Jazz Fest Bible 2024 OffBeat

January 5-12, 2025

Ft. Lauderdale A Key West

Belize City A Cozumel

Aboard Holland America Line

Nieuw Amsterdam

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

St. Paul and The Broken Bones

The Allman Betts Band A Tab Benoit

Anders Osborne A The Soul Rebels A Marcia Ball

Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen

Blind Boys of AlabamA A Louisiana’s LeRoux

Bender Brass Band A Sugaray Rayford A Bonerama

John Boutté A Tin Men A Washboard Chaz Blues Trio

Minx Burlesque A Johnny Sansone

Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco HellraiserS

John “Papa” Gros A Sierra Green

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux A J’Wan Boudreaux

Chef Kevin Belton And Many More!

Let the Good Times Roll at Sea!

Enjoy 75+ Performances • Artist interactive events

New Orleans culinary experiences • Theme nights, and more!

BigEasyCruise.com/OFFBEAT (855) 923-7456

BigEasyCruise

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jan V. Ramsey, janramsey@offbeat.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Joseph L. Irrera, josephirrera@offbeat.com

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

Eric Gernhauser

CONTRIBUTORS

Joseph Biondi, Mark Guarino, Steve Hochman, Jay Mazza, Cree McCree, Brett Milano, Marielle Songy, Dan Willging, John Wirt, Geraldine Wyckoff, Michael Allen Zell

COVER ART

Tim Neil

WEB EDITOR

Cameron Eaton, cameron@offbeat.com

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Veronika Lee Claghorn

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Noe Cugny, noecugny@offbeat.com

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Abe Guerrero, Doug Jackson

MOJO MOUTH

Appreciation where it’s due …

Let’s start off with the good news: it’s Jazz Fest time! Almost anyone would have a hard time not loving the Jazz Fest because it showcases New Orleans and Louisiana musicians and bands, culture, cuisine, arts and crafts and almost the entire gamut of our indigenous culture— all in two weekends at the Fair Grounds, and of course, in the week between. It’s veritable music orgy—you just cannot possibly experience it all, but the Fair Grounds will give you a pretty damned good taste. Music at the Fair Grounds also provides a frosting on the musical cake with a growing number of mainstream pop and roots music, too— the kinds of music you may have to go to an arena or a large venue to experience.

So, the ticket prices—while high—are definitely worth it.

For many years, we’ve heard people complaining how the Jazz Fest is just not the “same” as it used to be. Well, what is the same after 50 plus years? As long as the Festival survives (appealing to a younger demographic is crucial to keeping the Fest alive), and as long as the same vibe continues year after year, I’m content. And you should be too.

The Jazz Fest is an integral part of New Orleans’ reputation for producing unique and soul-satisfying music and cultural experiences that you cannot find anywhere else: long may it live. What concerns me—and I certainly don’t have the answer to this—how does the Festival still stay focused on its soulful experiences for local folks? The price of a daily ticket is now over $100, way above the budgets of a lot of locals. All the people who can afford the “extra” amenities that the VIP tiers of ticketing offer are welcome to it, as they can afford it. Festival Productions (producer) and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation (Jazz Fest owner) have to walk a fine line between attracting locals, visitors from around the world, and kids and young people who absolutely need to be exposed to our best expression of local music and culture.

The Foundation has a presence at the Fest, as does the radio station it owns (WWOZ-FM). Lucky for New Orleanians,

the Foundation, its leadership and Board, have focused on this community’s need and hunger for celebrations of local music and culture. Thus, the free community festivals the Foundation presents annually, its music school, the grants programs, and much more. Remember, the proceeds from the Jazz Fest support all the activities of the Foundation. It’s the perfect relationship between an event and a non-profit that uses the revenue generated by the Fest to support the community it serves.

Here’s also a sincere appreciation to the Executive Director of the Foundation—Don Marshall—who is retiring from his position this summer, after serving the Jazz & Heritage Foundation for 20 years. Don was recently awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Music Business at the latest Best of The Beat Awards—a richly-deserved award for someone who has shepherded the Foundation for two decades. We’re going to miss you, Don!

Now for the bad news: as we were going to press on this year’s Jazz Fest Bible�, we learned that beloved writer, WWOZ deejay, performer and political (and marijuana) advocate John Sinclair had passed away. So, this latest iteration of our Jazz Fest Bible is dedicated to him. May his spirit soar above this year’s Fest, blessing it into the future.

Thanks to every one of you that helped put this “Bible” together, distribute it, as well as to our advertisers, who make OBeat possible. Our deepest appreciation to you. O

John Sinclair

BY BRETT MILANO

Cyril Neville Preserves Neighborhood Culture

Friday, May 3, Congo Square Stage, 2:40pm

If you see Cyril Neville perform this year, you’ll probably hear a song called “Don’t Wait ’Till I’m Gone.” It’s a typically fiery bit of funk, with lyrics that say what a lot of well-traveled musicians are probably thinking: “Give me my flowers while I can still smell them, hear my stories while I can still tell them. Give me my medals while I can still wear them. Don’t wait till I’m gone!”

So, let’s not wait to say that Cyril Neville is as royal as New Orleans musical royalty gets, with five decades of music history to his name and a lineage that stretches back to his brother Art’s band the Neville Sounds, which spawned the Meters, the Neville Brothers and the landmark Indian-funk fusion the Wild Tchoupitoulas. Always wildly prolific, and drawn to a wide variety of collaborations, he’s currently sitting on at least five albums’ worth of releasable material with as many band lineups. With Aaron retired and Art and Charles both passed, Cyril carries a mighty tradition on his shoulders as the last performing member of the Neville Brothers.

“That’s anything but a burden—to me it is a blessing,” he says. “I am in constant contact with my uncle spiritually, with my family spiritually. I constantly sing my uncle, Big Chief Jolly’s praises. What he did was put that tribe together, which led to the work I did with my brothers. What they did touched everybody, the whole neighborhood. Those peoples’ minds and hearts are part of me, and that is not something we’re going to let go away. It is my obligation to keep this going and pass it down to the next generation.”

The title “Uptown Ruler” is a term that Cyril wears proudly, and you’d probably think that it is derived from Black Masking (Mardi Gras) Indian lore. In fact, it stems from a more obscure bit of Neville family history: the term was coined by brother Art as his handle when he was into CB radio. “I saw Art build a radio that worked out of a cigar box and some other pieces he had. Besides being musicians, all my brothers had talents that served them and everyone else well. Art used to work at [legendary local record store] Eddie 3-Way, and you could go in there and buy a turntable that he’d fixed up.”

Anyone who saw the Neville Brothers in their many Jazz Fest appearances likely remembers one moment in particular: The medley that closed

every set, with Aaron’s “Amazing Grace” leading into a blend of Bob Marley’s “One Love” and Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” Cyril would always bring it home by preaching that “We are all one race…the human race.” This became a moment you’d plan your day around, the blessing at the end of the second Sunday. Yet it came into their live show by accident, when one night’s show ran short. “That came about during our first tour in Japan. Somebody miscalculated and we got left with 10 minutes we had to fill. So, we worked that medley up on the spot, and it clicked.”

Part of the next generation is currently there onstage with him. His live band is led by his drummer and singer son Omari Neville and includes bassist Austin Clements (son of celebrated guitarist Cranston Clements) and guitarist Gregg Molinario (the core of Omari’s band the Fuel), with horns and other players added for bigger shows. “The joy that I feel onstage with my son and his band is equal to the joy I’d feel with the Meters, the Neville Brothers— and Parliament-Funkadelic and Nirvana, it’s as good as all that put together. We had a gig in Mandeville the other night, and my son started singing [the Hendrix tune] “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”—I had to turn around and look, because it sounded so Art Neville. We have time where the band doesn’t even know what it’s about to do.”

Omari and the live band have contributed to a funk album Cyril has in the can, which will include “Don’t Wait ’Till I’m Gone” (written with brother Aaron, during a visit to his farm in upstate New York). But that’s only one of at least five albums that Cyril has in various stages of completion. There’s also an album of Louis Armstrong interpretations that he put together with Irvin Mayfield, that got a few live airings before the pandemic (and before Mayfield’s run-ins with the law). Cyril’s also started work on a reggae album with members of the Soul Syndicate, one of the top Jamaican studio bands in the ’70s and ’80s. Also ready to go is an acoustic album, New Orleans Quarantine Chronicle, that he recorded during shutdown with Cranston Clements and Jimmy Robinson (of the Guitar Masters/Woodenhead). Included there is a song about the state of New Orleans, “They’re Messing Up Our Gumbo.”

But the project closest to his heart is a new

CYRIL N EVILLE

Wild Tchoupitoulas album, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the tribe’s christening and the release of its landmark album soon afterward. He’s pulled in some collaborators including Flagboy Giz, who’ve been updating Indian music with hip hop and bounce influences. “What he’s done is to take the Indian music and wrap it up in the other cultures of New Orleans. That’s what we are going forward with and what we’re going to perform at Jazz Fest. We will be dressing the part, and we’ll have the regalia on for every show.”

WILD TCHOUPITOULAS

You can’t discuss Cyril Neville’s life without taking in the profound influence of the Black Masking (Mardi Gras) Indians and his Uncle Jolly’s krewe, which he first witnessed from his bedroom window as a child. To a nine-year-old it

was a truly unearthly sight.

“The first carnival I saw was when my aunt was living in the Treme, on St. Philip Street two blocks from Claiborne. It was 4:30 in the morning—so it’s exciting already, because the kids got to stay up all night. I saw these guys all dressed up, riding on horses—and it was cold, so it looked like smoke was coming out of the horses’ mouths. They were racing the horses up and shooting rifles—man, it was one of the most exciting and beautiful things I ever saw, and to know that I was part of that just meant everything to me. So, when I was growing up and I heard my mom and my aunt saying things like ‘I know you Mardi Gras’, that’s what the term meant to me—it was all about masking. Whatever else was going to happen didn’t matter—by the time the rest of Mardi Gras rolled around, the Indians had already done their thing and retired to a neighborhood bar or someone’s backyard. So, I was a teen before I even went to a parade.”

“I have always been and always will be a Wild Tchoupitoulas,” he says. And his uncle’s lessons had to do with Indian heritage as well as culture. “One part of the knowledge I got from my uncle was that we had Choctaw blood. In those days, you got into a fight if you said you were Black, and if you said you were Black African you might not make it home, but he told me: ‘You don’t have a dog in that fight. Everyone that looks like you didn’t come over in a slave ship. Some of them were hiding among people right here. And they didn’t look like the Indians that you see on television.’ So that was my first indication of some of the lies that have been perpetrated on us all these years.”

Mardi Gras itself was less inviting, he recalls. “It wasn’t just the segregation, there was a lot of ugliness. I once watched a parade with a girlfriend of mine and they were throwing these little iron tokens—not throwing them to people, but at them. And my friend got hit in the eye, so that wasn’t anything I wanted to be around.

STEVE RAPPORT PHOTOGRAPH

At least not until I saw the St. Augustine Band, which was the first Black marching band—or the first ‘colored’ band, which we still were called back then. So that was my first entry into what was called Mardi Gras, and the result was that I spent two nights in jail. Because the parades went down Royal Street to Municipal Auditorium; where they attacked the band and arrested the people with them. And if you got arrested before Mardi Gras, you got out on Ash Wednesday.”

Segregation was also a factor when the most seminal New Orleans R&B was being laid down. “Art’s band the Hawketts used to rehearse in our living room, then they’d play out on Lincoln Beach, out on the outskirts of town on the lake—that was another one of the ‘colored’ places. And years later I’m in a band with a couple of white guys and they were saying ‘Man, I wish I could have come to Lincoln Beach because you had Otis Redding, Sam Cooke playing there. We had Pat Boone.’

“But I’ll tell you, all of my musical heroes, including my brothers and Allen Toussaint, all came out of the New Orleans high school music programs. When they came out of there, they were ready for anything, and some of them went on to become the greatest entertainers in the world. Unfortunately, by the time I started high school, the so-called powers that be decided we didn’t need it anymore. So that cut off another generation.”

THE METERS

players were Black guys and they couldn’t go on Canal Street or into the French Quarter, so they all came to the club. And a lot of the white players were saying, “Hell, I want to go where these guys are going’. Then Allen Toussaint tapped Art and the rhythm section to work at Sea-Saint Studios and play as the Meters. By then the French Quarter had opened enough that there was at least one colored band allowed on Bourbon Street.”

Cyril and Aaron continued playing the club circuit with their own band, the Soul Machine. It was at one of those gigs that Cyril got his battle scars. “Long story short, some guy had an altercation with a lady that was in my life at the time. I went out to confront him, but I didn’t know that he and his friend both had knives. I got the cuts, and he got his ass whupped. So, I went to the hospital and got my 132 stitches. Then I came back and finished the gig.”

“But I’ll tell you, all of my musical heroes, including my brothers and Allen Toussaint, all came out of the New Orleans high school music programs. When they came out of there, they were ready for anything, and some of them went on to become the greatest entertainers in the world.

Formed after the Hawketts ended in the early ’60s, the Neville Sounds included all four brothers at different times, before Art and the rhythm section became the Meters. “We used to play at a club called the Nightcap near Pontchartrain Park, one of the first subdivisions that was created for middle-class African Americans. And I remember that they chartered a bus when the all-star football game was played here [in 1965]. Some of the

Cyril got tapped to join the Meters midway through their run, joining on the eve of a Rolling Stones tour and becoming part-time lead singer (and sang the Meters one true soul ballad, “Be My Lady,” later covered by Trombone Shorty). But he made his recording debut a few years earlier, cutting the classic “Gossip” single in 1969. “I would have been 19 going on 20. Leo Nocentelli and I went to Macon, Georgia and cut that in the same studio that Otis Redding used to record in. The fascinating thing was that I’d be in the studio with Leo, talking to him about different things in my life, and the next day he’d come back with a song written, based on what I’d said—‘Gossip’ came out of that. He played the sitar on that, and nobody in my community had ever heard of that. It was probably the first time that instrument had funk played on it.”

He remembers that trip to Memphis for another reason: “I drove up there in a top-down Cadillac with [Allen Toussaint’s partner] Marshall Sehorn. On our way we passed a chain gang, guys selling wallets and belts and things they made

themselves. I’d been reading about these things all my life but never seen it, and now I was thinking ‘Oh, so that’s what Sam Cooke’s song was all about.’ The other thing I noticed was that a lot of these guys were as young as me and even younger. It was one of the scariest things I’d ever seen.”

THE NEVILLE BROTHERS

It was the Wild Tchoupitoulas album that first brought the four Neville Brothers into the studio together. And Cyril gives credit to another tribe for planting the seed. “Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias laid the groundwork on their recordings with Willie Tee. I remember their single ‘Handa Wanda,’ the first time I heard it on the radio—I had to pull over and say, ‘Man, what the hell was that? Where did that come from and where can I get some?’ And that inspired all of us so my uncle went to my brothers and said, ‘I got some ideas, maybe you can cook this up.’ So, we got Charles down from New York—he’d been in Angola doing three years and seven months off a five-year sentence, for having two joints. My uncle made the call that brought him back down here, and that’s why I say

it was the first Neville Brothers record. I remember one of the first tours we did—you had the Wild Tchoupitoulas, Dr. John, Earl King, Irma Thomas. And down at the bottom of the bill, in little tiny letters, it said ‘the Neville Brothers’.

“Of course, a lot of New Orleans bands had gone out before us. But what you saw with the Neville Brothers was the culture being lived out onstage before your very eyes. It was what we learned from our uncle and the Indians, all the elements of the culture. The difference with what we had was that the roux of our musical gumbo came from the streets.”

At 75, Cyril hasn’t ruled out jumping back on the tour bus—something he’s done in recent years with Galactic, Trombone Shorty and the Royal Southern Brotherhood. But he also says that the idea of virtual tours from home is sounding good as well. In either case, the mission will remain the same. “What I want to do is to preserve our culture in the neighborhood. Because you know how New Orleans is: Miss Gentrification and Mr. Gerrymander came in and rearranged everything. Except what’s in our hearts.” O

Sunday, April 28, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 2pm

Sunday, April 28, Blues Tent, 5:35pm

Blue Sky

Allman-Betts Band messing with tradition

BY BRETT MILANO

The very name of the Allman-Betts Band is steeped in music history. And so’s the band itself, led by Duane Betts and Devon Allman, the sons of Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman. If any band ever seemed cosmically destined to play hard-driving, Southern-styled blues-rock, it would be this one.

“We don’t try to navigate away from it,” Duane Betts said recently. “I listen to a lot of music that my dad has never heard of, and that he may not even like. But there is the intangible genetic quality that is passed on, you can’t deny it. When Devon sings one of his dad’s songs, his dad may not be there, but you can feel the connection, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

So far, the band has navigated a path between staying in the tradition and messing a bit with it. Their two albums, Down to the River and Bless Your Heart, are entirely original, but you might hear them break out an Allman Brothers nugget in concert. “I think we’ve still got a lot of room for growth,” Betts says. “The two records we’ve made are the ones we needed to do at the time. But I feel there is so much that we haven’t really grabbed from yet in terms of influences. For instance, I’m pretty obsessed lately with the Smile, that Radiohead spinoff band. And you know that I’m not going to try and sing like Thom Yorke— that probably wouldn’t be the best thing—but we do love a lot of music that isn’t Southern blues

or soul in the slightest. But on the other hand, I know who I am and how I play. And it would be a disservice not to play that way, because I think I’m pretty good at it.”

Growing up with Dickey Betts as a dad—and with a name that honored his late bandmate Duane Allman—didn’t necessarily mean that the junior Betts was going to pick up a guitar. “The first thing I picked up was a little ukelele that my dad had, and I remember him trying to show me chords but it was just too difficult at the time. So, he got me a drum set, and by the time I was in elementary school I was playing all the time with my Walkman headphones on. And I got pretty good, to the point where I was going to Allman Brothers shows and sitting in on Jaimoe’s kit. Then I started picking up guitars again and realizing that it wasn’t as impossible to learn as I thought it was. I started hearing intervals, learning songs and recognizing what the chord changes were.”

He and Devon Allman have been friends since childhood; they met when their dads were doing the Allman Brothers’ 20th anniversary tour in 1989. “Even though we lived in different cities, we knew we were family, and we’d see each other every summer. And we’d always talk about putting something together, but that didn’t happen until around 2015.”

the most experienced in the band. He was always a light that we followed, and we’ll definitely be playing for him.”

Both leaders also tour annually with the Allman Betts Family Revival tour, which has featured a host of guest artists—including two New Orleans mainstays, Anders Osborne and the Radiators’ Dave Malone—jamming on the classics. “Devon started it as a celebration and tribute to his father, but eight years later we’re playing a lot of my dad’s songs too. Last year was the first time we added his name to the name of the tour, which I felt was the appropriate thing to do. My dad is still here, and I feel grateful to have him come to the shows every now and then. He came to the Revival show on his 80th birthday in Sarasota and he was able to sit side-stage, and that meant the world to me. This music to me is a real spiritual thing—to my mind, these songs are free. They’re not for us to play, they’re for everybody to play. But since I am the closest lineage to my dad, I take a lot of pride in carrying on the Betts sound.”

This music to me is a real spiritual thing—to my mind, these songs are free. They’re not for us to play, they’re for everybody to play. But since I am the closest lineage to my dad, I take a lot of pride in carrying on the Betts sound.”

What’s his favorite of his dad’s songs to play? “Kind of an obvious choice, but ‘Blue Sky’ is just a perfect song. I love how it’s so beautifully simple with just two chords, then it goes into this open jam that picks up energy and flows. When ‘Blue Sky’ is played right it feels that way, just flowing like a river.”

The Jazz Fest show marks a comeback of sorts for the Allman-Betts Band, that took a hiatus relatively early in their career, taking a break at the end of 2021 and only lately returning to active gigs. “Even though we’d only been together a few years, it felt like we were touring really long and hard. To be honest, we really thought that stepping back and giving it a rest was the healthy thing to do.” The lineup has also been reshuffled a bit: The third Allman Brothers progeny, bassist Berry Duane Oakley, has left and been replaced by Justin Corgan; and second drummer R. Scott Bryan (who’d previously been with Sheryl Crow) passed due to illness. “We always looked to him as

Betts tends to do a lot of sit-ins when he’s in town, and this year will be no exception: In addition to the Fair Grounds set with AllmanBetts, he’ll be guesting with Voodoo Dead and the Maple Leaf Allstars. He’s also hitting the Daze Between festival at the Faubourg Brewery—one that should especially interest old fans since he’ll be jamming with keyboardist Chuck Leavell, who played alongside his dad in the Allmans. “At shows like we play things that we can just jam on, we don’t get to rehearse but we do some listening beforehand, and we can work things out at soundcheck. If you’re going to do a song like [the Allmans standard] ‘Jessica,’ you have to really know how to play it. But we know how to play it.” O

Friday, May 3, Oschner Children’s Tent, 1:50pm

Sisterhood

Troy Sawyer knows That Girls Play Trumpets Too

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

Troy Sawyer has been a noted New Orleans trumpet player and bandleader for years. In recent times he’s added film scores to his repertoire, but his music education non-profit organization Girls Play Trumpet Too is what’s been making the recent buzz. We found a spot at Church Alley Coffee to talk about it.

For Jazz Fest, expect around 13 girls between ages of eight and 19—plus their instructors—on stage performing while confounding gender bias. Two of the girls, Bailey and Chrisan, along with Sawyer, were recently featured on the Kelly Clarkson show. Camille Lee, who at 14-years-old has been representing the organization at the JEN [Jazz Education Network] Conference and at other schools, will be there too. Jazz standards

will be a key part of the set list but expect some surprises. Sawyer said, “I’m introducing them to the 12-bar-blues right now and improvisation.”

Girls Play Trumpet Too, which began after Labor Day 2022, is all about the holistic approach. Sawyer emphasized, “In the beginning, before they even touch a trumpet, they’re learning about the history of our inspirational model, Valaida Snow [Snow was known as “Queen of the Trumpet” and “Little Louis”]. We start each program buzzing in mouthpieces. Then we do a reflection time, an ice breaker, or have some fun. Next, we learn about a female trumpet player. After that, we get into the mechanics of playing the trumpet. From there we break out through independent practice for a lesson and feedback, then we come back together to play the piece we’ve been working on as a group.”

As for the results, Sawyer looks beyond even musical growth of the girls, noting, “What I see is a sisterhood forming. We have a diverse group of girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds. We’re teaching them the history of female trumpet players that have been overlooked for years. I call them hidden figures in the world. It’s empowering.”

