Remembering Feufollet's Chris Stafford's Importance at Jazz Fest

Feufollet with Chris Stafford (front right)

Cedric Watson described Feufollet’s Chris Stafford as “one of the most talented people in Louisiana” during a set of Cajun classics in the Jazz Fest Rhythmpourium on Friday afternoon. Stafford died tragically in a car accident Thursday night, and in Lafayette where he collaborated with so many people, his death has one impact. At Jazz Fest it has another. His willingness to explore the outer reaches of where Cajun music could go made it possible for music lovers who didn’t speak the language or know the culture to find a point of entry. Feufollet’s covers of Eno’s “Baby’s on Fire” and The Beach Boys’ “Heroes and Villains” and its willingness to venture into less traditional musical spaces including singing in English made it easier for open-minded Jazz Fest fans to connect to Feufollet’s music and, as a result, the Cajun music that still made up the majority of the band’s sets.

Those musical choices didn’t come from a lack of commitment, though. Stafford had put in the time thinking about his relationship to the music and culture, and he said in an interview in 2014 that “Cajun music can have a tendency to be very utilitarian. Realistically, it had a social function. That’s where men met women and started families. Now, that utility of the music isn’t as necessary.”

Because he did the work, he thought about how the music fit into the culture and felt free to explore where it could go. “We should be as creative as we can possibly be. Not doing what’s intellectually stimulating to us is doing a disservice to our audience and ourselves,” Stafford said.

Stafford’s music suggested that Cajun music didn’t live in any particular instrument set or musical constrictions. In my piece last week on the Roots of Fire documentary, Jeremey Lavoi and Abby Berendt Lavoi talked about how hearing his garage-rock version of the Balfa Brothers’ “Parlez-Nous a Boire” from Allons Boire un Coup prompted them to investigate the young Cajun music scene that could produce such a track.

Stafford’s musical tastes seemed to be as broad as anyone attending the festival, and Feufollet also folded honky tonk into their mix. In 2012, they recorded  “Me Voila,” a Cajun French version of the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There” for En Français: Cajun ’n’ Creole Rock ’n’ Roll. That range made it easier for people who don’t know Amédé Ardoin or Canray Fontentot or any of the song titles to still feel like they’ve got an idea where Feufollet’s music came from.

Obviously, this is such a small part of what can and should be said about Stafford. Rainy Eyes wrote on Instagram, “There’s no words. Only love. You were an exceptional human being. You are loved by so many. There are endless tears to cry for you brother. We want you back.”

Feufollet was scheduled to play Jazz Fest’s Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage at 12:25 p.m. on Saturday, but understandably, they have cancelled and been replaced by Colombian artist Gregorio Uribe.

Friday at Jazz Fest ended with star power at the ends of the Fair Grounds with Hozier at the Shell Gentilly Stage and Foo Fighters on the Festival Stage. Hozier didn’t really engage me, but I liked the idea of a modern blues rock that wasn’t all about guitar heroics. It was also great to see excited young women squealing at the start of songs because that a kind of immediate, urgent excitement is something Jazz Fest frequently lacks. I assume that Dave Grohl at the other end was his usual intense self, but by the time I walked by for “Best of You,” his voice was punched and it all just seemed overwrought.

For my money, the genuine rock star on stage at that time was Jourdan Thibodeaux, who performed on the Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do Stage with a swagger that Grohl probably never had. “Who’s drinking with me?” he asked as he picked up a bottle of red wine on the stage, and the audience went for their beers, unwilling to leave him to drink alone. His band Les Rodailleurs includes Joel Savoy, Cedric Watson, and former Lost Bayou Ramblers upright bassist Alan Le Fleur, and they gave him the musical palate to create a version of Cajun music clearly influenced by rock. The instrumentation remained largely acoustic except for Savoy’s electric guitar, and Thibodeaux sang in Cajun French, but in attitude and presentation, it not absolutely rocked.

Saturday ends strong and poses the hardest choices at Jazz Fest this year. I don’t pass up Neil Young with Crazy Horse, but I love Queen Latifah and am curious about Greta Van Fleet. Equally challenging is jazz singer Samara Joy vs. Americana artist Rhiannon Giddens vs. the return of the pop bluegrass Nickel Creek. You’ll have to follow your heart in those choices, but you’ll do fine either way.

My picks?

Saturday at Jazz Fest starts with rapper Alfred Banks, who will perform with Hotboy Ronald on the Congo Square Stage at 11:20 a.m. I interviewed Banks for part two of my story on the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s collaborations with local musicians since he’ll play with them on Wednesday.

Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show (12:05 p.m., Festival Stage) - Paul has made his shows into a kind of Rolling Thunder Revue by inviting a lot of musical friends to join him and create a show that feels as much like an expression of community as a concert.

Cimarrón (1:20 p.m., Festival Stage; 3:20 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion) - I was struck by the musicianship in this Columbian band, who plays joropo, a dance music from the Columbian plains, but videos make me think that tambora, an Afro-Columbian stomp dance, will be part of the show.

Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole (1:35 p.m., Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do Stage) - Cedric Watson makes sense with Les Rodailleurs because his own Bijou Creole is a similarly restless project, exploring the world of Creole music in South Louisiana and beyond.

Finally, if you go through Jazz Fest without trying a cocoloco in the Cultural Exchange Pavilion food area, you’re messing up. The drink with a Colombian liquor, coconut and lime echos a traditional piña colada, and while it’s selling well frozen, I prefer mine on the rocks. I was also glad to see the return of cracklins this year. The bag’s not as generous as it once was, but they’re so meaty that you don’t miss what you don’t have.