{"id":3888,"date":"2014-04-29T21:44:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T21:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2014-04-29T21:44:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T21:44:24","slug":"in-between-jazzfest-weekends-new-orleans-honors-elders-and-supports-young-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/29\/in-between-jazzfest-weekends-new-orleans-honors-elders-and-supports-young-musicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Jazzfest Weekends, New Orleans Honors Elders and Supports Young Musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp 20th Anniversary Concert Series Fundraiser (May 1) will showcase tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good news<\/em>: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival<\/strong> swung into gear last weekend with mostly sunny skies, moderate temperatures and three full days of music. On Saturday, you could have paraded through the Economy Hall tent behind the Treme Brass Band<\/strong>, caught Robert Plant<\/strong> deconstructing Led Zeppelin tunes with his fascinatingly weird Sensational Space Shifters band at the Samsung Galaxy Stage, and ended up at the Jazz Tent, where saxophonist Branford Marsalis<\/strong>\u2019s band delivered a smart, tight and imaginative dose of jazz-quartet interplay. On Sunday, back at the Jazz tent, you could have heard singer John Boutt\u00e9<\/a> doing what he always does, just a little better.<\/p>\n

The bad news<\/em>: The day before jazzfest kicked into gear, the New Orleans City Council punted on a chance to rescind a shameful (not to mention unconstitutional) 1954 ordinance that declares: \u201cIt shall be unlawful for any person to play musical instruments on public rights-of-way between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.\u201d It was a sour note of legislative dysfunction in a city yet to discover quite how to support its indigenous culture.<\/p>\n

(Here<\/a>\u2019s some background to that issue,\u00a0and here<\/a>\u2019s Richard Rainey\u2019s Times-Picayune piece reporting on that council meeting.)
\nI\u2019ll have more to say about all that\u2014the story\u2019s far from through\u2014and more to report from jazzfest, which continues Thursday through Sunday.
\nOften the best part of jazzfest in New Orleans is the stuff that happens in between weekends at the Fair Grounds, the horseracing track that becomes a multistage arena once a year.\u00a0This year, some of these events are benefits. Here are a few:Wednesday, April 30:
\n\u2022 The\u00a0 Carver Theater<\/a> in the Trem\u00e9 neighborhood will reopen its doors for the first time in more than 30 years. (Here<\/a>‘s some backstory, from the weekly Gambit.)
\n10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. \u2014 Ribbon cutting and International Jazz Day celebration
\n5 p.m. and 7 p.m. \u2014 a screening of the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary by Lawrence Cumbo, “Rockin\u2019 the Opera House: Dr. John<\/strong>\u201d will include a celebrity panel discussion about the Carver Theater featuring Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Vernel Bagnaris, James Andrews<\/strong> and actor Clarke Peters<\/strong>.
\n\u2014Following that, some will stick around for an 8:30 p.m. concert by alto saxophonist and Congo Nation\u00a0Big Chief Donald Harrison<\/strong>, in concert a benefit for The Southern University Alumni\u00a0Scholarship Fund<\/strong> and The Guardians Institute Book Program, <\/strong>the latter of\u00a0which, since 2006, has given over 40,000 books to the youth of New Orleans. This special event will include guests including trumpeter Christian Scott<\/strong>.
\n\u2014Others will head to the Palm Court Jazz Cafe where the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic<\/strong> will celebrate its anniversary with a \u201cSweet 16 Prom<\/a>\u201d celebration featuring Lil Freddie King<\/strong>.
\n\u2022 Harold Battiste<\/strong> has been named a \u201cJazz Hero<\/a>\u201d by the New Orleans chapter of the Jazz Journalists Association<\/strong> and will be honored on April 30, International Jazz Day, at the Louisiana Music Factory<\/a> at 4 p.m. and then again at 6:30 p.m. before a free concert led by his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Jesse McBride<\/a> and the New Generation at The Prime Example Jazz Club.
\nBattiste is among the most important figures in New Orleans jazz history, founder of A.F.O. Records<\/a>, the city\u2019s first Black owned and operated music label and publisher. He has had a profound impact on the city\u2019s music history as a teacher, producer and arranger as well.
\nOn May 1, there are two noteworthy musical events that benefit important cultural foundations:
\n\u2022 The Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp 20th Anniversary Concert Series Fundraiser<\/a> <\/strong>showcases the tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan<\/strong>, who is the jazz camp\u2019s artistic director, in a concert that also features baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett<\/strong>, a former artist-in-residence at the camp.
\nCafe Istanbul\/Healing Center 2372 St. Claude Ave., Thursday, May 1, 2014, 9:00pm. \u00a0There will be 2 sets.<\/em>
\nAs I wrote last year, when Jordan was inaugurated as a JJA \u201cJazz Hero\u201d:<\/p>\n

Kidd Jordan is a hero wherever freely improvised music is prized. In New Orleans, he\u2019d \u00a0be considered heroic even had he stopped playing decades ago, so influential is his work as educator.
\nWhat he does sounds both poetic and heroic. It\u2019s rare too, in that Jordan has, during the course of decades, arrived at a sound and a language distinct enough to attract adherents but not copycats. Simply put, no one sounds even remotely like him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would hard to find a nonprofit cultural organization more worthy of support and applause that the annual Louis Armstrong\u00a0Jazz Camp, whose list of founding faculty, artists-in-residence and alumni charts how musical excellence passes from one generation to the next. The camp was founded in 1995, and has grown from a one-week affair serving 35 children to a three-week intensive program training some 100 students, ages 10-21, in music and dance.
\n\u2022 One of the illustrious alumni of the Armstrong Jazz Camp is Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty<\/a>. <\/strong>He created his own Trombone Shorty Foundation<\/strong>, in partnership with Tulane University, to educate young musicians and help launch careers in music.
\nThe second annual Shorty Fest<\/a> to benefit the foundation (8-12pm at Generations Hall<\/strong>)\u00a0highlights emerging young talent, including a performance by students participating in the Trombone Shorty Academy music performance program, and is\u00a0headlined by Shorty and his Orleans Avenue band, the Soul Rebels Brass Band, and special guest organist Dr. Lonnie Smith.\u00a0According to the press release, the event will include a \u201cYoung Guns Blues Showdown\u201d with Cedric Burnside Project, Jonathon \u201cBoogie\u201d Long, Roosevelt Collier and 10-year-old guitar prodigy Brandon \u201cTaz\u201d Niederauer (Why not? Shorty was leading his own band by the time he was 10).
\nPhoto: Peter Gannushkin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The good news: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival swung into gear last weekend with mostly sunny skies, moderate temperatures and three full days of music. On Saturday, you could have paraded through the Economy Hall tent behind the Treme Brass Band, caught Robert Plant deconstructing Led Zeppelin tunes with his fascinatingly weird Sensational … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Between Jazzfest Weekends, New Orleans Honors Elders and Supports Young Musicians”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[25,11,138,139,12,140,14,141,142,143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}