NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is generally akin to a 14-ring musical circus: a variety of musical acts performing simultaneously on stages spread across the vast infield and grandstand of a racetrack historical.
That changes on Thursday afternoon, when 13 stages remain silent before The rolling stones are making their first appearance at the 54-year-old festival.
“We didn’t want to have 13 empty stages and no one in front of them when the Stones started singing songs like ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,'” festival producer Quint Davis said. . The Associated Press ahead of the festival. “Everyone who bought a ticket for that day primarily bought a ticket to see the Stones.”
Jazz Fest is the Stones’ second stop on their Hackney Diamonds Tour, released in support of the well-received album they released last year, their first album of original material in 18 years. They were scheduled to appear at the 50th Jazz Fest in 2019 but had to cancel due to Mick Jagger’s heart surgery. A later planned appearance was canceled in 2021 when the festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the gates opened to overcast skies and a light breeze, hundreds of fans flocked to the festival grounds, many wearing T-shirts with the Rolling Stones’ signature “lips with tongue out” logo or a bearing only the group name.
“I was torn between seeing them before they died or seeing them before me,” Nathan “Bam” Schulman, 75, an acupuncturist from Eugene, Oregon, said with a laugh.
Schulman said he saw the Stones perform years ago in Oakland, Calif., but was looking forward to Thursday’s performance.
“They are such an inspiration,” he said. “I look at them and I remember a time of adventure, a time when I was who I wanted to be, a time when I was myself and we said, ‘To hell with the establishment ‘. They inspire me to keep living.
Vickie Clay, 38, who works in the auto industry in New Orleans, said seeing the Stones in person “was on her bucket list.”
“This will be the first time I see them,” she said. “I hope Mick Jagger does his ‘chicken dance’ moves, but whatever he does, it will be worth every penny.”
Kerry Dantzig, 54, of San Francisco, said she regularly attends Jazz Fest “for the food, for the music and to catch up with old friends.”
“I hope Mick and the Stones sound good,” said a smiling Dantzig, who works in the insurance industry. “I mean, they’re 80 years old, you know? Still, I can’t wait to see Mick Jagger rock his caboose.
Henri Lellouche, 63, a retired advertising executive from Fairfield, Conn., said he had seen the group perform before and added it was a good idea to combine them with the Jazz Fest.
“I haven’t heard a lot of their new stuff. But I like the older music, the blues tinge, and I like watching them play. I mean, it’s hard to believe they’re the same age as Joe Biden,” he said.
Fans of New Orleans rhythm and blues artists will be watching to see if the legendary group performs “Time Is On My Side,” which was one of the group’s first hits. New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas had success with the song in a previous recording, and Thomas told WVUE-TV in an interview that “there’s a possibility” that she would performs with the group.
Thursday’s weather for the outdoor festival is a bit dodgy. The forecast shows a mostly cloudy outlook, with temperatures hovering around the 80s Fahrenheit (around 30 Celsius). But there is up to a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon.
Dumpstaphunk, a New Orleans-born funk-fusion band descended from the city’s famous Neville family, plays just before the Stones hit the festival’s biggest stage. Dumpstaphunk mourns the recent death of bassist Nick Daniels III, co-founder of the group, who died on Sunday. The cause of death has not been released.
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News Source : apnews.com
