Quarter Time

“Coming Home” is the new blog leading up to Essence Music Festival’s return to New Orleans July 5, 6 and 7. It’s a look at life in the Crescent City since we last met at the Louisiana Superdome two years ago, and Essence finally unveiled the Superlounge lineup. Performing are Angie Stone, Chuck D, Common, Kenny Latimore and Chante Moore, Jen Jen Reeves, Jermaine Paul, Kindred, Lyfe, Nagee, Nuttin But Strings, Pieces of a Dream, Rachelle Ferrell, Rahsaan Patterson, Ruben Studdard, Slum Village, Sunshine Anderson, Will Downing and from New Orleans, the Rebirth Brass Band - the first brass band to play in New Orleans after the hurricane and they were so excited to be home, they played three times in one day. For me, the Superlounges are the soul of the festival, a chance to see that calibre of talent in a more intimate environment. The weather has been so beautiful that it’s a shame the festival doesn’t start tomorrow; then again, it has been too nice to be inside. Festival season is upon New Orleans. Last weekend was the French Quarter Festival and on Friday afternoon, people who should be working were wandering the Quarter with a beer in hand. With stages all over the Quarter, the Vieux Carre was rocking—a funky brass band on one stage, traditional jazz on another, a big band in Jackson Square and a steel drum band by the French Market. It was good to see people in the French Quarter because it suffered from the decline in tourism last year. Having locals return to it was good, but seeing tourists in it was better. Friday, they were out in force, many wearing Mardi Gras beads with logos of their favorite college teams—I saw Clemson and Georgetown among others. On Saturday, the weather wasn’t as nice with intermittent rain all day long. That didn’t stop New Orleanians and visitors alike from showing up to see the wedding of New Orleans’ jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins - twice an Essence Festival Superlounge performer - and his fiancée Karen James. Ruffins has become one of the city’s most beloved musicians, mixing jazz, Louis Armstrong and classic R&B at his regular Thursday night party at Vaughan’s in the Bywater. He played his set at 3 in the afternoon and, as he was ending, he called out a judge wearing shorts and a “Gentilly” T-shirt and the wedding party including his bride-to-be. After they exchanged vows and jumped the broom, he sang “World on a String,” taking his first dance with his bride part way through. Only in New Orleans.

Same As it Ever Was

“Coming Home” is the new blog leading up to Essence Music Festival’s return to New Orleans July 5, 6 and 7. It’s a look at life in the Crescent City since we last met at the Louisiana Superdome two years ago. This year, a portion of the proceeds from Essence Music Festival supports the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools, schools that provide summer and after-school academic enrichment programs designed to improve students’ attitudes toward learning and boost their motivation to read. The Essence Festival’s fundraising efforts will help bring the Freedom Schools program to the Gulf Coast.

Education is on everyone’s mind in New Orleans, and the city’s music education just received a major shot in the arm. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz relocated from Los Angeles to New Orleans last week. With it come jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard, who instruct the institute’s students. The students pass on what they’re taught, teaching and conducting workshops in the schools and community. The institute is housed at Loyola, but it will be working with the other universities in town including Southern, Xavier, Dillard, Tulane, University of New Orleans. Loyola and the Monk Institute have made a major commitment to the city’s culture and its rebuilding. As Hancock said, “When jazz flourishes in New Orleans, New Orleans will flourish again.”

Life in New Orleans is a place where opposites co-exist these days. We get good news like that, then we learn that our power bills—often hundreds of dollars a month in uninhabited houses—are going to be larger as Entergy tries to accumulate a $75 million fund in the event of future storms. The city is a safe place and a risky place, a sad place and an exhilarating place. There are a lot of people struggling here, but people are also having a lot of fun. Actually, as the old song goes, “Same as it ever was.”

But against that background, the city has successfully hosted the Essence Music Festival for years, just as it has hosted Mardi Gras, Jazz Fests, French Quarter Festivals, Super Bowls, Sugar Bowls and countless conferences and other special events. No matter the circumstances, New Orleans embraces the joy of life. On Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, the headline for The Times-Picayune read, “The Usual Madness: With the crowds, costumes, beads and beer, it felt like old times.” And it did. Emotions were so heightened last year that every event felt important and remarkable, as if we came together to show that nothing could wash our way of life away. This year, there was less of a sense of significance to Mardi Gras, but it also felt more normal. No statements; just a good time. It was a return to form.

Some restaurants are struggling and some are closing, but many are opening, too. A few months ago, New Orleans institution Commander’s Palace finally reopened and hosted a business breakfast with Tim Zagat announcing the publication of this year’s Zagat’s Best to New Orleans and recognized Restaurant August as Top Restaurant. Some of the city’s top chefs including Restaurant August’s John Besh have not only reopened their restaurants but have new restaurants in the planning stages.

Unfortunately, not everybody back is actively engaged in rebuilding. There is still a lot of poverty and hopelessness, and not even a hurricane can blow away some neighborhood rivalries. Still, visitors enjoyed a drama-free Carnival Season this year, just as they have for years. Conventioneers and festivalgoers have enjoyed the city recently, just as they have for years. And just as they will in the future.

