New Orleans' music industry hits high notes following emergence of festivals

In 1980, the one major music festival in New Orleans was the 10- year old New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which attracted an audience of 100,000.

By 2004, there were three major festivals - Jazz Fest, the French Quarter Festival and the Essence Music Festival, drew well over 1

Quint Davis, president of Festival Productions Inc.-New Orleans, the production company behind Jazz Fest, said festivals helped create a more structured music industry in New Orleans.

Before, we had Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain and Al Hirt but we didn't have a music industry; we had a music culture, Davis said. Then Jazz Fest shined a light on our local talent, which accelerated when we started bringing in national acts. That attracted national record companies and agents which started a whole evolution and revolution.

In 1980, Jazz Fest was just starting to come into its own. Its first incarnation in 1970 attracted just 350 people. By the end of the 1980s, the audience had tripled to 300,000, eventually peaking in 2001 with more than 664,000 music fans.

In 2004, Jazz Fest had an economic impact of more than $300 million, according to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. In 2005, it is expected to have an impact between $400 million and $500 million.

In 1983, civic leaders created the French Quarter Festival to attract tourists back to the historic district, which had been temporarily ripped apart during planning and construction for the 1984 World's Fair.

During French Quarter Fest's inaugural year, there were only a handful of stages on Bourbon Street, said executive director Beth Vicari Fisher. By 2005, FQF had stages in Jackson Square, Woldenberg Riverfront Park and the Louisiana State Museum's Old U.S. Mint.

Since 2000 the audience has grown by 50,000 annually, exceeding 450,000 people earlier this year.

In 2004, French Quarter Festival had an economic impact of $75.5 million.

The festival only works with local musicians so I think there is a sense of ownership with the musicians and this festival, Fisher said. If you're able to get into French Quarter Festival, you truly are a part of that local music scene. It allows emerging artists to play to large crowds, which is a great experience, especially for younger bands trying to make their mark.

Twelve years after French Quarter Fest arrived, Essence Magazine established the Essence Music Festival in 1995.

Essence was supposed to be a one-time event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the magazine but producers decided to make it an annual occurrence after it drew a crowd of 105,000, said Nicole Wright, Essence Festival producer and general manager.

We're in the magazine business but the event was such a success we decided to enter the festival business, Wright said. Over the past 11 years we've pumped in over $1 billion into the local economy. Last year's event drew more than 225,000, which was great exposure for all of the local acts we book, including Rockin' Dopsie, Eddie Bo and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Fountain said Jazz Fest and the French Quarter Festival, which he calls unbelievable, gave him national and international exposure.

They've both helped me out incredibly, Fountain said. People who have caught me at either festival have gone out of their way to catch me out on tour wherever I am.

Davis points to homegrown record labels such as Basin Street Records and Louisiana Red Hot Records as proof of the burgeoning music industry.

In 1996, in conjunction with Jazz Fest, pianist and composer Allen Toussaint founded NYNO Records, which has now produced more than 11 albums of New Orleans-related music.

To ask whether New Orleans has a better business climate today for musicians is like asking whether it has a better business climate today for the film industry, Davis said.

Some prominent New Orleans musicians still scoff at the idea music has blossomed into a full-fledged and fully supported industry.

My perception of an industry is something supported in a specific way like receiving a cash influx or government subsidies, said pianist Ellis Marsalis. The music industry here benefits primarily from very lax laws that permit music to be played on the streets, people to open clubs without having to close at a specific time and loose liquor laws like to-go cups.

The city likes to think in terms of music being an industry but, unless working for tips constitute an industry, I don't see it. The festivals like Jazz Fest are great but they are more economic engines for the city, not ways musicians can jump start their careers.

Mark Fowler, manager of Tipitina's Music Office Co-Op, is more moderate. He said the music industry is not in full swing as described by Davis nor is it completely absent as Marsalis labels it.

We have an industry but it's in the developing stage. Obviously we're not Nashville, (Tenn.), New York or Los Angeles but there are a lot of talented people here recording, hitting the road and creating a buzz, Fowler said.

The advent of home recording through computer software and marketing over the Internet has allowed the New Orleans music industry to grow over the past 15 years, Fowler said.

We're in a transitional period now. Nothing looks like it used to look so it's easy to question whether anything is really going on, he said. But people are creating and selling albums and bypassing a lot of that old stuff and making a living doing it.

Mark Samuels, co-founder of Basin Street Records, said the music industry in New Orleans has room to grow but it is already as good as it has ever been due in part to live exposure of local talent.

CD sales for me are driven by live music. From our standpoint the French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest give us an opportunity to present almost all of our artists every year to an international crowd and that helps spread the word, said Samuels. When the House of Blues arrived, it also had a lot to do with turning the music scene around. Now you can say you're a band from New Orleans and it means something.