GO EASY SPIRIT OF NEW ORLEANS ALIVE AND THRIVING AT JAZZ FESTIVAL.Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer NEW ORLEANS - Less than two blocks from the Gentilly Boulevard entrance to the 37th annual New Orleans Jazz New Orleans Jazz can refer to:
It's hard to imagine such a raucous party amid such sorrowful sor·row·ful adj. Affected with, marked by, causing, or expressing sorrow. See Synonyms at sad. sor  row·ful·ly adv. circumstances, but that's exactly what transpired. It was quintessential New Orleans, home of Dixieland funeral parades, a few of which curled through the jammed Jazz Fest pathways over the weekend. Sundry stages and performance tents were routinely packed as more than 150,000 attended the first three days of the Festival. In fact, though only somewhere between a third and a half of the city's population has returned to the Big Easy - now better described as the Big Difficult - one festival-goer swore that the crowds this year surpassed those of 2005. A-list performers lined up to support the effort, and undoubtedly the first weekend's highlight was Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band's first live show, hot on the heels of the release of Springsteen's latest CD of Pete Seeger covers, ``We Shall Overcome.'' Springsteen's two-hour set offered an uncanny blend of sage empathy for residents' suffering and infectious exuberance - once he turned from the crowd to fix yet another pop-world wardrobe malfunction (``It's not just a new band,'' he explained, ``but a new belt''). His large backing ensemble - horns, pedal steel, fiddles, banjo banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings, which are plucked with a pick or the fingers. , stand-up stand·up or stand-up adj. 1. Standing erect; upright: a standup collar. 2. Taken, done, or used while standing: a standup supper; a standup bar. bass and acoustic guitars - offered nonpareil Nonpareil - One of five pedagogical languages based on Markov algorithms, used in ["Nonpareil, a Machine Level Machine Independent Language for the Study of Semantics", B. Higman, ULICS Intl Report No ICSI 170, U London (1968)]. The others were Brilliant, Diamond, Pearl and Ruby. American roots rock. In addition to songs from the new recording, Springsteen offered up a Depression-era tune with lyrics he specifically updated for post-Katrina New Orleans, which he pointedly dedicated to ``President Bystander.'' He also performed ``My City of Ruins,'' which he had also performed at the Sept. 11 ``Tribute to Heroes'' concert, to an overpoweringly emotional effect. He concluded with one of the city's signature songs, ``When the Saints Go Marching In "When the Saints Go Marching In", so well-known that it is often referred to merely as "The Saints", is a United States gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. ,'' which he admitted that 100 local bands could cover better than he. But none would've uncovered verses that seemed so perfectly appropriate (``I'm waiting for that moment when the new world is revealed''), and few would have transformed it into a prayerful prayer·ful adj. 1. Inclined or given to praying frequently; devout. 2. Typical or indicative of prayer, as a mannerism, gesture, or facial expression. dirge dirge n. 1. Music a. A funeral hymn or lament. b. A slow, mournful musical composition. 2. A mournful or elegiac poem or other literary work. 3. that could have wrung wrung v. Past tense and past participle of wring. wrung Verb the past of wring wrung wring tears from fans a football field away from the stage. And Springsteen was only one of the brightest highlights of the festival's first weekend. Bob Dylan, in a costume that can only be described as a cowboy track suit, served up one of his trademark playful, willfully willfully adv. referring to doing something intentionally, purposefully and stubbornly. Examples: "He drove the car willfully into the crowd on the sidewalk." "She willfully left the dangerous substances on the property." (See: willful) contrarian sets where he challenges fans to figure out what song he's doing. Playing organ all night - he didn't touch a guitar - he retooled a number of songs, including ``Highway 61,'' to sound like the main themes from action flicks; he concluded ``Don't Think Twice, It's All Right'' as if it were a Vegas burlesque burlesque (bûrlĕsk`) [Ital.,=mockery], form of entertainment differing from comedy or farce in that it achieves its effects through caricature, ridicule, and distortion. It differs from satire in that it is devoid of any ethical element. ; and he sang ``Watching the River Flow'' to the tune of ``Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat.'' Curious, sure, but vintage Bob. As far as eccentricities go, Dylan had nothing on a sizable number of festival attendees, who flew all manner of colorful banners over their makeshift seats. Such flags not only demarcate de·mar·cate tr.v. de·mar·cat·ed, de·mar·cat·ing, de·mar·cates 1. To set the boundaries of; delimit. 2. To separate clearly as if by boundaries; distinguish: demarcate categories. individuality but also help point out where one's seats are amid the sea of humanity should a member of the party venture out for beer or one of the festival's delicious and shockingly reasonably priced delicacies (mouth-watering mouth·wa·ter·ing or mouth-wa·ter·ing adj. Appealing to the sense of taste; appetizing: the mouthwatering aroma of a baking pie. Adj. 1. soft-shell crab po'-boys go for a mere $8, and a bowl of some of the best gumbo you're likely to enjoy is only $5). Alas, the event was also an opportunity for politicizing: Though trumpeter Terence Blanchard during his performance championed Mitch Landrieu, the opponent in the upcoming city election, current mayor Ray Nagin was glad-handing everyone he could get within reach of (including, yes, me, whom he greeted with a hearty, ``How ya doin', guy?''). Back to the music: Local guitar hero Anders Osborne and Lafayette soul pianist Dave Egan kicked off the festival Friday morning with tight, scorching sets; Keb' Mo' uncorked one of those laid-back acoustic blues performances that he invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil makes look deceptively effortless. You couldn't get within 20 yards of the Jazz Tent - never mind get inside it - when Herbie Hancock played on Saturday, but what you could hear was plenty exhilarating. On Sunday, local legend Allen Toussaint teamed with Elvis Costello for a beautiful set of Toussaint compositions that was probably a bit too nuanced for the gigantic audience before them but left no doubt that their forthcoming collaboration, ``The River in Reverse,'' will be worth picking up. As always, a Jazz Fest verity is: When in doubt, head for the Gospel Tent. The acts (such as Betty Winn and One A-Chord, the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church Choir, Higher Dimensions of Praise and the Lighthouse Gospel Singers) are impossibly, infectiously high-energy, the voices soar, and your spirit swells. This year, the trial-and-tribulation-followed-by-redemption songs were clearly intended as Katrina metaphors. Still, the Gospel Tent is guaranteed better than church, and not just because you can drink a beer while you listen. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos |
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