Joseph "Cool" Davis
Tape No. 4303
DAVIS: Jazz Fest is the [most] beautiful thing that ever happened to New Orleans. It was
really way before its time. You know, nowadays, with Internet and online websites and all that
doing, Jazz Fest did that to . . . They had a lot of New Orleans artists got used that would not
come down south. People are still afraid to come down south. . . to see gospel music. Now, how I do
that, the jobs I had working, the experienced jobs, Essence and working Jazz Fest, as bouncers, and
Tipitina's. People come and look at to you and talk to you and then they knew a lot of things was
happening here because they'd hear all these things, like "New Orleans is still like a plantation"
and "Blacks don't have no freedom here." But my point is that Jazz Fest opened that and had people
coming from all over the world, all over. And this was before Internet and all of this.
