FrenchQuarter.com: Satchmo Summer Fest

Satchmo SummerFest
You’ll Think to Yourself: What a Wonderful Fest

By Ian McNulty



	Top to Bottom: Kermit Ruffins, New Orleans band leader performs; Satchmo SummerFesters Dancing to a jazz performance; an exhibition of Louis Armstrong's life in New Orleans.

By leaving his native New Orleans, Louis Armstrong helped introduce the world to the joy of jazz music, gaining in the process the title of jazz ambassador.

Today, the legacy of Armstrong helps reintroduce the world to the city where it all began. Once again this season, the Satchmo SummerFest will transform the always festive streets of the French Quarter and adjacent neighborhoods into a giant party in tribute to Armstrong, the irrepressible trumpeter who carried Satchmo as one of several widely-used nicknames.

More than just another music festival, the four-day event is filled with opportunities to learn about, celebrate and take part in both the historic and enduring traditions that fuel jazz music and New Orleans culture. The festival takes place July 31 - Aug 3, 2008 and almost all of its programs are free and open to the public.

One Legacy, Four Stages
Music, of course, takes center stage. Visitors will have a chance to hear a musical slate featuring some of New Orleans’ best-loved traditional jazz performers, including young trumpeters who still proudly carry the torch that Armstrong lit for the world many generations ago. There’s even a popular “kids’ stage” with music and participatory dance and drumming events to help youngsters join the excitement themselves. After all, Armstrong was only a young boy when that first trumpet was put into his hands.

The music stages for 2008 have moved back to their traditional spot behind the Old U.S. Mint.

One highlight of the festival is the Satchmo Club Strut, which takes full advantage of the many music venues in close proximity aong Frenchmen and Decatur streets. On the night of Friday, Aug. 1, guests purchase armbands for admission to all the participating clubs, and walk - or, that is, strut - from one to the next while marching brass bands and the city’s permissive open-container policy keep the upbeat party atmosphere going outside.

Back at the French Market during the day, look for free seminars and other exhibits on jazz, Armstrong and the social history that shaped both the man and the city’s broader musical traditions.

Taking It to the Streets
The festival moves across Rampart Street to the historic Tremé neighborhood on Sunday, Aug. 6, for a rousing “jazz mass” at St. Augustine church (1210 Gov. Nicholls St., 504-525-5934). Immediately following the music-inspired service, visitors are invited to join a traditional New Orleans second line street parade departing from the church to wind its way through the neighborhood and back to the French Quarter. Based on the jazz funeral tradition, these parades invite anyone to join in - thus forming the “second line” behind the colorfully clad parade leaders and high-powered brass bands - and dance in the streets. Various social and neighborhood organizations host these second line parades throughout the year, but this one is a special event just for Satchmo Summer Fest.

“Red Beans and Ricely Yours”
No New Orleans party would be complete without a selection of delicious food and, even in this department, the festival sticks with its Satchmo theme. Armstrong loved red beans and rice - a simple but highly flavorful New Orleans specialty - and even ended some of his personal letters with the sign-off “Red beans and ricely yours, Louis.”

Near the stages at the French Market, visitors will find “Red Bean Alley” where vending booths from local restaurants will be serving up portions of, naturally, red beans and rice, along with jambalaya, crawfish cakes, gumbo and other local dishes. Meanwhile, fine restaurants around town offer Satchmo SummerFest specials, with distinctive seasonal dishes taking their names from Armstrong’s songbook.

For a complete schedule of events, plus a photo gallery and video clips from last year’s festival, check out the event’s Web site at www.frenchquarterfestivals.org

Ian McNulty is a freelance food writer and columnist, a frequent commentator on the New Orleans entertainment talk show “Steppin’ Out” and editor of the guidebook “Hungry? Thirsty? New Orleans.”