Don’t stop at the title of this show: the musical review New Orleans Blues, presented at Espace St-Denis, really doesn’t have the blues. It serves as a festive reminder that Louisiana is the cradle of popular music over the last hundred years, from Jerry Roll Morton to… Britney Spears.
There are two things that Normand Brathwaite wanted to avoid when he set about directing New Orleans Blues : he didn’t want to make a didactic show and also didn’t want to give too much space to Dixieland. This early jazz, marked by the sounds of instruments such as the trumpet, clarinet, cornet and banjo, indeed has a certain charm… but only in small doses.
The fanfare aspect is therefore more or less limited to the entrance on stage of the imposing cast through the hall. As for musicographic or historical considerations, they remain minimal. They are slipped into the interventions of Baron Samedi (Fayolle Jean Jr.), spirit of the dead in the voodoo cult who guides the audience in this show without downtime.
“For me, it was the atmosphere of New Orleans that interested me,” says Normand Brathwaite, who says he spent a crazy 48 hours seeing shows in the French Quarter before embarking on this adventure. He gorged himself on blues, was surprised by the funk he rediscovered there, but above all felt transported by the spirit of freedom that animates this city.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Élizabeth Blouin-Brathwaite and Normand Brathwaite. The latter also plays the harmonica in a segment of the show.
Joël Ferron, who made the musical selection, drew on a century of music to set the scene, but did not hesitate to stretch the elastic a little. His musical map of New Orleans also includes artists influenced by his music, but associated with other genres such as Elvis and even Britney Spears, born near the Louisiana border, from whom Élizabeth Blouin-Brathwaite covers Baby One More Time.
New Orleans Blues reminds us of something obvious that we tend to forget: the influence of music from New Orleans is sprawling. FromIko Iko (Dixie Cups, Dr. John) to The tree is in its leaves (Zachary Richard) passing by Blueberry Hill, I’ll Fly Away and many more, the show is filled with familiar tunes.
Adaptations of When the Saints Go Marchin’ In And Down by the River Side have even become popular scout songs among us…
For pleasure
It is therefore easy to let yourself be transported by these songs, played impeccably by the group mainly made up of musicians from the show Belle and Bum. Four performers take turns at the microphone: Leslie Snooky Alston, Élizabeth Blouin-Brathwaite, Franck Julien and Sarah-Maude Desgagnés (replacing Dawn Cumberbatch the evening where The Press saw the show). Energetic and necessarily versatile, they carry the show with obvious pleasure.
Normand Brathwaite himself steps behind the microphone to sing in a trio O Mary by Daniel Lanois (who owned a studio in the French Quarter for about a decade), one of the beautiful moments of the show. His presence is particularly striking when he plays the harmonica, his playing is so unusual. “It’s my way of singing,” he says, adding that he likes the instrument because it is close to the human voice and is easy to transport.
New Orleans Blues is a “clean” show, that is to say it is the work of performers and musicians capable of everything, but who have little opportunity to show their personality. Which can be missing when you like music that has more character.
Let’s not quibble: the only real problem with this show is that the volume is unnecessarily loud. Everyone is at full throttle throughout the evening and this lack of modulation leaves little room for emotion.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Fayolle Jean Jr. plays Baron Samedi, narrator of New Orleans Blues.
Fayolle Jean Jr. is more nuanced in his role as Baron Samedi: his acting is as sober as his smile is predatory and his presence strong. The audience quickly became attached to his laughter with its disturbing intonations, which the staging, however, overdoes a little.
The audience seemed excited by New Orleans Blues, the evening we attended the show. Many spectators even spontaneously got up to dance during the rock’n’roll segment of the show. The sequence formed by Jambalaya, Great Balls of Fire, Johnny B. Goode And Jailhouse Rockall performed by Franck Julien, turns out to be the most rewarding sequence of the evening.
New Orleans Blues is presented, with pauses, until 1er September at Espace St-Denis. It is preceded by a Cajun dinner concocted by chef Paul Toussaint.
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