Every year, legendary New Orleans drummer Zigaboo Modeliste brings his “Funk Revue” to the Howlin’ Wolf to close out the late night festivities at Jazz Fest. Now in its 19th year, the Funk Revue has become the exclamation mark at the end of Jazz Fest, the final show that puts a cap on ten days of incredible music.

Modeliste started the Funk Revue in 1998 at the Dream Palace, before moving it to the old Howlin’ Wolf in 1999. The show started at 4:20 AM, and it attracted a certain type of music fan who wants to see music deep into the night. The late (or very early) start time was a breakthrough for the jazz fest crowd, and soon every club was programming music later and later into the evening. In 2005, the show moved to the new Howlin’ Wolf, and it has stayed there ever since. It has evolved into one of the “must see” shows at Jazz Fest.

With Zigaboo set to hit the Wolf on Sunday, May 7th to continue the influential tradition, we spoke to the man himself about the history of the Funk Revue, its impact on New Orleans and Jazz Fest, and what fans can expect for the 2017 edition of the event. See below for the full interview with Zigaboo Modeliste, and get pumped for Zigaboo’s 19th Annual Funk Revue.

Live For Live Music: Tell me a bit about the history of the Funk Revue. What was the inspiration behind the project in the first place?

Zigaboo Modeliste: Well, you know, part of being successful in this business is that you have to be improvisational sometimes, in terms of creating adventures where you get a chance to actually play and perform. You do different things differently, you market yourself differently, and you put yourself in different situations and hope that it works. When we first started, we put the Funk Revue at 4:20 AM. 4:20 in the morning! That’s kind of hard for the regular person who wants to come out and see entertainment. It was designed that way because people were staying up late and they wanted to hear music around the clock. It worked out the first time we did it, and we thought to ourselves, “we’re not trying to win any gold here. Maybe let’s go for a repeat.” So we did it another year, the same thing, and the crowd started getting bigger, and, you know, more people started going into it. At the time, we didn’t really know what we were actually trying to promote, other than good music to our fans, and any other constituents who would be interested in it.

That went on for several years, and we had no competition, nobody was playing that late. People would be shutting down around 2:00 AM and people at those clubs would be dumping down to where we were, to keep the party going. So, as an extension of the initial party from the beginning, we just were out there doing it later.

Since then, around 2004 or 2005, all the clubs started mimicking our act, and we started to have competition. The crowd size started going down a bit, so we thought to ourselves “we need to re-adjust, and start playing earlier.” So, that’s what we started doing: going on a lot earlier, we got a new crowd, a more diverse crowd. With the help of the club owners at the venue, that made it inspiring, that made it fresh, and we’ve been doing it now for some nineteen or twenty years.

L4LM: That is truly amazing. I know that it’s impossible now to think of Jazz Fest and the festivities down in New Orleans without thinking of a late night scene. I know it’s not part of the official “Jazz Fest”, but I know for me and so many members of my generation it goes hand in hand. With that in mind, how does it feel to have created this institutional event that has inspired so many people in New Orleans?

ZM: Well, I think that it serves a lot of purposes. It gave other musicians opportunities to follow suit and try to improvise on what they were doing. You know, with musicians, it’s not all about revenue, but at the same time, it is your occupation. And it gave the club owners another perspective on how long they could keep their clubs going, what rules needed to be changing. It changed a lot of things. I don’t want to take credit for any of that, but once you start a fire, if you can keep it going, keep it going. You don’t want to dull things out. I think the most inspiring part about it is, it’s not about the musicians themselves, it’s about the fans, and how to serve them better and make them want to come back and be repeat customers. You want to create interest in your own self and your art form.

L4LM: If you’ve been doing things for 19 years, it seems you have figured out the winning formula to get fans to come back. It’s very impressive, and we’re excited for this year’s edition of the Funk Revue. I know in the past you’ve had a lot of different musicians, such as George Porter Jr. and Ivan Neville, as well as bands like Lettuce, Living Colour, Los Lobos, amongst plenty of other special guests at this how. Are there any fun plans for this year for the Funk Revue that you’d be willing to tell us about?

ZM: It’s an interesting concept, and, I know from doing Jazz Fest for all these many years, all the musicians down there, they work triple hard, because that’s the two weeks that the revenue is in the area. They want to do gigs during the day, during the evening, and at night. Some guys gig three or four times a day, every day. It’s a matter of guys trying to survive, and harvest as much revenue as you can because that doesn’t yield like that after Jazz Fest is over all the time. So, at the end of Jazz Fest, when everybody’s all burned out, that does not spoil the appetite of the listener. They still want to hear good music. My policy’s always been to be inclusionary. If other musicians are interested in coming, they don’t have to pay to come in to see me, musicians never have to pay. If they want to sit in, they can sit in. IF they don’t want to sit in, they don’t have to, they need to be able to enjoy some downtime too! Within that realm, we never know who our guest is going to be sometimes. We go in with a definite order of what you’re going to get: you’re going to get some funk music, some more funk music, and on top of that, I’m gonna add some more funk music! What I want you to do is, while you try to absorb this, just keep your seatbelt tight because we don’t know who we’re going to see in there. I find it better that way; I don’t put pressure on anybody to have to be there, and if they show up, they show up because of the love of the music and the love to perform in front of a hungry crowd of people.

L4LM: Sounds really cool. We’re excited to see who joins you this year, or who has the energy to join you, I should say. I know that you were named the 18th drummer of all time by Rolling Stone in their list of top 100 drummers, what are your thoughts on that?

ZM: The first thing I’ll say is: God is good. I’m just happy to be in that number, because it’s only 100 people listed, and there’re around five million drummers in the world. It’s quite an achievement, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to be a judge of myself, but I will say this: since I started playing, I’ve only been true to my art form and just been trying to, if not progress it any further, certainly not have it be lacking. Just trying to do the best I can to maintain consistency in my playing and try to let other drummers, if they want to, recognize my art form, and if they want to use it to their desire, to their pleasures, that’s what it’s all about. Your peer group is important. Anyway, when it comes like that, from a magazine like that, where they’re not getting anything for complimenting me like this, I’m so appreciative, so thankful to be appreciated in that light.

Don’t miss Zigaboo Modeliste’s 19th Annual Funk Revue, followed by members of Lettuce, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, and Prince’s band in the Michael Jackson vs. Stevie Wonder tribute, on Sunday, May 7th at The Howlin Wolf!

– SHOW INFO –
Artist: Zigaboo’s 19th Annual Funk Revue + Michael Jackson vs. Stevie Wonder Tribute Set w/ Organ Freeman in The Den
Venue: The Howlin’ Wolf – 907 S Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Date: Sunday, May 7th, 2017
Price: $25adv / $35dos (purchase tickets here)
Time: Doors 9:00 PM / Show 10:00 pm

If you’ll be down in New Orleans for Jazz Fest this year, don’t miss out on all of the awesome late night music options taking place across the city. Learn more about all of the amazing music you can catch at this link.