Sawyer himself comes from a musical family. His great grandfather played and co-wrote songs with Buddy Bolden. He started with the violin, but it didn’t connect with his soul, so he shifted to the trumpet in the fourth grade. He speaks of being particularly inspired to play and be a bandleader after attending a Wynton Marsalis concert. Sawyer went on to be part of the St. Augustine Marching 100, NOCCA (with notable teacher Clyde Kerr Jr.), and Xavier University as a performance major.

He reflected more on his own teachers over the years, in particular the legendary Edward “Kidd” Jordan. Sawyer recalled, “Kidd taught me how to read music when I was in sixth grade. I would go to SUNO on a Saturday and study with him. In 1996 I attended the Satchmo Jazz Camp along with the Trombone Shorty and Big Sam. There was an avant-garde pianist named Cecil Taylor who really inspired me to pursue it. He said, ‘Jazz is all about self-expression. No one can teach you how to express yourself. That’s what makes you unique.’”

Sawyer praised Artist Corps New Orleans for his first step into teaching music, explaining, “Their organization is all about having professional musicians teach at schools that don’t have enough money in their budget to pay for a full-time music teacher. It’s a good setup for a teaching artist.”

Girls Play Trumpet Too came about during the pandemic when Sawyer was in Memphis and his friend, Dr. Cherie Goins, came out of retirement to become principal of Lafayette Academy. “Do you want to teach your music? These kids need it.

It’s therapeutic,” she said to him.

Eventually Sawyer came to realize that “There are all those discouraging things and factors that cause girls to not pursue playing the trumpet. Dr. Cherie inspired me to do it.” Initially, Girls Play Trumpet Too was solely a Saturday program for Lafayette Academy girls. But Sawyer also set the stage for the another instructor, trumpeter and composer Emily Mikesell, to continue the class’s content.

Now Sawyer is happy to note, “We have two solidified partnerships expanded to afterschool programming with McGehee School and the InspireNOLA Dwight D. Eisenhower Charter School. Then Saturday brings all the girls from different schools together.”

More partnerships are on the horizon too. Sawyer praised, “The girls are empowered to play the trumpet and have more confidence. Not everyone is going to be a professional trumpet player, but we’re using the trumpet as a tool so you can find your purpose and other skills to be successful. They recognize that they’re unique and special in the world.” O

28, Congo Square Stage, 11:15am

Artistic Freedom

Indys Blu takes her time

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

During Indys Blu’s recent set at the Chanteuse Series, she nonchalantly took hold of a full room mostly unfamiliar with her music and, step by step, made them feel her and wanting more. This is what can happen when songwriting shines, delivery glows, and energy reciprocates. The fact that she pulled it off with slower-tempo songs made her sheer talent and studied style even more striking.

You may wonder, what does the name Indys (pronounced In-dees) Blu mean? Here’s your clue— reverse the first word. She was born Sydni Osborne. But where does the “Blu” part come from? She said, “I like blue, and a lot of the songs that I started off singing were sad. I have conversations about separating myself, so that I can give my artist-self room to perform.”

“These songs are a little more bubbly, because I’m a lot happier.” The album is coming right on time as Blu is becoming higher profile and growing her fan base.

Blu is the youngest of three siblings. As to why her sound is unique, she said “I grew up on the West Bank in Gretna. I got most of my inspiration from my dad playing certain music that wasn’t in the cultural norm of the people that I would hang around with. It’s interesting people trying to figure out how I got my sound, because it didn’t come from the culture, I live in.”

As of the interview, Blu was working with Grammy-winning producer Darius “Deezle” Harrison at The Throne on her first album due out later this year. This follows previous EPS Old Regrets and Same Conversations. Blu admitted,

Interestingly Blu went to Xavier University for visual art, but in her earlier days the catalyst of a grade school talent show was what got her fired up for building with music. She explained, “Drawing has always come very easy to me, but it hasn’t been something I’ve been super passionate about. I started off singing because I lost a competition in grade school. My mom put me in singing lessons, and I’ve been singing ever since. I got my voice purely from that. With my teacher Miss Kate, I was singing Russian, Spanish, Italian, and different types of songs. I did an Italian song when I did the next talent show. I was learning from her before I was in Komenka (Ethnic Dance & Music Ensemble). I got on stage in fourth grade, sang an opera song, and won. I won the next one too.”

In addition to having a strong family background, Blu’s circle is as solid as it gets. “I started doing lessons with Tank (Tarriona Ball of Tank and the Bangas) when I was sixteen and first starting to realize that music was my passion,” said Blu. “She was very inspiring to me, because she was so completely herself. Her singing was silly and entertaining and also beautiful and melodic. You see a lot of women selling sexy, and you feel like that’s what you need to portray. She embodies

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Sunday, April

being an artist. Casme also really helped me and she’s very motherly. She was welcoming and let me in with open arms. She still does, all the time. She’s there to help whenever I need, and I can call her anytime. Also, Kimmie (Thomas) is like my music mom. She has a foundation called IGL (Independent Gaming League). I was put into the group, and she believed in us so much. We would take trips, make music together, and hang out and bond. She’s also someone that I can go to for anything. Even though she’s not a singer, she’s a lawyer, and she knows so much about the industry.”

Indys Blu’s songwriting belies her years. She’s developed the nuances of irony, a twist of a phrase, along with a freshness rarely heard, and she takes her sweet time in doing it. It makes sense that one of her secret weapons of inspiration is mid-19th century jazz singer Blossom Dearie. Blu spoke on this as follows, “About two and some years ago, when I started making music, I did originals. I wrote poetry and made little stories, so I was already into writing. It was just combining it with my vocals. I think my music is poetry. To push some type of feeling or emotion behind the lyrics, my mentors say, ‘Just read it like a poem.’ Alanis Morissette is a great songwriter, but I also appreciate the emotion that she puts into her music and how raw she is in her songs. It gives a sense of her freedom.”

Blu’s already learned that the ups and downs of life are all fodder for the artist. She revealed, “I think that all of my negative emotions, interactions, and experiences are meant for songs if I can’t find another reason for them.”

Another quality that makes her unique is willingness to not pull her punches lyrically, to say what most won’t. She mused, “I made a song called ‘Tofana.’ It’s a poison that women used to use back in the day [17th century Italy] to poison their husbands to escape abusive relationships. I was in one myself and made a song saying I should have poisoned you.”

Blu shies away from a defined sound for the sake of artistic freedom, explaining, “Thinking about what my sound is can restrict me from making all genres or different types of melodies and lyrics. I try not to focus too much on what my sound is. I listen to different types of artists. I’m very grateful I was brought up on music that most people haven’t experienced or heard before.”

Her live performances are strengthening, especially as she experiences a genuine positive response from more and more listeners. When asked what she wants the crowd to feel, she said, “I want them to have an experience that feels mesmerizing. I have a whole idea for my stage design, so they can take a look into my world. I want people to leave feeling vulnerable and be able to use my vulnerability to let them live through me. I want them to be happy and impressed. To have, ‘Who is that?’ reaction.”

Indys Blu is enjoying new opportunities such as playing her first Jazz Fest while looking to the future. In the meantime, she’s building her name & living life, walking around City Park & Magazine Street, and drawing & eating crawfish. She made sure to add, “I love fishing. Venice has huge red fish.” O

TICKETS

Friday, April 26, Congo Square Stage, 4:10pm

The Songbird of Wassoulou

Oumou Sangaré is always moving

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

Quint Davis and his team basically built the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival from the ground up decades ago. But they didn’t build it from the ground up the way Malian singer and cultural activist Oumou Sangaré built the Festival International du Wassulu for its inaugural edition in 2017.

“The first one was local and there was nothing,” says Magali Bergès, Sangaré’s manager. “Not even accommodations.”

This took place near the village of Yanfolila, in Wassoulou, a region where her family originated straddling southwestern Mali and neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast. It’s five hours from Mali’s capital of Bamako, where she was raised and still lives. Conditions for the festival were rough, Bergès says, speaking from Paris, it happen “in the

bush, in a country at war, in a neglected area.” Sangaré herself, though for several decades as one of the biggest stars in Mali—known as “the Songbird of Wassoulou”—and one of the most famous African stars globally, decided to forgo privileges and spent the nights sleeping on the ground in a blanket.

“But she said, ‘Okay, before the second edition I will build a hotel,’” Bergès continues. “And that’s what she did.”

Two years later, her hotel was open for the 2019 follow up. And a couple of months ago they put on the seventh one, with the event having grown to a point where it rivals, well, New Orleans’ Jazz Fest.

“Are you standing or sitting?” Bergès asks. “This year we welcomed more than 460,000 people in three days in the bush.” The festival has in its short time been a boon to the economic development of the area, creating dozens of permanent jobs, she says, and many more temporary ones. And it stands as evidence of Sangaré’s stature not just as a musical leader of her country, but a cultural one. She’s one of Africa’s leading forces in campaigns for women’s rights (the title of her very first album, 1998’s Moussoulou, means Women) and for local business growth. As a businesswoman herself, in addition to the hotel, she has her own line of SUVs called Oum-Sang (her start-up company uses Chinese bodies and Japanese engines, with profits funding a scholarship program) and a brand of rice, Oumou Sangaré 769 that is grown in fields she owns, which connects to her role as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

But even with that, and even in Bamako, she’s subject to the difficulties of life in Mali now, constantly dealing with a lack of reliable infrastructure. Early in a WhatsApp conversation, the connection is lost and cannot be reestablished—power and Internet outages are daily occurrences there— leaving Bergès, who had been translating to and from French, to speak on her behalf. Before her part of the call ends, though, she has time to comment on one of the latest honors she has received, the 2024 Rolf Schock Prize in Musical Arts. The prize is one of four given every other year by an organization founded with a bequest from the late Swedish philosopher Schock in 1993, sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of philosophy.” Sangaré, with the announcement in March, became the first African figure to be given this prize in any of the categories.

“My contribution is to put this music out of Malian and African borders. And also, to be open and invite people to participate in this music.”

Vocals Grammy Award alongside Herbie Hancock, Pink, India Arie, Seal, Konono No. 1 and Jeff Beck for a version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” She’s teamed with Alicia Keys. She performed in 2022 at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater for a show presented by the World Music Institute. Recently she made a groundbreaking appearance with innovative jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire at the Monterey Jazz Festival on “Isakoso Ara,” a daring piece he composed to feature her. At home she’s also very open to collaboration, but with another aim, that of a mentor.

“She’s not training a new generation,” Bergès says after Sangaré becomes unreachable. “She knows she’s an example and she has this special duty to help the young generation to perform.”

“This is a result of more than 30 years of very hard work,” she says. “More than 30 years of struggling for human rights. And I never never never cheat, am always honest. That might be an answer. I’m not the best person to answer that.”

She is a good person to ask about her contributions to the music and culture of Mali.

“My contribution is to put this music out of Malian and African borders,” she says. “And also, to be open and invite people to participate in this music.”

Her own albums center on traditional sounds by and large, her powerful, naturally emotive voice and forceful, social-conscious messages weaving with both such ancient instruments as the kora harp and calabash percussion and drums and electric guitars. Even, as on 2017 Mogoya, where she teamed with European producers, the strength of her voice and her roots have remained the focus.

And she has found myriad and fascinating ways to take those traditions into new contexts through collaborations. She’s worked with Béla Fleck as a key part of his Throw Down Your Heart albums, film and concerts, in which he explored the African origins of his instrument, the banjo. She was invited by Tracy Chapman to join her in 2004 for a Global Divas concert at the Hollywood Bowl. In 2011 she won a Pop Collaboration with

There’s a 2018 video on YouTube of Sangaré in a radio studio with one of those from the young generation singing to her. The singer is a woman named Aya Nakamura, now a Paris-based superstar herself. The song is titled “Oumou Sangaré.” The chorus extends the tribute: “Je sui comme Oumou Sangaré”—“I am like Oumou Sangaré.” Bergès explains that the message of the song is “I live my life, no one can control me, I keep going on despite the problems, no one can stop me.”

This is her paying forward the benefits of mentors who helped her along the way, her performing career starting when she was but five years old, singing in the streets. One key figure for her was Ali Farka Touré, the late Malian guitarist who broke through as one of the first from the country to reach international fame. He brought her to the English record label World Circuit, which took her and her music to audiences outside of Africa.

Through all that has happened since, she has maintained a dedication to traditions but also an eye for new horizons. What is her philosophy of her art?

“The answer is not that easy,” Bergès says. “Of course she is very authentic, but you can notice how much her music has evolved since her beginning. It’s not to be fashionable. But Oumou is very lively, very in her time. She is not the kind of person who can stand still. She’s always moving. And music is life for her. Always.” O

Thursday, April 25 – (Tin Men) Blues Tent, 11:15am

Saturday, April 27 – (Alex McMurray Band) Lagniappe Stage, 2:45pm

The Most Eagerly Anticipated Tin Men & Alex McMurray Band

BY CREE MCCREE

Alex McMurray is so deeply woven into the fabric of New Orleans music and culture, it’s hard to imagine his adopted hometown without him. He’s also no stranger to Jazz Fest, where he’s been performing in multiple configurations for 31 years.

As a guitar meister keenly attuned to the dynamics of every band he plays with, McMurray is always in demand as a sideman. He made his 1993 Fair Grounds debut in Congo Square with Theryl & Reel Life Band, an offshoot of Mike Ward’s Reward, a seminal New Orleans funk band. This year, as usual, he’s playing with Paul

Sanchez & The Rolling Road Show on second Saturday and warming up for that show with an April 29 Civic Theatre performance of “Nine Lives,” Sanchez’s musical adaptation of Dan Baum’s post-Katrina bestselling book.

“I like being a sideman as much as I like being the front man,” McMurray tells me after his weekly Mr. Tuesday Night set at Buffa’s. “I love when the focus is on somebody else. The Paul Sanchez thing will be fun. It’s always a total clusterfuck, you never know who will show up.”

But it’s the first-weekend performances with his own bands—Tin Men and the Alex McMurray Band—that his legion of devotees is most eagerly anticipating. Because no one turns a keener eye on the love/hate relationship New Orleanians have with their city. “You’ve Got To Be Crazy To Live In This Town” has become such a popular audience slur-along McMurray enshrined it on a bumper sticker, while a longtime Tin Man fave warns “if you can’t make it here, you better not leave.”

McMurray’s current eponymous band features two of the founding members of the now legendary Royal Fingerbowl—Glenn Hartman on keyboard and accordion and Joe Cabral on bass—who jumped the Jazz Fest line without even applying when they made their 1997 Fair Grounds debut. “We were signed to a label, TVT Records, and had a manager and everything,” McMurray recalls. “And in those days, it was so extraordinary for anybody to have a record deal they were like oh, yeah, we’ll put ’em on. And we did at least three in a row.”

Several years later, in 2003, Tin Men—McMurray’s longstanding trio with Washboard Chaz and sousaphonist Matt Perrine—made their Jazz Fest debut on the Fais Do Do stage. “That was great,” McMurray notes, “but it was the only time we ever got to play the Fais Do Do.” And except for the post-Katrina 2006 Fest, when Tin Men’s

failure to make the cut gave birth to the sorely missed Chaz Fest—which was resurrected at the Broadside on April 19 with most of its original acts—Tin Men are Fair Grounds regulars.

“Usually what happens is if Tin Men get in, I won’t get in, and vice versa,” explains McMurray which makes this year’s doubleheader the exception that proves the rule. Because Jazz Fest works in mysterious ways. “It’s like when the Vatican chooses a Pope,” he notes. “And the gray smoke goes up, or the black smoke, and when the smoke changes there’s a new Pope. Nobody knows who makes the decisions. It’s like a cross between the Vatican and Willy Wonka.”

The Valparaiso Men’s Chorus, McMurray’s bawdy band of irregular sea shanty singers, applies to Jazz Fest every year but never gets in. “They probably don’t want us because of all the parking passes they’d have to provide,” he speculates. “Maybe they’d let us bring a bus in.” Jeff “Houseman” Clemens’ rock steady band 007, with Joe Cabral and dueling guitarists Jonathan Freilich and McMurray, also failed to make the Fair Grounds cut. But fear not, Festers can celebrate the release of the new 007 album at Chickie Wah Wah on April 27, and catch the Valparaiso Men’s Chorus at the Saturn Bar on May 4.

McMurray hits the Lagniappe stage first Saturday with the current lineup of his namesake band: Hartman, Cabral and drummer Andre Bohren, who replaced the late, great Carlo Nuccio when he passed in 2022. What can we expect?

“We’re just gonna do the stuff we feel like playing, and just try to have a great time,” McMurray modestly replies—which this writer can personally attest gets fans out of their seats and inspires even McMurray virgins to sing along with instantly memorable choruses.

As a longtime Jazz Fest-goer who’s spent a lot of time cruising around the Fair Grounds when he’s not on stage, McMurray also has some cogent advice for festival newbies:

“Lay off the beer, but not the food. There’s no bad food out there but the first thing I always get is the fried chicken. And go off the beaten path, somewhere there’s a little room to breathe. Go into the Grandstand. Go look at some art. Go where the people aren’t and look the other way. Check out the Cultural Exchange Pavilion, the Fais Do Do, Lagniappe, Congo Square, maybe Gentilly. Don’t be looking the same way everybody else is because there’s a lot more to see.”

Saturday April 27 –Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 11:20a

Amis du Teche

Amis du Teche: They’ll Play Music Forever

BY DAN WILLGING

Fiddler Adeline Miller and acoustic rhythm guitarist Amelia Powell of the Cajun quartet Amis du Teche—average age 20—couldn’t be happier. For the first time ever, Amis du Teche is slotted to play Jazz Fest and also has performed at French Quarter Festival this year. But this magnificent run of gracing festival stages doesn’t stop there, but continues with Festival International, Sunday, April 28, and ironically, hometown Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Friday, May 3, where Amis du Teche has never played as a group. To kick off this historic run, Amis due Teche also debuted at South by Southwest on a Saturday in March at the famous club Antone’s in Austin. In August, the group travels to Nova Scotia for the Congrès mondial acadien (“Acadian World Congress”), 2024’s opening ceremonies at Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point.

“We’re super-excited,” Miller says. “It’s probably the most we’ve ever played out of Lafayette. “We are also starting to work on things before we get there, like redoing our setlist, keeping the ones we want, and adding a few new covers. And, of course, we’re going to have our originals because we’re proud of our album that came out last October. It’s very close to our heart.”

In October 2023, Amis du Teche released its eponymously-titled debut recorded at Amelia Powell’s father Dirk’s Cypress House studio. The album’s 10 tracks are evenly split between the five originals Miller and Amelia wrote or co-wrote, and five covers, including “Parlez-Nous à Boire,” the iconic song of Powell’s legendary grandfather Dewey Balfa and his influential group The Balfa Brothers. Powell’s parents are musicians Dirk Powell and Christine Balfa, Dewey’s daughter. Powell grew up in Parks, Louisiana, seven miles

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

south of Breaux Bridge, where Miller, her brother and bassist Robert, and drummer Laykin Usie were all raised. One theme that surrounds Amis due Teche is that everyone grew up along the Bayou Teche.

Miller says she’s proud of her French lyrics, which are the byproduct of her French Immersion summer studies at Université Sainte-Anne and earning a minor in French at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where the 2023 homecoming queen graduated magna cum laude in December with a concentration in legal studies. “When I was at UL, I learned to write better [in French] because I took literature classes,” Miller says. “I had just finished my minor in French, so I was in my French mode.”

Miller wrote the snappy “Joue Pas avec Moi,” the infectious two-stepper “Essayez de Danser,” and the slower “C’est La Derniére Fois,” a waltz. Miller says most Cajun waltzes are sad, and given its tale of a failed relationship, she finally had her own sad song. Powell wrote the pretty waltz “Il Fait Beau,” and both collaborated on “Two-Step Blues,” where two girls ditch the dude who secretly dated both.

“You know, two steps and blues don’t really go together,” Miller explains about the novelty of “Two-Step Blues.” “[Bluesy songs] are slower, but ours is faster because it’s a two-step. So, it’s interesting, and we love to perform it because the rhythms are a little different than most Cajun songs we play.”

people told us we needed one, but we just liked our sound. We thought it was unique and cool with Adeline, this young girl who’s a powerhouse on the fiddle. The accordion is obviously such a powerful instrument. It can be so rhythmic and push and drive so hard, but Adeline can do all that really well just playing fiddle. She’s always been able to do that.”

As a kid, Powell cherished her musical upbringing, seeing her parents play music at gigs, festivals and with friends. “A lot of kids don’t see their parents having so much fun as grown-ups,” says Powell. “But I definitely felt that way. There were many times when I was young, especially at Balfa Week at Chicot State Park. I’d be trying to fall asleep and couldn’t because the adults were playing music. “Oh, Mom, Dad, shut up— but I was also like, man, I can’t wait for that to be me one day.”

“[Bluesy songs] are slower, but ours is faster because it’s a two-step. So, it’s interesting, and we love to perform it because the rhythms are a little different than most Cajun songs we play.”

Unlike most Cajun groups, Amis du Teche doesn’t feature an accordionist in its line-up, which is almost radical considering that the accordion is king in Cajun country. Occasionally, the group will feature a guest accordionist for a song or two, but for the most part they perform sans squeezebox.

To Powell, playing with Miller as children from the age of eight and later as a teenager as Amis du Teche was never a conscious decision to omit the accordionist. “She played fiddle, and I played guitar, and we just wanted to play together. It didn’t occur to us that we necessarily needed one,” Powell says. “As the years went by,

Powell’s parents told her the first guitar she ever played belonged to Sonny Landreth which hung on the wall in Dirk’s recording studio. “But yeah, I mean, there’s plenty of stories like that, which I now recognize the significance of—who those people were and the music they’ve made,” Powell says. “But as a kid, they were just people hanging out with my parents.”

One of the best things Powell’s parents didn’t do was to pressure her and her younger sister Sophie to play music if they didn’t want to. Yet, music was always made available. “There were always instruments around the house,” Powell says. “Anytime I had a question, or if I ever wanted to bring up music to them, they were so excited to talk to me about it, but they definitely provided a space for us to find it on our own. There was never pressure from them to play it, to be good or even play at all, really.

She says that growing up as the granddaughter of Dewey Balfa occasionally brought unsolicited pressure from strangers advising, “Oh, you got to carry on this legacy. It’s your duty.” “My parents never ever said that to me and told me not to listen to those people,” Powell recalls. “Just play if I wanted to.”

Miller describes herself as a “mixed bag of tricks,” with her father Brent Miller from

Thibodaux and her mother Laura from the Bronx. Unlike Powell, she didn’t come from a long line of Cajun musicians but from a family of Cajun dancers. When she was four, her father relocated the family from Westchester, New York, to Breaux Bridge to be closer to the family around Lafayette.

