Future Stars
Jazz Fest 2014 meant several beautiful experiences on a sunny, breezy spring day, the type of weather that graced all of the second weekend. Find a patch of grass, sit down and dig the slow, languorous progress of the blimp circling the field. Even at its most crowded, there’s always a place to sit at one of the smaller stages, or the children’s tent, which has always featured some great music and in years past often offered a glimpse at future stars like Amanda Shaw and Hunter Hayes. This year, I really enjoyed seeing the teenaged members of the Huval-Fuselier Cajun Band (drums, fiddle, accordion, guitar) playing the traditional music of their Acadian roots.
—John Swenson
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana, showed why he’s a national treasure during an Acura Stage set extending past 7:30 p.m. Weaving delicate, psychedelic guitar throughout, Santana dug deep into his catalogue for “Fried Neckbones” along with welcoming Rob Thomas on stage to recapture their mega-hit “Smooth.”
—Frank Etheridge
Allen Toussaint
For us diehard Allen Toussaint fans, his set this year was particularly interesting for a glimpse of his songwriting process. As usual he snuck in a few unheard songs, all on subjects close to his heart: One was in praise of Jazz Fest, another a salute to Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli, and the last was about a hot night at Tipitina’s. All three were clearly works in progress (the line “You’ve got nothing to lose but the blues” turned up in two songs), but the Tip’s song had a chorus hook as memorable as those in his ’60s hits, which is saying something. In recent years Toussaint’s also done a song about Jimmy Buffett, but this year he instead brought out Buffett himself—and sorry, Parrot-haters, but Buffett’s version of Jesse Winchesters “I Wave Bye Bye” was subtle and heartfelt.
—Brett Milano
Bruce Springsteen
It took Paul Sanchez to remind me of what I was missing from Bruce Springsteen. I watched the first part of Springsteen’s set from various vantage points around the perimeter of the crowd at the Acura stage. The giant flat-screen TVs allowed a good look at Springsteen as he vaulted around the stage, pouring out energy while leading a band that has always been a little rhythmically cumbersome in stadium settings. The substitution of Tom Morello for Miami Steve Van Zandt only exacerbated that problem. But that’s what you get with anthems. They tend to be big and unwieldy, designed to appeal to the largest audiences possible. Sheer momentum replaces groove and nuances are lost. This is a real dilemma for a writer as talented as Springsteen. In order to play for audiences of this size the songs inevitably suffer. The crowd, which had staked out its folding chair positions from early in the day, was in a good mood and appeared to be enjoying the show without being moved to get out of those chairs and dance, which is the response most successful Jazz Fest sets engender. It felt somewhat like being at a sold out baseball game on a lazy summer afternoon.
—John Swenson
McDermott & Christopher
Call it “chamber jazz” if you must, but when pianist Tom McDermott and clarinetist Evan Christopher get together for a mix of ancient classics and deep-grained originals, they never lose the pulse of the dance floor. On “Tango Ambiguo,” McDermott let the third beat hang in the air while he and clarinetist Evan Christopher sashayed through the tune. And their beguine was a reminder that the word denoted a lilting West Indian dance form before it became part of a Cole Porter title.
—Jon Garelick
Squeezebox
The saying goes, “piano players rarely ever play together.” The same holds true for zydeco accordionists except in the case of the Buckwheat Zydeco Lifetime Tribute set. The small Fais Do-Do Stage was loaded with “squeezebox” players and others from the zydeco world. First up was the man of the hour, Buckwheat himself, who was obviously having some fun as he soulfully belted out “Hard to Stop.” At first his son was getting down on the rubboard but then moved over to play the keyboard side of Buckwheat’s accordion at the same time as his father. Never saw that before. When Buckwheat switched to organ, he took over the accordion with Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. on rubboard. Other guests included accordion master C.J. Chenier, the Grammy-winning Terrance Simien and vocalist Zachary Richard with guitarist Lil Buck Sinegal beefing up the band. Buckwheat remarked that most of the time, he and the other players who often tour heavily were on opposite coasts—not on the same stage.
—Geraldine Wyckoff
Blues Tent
The best news of the Fest was the improved attitude by security in the Blues Tent. People were up and dancing to artists like African guitarist Bombino as well as 12-string stick-guitarist Tizuma from Brazil who was backed by an all-women vocal and percussion group. Meanwhile the worst news was the extremely bass-heavy sound at the Congo Square Stage. Unless one was standing in just the right spot, it drowned out the vocals of Davell Crawford (great rhythm and blues repertoire though), Nigel Hall and Charlie Wilson. Nobody seemed to get the message about this problem.
—Geraldine Wyckoff
The Wild Magnolias
“Poppa Was a Rolling Stone”/”Smoke My Peace Pipe”: “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry,” said Bo Dollis, Jr., who led the Wild Magnolias at Jazz Fest for the first time without his father, the iconic Mardi Gras Indian Bo Dollis. He dedicated this song to Bo and proceeded to unleash an astonishing display of energy, propelled by genius rhythm and lead guitar parts from June Yamagishi.
—John Swenson
