My Atlanta Jazz Festival Report

con struct

Platinum Member
Sorry about this long post. I wanted to talk about my experience that the Atlanta Jazz Festival yesterday.

We had a big air conditioned RV for a dressing room/pre-gig hang-out area. Nice! The sax player hung out in the bedroom, warming up. The stage was bloody huge, I played a really nice Pearl drum kit with Sabian cymbals, there was a great crowd, nice weather, everyone having a good time in the park. And the band sounded great, I thought.

Oddly enough we were the only band that was 100% acoustic, the only band that did 100% original material and the only band that "swung." Everything else was more electric/funk oriented. Lots of slap-bass and heavy back-beats throughout the day. But the crowd still seemed to dig our more "purist" music.

The VIP tent was were all the "stars" were hanging out, eating all that good food. Marcus Miller was walking around with a plate of fried chicken. I saw Sonny Emory sitting at one the tables eating. I had the fried shrimp. There was a fully-stocked bar and a gigantic buffet heaped with food, there were sofas and tables and chairs and a big-screen TV where we could see what was happening on the stage. Class-A stuff, man. It was like being in the Rolling Stones or something.

The festival was a huge event. It was like a rock festival almost, very professional and well organized. There was a ton of gear on the stage, two different kinds of drums (the Yamaha kit was enormous, way too big for me!), lots of amplifiers and keyboards, stage crew guys running around with walkie-talkies, people driving golf-carts, tons of security. With all the little buildings and tents and the RV campers for the performers and the TV crews and all the coming and going it was like a busy little city back there. Very impressive. Music festivals have definitely changed since I was playing them all those years ago.

Trombone Shorty was great. He's a hell of a showman, he owns that stage and his band is a tight-ass machine, the kind of tight that comes from staying on the road. I was talking to his drummer, a really nice kid named, I believe, Joel, and he said that they almost never play jazz festivals. Usually they're more on the rock/jam band circuit. He was almost apologetic about it. But the crowd absolutely loved Trombone Shorty.

After Trombone Shorty went on I was standing behind the stage smoking a cigarette and just hanging around not doing anything. There was a sort of tent/canopy next to me, I couldn't tell why it was there. It was just sitting there for some reason.

Then a few people showed up, a couple of photographers and a short skinny girl with a huge afro, wearing skin-tight jeans and a funky little top. They had the girl stand in the little tent. I stood there watching while she had her picture taken and I suddenly realized that the short girl with the big afro and the skin-tight jeans was Esperanza Spalding.

The photographers finished and split, and now it was just her and me standing there. She saw me and I said something like, "How you doing," something just that innocuous, and she said she was fine. She asked me my name and asked me if I was playing and I told her that I'd played a little earlier in the day. Then she asked me if I knew where the VIP tent was, and I told her that I'd be happy to show her where it was. It wasn't far.

So. Dig this. I escorted Esperanza Spalding to the VIP tent. We didn't talk much or anything, just chit chat, in fact I thought she seemed a little shy. When we got to the tent I opened the door for her and walked in behind her and that was that.

Being able to walk around the back stage complex all day with my "All Access" pass hanging from my neck, going into the VIP tent for another ice cold beer, hanging out in the VIP area right in front of the stage, seeing old friends and making new ones, having people come up to me to tell me that they'd enjoyed my set, man it was like a dream. Hard to come down from that one, I'll tell you.
 
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I had planned on going up to it this year, (I live down in Savannah,) and just got busy and forgot all about it... @:-(

Awesome experience Con struct. Isn't it great when you have a great session and then the rest of the day is just as jamming..
 
Good one, Jay! We all knew you'd be fine at the gig :)

I imagine playing with all those funk bands would have taken some pressure off since there wouldn't be any comparisons - you were the best acoustic swinging band of the day!

And all because of a little MySpace profile ...
 
Its about time that you did something cool!
Audio or video, or it didn't happen!
Come on, cough up the links to the vids! Don't be shy!
 
very cool dude!! we just had our jazz fest in Jacksonville ,Fl, it was awesome ,only got to see a couple of shows cause of work, but I got to see Spyro Gyra!! awesome as usual,they played early in the day due to having to get to Atlanta for thier fest!!! good day!!!
 
That sounds classy! My band is playing the rochester jazz festival in two weeks and I am freaking out looking at the line up. Unfortunatley the festival is a week long and we aren't going to have time to stick around to see much stuff besides the day we play. There are bunch of really big acts like gladys knight, herbie hancock, booker t & the mgs, jeff beck, etc.
 
Good Stuff mister...................
 

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Thanks for catching us up on this! Glad your performance went well--sounds like the event was a cool "hang" as well. Hope you'll be able to get some kind of recording of the event.

When you said "big afro and tight jeans" my first thought was "Cindy Blackman!" But yes, I suppose Esperanza would fit that description as well! Glad you got to spend a little time with her--did you hear her play?

best,

spleen
 
What a great experience! I couldn't make the festival Saturday but attended on Sunday. I was a little worried about the weather - I'm sure you were too - but it was awesome, as usual!
 
Congratulations Jay! sounds like a great event! I am so glad you got to meet Esperanza. She is a beautiful person. We were lucky enough to have her sing one of the tunes on the John Blackwell Project CD. The song was written by Will Lee, and she came in and absolutely blew us all away. Great lady, tons of talent!

Paul
 
Sorry about this long post. I wanted to talk about my experience that the Atlanta Jazz Festival yesterday.

We had a big air conditioned RV for a dressing room/pre-gig hang-out area. Nice! The sax player hung out in the bedroom, warming up. The stage was bloody huge, I played a really nice Pearl drum kit with Sabian cymbals, there was a great crowd, nice weather, everyone having a good time in the park. And the band sounded great, I thought.

Oddly enough we were the only band that was 100% acoustic, the only band that did 100% original material and the only band that "swung." Everything else was more electric/funk oriented. Lots of slap-bass and heavy back-beats throughout the day. But the crowd still seemed to dig our more "purist" music.

The VIP tent was were all the "stars" were hanging out, eating all that good food. Marcus Miller was walking around with a plate of fried chicken. I saw Sonny Emory sitting at one the tables eating. I had the fried shrimp. There was a fully-stocked bar and a gigantic buffet heaped with food, there were sofas and tables and chairs and a big-screen TV where we could see what was happening on the stage. Class-A stuff, man. It was like being in the Rolling Stones or something.

The festival was a huge event. It was like a rock festival almost, very professional and well organized. There was a ton of gear on the stage, two different kinds of drums (the Yamaha kit was enormous, way too big for me!), lots of amplifiers and keyboards, stage crew guys running around with walkie-talkies, people driving golf-carts, tons of security. With all the little buildings and tents and the RV campers for the performers and the TV crews and all the coming and going it was like a busy little city back there. Very impressive. Music festivals have definitely changed since I was playing them all those years ago.

Trombone Shorty was great. He's a hell of a showman, he owns that stage and his band is a tight-ass machine, the kind of tight that comes from staying on the road. I was talking to his drummer, a really nice kid named, I believe, Joel, and he said that they almost never play jazz festivals. Usually they're more on the rock/jam band circuit. He was almost apologetic about it. But the crowd absolutely loved Trombone Shorty.

After Trombone Shorty went on I was standing behind the stage smoking a cigarette and just hanging around not doing anything. There was a sort of tent/canopy next to me, I couldn't tell why it was there. It was just sitting there for some reason.

Then a few people showed up, a couple of photographers and a short skinny girl with a huge afro, wearing skin-tight jeans and a funky little top. They had the girl stand in the little tent. I stood there watching while she had her picture taken and I suddenly realized that the short girl with the big afro and the skin-tight jeans was Esperanza Spalding.

The photographers finished and split, and now it was just her and me standing there. She saw me and I said something like, "How you doing," something just that innocuous, and she said she was fine. She asked me my name and asked me if I was playing and I told her that I'd played a little earlier in the day. Then she asked me if I knew where the VIP tent was, and I told her that I'd be happy to show her where it was. It wasn't far.

So. Dig this. I escorted Esperanza Spalding to the VIP tent. We didn't talk much or anything, just chit chat, in fact I thought she seemed a little shy. When we got to the tent I opened the door for her and walked in behind her and that was that.

Being able to walk around the back stage complex all day with my "Alur l Access" pass hanging from my neck, going into the VIP tent for another ice cold beer, hanging out in the VIP area right in front of the stage, seeing old friends and making new ones, having people come up to me to tell me that they'd enjoyed my set, man it was like a dream. Hard to come down from that one, I'll tell you.

Wow. That sounds like SO much fun. You are so lucky to live in an area that appreciates jazz enough to have jazz musicians around. I'd love to be able to play jazz again. Sadly, the closest I am coming this year is some big blues festivals. Thanks for the great read. Brings me back.
 
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