Mark Reviews Movies: JAZZ FEST: A NEW ORLEANS STORY

Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, Sony Pictures Classics

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 19, 2022

The mission of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is to put on a week-long series of performances, revolving around jazz, of course, but not exactly limited to that already-diverse genre of music. If jazz is America's music, it is also, according to one of the many interview subjects in this documentary, the forebear and parent of just about any music style that has followed it.

Rock, the blues, R&B, and just about any classic or modern styling of music has something to owe to jazz. If the festival at the heart of Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story is starting to sound like a lot to ingest, imagine the mission of directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern. They have to present that big picture of the festival, encapsulate the 50-year history and all of the music that has been performed across its multiple stages over that period of time, give a sense of the festival's 50th anniversary celebration in 2019, and make all of it mean something on deeper local, cultural, and societal levels.

The scope here is simply too much, especially within the frame of a 90-minute movie and with so many interviewees who want to describe the festival in the broadest terms possible. There are, perhaps, about half a dozen performances here that could be described as being presented mostly in their entirety.

Some of the bigger names from the early days of the festival include Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, and others, who receive brief, archival snippets of a performance and some clips from an interview celebrating the festival. The filmmakers and interview subjects may pay some lip service to the great history of this festival. When it really comes down to it, though, Marshall and Suffern would rather give the big stage to the likes of Pitbull, Jimmy Buffett, and Katie Perry, who—for all of their respective qualities as musicians and performers—aren't exactly the first names one might conjure in relation to jazz. They'll fill the seats, for sure, and attract a crowd that otherwise might not attend, and that philosophy also seems to be a big part of this documentary.

It's promotional material, to be sure. Part of that is apparent from the on-screen and financial involvement of Quint Davis, the festival's current producer and director, and Buffet, a long-time champion of the event. Considering the festival's relatively meager beginnings, with jazz pianist George Wein—all-to-briefly interviewed here before his death—commissioned to pull together as many acts as he could in 1968 (The original plans to establish an event a few years earlier were hampered by Jim Crow laws), the fact that it has become an annual event of such scope is, obviously, commendable. It probably deserves a documentary accounting that matches its longevity, its range of performers, and its impact on the city.

Instead, we get this succinct and meandering account, which is divided into non-committal segments with transitions that strain cohesion. A mouth-watering section on the assorted food offerings at the festival, for example, leads to Pitbull's performance at the 2019 fest, after the musician says eating too much of the cuisine might prevent someone from getting on stage. Some of the segments focus on specific genres of music, based upon the festival's 14 stages, but there's no depth in providing the historical or contemporary connections to jazz—only some flashes of performers on stage through the years and some interviewees repeating what an honor it is to participate.

Some of the most intriguing and thoughtful material that's covered here has little to do with the festival itself. Some musicians dissect the method and purpose of a traditional New Orleans funeral, with processions accompanied by a marching band that sets a tone of mourning and transitions into one of celebration for the life lost. One stage, called Congo Square, celebrates percussion and goes back to the days of slavery, when enslaved people maintained some connection to their cultures of origin through music.

A more hopeful part of history is celebrated by way of parades of the Mardi Gras Indians, which comes from the Underground Railroad and Native American tribes who provided sanctuary to the freed, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina displays a sincere sense of resilience and a belief that the festival means something to New Orleans. Bruce Springsteen, though, gets the questionable spotlight of that moment, with an admittedly cathartic performance of "My City of Ruins" that bypasses a local musician, who's reduced to tears about still not having a home in the city.

Mostly, though, the movie falls into and maintains a routine of highlighting certain musical genres and particular festival traditions, before offering clips of performances, fast-moving montages, and uniform interviews (not only on account of the bland backdrop, but also because of the content) that are more explanatory than insightful. Davis is a fine salesperson, to be sure, and undoubtedly, Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story is almost guaranteed to sell some more tickets to upcoming festivals. As an informative and enlightening documentary, though, it's lacking.

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