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From Nola: “Allen Toussaint brings hit parade to New Orleans Jazz Fest, with an assist from Jimmy Buffett”

Allen Toussaint played songs spanning over half a century on New Orleans Jazz Fest’s Acura Stage Saturday afternoon. The hit parade was an autobiography in song, but like the career Toussaint’s set surveyed, the show wasn’t all about him.

Soon after Toussaint called Jimmy Buffett to the stage to sing lead on two songs: “Fortune Teller” (you may know Benny Spellman’s version, or perhaps Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s) and “Wave Bye Bye,” the tender Jesse Winchester ballad that moved the dense early-day crowd (many obviously homesteading for Bruce Springsteen, who plays the same stage later) to sway in unison.

From NOLA.com (The Times-Picayune): Jimmy Buffett went on a gumbo quest Friday at the 2014 New Orleans Jazz Fest

Jimmy Buffett isn’t on the schedule of the 2014 New Orleans Jazz Fest. But he made an anonymous appearance at the Fair Grounds on the afternoon of Friday (May 2), anyway. And he was a man on a mission.

After parking his golf cart on the dirt track behind the Jazz & Heritage Stage, Buffett and a friend made a beeline for Food Area II. Once there, he walked right up to the Prejean’s Restaurant booth and ordered two cups of pheasant, quail and Andouille sausage gumbo.

His culinary choice shouldn’t come as a surprise: Buffett’s 1999 album “Beach House on the Moon” contained a song called, “I Will Play for Gumbo.”

And he could certainly afford the $7 price tag: When he performed at Jazz Fest in 2011, he was paid a cool $555,000.

His affection for New Orleans in general and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival specifically is well-documented. He performs every few years with his Coral Reefer Band. In 2012, he played an acoustic set as a last-minute fill-in for an ailing Eddie Vedder.

On June 19, Fort Worth will be, for an evening, the center of the Parrothead universe.

From the Star-Telegraph: Jimmy Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band will perform an intimate show at Coyote Drive-In as the inaugural musician in the “Live at the Drive-In” series, an idea conceived and produced by Coyote Drive-In owner-operators Brady Wood and Brandt Wood via their company, Woodhouse, in conjunction with Austin-based juggernaut C3 Presents.

“There is not another artist we’d rather be working with,” Brandt Wood says. “Jimmy has taken a personal interest — he grew up at drive-ins.”

What Wood described as “a big film crew” will be on hand during Buffett’s performance, which will be broadcast live, via DirecTV, to every participating, digitally-equipped drive-in across the country.

The concert will be a regular, full performance, according to Wood, who says this concept, which Woodhouse has been working on for the last year, is the biggest of its kind that’s ever been attempted.

Tickets for the Coyote Drive-In concert go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via Buffett’s website or the Coyote Drive-In box office.

Ticket prices for Fort Worth were not made available Tuesday, although a Woodhouse spokesperson did say tickets would be $18 at other drive-ins nationwide. (Prices for the Fort Worth show will obviously be higher, sources said, given that it’s the site of the actual concert.) The list of the participating national drive-ins will be announced Friday.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed a free show on March 9th at the Coolangatta Sands Hotel in Australia

Some videos from Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Bands performance at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast in Australia on Friday March 7th are now available (Quiksilver Pro surfing event held on Queensland’s Gold Coast)

Jimmy Buffett and Stephanie Gilmore – Volcano

Jimmy Buffett with Stephanie Gilmore and Kelly Slater – Margaritaville

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band played for an hour and a half on the beach at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast in Australia on Friday March 7th. Jimmy and the band played on stage at the Quiksilver Pro surfing event held on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The were joined on stage by 12 times world surfing champion Kelly Slater and 5 times woman’s champion Stephanie Gilmore. The crowd of about 1,000 people watched on while surfers took advantage of beautiful Australian summer conditions. (thanks to Greg and Cyndy for passing that along to us)

From the Wall Street Journal: The annual benefit for the Everglades Foundation at the Breakers over Presidents Day weekend brings out New York’s power players and big-name singers. Jimmy Buffett of ‘Margaritaville’ fame and Zac Brown come together for a tune.

PALM BEACH, Fla.—They could have had snooze-worthy guests, served terrible food and provided awful entertainment at last weekend’s benefit for the Everglades Foundation.

But the hundreds of guests who attend this casual gala at the Breakers were still excited to be there, because it meant being out of the New York City cold.

That’s the kind of winter it has been.

“It’s snowing right now up there as we speak,” the New York-based music executive and entrepreneur Tommy Mottola said during the cocktail hour, as he headed outside for a drink and a gander at the full moon in the balmy Floridian night.

This party, which takes place in Palm Beach over Presidents Day weekend and brings out some of New York’s biggest power players thanks to the foundation’s board chairman, Paul Tudor Jones, is anything but snooze-worthy.

Each year, it features a full concert. Past artists have included Dave Matthews, Sting and Kenny Chesney. Last year’s entertainment was ZZ Top. This year’s musical guest stars were the Zac Brown Band, the country/folk group out of Atlanta.

Katie Couric, the evening’s master of ceremonies, borrowed a cowboy hat for the occasion, and even she admitted she was thrilled to be “away from one of the snowiest winters on record.”

