Well after midnight on the final night of Jazz Fest, Sunday, May 7th, an all-star band featuring members of Cool Cool Cool, The Motet, Magic Beans, The Nth Power, and more joined forces at New Orleans, LA’s The Howlin’ Wolf to close out ten marathon days of music with Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince.
Though weary from the endless stream of incredible live music and New Orleans culture, the musicians and fans in the audience alike summoned up enough energy for one last dance party in honor of the late Purple One to round out Live For Live Music‘s lengthy 2023 Fest by Nite series.
Led once again by keyboardist Casey Russell (Magic Beans), this year’s fifteen-piece Purple Party lineup featured all seven core members of Cool Cool Cool including Craig Brodhead (guitar, keys), Michelangelo Carubba (drums), Shira Elias (vocals), and Sammi Garett (vocals) as well as trumpeter Chris Brouwers and saxophonists Josh Schwartz and Greg Sanderson, otherwise known as The Horn Section. The performance also feature Pretty Lights drummer Alvin Ford Jr., who alternated songs with Carubba, as well as The Nth Power bassist Nate Edgar, saxophonist/keyboardist/bassist Khris Royal, The Motet’s Joey Porter (keys) and Ryan Jalbert (guitar), singer-songwriter Lyle Divinsky, and special guest vocalist Erica Falls. Local favorite Ari Teitel (guitar) also dropped in for a surprise appearance late in the show.
The loaded band kept the crowd moving until nearly 4:00 a.m. with a mix of Prince hits and deep cuts, weaving expertly between reverent renderings of the Purple One’s decades-long catalog and improvisational extrapolations that highlighted the wealth of musical talent on The Howlin’ Wolf’s stage. After blasting through a lengthy stretch of dance tracks, this year’s Purple Party cast slowed things down and took a few final moments to savor this year’s Jazz Fest journey with an emotional “Call My Name”, Divinsky and Elias’s self-described favorite Prince song.
Following a spirited “Sexy Dancer”, Divinsky took the reins for a knockout, Jazz Fest season-closing rendition of “Purple Rain”, his raw vocal delivery flowing into a pair of thematic guitar solos chipped in by Jalbert and Brodhead to thrilling effect. After a long, grueling, beautiful, emotional, and all-around unforgettable ten days in New Orleans, this glowing “Purple Rain” washed away the Fair Grounds mud and sent Jazz Fest-ers home with souls cleansed.
Below, check out the setlist from Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince, watch a clip of the closing “Purple Rain”, and read Lyle Divinsky’s reflections on the performance. Scroll down to check out a gallery of photos from the show via Nosferatune.
Setlist: Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince | The Howlin’ Wolf | New Orleans, LA | 5/7/23
Set: Controversy, D.M.S.R., Musicology, Soft & Wet, Partyup, I Would Die 4 U, Kiss, I Feel For You, I Wanna Be Your Lover, Head, A Love Bizarre, Pop Life, Erotic City, Call My Name, Sexy Dancer
Purple Rain
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