“It was Woody’s idea, actually,” says Moody’s Bistro Bar & Beats proprietor JJ Morgan, referring to the inscrutable Woodruff James of Crux Events. “He wanted to do something in the theme of Jazz Fest. So, I booked the music.”
“Our goal is to set a really strong foundation for a successful festival that will go to every year, one that people would come in from the Bay Area, Sacramento or Reno
to enjoy.”– JJ Morgan
The inaugural Truckee Craw Thaw Music Festival is meant to bring a New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival atmosphere to downtown Truckee during one of the most beautiful, yet peculiarly quiet, spring weekends of the year.
“Jazz Fest is all over the place in terms on music, but it’s all American,” says Morgan. “It’s got jazz, blues, country, hip-hop, soul, honky-tonk and more.”
Moody’s will be serving up an assortment of fresh food outside on Bridge Street from a menu set to include a crawfish boil, red beans and rice, Cajun sausages and jambalaya.
“Saturday is carved out for family day,” says Morgan. “The Truckee High School Jazz Band will be playing and [Tahoe videographer] Tim Manning will present a bunch of his snowboard films and talk about the evolution of what he’s seen in snowboarding as a way to segue into the night’s headliners.”
A portion of the proceeds will go to Moody’s Jazz Camp and the rest will be recycled back into future adaptations of this extraordinary street fête.
“There was a large grant given to Woody by TTBID [Truckee Tourism Business Improvement District],” says Morgan. “It comes from an extra tax on the hotel rooms. It’s earmarked to bring events to Truckee that will put heads in beds. Our goal is to set a really strong foundation for a successful festival that will go to every year, one that people would come in from the Bay Area, Sacramento or Reno to enjoy.”
A musical mélange
The Easy Leaves of Sonoma County are scheduled to kick things off on Friday night.
“If we have to push it into a genre, we just say we are a California Country band,” says double bass player and vocalist Kevin Carducci. “We’re not really trying to put ourselves into any corners besides that. A lot of the songs we write tend to gravitate towards a Bakersfield Country lineup. We like melodic country music that swings. People like to dance to it and move to it.”
There’s something old timey and resonant infused within the Leaves laid-back, harmonic approach to both classic material and neatly-penned original compositions.
“We love old-time hillbilly country music and Western swing and all that stuff that you don’t hear in the mainstream anymore,” say Carducci. “The songs that we write kind of are in the continuation of that musical strain. I think it kind of sticks with people because of the familiarity.”
Carducci sees the blues as the common thread that runs through the jazz, funk, honky-tonk and swamp pop of the eclectic mix of bands on the Craw Thaw lineup.
“From there, American music is just people mixing up cultures and making different sounds together,” he says. “And that’s something I really appreciate.”
San Francisco’s Otis McDonald, a five-piece combo led by multi-faceted producer Joe Bagale, will bring the outdoor concerts home on Saturday night.
The band’s alias was born from a combination of two of his biggest musical influences: R&B legend Shuggie Otis and The Doobie Brothers’ singer Michael McDonald.
“It’s a tribute to both of those cats,” says Bagale. “Our music is rooted in funk, rhythm and soul, and a little jazz. The purpose is to get people to move their bodies.”
Bagale loves the music of New Orleans for its diverse energy rooted in a shared American experience.
“The blues is 100 percent where it all started,” says Bagale of the Birthplace of Jazz’s musical history. “[Then] there was the influence of the French and zydeco. It’s all inherently rhythmic, which is intrinsic to us as humans. It’s always going to have a groove to it. If people are tapping their feet, then I know I’m going in the right direction.”
April 27-28 | Downtown Truckee
For more information, visit truckeecrawthaw.com.