Soon after the Millers had settled in Breaux Bridge, they attended a jam at The Coffee Break in downtown Breaux Bridge. An older guy playing the fiddle in a wheelchair caught her eye. “As a five-year-old, I was like, fiddle is so cool,” Miller says. “I really want to do that.”

And then the man imparted some lifelong wisdom. “Hey, little girl, you can’t always play sports all your life. You can’t always travel your whole life,” he said. “But you can play music forever.”

“When I was five years old, that didn’t make sense to me,” she continues. “But in fact, every generation can participate in music. You really can play music for the rest of your life. It really became a big part of me because it is something that I want to do for the rest of my life. And I will, even if I’m older and playing for my grandchildren on the back porch.”

“We’ve been playing together for so long, but it still feels fun. Every gig is defi nitely hot.”

2016 when the group played for Cycle Zydeco for the first time. During this four-day casual spring bike ride, cyclists pedal South Louisiana’s pancake-flat roads, devour copious amounts of the local cuisine, and dance to live music. A car came through videoing a promotional commercial for next year’s ride, which included Amis du Teche. “Those commercials were aired in Texas, and soon someone’s calling my dad, ‘Hey, your kids are in the Cycle Zydeco commercial,’” Miller said. “He’s like, that’s crazy. And so, then they were calling us, asking, ‘Hey, can y’all play next year? Can y’all be one of the bands?’ Since then, we’ve been a part of Cycle Zydeco every year. That was our first paid gig ever.”

For the next 10 years, she studied with Brazos Huval, former bassist with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and currently with 4Horses and High Performance. Miller describes Huval as being joyful while simultaneously challenging his students. “He would get on me when I didn’t practice, but he was so joyful about it,” Miller said. “And you can tell he was so passionate. His energy just wore off on you, no matter what your age.”

When Miller was eight, she met her lifelong friend and bandmate Amelia Powell at Bayou Teche Brewery in Arnaudville. She remembers it as being Amelia’s mother, Christine Balfa’s birthday. Miller had met Christine before and had a brief conversation with her. “She was like, hey, look like my kids are starting to play music, and they need someone to play with,” Miller said. “Are you kidding me? I need someone to play with.” Miller had friends, but none were her age that played music. So, they all met at Bayou Teche. In a corner of the room away from the adult jam, Miller, Robert, Amelia, and her younger sister Sophie sat on sacks of barley and jammed.

One of Amis du Teche’s big breaks came in

Another milestone was reached when musician and Hideaway On Lee [Restaurant] co-owner Wilson Savoy booked Amis du Teche at his newly-minted restaurant-dance venue in downtown Lafayette during the dreadful COVID year of 2020. It was its first Lafayette gig ever, and Amis du Teche realized it needed to step up its stage presence. Savoy offered Miller some pointers, as did Christine Balfa, who advised her to stop being nervous and just relax. “It put us onstage in a different way than playing in Breaux Bridge,” Miller said. “Because you have crowds, you’re standing up, and you have to put on a show.”

“Because of the Hideaway we started playing a lot in college,” Miller continues. “Our progress is really because they had us play at the Hideaway and we’re so grateful because it opened a lot of doors for us.”

To Amelia, a lot of the band’s success stems from simply having fun during a performance. “We have a lot of fun onstage. We have good energy,” Amelia adds. “And it translates into the crowd. We’ve been playing together for so long, but it still feels fun. Every gig is definitely hot.”

Even though Miller, Amelia, and the rest of Amis du Teche are at critical points where their lives can change instantly with new developments, Amis Du Teche will always be a constant. “I don’t think we have any plans of stopping as long as we all want to keep doing it,” Amelia says. “And as far as I know, we all do.”

“Music makes me too happy. I love doing it,” Miller says. “I have so many amazing people around me that do it, so music will be in my life forever.” O

Friday, April 26, Oschner Children’s Tent, 12:40pm

Unique and Energetic

André Bohren is busy with a multi-tiered career

BY JOHN WIRT

Last year at the Jazz Fest Kids’ Tent, André Bohren and the Electric Yat Quartet performed Peter and the Wolf, Sergei Prokofiev’s symphonic work for children. This year Bohren and the string quartet will present an encore of Peter and the Wolf as well as a new segment, music trivia for youngsters. The trivia part of the show will include music from the animated feature film Toy Story, the Beatles’ children’s song, “Yellow Submarine,” and more melodies plucked from pop culture.

Bohren plays piano and percussion with the likewise eclectic Electric Yat Quartet, a New Orleans foursome featuring violinists Harry Hardin and Natalia Cascante, violist Amelia Clingman and cellist Jack Craft.

Bohren, a stylistically versatile multi-instrumentalist, made his Jazz Fest debut in 1998. A green 18-year-old at the time, he played drums in the band that backed his late singer-songwriter father, Spencer Bohren. “My father was largely a soloist,”

Bohren said. “But the last five or six years he played Jazz Fest, it was always with a band, and I was always in it.”

For the past 20 years, Bohren’s other Jazz Fest sets included Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, the band he’s played drums with since 2001. This year he’s making seven Jazz Fest appearances, playing drums, piano and guitar. In addition to Electric Yat Quartet and Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes sets, he’ll perform with the cowboy band Desert Nudes; Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show; and singers Debbie Davis, Alex McMurray and Jenn Howard.

Managing rehearsal schedules for all the above may seem challenging, but that’s simply business as usual for Bohren. “I stay close to that schedule all year, partially so I don’t have to get a real job,” he said. “And I like staying busy.”

Bohren’s father, Spencer, played Jazz Fest 35 times, making his final appearances there in 2019 with Spencer Bohren and the Whippersnappers on the Gentilly Stage and, alongside André, at the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage for a father and son interview.

André Bohren spent his early childhood in New Orleans East, where his family lived next door to John Magnie, singer and accordionist with the subdudes. The shed between Magnie’s place and the Bohrens’ house served as a rehearsal space for Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris and the Percolators as

LINDA TORRES PHOTOGRAPH

well as future members of the Radiators. “I grew up around all those folks,” Bohren remembered. “Leigh Harris gave me my middle name—Paolo. Dave and Tommy Malone were always around, and I knew all the Radiators.”

Bohren was four years old when his parents bought an Airstream travel trailer and a red-andwhite 1955 Chevrolet. The whole family spent the next seven years on the road. “It was pretty wild,” he said. “I grew up following my father’s tour schedule. Some kids’ dads coached baseball. My dad played music and toured.”

Growing up in a musical household, Bohren began playing guitar at seven or eight years old. At 13, he was more interested in drums, especially after Radiators drummer Frank Bua gave him drumsticks and cymbals. And after the Bohren family returned to a permanent residence in New Orleans, he gravitated to the piano in their stationary new home.

Rock and roll from the 1950s was the first music that moved Bohren. “When the movie La Bamba came out, I got into that soundtrack,” he remembered. “And then I dug into the original versions of all that music, which was all ’50s rock

and roll. That led to the Beatles. From there, all the doors opened up.”

Bohren studied piano at Loyola University before dropping out to play drums with the touring Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes. He returned to school a decade later, earning a degree in piano performance from the University of New Orleans.

“I’ve carved out a niche,” he said of his classical piano playing. “I called it casual classic. But the classical scene is so tough. I’m not the best, but I play well enough, and I have six hours of repertoire. I’ll go play at the Maple Leaf Bar, which takes people by surprise. It’s not what folks expect to hear there, but it works. It gets people’s attention, and they dig it.”

Bohren’s early professional music experience included summer sojourns to France and Spain with his father. Apart from his father, his transition to playing music for a living was a gradual process. “I wasn’t actively thinking about it,” he said. “But I was playing music and getting good at it. And because I got calls for gigs, I didn’t have to work other jobs. It was fun and I made money—that was the progression.” O

Friday, April 26, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 3:30pm

Saturday, May 4, Lagniappe Stage, 2:15pm

Another Heart and Another Ann Savoy

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

Ann Savoy doesn’t have an exact count of how many performances she’s done at Jazz Fest over the course of the 45 years since she first played there. But it’s a lot: 80? 90?

Maybe as many as 100?

“Considering all the groups, that would be absolutely a good number,” she says on a Zoom chat from her Eunice home, where she and her husband, accordion player and maker husband Marc Savoy, are prominent leaders of the Cajun music and culture world and where they raised their family of daughters Sarah and Gabrielle and sons Joel and Wilson.

What she’s doing May 4 at the Lagniappe State, though, will be different from any of those, though. “Absolutely nothing like any of them,” she says.

In the past she’s performed with Marc, being joined by such Acadiana friends as Michael Doucet, with her all-female band the Magnolia

Sisters, with her jazzy combo the Sleepless Knights, even with the Eunice crew brought down to Fest in a bus a few times to recreate the famous weekly Saturday jam session they’ve held for decades at their Savoy Music Center store. In recent years it’s been the Savoy Family Band, with Marc, Ann and their sons, and that lineup will be at Fest this year too, first weekend on the Fais Do Do Stage.

Many years she’s done two or three different things. And there have been numerous interviews and music appearances on the Alison Miner Heritage Stage, and in the old days some without a stage at all.

“Marc used to show his crafts and we’d go jam under the tent there,” she says. “We were just hanging out and playing music. That’s when all those cool pictures were taken by Michael P. Smith—Clifton Chenier looking at us playing and Doc Watson sitting in with us. It was so amazing.”

But May 4, rather than music of Acadiana, this set will be built around songs she grew up with, songs that shaped her youth in Richmond, Virginia, before she ever ventured to Louisiana. These are songs featured on the new album Another Heart, just released by Smithsonian Folkways. It’s the first under just her name, her first-ever solo release. It’s also her most personal.

She’s thrilled.

“I’m really excited to show that side of my world to the Jazz Fest crowd,” she says.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

She’s also a little scared.

“It’s like I’m showing my journal of my life, musically, to the Jazz Fest crowd.”

Produced by long-time friend Dirk Powell and featuring appearances by Rhiannon Giddens, Kelli Jones, Sonny Landreth and significant musical contributions from son Joel, Another Heart is built around songs by Joni Mitchell (“Tin Angel”), Richard Thompson (“A Heart Needs a Home”), Donovan (“The Lord of the Reedy River”), the Kinks (“Waterloo Sunset”) and Sandy Denny/Fairport Convention (“Who Knows Where the Time Goes”). Each connects Savoy with a specific time and place of her youth, profoundly so, revealing this other heart, her Richmond heart, that of, as she puts it, “a melancholic Virginian.”

“I can see the James River flowing in front of my eyes when I’m singing,” she says. “It’s like, wow.”

Each song comes with a story, told in her liner notes. The Mitchell song was introduced to her by her sister. The songs by Denny and Thompson— both having been members of English folk-rock band Fairport Convention—recall a 1969 trip to London on which teenaged Savoy was supposed to meet the band, but upon calling found that there had just been a traffic accident in which drummer Martin Lamble had died.

and feel calm knowing all the good stuff is out there. It’s there if you want it. It’s such a beautiful melody and the sentiment about being in your house, looking out as an observer.”

The waystation to Another Heart was Adieu False Heart, a duo album with Linda Ronstadt, a long-time friend, that was released in 2006. That too went outside of Cajun styles with sweet and sad folk and pop songs, earning a Grammy folk album nomination. A follow-up was planned, but as Ronstadt lost her ability to sing due to progressive supranuclear palsy, it had to be scrapped.

“Linda’s [Ronstadt] and my record and this record are quite different. One of the main ways is this has got a lot more kicks—it has drums and some pretty wild rock ’n’ roll guitar. I’d say it’s a lot more rocking, even though it has a lot of pensive, very beautiful music.

Savoy recalls herself as shy, enlivened by the art and literature in her house, enriched by poetry her dad would read to her at their home. But her father died when she was 13 and she retreated into solitude with music as “my friend, my escape, my teacher,” as she wrote in the liner notes. Those traits are still with her, and the Kinks song, the ballad of a contented loner, is an emotional centerpiece to the album.

“As a child I’d go to England a lot,” she says. “I loved the underground stations, roaming the streets, all the young boys in their frock coats. It was the late ’60s, and the Kinks were people I listened to a lot. That song I related to, because I like the idea of when there’s a lot going on you can just sit in the house and look out the window

Several songs discussed for that get new life on Another Heart, including Bruce Springsteen’s rueful “Stolen Car,” with Giddens stepping in to do the duet.

“Linda heard that version I did with Rhiannon, and she loved the way our voices went together,” Savoy says. “She said, ‘I might have resented it if it had been someone else, but I really respect Rhiannon and love it.’ I know it’s rough for Linda. We even started recording it but couldn’t finish. So, I know that’s hard.”

Another Heart is not Adieu Deux, though.

“Linda’s and my record and this record are quite different,” Savoy says. “One of the main ways is this has got a lot more kicks—it has drums and some pretty wild rock ’n’ roll guitar. I’d say it’s a lot more rocking, even though it has a lot of pensive, very beautiful music. Linda’s and my record was mostly pensive on purpose. This record has another side of me, which has a lot of rock ’n’ roll soul secretly in there.”

In fact, the new album opens with a distorted electric guitar, played by Joel, sounding like a signal beamed from another time and place. It’s a sound connecting past with present, which is where the album starts, the first song being “Cajun Love Song,” a rollicking—and wittily frank—ode to her life with and love for Marc. Here she shows her visions of her world now by the Atchafalaya River before pulling back the curtain for those views of the James (and Thames).

Two other originals also come from her life

now in Acadiana. “Gabie’s New Years Lament” came about when her youngest daughter Gabrielle, having returned from a visit to Paris where oldest daughter Sarah was living at the time, was frustrated being at their local New Year’s party while longing for some big city glitz and glamor. Another side of Louisiana life is in “Triste Samedi (A Sad Saturday)/A Hurricane Song,” in which Savoy drew on accounts of people living through the horrors of various storms that have devastated the region over the years, some coming from interviews and research for her definitive two-volume “Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People” books. It’s an experience beyond words, and with Powell’s production she turned the nightmares into sound, layers of dark distortion growing and growing and then retreating into lonely quiet. The song dates to before even Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years ago, but this version fulfills her ambition for it.

“This was the way I wanted to interpret it, lots of sounds building up,” she says. “The destruction of it all, and then the end.”

Sonically it’s a companion, sonically, to the

Donovan song, “Lord of the Reedy River,” on which Powell used nature sounds—water, birds, crickets—to evoke a swampy scene.

This presents a challenge to do live, but she’s confident in the band that will be with her: Powell and son Joel along with guitarist Chad Viator, double bass player Chris French, drummer Danny Devillier and singer Kelli Jones, who is with her on much of the album. More shows are coming as well, including a May performance in Washington, D.C.—not too far from Richmond— on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.

Another Heart ends with Denny’s wistful “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” a perfect cap to this musical journal of her life, looking back with wonder and that old familiar melancholy, coming around full circle. Mostly, though, the story told in Another Heart is one of love and joy, of renewal and fullness of life.

“It’s like I’m emerging on the other side, still the same person from Richmond, Virginia,” she says, laughing. “She’s still in there. ‘Hello, everybody!’ That’s what the idea is. ‘Would you like to know me too?’” O

BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET

Saturday, May 4, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 12pm

Saturday, May 4, Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 2:50pm

Cajunize

50 Years of BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

BY JOHN WIRT

In February, the world’s most famous Cajun band celebrated its 50th anniversary year with two nights of concerts. The Grammy-winning BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet invited a stage full of friends and collaborators to the hometown party at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette. Guests included Sonny Landreth, Don Vappie, Dickie Landry, Steve Conn, Tiff Lamson, Annick Colbert, Gary Newman, Chad Viator and former BeauSoleil members Tommy Alesi and Jimmy Breaux.

Michael Doucet, BeauSoleil’s singing fiddler, characterized the sold-out anniversary shows as “amazing.” The performances were recorded for possible release as well as use in an upcoming episode of Nick Spitzer’s nationally-syndicated radio program from New Orleans, American Routes.

can play with my son and my brother and my old friends. Let’s do it, and let’s do it right.”

Although Doucet originally envisioned a single grand finale gig for BeauSoleil, his idea evolved into the farewell tour that will keep the band on the road through December. BeauSoleil’s 2024 dates include the band’s May 4 performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, its 44th Jazz Fest appearance. The 2024 edition of BeauSoleil features Doucet; his guitarist brother, David; accordionist Chad Huval; bassist Bill Bennett; and Michael Doucet’s son, Matthew, playing second fiddle and triangle.

So far, all BeauSoleil’s farewell tour shows have been sellouts. “Before it’s all over, here we go again,” Doucet mused. “I’m glad we’re still able to play and we still can play great venues, and that I

As the farewell tour winds its way to a December finale, Doucet welcomes this year’s gigs and the break from traveling that will follow. “I’ve run my thing,” he said. “But I’ll still play music. I’ll always play—but I don’t have anything to prove anymore. And I always did things our way. I knew what this music was, intrinsically. Nobody told me what to do. Nobody produced our records. I got one hundred percent of what I wanted in the studio. So, it’s been a great run.”

Although BeauSoleil won’t tour, Doucet expects the band will play festival and one-off concerts. “They’re fun and they’re healthy, because you don’t kill yourself,” he said of the less time and stress that accompanies a one-night stand.

FROM COTEAU TO BEAUSOLEIL

Doucet picked 2024 as BeauSoleil’s 50th

BEAUSOLEIL

anniversary year because seeds for the band were sowed in 1974. That year, he and some other young musicians played an impromptu gig in a bar in Holly Beach, the southwest Louisiana community known as the Cajun Riviera. At first the musicians inspired stares from the bar’s patrons. The longhaired strangers’ fluency in French and ability to play good music soon won the bar’s suspicious regulars over. The Holly Beach performance evolved into the rock-oriented electric band Coteau, which subsequently led to the tradition-based but musically adventurous BeauSoleil.

In the past five decades, high water marks for BeauSoleil include two Grammy Awards and 11 Grammy nominations; the lifetime achievement award the band received in 2020 at the International Folk Music Awards in New Orleans; Doucet’s 2005 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship; mainstream exposure through the band’s appearance in Mary Chapin Carpenter’s country hit, “Down at the Twist and Shout”; a pre-game performance with Carpenter at the Super Bowl in New Orleans; frequent appearances on public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion;” and soundtrack placements in the HBO TV series Treme and movies The Big Easy, Belizaire the Cajun and I Don’t Feel at Home in the World Anymore.

DOWN AT THE TWIST AND SHOUT

In 1991, BeauSoleil’s recording with Mary Chapin Carpenter of “Down at the Twist and Shout” reached number two on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The second highest-charting single in Carpenter’s career,

the song won a Grammy Award in 1992. Her inspiration for “Down at the Twist and Shout” included BeauSoleil’s appearances at a VFW hall in Bethesda, Maryland. A local promoter rented the hall on weekends, renaming it the Twist and Shout for a night.

“One time when we played there,” Doucet remembered, “this young woman came up and said, ‘I really like your music.’ She was a singer-songwriter fixing to sign with Rounder Records. But then she got a better deal with Sony in Nashville.”

Once Carpenter’s recording contract was set, the Washington, D.C.-based Carpenter invited BeauSoleil to record “Down at the Twist and Shout” with her. When she asked Doucet how many hours she should book the D.C. area recording studio, his answer surprised her: “Rent it for three takes. If we don’t get it in three takes, we’re not doing it.” In fact, Carpenter and BeauSoleil nailed “Down at the Twist and Shout” in two takes. Carpenter, speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in 2020, described the session as “the apex of happiness.”

“We played a lot of shows with Mary Chapin,” Doucet said of that era in BeauSoleil history. “She recorded some stuff for our records, and we became good friends. And how many times can somebody write a song about you, feature you in the recording and it becomes a hit? You can’t manufacture that. That was the magic of the ’90s for BeauSoleil.”

In the wake of “Down at the Twist and Shout,” BeauSoleil joined Carpenter for country music awards shows and the Grammy Awards ceremony in New York City. She later performed “Down at the Twist and Shout” with BeauSoleil at the 1997 Super Bowl in New Orleans, an experience she called one of the “most surreal moments of my life.” The song also appears on the singer’s 1999 compilation album, Party Doll and Other Favorites. “That song has gone a lot of places with us and it’s just a real joy,” she told Rolling Stone “To this day, I love playing that song.”

As a comic side note, cartoon characters Alvin and the Chipmunks included “Down at the Twist and Shout” on their 1992 country album, Chipmunks in Low Places. “Now you know we made it,” Doucet said of being covered by the Chipmunks.

CAJUNIZATION

BEAUSOLEIL

DOUCET

Five decades of touring enabled Doucet and BeauSoleil to accomplish their mission to “Cajunize” the United States. The band played Cajun waltzes and two-steps in every state. Doucet and company also appeared throughout the world, enough traveling for Doucet to accumulate two-and-a-half-million miles on just one of the airlines he flies. The band performed in 19 countries total, including the Middle Eastern nations of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen and United Arab Emirates.

“They loved it,” Doucet said of audiences’ reactions in countries where Cajun music was exotic. “They like the rhythm and the passion of our music. It’s always good to play for your fans, but I also like it when people who’ve never heard this music say, ‘What’s happening?’ That’s fulfilling for me.”

BeauSoleil’s appearance this year at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival follows Doucet’s many memorable Jazz Fest experiences. One especially notable set featured his friends Jo-El Sonnier, Sonny Landreth, Steve Conn and saxophonist Charles Neville from New Orleans’ Neville Brothers band. “We were good friends with Charles,” Doucet recalled. “He played with us a bunch because he lived in Massachusetts, and we played a lot of the East Coast.” At another Jazz Fest, Doucet performed with Bois Sec Ardoin and Freeman Fontenot, Creole accordionists with connections to Amédé Ardoin, the singer and accordion player considered a founding father of Cajun and zydeco music. And one year in the 1980s, Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot, one of Doucet’s traditional music mentors, joined BeauSoleil on stage for an entire Jazz Fest set.

Like many musicians and festival-goers alike, Doucet remembers Jazz Fest’s less-crowded early years. “It was just a day in the sun,” he recalled. “You could see Dennis McGee and Sady Courville (Cajun music pioneers) under the oak tree. Dr. John and Professor Longhair and Clifton (Chenier) performed. I remember when James Booker played in 1976. That was a big deal. The festival has grown, but it grew organically, the way it was supposed to. It’s called the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and, thanks to Quint [Davis] and Allison Miner, they booked people from the bayous and all over Louisiana to play. We could see what was going on in our state. I enjoyed the festival with less people, but it’s still as good as it’s always been or better.”

