Trombone Shorty unleashes his magic on the Wakarusa festival

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis, food and entertainment writer for The City Wire, is attending the Wakarusa music festival north of Ozark and providing a review of a few festival performances.

by Peter Lewis

TROMBONE SHORTY
When the start of Trombone Shorty’s set began at 8:15 in the evening, the sun was still hanging around like that friend who can’t take a hint and head on home.

As the band, Orleans Avenue, hit those first brassy notes on the driving cover version of “Gimme Me My Money Back,” the majority of the crowd had yet to materialize. This was quickly followed with an instrumental version of “American Woman” with screaming tenor sax solos courtesy of the newest band member, Clarence Slaughter. By the end of that second song, the crowd had tripled in size. The thick bass and ringing brass were drawing them into the tent as if Shorty and his band were a septet of mythical sirens from New Orleans. While those enticed by the sirens of lore were fated to shipwreck, those enticed by the grooves of Orleans Avenue were fated to dance. And dance they did.

What became apparent during the blistering set is that Trombone Shorty is a benevolent band leader. Throughout the show he gave ample time for his very talented sidemen to show off. From the blistering solo on baritone sax by Dan Oestreicher (the oldest band member at 26) and the dueling guitar solos by bassist Michael “Bass” Ballard and lead guitarist Freaky Pete Murano, each member was featured heavily in the set, all while adding to the overall experience. 

One of the more impressive displays of musicianship during the evening was by the tenor saxophonist, Clarence Slaughter. Known by his fellow band members as “Trixzéy,” Mr. Slaughter displayed awe inspiring capability with the saxophone. While Trixzéy was blowing away, Shorty began conducting the rest of the band to blast into his solos at different intervals on his signal. Back and forth the repartee went as the groove slowly built steam before exploding into the night. After which, the majority of the band took a break while Shorty (trumpet) and Murano (guitar) began a heartbreaking instrumental duet of “It’s a Wonderful World.”

As the band rejoined the two musicians on stage, they belted into a new funky jam replete with a foot stomping dance step. Shorty continued his masterful handling of both his band and the crowd as he brought the members of the band out to do their own dance routine. It started off fairly simple with a step to the left then to the right and back again. As the back beat continued, the group went through the step several times as the crowd became accustomed to the step. Without the slightest hint it was coming, Shorty orchestrated a slick neck dip and slide towards the right with the band that was met with ecstatic glee from the audience. Not content with his coup, the band broke back into the full jam as Shorty instructed the crowd to “get low on the low notes and high on the high notes.” As the deeper notes were playing the band and crowd alike dipped toward the floor before the bleating high notes of the brass immediately got the crowd jumping.  Ever the jokester, Shorty hoodwinked the expectations of the crowd and immediately the band dropped back into the low register. With one short guffaw and a sly grin, he crowed, “Gotcha!” before the band stormed back into the high notes and got the crowd really jumping.

After watching this masterful performance, I was reminded of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from the Disney film, “Fantasia” with Mickey flinging the waves of water to and fro.  Shorty unleashed his own form of magic on that chilly opening night at Wakarusa.  Unlike Mickey, however, he never lost control of the performance he was orchestrating. And that unrivaled mastery, makes him and his band a must see every chance you get.

SLY & ROBBIE
Though slotted to begin at 3 p.m., the seminal rhythm duo Sly & Robbie didn’t come on until close to 3:15 p.m. As their sound technician frantically scurried around the stage trying to readying the equipment, the crowd numbered at barely 100. A very paltry sum given that the “riddim kings” were playing on the main stage. To even begin to (seemingly) fill out the vast expanse of the main stage, the crowd would need to become 10 times larger. Witnessing the dearth of spectators, I again was inclined to think that those in attendance were more inclined to the atmosphere of the festival than the music.

After ironing out a few small technical glitches during the opening numbers of the set, the rhythm began flowing out of the speakers with a thickness and density that made one’s eyes involuntarily blink with every deep snap of the drum.

Early into the set the inherent problems of not possessing a front man became obvious.  The trombonist in the band seemed to fill that void as vocalist and crowd chatter (I wouldn’t be surprised if many in the audience thought that he was Sly or Robbie). The band eventually broke into Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot You’re Hot” as the trombonist led the audience through band intros and a call and response of the chorus.

Eventually the crowd swelled to about 600 as the band made their way through variations of songs by Bob Marley, extended dub jams, and a guest vocalist from Kingston. While many performers like to end their show on a relative high note, Sly & Robbie take a different path. At the height of the song’s intensity, a band slowly recedes out of the song. One by one the instruments peeled off until it was just Sly behind the drums and Robbie picking out a bass line. As Sly left, Robbie continued picking out a thick notes and is best soprano told the audience, “it’s too late, bye bye!” He then continued thumping the bass as he strutted off the stage.

LANGHORNE SLIM
Langhorne Slim took the stage on Deep V Friday appropriately attired in one of the deeper V-neck I’ve ever seen. His set was fairly high energy, though after his third song he began talking about his distaste for the barriers between him and the relatively small crowd at the Revival Tent stage. He wryly noted that, “we all have obstacles to over come.” Continuing on, he said that he’d rather have the barriers gone and not get invited back than to have the barriers. The empty space between the crown and the stage is for VIPs. Though, as Langhorne Slim noted, “the VIPs chose not to be here.” In the end, a relatively lax security guard allowed the small rabble of die-hard fans to hop the small barriers and be nearer to the stage.

Visibly relieved at this concession, he immediately (and perhaps somewhat ironically) waded into “Diamonds and Gold,” a song about learning how “to get happy along the way.” Following this was the bruising drums and driving bass of “And If It’s True,” a somewhat venomous tune about a unfaithful (and repentant) lover. Perhaps somewhat ironically again, he followed this seething song with a sweet ode titled “Colette.” The opening lyrics highlight the serendipitous nature of human relations: “All I wanted was a good song and a fair friend, You came along just then.”

After introducing some new material and punching through a few more older songs, Langhorne launched into the somewhat raucous “Rebel Side of Heaven.” With a tag line (“we ain’t going to hell, we’re going to the rebel side of heaven”) to rival Billy Joel’s classic, this killer tune was an obvious crowd pleaser. It seemed everyone walked out of that tent happy.

THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS
There is a funky edge to many of the acts present, one such was on display Thursday evening, The New Mastersounds. Hailing from Leeds, a city in the northern reaches of  England, this funk quartet has been bouncing around the music scene since 2000. While listening to the whine of Joe Tatton’s Hammond organ course through the Revival Stage Tent, the (white) masses were noodling along to the pulsing soul grooves.

Continuing down the funky path laid by the Brits in the Revival Tent were Porter, Batiste, & Stoltz, a trio of historic musicians from New Orleans. While the crowd had thinned after the end of the previous set, by the end of the first instrumental jam the crowd reached into the hundreds. Their attendance was rewarded with some serious ass-shaking tunes. After that first jam, the trio dropped right into a tune that summed up their aspiration for the set: “All We Wanna Do ( is get funky for you).”

The pace continued with their self-introductory anthem, “We Is PBS.” After that extended jam, the band dialed it down a notch into the slow burning blues groove “Take A Chance,” before building back up into the dirty groove “Bring The Noise.” After some confusion with new material (George Porter Jr. didn’t bring the lyrics, apparently), the band blew full throttle into the bluesy love song, “I Get High,” to cap their set.