If you haven’t yet made it to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and experience the depth of Louisiana’s musical melting pot, you’ll have a chance this September to get a taste of the breadth and diversity of music from the Crescent City much closer to home — on the site of some of the first grapes planted for wine on the North Fork.
Pictured Above: Saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr. is performing and gathering some of the top names in New Orleans music to perform at the festival.
Borghese Vineyard in Cutchogue is hosting nola2nofo 2024, Big Chief Donald Harrison’s Quantumn Leap Festival, the weekend of Sept. 13 through 15, bringing some of the best players of music from New Orleans to the North Fork for a weekend filled with the spirit of bon temps rouler.
The project is being organized by Attorney Bennet Lapidus, who has a house in Cutchogue and a love for New Orleans, with music curated by saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr.
Michael Pillot, a Louisiana native, has joined the team as producer, working to coordinate a lineup that includes Mr. Harrison, CJ Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band, Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers, Fred Wesley, The Headhunters, the ICONS featuring Choppa, BlaqNmilD and Tonya Boyd-Cannon, Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil, the Preservation Hall Legacy Band and Sonny Landreth, all big names in a cross section of styles including jazz, blues, zydeco, funk, hip-hop, R&B and fusion.
“Bennet lives on the North Fork, and he went to Jazz Fest and fell in love with New Orleans,” said Mr. Pillot. Mr. Lapidus pitched the idea to his friend Giovanni Borghese of Borghese Vineyards, who agreed to host the festival on his vineyard, home to the first vineyards on the North Fork cultivated by Louisa and Alex Hargraves in the 1970s.
“We’re really excited to be working with him. He wants this to be a success,” said Mr. Pillot of Mr. Borghese.
Donald Harrison Jr. is the Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultura Group, working to preserve the history and of New Orleans music.
“I think it’s gonna be a real cultural experience,” said Mr. Pillot. “New Orleans has, for the United States, a real deep culture. It’s one of our oldest cities, with a great mix of communities. New Orleans has a great vibe, whether it’s the food, the drink or the people themselves. That’s demonstrated every year at Jazz Fest. So, it rains? Everybody puts on their boots and carries on. It was a great place to grow up. I didn’t know bad music or bad food until I left.”
Mr. Pillot said the festival has received permits for just over 300 attendees each night, from 3 to 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $100 per night or $250 for the weekend and are available through an Eventbrite link on Borghese Vineyards’ website, castellodiborghese.com.
“There’s going to be good coffee, great seafood, barbecue and some really good food trucks,” said Mr. Pillot. “We want it to be the spirit of New Orleans — a lot of fun, and a party.”
This festival have come together in just about 100 days, he said, as the festival organizers put together travel plans for musicians who are currently playing all over the country.
“We would love for this to be an annual thing,” said Mr. Pillot. “It’s an expensive proposition to do this. In this first endeavor, we hope to break even.”
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