You’ve been to your share of Jazz Fests and racked up a lot of good memories. But probably not as many as Chuck Blamphin, who this year celebrates his 40th anniversary as stage manager of the Fais Do Do stage. And over the years he’s been a reassuring presence for fans and musicians alike.
“This is one of the greatest gigs I ever stumbled on by accident in my whole life,” he told us last week. “Sure, Jazz Fest has changed; when I look out into the audience now I see a sea of folding chairs. But for me, the vibration has never changed. It’s like a second Mardi Gras for me, and I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘When I see you with your orange hat, I know all is well with the world’.”
Chuck Blamphin in his familiar spot at Fais Do Do.
In fact Blamphin, who also works a regular job with an industrial machinery supply company, has been with the Fest longer than the stage itself has. Though the Cajun and zydeco-centric Fais Do Do is one of the festival’s core stages, it was pre-empted for a couple of years by the original House of Blues stage. And during the early days of the Fest, the stages didn’t even have names, let alone sponsors.
“If you want to spot an old-timer, just mention ‘stage one’ or ‘stage four,’ because that’s the names they used to have,” he says. “They used to have a Jazzmobile which was nothing but the back of a trailer, made up to look like a French Quarter balcony. The old stages were very small, maybe two feet off the ground with a plastic rope around them. So the stage height was the first big change, and then putting up the police barricades. But our stage still has a smaller barrier, maybe eight feet, and people seem to like the feel of it. I remember a couple years ago, Terrance Simien said to me, ‘You know Chuck, this stage is like all the stages at Jazz Fest used to be’.”
Like everything else at Jazz Fest, the Fais Do Do stage has grown over the years and now sees national-level headliners like the Avett Brothers, the Decemberists and this year, Norah Jones with the Little Willies. “We try to make the acts feel welcome, and it’s very rare that we have an artist who’s not amenable to our setup. I remember Richie Havens being very gracious, his manager just said ‘Tell us what you want us to do’ and he gave a wonderful show (this interview took place before Havens’ death). Sometimes they show up with a whole bank of guitars—the Decemberists did that, and we set all their equipment behind the backdrop, so we could move it all to one side when the preceding act finished. What surprises me is that once in awhile you find an act that still has some anticipation [nerves] for going onstage, even though they’ve been around for a long while.”“
Blamphin has a few of his own favorite sets. “There’s been a few that really blew me away, like one year Theresa Andersson came in with her solo show. Coco Robicheaux did one, over ten years ago, that really had my jaw hanging. And I remember the Gumboot dancers from Africa. But really, my favorite moment every year is walking in on the morning of the first day.”
And he doesn’t buy the idea that the Fest has lost anything since its more homegrown days. “Some people have their feelings about the national acts coming in, but I don’t feel that way– To me it’s something that’s gotten bigger, it’s shared by more people, but the spirit is the same. You can park yourself at the big stages and that’s your experience, or you can have a different one. I don’t think it can go back to the good old days, so to speak, but I have no problems with the way it is now.”
