It’s hard to imagine life being any crazier for Yvette Landry these days between gigging in one of her four Cajun bands, leading her own country/Americana outfit and releasing both a new CD, No Man’s Land, and a children’s book, The Ghost Tree, all practically at the same time. And that’s in addition to teaching [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus: Satan and Adam
Most blues fans have not heard of the guitarist Sterling Magee a/k/a “Five-Fingers Magee” who, after being discharged from the army in New York, wrote songs for Jesse Stone, recorded several singles for Ray Charles’ Tangerine label, and backed up James Brown, King Curtis, and Big Maybelle. But anyone who frequented 125th Street in Harlem [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus:
Johnette Downing
Call it a match made in roots music heaven. Scott Billington, a two-time Grammy producer with Rounder Records, has recorded more than 100 CDs of Louisiana music, ranging from Cajun to brass bands. Billington is currently working on a companion CD for Swamp People, the popular History Channel show that follows gator hunters. Johnette [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus: The Session
“Play some bossa nova,” hollers a belligerent man from his barstool. His tawdry female companion adds to the racket just as the band on stage descends onto the closing bar of its set’s second song. In the moment that follows, a tense air fills the room. For the French Quarter crowd, it isn’t the outburst [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus:
Hurray for the Riff Raff
One of the unspoken rules of Jazz Fest is: If you’re playing the big stage, you’d better be loud. Maybe an Emmylou Harris or a Bon Iver can get away with low-volume subtlety, but for a hometown band to attempt it on the Acura stage is almost unheard-of. The roots band Hurray for the Riff [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus:
Alex McMurray
On a recent Saturday evening Alex McMurray filled Siberia with an audience that hung on every word of his compositions, a catalog that ranges from wry to wistful to ribald. McMurray is adept at this solo magic, playing material mostly culled from his 2012 release I Will Never Be Alone In This Land. McMurray has [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Focus: Queen Ida
It’s a tough task to excite a musician who’s performed in 45 countries, appeared in movies and shared the stage and studio with Paul Simon, Robert Palmer and other stars. Yet Terrance Simien is almost giddy when talking about Queen Ida, an artist who draws a shrug from today’s zydeco fans. Queen Ida, 84, retired [...]
Jazz Fest 2013 Lineup A to Z Performer Guide
The producers of Jazz Fest are fond of noting that fans who come for the big names always wind up discovering some unique, mind-blowing act they’d never see elsewhere. Here’s your chance to prove them right: Just check the diversity on display at this year’s Fest and make a point of absorbing as many [...]
Guiding Spirits: Jazz Fest Tributes to Coco Robicheaux, Uncle Lionel, Bob French & Hadley Castille
Last year at French Quarter Fest, a number of his friends and bandmates joined for a tribute to the late voodoo bluesman Coco Robicheaux. And midway through the set, a strange phenomenon occurred. “Apparently a big queen bee got disturbed so a whole hive moved out over the crowd, “recalls singer Irene Sage, who was [...]
Nicholas Payton: The Simple Truth
Nicholas Payton, now 39, has been a New Orleans trumpet star almost from the moment he first picked up the horn. The son of revered bassist, composer, and teacher Walter Payton, he was sitting in with local bands by the age of nine and touring at 12. At 20, he released From This Moment (Verve), [...]