Saturday, April 27, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 1:30pm

Saturday, April 27, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 4:10pm

A Flower of the Forest Saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s spiritual pilgrimage

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

It can hardly be denied that saxophone master Charles Lloyd has long been most widely recognized for his composition, “Forest Flower” that appears on his 1966 release Forest Flower—Live at Monterey. It was one of the rare jewels that shined beyond jazz realms and into the popular mainstream. With so much great jazz out there, why did this beauty break the genre barrier?

“If I could answer that question, I wouldn’t be doing 10 cents-a-dance,” Lloyd, who will be performing with his quartet at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, answers rather humorously, yet altogether serious.

“I’m a child of nature—I love nature,” Lloyd continues in a more philosophical train of thought. “It was always close to my heart. I love humanity and I’m trying to always sing a song to touch people’s hearts and spirits. All my life I’ve been singing the same song. I don’t know what to say [about ‘Forest Flower’] other than maybe I got lucky.”

Lloyd calls his wonderful new album The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow “my new Forest Flower” and understandably so. It shares its great

beauty, melodic memorability, passion and hope with its predecessor.

“I’m a dreamer,” Lloyd proclaims. “When I was a young kid, I thought when I became an adult, things would be straightened out by now but it’s not happening. I thought as a young man I could change the world, but this world didn’t work out. I just thought the power of music is so wonderful that it would lift us up and get us out of this morass. Instead of being sad about it, I have to find a way to offer something uplifting in encouragement to my brothers and sisters throughout the world. We need more sages and saints.”

Charles Lloyd’s resume reads like an encyclopedia of jazz—he’s played with almost every musician of great stature on the scene during his amazing seven decade-long career.

Lloyd, 85, grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and began blowing blues and jazz and eventually performing with many of Memphis’ jazz greats.

“I thought Memphis was a strange place to be born,” Lloyd offers. “When I look back, it was a very rich place because there were all these creators there like Phineas Newborn, Hank Crawford, Harold Mabern, George Coleman, Booker Little and blues guys too—Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland. It’s a rich experience that I had.”

Lloyd credits masters including pianist Phineas Newborn and trumpeter Booker Little, who attended the same high school as the saxophonist, as mentors both musically and philosophically. “The illusion of grandeur was nipped in the bud,” says Lloyd of the life lessons that he learned.

One instance that Lloyd remembers is when Newborn was standing in the audience when, as

a youngster, he won a prize at an “amateur hour” event that, it may be presumed he was rather proud of. “He looked at me and said, ‘You need lessons bad.’” Newborn then immediately took Lloyd to a local saxophonist for instruction.

Down the road, Lloyd was in New York staying at a “funky musicians’” hotel,” The Alvin, and gave his old friend Booker, who was playing at Birdland, a call. “He said pack your bags, you’re coming home with me,” Lloyd recalls. “I was ready to jump in the fast lane and he began to take me apart. He said no, it’s about character. So, I’ve been on this path all my life.”

“I’m just a beginner here,” says Lloyd displaying the humble attitude he initially absorbed from his early mentors and many of the legends with whom he played. When asked if there were artists who he wished he’d had the opportunity to share a stage or a recording with, Lloyd is quick to answer: “Billie Holiday.” “I love her, and I wanted to marry her when I was a little boy. I thought she was singing to me.” Someone jokingly told him he could just drive to New York and see her. “I told them, I can’t even reach the clutch pedal yet.” In tribute to his childhood “sweetheart,” Lloyd’s new album The Sun Will Still Be There Tomorrow includes his ode to Holiday, “Ghost of Lady Day.”

“I thought Memphis was a strange place to be born. When I look back, it was a very rich place because there were all these creators there like Phineas Newborn, Hank Crawford, Harold Mabern, George Coleman, Booker Little and blues guys too—Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland.” CHARLE

the Jazz Tent will include drummer Marcus Gilmore, pianist Gerald Clayton and bassist Larry Grenadier, who’s also heard on the new album.

Solid musicians boast busy schedules—thus the flexible nature of Lloyd’s quartets. Jason Moran is at the piano on The Sun Will Still Be There Tomorrow which marks the first time Shreveport, Louisiana’s terrific drummer Brian Blade (who New Orleanians refer to as “our own”) and Lloyd played together.

“Time ran out,” as Lloyd explains, when he missed chances for planned for or hoped for recordings somewhat outside of the jazz genre with master guitarist Jimi Hendrix and New Orleans own voodoo inspired pianist and vocalist Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack.

For a time in the late 1960s, when Lloyd, as he puts it, “got off the bus” of the music business and moved to Big Sur, California to commune with nature and live a hermit-styled life. “To me, it [the music business] was like a plantation system and I didn’t want to participate anymore.” It was there that he met the members of Beach Boys who were fans and resided not too far away. Mike Love, who became a particular friend, kept coming around and encouraging him in his music. Lloyd was offered access to a “beautiful” studio in Brian Wilson’s Bel Air home. “They would come downstairs and sing with me,” remembers Lloyd. All of this led to the saxophonist’s unlikely recording on several albums with the Beach Boys.

Lloyd first performed at Jazz Fest in 1990 and more recently in 2018 paired with vocalist Lucinda Williams. This year, the quartet in

“He was so beautiful playing on the album,” Lloyd declares. “He made my humble songs stand up and sing. Great souls don’t have to play together because when you do play together the sparks fly and the magic happens.”

Unfortunately, Lloyd hasn’t really performed other than one long-ago date in New Orleans outside of the Jazz Fest. But he is linked, of course, by the music—a link strengthened by working with Blade. In the 1950s, decades earlier, when the saxophonist was attending the University of Southern California, he had met up with pianist Ellis Marsalis who was in the Marine Corps and based on the West Coast.

“Ellis would come get me and take me to jam sessions,” Lloyd warmly remembers. “On weekends we played a lot together. He was very special, he helped me a lot. I’m just blessed.”

“You [New Orleans] are the home of the music— jazz is our indigenous artform—so the fans have big ears,” says Lloyd of his experiences at the Jazz Fest. I’m looking forward very much to returning. It’s a homage. It’s a spiritual pilgrimage whenever I’m invited to New Orleans. And I thank you for all you’ve contributed to the world.” O

Thursday, April 25, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 12:45pm

Thursday, April 25, Festival Stage, 2:55pm

A Joyful Thing

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

Cimafunk, the band, is a nine-piece treasure with skills in their steps and joy in their souls. This translates well to their sound and live shows. They’re also the sweetest people you could meet and are thoroughly enjoying their upward trajectory. It makes sense, since the mindset of music, work, and community is typified from top-down by the rockstar frontman himself who goes by Cima. We sat down at Mayan Import Co. on Magazine Street to discuss how Cimafunk has become one of the top high-energy acts in the world; what’s coming this year for CimaFest; cross-cultural music education; and what brought him to reside in New Orleans.

The first CimaFest was last year in New Orleans. Cima explained how it came about, “When I was trying to conceive if it was possible,

my manager Collin [Laverty] was like, ‘Of course, it’s possible. Let’s do the festival.’ Adam [Shipley] helped a lot. This is important, especially for me and all my friends in music, because it was about trying to showcase the Afro-Cuban flavor, but with the Afro-Latin roots, bringing all that groovy music together—artists from New Orleans, Cuba, Haiti, and from other parts of the state.”

This year’s fest promises the legendary Chucho Valdes, who is commemorating a halfcentury of his renowned band Irakere. La Dame Blanche, from Cima’s hometown and one of his favorite live performers, will be back. Expect surprise special guests who are as notable as it gets. For a city with a lot of festivals, this is, no doubt, a fresh one.

Cimafunk is also on the verge of releasing the

third full-length album, following Terapia, which firmly put them on the map, and El Alimento, which cemented the band as masters of the fusion of “tropicalized funk.” Cima was tightlipped, but did say, “We should start to make releases and have it out this year. I love the sound. It’s got more from Cuba and New Orleans. The guest features are going to be crazy.”

Not only is Cima a hard-working man on stage and in the studio, but earlier this year he hosted the third trip in partnership with the Trombone Shorty Foundation and Cuba Educational Travel. The January trip was billed as the “Havana Funk Expedition” and Cima elaborated as follows, “In 2019, the Shorty Foundation, the Soul Rebels—everyone was super-welcoming. It was a dream to try to bring artists here and send artists there that can collaborate and join with the people. We were able to reach out to Big Chief Monk [Boudreaux], to [Big Chief] Juan Pardo, to all these people. The kids from the Shorty Foundation were sharing with the kids in Cuba, and we realized that was so much in common between the two places. Many people have been helping since the first trip. The kids from Cuba are from the School of Music my saxophone player Katy [Katerin Llerena] studied at. The kids blow the mind of the people when they start to play because they’re smart and play so good.”

was my favorite place. It was beautiful. You’ve got mountains, lakes and rivers. Many people work as farmers. I spent my whole childhood in the woods. Every time that I can, I go there and chill for peace.”

He recalled that every night brought a musical TV program show with Cuban artists playing and that he learned many songs that way. Church was first a musical entry point to play the trumpet, then for the sake of the choir, the first time he sang for a larger crowd.

“I wanted to fi nd Raul Paz. He was from where I was from. In Cuba, people give you directions for the address. He liked my song and asked me, ‘Do you want to be on my show. I have a big show now.’ I said, ‘Man, please, that would be amazing.’”

The call to bring vibrant music education to children makes sense since it came from a man who remembers loving music so much while growing up in Pinar Del Rio that he couldn’t help but drain his uncle’s car battery. Cima said, “My uncle had an old car with a cassette player at the house. He had many cassettes of Jamaican and African music, but also loved Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Madonna. It was my first interaction with that type of music. I was in the car sitting there every night listening.”

Pinar is situated in the picturesque western part of Cuba. It makes sense that Cima returns as often as he can, considering, “Growing up, it

As has been documented, Cima moved from Pinar and left medical school for Havana, but here’s why. Cima remembered, “There were many reasons. The main one was that I knew I could do something with music. Every time I sang, people enjoyed it. I realized that I was able to learn to sing songs, like Usher’s, similar to what I used to sing after high school. I could learn the songs and also sing more Cuban music. Another reason was that I got to Havana, saw the music environment, and I was like, ‘Yo, I want to live this type of life.’ In Havana, we have a big friend of the family who’s like an auntie to me. But at the beginning, a couple friends of mine from Pinar moved to Havana, so I took the moment. I was staying a week with friends, a week with auntie, and a week with a cousin. My cousin was working in a car shop. He was painting, but I did the sanding and all the preparation of the car. I spent a year and a half doing that. At the same time, every time that I could, I’d go out to see people singing and try to sing myself.”

Cima wrote his songs on guitar, recorded them every chance he got, and played with a friend from Pinar anywhere that people invited them. Then a big break occurred, but it was strategic and came from hustle and always being willing to give it a shot. Cima said, “I wanted to find Raul Paz. He was from where I was from. In Cuba, people give you directions for the address. He liked my song and asked me, ‘Do you want to be on my show. I have a big show now.’ I said, ‘Man, please, that would be amazing.’”

From that point, he played with everyone he could. He sang with Interactivo, and people began to reach out to him, write lyrics and record vocals for them. He did all this for around four years before forming Los Boys with friends. Cima went deeper, “The meaning of the band was trying to get onto a cruise ship and make some money. We spent a year before we got the papers. You need permission from Cuba, and they didn’t want to give it to us. We left Cuba to do the cruise ship for eight months, but before we left, the band got famous. There were five of us in in that band. Zapa [Raul Zapata], my drummer, was one of the guys. We had started to play every club we could, doing modern music sounds, funky, pop songs, and also music like Bruno Mars. More modern covers. People at the show were dancing. We got really popular on the Havana night scene, but then the permission arrived so we went off to make some real money for eight months on the cruise ship. When we got back, I told the band, ‘I’m gonna do my own stuff.’ That’s when I started to think about Cimafunk and figuring out the music, songs, and style.”

The “Cima” part of Cimafunk comes from his heritage. Cimarrons were Cubans of African descent who escaped being enslaved to form villages and new communities up in the mountains. Cima noted, “I learned about it, because I get into figuring out where I come from on an Afro-Cuban vibe. Biografia de un cimarron [Biography of a Runaway Slave] by Miguel Barnet about Esteban Montejo helped me.”

New Orleans has become Cima’s home base, which is both fitting and a welcome surprise. When asked how that came about, he replied, “My first U.S. tour was in 2019, and it was a great coincidence, because Ariana [Hall] from CubaNOLA is a big fan, and we knew she had booked some Cuban bands in New Orleans. We got with her, and she was like, ‘Let’s figure out a show in New Orleans.” I had never been here before, but the day of the show was my birthday. I saw a second line. People were in the street. Everybody was jumping and screaming. It was like when I was kid in Cuba with carnival. The show was at Tipitina’s. Some people said maybe the club was too big for me at that point. It sold

out. After the show, I told my team, ‘We have to figure out a way to come back more and more.’ I was living in France then, but I wanted to make it to the States.”

He’s taken to the city, noting, “I love crawfish and all the seafood boils. You have good music everywhere, so there’s inspiration wherever you go. I’m thinking music all the time. If I go to a show, I enjoy it, but I am also processing that, so then I go home to work. The thing I do most when I’m here is to create music.”

Cima was honored as royalty to serve as King this year for the Krewe of King James as part of Krewe Boheme, fitting for a man who’s been dubbed “The Cuban James Brown.” It turned out to be an incredible night, what with his family and entire band being part of the krewe, while Cima himself had the time of his life dancing the entire route. He said, “It was amazing. I met the previous king on a cruise ship [Jam Cruise], Nigel Hall from Lettuce. I was wearing the shirt [Krewe of King James] all the time on the ship. I’m a big fan and didn’t have a clue that he even lived in New Orleans.”

Though Cimafunk has administrative and distribution deals that operate on a high level worldwide, this is still an independent operation. Cima stressed why: “I still do my own stuff. I like doing my thing in my own way and being the owner of it. We collaborate with people and companies, but at the end of the day, I keep moving with my team. This is what I love to do, and every time there’s more to do.”

The sky’s the limit for Cimafunk, and the New Orleans connection gives his sound fresh organic ways to stretch, that I suspect will be present on the new album. Cima is a frontman with star power and the group not only brings joy to many, but also makes you root for them at whatever they do.

Cima concluded with what may be his ethos, “One of the things that I’m trying to keep in my mind and to put all the time in in my music is this essence—you have one time, you have only one life. Try to enjoy it. You should be part of the community. Keep moving and keep trying to enjoy the process of whatever you’re doing. Share and enjoy with people and family.” O

Saturday, April 27, Rhythmpourium Tent, 3:30pm

Your Very Own Dream

Clay Parker and Jodi James go electric.

BY JOHN WIRT

Clay Parker and Jodi James are making their third Jazz Fest appearance this year. The Baton Rouge singersongwriters first performed at the Festival in 2018, a memorable debut for the musical duo that’s a couple in real life.

“I remember setting up,” Parker said of the pair’s 2018 set on the Lagniappe Stage. “They do those quick line checks for sound and then you’re on. It immediately sounded so good, and it felt so good.”

“We were ecstatic and had so much fun playing our songs,” James added. “And that’s a lot of seats and people at the Lagniappe Stage. After our last song, everybody stood up and clapped. We still have the hand-lettered poster [that displayed their names alongside the stage] from that first show.”

Parker and James returned to Jazz Fest in 2019, booked that year for an impressive two performances. Of course, the COVID pandemic halted Jazz Fest and performing arts events in general the following year. Parker and James, who’d grown dependent upon their touring income, took non-musical day jobs to get by. They also delayed the recording of their second full-length album.

At Jazz Fest they’ll perform songs from Your Very Own Dream, the long-delayed album they released in January. Although usually a duo they will appear at Jazz Fest in a band format. They’ll be joined by the Nashville bassist Jason Martin and Fort Worth drummer Clint Kirby.

In another change from their previous acoustic Jazz Fest performances, Parker and James are going electric. “But we don’t play any differently,” James cautioned. “We’re still all about subtlety.”

“On the other hand,” Parker said, “when you’re

a duo that only relies on your voices and your guitars, but then you change 50 percent of how you operate, it’s an exciting change. Playing guitar has completely changed for both of us.”

“And playing electric guitars makes us write songs differently,” James added. “It’s good to shake things up, because sometimes you get stuck in a one way of thinking. Changing one element can get you out of that.”

Parker and James have been a duo for 10 years. They’d previously been solo artists in Baton Rouge’s singer-songwriter scene. James remembers the 2010s being a vibrant era for songwriters in Louisiana’s capital city. “The old Chelsea’s Café had a lot of songwriter nights, and there were many venues where songwriters could play,” she recalled. “It was a really great circle [of songwriters].”

“We were all inspired by what someone else was doing,” Parker said. “We didn’t realize it then, but we were all stealing from each other.” O

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The Colombian Connection Jazz Fest celebrates Columbia with 17 bands.

BY JAY MAZZA

If New Orleans is often considered the northernmost outpost of the Caribbean culturally and musically, then it stands to reason that the cities on the Caribbean coast of Colombia are the southernmost. For aicionados fascinated and intrigued by the riches of the region, this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is a goldmine with 17 Colombian bands scheduled to perform.

The musicians will put a brilliant spotlight on the rich heritage of Colombia across most of the stages and inside the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion. It is the largest celebration of a single country in the long history of the Jazz Fest’s annual cultural exchange. Here’s brief description of some of these great musicians and bands.

Bomba Estéreo is one of two headliners coming from Colombia for the festival. Simón Mejía

formed the group in 2005 in Bogotá. The band is a self-described “psych-cumbia” group, mixing traditional Latin rhythms with beats and vocals influenced by hip hop.

Though the group has never performed in New Orleans before, they have made a solid impact on the music scene in the United States by performing at several other prominent festivals including South By Southwest, Coachella and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Plus, the group has almost 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify. They will definitely get Festers of all ages up and dancing.

Salsa legends Grupo Niche are the second headliner performing this year. The group has a long history beginning with their formation in Bogotá in 1979. Three years later, Grupo Niche relocated to Cali, Colombia and began making an impact on the highly competitive salsa scene.

Like many long-running Latin bands, Grupo Niche has had numerous members and lead singers over the years. Co-founder, trombonist and arranger Alexis Lozano left the group in the early 1980s to form another well-regarded band, Orquesta Guayacán.

The other co-founder and original bandleader, Jairo de Fátima Varela Martínez, wore many hats with the group including producer, director, songwriter, vocalist and guiro player before he died at 62 in 2012. Since his passing, Jairo,

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Simón Mejia and Li Saumet, members of Bomba Estereo.

as he is known across Colombia and in the salsa community, has become a legend. His funeral lasted four days as tributes arrived from around the world.

The sixteen-piece ensemble has continued to tour the world to honor Jairo and spread the gospel of salsa. They won Latin Grammy awards in 2020 and 2023.

For adventurous music lovers, one of the most exciting aspects of the cultural exchange program at the Jazz Fest is the chance to hear new music that falls outside the usual parameters of the festival. Kombilesa Mí is a cutting-edge hip hop ensemble that is based in Palenque de San Basilio, Colombia.

This small village of less than 4,000 inhabitants is located near the base of the Montes de Maria, an isolated mountainous area near Cartagena, the regional capital that was a prominent port city for the trans-Atlantic slave trade during the period before slavery was outlawed.

our iconic New Orleans brass bands. They play a style of music known as Chirimía, which takes its name from a type of woodwind instrument that was brought to South America by the Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.

For adventurous music

lovers, one of the most exciting aspects of the cultural exchange program at the Jazz Fest is the chance to hear new music that falls outside the usual parameters of the festival.

“Palenque” means “walled city” and in the 17th century it became an epicenter for enslaved Africans that had escaped the Spanish colonizers. The settlement has been recognized as the first free African town in the Americas. In 2005, UNESCO, the United Nations organization, declared the village a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

The hamlet has been continually inhabited by Afro-Colombians ever since its formation and many of the current residents are descended from the original founders of the community. They have their own language, Plenquero, which they use to retain and preserve the culture of their ancestors.

Members of Kombilesa Mí, which means “my friends,” in Plenquero, rap in the unique tongue as well as in Spanish. The music is high-energy hip hop-infused with both modern and traditional rhythms. I suspect the band will remind many world music lovers of the punkish Mexican cumbia band, Son Rompe Pera that played at Jazz Fest to great acclaim in 2022.

Rancho Aparte may very well be the band that attracts the most attention from New Orleans music lovers since the group’s instrumentation and focus on street performance closely resembles

The instrument was originally used as musical accompaniment, along with drums and whistles, during religious processions. However, in the hands of Rancho Aparte, the chirimia joins a tuba, bass and snare drum as well as hand percussion to create a buoyant blend of traditional rhythms and more modern dance music including calland-response vocals. It’s music for dancing in the streets—just like our brass bands. Bandleader Dino “The Animal” Manuelle is a charismatic front man pushing the energy of the band and the audience. He will be interviewed along with other members of the band on the Alison Miner Music Heritage Stage with the Hot 8 Brass Band. Another exciting and unusual ensemble booked to play at the Jazz Fest will definitely blow some minds. The members of the Grammy-nominated band Cimarrón call themselves “folk futurists.” This six-piece band, led by the singer Ana Veydó, plays a style of music called joropo, which mixes Andalusian (from a region in southern Spain close to Gibraltar), indigenous South American instrumentation and African musical rhythms.

The group features swiftly played stringed instruments, thundering percussion including the Afro-Peruvian cajón and rarely heard deer-skull whistles. They are also known for a percussive style of stomping that originated in an area known as Los Llanos, a vast open plain on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. Cimarrón’s dancing percussion is reminiscent of the Crocodile Gumboot Dancers of South Africa that played at Jazz Fest in 2009 and 2019.

Besides these five bands, expect to see traditional marimba music with Agrupacíon Changó, the fiery “breaksalsa” sound of La Mambanegra from Cali and classic cumbia from Medellin’s Los Cumbia Stars along with much, much more. Colombia’s musical and cultural riches will certainly be shared with us at the Jazz Fest in 2024. O

DWith the Headhunters Thursday, April 25, Jazz & Heritage Stage, 4:15pm

With The ICONS

Friday, April 26, Congo Square Stage, 2:45pm

With the Louis Armstrong Camp Sunday, April 28, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 1:30pm

Donald Harrison Jr.: A Conduit of The Universe

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

onald Harrison Jr. is an essential link between modern jazz and the music and culture of the streets. He is without question a voracious thinker, actively working to expand sonic bandwidth.

