I wish I was there, sounds it has been awesome!

www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2015/05/...z_fest_2015_len.html

Lenny Kravitz: 'Good to be back' for New Orleans Jazz Fest 2015


Movie star handsome, with a supple voice and virtuosic command of the electric guitar, Lenny Kravitz blended glamor and grit during his afternoon stand on the final Sunday (May 3) of the New Orleans Jazz Fest.

The most magnetic moment of the performance was when Kravitz held the microphone stand aloft as if he were a standard bearer leading a small army of followers, as the sprawling Acura Stage audience chanted along with "Let Love Rule." He then descended from the stage and strode through his crush of fans, accepting adoring pats on the back, smiling for smartphone videos, and at least once dancing with an impromptu partner who will certainly share the memory with future grandchildren.

After a quarter hour, the extended anthem came to a close with the audience bristling with raised arms, waving in unison with the beat.

Earlier in the show, Kravitz had pulled Meters guitar maestro Leo Nocentelli from the wings onto the stage where he waved to the crowd.

"It's so good to be back in New Orleans, playing on the same stage as my family, The Meters and Trombone Shorty," Kravitz, who once owned a French Quarter home, told the audience. Too bad Nocentelli wasn't able to join the act for a tune or two.

The show had begun with the hard rocker "Dirty White Boots," followed by Kravitz's pulsing cover of "American Woman," which inspired arm-raised bobbing across the audience. The crowd was not as sardine-packed as Saturday's Elton John show, but was respectably broad and dense.

Kravitz, an accomplished actor who recently played Cinna, a sympathetic fashion consultant in the "Hunger Games" movie series, appeared Sunday in a stylishly shredded violet and gray T-shirt, torn jeans, loose, khaki-colored long-sleeved shirt, beard, bangles and shades.

After the first two songs, the tone of the concert changed somewhat. Kravitz traded his solid-body guitar for a mellower hollow-bodied Gibson and traded his throaty hard rock enunciation for a soulful falsetto as he delivered "It Ain't Over 'til it's Over."

Dozens of camera lenses in the photo pit followed Kravitz's every action. On a raised platform, a sign language interpreter danced her deliberate, expressive dance. A smiling woman in the first row swayed ecstatically as she sang along into a pale blue imitation microphone. Kravitz stalked the edge of the stage, bending and gesturing to the crowd, giving everyone the best view possible.

With "Always on the Run," the 50-year-old returned to rock mode, theatrically swaggering, staggering and mugging as he traded riffs with band members.

In the sandy gully that cuts across the Acura area, a woman wearing hippie-style garb, whose hair was tinged with gray, twirled like a tilting gyroscope as her significant other shaded her from the sun with a tattered Japanese paper umbrella. Music fans laden with beers tunneled through the crowd searching for friends. A circling airplane towed a banner with the words: "FIX MY STREETS." An action painter added brushstroke after brushstroke to his frenetic image of Kravitz. The roving video camera occasionally sought out the canvas to check progress. Celebratory flags fluttered along the horizon line.

The crowd immediately began percolating to Kravitz's classic "I want to get away," which brought the show nearly to a conclusion at a few minutes past 5.

But there was one more treat in store. Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, who would close out the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell later in the afternoon on the same stage, appeared beside Kravitz. With a hug to the neck and a peck on each cheek, Kravitz welcomed Andrews who then contributed stunning slide pyrotechnics to the closing number "Are You Gonna Go My Way?"

End

Photos rights, Mathieu Bitton