Live Review: The 2nd Annual Zildjian Jam - 4/30/24 Tipitinas New Orleans, LA

The 2nd Annual Zildjian Jam

4/30/24 Tipitinas 

New Orleans, LA

Coming off of last years 400th birthday celebration, Zildjian once again partnered with Tipitina's in New Orleans to do an afternoon set at the venue during Jazz Fest week, showcasing the funky drummers in town. At 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, Stanton Moore took to the stage to play MC for the event which was a whose-who of percussionists as each drummer jumped on stage to deliver one tune to get the crowd moving.

Eddie Christmas

The long list of drummers on hand included: Andrew Campanelli, Eddie Christmas, Zach Danziger, Adam Deitch, Joe Dyson, Nikki Glaspie, Terrence Houston, Alfred Jordan, Jr., Stanton Moore, Herlin Riley, Jamison Ross, Ash Soan, Deven Trusclair and Raymond Weber. They were supported by percussionists PJ Howard, Taku Hirano and Pedro Segundo. The drummers were the showcase but the house band or “The Z-Jam band”  as they are now known was top notch as well with Ivan Neville, Andriu Yanovski, Tony Hall, Ari Teitel, Ian Neville, John Michael Bradford, and Skerik. This is the magic that is New Orleans Jaz Fest, to have all of these artists on hand to perform with such high level talent. 

Joe Dyson

Each song was a highlight, but some things that stood out to RtBE were Dietch's work on "Hangin' Out" which was one of the more jammed out tunes during the afternoon set as the house band got loose. Christmas brought the Mardi Gras Indian's marching to the forefront with "Wild Tchoupitoulas" while Glaspie stole the show again this year with her combo of playing and signing, this time on the rock focused cover of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" which also featured a ripping solo from Teitel.   

Nikki Glaspie

This afternoon was all about the funk though and Alfred Jordan brought that and more with his lead drumming on The Meter's "No More Okey Doke" as skittering drums supported things around Hirano's percussion and blaring horns. Our host Moore paid tribute to Dr. John with excellent work on "Qualified" while Jamieson Ross combined fantastic singing and playing on Chocolate Milk's NOLA funk jam "Actions Speak Louder Than Words".  

Stanton Moore

The full band's power really hit it's stride at the end with two funk monsters that closed the set strongly. Trusclair kicked off Tower of Power's "Soul Vaccination" which was funky as all get out with the bass and horns in particular giving the song added get down force and funk.  

Raymond Weber closed the show powerfully as the house band threw down in all shapes and forms for the extended cover of "It Ain't No Use" from The Meters.

Raymond Weber and The Z Jam Band

Hopefully this afternoon drumming tradition continues to roll on for many years to come, and fans in town between weekends should keep an eye out for next years announcement as you can't get more funky on a Tuesday afternoon than this.

___________________

No video is currently up on youtube, so you will have to suffer with our crappy clips above, will update this if better video gets posted soon.