Out of the archives, written last year and never posted. I'm here again on August 2, 2017 for this year's edition of Satchmo Summerfest!
16th Annual Satchmo Summerfest
Walk to Jackson Square in the heat of the day. Upper 90s feels like 100F, this is New Orleans in August, baby! Here's a sampling of today's music.
1:45 PM Catherine Russell, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage
http://www.metrolyrics.com/catherine-russell-lyrics.html
"Give Me a Kiss That I Can Dream On" wafts over the lush grass in Jackson Park. Great day to begin a Satchmo Fest. More of Russell’s songs like "Everybody loves my baby (but my baby don't love nobody but me)" get the afternoon off with just the right calibration.
3:45 PM Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage
Yoshio Toyama and wife Keiko and the New Orleans Jazz stars. Toshio and Keiko discovered and fell in love with New Orleans jazz while they were studying music in New Orleans in 1963. They werevbefriended by their neighbors, learned to enjoy Creole food and were invited to return by then owner of The Preservation Hall Jazz Hall, Alan Jaffe, to return and get deep into it. The story is the stuff of legends and certainly a documentary film. Their Wondeful World Foundation has been gifting instruments to New Orleans high school bands since post Katrina 2003.
Toshio has known some of the band members for 30 years. Clarinet player Mr. Fischer brings his band to Japan every year.
Yoshio does a great job of mimicking Satchmo's gravelly voice and incredible trumpet style with "Wonderful World" followed by "When the Saints Go Marching In," two Armstrong covers he sings to an appreciative crowd every year.
Yoshio, trumpet, Keiko piano and banjo, Mr. Fisher, clarinet
Incredible how many versions of the songs are played today, each one a blend of the spirit of Louis Armstrong and the imprint of the New Orleans artist covering it. I have heard versions of some of the songs a dozen times and each one has the spirit of Louis and the style of the artist. Louis did the same thing himself – put his own stamp on songs written before him but with a style and delivery no one had ever heard before.
In the midst of all this, I meet Richard Eglé, who asks me if I will volunteer to do a survey tomorrow.
4:45 PM Chop Suey Stage Topsy Chapman and Soul Harmony
“Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams,” This was one of Louis’s favorites,” she says. Then a quick march to check out the Pinettes Brass Band.
5:30 PM Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage The Original Pinettes Brass Band
http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2009/05/pinette_brass_band_puts_female.html
"We’re Gonna Rock Tonight, Everything Is Going to Be All Right" followed by a cover of Amy Winehouse “Be My Baby” which they call renamed "Baby." http://www.metrolyrics.com/be-my-baby-lyrics-amy-winehouse.html
Now,we're talkini'! Like Louis, New Orleans bands find material that appeals to them, reshape and remold it into something familiar yet decidedly different. I've heard it all day long and that's why I keep coming back. If you’re turning the dial on your radio, you’ll recognize one of these songs by its distinct New Orleans flavor and stop right there. Amy would love the sassy upbeat New Orleans treatment by this band of young funksters.
"We're going to change it up on you again!" says the bandleader and they romp through a bunch of samples of their songs. I don't know the names of the songs but I know they're playing with an incredible amount of energy skill and talent and the audience is eating it up like grits and gravy. Today we’ve got one guy playing triangle/symbol and snare drum player has symbol strapped to his chest.
6:30 PM Chop Suey Stage Charmaine Neville
The woman sings vocals and plays the percussion rack at her place in front of the stage. She does an amazing version of Satchmo's voice – when I was walking to the tent, I thought one of the men and her band was singing "What a Wonderful World." Next surprise, Charmaine sings "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that ends up with a few funky verses that celebrates Louis Armstrong's powers of interpretation.
"Louis Armstrong brought music all over the world," she says, "It's important that people keep it alive all over the city.” It's no secret that New Orleans is a troubled city. Tourism is ramping up after Katrina but crime rates are also up, education is in flux, politics is messy and most politicians are not held in high regard. The black communities relationship to the police is tenuous. The recent wave of gentrification is leading to displacement of close-knit neighborhoods and the culture and history of generations.
Music remains the lighthouse, the beacon people gravitate to keep steady over troubled waters. Musicians, mostly black, are at the core of what makes this city so special, so unique and performers like Charmaine make sure we remember it.
"Little Liza Jane,"with Charmaine doing a great river on percussion and inviting dancing James whose birthday was August 6, to dance on stage. to the stage. She rolls on with "Mac the Knife," "Gangster Freeze," "This Is a Man's World,” and somehow,"Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead, " upbeat with an ending that has a touch of Broadway in it.
Charmaine signs off, "It doesn't hurt to be kind to each other, Just be nice," then rolls into a rendition of "Altogether Right Now," and leaves the stage saying "God loves you… Peace!" And thanks for volunteers, the police, the organizers, and us in the audience.
Time to head home
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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