This auction was “so silent, in fact, that we will only take bids via email,” read the program. That silence served as a counterpoint to the raucous Zac Brown Band, who was eventually joined by the great Jimmy Buffett.

When the band hit the stage, decorated with blue and green lights and eco-friendly water bottles, the Palm Beach guests left the dark-chocolate alligators at their tables, forgot about the snow up north, grabbed their cowboy hats and got ready to rock.

The setlist from the fundraiser is now available:
Everybody’s Talkin
Cuban Crime of Passion
Grapefruit Juicyfruit
Son Of A Son Of A Sailor (with Emilio Estefan)
Migration
Volcano
No Woman No Cry
A Pirate Looks At 40
Margaritaville (with Gloria & Emilio Estefan)

Some photos from the Miami Herald: “Jimmy Buffett, Gloria Estefan hold fundraiser for Miami Marine Stadium”

From NBCMiami.com: “Jimmy Buffett, Gloria Estefan Discuss Miami Marine Stadium at Coral Gables Museum Event”

Gloria and Emilio Estefan shared a stage with Jimmy Buffett for the first time Thursday night to perform his classic “Margaritaville.”

The musical first happened as Gloria Estefan and Buffett joined forces to back the iconic South Florida fixture that gave them voice: Miami Marine Stadium.

They came together for a conversation on the stadium’s legacy Thursday at the Coral Gables Museum – amid a renewed push to restore the venue on the water.

Both musicians have performed at the stadium and have been longtime supporters of renovation efforts. In 2009, Buffett recorded a public service announcement calling for renovation and in May 2013, Estefan became the face of the National Trust’s restoration campaign.

The 6,500-seat Virginia Key stadium has been closed since 1992 after it became damaged by Hurricane Andrew.

In July, Miami City Commissioners agreed to allow a nonprofit group to develop a plan to renovate it. The decision gave the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium control over it and gave the group the go-ahead to start raising the $30 million needed to restore and re-open it. The renovations would create a multipurpose venue for concerts, boat races, sailing regattas and community events.

The group has two years to raise money for the renovation.

Buffett is hoping to bring back the fun to what he calls one of South Florida’s true treasures. He once famously jumped into the water at the stadium following one of his concerts.

“You can still have boat races, why not have paddle board races?” Buffett said. “I mean, there’s a great variety of things that are a part of the joy and fun of living in South Florida that can be expressed in that stadium.”

Thursday’s event kicks off the final weekend of the museum’s “Concrete Paradise” exhibit which closes Sunday. The exhibit features video from Buffett’s historic 1985 performance at Miami Marine Stadium. The museum is offering two-for-one adult admission to the exhibit throughout the weekend.

Jimmy Buffett and Gloria Estefan headline a fundraiser tonight for Miami Marine Stadium. The show takes place at Coral Gables Museum on Thursday, January 9, from 6:30-10:30 PM.

From the Miami Herald: “Margaritaville does the Conga: Jimmy Buffett and Gloria Estefan headline fundraiser for Miami Marine Stadium”

Surfer, author, environmentalist, budding new-media mogul, Margaritaville impresario and sometime musician Jimmy Buffett is on the phone, spinning out some not totally improbable ideas for the kind of events a revived Miami Marine Stadium might host.

Suffice to say it involves a melange of concerts live-streamed around the world and “hot chicks in bikinis’’ racing on stand-up paddleboards around the stadium’s oval watercourse, sponsorship by Budweiser. And, come to think of it, gay guys on paddleboards, too, why not? All demographics welcome.

“I have my shameless promoter hat on now,’’ Buffett says, laughing as he exercises his fertile imagination on behalf of his latest cause: Helping to bring the iconic but weatherworn, graffiti-covered stadium on Virginia Key back to life after a prolonged dormancy of more than 20 years.

“The marine stadium was a pretty special place, and Miami’s always been great to me, so why not?’’ Buffett said, speaking from his Palm Beach County home. “I’m in the fun business and things that make people happy. The first time I played it, I fell in love with it. How could you not? You’re on a floating stage surrounded by people in boats, and those incredible sunsets. It was such a unique place to play in.”

Buffett played the stadium a bunch of times, including a 1985 show memorialized on the Live by the Bay DVD. Just as it was for Estefan, playing the marine stadium for the first time was a big step up for Buffett, whose biggest show before that had been at a jai-alai fronton.

His most memorable at the marine stadium: the time he jumped from the barge that served as a stage into the scrum of swimmers, boaters and floaters in the water at the end of one especially sweaty performance. He had played two shows, which had been preceded by a 56-piece steel-drum band from Trinidad, the Desperadoes.

“I remember very vividly,” Buffett said. “It was the perfect opening act. It put people in a rather festive mood. It was like being in a water carnival. There was space between the barge and the first seats in the grandstand. There were people swimming in there. It was not out of control exactly, but it was rockin’.

“No one expected that diversified amount of floating objects from large yachts to inner tubes. The size of the crowd in the water was amazing.

“It was also extremely hot. At one point, I told my stage manager, ‘When this thing’s over, take my guitar, because I’m goin’ in.’”