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We arrived in New Orleans Thursday for Jazz Fest. We got settled into the hotel mid-day and grabbed lunch at Mother’s across the street. This deli-style hole-in-the-wall had a line even at 2pm. We had a classic Po Boy (sub sandwich with ham, roast beef, pickes, cabbage, some sort of mayo, with “debris” pan drippings as a sort of gravy sauce – mmm, messy but tasty), gumbo and a pair of iced teas. The building’s old bricks, the friendly greeter at the door who pointed us to the menus, and the cursing but incredibly efficient cooks who assembled our food made this a good intro to New Orleans. After a nap for Brian and, unfortunately, wrapping up some work for me, the party got started around 6pm when Dan, Nate, Loren, and John assembled at the hotel. We learned that Zapp’s chips and Abita beer (Restoration and Turbo Dog are much superior to the amber) were staples for snacking.

Then we were off to Fan Fest, a few blocks away. It was a free concert at Lafayette Square (mainly to recruit sponsors for the Jazz and Heritage Festival Foundation, and to be more inclusive of folks who don’t want to pay the $$ for the festival tickets) but provided a good warmup for the rest of the weekend. The Charmaine Neville Band was the main feature. Evidently you can’t listen to much music in NOLA without hearing a Neville. Charmaine had a terrific voice, and gave a rendition of “What a Wonderful World” that made us all do a double take that it was still she who was singing.

For the rest of the weekend, I’ll provide an overview of each day, and separate posts for some of the bands we heard in the evenings.