Oak Street Block Party Brings Funk Legends Together For Local Community
Last Wednesday, April 29th, the Oak Street Block Party featured funky music, fabulous food and family fun to the people of New Orleans once again, and they brought it all to them free of charge, with a portion of all profits going to the Oak Street community. Only in New Orleans would someone look at the back to back weekends of hundreds of stellar sets of music at Jazz Fest itself, and the hundreds of concerts that fill up the late nights and think to themselves…”But what are we gonna do on Wednesday during the day?”Luckily, that’s just the question event promoter Paul Levine asked himself, and the conclusion he came to was the same one he always does…”Let’s throw a party!” Levine has been a part of more festivals and concerts than you could shake a stick at, if you shook sticks at those kinds of things, which, honestly, is the last thing you should be shaking at one of his events. Unless your stick was your money maker. Then feel free to shake away.Making money was the goal here, but for a good cause. The Oak Street neighborhood features a mixture of locally owned businesses with longstanding ties to the community. The most famous in the music scene would easily be the Maple Leaf, host to Johnny Vidacovich’s legendary Thursday night Trio shows, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a comic book store that has fed the imagination of area residents for over twenty years, multiple art galleries including Frenchy’s, pharmacies and more. It’s a living, breathing, vibrant hub to the families living around it, and preserving its historic facades and keeping it well lit, clean and safe for area families has been a priority for the community.No stranger to charity events, Levine decided to pitch in the way he knows best, bringing some of the many artists and bands that he has formed close friendships with to a pair of outdoor stages, including Leftover Salmon, The Nth Power, Kung Fu, Sonic Bloom, and a star studded super jam featuring members of Lettuce, Nigel Hall, Natalie Cressman, Roosevelt Collier and more. The Maple Leaf got in on the act also, opening its doors and stage to folks like Eddie Roberts of The New Mastersounds and more. Area restaurants set up street sales, filling the air with the sweet smells of Bar-B-Que, gunbo, sausages and more, while everyone danced the night away to the never stopping alternating stages of music.This year’s block party also featured a new take on a classic fair event, with the “Dunk Me Silly” charity dunking booth set up to give attendees a crack at dousicing industry insiders and musicians alike for the cause. Not the kind of promoter to shy away from getting himself dirty, or, in this case, wet, Levine as well as a number of industry insiders like Lyle Williams of Bear Creek, Springfest and Magnolia Fest, Annabel Sterling of Jam Cruise, Bonnaroo and more, area Djs and personalities like Johnny Woodstock and Jonny Ray from radio station WWOZ, burlesque queen Gingerlicious, Ian and Ivan Neville of Dupstaphunk and even Live for Live Music’s chief Kunj Shah himself got soaked for a good cause.While a good natured rivalry developed between the participants as to who would raise the most money developed, in the end it was the neighborhood itself that won. In a city that prides itself on its musical heritage as well as its historic roots and turn of the century architecture, finding a way to combine all of those into one big party that helps preserve the cradle of funkiness that New Orleans has become is the essence of community spirit and an embodiment of the city’s unofficial motto, “Laissez les bons temps rouler” (Let the good times roll!”) Load remaining images