Musicians Fête
Port Allen, Louisiana
April 12
The Capital Region is gearing up for blues season. Blues Fest, one of the biggest music festivals in Baton Rouge, is coming up this week. In preparation, the West Baton Rouge Museum, just eight minutes from downtown, hosted their annual Musicians Fête in collaboration with Baton Rouge Blues Festival and Foundation.
On Sunday, Musicians Fête consisted of several programs: Kent Louque, who leads the museum’s Old Time Jam led an acoustic session. Syreeta Neal, host of their monthly singing circle, led a vocal session. Lazarro Nettles and Dee Davis (members of the museum’s house band) led the electric jam.
The music selection for the electric jam was a mix of jazz, blues and R&B. Nettles and Davis played with the confidence of people who have learned each other’s cues and speak each other’s musical languages. They were joined by a younger musician, Hayden Chauvin, who brought wind chimes, bongos and a rain stick. Davis played guitar and ran the backing track and sound mix. Nettles played saxophone. In the juke joint, the music reverberated through the floors and off the walls. You could feel it even if you didn’t have a musical bone in your body.
The West Baton Rouge Museum does a lot of free programming. They have four music jams every month where people can listen or even join in if they bring their instruments. The Musicians Fête is in its third year. According to museum spokesperson Tonya Wyandon, it was created to serve as a resource for musicians, music lovers and people looking to get into the industry. In addition to jam sessions, they also had networking opportunities, presenters and a round table discussion.
The event was an intergenerational gathering of musicians and music appreciators. Despite all the talk about jazz not being in vogue anymore, it’s alive and well here. Not even two seconds into the backing track starting, someone would holler, “OOO I love this one!” and even join in, singing or getting up and dancing. It’s not age specific, everyone knows these songs. They’ve been remixed, revitalized and repopularized by many artists throughout the years, Wyandon explained over the sound of “Cruisin’ starting up in the background of our interview.
“”This song was created by Smokey Robinson back in Motown – Motown Sound,” she said. “It was remade by D’Angelo back in the '90s. He revitalized the song. So there’s generations from my mom’s age listening to Smokey Robinson to the generation in the 21st century.”
For Nettles and Davis’ part, they proactively made space for the younger musician in their set, letting him have a drum break here and there highlighting him between the songs, making sure to put his name out there. The day ended with karaoke with all the jams coming together to sing the jazz standards they all loved. There’s a vulnerability in getting up in front of strangers and making music with them, especially if you haven’t had the time to practice it first, but in the comfortable breeze of Port Allen, there was room for anyone to give it a shot.