In doing so he’s become a guru to some of the finest young musicians out there. Harrison is

an American treasure and a New Orleans native who was more than willing to go deep about his life and career.

At Jazz Fest, Harrison will showcase his new group The ICONS with Choppa, the singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon, and producer BlaqNmilD. He’s staying busy and reaching for new sounds. He stressed, “I’m also working on music with my good friend Deezle, playing with The Headhunters and different jazz bands, as well as keeping my eyes open. The two things I’m working on now are omniverse music and quantum improvisation.

Quantum improvisation is, for me, the idea of quantum theory, which is the study of what’s natural. All that means is taking a song and looking at it in different genres, understanding the inferences, and how to write. I was fortunate that I played with a lot of people and led bands with a lot of different styles of music. Instead of looking at two ideas, take a song like ‘The Magic Touch,’ which is nine different genres. Eight of the genres are styles of music that we know, but the ninth version takes the eight versions and puts them into a new style of jazz. I’m really excited about that. It opens up a nice Pandora’s box where music can go.”

Several of the best and

brightest of the next generation have heard what Harrison is doing and take it to heart. He noted that when his album called Nouveau Swing was released, “Some critics liked it, but it wasn’t really paid attention to. This led to a struggle to keep that sound alive and to keep a band fermenting for a couple of decades.” Harrison said, “In the middle of doing that, young players like Jon Batiste, Christian Scott (Chief Adjuah), Robert Glasper, and Esperanza Spalding were paying attention more than the jazz world overall. Jon told me, ‘I’m going to be playing my music like you.’ He said I’m the greatest teacher because I teach all the music. Robert Glasper tells me I’m a great teacher and a legend. I didn’t realize it was happening, because I was just following my voice. When you do the work and follow your voice, you become a conduit, it flows through you, and you keep finding stuff.”

“Kidd Jordan was about being yourself naturally. Alvin Batiste was a hybrid thinker in terms of world music

Harrison talked about his particular interest in philosophy and recalled, “I think one of the biggest things I got in terms of reading was when my parents got a set of encyclopedias. I thought it must be something important. I read the whole set when I was really young. They gave me a universal way of looking at the world. They gave me the understanding that everything is important, and that greatness of achievement came from all over the globe. The main thing I got from my father is that it’s okay to be wrong. I got from my parents the idea of looking for solutions. That was another key factor in my understanding of the world. Everybody knows the problem. We’re looking for the person with the solution. Having all those kind of things as a focus from a young age helps to shape how I move now.”

and jazz. Those guys were teaching about jazz music, but I was coming from a different place because I was in the culture. ”

Harrison spoke to the key guidance he needed to follow his true path, revealing, “When I was preparing to record my first soul instrumental/smooth jazz CD (The Power of Cool from 1991), people were telling me I was selling out. I asked Art Blakey if I should stick to jazz exclusively. He told me I should play all the music I could. The only way I would find myself was to pursue my talents to their logical outcomes—that most everyone has talents they must pursue. He was right. It was a hit on urban and smooth jazz radio. The irony is that the people who said I was selling out asked me if I could help them get into recording soul instrumental music. If I had not played jazz and soul music, then I would have never blended them into a new hybrid sound.”

Before Harrison came up on Independence Street, he was a curious child in Treme on Governor Nicholls Street and then Orleans Avenue. His father was Big Chief of various tribes, including the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians. He was also a voracious reader, a habit he picked up from his namesake.

As a baby, Harrison played drums on the crib during Creole Wild West practice before graduating to playing doors and furniture. He emphasized, “Rhythm has always been the key factor in the way I think of music. James Brown said, ‘Music is a drum.’ I have the same kind of thought pattern in terms of music. I remember the first time, what we call masking, seeing a vague picture of people moving fast, things happening, and hearing music like a distant echo in my head. I guess it’s part of my subconscious.”

Harrison learned saxophone and furthered his skills with Edward “Kidd” Jordan and Alvin Batiste. He said, “Kidd Jordan was about being yourself naturally. Alvin Batiste was a hybrid thinker in terms of world music and jazz. Those guys were teaching about jazz music, but I was coming from a different place because I was in the culture. I wasn’t getting those kinds of lessons from them. I was getting musical lessons. I have a different type of balance being from the second line culture, from the masking culture, from tradition of Congo Square, and also learning from jazz musicians.”

While in high school, Harrison read Charlie

Parker’s statement, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” He realized this was a catalyst since, “Everyone from the whole history of jazz was still around, so I made a plan to learn from the whole history of the greatest innovators of jazz and other styles of music. I went on a quest to do that. What Charlie Parker said had me realizing I could get the whole history of music in the Americas inside me through living it and then learning the actual lessons from the people who did it. I’m very fortunate to come from here and be part of the traditions and then to get those lessons.”

He was soon off to Berklee College of Music and then New York where Harrison’s heroes eventually became peers. His first gig in NYC was with Roy Haynes on 52nd Street. From there he went on to play with Jack McDuff, Art Blakey, Miles Davis and countless others.

Harrison was also a young man who saw the emerging hip hop scene of the 1970s. Harrison mused, “I remember the mixing of different types of music together. Fashion and dancing. It was all over New York. You had break dancers

all over. I was intrigued by hip hop, so I would always stop. You have this cardboard to spin on. I was practicing pop locking and trying to do my spins on the ground. I was also going to see reggae and ska. I love music. I was coming from New Orleans and already had a dance perspective. We always danced at home. My father took me to second lines. That was an important aspect.”

Donald Harrison Jr. is thrilled that the best and brightest across a range of musical swaths recognize, appreciate, and pay respect to what’s he accomplished, but his is not a life in past tense. He’s looking forward with both rigor and curiosity, saying, “I want to be the best conduit. You have to have the best circuitry, which is knowledge. If you need a lot of current to go to the wire, the wire can’t be small. It has to be able to support all this heat coming through. I’m not looking at myself as the greatest, but I think I’ve added something to the pot. Last night some young musicians were asking questions, and they said, ‘Well, you as a musician…’ I said, ‘I’m not a musician. I’m a conduit of the universe.” O

Thursday, April 25, Jazz & Heritage Stage, 12:20pm

Forgotten Souls Honor Tradition and Memory

BY JAY MAZZA

Ever since the jazzman Danny Barker returned to New Orleans in the mid-‘60s after a successful career in New York, the once-moribund brass band culture in his hometown has reinvented itself with each new generation of musicians. When Barker discovered there were very few young musicians playing the old songs in the old style, he almost singlehandedly was responsible for reviving the tradition with the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band.

Alumni of the church band went on to form the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Hurricane Brass Band and the Tornado Brass Band. Others became stalwarts on the scene like the trumpeter Gregg Stafford and the clarinetist Dr. Michael White. While the Hurricane and the Tornado stuck mostly to the traditional age-old music, the Dirty Dozen began adding elements of modern jazz, funk and soul to the sound in the mid-1970s. Next came the Rebirth Brass Band, which modernized the music even further.

By the 1990s, hip hop beats and rapping became part of the mix, energizing younger audiences, yet alienating older fans and traditionalists. But for most of the musicians, it was all a part of the long continuum of the music, and many can play traditional and modern jazz as well as the hip hop-inflected grooves that are still popular today.

In March 2000, percussionist and New Orleans music aficionado and promoter Henry Petras, along with sousaphonist Kirk Joseph of the Dirty Dozen and saxophonist Roderick Paulin of the Rebirth, formed the Forgotten Souls Brass Band. Petras said, “The initial concept, with the modern brass band scene moving to a more hip hop-based approach, was to maintain the traditions of the traditional

brass band music.” At the time neither Joseph nor Paulin were playing in brass bands despite, both of them being deeply connected to the tradition.

Petras continued to explain the genesis of the ensemble. “We quickly assembled the band, an all-star cast of people we felt would fit the mode. Our first gig was in March at the Howlin’ Wolf. We proceeded to record a record that was released at Jazz Fest 2000.”

Ajay Mallory, a snare drummer from the Rebirth’s seminal period, and Keith Frazier, a founding member of that groundbreaking group

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, TOP; SKIP BOLEN PHOTOGRAPH, BOTTOTM

Roderick Paulin

Kirk Joseph

(with his brother sousaphonist Phil Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins), were added to the Forgotten Souls’ rhythm section along with Joseph. Trombonist Revert “Peanut” Andrews and trumpeters William Smith and Kenneth Terry round out the lineup. Amazingly, given the fluctuations in the membership of most brass bands in the city, 24 years later, all the original musicians will be appearing at Jazz Fest this year.

One of the overarching goals of the band is to create new music in the traditional style. The debut album included two original songs, “The First Half” and “The Second Half” that feature a variation of the renowned “Tuba Fats riff,” which, Petras said, “is a throwback to the Olympia Brass Band.” The Jackson Square street performance icon, Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen wrote the instantly recognizable series of notes, which are played by virtually every brass band. They also do a brass band take on Danny Barker’s classic, “Palm Court Strut.”

The musicians are also focused on honoring the greats who came before them. Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles appears on the band’s second album, Gone But Not Forgotten, singing his scintillating take on the traditional “Lil Liza Jane.” Black Indian music has long been part of the group’s repertoire. That album also includes dedications to the late Eldridge Andrews and Milton Batiste, Jr. of the Olympia Brass Band.

The Forgotten Souls also have recorded songs to pay respect to the legendary Paul Barbarin, including the classics “Paul Barbarin’s Second Line” and “Bourbon Street Parade.” The homage extends to the greats of the heyday of 1950s and 1960s R&B including the Meters’ timeless cut “Cissy Strut” and musicians like Smokey Johnson, the composer of “It Ain’t My Fault,” which appears on the first album.

Despite mostly only appearing at Jazz Fest time, the Forgotten Souls have released three studio albums, one live album recorded in San Francisco, and four of their Jazz Fest performances have been recorded and released by Munck Music. They were awarded the best “Emerging Brass Band” by OBeat magazine in 2000 and in 2003 the band was a special musical guest on the Emeril Live television show.

Though Petras doesn’t want to reveal specifics about this year’s performance at Jazz Fest, he said, “Our goal is to pay tribute to all those who have come before and laid the path. We should always remember those people and the music. As we always do, we will dedicate our set to those that have passed, particularly those who have been part of the brass band tradition.” O

Saturday, April 27, Lagniappe Stage, 12:35pm

Bad-ass Babe

Ghalia Volt is a lot about feel

BY CREE MCCREE

Ghalia Volt is one bad-ass babe. Though I came late to her raucous blues-rock party—she first hit town in 2014 and made New Orleans her homebase in 2017, when she Let the Demons Out on her Ruf Records debut with local bar-band faves Mama’s Boys—I became an instant convert when I blasted her latest release Shout Sister Shout! in my earbuds and kept it in heavy rotation.

Volt trekked out to the California desert to record that album at Rancho De La Luna Studio in Joshua Tree with storied producer Dave Catching, and emerged with tracks that have a harder edge than her previous albums. But as her sizzling hot slide guitar attests, she’s still mining the deep vein of blues she first discovered as a teen, when she began her musical pilgrimage from her hometown of Brussels, Belgium to the roots of music born in America.

Her previous albums provide a handy road map to her immigration jounrey. Mississippi Blend (2019), recorded in the hill country town of Coldwater with such local

stalwarts as Cody Dickinson, Watermelon Slim and Cedric Burnside, thrice hit the Billboard Blues Chart top three. And unlike most musical artists, who survived COVID as best they could with live-stream performances, the indefatigable Volt hit the road. After a cross-country Amtrak train hop, she packed up her one-woman band in a van for solo shows. “I surfed the waves,” she recalls. “If it was bad in Europe, I’d tour the States. If it was bad in the South, I’d go to the Midwest.” True to form, Volt was about to embark on

a tour in Florida followed by a Blues Cruise when I caught up with her at a rehearsal studio in New Orleans. She blazed through her set list with drummer Daniel Perez, who’ll be appearing with her at Jazz Fest, along with keyboardist Jay Stiles. When the session wrapped, we shared an order of baba ganoush and tabouli at Mona’s, where we quickly discovered we have a lot in common—and bonded as blues sisters.

In “Hop on a Ride,” you end up in the Big Muddy, the “land of dreams.” Was living in New Orleans always one of your dreams? Well, I never had goals of moving here. I never even had a goal to be a full-time musician. I just wanted to visit all the cities they talked about in all the songs I was listening to. When I first got here, I didn’t have a car, so I started hitchhiking around Mississippi. I went to Monticello where J.B. Lenoir was born, and McComb where Bo Diddley spent his life, and Skip James’ hometown Bentonia. Then I went to see Robert Johnson’s grave, and finally Clarksdale. Which is where I really learned everything.

That’s also where the blues festival was when you appeared on 60 Minutes. Yeah. I was just in Clarksdale last weekend, and there’s not a lot of the old musicians left. But when I first went there, I spent hours and hours watching guys like George Brock and Robert Belfour, Walker and Leo Bud Welch, and that’s how I learned. I just soaked up their music and their feel. At the end, it’s a lot about the feel.

Your journey has been incredible, you got really deep. You have to get deep. Even with rockabilly, you need to understand how that grew out of jump blues. Punk bands led me into psychobilly, which is just a faster and crazier rockabilly. And when I got into that, I realized that, whoa, I actually prefer jump blues—Louis Jordan, Little Richard, Fats Domino—than actual rockabilly. And once I got there, I discovered Ruth Brown, and Laverne Baker. And that’s when the switch went on. Mississippi was a big part of my travels, but I also went to Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville and Austin. And eventually New Orleans.

Right after Jazz Fest, you’re going on a big European tour starting with a lot of dates in Belgium. Do you still

have a fan base there? Oh yeah, big. I was on the Belgian version of 60 Minutes on the main news channel. The Belgian version actually aired the same week.

You’re also playing a big blues festival in the Andalusia region of Spain, where flamenco comes from. My mom is actually from there. So, I grew up down there as well. The music that moves me the most is flamenco, and there’s a real connection with the blues. The social historical context is exactly the same. The gypsies in the south of Spain were like the [formerly enslaved] people here. It’s music created by people oppressed by other people that helps them bring comfort to each other. By sharing their pain.

John Campbell, one of the deepest blues guitarists I ever knew, always used to say: “The blues song is a victory.” That’s really true. Like this guy once told me, in French—which I’ll translate—it’s not just lamentation songs, it’s comfort songs. You are here to share.

You’ve been to hell, and you’ve come back to share the story and celebrate your journey. And make other people feel that they’re not alone. This is a hard situation and everybody’s living through it together. That’s what work songs were all about. After I got into jump blues and then blues, I didn’t stay there. I went further and discovered work songs and gospel music and listened to Appalachian music. But what touched me the most deeply was the blues. Skip James is the reason why I came here.

I’m really looking forward to seeing you at Jazz Fest. Have you been there before, in the audience? Yeah, I’ve been going since 2014. I’ve seen Buddy Guy each time he played there, and Irma Thomas. Talk about a dream. I would love to record something with Irma.

I assume you’re playing the Blues Tent. No, I’m on the Lagniappe Stage.

What can people who’ve never seen you expect? They’re gonna see a little girl that moved here from Belgium and paid her dues by hitchhiking in Mississippi and learning the music. Not on YouTube, but in random little towns all over Mississippi and here. They’ll see that little girl finally achieving a dream, after many years of being a local, of playing Jazz Fest. It feels good. And it’s hopefully not the last time. O

Contemporary Crafts (First Weekend)

Gogo Jewelry Celebrating 20 Years at Jazz Fest

BY CREE MCCREE

Bold. Bright. Geometric. There’s no mistaking a piece of Gogo jewelry, handcrafted by Gogo Bordeling, who’s celebrating her 20th anniversary as a Contemporary Crafts vendor. And if you’ve been to Jazz Fest before, chances are you already own a piece or two.

“My very first Jazz Fest, I sold out of everything in my booth,” Gogo recalls at her shop on Decatur Street, where she’s hard at work creating this year’s collection. “It was unbelievable! I cut out pictures of my pieces and put ’em in the booth, and people ordered them from the pictures.” She won Best Booth Design as well, an honor she’s since received three more times. Her booth also became such a magnet as a meeting place it quickly became known as “the new flagpole.”

Gogo’s eye-catching design for her trademark silver cuffs dates all the way back to the Savannah College of Art and Design. “I took a class called color on metal, where we learned a plating process: sterling silver on top of anodized aluminum, like those tumblers from the 1950s that were really cold to hold,” she explains. “Then I came here and went to work with Thomas Mann and learned production from him,” she adds, citing another longtime Jazz Fest jeweler who also works with metals. “They don’t teach you that in art school.”

That original cuff (which she still has) quickly spawned companion lines of earrings, necklaces, belt buckles and cuff

links using the same process. And, unlike many jewelers, who buy their “findings” from other sources, Gogo makes all of hers by hand, from the clasps on necklaces to earring wires to the little silver rivets that hold the silver and aluminum layers together.

This year, to celebrate her 20th anniversary, she’s adding a new line of “What do you want to shout out loud?” bolo ties. “What do you have deep inside of you that maybe you want people to know that you can’t verbally say?” she elaborates. “And if you wear this piece, someone might come over and read it. It could be an icebreaker for conversation.”

Though the designs are new, the icebreaker concept also dates back to art school. “My entire thesis was about conversational jewelry,” she notes. “I get pictures sent to me all the time of somebody being at a party seeing someone else wearing one of my pieces and the two of them strike up a conversation and have a lovely evening together. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

Does she ever get a chance to see any music at Fest? “Every time I try to go do that, I’ll run into somebody who says why weren’t you at your booth,” she replies with a laugh. “People really like having me there, so I’ll dedicate the second weekend to enjoying myself. And sometimes I run lucky. Last year my booth was facing the Gospel Tent. Some people don’t like that booth because they say it’s too loud. And I’m like, honey, I’ll praise the Lord all day. Gimme that booth!” O

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Friday, May 3, Lagniappe Stage, 11:30a

Gregg Hill is Walking Down the Street Smiling

BY DAN WILLGING

For several years, Gregg Hill has leisurely walked from his stately Bayou St. John home on Moss Street across the historic Magnolia Bridge to the nearby Fair Grounds where Jazz Fest is held—as an attendee. On Friday, May 3, the singersongwriter will again be an attendee, but more importantly, a featured artist on the Lagniappe Stage. Technically, it’s not his first time on a Jazz Fest stage. In 2019, he was a member of the “interracial” Shades of Praise gospel collective. This year is different, however, since this billing

is under Hill’s name, representing his Jazz Fest debut. Joining Hill will be his regular supporting squadron of Johnny Vijner, fiddle; Dr. Michael Clauss, bass; Becca Daughty, drummer; and special guest Mark Carroll, guitar, lap steel and piano.

Hill is still pinching himself about the megaaccomplishment of being booked for Jazz Fest. “It’s exciting, incredible, really, a dream come true… New Orleans has been very, very good to me,” Hill says. “The community has been wonderful in terms of people helping me. And

it’s been wonderful in terms of being inspirational. It’s such a good place to write; figure it out and let it all happen. And I got to tell you, it’s like a miracle, honestly.”

Though Hill is no stranger to New Orleans, he and his wife Mary have only resided in the Crescent City since 2018, escaping the clutches of the greater New York City sprawl, including suburban Westchester County, New York, where they lived. Hill first visited New Orleans in 1988 and often returned regularly due to his work in the film and television industry. When his daughter Jesse started going to Tulane in 2015, the Hills visited their daughter five to six times a year. So, within days of Jesse’s graduation, the Hills closed on their Mamaroneck, New York home and drove back to New Orleans for good. Bayou St. John is the only place Hill has lived since.

The question Hill often hears around town is, how did you get into Jazz Fest for being here such a relatively short time? Hill may never know precisely why but thinks it’s on the strength of his aptly named Bayou St. John album released September 2023. With Spencer Shultz’s nighttime painting of his home as the cover, it’s the second album Hill has recorded since hunkering down in New Orleans. Bayou St. John has had a great run. It notched at number 11 on the Folk Radio Chart and was lauded nationally and by this publication.

studio time.

Hill refers to Natural Born Liar as a headphone record where Cappellino’s mix can be fully appreciated. “You listen to it in the quiet with headphones on,” Hill says. “And you’re just going hear a lot of things. That’s why a lot of good musicians love Neal. They just love him because he’s so great with a mix. And they’re the ones DM-ing me, ‘Holy shit, dude, this mix is ridiculous,’ because he took so long. I don’t know how long he took, but we worked on the record for most of the year.”

“… New Orleans has been very, very good to me,” Hill says. “The community has been wonderful in terms of people helping me. And it’s been wonderful in terms of being inspirational. It’s such a good place to write; fi gure it out and let it all happen. And I got to tell you, it’s like a miracle, honestly.”

Bayou St. John is also radically different than Hill’s 2022 effort, the impeccably-produced Natural Born Liar, recorded by Neal Cappellino (John Prine, Billy Strings, Andrea Bocelli). Natural Born Liar’s musicians were a mix of Nashville players, like guitarist Kenny Vaughan and banjoist Ron Block and New Orleans’ Shane Theriot and Anders Osborne. Hill made three trips to Nashville to plan the record with Cappellino, plus countless more for recording sessions, equating to an unheard of 30 days of

Whereas Natural Born Liar fell squarely in the Americana market, Bayou St. John is a pure folk record waxed entirely in New Orleans with only New Orleans musicians. Besides the musicians, a strong New Orleans bond exists on many facets of Bayou St. John, starting with the songs. Hill completed all of them in his picturesque neighborhood late at night on his candlelit front porch overlooking the bayou.

It’s also the first time Hill has played lead guitar on a record. “I should let people know that I can really play,” Hill says, referring to how he didn’t play any lead on Natural Born Liar, but deferred to Vaughan and Theriot instead. “And I’ll tell you, I’m never going back. I’m going to do my own guitar stuff from here on out.”

There’s also a neighborhood connection with Hill’s producer and session bassist, jazz/funk maestro Roland Guerin, who was once part of Allen Toussaint and Dr. John’s ensembles. After Toussaint passed away in 2015, Guerin joined Dr. John as his last musical director. Guerin lives within walking distance of Hill and was introduced to him by another mutual friend, Hill’s guitar teacher, John Rankin, who also lives within walking distance of both. Besides Hill and Guerin, behind the traps was veteran beat-master Doug Belote. Background vocalists were Joy Clark, Lynn Drury, and Hill’s daughter, Tulane alum Jesse Hill.

