The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2016 was an electrifying mix of sounds
and colours, two weekends of beautiful cacophony punctuated by bursts of rain
showers, thunderstorms, and lightning. Yet even despite the weather, this
exuberant crowd of nearly half a million people celebrated music and culture on the
fair grounds of NOLA. Audix once again supported the festival by sending over 400
microphones which were widely used throughout the festival.
The Lagniappe Stage was the most intimate venue at the festival. The stage
features a wide variety of musical genres from Loyola University Jazz Ensemble and
jazz vocalist Ingrid Lucia to the singer-songwriter talents of Andrew Duhon and the
eclectic original music of cellist Helen Gillet. The stage featured OM6 for vocals, i5
for instruments, D6 and D series mics for drums, ADX51 for overheads, and
SCX25A for piano.
“The Fais Do-Do Stage is always a favourite as it features the best Cajon, Zydeco,
and Americana you have heard,” says Audix VP of Sales Cliff Castle. Acts include
Los Lobos, Buffy Saint-Marie, Savoy Family Cajun Band, Kristin Diable and
hometown favourite Rockin’ Dopsie. This high-energy stage keeps the monitor
engineers on their toes as there are usually lots of musicians on stage all wanting
plenty of gain in the monitors. Monitor engineer Chris Brown gives them that—and
more! “With the OM6, getting enough gain in the monitors is never a problem. I can
simply keep turning it up until they say OK or ask me to turn it down. We never
have any feedback issues.’ That stage also features i5 on instruments, FireBall on
accordion, D6 on kick, D2 on toms, i5 on snare, and ADX51 on overheads.
Festival stages included everything from the Audix OM line of vocal microphones, to
classics like the i5 and D6, to fan favourites like the FireBall and FireBallV on
harmonicas.
Jazz Fest 2017 has already been announced, so save the date for 28 April – 8 May.
For more, visit the Jazz & Heritage Festival on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JazzFest.
