photo by Marc Millman

George Porter Jr. has been a key presence at Jazz Fest since the very first year.

This article is part of our 50 Years of Jazz Fest celebration and appears in the special Collector’s Edition April/May 2019 issue of Relix. Subscribe here using code NOLA50 and get 20% off.

George Porter Jr.’s association with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival spans its entire 50-year history. At the very first Jazz Fest, he performed with The Meters and, this spring, he’ll appear with both Foundation of Funk and Runnin’ Pardners.

Beyond the bassist’s onstage contributions to the event, Porter spent nearly 20 years working behind the scenes as a stage manager. However, as he explains, that role also resulted in additional performance opportunities. “The first couple of years I did that gig, I remember Quint [Davis] telling me: ‘Jeez man, I don’t even know why we hired you to work the stage because, every time I walk around the site, I see you playing on somebody else’s stage,’” Porter says with a laugh. “We’d get a call saying, ‘Hey, we need a bass player over here on the gospel stage.’ So I would run over because the bass player was late or something and they wanted to start the show on time.”

Porter’s longtime relationship with the event also led to his appearance on the cover of the new five-disc retrospective box set by Smithsonian Folkways, Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which captures a moment of pure jubilation on his face during a 1974 performance with The Meters (see below).

Is there a particular performance that comes to mind when you think back on Jazz Fest over the last 50 years?

The first time that The Meters played at the Fair Grounds and Stevie Wonder came up to sit in with us [in 1973]. That was a pretty epic moment. He came out and he played organ and drums.

I remember a great story that Allen [Toussaint] told us after the set. After Stevie finished, Zig went back on drums and Stevie said, “I thought I had already heard all the pocket I was going to ever hear in my life.” Zig just floored him.

Do you recall how that came about?

Quint Davis probably facilitated that. The night before, Stevie and Mahalia Jackson played at the auditorium. But we were just told that someone special was coming to check out our set. We didn’t know he was going to play with us. Then, once he was there, it didn’t take a whole lot to encourage him to come up and play a little bit.

Moving forward chronologically, is there another moment that jumps out at you?

That same year with Stevie Wonder, I played two gigs. The second performance was with Professor Longhair. Zig and I played with Fess on an all-star collection of blues and traditional artists that came out to sit in with him [including B.B. King, Bukka White and Roosevelt Sykes]. That was something you never saw again because Fess was OK with it, to some degree, but he didn’t like sharing his stardom. [Laughs.]

I’ve always thought that one of the stages [at Jazz Fest] could be set up for collaborations to happen, where it’s not so pre-programmed, like with the jam scene today. We could have New Orleans artists out there playing with other people who aren’t in their bands. All these different artists could get together like we were able to do back in the Dew Drop [Inn] days.

You were a stage manager for nearly two decades. What originally led to that?

The reason I got that call was because a friend of mine, Steve Eggerton, was the stage manager, and he knew that I was a hands-on production person. Steve first met us and started working with The Meters when we went to do that ‘75 Rolling Stones tour. He realized that, even though I had a crew out there with me, I was hands-on. I would be out there moving gear and facilitating what goes where. And a couple times, somebody would tell me: “Hey, man, go away. We got this. Go!” [Laughs.]

What were some of the sets that captured your attention while you were working on the production side?

Joni Mitchell played out there once, and she did the solo thing with just her and a computerized guitar that let her down. It was just nice watching a professional person work her way through the troubles she was having with that guitar.

When Van Morrison played, I thought it was funny because, as hot as it was, he was in a full mink coat. I was saying, “God, this guy’s gotta be losing his mind.” He had a beautiful lady with high heels on and it was muddy as hell out there, and she was bringing him champagne to the stage. Moments like that were unbelievable.

What are your memories of the first Jazz Fest after Hurricane Katrina

Quint convinced the original members of The Meters to perform. He went to everybody individually and said, “Man, y’all need to do this. The city needs y’all to come do this.” So we did, even though we all had some uncertainty. But that kind of reopened the door for the four of us to start playing together again.

How about the past few Jazz Fests?

The last few years, I’ve been doing different projects with my Runnin’ Pardners band. I brought out my horn section last year, and I also did a trio thing. Then, I invited Susan Cowsill out, as well as Mia Borders, who has been writing lyrics for the Porter Trio album that’s going to be coming out soon. Denise Sullivan has also been helping me with lyrics. I was real happy about the fact that we performed with those two ladies, and then we brought the big band out and it was a great set.

The year before that with the Runnin’ Pardners, it was pouring down and we played in front of a beautiful audience of people standing in the mud. The stage manager told me: “You know y’all can quit anytime you want, man. I can’t ask y’all to stay out there.” But I said, “If those people are standing out there in the mud, we’re gonna stay up here onstage.” So we played our whole set, and it was killer.

This article originally appears in the April/May 2019 issue of Relix. For more features, interviews, album reviews and more, subscribe here.