If you listen to any of Guerin’s discography, it’s primarily deep jazz, and his latest, the adventuresome three-song EP PROG:FUNK, is worlds away from Hill’s sphere of Americana and folk. “Well, Roland could play anything because Roland was mentored by Allen Toussaint,” Hill explains. “Toussaint played all kinds of music very well, including country music, New Orleans stuff, blues stuff, rhythm and blues. So, I think Roland sees himself as that. You can’t say you’re well-versed in these genres unless you actually do it. Honestly, in the beginning, I wondered why Roland Guerin was doing this. He could do anything with his time. And after talking to him, I think that’s one of the reasons why: he wants to show he can do it and be a part of it.”

“But you’d have to ask him, I don’t really know for sure,” Hill continues. “Not everyone’s knocking on his door to make a folk record.”

Great suggestion! Ask Guerin himself. Between trips to Finland and Orlando, Guerin shared his reasons why he produced Hill. “He wrote great songs, really great stories,” Guerin says. “In terms of the sonic story, as well as the lyrical story, and the imaginative stuff, I felt I was in tune with it and had a belief in it. I was really happy to be a part of it.”

wish I was that cool.’” Roland replied, “Oh, man, you’re cool. You’re just a dude playing a guitar and singing your songs. What’s cooler than that?”

Cool enough, in fact, that one of Hill’s regular collaborators is esteemed songwriter Paul Sanchez, who also believes in Hill’s art. For Bayou St. John, Hill and Sanchez co-wrote “New Orleans Again,” while Hill, Sanchez and Rankin co-wrote “Old Like Me.” “Paul is incredibly good to me,” Hill says. “He treated me like I was someone of quality right from the jump.” By the time this article appears, Hill and Sanchez will have already played a co-billed show at the Broadside.

Hill and Guerin found themselves sympatico on various levels, including their sense of humor and positive outlook. “I think that’s one of the little secrets about Bayou St. John. It’s a very lighthearted, upbeat record, and people don’t make records like that,” Hill says. “And I think it’s an act of rebellion. The greatest act of rebellion is to look to the sunny side and express yourself that way. That’s harder to do than complaining about all the darkness that’s around us all the time. My [Buddhist] teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh says one of the most rebellious things you can do is walk down the streets smiling.”

Hill appreciated Guerin’s chill attitude and how easy he was to be with. Hill complimented him once, saying, “’Dude, you are the coolest person. I

Also, by the time this issue hits the streets, Hill will have already released a new single, “A Dream of Old Friends,” again recorded with Guerin and Belote to keep the same aesthetic as Bayou St. John.

Life must be thrilling for Hill right now. He’s finally doing the things he has been inching towards all his life, ever since his father taught him to play guitar as a kid in Chicago. Hill started writing songs in seventh grade and never stopped. Before Natural Born Liar and Bayou St. John, Hill released four other albums.

Interestingly, he never considered himself a professional musician until moving to New Orleans. “I had day jobs, and I was always writing, but I wouldn’t consider myself a professional musician,” Hill says. Of course, he played in cover bands in high school and college but then slowed down to raise a family and work while playing the occasional gig. Still, Hill says it was “nothing sustained or organized.”

“I was making records, but I didn’t have a live show. I wouldn’t have known even how to do it, even if I had to do a 45-minute set just with me and my acoustic guitar,” Hill says. “See what I mean? New Orleans taught me how to have a live show and to perform.”

“This tour is only possible because of everything I learned right here in New Orleans from all the great people around me,” Hill says. O

SUSANNE ORTN E

’S MACUMBA

Saturday May 4 at 12 p.m.

Rhythmpourium Stage

Susanne Ortner From Germany to New Orleans to Brazil

BY JOHN WIRT

Susanne Ortner, a clarinetist from Germany who’s lived in New Orleans since 2017, makes her Jazz Fest debut. She’s performing with Susanne Ortner’s Macumba, a small ensemble that plays Brazilian choro music. A distinctive musical style that emerged from Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, choro is considered the father of samba and grandfather of bossa nova.

“There is so much virtuosity in choro melodies,” Ortner said. “It’s also kind of like a Chopin waltz, with many different parts, beautiful counterpoint and, most of all, different rhythms.”

Macumba features seven-string guitarist Salvador Avila; Filipe Leite playing pandeiro, a popular percussion instrument in Brazil that’s similar to tambourine; and Kevin Wakefield playing cavaquinho, a small four-string guitar from Portugal. The group’s name derives from an AfroBrazilian religion that blends African religions with Roman Catholicism and Brazilian spiritualism.

“We want to bewitch with our music,” Ortner explained of the name. “And there’s a bit of a New Orleans connection with voodoo.”

Prior to her passion for choro, Ortner played early jazz, classical music as well as klezmer music with the popular German group Sing Your Soul. Her fascination with choro grew shortly before the pandemic, so much so that she attended choro camps on the east and west coasts of the U.S. After the pandemic hit, she organized a Facebook group of choro players.

“I wanted to memorize one choro a week,” Ortner said. “Everybody thought that was crazy, but a lot of people joined the group, including Brazilian masters of choro. That was my lifesaver during the pandemic, because I had a community and I had something to do. That’s how I learned all this music in not too many years.”

A self-taught clarinetist whose parents discouraged her musical pursuits, Ortner dutifully earned a double degree in education and German literature from the University of Augsburg. She taught fifth through tenth grade in her homeland before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2006. In the U.S., Ortner collaborated with a Jewish native of Germany, Fritz Ottenheimer, in presentations to schools, churches and synagogues about the dangers of authoritarian regimes. In Pittsburgh, she also met and married a pianist who’d lived in New Orleans. After the marriage ended and Ottenheimer died, she made her move to New Orleans.

“I visited for years before I moved here,” the clarinetist said. “I did not know too much about New Orleans, but I had an idea about the general feel of the city. Of course, I love the music, and I already knew of so many people here. So, right away it felt so familiar.”

In April and May, Ortner’s many New Orleans gigs include Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Hotel Monteleone and Thursday mornings at the Court of 2 Sisters. O

Sunday, May 5, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 5:30pm

A Whole Lot of Funk

Tower of Power returns to Jazz Fest

BY BRETT MILANO

Fifty-six years makes for a whole lot of funk. And in Tower of Power’s case, a whole lot of people as well. More than 60 bandmembers have passed through the ranks in that time, but the soulful essence of the band has been consistent.

“We learned early on what our voice is, what our sound is. That’s the key for every major artist—you find your signature and you keep chipping away at the sculpture,” says founding member, tenor saxophonist and sometime lead singer Emilio Castillo. He and baritone saxophonist Doc Kupka have been in Tower of Power since the beginning, original drummer David Garibaldi is also aboard after bouncing in and out of the lineup a few times. Everyone else in the current ten-piece lineup joined since the turn of the millennium. “The guys coming in now have all cut their teeth on our sound and our style. So, we show them how it goes: ‘You play it this way, you clip the notes here.’ We put them through what we call Tower of Power 101.”

In 1968, it was a fine time to be a band in the Bay Area. The Fillmore scene was in full swing, and rock audiences were opening their ears to different kinds of music. “By the time we got to the

Fillmore, the psychedelic thing had been reigning for four years and it was beginning to die down. Bill Graham had tweaked everybody’s ears by having bills like Miles Davis with Jefferson Airplane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk with Quicksilver. People were doing lots of drugs, hearing something new and saying ‘Oh, this is cool.’ So, we walked in with our horn section, and we had a short Tasmanian Devil of a singer named Rufus Miller. When we hit the first lick on a James Brown song that we opened with, we saw that head bob out of the office, that was Bill Graham, and we knew we’d got it. He and [producer] David Rubinson had this label, San Francisco Records—famous people were trying to get on that label, and they took us.”

The sophomore album Bump City was their first for Warner Brothers, and the start of a heyday that lasted through the ’70s. Personnel changes were already a regular thing—each of the first three albums had a different lead singer—but there’s classic songs on every one of the Warners discs, from slinky funk (“What is Hip”) to radiofriendly soul ballads (“So Very Hard to Go”), to still-timely topical numbers (“Only So Much Oil in the Ground”). The side-long jam on “Let Yourself Go” (from the Warners live album, Live

and in Living Color) ranks as their hottest recorded moment.

“We had a good roll going there. I remember one night we were at a club called the Orphanage and we saw Boz Scaggs there—he was real drunk and he was sitting in the corner crying. And he said: ‘You guys keep coming up with all these songs, and I just can’t write them anymore.’ And I said to him, ‘Man, you’re just having a little slump. We just had one of those ourselves’. Then the next year he writes all the songs that were on [Scaggs’ biggest hit album] Silk Degrees.”

Around this time Tower of Power became the horn section of choice for just about everybody, and there was hardly a ’70s vinyl collection that didn’t have the ToP horns on it somewhere. “We never meant that to be our career. People think it was the main thing for us, but it was more like the cherry on the sundae. Tower of Power was the main thing for us—With the sessions you go in there, two hours and you’re done. It started when Nick Gravenites from Big Brother & the Holding Company called us one night, about this song ‘Funkie Jim’ that he wanted our horn section on. So, we went over and made up the part on the spot. Nick says thanks, and on the way out he puts some money into my hand. And I said: ‘What’s this for?’—I didn’t realize that you could make money that way.”

Most famously they played on a few tracks from Elton John’s Caribou including the two big hits, “The Bitch is Back” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” Elton himself had left the sessions by the time the horns were added, so they didn’t wind up meeting him for months afterward. “But he did an interview in Creem magazine where he said, ‘They not only sound great, they look great as well’. We took that quote and made sure people heard it.”

The record [ Santana III ] comes out literally one week later and the DJ’s are saying ‘Listen to those horns— That’s Tower of Power!’ And that’s what started it.

Suddenly billions of people are seeing our name on these albums, and we’ve got this whole other career going.

The party wound down at the end of the ’70s, when they left Warners and signed to CBS. A few good songs still appeared in this era—“You Ought to Be Havin’ Fun” did disco with a bit of style—but Castillo remembers this period as a general mess. “If you read the book Hit Men, you know what was going on—all these record companies were trying to outdo each other, trying to steal each other’s artists. There was a big cocaine thing happening, and [CBS head] Walter Yetnikoff just wanted to get us so he could piss off Mo and Joe [Mo Ostin and Joe Smith, who ran Warners]. So, he paid way more than they were offering, even though he didn’t really want us for our music. Meanwhile we’d gotten all this money and we wanted to please them, but after awhile they wouldn’t even let us record.”

That album, Big Brother’s first without Janis Joplin, was not a hit—but the next record they guested on was. “The same thing happens two months later, Carlos Santana calls us and says ‘Hey, I got this song called “Everybody’s Everything,” I think your horns would be great on it.’ We went there, threw on some parts. The record [Santana III] comes out literally one week later and the DJ’s are saying ‘Listen to those horns—That’s Tower of Power!’ And that’s what started it. Suddenly billions of people are seeing our name on these albums, and we’ve got this whole other career going. One thing we were good at was writing really spare charts, where the sound of their band could come through.”

Things got worse when they went back to Warners, at the behest of star producer Ted Templeman [of Doobies and Van Halen fame]. “We weren’t on our best behavior; they weren’t on theirs and it all wound up crashing. Ted was doing a ton of blow and drinking, and he was on the road with the Doobies because he and Nicolette Larson were having an affair. We were supposed to be recording and he wouldn’t answer our calls. One night I finally grabbed him by the shoulder, and he said ‘Man, I got a hole in my nose and my liver is all messed up. You go make a record yourselves and I’ll be the executive producer.’ But the label told him, ‘We only signed this band because of you’. So, in the eyes of the world, it looked like we’d messed up. But they wound up giving us all this money and never

even got a product.”

Drug issues and lack of hits continued to dog the band, but some influential fans also made their presence known. One was David Letterman, who had them on his show a dozen-plus times. Another was one of the newer guys from the Bay Area. “We were playing clubs, and I was seeing names like the Motels and Devo,” says Castillo with a bit of derision. “Then I see the name Huey Lewis & the News and I think, ‘Now that’s a cool band name, I’d like to hear them.’ Next thing I know we’re backstage and this guy is gushing all over me—‘Hey, my name’s Huey and I really love your band! I got this song you’ve got to play on!’ So, we become friends and he had us play on this song called ‘Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do.’ I was amazed that it was such a soulful song, a real Bobby Womack kind of thing.”

This led to a longstanding friendship, with the two bands touring together during the ’80s and ’90s. “Huey wanted to take the horns out, and I said we just couldn’t just leave the other guys. So, I said: “Okay, you have to promise a few things: You have to feature us prominently. You have to mention us onstage individually and collectively

and mention the band in every interview. And you’ve got to allow us to bring the full band out and do midnight shows, and you’ll come sit in with us.’ And he says, ‘Done.’ So, we’d go to New York and play to huge crowds, at Jones Beach And he’d say, ‘We’re all gonna be at the Bottom Line later tonight,’ and the place would be packed.”

The drug issues also got taken care of. “We had addiction issues that nearly cost us our career, to be real honest. Even during the years that were our heyday, we made every mistake known to man. I got sober in ’88, and Doc always tells people that I made his life a living hell for the next year, until he got sober too. By God’s grace we did it, and now we pray together.”

Though the band’s likely to make its 60th anniversary in 2028, they’ve got no plans in place for that. But they do plan to celebrate the end of this year with a Christmas album that’s already in the can, with some original tunes and funkified standards. And this year will mark their third visit to Jazz Fest. “It took us awhile to get booked, Quint used to think we didn’t fit in. But when we played the first time, I saw him wringing his hands and saying, ‘Man, what was I thinking?’” O

BFriday, April 26, Economy Hall Tent, 3:05pm TRIBUTE TO AL

HIRT

FEATURING WENDELL BRUNIOUS, DOYLE COOPER AND KEVIN RAY CLARK

Kevin Ray Clark talks about Al Hirt “Jumbo”

y all rights Al Hirt should be remembered as one of the New Orleans musical giants. He had the trifecta of serious jazz chops, mainstream pop success, and a larger-than-life personality. Yet his name is often missing from the roll call of local heroes, and the tunes he popularized (three Top 40 hits in 1964 alone) don’t come up in regular rotation.

As a friend and fan of Hirt’s, New Orleans Nightcrawlers trumpet man Kevin Ray Clark agrees that it’s long overdue. Clark will be one of three trumpeters, with Wendell Brunious and Doyle Cooper, who’ll be playing in this year’s tribute set—the first real salute that Hirt’s gotten at Jazz Fest since his second line (he died during Fest week in April 1999).

BY BRETT MILANO

“It’s like he’s gone off the radar, and your guess is good as mine on why that is,” Clark says. “And I’ll tell you, the idea of doing a tribute is terrifying. His technique is incredible and when you combine that with his musical skills, his timing, it’s all pretty amazing. He didn’t even think of himself as a jazz player, but just listen to him. I can think of him and play in the spirit, there are licks that I can do. But nobody can ever play like him. Believe me, I am going to play as great as I can. But if anyone is expecting us to match what he did, they better go to the Gentilly stage and watch somebody else.”

Clark befriended “Jumbo,” as Hirt was known, soon after he first came to New Orleans. At that time Hirt had a club on Bourbon Street, Clark

was playing with the Dukes of Dixieland. “He was someone that I immediately wanted to meet, and my buddy Tim Laughlin [also a Duke at that time] said ‘Let’s go see him.’ He’d do two sets a night, you’d go up to the top of the place for Al’s show—and everybody knows it’s impossible to get anybody upstairs for a jazz show in the Quarter. I’d go there once a week just to hang out, talk to him, ask stupid questions. That’s when I realized that he wasn’t competitive; he knew he was the best trumpet player and he’d done all the cutting

contests. Sure, he could have easily blown me off and said ‘Hey, I’m trying to rest here.’ But he would always have time for me.”

Maybe the problem with Hirt’s long-term reputation is his long spell of pop success. But it was an impressive one: He was in the nationwide Top Five with the Allen Toussaint tune “Java” during February 1964, the same month the Beatles made their Ed Sullivan debut. That was part of a string of RCA releases through the ’60s, that mixed up traditional jazz and outright easy listening, often on the same album. He even made a stab at funky guitar rock (You want a surprise, look up his 1974 single “Raw Sugar” on YouTube). While many of us love those bachelor-pad records, few would say they contain his greatest playing.

Clark doesn’t claim to be a fan of the pop hits, calling “Sugar Lips” the “corniest track ever.” But he notes that “He liked to sell records, he was in the music business. Pop instrumental hits were popular then, there were tons of those records coming out. I’d call it lounge jazz. Some of those albums were really subdued, not really showing his faculties. But I’d say that ‘Java’ is great as a musical piece, and I think he was very proud of it. He always talked about getting the Grammy Award for that—I got a Grammy with the Nightcrawlers and I know that it gives you credibility and makes your peers understand what you’re doing.

“I was on a plane once with Paul Ferrara, Al’s drummer. I was playing this recording of ‘Cornet Chop Suey,’ the Louis Armstrong tune, and Paul says ‘Is that Jumbo doing that? I’m playing on that one.’ So, I asked him how many takes they did, and he said, ‘One.’ Al walked into the studio, picked up his trumpet just casual and informal, and that’s what he did. Now, I defy anyone else to do that in one take. I recorded ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ later with the Dukes and stole his cadenza at the end, and it took me six takes.”

Maybe the problem with Hirt’s long-term reputation is his long spell of pop success. But it was an impressive one: He was in the nationwide Top Five with the Allen Toussaint tune “Java” during February 1964, the same month the Beatles made their Ed Sullivan debut.

Hirt’s later years in New Orleans were a bit bittersweet. He still played regularly and made a locally produced album, Al’s Bliss, with Dr. John and other notables. But he got hit with health issues that affected his mobility. “He had diabetes by then, but I never heard him complain about it, except to say something like ‘Man, this wheelchair sucks.’ But he’d still talk about music, about different restaurants he knew. I think that what affected him a lot was when Pee Wee Spitelera, his clarinet player died in 1985. Pee Wee was kind of his sidekick, he had incredible technique.” Clark wound up overseeing Hirt’s archive at his wife’s request; most of it was either donated or auctioned. But he did keep one of Hirt’s tuxedos, which he says he’ll wear onstage if he ever gets big enough.

“With most of his conversation around his hits, he always knew that he could play anything. He could play ‘Round Midnight,’ ‘Body & Soul,’ all those classic songs. And his chord analysis was really good—you look at his library, you’ll see where he’d write a suspended chord and a certain lick he wanted to play, and the recording would go way beyond that. His jazz vocabulary was just severe. He didn’t copy anybody; you never hear him and think it’s someone else. Miles loved him, he’s quoted as saying he loved the way Al played. And I never heard Al say anything about Miles.”

Clark points to one recording in particular.

But Clark remembers that Hirt’s jovial image was for real. “He was super fun to be around—He had a loud gravelly voice, talked with that Southern ‘yatty’ kind of thing. He reminds me of James Andrews in a way—his personality was right out there, he’d tell off-color jokes that were weird and great. He really didn’t give a fuck about anything. He made a bunch of money, he hung out at the Playboy mansion, he had a great family life. He owned restaurants and was really into sports, I believe he was part owner of the Saints for a while.” Indeed, Hirt came on board on the Saints in 1967 and played the 1975 Super Bowl half-time show with Pete Fountain; the high-spirited album Super Jazz came out of that. “Pete Fountain always used to say that Al lived three lifetimes in one.” O

LEGACY OF WAYNE SHORTER

FEATURING DANILO PÉREZ, JOHN PATITUCCI, BRIAN BLADE AND SPECIAL GUEST CHRIS POTTER

Saturday, May 4, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 5:30pm

Take A Chance

Brian Blade behind the drums

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

Shreveport, Louisiana native Brian Blade, who folks in New Orleans nonetheless like to call their own, is simply just a spirituallyattuned, monster drummer with a wonderfully infectious laugh. He will appropriately be at the drum kit at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage for the Legacy of Wayne Shorter set. Blade, who performed and recorded in the legendary saxophonist’s quartet from 2000 until Shorter’s death in 2023, will be joined with fellow quartet bandmates, pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and saxophonist Chris Potter.

The set will, of course, contain many of Shorter’s brilliant compositions and Blade readily admits there is a conflicted part of himself that doesn’t want to play Shorter’s music without him. “It’s weird,” he confesses. “Man, though the music has to be shared and carried on. That’s a comfort.”

As a youngster, Blade first played violin and soon drums in Shreveport’s Zion Baptist Church, where his father has been the pastor for the last 62 years. Blade came down to New Orleans to attend Loyola University and during this period was heard regularly on the jazz scene. Then as a much in demand drummer, he headed to New York and also spent time on the West Coast. Eleven years ago, Blade and his wife returned to Shreveport to be near their families.

“Whenever I’m home I’m there back in the [drum] seat like I’m 13,” says Blade who

continues to regularly play at the church and lift his voice from his position at the drums. He calls his vocal role a “congregational singer.” “It’s this unbroken thread in my life and I just thank God for it. Parishioners who saw me grow up are still there.”

Thinking back to his teens, Blade, 53, remembers the first three records he purchased were all centered around Shorter. “Talk about the shape of things to come,” he exclaims. “Wayne has always been there long before I met him. He was already speaking into my life.”

Initially, Shorter reached out to Blade when the drummer was playing in Los Angeles and the saxophonist called him and casually asked him if he would like to come over and play some music. Blade’s response to his long-time idol was “Of course!” “So, we played for a couple of

LEGACY OF WAYNE SHORTER

days while I was in town and then a year or two went by and he reaches out about a performance he was doing, and I did that with him and then maybe another year went by. He was searching for something, obviously. A lot of things converged, and the quartet came together in the late 1990s. We just hit the road and started making recordings. I’m like yeah, you know. He brought us in, and he wanted us to bring what we had to the table—like stepping out on the wire with him. ‘Take a chance,’ as he would say. I can’t express the depth of my gratitude and heart for Wayne for all he shared with us.”

In some regards, it could be considered that Shorter not only greatly inspired the musicians in his new quartet with his brilliance, spirituality and “take a chance” attitude, but they inspired him too. After years of using the voice of the soprano sax to express himself, Shorter returned to the tenor saxophone for which he was once most noted. He also revisited some of his great compositions as heard on the group’s first recording 2002’s Footprints Live!, which his exuberant fans and beyond joyfully embraced.

“He was hilarious—he was a riot of a man,” Blade declares laughing at the memories. “He was cinematic-minded so his improvising, his compositions, are very pictorial. Like he sees pictures and projects them when he plays,” adds the drummer, changing to the present tense in his description as if listening to Shorter in his head and soul. “There was humor in his music,” Blade continues. “He would keep the laughter on the edge of his lips no matter the circumstances. He found joy in life every day. He kept the light on.”

way in the quartet. By Patitucci observing the leader through the years, he was often able to indicate where Shorter was heading or wanted to head. “He was letting us in on the secrets,” says Blade.

