Photo Courtesy of Mike Griot
The rebranded Essex County South Mountain International Blues Festival will be held Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Reservation. Above, blues musicians perform at a previous South Orange International Blues Festival.
WEST ORANGE — In honor of its fifth anniversary, the former South Orange International Blues Festival, which has been rebranded as the Essex County South Mountain International Blues Festival, will be held at the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange on Sunday, Sept. 7, from 11 a.m. through 8 p.m.
The renaming comes as a reflection of the free event’s expanded footprint throughout the county, according to festival producer Mike Griot, an Orange native and South Orange resident. In fact, in an Aug. 28 phone interview Griot told the News-Record that, since partnering with Essex County in 2011, he had always planned to change the event’s name in its fifth year to demonstrate its growth.
Griot called this year’s festival a culmination of the past four events, one that reflects all aspects of the blues genre.
“One of my personal missions in terms of the creative erection and programming of the festival has been to pull from the entire blues crayon box, if you will, and make sure that people realize the depth and breadth of the music,” Griot said.
Indeed, this year’s lineup includes an eclectic mix of performers, each specializing in a different style of blues. For instance, Regina Bonelli is a soulful blues musician while Long Tall Deb plays in the Texas style of the genre. Michael Hill’s Blues Mob, in which Griot himself has played bass for 20 years, performs New York blues.
Griot’s biggest goal for the festival, however, is to educate the audience about the historical importance of blues music and ensure that it lives on.
“Everything that is historically significant needs preserving,” Griot said. “I created the festival not only to bring awareness of the blues as a historical and musical phenomenon, but to remind America that the blues is America’s classical music. It was first, and all other music that became popular in the States was derived from the blues form and somewhat directly from the African-American experience.”
The 2014 festival will be headlined by Johnny Sansone, a veteran New Orleans blues musician with numerous albums and awards nominations to his name. Sansone released his latest record, “Once It Gets Started,” in 2013 and composed music for the HBO series “Treme.” He said he is currently working on a film score and will next be shooting a series for Cinemax and recording a new album in December.
Perhaps most significant about Sansone, at least in terms of this festival, is the fact that he actually grew up in the St. Cloud neighborhood of West Orange. In an Aug. 28 phone interview with the News-Record, he vividly recalled hearing the animal cries at nearby Turtle Back Zoo during summer nights as a child as well as listening to the concerts at the former South Mountain Arena, now the Richard J. Codey Arena. Sansone attended St. Cloud Elementary School, and his family founded the St. Cloud Swim Club in 1953.
Sansone said he is happy to perform just minutes away from where he once lived, especially as he has not returned in years, and has never before played at the venue.
“I am extremely excited about it because it is where I had all my formative years,” Sansone said. “It is where I learned pretty much everything that makes me tick.
“It has been many years,” Sansone added. “I have a lot of people in the area that I have not seen in a long, long time and I am really looking forward to hopefully making it a homecoming and seeing a lot of people from my early years.”
Onstage, Sansone said he will keep things fresh by performing a variety of songs sampling the New Orleans experience, including swamp blues, zydeco and deep blues. Overall, he said he hopes to give blues fans and newcomers alike a musical awakening.
“I think this music is important for people to understand, to experience, because there are times when you can listen to something and not realize why it is moving you,” Sansone said. “You actually get goosebumps listening to music and thinking ‘Wow, I do not know why I am moved, but I am.’ And you can experience that especially if you have never listened to the music or been to an actual blues performance where so much emotion comes out. It is something that I think everybody should experience.”
Griot expects more people than ever to share in that experience. He said that in 2013 approximately 2,000 to 2,200 people came to the festival, but this year he hopes attendance will increase to 2,500 to 3,000.
One person who certainly wants the event to be a success is Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., who has made improving the South Mountain Reservation a priority since taking office in 2003. In a statement released to the News-Record, DiVincenzo said that having the festival as part of the Free Summer Concert Series is a benefit to the county.
“Hosting the South Mountain International Blues Festival at the Essex County South Mountain Recreation Complex is an opportunity to attract people to our area, highlight our beautiful natural open spaces and entertain with the upbeat sounds of the blues,” DiVincenzo said. “We are pleased to be partnering with Mike Griot to present this free, world-class festival.”