Jazz Fest knows its audience: everyone. The 41st edition, Friday-Sunday and April 29-May 2, will fling its gates open to what producer/director Quint Davis calls a “wheels-to-wheels" demographic from strollers to wheelchairs. Ticket sales are outpacing 2009, which exceeded 400,000, a jump over 2008's 375,000.
“We are a gathering of all the tribes," says Davis, who sees Jazz Fest as unique among festivals despite a common template. “I spent last year going to all the big festivals, and the more I saw, the more I felt they were nothing like Jazz Fest."
He points to his production's juried craft fairs of handmade goods, broad menu of regional dishes, $45 daily ticket and daylight agenda that allows post-fest dining and clubbing. The chief lure is Jazz Fest's staggering variety of music, and this year he's touting the “strongest, broadest, biggest range ever."
Returning headliners Aretha Franklin, Lionel Richie, Van Morrison, Kirk Franklin and Frankie Beverly join first-timers Pearl Jam, Jeff Beck, Anita Baker and the Gipsy Kings, the latter on Davis' wish list “since puberty."
Regional acts account for 80% of the bill and continue to deliver the festival's hidden surprises, which this year include young soul strutter Mia Borders, indie rock band My Name Is John Michael and Bounce Extravaganza, specialists in rap subgenre sissy bounce.
Now enjoying wider acclaim, many locals from guitar aces Sonny Landreth and Anders Osborne to kid-aimed rock band Imagination Movers have graduated to the main stages.
“Trombone Shorty, Kermit Ruffins, Ivan Neville they're not unknown anymore," says Davis, who wagers that “note for note, beat for beat, the musicianship of local players is at the level of these bigger commercial acts."
“We get this immediate kick that often lands us on the Billboard charts," says Mark Samuels, president of New Orleans-based Basin Street Records. Its entire roster, including Irvin Mayfield, Jon Cleary, Michael White, Henry Butler, Jason Marsalis and Theresa Andersson, was booked this year. “You've got this big audience, plus talent buyers and press from all over the world. You'd have to go on a 40-city tour to receive that kind of attention."
“The bigger vulnerability for us is corporate underwriting," he says. “You can't make it on tickets alone. Our partnership with Shell is the safety net that kept the festival alive after the flood. Ticket sales have come back, but we have some sponsorships due for renewal, and that will be a bigger moment of truth."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
