As of Saturday morning, the number of stages at the French Quarter Festival more than triples compared to Thursday. Intimate venues open up all over the historic district. Picking and choosing which bands to hear also becomes a matter of working through the massive crowds. Here’s a look at some of the acts off the beaten track that I think are worth checking out. The full Saturday schedule is here.
The bands scheduled to play all day on the Morris Bart stage in the 400 of Royal Street are all worth seeing. Check out Patrice Fisher and Arpa first thing in the morning. Fisher is a harpist and always has great musicians with her including guests from overseas. She’s a mainstay at Jazz Fest too and often explores the connections between classical music, Latin American music, and jazz.
New Orleans is crawling with septuagenarian and octogenarian musicians, but there are only a few musicians still performing into their nineties. Check out the Lawrence Cotton Legendary Experience to see one of the oldest musicians in town. The pianist is still on the top of his game and his band features Kerry Brown on drums and Jane Harvey Brown on vocals. They are at noon on the Omni Royal Orleans stage.
Carl LeBlanc is one of the unsung guitar and banjo players in a town full of them. He spent years with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and is a gifted player who came up in the tradition and was inspired by the great Danny Barker. He plays a long set (or a couple of them) at 3:15 PM in the 1000 block of Royal Street.
Here’s a list in order of appearance of other bands I suggest checking on Saturday—The Asylum Chorus, Muevelo, Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires, Luke Allen, Players Ella and Louis Tribute Band, and Tank and the Bangas. There are tons of others bands worth checking out as well, so if something doesn’t appeal to you, just move on.
A good way to kick off Sunday’s festivities is to feast at the World’s Largest Jazz Brunch in Jackson Square while checking out John Boutte. A true son of Tremé, he wrote the theme song for the popular HBO show of the same name. He is an emotional vocalist who puts his soul into every song.
The full Sunday schedule is here.
After breakfast, you may need to move a bit. Los Po-Boy-Citos play boogaloo—the hybrid Latin sound that was all the rage back in the day. Also consider Cole Williams. She’s a relative newcomer in town and calls her music African rock. She has one of the city’s hardest working guitarists backing her up and is a positive force playing music that is definitely not more of the same old, same old.
Over on Royal Street in the middle of the afternoon, Joe Cabral (of the Iguanas) and his trio will play a mixed bag of roots and jazz music that is bound to impress. Harmonouche features a great French guitarist playing gypsy jazz and Calvin Johnson is a wonderful saxophonist. He appears with his band, Native Son.
One band I always love checking out at the French Quarter Fest is Magnetic Ear. Led by a German expat saxophonist who once named an album Alien of Extraordinary Ability after his immigration status, they are ostensibly a brass band. But wait until you hear them cover Nirvana and Prince.
Also don’t miss Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers. Led by the mysterious Rory Danger (pictured at top), her real identity is safe with me, and featuring an all-star cast of musicians, their act is a real hoot. The music is rockabilly, but the show changes with every performance and often includes costumes, audience participation and, at least last year, a faux murder.
As with Saturday, here’s another list of acts I would see if I could be in more than one place at a time on Sunday. Listed by time of appearance—Leroy Jones, Seva Venet, Funk Monkey, Creole String Beans, Soul Brass Band, James Andrews, Kris Tokarski, and Bill Summers.
