Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur for The Rolling Stones
The second wave of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival struck the Big Easy yesterday, May 2. Following the success of the initial block of entertainment, April 25 through 28, the latter half of the schedule touched on the city’s spirit and its natural vibration, ultimately producing euphonious results. Thursday picked up with a hefty portion of Bayou natives and local elites, John “Papa” Gros, Honey Island Swamp Band, New Breed Brass Band with Trombone Shorty, and Dumpstaphunk, following the passing of bassist Nick Daniels III–all of which preluded headliners, The Rolling Stones’ Jazz Festival debut.
The rotating schedule kept the entertainment fresh, with most frames stretching over an hour and providing time for folks like Samantha Fish to dig into their self-scribed material and solidify a musical introduction or continued dialogue with those familiar or not with the artist and others that percolated across the Festival Stage, Shell Gentilly Stage, and elsewhere on the Fair Grounds Race Course. Following Dumpstaphunk, a brief gap separated the next act’s ascent on stage, the highly anticipated arrival of The Rolling Stones, scheduled to deliver their two-hour frame.
Fittingly, The Stones kicked off their set with “Start Me Up” before urging folks, “Get Off of My Cloud.” For their next number, the band visited their 1966 LP Aftermath, delivering a rare “Out of Time,” before jumping some 50-plus years forward with Hackney Diamonds cut, “Angry.” Mick Jagger welcomed a guest out to assist on their next number, “Let It Bleed,” Zydeco musician, accordionist, and vocalist Dwayne Dopsie, who breathed hometown feeling into the delivery.
Keeping with the unexpected, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans,” Irma Thomas, joined her hosts, sharing lyrics with Jagger on a cover of Kai Winding & His Orchestra’s “Time Is on My Side,” representing a bust out for the billed band, who last took on the number–which Thomas released under her own name–on March 20, 1998, closing a 26-year gap in performances. Sans guests, The Rolling Stones offered the second-ever take on “Whole Wide World,” a feature of Hackney Diamonds, first played during the group’s Racket listen party last October.
Classics “Tumbling Dice” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” dotted the setlist before Keith Richards’ vocal display on a “Little T&A.” The Stone picked up more fan favorites, serenading the crowd, and in return, a chime of lyrics from the familiar audience on “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Miss You.” Another New Orleans resident and known Stones collaborator, Chanel Haynes, layered her vocals with Jaggers for a stunning take on “Gimme Shelter.” “Paint It Black” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” took the final slots on the setlist before ensuing applause brought the band back out for an encore, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
Scroll down to view photos by photographer Dino Perucci, taken elsewhere on the festival grounds.
