Stevie Wonder returns to Jazz Fest as headliner

Author: GMANews.TV
Column: Entertainment

NEW ORLEANS - It's been more than 30 years since Stevie Wonder took the stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. That appearance was a surprise.

On Friday, he's a headliner.

"When we announced that Stevie Wonder was coming, we knew that he would be that intangible electric spark," said Quint Davis, the festival's producer.

"So much of New Orleans is empowered by a soulful spirit," he said. "You know, people get tired. We've been dealing with so much post-Katrina and sometimes, you just need to recharge to get through another year. Bruce Springsteen did it in '06, Rod Stewart did it last year. But there's no greater soul and spirit reviver than Stevie Wonder."

The last time Wonder performed at Jazz Fest was in 1973, in an impromptu jam session with The Meters, the New Orleans funk and R&B group founded by Art Neville, the eldest of the Neville Brothers.

Wonder was a Meters fan and went to the festival on his own, Davis said. "He got on stage and started playing the keyboard, then he got on the drums. It was magical.

"We expect that same kind of thrill this time around."

Wonder will perform at the biggest of 11 stages and tents at the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course, a horse racing track where more than 1,000 musicians perform over two weekends.

Any fans of both music and racing will be able to watch the Kentucky Derby - but not bet on it - on Saturday, between performances at the stage where Wonder plays Friday.

The track, owned by Churchill Downs Inc., announced late Thursday that the race would be shown live on the big screen that usually lets fans sitting far from the stage see the performers.

This is the first year since Hurricane Katrina that Jazz Fest's second weekend began on Thursday, for a seven-day festival. The event was scaled back to six days the past two years because of the storm and subsequent recovery.

Wonder, whose hits include "Superstition," ''Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" and "Isn't She Lovely," recorded the song "Shelter in the Rain" after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005. The Wonder Foundation gave proceeds from the song to Habitat for Humanity, the National Urban League, the United Negro College Fund Hurricane Relief and the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund.

Art Neville, 70, will perform ahead of Wonder on the largest of the festival's stages Friday afternoon. Recently, he recalled Wonder's spontaneous performance with The Meters three decades ago, saying, "It was great, man. Good times."

Neville, along with his brothers Charles, Aaron and Cyril, are celebrating 30 years in the music industry this year. The brothers' return to the Jazz Fest was celebrated earlier this week and the city recognized the group's musical contributions with keys to the city and other proclamations. They will close out the festival on Sunday for the first time since Katrina.

"Music is not just entertainment here," Davis said. "It's like food. It's a part of what nurtures people here more than in any other city in the world. We survive on it and the Nevilles and Stevie ... they embody that heart and soul that we thrive on."

Friday also holds some special treats for Cajun and zydeco music fans. Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes will host a tribute to the late zydeco musician Clifton Chenier, and a 15-20 piece traditional Cajun orchestra from Eunice, Louisiana - with fiddles, guitars and accordions - will perform on Saturday. - AP

Source: GMANews