Saxophonist Chris Potter, who is onboard at the Shorter tribute at Jazz Fest, performed at Wayne’s memorial at the Hollywood Bowl with Blade, Patitucci and Pérez that was hosted by piano legend Herbie Hancock. “The same folks who organized that wanted us to come to New Orleans,” says Blade, who had previously made dates with Potter, a tenor saxophonist. “We didn’t feel conflicted about that—loving Wayne was the prerequisite.”

“He was hilarious—he was a riot of a man. He was cinematic-minded so his improvising, his compositions, are very pictorial. Like he sees pictures and projects them when he plays. There was humor in his music. He would keep the laughter on the edge of his lips no matter the circumstances. He found joy in life every day. He kept the light on.”

The drummer continues to lead his group, the Brian Blade Fellowship that he established in 1997. The band performed at the Fest back in 2010 and retains many of its original members, including those with New Orleans ties such as pianist Jon Cowherd and the more recent addition of bassist Roland Guerin.

Blade finds that New Orleans rhythms continue to permeate his playing and compositions, mentioning inspirational drum greats like Johnny Vidacovich, Ernie Elly and David Lee. “It’s just always there.”

The drummer says playing in New Orleans at the Jazz Fest is “like stepping back into the river from where I came. There is no place else where I have such memories and groove and so much love for so many people. It’s my second home.”

Unfortunately for his Crescent City fans, the drummer rarely plays in New Orleans outside of his appearances at Jazz Fest.

Blade credits Patitucci’s experience with Shorter, playing and recording with the master in the 1980s for help guiding his and Pérez’s

“The distance between my corner of northwestern Louisiana and getting to the ‘country’ of New Orleans, well it might as well be Paris,” proclaims Blade, mentioning the six-hour drive to the city. Then, of course…he laughs. O

Sunday, April 28, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 1pm

Sunday, April 28, Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 4:15pm

Finding Something Epic

Béla

Fleck’s Bluegrass Heart

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

Trying something he’s never tried before is a passion for Béla Fleck. Trying something no one has tried before—on the banjo at least—is a calling. “Yeah, that’s my happy place,” he says, truly beaming on a video chat from his Nashville home. “To try to find something epic, or at least that I perceive as epic. Whether it’s epic or not, it’s enough to get me to feel like it’s worth going to work every day—if you call this work.”

Apparently, he doesn’t, based on the laugh he gives at the notion, leaning into the screen. “But I love to find something hard to do and it makes me feel I’m getting something important done. Yeah, for some reason I really care about this banjo thing and this music thing. And I know there are bigger fish to fry in the world, but for some reason this continues to excite me and make me feel life’s worth living. And finding challenges and things that haven’t been done, even in a little corner of the world like the banjo is very meaningful for me.”

Case in point: Fleck’s most recent album, Rhapsody in Blue, is built around a full performance of George Gershwin’s masterpiece with full orchestra, and Fleck taking over the central piano part on banjo with the feel of the full 88 keys on his five strings. “I really wanted to get whatever I could get out of the piano part that was playable and deliver it to an audience,” he says. “Not just barely playable but figure out a way to make it deliver. That was the job. It wasn’t to figure out a new way or play it like everybody would expect me to play it as bluegrass—play a bunch of bluegrass in there.”

His career is full of such cases in point. Born in that noted bluegrass hotbed of New York, Fleck, now 65, was turned on to the banjo by Earl Scruggs’ playing on The Beverly Hillbillies theme. By the mid-1970s he’d established himself as a prodigy and in 1981 was invited to join pioneering progressive bluegrass band the Newgrass Revival.

After that it’s hard to keep track. There’s his long-running jazz-fusion jam band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones; his Throw Down Your Heart albums and film exploring the African roots of the banjo; two concertos he’s composed for banjo and orchestra and a third for his banjo; Edgar Meyer’s bass and Zakir Hussain’s tabla, a duet teaming with jazz pianist Chick Corea (the final album from which, recorded not long before Corea’s death in early 2021, is to be released in May); and, oh yeah, various projects with clawhammer banjo ace Abigail Washburn, to whom he is married. That’s

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

just a sampling.

All told, through dozens of albums, he’s had 17 Grammy Awards from 39 nominations across bluegrass, country, jazz, instrumental and folk categories.

That said, his Jazz Fest set Sunday, April 28, will not be something he’s never tried. (He will also be doing a session on the Alison Miner Heritage Stage earlier that day with this writer interviewing and moderating). This will be rooted in his 2021 album My Bluegrass Heart, which as the title suggests, brings him back to his early days. But even there, he keeps it fresh and challenging for him and the band: Michael Cleveland on fiddle; Sierra Hull on mandolin; Bryan Sutton on guitar; Justin Moses on Dobro, fiddle and banjo; and Mark Schatz, with whom he’s been playing since busking days in the 1970s, on bass.

So no, he didn’t do Rhapsody in Blue as bluegrass. But on that album, he did, almost inevitably, do a variation, “Rhapsody in Bluegrass.” And he’s planning to play it at Fest. “If you’re going to call it ‘Rhapsody in Bluegrass’ it better not be a joke,” he says. “Or I guess it could be a joke, but I didn’t want it to be a joke. I wanted you to laugh but then go, ‘Oh! They really did it!’ And I think everybody really brought it. And I’m really proud of it, just as proud as I am of surviving the piano part with the orchestra.”

not know about. That’s become part of my way not only to satisfy myself by doing something new and exploring new things, but also try to find an audience that will follow me. And some people won’t. Some people like jazz and like hearing the banjo and jazz, but they don’t like bluegrass, and that’s okay. They don’t have to. But they might find there’s quite a lot to like about it. And they might even find that it has Black roots—if they give it a shot.

Some people like jazz and like hearing the banjo and jazz, but they don’t like bluegrass, and that’s okay. They don’t have to. But they might fi nd there’s quite a lot to like about it.

What’s the thread through all the different projects you’ve tackled? What’s your role? You hope to become a curator, eventually, that can find a bunch of people that like what you like and want to see what you come up with next. Oumou Sangaré, she’s a superstar, but a lot of people in my world never heard of her. Not only do I love her music, but I get to be the person that shows Oumou Sangaré to a whole world—either Flecktones fans who are into jam band music or jazz that maybe haven’t tuned into all the great world music artists from Mali. Or maybe they know me from playing with Chick Corea or the Flecktones or other things that I’ve done, and they don’t really know bluegrass.

So, when I do bluegrass, I can shine the light on the bright lights of bluegrass that they might

It seems you love walking on the edge, artistically. I don’t think I was thinking about that so much consciously until I went back and did this bluegrass record, and suddenly I knew what to do. And I wasn’t the only banjo player in a whole field. Maybe it’s egotistical, but maybe some of it’s true that when I go play with an orchestra, if there are any other banjo players who have done it before, you can count them on one hand. And generally, they haven’t made a major part of their career just simply because there wasn’t access. So generally, when I play with an orchestra, I’m the first banjo player they’ve had interaction with. So, I carry the weight and the pressure, but I also don’t know exactly how it’s going to work until I get there and figure it out. And even when I’ve got it all done and I’ve found something that works, that’s the best I can do for now with a concerto or Rhapsody or whatever, I’m still the odd duck. So, when I go back to bluegrass, then all of a sudden I realize I’m not the odd duck anymore. This is my home. And it’s very satisfying.

And that’s when I realize how out of place I am with Corea or [jazz pianist] Marcus Roberts or Dave Matthews or orchestras or Indian musicians like Zakir or Oumou Sangaré, because I’m trying to figure out, “What’s my role here? How am I going to do this? Oh, that doesn’t work. Oh, that kinda worked. Oh, I’ll do more of that.” And that’s a dialogue going on in my head. Sometimes I just play, and it works out better. But that sort of fear of the imposter syndrome can strike. That’s why I have a concerto called The Imposter. ’Cause I can be susceptible to that. I always buck up and do it. But sometimes it’s scary.

It’s not like you were coasting with My Bluegrass

BÉLA

Heart. No. I mean I was trying to do something new with it. But still it was an idiom. Expanding bluegrass is falling off a log for me. It’s just that I get to use all that stuff that I’ve been exposed to over the last 30 years that’s not bluegrass: I get to apply some of those ideas to a bluegrass band. And I have a lot of ideas because I haven’t done that much bluegrass in so long. It’s just very natural to me. “This will be just like that Malian song I know. Or let’s do some Indian rhythms here. This will be so cool, and it won’t be hard, guys.” I know naturally what’s going to work in bluegrass and I feel like I don’t have any doubt about that. Where this other stuff, like right now I’m working on a project with Antonio Sánchez, the drummer [of the Birdman film score fame], and Edmar Castañeda, he’s a harp player from Colombia. He’s a monster improviser, a jazzy musician. But it’s a world that I don’t know that much about which is what attracts me.

Your next album is special to you, the last release from your duo partnership with Chick Corea. For me as a wannabe jazz player to have gotten to record and had this relationship with him—and even better to have opened up some new ground near the end—because all this stuff we did was very near the end of his life. I feel like we had built a little nest for ourselves that we would always get together and climb into and play that music. Near the end I would say, ‘I’m going to bring a bunch of new tunes.’ And with Chick, he was always doing so much new stuff that when he’d come back to [our] project he’d be, “We’ll play the tunes. We’re just going to do this [on the road] for two weeks. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” But at some point, I was like, “Hey man, we need some new tunes.” And he was like, “Oh, okay.” So that last tour, that’s what we did. He showed up with some beautiful material. One of them is called “Remembrance,” and it’s the title of the album, and it sounds like it was written for New Orleans, honestly. We’ll see what the world thinks about the album, but I feel it shows some different sides to Chick Corea and I think that was in some ways one of the coolest things about our duo. I mean, I couldn’t hold a candle to him as a jazz musician. But I could prod him into doing some things he’d never done before. And he’d prod all kinds of stuff out of me. You know, he was Chick Corea! So, it’s another level.

What a great legacy to carry on. I just can’t believe it happened, honestly. But it did. And here’s proof! O

Nine Lives is Back

First full concert staging at the Civic in nine years

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

“Nine Lives,” the acclaimed book by the late journalist Dan Baum that tells the stories of nine New Orleansians and their families and communities in the years from 1964’s Hurricane Betsy through 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, may have even more than nine lives.

While the book is currently in development for a streaming television series, the elaborate musical project based on it by New Orleans singersongwriter Paul Sanchez and writer Colman deKay is set for its first full concert staging in, yes, nine years. That’s happening on April 29, the Monday between Jazz Fest weekends, at the Civic Theatre. The performance will feature many of the singers and musicians who were on the 2011 album, Nine Lives: A Musical Story of New Orleans, and were part of the first performances in with two nights at Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter.

a more conventional musical theater format.

Sanchez, who cites Jesus Christ Superstar as an inspiration for the approach he and deKay took, feared the work’s power would be diminished and today feels the resonance of the presentation has only grown.

“I think now even more than in 2011, so many people have experienced devastating hurricanes, storms, wildfires—the things that are happening with climate change—that the story of the loss of one’s entire landscape is powerful,” he says. “And then, of course, what evolves out of those stories becomes very much more familiar in a universal way.”

Among them are multiple Tony Award-winner (and leader of the New Orleans band Loose Cattle) Michael Cerveris, singing the role of transgender bar owner John/Joanne, the transgender saloon owner; Bryan Batt (“Mad Men”); Shamarr Allen; Debbie Davis; Tanya Boutté and Vance Vaucresson. Matt Perrine, who did the arrangements for the album and past productions, is also back leading the band. New performers include Cerveris’ Cattle pardner Kimberly Kaye.

The stories are told completely in songs with no linking dialogue. There was interest in developing it into a full Broadway-style presentation, but potential producers wanted to change it into

This production may be filmed for broadcast, though, looking ahead to next year’s 20-year anniversary of Katrina.

Its theme of perseverance and renewal is also played out on another front. For Sanchez, this will be the reemergence as a singer after six years of very limited vocal abilities due to dysphonia. He’d already given away the part of coroner Frank Minyard, which he’d sung originally, to Batt (who also sings the role of Rex king Billy Grace). Sanchez, though, has seized an opportunity, taking over the side role of George Montgomery, originally sung by Harry Shearer, who is occupied at the moment filming a new Spinal Tap sequel.

“I am so filled with gratitude right now to be able to sing again,” he says, citing multi-levels of therapy and some good ol’ patience. “I was told by so many people that it wasn’t doable and I sort of resigned myself to it. Told a lot of people I was cool with it. But I really wasn’t.” O

JERRY MORAN PHOTOGRAPH

Dan Baum, Paul Sanchez and Colman deKay

Thursday, April 25, Congo Square Stage, 5:45pm

The Mission of the Music

Stephen Marley’s Old Soul

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

Stephen Marley brings his “Old Soul Tour Unplugged” to New Orleans, featuring songs off his new album Old Soul, plus selections from his entire catalog, and Bob Marley classics. He’s a multi-Grammy winner as a solo artist, producer, and band member, as well as a key part, of course, of an iconic musical family.

On the title song “Old Soul” you use the songwriter trick of adding “so they say.” Others may say it, but have you always felt like an old soul? That “so they say” part kind of goes over their head. I’ve always been around my father’s peers and his friends right there in the mix as a young kid, so I’ve been called that. I don’t think in that way when I see myself. We’re all souls who keep going.

I believe this is your second acoustic album, the first being Mind Control Acoustic . Do all your songs begin on acoustic guitar or do you like the purity and rawness of a recording? I would say most of my songs start that way. The guitar is definitely a close friend of mine in that sense. We do a lot together. I like that vibe as well, the raw essence of creating from scratch.

You’ve been a key producer of major albums. What special something is brought to the table to pull out the best of such a wide array of musicians? I don’t think it’s something consciously. I come from a large family. Dealing with a lot of younger siblings growing up without a father figure, you have to be a big brother. It helps me in the studio in getting to the mission of the music that we’re making and how we get there. I think it’s more than just a personality, and people feel comfortable and confident with that.

What do you attribute to keeping the strong sense of timeless tradition with your songs while making them fresh for today’s ears?

The family—we are similar in terms of how we go about it. We are such big fans of music in general. We take influence from anywhere. We don’t run any hard line, or wire fences when it comes to music and what inspires us.

You’ve been to New Orleans several times. Any particular food you like to eat or thing to do? When in New Orleans you can feel the rich history, especially in music, in walking the streets and seeing the native folks. That’s what I love. I like to walk. Not necessarily going anywhere in particular. It is amazing to me.

I think most would say Stephen Marley is a man with accomplishments and is the son of a man with accomplishments. How do you see yourself? I’m just a part of the human family. God gave me a talent, and we use our talents to the best of our ability. Music to me has a responsibility regardless of the type of music. We take that very strongly. The integrity of what you put out there in the universe, what you’re saying, and all of these things combined. It’s the message. O

LEGACY OF WAYNE SHORTER

FEATURING DANILO PÉREZ, JOHN PATITUCCI, BRIAN BLADE AND SPECIAL GUEST CHRIS POTTER

Saturday, May 4, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 5:30pm

Danilo Pérez

Musician, Social Activist and Teacher

BY GERLADINE WYCKOFF

When we play together we feel Wayne is with us on the stage,” says Danilo Pérez of the late, legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. The pianist is speaking, of course, of fellow members of Shorter’s longtime quartet, himself, drummer Brian Blade and bassist John Patitucci who joined the master in the late 1990s and toured and recorded with him until his passing in 2023. As members of the Wayne Shorter’s Quartet, they will be at the core of a tribute series dubbed the Legacy of Wayne Shorter with various saxophonists coming in for the events. “We’re excited about it,” says Pérez. “We really wanted to spread his mission, spread the word. It’s like going to church.” At the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival they’ve enlisted saxophonist Chris Potter who they’ve all had previously had experience playing with.

Pérez, 58, was born in Panama and began studying music when he was just three-years-old. By the time he was 10, he was already attending Panama’s National Music Conservatory with a focus on classical music. He was encouraged greatly by his father, a teacher who wrote an early thesis on using music as a tool to teach other subjects in a curriculum. His father understood that the brain would never forget those lessons if taught in this manner.

Pérez, highly regarded as a superior pianist and composer, firmly relates that of equal importance to him is his work as a social activist dedicated to humanitarian and educational causes for the betterment of conditions, including in his homeland of Panama.

He came to the United States in 1985 to ultimately attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music which stands as one of his initial links to New Orleans, a city he loves, having met and performed with our own trumpet greats, Terence Blanchard and Wynton Marsalis with whom he would tour and record.

“Playing with Wynton, I found my way back to Panama,” says Pérez explaining that there has long been a relationship between Panama and New Orleans, economically, culturally and musically. “I feel part of that connection,” he adds, expressing how at home he feels in the city and admiring how much music is a part of life here.

Pérez was hugely influenced both musically and philosophically by becoming a member (the youngest member) of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, performing with the ensemble from 1989 until Gillespie’s passing in 1992. One of the lessons he learned to understand was that jazz could be used as a tool of diplomacy. “He would say, ‘We can create a cultural passport through music in order to bring people together.’”

Of course, becoming a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet was another life-changing event for Pérez who was enjoying a successful career as a leader, recording and commissioned artist and active sideman. The pianist remarks on the similarities shared by Gillespie and Shorter in their spiritual outlooks and senses of humor. They are qualities for which both legends were widely noted.

LEGACY OF WAYNE SHORTER

“The common denominator was a belief in a divine energy,” says Pérez. “They believed in humanity. They believe in transformation and using joy to transform negativity to positivity. They have fun in life because life is having fun with us. They fight for joy.”

“Wayne encouraged us to play our dreams,” Pérez continues. “He would tell us, ‘Let’s create a fairy tale, let’s create a fantasy.’ Dizzy was like that too.” Pérez remembers that in a similar vein Gillespie instructed him to take one finger at a time and put it on the piano then listen to the sound. “It’s another way to say, use your imagination—jazz is imagination.”

Pérez has employed these great wise men’s instructions as a teacher and the founder of the Panama Jazz Festival that is now in its 22nd year. “We’ve reached more than 40,000 people and awarded five million dollars in scholarships,” says Pérez while reminding us, the country’s jazz tradition having been the birthplace of greats like drummer Billy Cobham and saxophonist Eric Dolphy.

In 2009, Pérez became founder and artistic director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. He designed a curriculum for it that would reflect the embrace of the commonality shared by jazz and the belief in and fight for humanitarian causes. “It’s what defines us as humans that we have music in our lives,” Pérez offers.

“I’m a musician, social activist and teacher—I wear many hats,” says Pérez adding that he once told Shorter that he struggles sometimes. “Wayne said, “But you don’t have to struggle, you have to unify the work. Play and write music that you want to be like— like you want the world to be like.”

Pérez naturally has high praise for his fellow Shorter quartet bandmates with whom the pianist has played with for over two decades. He describes Brian Blade as one of the most brilliant musicians he’s ever met. “We play music to create unity, music to be interactive, music to reflect the way we talk to each other.”

“With John I have been able to explore a lot of different things on the piano and orchestration,” he says of Brooklyn-born bassist John Patitucci. “There are so many colors in his playing—an Afrocentric connection, global jazz, or he can go into a groove. In the quartet I feel like many times he was very much the person to anchor us. We all connect in so many ways that we are like little kids on the stage.

“We have deep gratitude for the experience with Wayne because he inspired us to use the creative process in all aspects of our lives. He was like a father figure to me. He got me to see that I needed to get married for example,” Pérez says with a laugh. O

Thursday, May 2, Festival Stage, 5pm

A Personal Essay: The Rolling Stones

BY CREE MCCREE

Mick Jagger taught me how to dance, as anyone who saw me strut my stuff on the dance floor in my prime can attest. Like many other smalltown Yankees in the ’60s, I was first introduced to the blues by the Rolling Stones, who mined the motherlode of music by Black artists from the deep south and its northern outpost in Chicago by listening to “race records” far more available in England than in Jim Crow America.

The first time I heard the Stones, in 1965, I was “driving in my car,” just like Mick was doing in “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” the Stones’ first U.S. hit. And what came blasting over WWOW radio in Conneaut, Ohio, was Keith’s downand-dirty riff—dun dun dun da da da da dun dun—which went straight to my groin. And I was hooked.

The Stones dug deeper into the blues than most of their fellow British Invaders, pitting their bad-boy cockiness against The Beatles’ SFW teeny-bopper appeal. They recorded tracks by real-deal heavyweights like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, who they also introduced to U.S. audiences on their tours. And though it wasn’t

until years later, after I moved to New Orleans, that I heard Soul Queen Irma Thomas sing her original R&B chart-topping version of “Time Is On My Side”—I vividly recall blasting the Stones’ cover of “Time” to ease my pain after a high school crush dumped me and wailing “Time, time, time is on my side” while I preened and postured like Mick.

I first saw the Stones live at their legendary free concert in London’s Hyde Park in 1969, two days after Brian Jones died, when Mick released hundreds of white butterflies in his honor and introduced Mick Taylor as their new guitarist. (Years later, after Taylor left the Stones and moved to New York to be simply a bluesman, I became the first journalist to write about his journey).

Over the course of the next few decades, I watched the Stones repeatedly earn their title as the world’s great live rock band. Even though I knew it was coming, I was still thrilled by the sight of two giant inflatable goddesses blowing up to flank the stage during “Honky Tonk Women” on their 1989 Steel Wheels tour. At that and other metro New York shows, I was lucky enough to score backstage passes. They weren’t inner

THE

sanctum backstage, like my old friend Pamela Des Barres had when Mick was vying with Jimmy Page for her affections. But they allowed me and my Stones buddy Linda Kelly to mingle with the likes of Iggy Pop (who Linda beat in pool, twice), and they came with VIP seating right in front.

But the Stones show that lives most vividly in my memory was in Denver in 1972. It was their first U.S. tour since their calamitous 1969 free concert at Altamont, where “Sympathy for the Devil” and his Hell’s Angels henchmen cast a dark shadow over the end of the ’60s. Exile on Main Street had just come out, the band was at the top of its game, and my friends and I snagged prime ninth row tickets after driving in from Boulder and waiting in line all night. I can still hear the crack of Mick’s belt whipping the stage during “Midnight Rambler,” just a couple hundred yards from where I was sitting and having an almost orgasmic absolution of my own pain singing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at the top of my off-key lungs.

This year, knock wood, we can get what we want. After trying and failing twice to play Jazz Fest—first due to Mick’s heart problems, then

to the pandemic—the Stones will finally make the Fair Grounds, the second stop on a tour promoting Hackney Diamonds, their first album of originals in 18 years. And boy, is it a rager.