Essence Music Festival helps to make sure it’s a future we recognize and want. It is an exciting part of the rebuilding effort because he festival has had more than a $100 million economic impact on the city per year, accounting for almost 80 percent of the hotel bookings that weekend and another $6 million in state and local taxes. Also, the festival’s partnership with the Children’s Defense Fund and the Freedom Schools program means that New Orleans’ future will be in literate, more culturally aware hands. At a time when our school system is taking its first shaky steps at rebuilding itself, a program like the CDF’s couldn’t be more welcome.

Finally, Debra, Jack is right—Essence Music Festival is a multi-generational event. At Chris Brown, your children won’t be out of place, and I’ll bet they won’t be alone, either.

Writer Alex Rawls edits OffBeat, New Orleans' Music and Culture Magazine.

Welcome to “Coming Home,” a look inside New Orleans as we anticipate the return of the Essence Music Festival July 5, 6 and 7 to its long-time home, the New Orleans Superdome. A lot has happened since we last met in the Big Easy, when Destiny's Child, Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Lionel Richie were all on hand for "the Party with a Purpose." This year we're exited to have Beyoncé, Richie and Frankie Beverly and Maze, all of whom were a part of the Essence Festival last time it was in New Orleans, and we’re excited by the progress New Orleans has made since the storm.

There are still challenges, but a lot of good things are happening, and everywhere you look, you see signs that the city that throws a party like no other does is ready for the Essence Fest. This time a year ago, touring bands came to New Orleans sporadically. Modern rock band The Academy Is played the House of Blues and when they visited Bourbon Street after the show, they noticed, "There were a lot of dudes."

New Orleans today is a very different place today than it was a year ago, when male FEMA and reconstruction crews dominated Bourbon Street. Go to the French Quarter on a weekend night and you see the people you're accustomed to seeing there—young couples, friends and tourists out looking for a party. And music? Last week, the Isley Brothers packed the House of Blues. Ronald Isley was a sight in a cardinal red suit with a matching shirt and bowler hat. They had the house rocking from the funky "Who's That Lady" until they finished with "Fight the Power" and a James Brown/Sly Stone medley, slowing it down periodically for hits including "Between the Sheets," during which their dancing girls came out wearing black teddies with red elbow-length gloves.

The Isleys weren't the only major act to play New Orleans recently. Billy Joel and Justin Timberlake played the New Orleans Arena recently, and the Police reunion tour is scheduled to come to town in June. With the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Essence Music Festival taking place in the next few months, it's clear musicians are optimistic about New Orleans. They're not the only ones. Recently, the city hosted a first round regional for the NCAA basketball tournament, and conventions have come back in a major way.

Last year, I rode my bike to work and went by the Morial Convention Center because there was so little traffic. I did find it reassuring to see it looking peaceful considering the tragedy that had taken place there in August, 2005, but I also liked riding on the wide sidewalks in front of the convention center. It was a big deal last summer when the American Library Association had its national conference at the convention center, but conventions are becoming sufficiently common again that they aren't news now. I've had to change my route to work because the sidewalk has too many conventioneers to safely ride around, and shuttle buses dropping people off make riding the streets risky on a bicycle.

Obviously, the convention center brings back a wide variety of emotional memories, but the facility that in the past has been the site of many of Essence Festival's lectures and discussions has been so thoroughly rehabbed that if you hadn't seen footage of New Orleanians waiting there to be taken out of the city, you could never tell anything had happened. There is no doubt about it; New Orleans isn't the same as it was before Katrina. Estimates say that the city's population won't return to the size it was pre-K in the next decade, but the people who are here are the people who love what New Orleans is and want to be a part of restoring not only the physical city but also the culture that makes it so distinctive as well. The conventions, festivals and touring acts suggest that many in the country believe in the city, too, and want to be part of its recovery.

In Festival news, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Lionel Richie and Maze featuring Frankie Beverly have confirmed for the Essence Music Festival, which takes place July 5-7 at the Louisiana Superdome. Also on the bill so far are the O'Jays with Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill, Ludacris, Ciara, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Steve Harvey and Robin Thicke. This will be the first event in the Superdome since the New Orleans Saints defeated the Philadelphia Eagles to go to the NFC league championship last January. This season was a magical one for the Saints and for its fans, and the dome was very much a part of that magic as it was transformed from the site of tragedy to home of community bonding as everybody came together behind the Saints.

The Saints lost the next week to the Bears, so that was the last home game of the season. Dome crews went to work immediately getting the building ready for the Essence Festival. The main stage area was already in shape to host a major event, so they started began complete renovations of the rooms that house the superlounges. Considering the job done on the Superdome for football season, there's no reason not to think the superlounges will be at least as good if not better than ever.

Questions about New Orleans? Send them to cominghome@essence.com.

Writer Alex Rawls edits OffBeat, New Orleans' music and culture magazine.