Jazzfest Leg 2 @ Fairgrounds 5/5/12

The Blues Tent listed Mac Arnold & the Plate Full of Blues but what drew me in was Joe Krown, Russell Batiste, and Walter Wolfman Washington.  They were scheduled for the next day.  I don't know what happened, because I found a youtube video of Mac Arnold, so they played a different slot. Washington/Batiste/Krown were great.
The Joe Krown Trio featuring Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste Jr. (Funk/R&B) This allstar, New Orleans group with Krown on organ, Washington on guitar and vocals and Batiste on drums and background vocals digs into some grooves. Each a leader of their own fine groups, they offer a different blend in this configuration.
Latest album: Triple Threat.

Mariachi Jalisco caused me to pause at the Jazz & Heritage Stage for a little bit.  I was especially caught by the violin.  Aha, I see from the jazzfest listing there some Cuban elements.

El Mariachi Jalisco born in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last year in the entire state of louisiana mariachi not exist until then, its members decided to start again a musical work they did in his native Cuba,
 All of its members with more than 10 years of experience in the traditional Mexican genre began presentations, social events, festivals and parties after the Latin Festival in Baton Rouge and fundamental social events in the area.

 All its members are graduates of different conservatories in Havana City, Cuba, and all are descendants of Jalisco Mariachi Havana Cuba, this mariachi in Havana began its work with Mexican music on your resume this part 10 times the International Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara City, a video with the famous singer Placido Domingo, as well as television appearances in Cuba, Mexico and broadcast in different countries of Latin America and the United States.

 Currently working on recording his first CD where Mexican music also intended to record music a fusion of Latin music and traditional jazz of New Orleans

http://www.wrkf.org/batonrouge&newsID=2916

I love Kora Connection.  I was thinking about going out to St. Claude that night to catch a night show.  I didn't end up making it out to any more night shows, but this jazzfest portion was great.
Kora Konnection is an exotic blend of West African mandinka music and jazz improvisation. The band is led by two griots (oral historians): Morikeba Kouyate, kora (African harp) master from Senegal, and Thierno Dioubate, balafon and djembe master from Guinea.
Kora Konnection is also blessed to have the two finest jazz musicians in the city of New Orleans,Tim Green saxophone and James Singleton acoustic bass. Kora Konnection's architect and African percussionist, Jeff “Papafrog” Klein is the heartbeat of the ensemble. A combination of traditional West African music and Acoustic Jazz, Kora Konnection’s unique sound spans the cultures of two continents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_BGHuw7EuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIEfSMaqoq8

Anders was good for a bit.  I've really enjoyed his club shows lately, and the part I saw at the fest wasn't quite as good.  It was nice to see him with Eric Bolivar, though.  I missed the strings portion, which looked great on that 3rd youtube video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8apdhk8hxJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEfdDdg20Vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4iVSWntjE

Big Sam' Funky Nation had me dancing for a bit.

I loved Tommy Sancton's N.O. Legacy Band.  I read a little about them in Where Y'at when I got back.  I like how he's working with younger musician and keeping trad jazz fresh.
jazzfest listing:
The New Orleans Legacy Band is a group with strong roots in the past and a reach towards the future. Three of us, Clive Wilson, Lars Edegran and myself, learned to play traditional jazz at the feet of the old masters: the legendary group of elderly black musicians who led the so called jazz “revival” centered around Preservation Hall and Dixieland Hall in the 1960s. We were the eager apprentices of such greats as George Lewis, Kid Howard, Kid Thomas, Sweet Emma Barrett, Billie and Dede Pierce, Percy and Willie Humphrey, Papa French, and, of course, Harold Dejan and his Olympia Brass Band. Today we are in our sixties, roughly the age group of our mentors of yesteryear. But lest anyone despair over the future of this music, the successor generation is well represented on this album in the persons of Jason Marsalis, 33, Ronell Johnson, 34, and Kerry Lewis, 37. Our band illustrates the power of New Orleans music to reach out and touch people around the world. Young Clive Wilson heard its call in London, via Bunk Johnson’s 1940s recordings. Over in Stockholm, Lars Edegran was turned on to the New Orleans sound by his father and brother, both jazz musicians, and by friends who introduced him to the American Music sides recorded by Bill Russell. Like many other young Europeans in those years—I call them the “jazz pilgrims”—they came to New Orleans to learn at the source. They hung out at the jazz halls, ate red beans at Buster’s, sat in with Dejan’s Olympia Band on countless parades and funerals, and were welcomed onto the homes and hearts of the old masters they had come to learn from. Unlike most of the “pilgrims” who eventually returned home, Clive and Lars put down roots here and, in time, became active members of the local jazz scene. My own story is a little different. I grew up here—an uptown, middle-class white boy who, in those Jim Crow days, had little contact with the African American community that had created this wonderful music. That all changed one summer night in 1962: my father took me to Preservation Hall and opened my eyes and ears to the artistry of the veteran jazzmen who played there. I was smitten with the sound of George Lewis’s clarinet and decided to try to play like him. I took lessons with George, trumpeter Punch Miller, and banjoist Creole George Guesnon , sat in with them at the Hall, played parades with the Olympia and learned the trade as they had learned it: master to apprentice. The only problem was that I was virtually alone among young local musicians. It seemed that no one of my generation, white or black, was interested in traditional jazz in those years. And without a successor generation, the music of New Orleans—as we knew it—was headed for extinction. Fortunately, some younger members of the African American community finally became aware of their own musical heritage. Three of them, Jason, Ronell and Kerry, now play regularly with us at Preservation Hall and the Palm Court Jazz Café, and add their considerable talent and energy to this album. Drummer Jason Marsalis is the youngest scion of a famous jazz family, headed by jazz pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis, that also includes trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford and trombonist Delfeayo. Kerry Lewis, a First Lieutenant in the Louisiana National Guard, is one of the city’s most in-demand bassists and tuba players. Trombonist Ronell Johnson, like Kerry a graduate of Saint Augustine High School, is a multitalented musician who also plays trumpet, tuba, piano, organ, sings—and has even impersonated Santa Claus at the Riverwalk shopping center! 


http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2012/05/tommy_sanctons_new_orleans_leg.html
"Although Sancton (clarinet) and bandmates Clive Wilson (trumpet) and Lars Edegran (piano) are now in their sixties, they have recruited "the next generation" - drummer Jason Marsalis, trombonist Ronell Johnson and bassist Kerry Lewis, all thirtysomethings - to play in the Legacy Band and carry on the New Orleans jazz tradition."