Regulars wrap up Jazz Fest in Nawlins
With better weather, acts get down on sets and sprinkle in politics
The second weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival concluded late Sunday afternoon with the past and future of New Orleans’ funk. The legendary Meters closed the festival on one stage with a set of the band’s favorites dating back 50 years, while Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue featured music from his week-old Parking Lot Symphony on another. They capped a weekend where much of the news was made by national artists, some of whom made up for 2016 rain outs.
Saturday, Jazz Fest concluded with Snoop Dogg and Stevie Wonder playing to crowds that sprawled on to the dirt track at The Fair Grounds. Both lost their sets in 2016 when torrential rains forced the festival to close early. If anything, the yearlong wait for their returns only built excitement. Snoop’s trademark low-key delivery said Saturday was just another day on the calendar, which is just what his audience wanted.
Wonder, on the other hand, felt the time between dates. He started the set on a political note when he observed that a lot had changed since he was last in New Orleans. “We have a lot to do,” Wonder said, and he spoke of President Trump. “God gave him the position of being what he is for the purpose of uniting people, not dividing,” he said.
Wonder didn’t come to Jazz Fest to be anybody’s jukebox as he bounced between album cuts and hits such as Higher Ground and Master Blaster in the first hour. He seemed to recognize that his range was testing his audience’s patience as he settled in for a run of hits that ended with Living for the City with guest singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who’d played earlier in the day, and the obligatory Superstition.
Earth, Wind and Fire were feeling similarly expansive and reached for album cuts and lesser singles as well when they played Jazz Fest, but the balance was easier on the audience. The pop funk band’s range isn’t as broad, and even its lesser songs are still pretty immediate. Because of that, the audience remained as connected to the show during You Can’t Hide Love as it was during Saturday Nite, September and Let’s Groove.
Earth, Wind and Fire also provided one of the festival’s biggest surprises when singer Philip Bai- ley welcomed jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington to the stage. Though improvisation is no longer one of the band’s strengths, it improvised a piece with Washington that echoed the cosmic spirituality of Pharoah Sanders’ Blue Note albums. It’s familiar terrain for Washington, and Earth, Wind and Fire found its way there one instrument at a time.
Dave Matthews is a Jazz Fest regular, and this year he played accompanied only by guitarist Tim Reynolds.
Two men armed only with acoustic guitars on the festival’s largest stage sounds like a potential disaster, but the audience responded with the same energy it likely would have shown them with a band. It helped that Matthews strummed and sang with the same intensity that he em- ploys with the band, so the show was physical despite the lack of bass and drums, and Reynolds’ imaginative lead work gave the songs familiar colors as he hinted at what would have been played if more musicians were around to play. In short, Dave Matthews put on a very Dave Matthews show, despite the stripped-down presentation.
After Lie in Our Grave, Matthews welcomed another Jazz Fest veteran to the stage in Jimmy Buffett to sing A Pirate Looks at 40.
In the last decade, Wilco has become a Jazz Fest regular, and like Wonder and Snoop Dogg, it has had sets affected by spring rains in New Orleans as well. This weekend, the band enjoyed a beautiful, pleasant afternoon, and in proper Wilco fashion, it made the set into something slightly enigmatic. Singer Jeff Tweedy appeared to be having fun, whether he was playing a couple of songs from last year’s Schmilco or the beautifully poppy Boxful of Let
ters. He sparred good-naturedly with someone in the front row calling out requests, and he announced between songs at one point, “Wilco is a pre-existing condition.”
While Jazz Fest’s talent lineup skews toward the experienced, the festival features younger artists to attract the next generation. This weekend, Meghan Trainor filled that slot.
Trainor sang with little nuance about her love for her mom and how cool her dad is. Since moms were out in force with their young daughters for the show, there was no way to avoid how healthy it was for all the girls to hear Trainor love her curves in All About That Bass.
Still, her songs’ sentiments could have come from the plots of Nickelodeon shows, and that’s something she’ll have to deal with if she, like Jazz Fest, is thinking about the future.