Sánchez Plays NIN, Dave Matthews in Jazz Tent; Friday's Highlights at Jazz Fest

Our look back at Locals Thursday and ahead to Friday at the Fair Grounds.

Antonio Sánchez & Bad Hombre

This year’s Jazz Fest suggests that ticket prices have hit a tipping point, maybe in absolute terms, maybe relative to what buyers get for their money. The success of the days when the festival put tickets on sale fee-free says that local interest in the festival is strong, but not at the $90-$100 a ticket costs after fees. On Locals Thursday, the line to buy locals tickets was almost two blocks long, which translated to one of the busier Locals Thursdays that I can remember, also in part because Luke Combs and Billy Strings were good headliner bookings too. 

The highlight of my Thursday was drummer Antonio Sánchez & Bad Hombre, which played a very un-Jazz Tent-like Jazz Tent set. Sánchez’s soundtrack work and Bad Hombre album experimented with drum compositions, varying the textures instead of the tones. For the occasion, he had a band with him—keyboard player BIGYUKI, singer Thana Alexa, and bassist Lex Sadler. They played material from an album due out in August with the band remaking compositions given to them by other artists. A song composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is probably as close as Nine Inch Nails will get to Jazz Fest, and it suggested the beauty of the project. The synths swell in recognizable Reznor ways, and Sánchez’s drums have the kind of controlled intensity you’d expect from Nine Inch Nails, but his rhythms are ones Reznor and Ross wouldn’t choose. 

None of the rhythms swung, which seems almost heretical in the Jazz Tent, but much about Sánchez’s set went against the norm. Only Alexa’s voice and his drums sounded like conventional instruments, though she manipulated it at times with a synth that modified her microphone. BIGYUKI processed his keyboards through a barrage of effects pedals set up where he could get at them, and Sadler played and electric bass and a synth bass. The results owed more to Radiohead than any jazz icons, but the set was certainly the most creative of the day, where Sánchez put together a vision of jazz that could even accommodate Dave Matthews compositions.

In the three years since Jazz Fest 2019, New Orleans lost a number of musicians including Dave Bartholomew, who died at 100 in 2019. He was one of the architects of New Orleans R&B and rock ’n’ roll, so when Jazz Fest put a tribute to him on the schedule, you’d think you’d get a tribute to Bartholomew, but you’d be wrong. In an hour set, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band got around to five songs Bartholomew worked—two Fats Domino songs by Al “Lil’ Fats” Jackson, and three by Elvis Costello—before they got to “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” for the millionth time at Jazz Fest alone. 

The tribute seemed shockingly halfassed, from the set list to the stage craft. When the band brought Costello out, he walked up to a mic that wasn’t in the mix and that the soundman didn’t notice for a couple of verses. The problem went on until Gregory Davis brought the song to a stop and switched mics so that Costello could actually be heard. He sang “The Monkey Speaks His Mind,” That’s How You Got Killed Before,” and Bobby Charles’ “Before I Grow Too Old” and all were perfectly credible, but the handful of Bartholomew songs performed seemed random and woefully insufficient for someone so significant. 

Leo Nocentelli has two Jazz Fest gigs this weekend—one on Thursday and one the next day. Thursday’s set focused on Another Side, a lost 1971 album released last year that presented a version of Nocentelli that we’d never heard before or since. The largely acoustic, minimally funky album was inspired by James Taylor and includes a cover of Elton John’s “Your Song,” and he put together a band for it that included himself, Marc Stone, and Lo Faber on acoustic guitars. Stone and Faber seemed to be having a lot of fun, but Nocentelli was crusty about monitor issues, and seemed distracted for much of the set. Perhaps for that reason or perhaps because of the material itself, I walked away wondering if we’d be paying attention to this album if it came out through conventional means and if Nocentelli would have cared about this album if its discovery hadn’t put him back in the spotlight. 

When Ever More Nest closed its Lagniappe Stage set with a cover of “Maggie Mae,” my first thought was skeptical. Do we really need another “Maggie Mae”? My second thought was Hell yeah. If I was in a band, I’d want to sing “Maggie Mae,” and so would everybody in the watching the song. 

On Thursday, Jazz Fest announced that Melissa Etheridge had to withdraw, and that Mavis Staples has been booked into Etheridge’s slot in the Blues Tent Saturday at 5:55 p.m.

Friday’s Highlights

I could easily finish Friday with Elvis Costello, Busta Rhymes, or Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who I liked a lot early on. As for the rest of the day …

The Tropicales - Why is there not more calypso at Jazz Fest? Charlie Halloran is picking up the slack.

(Cultural Exchange, 11:30a)

Cimafunk - The Cuban singer has star presence and friends in New Orleans, so I won’t be surprised he has a guest or two for his Congo Square set.

(Jazz & Heritage, 12:25p; Congo Square, 4:15p) 

The Cowsills - Technically, the remaining Cowsills, but Susan and her brothers Bob and Paul sell vocal harmonies, family dynamics, and psychedelic pop from the ‘60s.

(Shell Gentilly, 12:45p)

Tribute to Lil’ Buck Sinegal (Blues Tent, 1:25p), Tribute to Chartles and Art Neville (Festival, 1:45) - My track record with Jazz Fest tributes isn’t particularly good, but with Sonny Landreth, CC Adcock, and Lee Allen Zeno involved in a tribute to the Lafayette blues guitarist, Buck will likely get his due. Pushing tributes to Charles and Art Neville into one set sounds a little messy, but with Nevilles in charge, it could and perhaps should be about family.

Big Freedia - Big Freedia is the closest thing New Orleans has to a rock star, and her Jazz Fest set proves it yearly. 

(Congo Square, 2:25p)