It’s really hard to wake up at 6 in the morning. It’s even harder when you’ve been at Miss Mae’s Bar the night before until 4:30 in the morning. And that makes it next to impossible to work all day in the heat, rain and stress of live sound at a major festival. But it’s Jazz Fest, and like Mardi Gras, it must be done.
Each year, a small independent company, Munck Mix, records many of the live acts at Jazz Fest. Through some collaboration of unknown origin, many of Loyola’s music industry studies students are recruited to aid in the live recording process. While the positions are largely unpaid, the experience of working with major artists provides enough incentives to keep us coming back (not to mention the free access into the festival). So, with a few years of experience under my belt, I took on the task again this year.
With a 7:00 a.m. wake-up call, my small Loyola crew met on campus to arrange carpools to the festival. The New Orleans Fair Grounds were nearly empty, and our morning meeting assigned each of us to a certain stage. I was assigned to the Congo Square stage on Friday because I’ve worked there in the past. Unlike other stages, working that stage is like a party; We were scheduled to record Zion Trinity, followed by Leo Nocentelli and Bernie Worrell’s “Rare Funk Gathering,” and close out the day with Burning Spear.
The shows at the fest are recorded using a mobile recording rig. After getting the band’s instrumentation list from the stage manager, we take a snake (a series of audio cables compiled into one big one) and use direct outputs from the monitor board on the side of the stage and plug them directly into our rig backstage. A few level adjustments and instrumentation changes later, it’s show time. We press record and hope for the best.
In theory, it’s all very simple. But working in an extremely loud environment, for an extremely large crowd with high expectations is enough to raise anyone’s stress level. Instruments can be lost in the web of channels you have to deal with, the power on the stage can go out (like last year on the Gentilly Stage), the entire stage plot might change at the last second, or – worst of all – someone may forget to press record. Friday went off without a hitch, though.
Regardless, it was a good thing Burning Spear closed the day at Congo. Without them and the habits of their wonderful backstage guests, I don’t know where the “stress relief” would’ve come from.
Hap Pardo can be reached at [email protected].
