Photos: Arnie Goodman
What a night! Five stages within 100 yards of one another, this event is a fan’s dream come true. A mashup of a one-night festival, a backstage pass, a knockout all-you-can-eat buffet and an open bar, it’s hard to know where to go first. Patrons, Jazz Foundation board members, celebrities, fans and musicians alike mingle in the hallway, the performance spaces, and at the bars. Waiters with food and drink pass by every minute, just in case. Meanwhile, fabulous music rings out in every room with no audible spillover into the next space. I thought I’d died and somebody’d mistakenly sent me to Heaven.
Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, guitarists Melvin Taylor, John Scofield and Wyclef Jean, trumpeter Wallace Roney and he’s-played-with-everyone drummer Steve Jordan were among the 70 or so performers who blissed out their audiences, then sat with us to watch other masters at work.
Several tributes and awards themed a few of the performances: separate tributes to Doctor John, Dave Bartholomew and Art Neville rocked the NOLA stage where Cyril Neville, Jon Batiste, The Meters’ founder Zigaboo Modeliste and Davell Crawford got us up and dancing, while a Roy Haynes award presentation and a 50th Anniversary of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew bash filled the Jazz Lounge to capacity. New York favorite Sweet Georgia Brown and a guitarist fan from Paris sat in with Melvin Taylor. Steve Jordan, actor Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and former JFA Executive Director/now Vice Chairman Wendy Oxenhorn—who also sat in on harp—intro’d many of the acts.
This year’s event was sold out, so we suggest you purchase your tickets for 2020 soon. Come hungry and rested, and bring your checkbook, because it’s a fundraiser that gives more than it gets.
—Suzanne Cadgène
Be the first to comment!