Once after having the privilege of attending Italy’s Umbria Jazz Festival set in the beautiful, historic, hilltop town of Perugia, I asked a resident what the music scene was like there during other times of the year. The answer was basically, “zilch” with the exception of a few other events. The jazz lovers and the New Orleans music enthusiasts of the Umbria region who during the festival helped pack the music venues and the plazas simply did without. It might be a year before another second line would call out for the young and old to come out and dance through the winding streets. The churches, parks and bars would resume their original functions minus the sound of live jazz. It was sort of a sad thought.
 
While a mental letdown can often occur after the back-to-back blockbusters of the French Quarter Festival and Jazz Fest (that could be chalked up to sheer exhaustion), New Orleans doesn’t fold it up and wait for another year. The music just keeps coming.
 
Next up is Mid-City’s two-day festival aptly dubbed Boogaloo on the Bayou. Held on the grassy banks along Bayou St. John between Orleans Avenue and Lafitte Avenue, the free event kicks off in the relative cool of the evening at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 22, 2009, and resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 23.
 
Bayou Boogaloo was greeted with much appreciation when it debuted in 2006, a time when this city remained on very shaky grounds and each spotting of old friends became a grand reunion. It continues to embrace the neighborhood and families offering a low-keyed, homey, green attitude. The music presented on two solar-powered stages (just one on opening night) plus a kids tent, remains home-grown.
 
The festival starts brassy with the Storyville Stompers at 5 p.m. followed by the incredible, always sharply attired blues guitarist and vocalist Little Freddie King at 6 p.m. and a B-3 organ summit with Joe Krown, John Gros and Rich Vogel getting down at 7:30 p.m.
 
Some highlights of Saturday’s schedule that runs from 11 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. includes on the Orleans Stage: zydeco accordionist Chubby Carrier (2:15 p.m.), who started out with his father, Roy Carrier, at age 12; drummer Russell Batiste teamed with vocalist Jason Neville (3:30), a  New Orleans musical family combo that’s difficult to beat; and ends with the great urban blues of vocalist/guitarist Walter “Wolfman” Washington (7:30).
 
A stroll down the bayou brings one to the Lafitte Stage with a line-up that hits with a  lot of funk with drummer Derrick Freeman (1 p.m.), who is best recognized with Kermit Ruffins, leading his own group and E.O.E (3 p.m.), which stands for Equal Opportunity Employment, offering up socially and politically conscious lyrics backed by funk, world and hip-hop grooves.
 
For more details, go to www.thebayouboogaloo.com.

Not a Day of Rest...
 
Musically, Sunday is not a day of rest in New Orleans. The Old School in the Park Summer Concert Series presented by radio station 106.7 returns to Armstrong Park on Sunday, May 24, 2009. Now in its eighth year, the series has always been known to offer a mix of musical styles and the Memorial Day weekend performances keep that tradition going. National acts include “American Idol” star Ruben Stoddard, Slique and Urban Mystic. Local artists are in the house with the gospel of Lyle Henderson & Emanuel, the Roots of Music Crusaders, Big Abe & the Definition DJs and the ReBirth Brass Band. The free concert is from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Folks are asked not to bring pets, coolers or grills.
 
Nearby, the always-popular Money Wasters Social Aid & Pleasure Club rolls at 1 p.m. starting at the Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home, 1615 St. Phillip Street. It heads out Orleans Avenue to Broad Street but eventually returns to the Treme neighborhood ending at the Candle Light Lounge on N. Robertson near St. Phillip.
 
Across the Mississippi, the rescheduled West Fest Mardi Gras Indian parade presented by Big Chief Tyrone Casby and the Mohawk Hunters also takes off on Sunday, May 24. It begins at 1:30 p.m. at L.B. Landry and Ptolomy streets in Algiers and makes a circular route.

Trumpeters Trumpeting
 
Kermit Ruffins and Irvin Mayfield are both talented New Orleans trumpeters, jazzers, composers, club owners, recording artists and friends who started out in brass bands and have often gone horn-to-horn in mock battles. The two, however, could not be more different. Ruffins is, of course, the laid-back guy with a dew rag beneath his fedora and a Bud Lite and perhaps another accessory in his hand. His club on St. Bernard Avenue, Sidney’s Saloon, is a neighborhood joint where something’s always cooking and second lines stop. Mayfield, on the other hand, is a mover and a shaker involved in politics and academia and whose well-appointed club is housed in Bourbon Street’s Royal Sonesta Hotel. (Incidentally, on a recent night, Mayfield played at Kermit’s club while Ruffins was blowing at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse.)
 
The trumpeters’ new albums released during Jazz Fest—Ruffins’ Livin’ a Treme Life on Basin Street Records; Mayfield leading the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for its debut, Book One on the World Village Label—also reflect their very different and individual approaches to jazz music. What they have in common is that they are very personal statements.
 
Ruffins goes back to his brass band roots for two classic numbers, “Didn’t He Ramble” with clarinetist Evan Christopher and trombonist Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews joining him in the front line and “I Ate Up the Apple Tree.” Then he offers a typcially swinging number that pays tribute to the city, “Good Morning New Orleans.” Ruffins brings in some heavy hitters on this original and many of the album’s other tunes including pianist David Torkanowsky, drummer Herlin Riley and bassist George Porter.
 
Ruffins has the ideal attitude to resurrect the Allen Toussaint composition and huge hit for Lee Dorsey, “Holy Cow.” You can—“ain’t no joke”—hear the smile in his voice. Beware that listening to this song might lead one to be singing it all day. He stays in the old-school New Orleans rhythm and blues for Jesse “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” Hill’s hit, “I’ve Got Mine,” a tune he learned from the legend himself. There’s a taste of Danny Barker in Ruffins’ delivery as well.
 
“I Can See Clearly Now” became an anthem at Sidney’s Saloon during the presidential election. Its optimism matches that of Ruffins. Livin’ in the Treme Life speaks of the sound of the neighborhood that despite “obstacles in the way,” carries on with hope and a love of life.
 
As leader of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and composer of all of the material on the talent-packed ensemble’s first CD, Book One, Mayfield’s vision is primarily forward looking. The album does start with a quiet, rather slinky, basic blues, a neighborhood-inspired tune at that, “7th Ward Blues.” But then, Mayfield lets loose saxophonist/UNO educator Ed Petersen, a modernist with a deep soul on “Sweet Bread on the Levee.” Perceptions about what a big band is and can be vanish in the almost R&B flavor and the long reach of the solo and the tune.
 
Diversity marks this album too, which moves from swinging to strutting just as naturally as New Orleans does every day. Clarinetist Evan Christopher takes on the wonderful “Creole Thang” that gets fine support from the orchestra. The big band sound with great horn punctuations is in play on “Richie Can Count” with Leon “Chocolate” Brown in on vocals.
 
Mayfield is definitely in on the action as conductor, arranger and composer—the material here represents the music that was commissioned by the Episcopal Church for the ongoing project “All the Saints.” He’s blowing trumpet too but leaves plenty of room for the many great New Orleans artists who talent-wide substantially fill the orchestra’s seats.
 
Mayfield and the NOJO’s Book One represent the freedom and discipline of jazz and the promise of more to come.
 
The beauty of New Orleans is that  we don’t have to choose between the vibrancy of Ruffins and Mayfield—we can happily embrace both.

This article was originally published in the May 18, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper