The
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Mahalia
Jackson, often called the greatest gospel singer, returned
to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival in April of 1970. While attending the Louisiana
Heritage Fair in Congo Square (then known as Beauregard Square),
she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the event, came
upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of second-line
revelers through the Festival grounds. George Wein, producer
of the Festival, handed Ms. Jackson a microphone, she sang
along with the band and joined the parade…and the spirit
of Jazz Fest was born.
This
spontaneous, momentous scene—this meeting of jazz and
heritage—has stood for decades since as a stirring symbol
of the authenticity of the celebration that was destined to
become a cultural force.
From
the very beginning, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
was envisioned as an important event that would have great
cultural significance and popular appeal. The Festival was
the culmination of years of discussions and efforts by city
leaders who wanted to create an event worthy of the city’s
legacy as the birthplace of jazz. A couple of other festivals
were held in the years leading up to the first New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Festival, but those events, different
in format, did not take hold as the Jazz & Heritage Festival
would.
In
1970, George Wein, jazz impresario behind the Newport Jazz
Festival and the Newport Folk Festival (begun respectively
in 1954 and 1959) was hired to design and produce a unique
festival for New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established to oversee
the Festival.
Wein’s
concept of the Louisiana Heritage Fair—a large daytime
fair with multiple stages featuring a wide variety of indigenous
music styles, food booths of Louisiana cuisine, and arts and
crafts booths, along with an evening concert series—formed
a construct that would prove vastly appealing and enduring.
In
addition to Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington, the first
Festival lineup included Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, Clifton Chenier,
Fats Domino, The Meters, The Preservation Hall Band, parades
every day with The Olympia Brass Band and Mardi Gras Indians,
and many others.
In
announcing the first Festival, scheduled for April 22 –
26, Wein said, “The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival represents a new and exciting idea in festival presentation.
This festival could only be held in New Orleans because here
and here alone is the richest musical heritage in America.”
He also noted, with great prescience, “New Orleans,
in the long run, should become bigger than Newport in jazz
festivals. Newport was manufactured, but New Orleans is the
real thing.”
Wein
hired Quint Davis and Allison Miner, two young, knowledgeable
New Orleans music enthusiasts, to work on the event. Davis
would quickly become the main creative force behind the Festival,
establishing the event as a dynamic annual showcase of Louisiana
music with a bold blend of national and international flavors.
Davis remains producer and director of the Festival, guiding
the event through its fourth decade of existence. Miner, who
passed away in 1995, would make numerous contributions to
the Festival’s evolution, including the creation of
the Music Heritage Stage, which has been renamed in her honor.
In
1970, only about 350 people attended the Festival, about half
the number of musicians and other participants in the event.
But the Festival, which became known as “Jazz Fest”
almost immediately, was a great artistic success. When Jazz
Fest was held the next year, it was clear that the event had
already outgrown Congo Square.
For
the 1972 Festival, the event moved to the infield of the Fair
Grounds Race Course, the third-oldest racetrack in America
(open since 1872). Jazz Fest would grow quickly over the next
few years, constantly expanding its use of the 145-acre site.
In 1975, the Festival, still just a five-day event with only
three days of the Louisiana Heritage Fair, had an anticipated
attendance of 80,000. This was also the first year of the
Festival’s popular, limited-edition silkscreen poster,
now recognized as the most popular poster series in the world.
From
1976 to 1978, Jazz Fest expanded to two full weekends of the
Heritage Fair, and in 1979, for the 10th anniversary, the
Festival scheduled three weekends, though one entire weekend
was cancelled due to rain.
In
the 1980s, Jazz Fest continued to experience a tremendous
growth in popularity and began to gain wide acclaim as one
of the world’s greatest cultural celebrations. By the
end of the decade, more than 300,000 people attended the Heritage
Fair, evening concerts, and workshops. The 1989 Festival marked
the 20th annual event, which was commemorated with a classic
poster featuring Fats Domino, ushering in an era during which
the poster would celebrate many of Louisiana’s music
legends with iconic portraits.
The
decade of the 1990s saw the appeal of Jazz Fest and the Festival’s
significance as a cultural symbol soar. The New York Times
would note that the Jazz Festival had “become inseparable
from the culture it presents.” The Festival added features
like the Thursday that kicks off the second weekend (1991);
an International Pavilion that celebrates other cultures (Haiti,
Mali, Panama, Brazil, Martinique, and in 2004, South Africa);
and the Native American stage and area.
In
2001, the Festival celebrated Louis Armstrong’s centennial,
and the total attendance eclipsed 650,000, shattering records
for virtually every day of the Heritage Fair, including the
all-time single-day attendance record of 160,000. Wein’s
prediction that New Orleans would become the first city of
jazz festivals had clearly come true.
With
12 stages of soul-stirring music—jazz, gospel, Cajun,
zydeco, blues, R&B, rock, funk, African, Latin, Caribbean,
folk, and much more—the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival is a singular celebration. The event has showcased
most of the great artists of New Orleans and Louisiana of
the last half century: Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, The
Neville Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, Dr. John, Branford Marsalis,
Harry Connick Jr., Ellis Marsalis, The Radiators, Irma Thomas,
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Allen Toussaint, Buckwheat
Zydeco, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Better Than Ezra, Ernie
K-Doe, Vernel Bagneris, The Zion Harmonizers, Beausoleil and
many others.
The
Festival has always blended in a wide mix of internationally
renowned guests, among them: Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis,
Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Santana, Sarah
Vaughan, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Max Roach, B.B. King,
Dave Matthews Band, Patti LaBelle, Tito Puente, the Allman
Brothers Band, Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Linda Ronstadt, Lenny
Kravitz, Sonny Rollins, Bonnie Raitt, James Brown, Celia Cruz,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hugh Masekela, Cassandra Wilson, Willie
Nelson, The Temptations, Burning Spear,Van Morrison, LL Cool
J, Abbey Lincoln, Erykah Badu, Dave Brubeck, Gladys Knight,
Youssou N’Dour and many, many others.
Over
the years Jazz Fest has received many honors, including being
named the Festival of the Year four times by Pollstar
magazine. The 2004 event marks the 35th anniversary of Jazz
Fest, which the Wall Street Journal says “showcases
a wider, deeper lineup of essential American musical styles
than any festival in the nation…” and which Life
magazine has called “the country’s very best music
festival.’’
Inspired
by the spirit of Mahalia Jackson and the Eureka Brass Band
back in 1970, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
continues to celebrate the culture of Louisiana with the combined
fervor of a gospel hymn and the joy of a jazz parade.
Mahalia
Jackson photo courtesy of Michael P. Smith. Poster images
courtesy of ProCreations Publishing Co.
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