It was difficult for me to attend as much of this year's French Quarter Festival as I would have liked. I had a wedding to perform in the French Quarter on Saturday that also had several "attendant" events that took up my time, albeit pleasantly (a Thursday night "Ladies Dinner," a Friday afternoon Crawfish Boil, the Friday evening rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner, then the wedding itself on Saturday evening). The three churches of my denomination in the New Orleans area were planning their 4th Annual Shared Earth Day Service and Picnic in Audubon Park and this also required time and effort on my part. When all was said and done, I did not get to the festival at all on Friday, only briefly on Saturday, and just for a few hours on Sunday. And even though I LOVE the food at the French Quarter Festival, this year I did not get to eat there at all! (Luckily, there's always next year!)
With my being so tied up the weekend of the festival, I actually had to miss two of Big Man's three FQF gigs -- his first, but surely not his last. Friday night he played with Walter "Wolfman" Washington, and Saturday night he appeared with Renard Poché's band, both times (interestingly enough) on the Abita Beer Stage at Woldenburg Park on the river. This is considered to be one of the biggest stages of the fest, and Big Man reported crowds of about 10,000 people each night -- other than his television appearances, just about the biggest live audience he's ever played for. He said it was very exciting, and somewhat gratifying to look into the crowd and be able to recognize people he knew, friends, relatives, Friends of Bill W. and so on. I HATED having to miss those two sets, but I'm assured that Big Man played his heart out and delighted both band leaders as well as the crowds watching and dancing.
The weather was strange FQF weekend. Temperatures hovered in the high 60s and low 70s, aided by strong winds which sometimes made it feel almost chilly (OK, not really chilly, just chilly to New Orleanians). TV weather guys kept on predicting rain for every day of the fest, but amazingly enough, the only time it rained was very early Sunday morning (or late Saturday night, depending on how you looked at it), which was very convenient for all concerned. It wasn't even a lot of rain, even thought the clouds had been dark gray and threatening both Friday and Saturday.
Sunday dawned cloudy, but then spent the morning clearing up, until by afternoon, it was like, "What clouds? What rain?" The lovely and talented Anaîs St. John had asked Big Man to come play for her FQF set at the small and intimate Whitney Bank and Windsor Court Hotel Stage in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court on Royal Street, and so we arrived about an hour or so before the start time. Crowds were heavy, but navigable and friendly, mixed as to age, race, orientation, and certainly as to dress. (What different folks think is appropriate festival attire is a blog post in itself!) We cruised and listened to the Jazz Vipers (great!), David & Roselyn (always a crowd-pleaser, though not necessarily the greatest musicians), a mixed group of musicians under a canopy, earnestly pleading with the crowd for tips, and a young magician plying people with sleight of hand.
Anaîs's set was terrific, and not just because Big Man played most of it with her. She's such a beauty, and such an entertainer, really knows how to work a crowd, and play with them, interact with them. She did her justly-famous torch songs, added a tribute to Eartha Kitt ("I Wanna Be Ee-vill"), and of course had to do some of her notorious double-entendre numbers, like "Man O'War." (I'm not even gonna quote lyrics here, just take it from me, it was hot!)
Big Man really enjoyed the non-scripted, loose playing with Anaîs and the talented musicians (like Michael Skinkus on percussion and Harry Mayronne on piano), and the back-and-forthing between the trumpet or flugelhorn and the vocalist was well done. And who couldn't play hot and nasty with Anaîs draped provocatively on top the piano, right in front of your face? Big Man was well up to that onerous task, and blew it away.
It was funny, though, right after the set, I ran into a male acquaintance and asked him how he had liked Big Man's trumpet playing with Anaîs. My friend stared at me blankly and asked, "There was a trumpet?" Apparently, for much of the audience, they only had eyes for Anaîs, and who can blame them? (But really, I swear, Big Man was there!)
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