The culmination of festival season is upon us! The ten-day run that is the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The 2015 edition has something for everyone. Here are our picks for opening day at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. The full schedule is here.
Start your day off early with Earphunk. This jamming band from New Orleans tours extensively bringing sterling electric guitar work and occasionally goofy stage antics to crowds around the country. With two singers and two separate vocal styles, they bring to mind a funkier Grateful Dead complete with percolating organ work.
I have not seen Paul Sanchez’s new band Minimum Rage yet, but I love the name. He is also presenting special guests, the Write Brothers, during his set. This songwriting supergroup features Sanchez alongside Spencer Bohren, Alex McMurray, and Jim McCormick. Special insider’s note—the rhythm section for the Write Brothers is none other than Andre Bohren (Spencer’s son—but you knew that) on drums and Dave Pomerleau on bass. Those are two of the Dirty Notes!
Trumpeter Maurice Brown is in town to play with the Tedeshi Trucks Band today. He also will be appearing with his own band in the Jazz Tent at 1:30 PM. This is an addition to the original release of the cubes.
Regular readers of this space know I favor African and Caribbean acts especially those we may not get to see very often in New Orleans. Lágbájá is a particularly fascinating case. Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, he performs in a facemask (see photo) depicting the anonymity of the so-called “common man.” The mask and the name (lágbájá is a Yoruba word that means somebody, nobody, anybody, or everybody) symbolize the faceless and the voiceless in the society, particularly in Africa. His music however, is hardly anonymous.
We have a Carnival marching club here in New Orleans named after St. Celia, the patron of musicians, so I was excited to see a band on the schedule called La Santa Ceclia. They are a Mexican-American ensemble that plays a wide range of Latin-inspired music. Expect some feverish dancing.
The last act of the day is always a challenge and a conflict. You have country superstar Keith Urban, rock darlings Wilco, and reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on the three main stages. But sometimes you might want to avoid the crowds and check out something different.
Grayson Capps has a long history in New Orleans going back to the 1980s. He plays guitar and sings blue-based songs in a world-weary voice, which is now aged to perfection like vintage moonshine (if there is such a thing).
Tomorrow—picks for the first weekend.
