|
New Orleans Jazz Fest vows to come roaring back
02/15/2006 5:58 PM, Reuters
Let the Good Times Roll!
Vowing to gather the biggest names in music to celebrate
New Orleans, organizers of Jazz Fest on Wednesday unveiled an
eclectic line-up with the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and
Keith Urban along with local legends like Fats Domino.
"We're inviting the world to come. But we really want New
Orleanians to come. We want to say to all New Orleanians
everywhere that this is your homecoming dance and this is your
homecoming band," said New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
producer Quint Davis.
The festival, which will run on two weekends, April 28 to
April 30 and then from May 5 to May 7, ranks as one of the
biggest traditional tourist draws for New Orleans after Mardi
Gras, which gets under way this month.
Plans for the festival have been followed closely by local
merchants and residents, most of whom remain shut out of their
homes because of the flood damage that followed Hurricane
Katrina in August.
"Find a way to come back because this is where your heart
is," singer Irma Thomas said in an appeal to the city's
hundreds of thousands of displaced residents. "(The) festival
will be the therapy we all feel we need."
Davis said headline talent in the festival, which includes
Jimmy Buffett, Lionel Richie, the Dave Matthews Band and Elvis Costello, had agreed to work for concessional rates.
At one point, it looked as if the festival might have to be
scaled down or scrapped but sponsors Shell Oil and American
Express stepped in to underwrite some of the cost, Davis said.
Several New Orleans musicians said there was a special
poignancy to the city's first big music event since Katrina.
"New Orleans is my home. I don't care how many hurricanes
come through here. I'll be living in New Orleans," said
Clarence "Frogman" Henry, who attended Wednesday's announcement
in a tuxedo and with a walker.
Henry, who scored a hit with his 1956 novelty song "Ain't
Got No Home" in which he famously brags about his ability to
sing as both "a girl" and "a frog," said his home sustained
relatively minor damage from Katrina.
"We've got a little bit of work to do, but the Lord has
blessed me and spared me," he said.
Thomas, known as "The Soul Queen of New Orleans," said she
was living in nearby Gonzales, Louisiana, while rebuilding her
flood-damaged home in the city.
"I have got to get home or my husband is going to drive me
up a wall. He misses it so much," she said.
The Jazz Fest promotional poster features an image of Fats
Domino rollicking at the piano.
The rock-and-roll pioneer, whose hits include "Ain't That A
Shame," and "Walking to New Orleans," had been feared dead in
the flooding that hit his neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward.
But he survived and plans to play at the festival.
A full schedule of performances will be posted on the
festival's Web site: www.nojazzfest.com.
|
