Let me count the ways

THE MUSIC, THE MUSIC, THE MUSIC

For most this is the main, if not the only, reason to go. Six stages (two mega and four smaller ones) and five tents (three giant and two smaller ones) feature enough music to satisfy the most obsessed or gluttonous music lover imaginable.

Quality and quantity are off the charts, with every musical style represented except for the heaviest of hard rock, crudest of gangsta rap and the holiest of Gregorian Chants. There is truly an embarrassment of riches, and the hardest choice is to decide which acts to hear and which to miss.

I’d like to think I have always made the right choices, but more times than I’d care to remember I have had to find out after the fact that I missed an absolute killer show in favor of one that wasn’t so transcendent.

The accent is on local acts, to be sure, but performers from around the world can be found without breaking a sweat. You can plan your day totally from minute-to-minute, devise several alternate itineraries or you can be as free-form as the most avant-garde jazz musician.

By the way, I’d estimate that “jazz” makes up 10 percent or less of the total music found at the so-called Jazz Festival; many people think differently, and they are wrong. There is enough jazz to be had for aficionados, but all other types of music predominate. Rock, soul, reggae, Cajun, blues, world, etc. are the norm.

Big-named acts are found at the large stages and tents, but the most fun is usually found at the smaller venues, either seeing a middle-echelon artist or discovering someone heretofore unknown to you.

A musicologist’s Mecca, if you can’t find music to immerse yourself within, then you probably listen to talk radio when you drive.

THE FOOD

Every year the Jazz Fest puts on a spread like no other. Two main “food courts” feature 20 or more booths. Additionally, there’s a batch of booths near the Congo Square area and even more near the Heritage Square stage. Sprinkled around the fairgrounds are several isolated booths featuring snow-balls, pies, Belgian waffles, pralines and other sweet-tooth satisfiers.

I have met some people who go to the fest simply for the food. It is that remarkable.

I will not list everything available here, for space reasons, but you should do yourself a favor and visit the Web site to open the floodgates of your salivary glands. My personal favorites include the Cochon de Lait (roast pork) po-boy, the pheasant quail and andouille gumbo and the lamb dishes from Jamila’s Café.

Seriously, folks, there is a ridiculous amount of choices available. The only reason not to indulge is because the music has too great a hold upon you.

THE OTHER STUFF

As part of the “Heritage” side of the fest there are various areas featuring local arts and crafts, smaller stage venues featuring native music and dance, T-shirts and posters. I personally don’t indulge in anything but the T-shirts, but the posters are sometimes very attractive and the arts and crafts only discernible benefit is to impress first-time goers.

The native activities are also pretty cool.

THE HARMONIC CONVERGENCE, OR THE ‘JAZZ FEST MOMENT’

Myy life-long buddy and I have gone to the Jazz Fest 15-plus years, and we have taken to referring to a hoped-for and usually always-obtained moment we call the “Jazz Fest Moment.” That’s the ineffable sweet spot where the artist, the crowd, and the right amount of beer reach levels of perfect equilibrium and a tangible feeling of ecstasy is felt, right then, right there.

I have seen the look of pure joy on the faces of performers and on fellow audience members and I have felt a communal wave of euphoria envelope all.

I know how this sounds, but you have to believe me – it’s real.

As I write this, I am basking in the afterglow of the first Friday’s Jazz Fest attendance. There, I saw Otra, a New Orleans-based Cuban jazz outfit (who started the day off with a smashing mambo of a good time); the Iguanas, again, a New Orleans-based Latino rock group; Doyle Bramhall and C.C. Adcock, who burrowed down deep into the blues; Tab Benoit; and finished with the luminescent Lizz Wright. By seeing these sterling acts, I forever missed performances by Theresa Andersson, Robert Plant with Alison Krauss and Sheryl Crow, along with Buckwheat Zydeco, Anders Osborne, Burning Spear, etc., etc.

I plan to be back next weekend, even in the mud, to recreate the feeling and to get in on the best bargain in the universe.