New Orleans Jazz Fest lets visitors taste city's rich heritage - Chicago Tribune

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• next
• |   single page

Reuters

7:50 a.m. CDT, April 29, 2012

By Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS, April 29 (Reuters) - Nicole Toms practically

gushed as she emerged into the sunlight from a massive tent
where a gospel choir had brought the crowd to its feet.

"Oh my God, I love everything about this," she said. "The
incredible variety of music, the layout of the stages and the
food - it's the best."

Toms, of Mountain View, California, was describing her fifth
visit to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, a
blockbuster event that draws hundreds of thousands of people
during two weekends each spring and will continue through May 6.

Festival co-founder Quint Davis would say Toms wasn't merely
describing an event, but homing in on New Orleans' heritage.
"This festival is a an indigenous part of our culture," he told
Reuters.

Now in its 43rd year, the quintessential New Orleans event
better known as Jazz Fest broke new ground when it was launched
in 1970 by Davis, an ethnomusicologist then just finishing
college, and jazz impresario and Newport Jazz Festival founder