I’m always ready to go toe to toe with hammerheads who bitch and moan about
the Jazz Fest’s non-jazz content. But the fact that Jazz Fest kingpin John
Nugent colors outside the lines and books a band like, let’s say,The
Sadies — that is a jazz move. And in the last nine days I’ve been treated to
jazz and its myriad sub-genres, plus blues, rock, world beat, zydeco, big band,
etc. and all their variations. Regardless, it’s a jazz festival, so shut up.
Incidentally, the best act of the whole damn week was Saturday night’s
Abilene headliners, The Sadies. This band rocked so hard with
its trademark western swing-surf-blues-garage-roots-rock giddy-up, I didn’t
know what to do first; jump up and down, scream, or applaud. As you read this,
I’m still doing all three. This show will stay with me a long time. And face it, I’ve seen a lot of cool shit over the years. Saturday
night’s Sadies spectacular is up there in the Top 10 easily.
The band brought its own soundman so it could flex appropriately. It was
hard to focus as both Travis and Dallas Good (front men and brothers in the
group) both have something to offer. Travis has his high-speed guitar picking
and maniacal fiddle abuse. Dallas
is the tall cool one with the rich voice and the B-bender guitar. Both pick
lonesome and mean. The encore tune for both sets was insane, as it included
nods to Them, The Sonics, The Seeds, Bob Wills, and even Spinal Tap. The crowd
went bananas. Like I said, best act of the whole damn week.
That doesn’t mean the rest of the night was a wash. Over
at Max of Eastman Place Chic Gaminecreated beautiful, upbeat
harmonies against a minimalist tapestry of drums, and occasional keys and
guitar. It was more beauty shop than barbershop with the group’s
splendiferous mix.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars put on a show of
polyrhythmic joy and thundering bass. The band just seemed so happy (especially
if you consider how and where the band came to be).
I got as close to the East and Alexander stage as possible for Trombone
Shorty‘s set. He was a lot more contemporary and poppy than he was
last year. So I opted to pop in for a tattoo at Doc Yager’s. Doc put a nice
music note on my arm. It wasn’t a jazz note, it wasn’t a rock note. It was just
a beautiful music note; just like this year’s Jazz Fest was simply a beautiful
music festival.
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2012.
