Music returns to Big Easy
NEW ORLEANS — Vance Vaucresson isn’t wowed by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon or Elvis Costello. Still, the 37-year-old Crescent City sausage maker is thrilled all those superstars have signed on to perform at this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which got under way Friday.
That’s because more than simply soaking up the menu of rock, jazz, country, R&B, folk, blues and gospel, festival-goers will be pumping much needed money — and confidence — back into a city that was pummeled by Hurricane Katrina and has struggled to regain its footing.
Vaucresson, whose nearly century-old family business was crippled by Katrina, is operating full-swing for the moment — hawking crawfish sausage po’ boy sandwiches on the festival grounds, as his family has since Jazz Fest began in 1969. The Vaucresson Sausage Co. will crank out a total of 5,000-7,500 pounds of sausage through next weekend to feed the 200,000 fans expected to attend the festival.
Jazz Fest typically pumps $200 million to $300 million into the local economy. Last year, the festival out-earned Mardi Gras, making it the state’s most lucrative tourist event, according to Louisiana’s Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.
The reality this year is that the damage inflicted by Katrina, and the heavy media coverage of it, is keeping people away from Louisiana in droves.
Angele Davis, secretary of the tourism agency, said figures show that “20 percent of leisure travelers say they will not even consider visiting the state during hurricane season, 50 percent believe there are many places that have been destroyed and that Louisiana isn’t a good place to visit, and 62 percent have less interest in the region.”
Only one-third of the restaurants that were operating before Katrina hit Aug. 29 are still in business. Hotels have rebounded more quickly — with the current inventory of rooms hovering around 30,000 in the city’s central business district, down 8,000 from pre-Katrina levels.
The high-powered names on this year’s Jazz Fest lineup underscore the special place New Orleans holds for the music community. It is the birthplace of jazz, and a cradle of rock ‘n’ roll.
Springsteen chose the venue to showcase “The Seeger Sessions,” his new album of songs from the folk tradition that he’ll be drawing from when he closes out the festival’s first weekend Sunday night.
U2 guitarist The Edge, who has spearheaded a campaign to buy instruments for musicians who lost theirs to the floodwaters, jammed Thursday night at Preservation Hall. The private party celebrated the reopening of the fabled French Quarter jazz club.
Dylan, playing at the festival for 90 minutes Friday with a new band, stormed through his song catalog — including a version of “Like a Rolling Stone.” It seemed especially relevant to the thousands displaced by natural disaster when he sang: “How does it feel / To be without a home /With no direction home / Like a complete unknown / Like a rolling stone?”