Jazz Fest 101, A Showcase of Student Oral History Research

Jim Olander
by Joey O'Keefe, 2015. Unprocessed.


Joey O’Keefe interviews Jim Olander, by Nicole Coursey, 2015.

Olander is a festival stage manager.

Jim Olander: You know, it's gotten bigger and it's gotten bigger through sponsorship and I know a lot of people give Quint [Davis] a hard time about that but, sponsorship is a necessary thing if you're going to have the kind of event that he wants to produce. And yeah a lot of people say, "Well what's Dave Mathews got to do with New Orleans Jazz or Heritage?" Well, not a lot except New Orleans is the birthplace of music as we know it. It's not just jazz, it's the birthplace of music as we know it. It's the birthplace of American music. You can't name a genre that's American that didn't get born in New Orleans, or close to New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta. Blues, gospel, I mean absolutely.