Jazzfest 2018 was awesome.  The best performance was easily mother nature herself, who provided a completely dry (yes, dry!) and sunny forecast.  Having great weather for the entire weekend is a rare experience (for me anyway) and it certainly elevated the vibes from both the musicians and attendees.  The rest of the city was equally fantastic, per usual providing the best oysters, Cajun food, and the most raging jazz music scene this side of the planet.  Here’s a recap of some of the highlights:

-Professor Craig Adams at Carousel Bar on Wednesday night

This was a great local find amongst quite a few better known music venues in town.  The band was a 5-piece–piano, bass, drums, guitar and alto sax.  The material was interesting in that it went from really funky jazz tunes like “The Chicken” to late back southern gospel Fats Domino–who incidentally was a featured artist, both that night and at the Jazzfest.  The band could really nail it down, especially the bass and drum combination.  Guitar guy sounded like he was really into Eric Krasno, and I love Soulive so this was cool with me.  I wanted to hear the band open up a little more but the professor was keeping things reserved overall.  Great local band.

-Dixie Dregs at House of Blues

I’m going to be delving more into this show in an upcoming post.  In a few words, the reunion of the original members (from the album Freefall) was pretty killer.  More to come…

-Jazzfest, Friday April 27th

One of the best lineups I’ve seen in a few years, and that was the problem–it was hard to see everybody!  Check this out–Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ron Carter Trio and Sidi Toure were all performing at virtually the same time.  Later in the evening, Steel Pulse and Sting were competing for “most dubbed out reggae tune” as dual headliners.  I got back and forth enough to see it all, but I would have loved to see each act longer.  Dirty Dozen was classic New Orleans brass funk at the Congo stage.  I think they’ve been around so long that one year they will close it out on Sunday.  Ron Carter is a legend, so this stop at the Jazz tent was almost more obligatory than anything else.  Having Russell Malone on guitar also intrigued me in the trio setting.  These guys were great, but it was a little subdued and mellow with no drummer.  I would have preferred to catch more of Sidi Toure of Mali.  He sounded a lot like Ali Farka Toure and Habib Koite.  These guys were just killing it with their special blend of poly-rhythmic Malian afro-funk in the Cutural Exchange Pavilion.  I didn’t even know this tent existed, so I’m definitely going to check into it next time.  Steel Pulse (also at the Congo stage) was a great end of the day headliner.  They played all the classics, “KKK”, “Handsworth Revolution”, “True Democracy” plus a few album deep cuts like “Soldiers” and “Babylon Makes the Rules”.   “Rollerskates” was a well received encore.  Somewhere during the Steel Pulse set, Sting played “Beds Too Big Without You” dubbed out for about 8-10 minutes.  I think he might have been inspired…All in all the weather was amazing, topping out at about 75 degrees and sunny.  Beautiful Friday afternoon.

-Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe

Again, I’ll be featuring these guys in an upcoming post, so I don’t want to get it into it here.  Needless to say, this was the highlight of the weekend for good reason–these guys simply killed it!

-Jazzfest, Sunday April 29th

After five days of solid partying and music, I have to admit I was a little spent on Sunday.  It was also pretty hot that day, hovering around 85 degrees.  It doesn’t really sound that hot, but everyone at the festival was seriously looking for shade–and there aren’t enough trees to go around!  So this altered my schedule a bit, plus we met up with some great Jazzfest friends and their musical tastes are the polar opposite of mine.  I didn’t catch near as many acts as I wanted to see, but I did see a few.  Lil’ Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers was a lot of fun at the Fais Do-Do stage.  This is the kind of music you’d expect to hear in New Orleans and is pretty well liked and performed around town.  I hurried over to the Jazz tent to hear Nicholas Payton and get setup for the main man of the evening, George Benson.  The seating was already growing outside the tent.  Mr. Payton was doing his “Too Black” show, which reminded me a lot of Roy Hargrove, circa 2005, around the “Hardgrove” album time-frame.  The band looked to be a 4-piece (drums, bass, keys/trumpet, guitar) plus a few background singers to add to the mix.  Nicholas switched back and forth between trumpet and Fender Rhodes effortlessly, but I really prefer hearing him lay down that smooth funky jazz trumpet over those cool grooves.  This is another one I would’ve liked to see more of.  George Benson was the headliner; he turned 75 years old this year!  I tried to see George many, many years ago and he cancelled for some reason or other.  After all this time, it was nice to finally hear the jazz guitar legend.  He certainly played the hits, like “Breezin'”, “Turn Your Love Around”, “Gimme the Night” and ended the evening with a jammed out “On Broadway”, where he invited a few local trumpet players to come up on stage with him.  As a guitarist who grew up shedding a lot of GB, I would have liked to hear more guitar a la Benson Burner, Bodytalk, etc., but I have to say that he really performed well, even at 75!  I hope you’re around for many more Mr. Benson!

In closing, this was one of the smoothest, best weather Jazzfest’s I’ve been too and it beats the hell out of standing in a hurricane while the show gets cancelled.  Big ups and much love to all the performers, attendees, staff and peeps of New Orleans for making this year a huge win.  Thanks again!!