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Sign Language Interpreters Bring Magic To Jazz Fest

1 Comment Share Tweet Stumble Email Every spring, New Orleans -- the birthplace of jazz -- holds its Jazz and Heritage Festival, better known as “Jazz Fest.” The festival scene continues this fall, attracting music fans from around the country. That includes even those who can’t actually hear the music -- thanks to a group of professional sign language interpreters paid to get every beat of the action, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. 13 Photos New Orleans Jazz Fest Jazz Fest is not only about jazz -- there’s also hip hop, gospel and hard rock. It looks like fun, but interpreters spend weeks studying lyrics and set lists. Every interpreter has their own style and many have their own followings. Bruce Springsteen was once so intrigued that he jumped right into the pit with Holly to learn how to sign -- not sing -- “Dancing in the Dark.” Performance is part of the interpreters’ art. “You have to use all your entire ability to communicate, which is the way you’re looking at the consumer, the way that you’re moving with the beat, the signs that you’re choosing,” Maniatti said. “So it looks like we’re may be dancing a little but up there but it’s all a very conscious choice to bring two worlds together and music is all about that feeling.” “It’s got to be exhausting,” Miller said. “Exhausting and exhilarating, I would say,” Crochet said. “What do you get from her, in her expression, in the interpretation?” Miller asked Howell. “It just changes the Jazz Fest experience for me because she’s happy and she’s getting into it, so that automatically comes to me and I start getting into it. It’s magical,” Howell said. “How do you know when you’ve given a good performance?” Miller asked Maniatti. “I would say when the deaf person cries with everybody else, they’re clapping with everyone else, they’re laughing with everyone else…they have the same experience as everyone else,” Maniatti said. This service was not available to the hearing impaired and the deaf community at festivals and concerts anywhere until Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act back in 1990. Now, with a request -- and there usually always is -- these venues are required to provide interpreters.