There wasn`t much blues on Sunday night to close this year`s Chicago Blues Festival. Instead, the program at Grant Park was a special kind of good- time music: Louisiana rock `n` roll. If any listeners objected about this deviation from purity, they were drowned out by the cheers of the partying multitudes.
Indeed, the day was almost a cross section of the state`s unique traditions. Early in the afternoon at the Front Porch stage, accordionist Bois Sec Ardoin`s burning band played Cajun waltzes and two-steps. The high, cracked voice of Ardoin and the leathery strings of Canray Fontenot`s fiddle- what a range of bent sounds-made them both the most traditional and most uninhibited of the day`s performers.
A funkier accordionist, Rockin Dopsie, and his Twisters opened the evening with zydeco, which proved to be blues and old pop tunes (”Hey-Ba-Ba- Re-Bop,” ”T.D.`s Boogie Woogie”) with a few one- and two-chord songs, in the Cajun manner, with rocking rhythms added. Dr. John, who naturally sings like a frog, followed with a cheerful set largely in tribute to Professor Longhair. Tango instead of boogie rhythms were the impetus for elaborate piano work; Allen Toussaint joined him to make an even more elaborate piano duo.
This special New Orleans ”Spanish tinge” ran through the hilariously eclectic Snooks Eaglin`s set, which also offered tastes of Jimmy Reed, Wilson Pickett, Beethoven, Grieg, ”Malaguena” and Ivory Joe Hunter. Quite the opposite was the remarkable Irma Thomas, in fast rocking tunes and, better yet, her clear-voiced, ringing ballads. She`s a delightfully dramatic singer who can start low and build higher as she builds heat, achieving urgent climaxes without screaming. ”Sorry Wrong Number” was the high point of her set. It`s amazing that she wasn`t she one of the `60s most popular soul singers.
To open Toussaint`s set, Robert Parker sang another Pickett song;
Clarence Henry strained to sing like a frog; the dynamic Ernie K-Doe all but preached a sermon in ”Mother-In-Law.” At last songwriter-producer Toussaint came out to sing his own ditties, including old hits that he wrote for other singers (”All These Things,” ”Southern Nights”) and his own tunes like the new ”Who`s Minding The Store?” Those who listened closely could hear his boogie-styled piano beneath the chunky modern rhythms, a little taste of blues to end a nevertheless rewarding festival night.
