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Bob Dylan Opens New Orleans Jazz Fest
By Randy Lewis, Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2006
LA Times
NEW ORLEANS -- It's always tricky looking for the motivation behind a Bob Dylan set list. But there was little doubt Friday that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath was on his mind during a towering 90-minute performance for the opening day of the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival here.
First, there was the sheer intensity of his vocals, which especially in the early going channeled the chesty growl of Howlin' Wolf more than the typical Dylan nasality. His frequent blues-drenched treatments of songs old and recent fit right in with the annual event's celebration of various strands of American roots music.
Mostly, though, it was the relevance of the songs he chose to the monumental destruction and the emotional and psychological aftermath that this region has been struggling with for the last eight months.
Three songs in, he pulled up "Lonesome Day Blues," from 2001's "Love and Theft" album, with its verse:
The road's washed out — weather not fit for man or beast/Funny, how the things you have the hardest time parting with/Are the things you need the least.
And during the encore portion, Dylan subtly but powerfully changed the familiar verse of "Like a Rolling Stone." So that instead of asking "How does it feel/to be on your own?" he zeroed in on the disorientation of displaced tens of thousands: How does it feel/To be without a home/With no direction home?
"Highway 61 Revisited" evoked the age-old conundrum of humanity striving vainly to understand the notion of "God's will," while a rare unearthing of 1970's "Watching the River Flow" brought the consoling observation that in times when it's impossible to understand life, it's advisable to just stand back and watch it.
His new five-piece band fueled the music with an intensely meaty blues-soaked rock, but the musicians were equally adept at the traditional folk and country settings their boss asked of them at times. And all three styles were conjured sequentially in a brilliant arrangement of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" that coursed through the spectrum of traditional roots music surrounding Dylan at the first day of this 10-day event.
Dylan's mastery of those forms will make for an especially fascinating juxtaposition to Sunday's performance by Bruce Springsteen, whose new "Seeger Sessions" album updates the tradition of socially conscious folk music.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
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In pictures: New Orleans Jazz Fest
BBCNews
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4957392.stm |
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The Boss Closing 1st Weekend of Jazz Fest
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY , 04.30.2006,
Associated Press
Opening weekend of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival drew thousands of fans as superstar acts and local musicians supported and celebrated the city and its music scene, suffering since Hurricane Katrina.
Bruce Springsteen headlined Sunday's performances - his first appearance at the festival.
Though New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz and closely identified with a multitude of genres, including zydeco, blues and rap, its status and a premier music city took a huge hit last year as its musicians scattered in the storm's wake, and some clubs where music played nightly went dark.
So having two weekends of the massive Jazz Fest, now in its 26th year, was critical to helping restore the city's once vibrant music life. And many of its homegrown stars - including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Terence Blanchard, The Meters and others - have returned to Jazz Fest to help. Joining them were superstar acts like The Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan and Springsteen.
Blues legend Etta James, who performed Saturday, hadn't been to New Orleans since Katrina and said at first she worried about one of her favorite haunts. But her performance Friday at the House of Blues in the French Quarter and her Jazz Fest appearance convinced her the city was on the right track.
"Now I can go back to Los Angeles and say, 'There's not too much wrong with it,'" she told The Associated Press after her performance. "It looks like to me it's coming back."
Saturday's acts delivered emotional, passionate performances. U2's The Edge joined New Orleans' NewBirth Brass Band, which has relocated to Houston, as the group sang "Stand By Me" in honor of its wounded city; The Edge later picked up his guitar for a Dave Matthews Band performance.
And New Orleans native Juvenile also tried to raise the beleaguered city's spirits. As the chorus of one rap boomed "Bounce back," Juvenile yelled to the crowd, "That's what New Orleans is about to do!"
Later, noting he was a Katrina victim as well, Juvenile said, "I ain't gonna give up on y'all."
Besides Springsteen, the acts booked for Sunday included Toussaint, performing with Elvis Costello; The Meters; and Yolanda Adams.
The festival picks up next weekend with Paul Simon, Irma Thomas, Keith Urban, Jimmy Buffett, Buckwheat Zydeco and Fats Domino, who hasn't performed in public since being evacuated from his damaged Ninth Ward home after Katrina.
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SPRINGSTEEN BLASTS KATRINA RESPONSE
Veteran rocker BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN yesterday (30APR06) slammed the official response to Hurricane Katrina during a performance at New Orleans' Jazz + Heritage Festival as "criminal". Springsteen took the opportunity to hit out at politicians for the way in which they handled the aftermath of the disaster, which killed over 1,300 people across America's Gulf Coast region last year (05). He told the crowd, "I saw sights I never thought I'd see in an American city. The criminal ineptitude makes you furious." During Springsteen's set fans cried as he played poignant songs, including HOW CAN A POOR MAN STAND SUCH TIMES AND LIVE? which contains such lyrics as "bodies floating" in the street and levees which had "gone to hell". He also dedicated MY CITY IN RUINS - originally written about Asbury Park in New Jersey - to New Orleans, a city whose population has fallen from 500,000 to 200,000 as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Other stars to play the festival included BOB DYLAN and ELVIS COSTELLO.
01/05/2006 13:49
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