Johnny Vidacovich at Bear Creek Music Fest: with The Trio, Jon Cleary, & Marco Benevento

It’s not often you get to see master New Orleans drummer Johnny Vidacovich play outside the city of New Orleans. But last November at Bear Creek Music Festival the man was everywhere sitting in with at least 5 different acts. I captured quite a big chunk of Bear Creek with my video camera, and I got some great footage of JohnnyV.

First I want to share a few videos of The Trio (which is the name of Johnny’s weekly Thursday night gig at the Maple Leaf, whether it involves 3 players or not). This particular Trio gig featured George Porter Jr on bass along with Jennifer Hartswick on trumpet. Freekbass was also a special guest for this set.

The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(4 of 4) Big Chief:

The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick (w/ Freekbass)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 4) Don’t Be Squeezin’ My Heart:

The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick (w/ Freekbass)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(3 of 4) Don’t Be Squeezin’ My Heart (cont.):

The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 4) Careful Who You Idolize:

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Next up is JohnnyV sitting in with Jon Cleary‘s “Piano, Bass & Drums” group, which features Johnny’s longtime Astral Project collaborator James Singleton on bass. BTW, the drummer on the second video here is Doug Belote, a drummer of quite some repute down in Cajun country. [Interesting factoid, Doug Belote briefly replaced Raymond Weber in Dumpstaphunk for a short run of shows in December of 2010 when Raymond was busy filming episodes of the HBO TV show Treme.]

Jon Cleary: Piano, Bass & Drums (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Reconsider Baby, Get Low Down:

Jon Cleary: Piano, Bass & Drums
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
I Get The Blues, Tipitina:

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Finally, I have some videos of Johnny sitting in with Marco Benevento performing the James Booker classic, Junco Partner. After that is a few more Marco Benevento videos, including one where Marco passes me his bottle of Makers Mark from the stage. That was a good start to the afternoon!

Marco Benevento (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Junco Partner (James Booker cover) (1 of 2):

Marco Benevento (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Junco Partner (James Booker cover) (2 of 2):

Marco Benevento (w/ Robert Walter)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse cover):

Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Greenpoint, The Real Morning Party:

Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
The Real Morning Party (cont.), Atari:

Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Hearbeats (The Knife cover):

And if you made it this far, then you are certainly a big JohnnyV fan. At that, you will be glad to know that Johnny was recently added to the Live Music Archive. I have recently uploaded over 30 audio recordings spanning from 2001 to 2011 and they are all available to be streamed or downloaded for free over at http://www.archive.org/details/JohnnyVidacovich.

SKERIK, SKERIK, SKERIK! – 1 with Freekbass in the Silent Disco – 2 with Garage A Trois – 3 with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Continuing the Bear Creek Music Festival video flood, we have 1 video of Skerik with Freekbass in the Silent Disco, 2 videos of Skerik with Garage A Trois, and 3 videos of Skerik with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. How’s that for a christmas gift?

The Silent Disco is a new concept at music festivals, where everyone in the audience wears wireless headphones with a direct feed to the music. I caught a couple of DJs in the Silent Disco and it was really neat to take your headphones off and listen to the sounds people make.

Skerik & Freekbass, though, took it to another level. The sounds this duo made in my ears were stirring, exhilarating, and unique. Unfortunately these sounds will probably never be heard again, as I didn’t bring an audio recorder to get a SBD patch (fingers crossed that the soundguy or someone affiliated with the festival recorded it). You can check out this video, but you definitely won’t get the full experience. I guess I could have held the headphones up to my video camera’s external microphone and picked up some of it, but I didn’t think of it at the time…

Skerik & Freekbass in the Silent Disco 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:

Next up, two Garage A Trois videos. Just take Skerik, Mike Dillon, Stanton Moore, and Marco Benevento, put them in jumpsuits in 30 degree weather in the Florida swamp, and this is what happens.

Garage A Trois – Earl Harvin 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:

Garage A Trois – Rescue Spreaders 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:

Finally, we have Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey with a horn section of Skerik, Mark Southerland, Chris Noonan, & Jonathan Lloyd, performing the first 2 tracks from The Race Riot Suite.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Black Wall Street 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Black Wall Street (cont.) 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – The Burning 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival: