Bayou Rendezvous - Howlin’ Wolf

After a day of dodging raindrops at Jazzfest, I am headed to the Howlin’  Wolf to catch the Bayou Rendezvous, an collection of bands playing back-to-back until the wee hours of the morning.  The night starts off to a half-full room with the Rhythm Council, a myriad of personalities that includes Papi Mali on guitar, Henry Butler on keyboards, Kirk Joseph on sousaphone and Robbie Kidd on drums. Mainly getting together for dates in New Orleans and on the music festival circuit, they started off with "Firewater" before turning religious (sort of) with "Church of the Living Gris-Gris" and "Hallelujah".  The spotlight then turned to Henry Butlers’ tickling of the ivories with a Ray Charles classic "Baby Let Me Hold your Hand".

With crowd at near capacity, next up was The New Orleans Social Club, another collection of great musicians on the scene with Henry Butler  returning along with Ivan Neville opposite him on another set of keyboards, Raymond Weber on drums, George Porter Jr. on bass and the incomparable Leo Nocentilli on guitar. With George and Leo spending years with The Meters, they are in sync from the start with  "Let Me Have it All" and the heads started bobbing with "Go to the Mardi Gras" and "Hey Now Baby". As the set ended and fighting against the flow of the crowd as I was headed to the door, I was knew the first day of Jazzfest was a success despite the rain.