• Sat., April 27

    We got to the city in the evening of the 26th which was the first day of the Jazz Fest, so we weren't able to make it to the Fest that day, and this 27th was the first day for us. On the first day, a neo-hippie group called Phish appeared at the event, and what we heard was that the place was crowded with the so-called "Phish-heads".

    It was sunny on the 27th, and we were filled with power to go to the Fest and we got there around one in the afternoon. The Fest itself had started around 11, but with the jetlag and the night concert the night before that lasted till 3:30 in the morning, I think this was the best we could do.

    Entering from the entrance adjacent to the Polaroid stage, we went straight to the Ray-Ban stage which was furthest from there. If we were lucky we could still catch the last few songs of Sonny Landreth (Ray Ban Stage, 12:30). As we dashed through the fairgrounds, we heard a sound of a slide guitar coming from distance. It was Sonny. Alright! We made it! We could only hear about three songs, but he was sounding great, and far more in Louisiana roots than I expected. There was a washboard player in the band, too.

    One of the good performances of this day may have been Eddie Bo's (House Of Blues Stage, 16:35). We weren't able to see the whole set, but his show was hot. His paino playing was right in the groove, and though as a singer he isn't a big voice type, he was sounding okay. The band was a fine one, too, especially the funky horns. I can't quite recall what songs he did anymore, but I think mojority of the tunes were all-time standards. By the way, we also caught his show at the Dream Palace on May 1, so check the report on that show if you are interested.

    I also enjoyed Buckwheat Zydeco (Ray Ban Stage, 15:30). He played Hendrix's "Hey Joe" at the end of the set which shows he is a little off the traditional paths of the Zydeco music, and more towards rock and pop. I also like his pop approach on tunes like "Hey, Good Lookin'". The crowd was singing with him on this one. Of course, I was one of them who sang. One thing I noticed was that many of the zydeco players tend to get hyper on stage (so to speak), but Buckwheat was looked calm. But let me remind everybody that this doesn't mean that he wasn't powerful. Oh yes, he was!

    Around the same time Buckwheat played, a versatile drummer of New Orleans, Herman Ernest (House Of Blues Stage, 15:10) was playing with his band. I could only see the 20 minutes or so of the set, but it didn't get me quite excited. Of course they were playing great, but it sounded too normal. There was a featured vocalist named Sherry Morton who sang on three songs. Her vocal style kind of reminded me of Irma Thomas. The songs she sang were Aretha's "Baby I Love You", and the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" and so on, which was quite predictable. Is it asking too much if were to say it would have been great if she had more power in her voice?

    We also saw Junior Wells (Ray Ban Stage, 14:00). It was his debut apprearance at the Jazz Fest this year. It seemed a little odd to me as he seemed to tour quite often and I had seen him in Japan as well. Dressed in rough outfit, he exuded funky spirit from the first song "Broke And Hungry". No wonder he is regarded as James Brown of the blues. "Messin' With The Kid" was cool, too!

    We decided to see Cyril Neville And The Uptown All-stars (Congo Square, 18:00) to wrap up the day. This wasn't an easy decision to make as there were a lot of good alternatives such as Wayne Toups, Wynton Marsalis, and Sammy Berfect. I ended up going from one stage to another to take peeks anyway.

    Cyril's bands reggae based sound was a real treat. But the majority of the crowd this day seemed to be interested in seeing the Allman Brothers, and there weren't much crowd at the congo square. I was lucky to see the show up close because this reason.

    But by the time the band started to play the tune "Big Chief", the curiousity in me for seeing the other stages got better of me and I left to the Polaroid Stage to see Wayne Toups. The drummer was beating out a strong beat and the Tous' performance was quite a powerful one. The name of the band, "Zydecajun" seemed appropriate with that blend of Louisiana music. It was good, but I went back to Cyril's stage after one or two songs.

    We didn't stop by to see The Allman Brothers Band (Ray Ban Stage, 17:40), we had gone to see them at the Lakefront Arena the night before, but while I was running from stages to stages, I could hear their sound from far as they were playing very loudly. The tune I heard then was "Ramblin' Man", the song which they didn't play at our show. Oh well, but they played "Midnight Rider" the night before, so I guess it's okay. The length of the performance itself should have been longer at the Lakefront, too.

    We were not able to see Wynton Marsalis (WWOZ Jazz Tent, 17:40), but what I heard from people who saw the show was that the place was so crowded they couldn't even get near the Tent. The sound? They said he was playing a very orthodox jazz.

    I also wanted to see Sammy Berfect & The Dimension Of Faith (Rhodes Gospel Tent, 18:15), but couldn't because of this situation where lots of shows are on at the time. Sammy is often heard on recording from Black Top Records on keyboards, but his own group was a gospel group... I wanted to hear that, but...

    Other artists whom we couldn't see this day were The Dirty Dozen (Polaroid Stage, 14:45), Walter Wolfman Washington (Polaroid Stage, 16:15), and so on. I regret I didn't go to see The Dirty Dozen when they still had "Brass Band" in their name. I wasn't as much interested in them now as I was for their past, so I didn't choose to see them. Anyway when they were playing, Buckwheat and Herman Ernest was playing as well, so I couldn't do anything about it. I saw the Wolfman in Japan once and Eddie Bo was playing at the same time, so I passed this time.

    We used pretty much of our energy on this first day of the fest by going from one stage to another. It was just the first day! The strong sun also get a lot out of you. Everything was over at the Fairgrounds this day at about 19:00, but after we returned to our hotel and had a meal, we went out to see another show at a club. Golly!!


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