The Closing of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Neville Brothers
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is on of those events that has just kind of surpassed its original intent. It may have started out as a kind of small local festival to feature the jazz music associated with New Orleans, but since hurricane Katrina, it has taken on new symbolism. Each year since that storm, the festival has grown and grown and grown, as has the population. In other words, the festival has become a kind of symbol of the growth, rebuilding and regeneration of the city itself.
I am not going to sit here and convince you that the Neville Brothers are exactly within the jazz category. Hell, I am not even going to sit here and tell you I know a single Neville Brothers song or what their music sounds like. What I do know is that they are all originally from New Orleans and that it had become a tradition for those hometown boys to close out the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Then came Katrina, and all of that changed.
The brothers scattered to the winds and across the country. Every year, the fans would attend the festival in hopes the brothers would make a return. That hadn’t happened. Aaron Neville had personal issues and his wife died last year and that sort of sidetracked him. All of that changed with the ‘08 festival.
As written about in this article at CNN.com, the Neville Brothers returned triumphantly to the city where they were born and closed out the festival. By all accounts, it was worth the wait and just the celebratory event the citizens of New Orleans were hoping for.
The festival, as I mentioned, is a symbol and the residents who have scattered since the storm often make the trek back just to see the performers. According to many of them, the return of the Neville Brothers marked a remarkable thing and was a significant event a least in the hearts of New Orleans residents everywhere.
The population of New Orleans was around 455,000 people before Katrina. Since then, some 320,000 have returned. It is a city that is far from being complete and there are still vast areas that show damage, not to mention those who worry about the possibility of the next storm.
Still, when things like this can happen and elighten and brighten the hearts of those who have experienced so much, well, you just can’t deny the healing power of music, can you?
For me, having only visited New Orleans once, and then as a teenager, I felt this was a story that crossed music genres. I hope it is a sign that maybe the city will come back and, perhaps, stronger than ever. I hope to be able to attend the Jazz and Heritage Festival some day and I am glad it has grown and continues to be a symbol of hope.
Tags: concerts, Festivals, jazz, Jazz_and_Heritage_Festival, Louisiana, musicians, Neville_Brothers, New_Orleans, performancesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Bands, Chicago, Festivals, jazz clubs
0 opinions for The Closing of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Neville Brothers
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: