Jazzfest 2006 -- New Orleans Reborn

Anyone who has spent more than an hour in New Orleans knows what a special town it is. There is a deep energy which flows through its streets, breathing life into all its people like a shot of adrenaline. Call it voodoo, mojo or just plain old "bon temps" -- whatever it is, it's impossible to miss. That's one of the things that made it so heart wrenching last fall to see this city so devastated by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, to imagine a city rendered uninhabitable by the violence of nature and the folly of man, and to think that the beautiful Crescent City that gave so much pleasure to so many might never return to its former brilliance.

Seven months after the hurricane, the city is still far from normal. Witnessing this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival firsthand, however, this blogger has to say that New Orleans might be down, but she is by no means out, and she'll be back come hell or high water (or, as was the case last fall, both).

Weekend one had all the big-name acts one could hope for -- Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Bruce Springsteen, to name a few -- but I decided to come for the second weekend, partly because of timing but also because for me, Jazzfest is less about the caliber of musicians at the Fairgrounds and more about the community that comes together every year for the music. Also, second weekend tends to be less crowded at the Fairgrounds (though this year, the second Saturday was the most crowded).

"Dividing line ran through the center of town"

The first thing you notice when you ride through New Orleans is the water line. It is still visible on countless houses still uninhabitable. Messages scrawled on the houses by rescue workers are still quite common: "10-3: 1 dog found!" "911/305/NE/0." Thousands of cars, now mere piles of scrap metal, are clustered under freeway overpasses. In other parts of town, like most of the French Quarter, the water never rose high enough to cause damage; yet even in these neighborhoods, collapsed walls, damaged roofs and twisted stop signs are commonplace.

Yet the spirit of New Orleans lives on, in the brass bands that still parade through town and the festival grounds (the Storyville Stompers on Saturday stood out as my personal favorite), in the signs all around town that "We Will Rebuild," and in the overt political messages all over town. (A plane flew over the festival Friday with an airborne message for Shell, one of the festival's sponsors: "SHELL - GREAT MUSIC - DON'T KILL OUR FISH." And who can forget the countless “Make Levees Not War” buttons?

Stay tuned for part 2 - the music