A sunny, breezy day Saturday drew thousands of festival goers for headliners Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Feist and Cee Lo Green, as well as local favorites Irvin Mayfield and Tab Benoit.
Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue kicked off an early set with their New Orleans-based style of tattooed rockabilly, sparking spontaneous fais do-do dancing in the audience with original songs like Don't Think Twice and a rollicking cover of Pat Benatar's Love Is a Battlefield.
In the audience was Eric and Dianne Mayer, who traveled from southern California for the seven-day festival. It was their first Jazz Fest. They said the HBO series Treme got them into New Orleans music - and the festival didn't disappoint.
"There's no other place where jazz and blues and Cajun music all blends together like here," Dianne Mayer said. "It's so much more than jazz."
One of the day's highlights was local pianist Jon Cleary, backed on Saturday with the three-member Absolute Monster Gentlemen. It was fitting that Cleary played under a colorful mural of Professor Longhair, the legendary New Orleans piano virtuoso who died in 1980. Cleary, Bonnie Raitt's former touring pianist, channeled Professor Longhair on Saturday, pounding on the keyboard like it was on fire and running through songs like When You Get Back and Unnecessarily Mercenary with revivalist fervor.
One of the most anticipated acts of the day was Cee Lo Green, the cat-stroking judge on The Voice reality TV show and former member of the Goodie Mob hip-hop group. Several thousand enthusiasts crowded around the smallish Congo Square tent for the show. But the expletive-laced performance mostly felt disjointed and overproduced, leaving the throngs to politely sway instead of bouncing or dancing to the music. At one point, during an awkward break in the music, Green turned to his band and yelled, "What are y'all standing around for? Play the (expletive) music!"
The crowd got moving during his hit songs Crazy and Forget You - but barely.
New Orleans club owner and impresario Irvin Mayfield blows a mean trumpet and is a fine musical arranger. Saturday in the Jazz Tent, the Grammy winner put the latter skills to use in directing the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (itself a Grammy winning outfit) in a dynamic program. Mayfield welcomed Mardi Gras Indian leader Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, clad in his spectacular beaded parade costume, and the local legend led the group in an opening chant. A gorgeous and respectful orchestrated version of the Star Spangled Banner followed, composed he said, for the 200th anniversary of its adoption as the national anthem. Other guests included Cyril Neville and Kermit Ruffins.
The advocacy/musical group Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars, led by guitarist Tab Benoit, got right to their message, opening with Don't Let the Water Wash Us Away. Anders Osborne punctuated it with furious guitar runs and Jumpin' Johnny Sansone took it home with powerful harmonica riffs.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dr. John later took lead on local R&B classic Ooh Poo Pah Doo and Neville summed up the prevailing sentiment of the afternoon - and perhaps the entire festival - by spitting out: "Ain't no funk like Louisiana funk!"
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took the stage in front of thousands of enthusiasts - and delivered. The 61-year-old legendary rocker got the crowd singing along early with popular hits Here Comes My Girl and Free Fallin', as well as Handle With Care, a shout-out to his time with the Traveling Wilburys.
He wrapped up the show to a massive sing-along with Runnin' Down a Dream and, as a sizzling encore, American Girl.
Across the fairgrounds, fellow headliner Feist acknowledged the challenge of performing in the same time slot as Petty. "If we weren't playing, we'd be over there, too," she told her audience, several hundred strong. "Thank you for not abandoning us!"
They didn't. Those gathered stuck around to the end and clapped until Feist returned to the stage for a searing encore of When I Was a Young Girl. "Now go get in some trouble!" she shouted.
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