the previous morning, rustled himself out of bed for his 11 am gig with the Tin Men, found out it was cancelled and went back to sleep. He’s gonna need the rest with Chaz Fest coming up Wednesday.

Somewhere during the deluge Ed Volker got the call that his Quintet Narcosis band would hit as scheduled on the Lagniappe stage at 3:50. Though he might have been skeptical, he assembled the group only to find that there was no power. The outage had also stopped the Alison Miner stage.

“I thought about asking the guys to just come over to my place and play,” said Volker, “but here we are.”

About 4:00 the word came out that power would be restored in five minutes.

The band got up there and everyone was set except for Volker’s piano, which was inaudible. Bassist Rene Coman, percussionist Michael Skinkus, guitarist Camile Baudoin and tenor saxophonist Joe Cabral began playing a 20 minute sound check/jam with Cabral playing all the way through and Volker hitting the keyboards but getting no response. Then, at 4:31, the keyboards magically appeared in the mix and Volker immediately launched into a composite of “Sailing Shoes,” lines from “Fish Head Music” and the repeated refrain “Saily Away”

“We’re actually playing!” shouted Volker to the assembled dancers. “You’re actually here!”

The group played a truncated set of “Dancing On the Grave of a Son-of-a-Bitch,” “Go Down Swinging” and “Coup de Grace,” three songs about not leaving quietly.

“30 years ago,” Volker mused, “we probably would have played in the rain.”

Triple the Ellmans, triple the fun. Photo by Kim Welsh.

Over at the Gospel Tent Glen David Andrews got cancelled (they really need to squeeze him in there somewhere next weekend) but Val and Love Alive, back by the 30 voice Mass Choir and a slamming rhythm section that included an amazingly powerful trap drummer, must have thought God himself performed some kind of miracle to get them on that stage. Across the track at the Jazz & Heritage Stage the Midnight Disturbers looked like a musical version of Noah’s ark with at least two of everything – or two sousaphones anyway – six percussionists, including drummers Stanton Moore and Kevin O’Day,  six saxophonists led by the incredible Roger Lewis (he’s everywhere!) on baritone, three trombones including Big Sam Williams and Corey Henry, and three trumpeters led by MC Shamarr Allen. New Orleans bands know how to play fanfares and finales better than any other musicians on the planet, and the Disturbers’ break tune, 12 minutes of killer funk vamp featuring an eight bar cameo from each member as he was introduced, was sheer ecstasy.

“When I say ‘Midnight,’ you say ‘Disturbers,’” Allen told the crowd at the end. And they did.

A trip for some of that spinach led me into the Tom Petty zone, and it was better than good. Petty writes rockers with a two guitar bite and memorable hooks and he can line up an impressive array of those tunes. Many of this band’s peers are now relegated to self parody but Petty’s band is impressively musical and he really treated his fans to something special.

In any other setting I would have stuck around for more Petty, but not with Chief Monk Boudreaux hitting the stage. Monk is like a great preacher – you might know the scripture he’s citing, but it’s the way he tells the story that counts. Wearing a gorgeous purple and orange Indian suit, surrounded by seven family members in variously hued costumes, Monk starts out slowly with the warning “They Don’t Know,” then invokes the elements with is dramatic “Lightning and Thunder” dirge: “You walk outside… and it’s raining…” which breaks into the uptempo call-and-response of “Shallow Water.” Monk tells the story of “Shotgun Joe,” reconfigures and old favorite as “When you come to New Orleans, You wanna come and dance with me,” brings up his grandson to sing “Sexual Healing,” then finishes out with “Little Liza Jane,” the reggaefied “Rising Sun” and a stirring “Indian Red,” with the 9th Ward Hunters in force in front of the stage, singing along and dancing with the crowd. As his family sings “Let’s Go Get ‘Em” Monk slowly leaves the stage, ending another magical day at Jazz Fest.