Hackney Diamonds benefits from an infusion of new blood. Lady Gaga trades vocal licks with Mick on the epic gospelizer “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” which capstones the album. It also circles back to basics on the bad-ass Muddy Waters’ closer that gave the Rolling Stones their name. So, if, like me, you rushed online to score tickets to the Stones’ long delayed Jazz Fest debut, you will not regret spending a premium (though not by Stones standards) price.

When all the other Fair Grounds stages close down at 4 p.m., and the band hits the Acura Stage—where we’ll be as close to the Stones as I was in Denver in ’72—they’re sure to dig deep into more than a half-century’s worth of hits. While I’m super-psyched about reliving my past with “Satisfaction,” “Let It Bleed,” and “HonkyTonk Women,” I’m almost as excited to hear “Angry,” “Bite My Head Off,” “Tell Me Straight” and other Hackney faves, And that’s saying a helluva lot. O

Thursday, April 25, Gospel Tent presented by Morris Bart, 1pm

Sharing Gospel’s Joy

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

In Louisiana, musical families prevail throughout many genres and enjoy the inclusion of multiple generations in their harmonic journeys. Gospel music is, of course, no exception. Two outstanding examples performing in the Gospel Tent at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, as they’ve done for many years, are the Dynamic Smooth Family and The Bester Singers. They played individual sets, and for years and since 2010, have been sharing a set with each group doing their own thing and coming together for an always-invigorating finale.

“It originated from my mom, the late evangelist Rosa Lee Smooth,” says Cynthia Plummer, the pastor of the I Am Covered Ministries, of the formation of the Dynamic Smooth Family. “She believed a family that prays together stays together.” With that inspiration they began singing as a family ensemble and have continued the legacy for over 30 years.

At the start, the group included Plummer and

her husband, guitarist LC Plummer, her mother and father, her two brothers and a sister. As time went on, the membership of the Dynamic Smooth Family evolved and grew, adding spouses and eventually younger members, nieces, nephews and friends.

The Bester Singers’ history extends even further back. This April the group will celebrate its 48th anniversary. It all began with Edna and Willie Bester (a guitarist) who were pastors at the New Orleans Holy Temple Church of God that later moved to Slidell, Louisiana.

“Their children and grandkids started it,” explains Stanley Williams, the energetic lead vocalist and business manager of the ensemble. “We’re keeping it all in the family—we’re in our fourth generation. It was all ladies, I was the only guy when we first came out,” says Williams, who can also be heard singing with the Electrifying Crown Seekers since the passing of its leader, James Williams Sr. and for the last three years with the gospel ensemble Joyful. Oh, by the way,

Dynamic Smooth Family

you can easily identify Stanley whoever he’s working with because whenever he sings, he kicks off his shoes. Yeah, as the Robert Parker song goes, barefootin’. Or think of Gladys Knight.

Presenting two separate groups during one time slot at Jazz Fest is an oddity. Musicians from various bands might perform together particularly for a “tribute” show or sit in for a couple of tunes with a musical associate. Sharing a set, however, works naturally for these family gospel groups who are both based in Slidell. They each have their own bands and the age ranges of their members are similar: Smooth Family 73 to 28; Bester Singers 69 to 23. Perhaps more importantly, they are stylistically compatible as they praise in a traditional gospel style.

“It can be fun sharing the stage,” says Plummer with enthusiasm. “We’re not that different so that’s why we can perform together.”

“We all have history with each other, for years and years,” offers Williams who describes The Bester Singers as a “down home, smack your hips, stomp your feet” group. He particularly enjoys it when the two ensembles come together at the end of the show, often performing the tune “Stomp the Devil” with everyone dancing. “We just work so well together. When I was growing up, I used to help the Smooth Family.”

Spirit bring the conviction. We would sing a song with people in front of us with their beer in the air and moving to the beat and we just start laughing to see it happen. But yet, they still get to hear about Jesus.”

On the other hand, an aunt and missionary in the church who had taken over The Bester Singers “came up strict” as Williams puts it, and believed that drinking and church didn’t mix. “I convinced them to go on Jazz Fest—and she loved it,” Williams remembers.

These days, most gospel ensembles are eager to play in the Gospel Tent that in some cases has led to invitations to appear at other events around the country and overseas. Italy’s Umbria Jazz Festival founder and artistic director Carlo Pagnotta “discovered” the Zion Harmonizers, befriended Sherman Washington and in 1988 invited the group to perform at his festival in Perugia as well as an evening at the famous Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Imagine the thrill for Washington and the Harmonizers at the historic site among the robed friars.

“We do what we do, we let the Holy Spirit bring the conviction. We would sing a song with people in front of us with their beer in the air

and moving to the beat and we just start laughing to see it happen. But yet, they still get to hear about Jesus.”

In the early years of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival many gospel groups and choirs were hesitant to perform at the event or, for that matter, beyond the scope of the church or church functions such as anniversary celebratory concerts. The hitch was generally that attendees at the Fest would be a beer-drinking crowd.

The late, much beloved Sherman Washington, the leader of the iconic Zion Harmonizers, was enlisted to hire gospel performers for Jazz Fest with responses being both positive, though sometimes negative, despite his status as a muchrespected, God-loving and honest man.

The Dynamic Smooth Family was quick to jump on the invitation. “We are like this,” says Plummer. “We do what we do, we let the Holy

Performing in the Gospel Tent at Jazz Fest can raise gospel groups’ and choirs’ profiles and reputations. Though not directly credited to the Fest, the Dynamic Smooth Family travels nationally and to Canada and The Bester Singers do promotional showcases for the highly acclaimed gospel label Malaco Records.

In itself, the experience of performing at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage remains a much looked forward to event for both the Dynamic Smooth Family and The Bester Singers.

“I love reaching out to people because you never know how someone’s day is going,” Williams sincerely offers. “Through my singing I feel I can touch somebody and help someone— music is the best language.” He’s also glad to have Rosalie Washington, the “Tambourine Lady” join the set. “She’s a trademark of Jazz Fest.”

“It’s an excitement for us but we still represent Jesus,” Plummer explains. “We still let the people know that it’s all about Him. That’s why we’re in the Gospel Tent.” O

Quite A Ride

Samara Joy, the new Ella Fitzgerald

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

Oh man,” Samara Joy sighs, pulling her hair back, her eyes widening behind a pair of glasses. “Um, it’s been quite a ride.”

She’s talking on Zoom from her Bronx home, looking back over the last year or so. “I did a lot of gigs,” she says, laughing. “That’s all I could say. I did a lot of gigs. I got the chance to have three bands for a second, which was cool. You get the chance to explore on the spot. We have my octet, gone overseas three or four times. I have my trio. I toured with my family for the month of December. And these past couple of weeks I’ve been recording for my next project.”

That’s hardly all of it. She’s had TV appearances, special events, guest spots. But that’s what happens when you’re the hot jazz vocal arrival of the last good while, winning the 2023 Grammy for Best New Artist—unheard of for a jazz artist—and Best Jazz Vocal album for her major label debut, Linger Awhile. She won another this year, Best Jazz Performance for her version of Betty Carter’s frisky “Tight.” She’s become the go-to for classic-style jazz singing, her vocals astonishing for both her elegant tone, expansive range and remarkable agility. The “new Ella Fitzgerald,” she’s been called, not unreasonably.

That, though, is just what she’s seeking to move beyond with all this work she’s doing, particularly with the octet. “I’m really excited about this next project,” she says. “And I think that, hopefully, it can kind of reestablish or maybe redefine the singer’s role in a band.”

She laughs again, recognizing the weight of that statement, before elaborating. “Usually the vocalist sings, maybe then scats a little bit, and

then the band plays and then you come back in and complete the song.” Another laugh. “Whereas in this band I’m singing solo sections with them, I’m singing backgrounds with them—not scatting, but I am improvising and like vocalizing over the chord changes to a song,” she says. “I think, hopefully, people can hear from this music and the music that we’re going to present live, like I’m part of the band, an integral part of the band, not just out front while the band does their thing Saturday, May

4, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 4:10pm

and makes music behind me, but we’re all making music together.”

This, she says, is what will be seen and heard at Jazz Fest, as she headlines the Jazz Tent on May 4, the slot itself evidence of her quick rise. The Bronx native’s first, indie-label album, was recorded while she was a student in the State University of New York Purchase’s jazz studies program and soon, having won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2019, she was signed by prestigious Verve Records. She was still a student when she recorded Linger Awhile, with its stellar performances on a heady mix of standards (“Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Lush Life”) and jazz deep-dive treasures, as well as a couple of songs for which she wrote words to frenetic old be-bop solos, à la the “vocalese” approach of Jon Hendricks from the ’50s and ’60s. It was released a year and a half ago, just a few months after her graduation. She’s still only 24.

It’s a lot, but she is certainly not resting on her laurels. To that end, she’s found role models in a couple of respected figures from past generations of jazz women. “My main inspiration recently is Abby Lincoln,” she says. “As well as Betty Carter. Because whenever you think of them and think about the kind of repertoire that they do, and the kind of bands they play in, they’re not only the leader, but they’re very integral to the music that’s being made and written. And they do sing some standards, but I love their original compositions as well, because you really get to hear their voices through the music that they’re doing, the topics they want to address. And how they would go about it without necessarily imitating anybody, their authentic artistry being presented. So, I would say they’re my inspiration.”

sharing it. “Exactly,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I want to reject any sort of superstar…”

She laughs again simply for having used that word. “… mentality, where I’m the kind of figurehead or like the star being pushed out into the front,” she says. “Because there’s a whole community behind this. I can’t say I’m saving it, I’m the chosen one. It’s just not the nature of what this music is, you know?”

This comes from her history with her musical family. She grew up in a gospel household, her grandparents Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon having founded the popular Philadelphia group the Savettes and her father, Antonio McLendon, having played bass for gospel star Andraé Crouch for many years. Her grandfather and father, along with an uncle and two cousins, joined her on her holiday EP, A Joyful Holiday, released in December, and all but the grandfather joined her on a McLendon Family tour that included a show at New Orleans’ Orpheum Theatre.

“I want to be surrounded by artists who are better than me and who have something to say, who are like-minded in that way where we’re not necessarily here to make a statement that we are changing all this, revolutionizing it or anything, but we’re adding our voice to it. And maybe that’s one of the most powerful things you can do, to be brave enough to do that.”

“Community effort,” she says of the essence of that upbringing and the continued family closeness. “And I guess as the saying goes, if you’re the smartest person in the room, or the most creative in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

Well, that’s ambitious. “Yeah,” she agrees. But she’s also conscious of getting a swollen head. She loves the spotlight, but even more she loves

The room she’s been in lately is notable, the Rudy Van Gelder studio in New Jersey, where countless of the most revered recording jazz sessions have taken place for decades. And the people she’s brought in with her are equal to that legacy, including recently with bassist Ron Carter and another with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Billy Hart—all supreme jazz giants. The octet she’s working with and which will be with her at Jazz Fest is also top-flight, if lesser-known names, with pianist Connor Rohrer, bassist Paul Sikivie, drummer Evan Sherman and a brass foursome of Kendric McCallister on tenor sax, Jason Charos on trumpet, David Mason on alto

sax and Don Austin on trombone.

“I want to be surrounded by artists who are better than me and who have something to say, who are like-minded in that way where we’re not necessarily here to make a statement that we are changing all this, revolutionizing it or anything, but we’re adding our voice to it. And maybe that’s one of the most powerful things you can do, to be brave enough to do that.”

One place where she is moving ahead as well is in writing, and not the “vocalese” approach, but a more ground-up process involving the whole band. “The thing I really do love about this band is everyone is a writer, everybody’s a composer, everybody’s an arranger,” she says. “So, I have an original song that they arranged. I have lyrics that I’ve written to other songs that they’ve arranged. I have original compositions by them that they’ve written lyrics to that we get to sing.”

Related is a new collaboration with New Orleans’ own P.J. Morton on the song “Why I’m Here,” from the movie Shirley, starring Regina King as groundbreaking politician Shirley Chisholm. Joy’s lyrics capture the fortitude of Chisholm as she undertook the first-ever major

party presidential campaign by a Black woman in 1972, but also reflect Joy’s own sense of determination. And Morton’s music takes her away from jazz forms and into inspirational, anthemic gospel-soul. She loved the experience.

“Hopefully people don’t think that it’s like ‘now she gets to do what she really wants to do’,” she says. “Music is music. I love singing. I love songs. I love expressing myself through song. And whether that’s in the form of a gospel-soul original song with P.J. Morton or a jazz composition, I’m going to do my best to express and interpret it, and hopefully people can feel it and enjoy it.”

Meanwhile, she’s looking forward to enjoying a little time in New Orleans. The family show at the Orpheum was not just her first concert in the city, but her first visit. She has a particularly fond memory of boudin egg rolls and eagerly solicits suggestions for Fest food, just as excited about expanding her culinary horizons as her musical ones.

“Cochon de lait?” she repeats, picking up a notebook, her eyes widening again. “How do you spell that?” O

NITTY GRIT T Y DIRT BAND

Saturday, April 27, Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 5:45pm

Farewell Tour

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jazz Fest debut

BY BRETT MILANO

When you’ve been a band for 58 years and played a key role in countryrock history, you’re entitled to a long goodbye. So it is that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is playing Jazz Fest toward the start of its farewell tour, but they don’t intend to wrap it up right away.

“We don’t want to be limping to the finish line here,” says frontman Jeff Hanna, who is one of two founding members (with drummer/harmonica player Jimmie Fadden) still in the lineup. The other long-timer, keyboardist Bob Carpenter, has been there since 1979.

“The idea of a farewell tour came up a year ago, and we wanted to do it while we were still healthy, and the band was sounding great. It’s really rocking now we’ve got a couple of young guys including my son [Jaime Hanna on guitar and vocals].

“But the other component is that we’re not breaking up, we’re just getting off the road. We love playing music, so not doing that is going to be an adjustment. But the phase of jumping on the bus, going across the world is getting tougher at this time in our lives. So, we’re looking forward to seeing the folks one more time, and this is going to go on for the next couple of years.” This will be the band’s Jazz Fest debut, following a Superdome appearance with Garth Brooks last fall. “It’s always been a bucket list gig for us,” Hanna says.

some very different phases along the way. But they began with a foot in the hippie world, doing psychedelic-tinged jug band music. Indeed, their first three albums would probably raise eyebrows among the fans who’ve come to know them as a more straightforward country band.

The Dirt Band’s career is a unique one, with

“It was pretty much a lark, and I don’t think any of us expected to still be doing it after 58 years. After high school I went off to Long Branch Community College, and a few of us would be cutting classes, playing songs in my mom’s garage. There was a club in Orange County called the Paradox; we played their talent show and won it, so that gave us a headlining gig for a weekend.” One

original member who left before the first album was Jackson Browne, though the early Dirt Band were among the first to record his songs.

That first album had a gem of a hit single, “Buy for Me the Rain,” which they’ve only lately added back into their set. Though the song did well on the East and West Coast, in Middle America it was likely the first record ever to be banned because of its B-side. That was the blues tune “Candy Man,” one of whose lyrics—“I’d do anything in this God almighty world”—was deemed to be blasphemous, despite its being written by the Rev. Gary Davis. “That was part of a sweeping ban by a guy that owned a bunch of radio stations through the Midwest and the South. He came home one night, and his daughter was playing the Rolling Stones’ ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together,’ and he didn’t take well to that. So, he banned us, Mitch Ryder’s’ ‘Devil With a Blue Dress,’ quite a few others. We didn’t mind, at least we were in good company.”

The band regrouped at the end of the ’60s, following Hanna’s stint in Linda Ronstadt’s touring band. This era was pretty much Ground Zero for the country-rock movement, and the Dirt Band’s first major contribution was 1970’s Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy. Along with their biggest hit, Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles,” the album marked the vinyl debut of Michael Nesmith’s classic “Some of Shelly’s Blues” (carried over from Hanna’s time with Ronstadt) and three songs by Kenny Loggins, before he’d teamed with Jim Messina.

that folksy-rootsy banner. And that coincided with a kid named Jimmy Ibbotson coming into the band. We bonded immediately over our love for people like the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly.” (Ibbotson stayed aboard until 2004).

During those years Dirt Band albums became more like movies, with fold-out covers, conceptual themes and spoken interludes. Hanna says that was largely the influence of their manager and producer Bill McEuen, whose brother John was their longtime banjo player. “He had a great ear for those things. I honestly think it was a bit of a tug of war for him, whether to do music or movies.”

“Having Earl Scruggs there was such a huge thing, and since three of us were lead guitarists, we all admired Doc Watson. We were standing in some tall cotton, but it was a ball—We were hanging on for dear life, but the ride was thrilling.”

Meanwhile Bill McEuen was managing another banjo player, and this one also did standup comedy. And sure enough, the Dirt Band became the backing group on Steve Martin’s hit single, “King Tut.” Recalls Hanna, “We did it live in the studio, with Steve standing in front of me doing this hilarious ‘wild and crazy’ guy schtick. So, he takes that to Mo Ostin at Warner Brothers and said “Okay, let’s go into the studio and cut this for real.”

And Mo says, “What are you talking about—that’s the record, let’s master this thing!” It came out that way, and it’s still the only gold 45 rpm record I have on my wall. You’d think there’d be one for ‘Bojangles’ but sometimes you need to audit those record labels.”

“That era was kind of country-rock high school,” Hanna says. “When we moved out of Long Beach and into Hollywood, we spent our time gigging at places like the Ash Grove and the Troubadour. We’d see people like the future Eagles, and there was a scene going on with the Burrito Brothers and Poco. I don’t think most of us realized that the music going on at these little folk clubs was going to make such an impression. If we had a mission, it went back to our days as a jug band. A lot of the music of that time was like the Doors and the Turtles, and we wanted to wave

That ’70s era peaked with a landmark album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, on which the young Dirt Band played with a roomful of country and bluegrass legends—Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter and Doc Watson among them. “When we were doing it, we were mainly focused on not screwing up, being in the studio with all these folks we idolized so much. Having Earl Scruggs there was such a huge thing, and since three of us were lead guitarists, we all admired Doc Watson. We were standing in some tall cotton, but it was a ball—We were hanging on for dear life, but the ride was thrilling. It was really college radio that broke that album, and we were hearing of people that grew up with rock ‘n’ roll that got their first exposure to country music

from it. We were super proud of that.”

The album spawned a couple of sequel volumes, and they have entertained the idea of doing a modern version with younger players as guests. “The toughest part would be, who don’t you invite? We’d have to make it a 19-record set.”

The success of Circle was also what got the band accepted in Nashville, leading to their next incarnation as a more mainstream country band (with their name temporarily shortened to the more respectable Dirt Band). And 1980 brought another hit, “An American Dream,” written by a then-unknown Rodney Crowell and featuring Linda Ronstadt’s harmonies; it could have passed for a Jimmy Buffett record of the time.

“Because of Circle, we already had the backstage pass when it came to country radio. And it so happened that our kind of music was not on pop radio at the time. But we knew people like Buffett, Dan Fogelberg—and a band like Alabama, who to us sounded a lot like the Dirt Band. So, we came to Nashville to make a mainstream country record, which wasn’t that drastically different from what we were doing in

Colorado a couple of years before.” They wound up having a few big country hits that didn’t cross over into pop—notably 1987’s “Fishing in the Dark” whose author, Jim Photoglo, became the Dirt Band’s bassist 30 years later.

Finally, we’ll bring up an obscure corner of the band’s history: They had a role in Clint Eastwood’s first, last and only musical, Paint Your Wagon (1969). For their three-minute appearance performing one song, the Dirt Band were on location for three months—no wonder it was one of the most expensive movies made to that point [Though not a flop, the movie never broke even]. “We got a pretty remarkable education in how they made movies. The interesting thing is that it had Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin and Jean Seberg, three amazing dramatic actors—and somehow, they were all in a musical. But we sure weren’t writing the checks. The funny thing is that my wife and I were just watching this Netflix series (The Ofer) about the making of The Godfather, and they were talking about how Paint Your Wagon broke the studio. And I said to my wife, ‘Of course it did—the Dirt Band were in it.’” O

THE NEW ORLEANS NIGHTCRAWLERS

Thursday, April 25, Shell Gentilly Stage, 1:45pm

From Tragedy to Triumph

The New Orleans Nightcrawlers Make 30 Years

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

It’s been a bittersweet year so far for groundbreaking band The New Orleans Nightcrawlers, a true all-star group. Though they didn’t win their second Grammy this year, it was still an honor to be nominated on their 30th anniversary. The untimely loss of Kerry “Fatman” Hunter, a longtime member of the Nightcrawlers on the snare drum, hit them particularly hard. Cayetano “Tanio” Hingle was his partner on the bass drum ever since the two of them were barely into grade school. The blessing is that the sunrise and new day on this tragedy is the most natural and vibrant thing that could have happened. Tanio and trombonist Craig Klein talk about it all.

You immediately sang the praises of drummer Remi Evans who played with you at the Jazz Museum fundraiser. Who is this?

Klein: Remi is Fatman’s 14-year-old great-niece.

When she played with us, we were floored.

Tanio: I already knew what she was going to do. That’s why I told her, “Come on, you’re playing with us.”

Klein: We were wondering what we were going to do without Fatman.

More on that in a moment, but first, the name Nightcrawlers is fitting for New Orleans. It seems like there must be a story too.

Klein: When we started, we didn’t have a name for the band. It began with Matt Perrine, Kevin Clark and Tom McDermott. I think McDermott had written an arrangement or two for Dirty Dozen. They didn’t use all of the arrangements he wrote, and he wanted to hear them played, so they said “Let’s call some friends up, get together, and go over music.” We met at the Union Hall. No motive, no intentions or anything. At some point we said let’s make a record. We did it at the

THE NEW ORLEANS NIGHTCRAWLERS

Toulouse Theater—it was the Toulouse Cabaret then. Jimmy Maxwell was the owner, and he let us use it during the day. We show up at 10 a.m., the engineer had all the mics set up, and the manager of the club said, “What are y’all doing here this early? Y’all are nightcrawlers.”

By 1996, your first album was released through Rounder Records. After a few years, what made you think of Fatman and Tanio?

Klein: I had already known Tanio and Fatman from when they were 15 or 16 years old. You see people around. I hung around the Treme a lot because I knew that was Ground Zero.

Tanio, the two of you were a power duo, like two parts of the same heartbeat.

Tanio: Teams come up in brass bands. The Olympia Brass Band had Nowell Glass and [Leroy] “Boogie” Breaux. Like Benny Jones and Uncle Lionel. It’s combinations of being together, wanting to play this music, and having the love.

I’ve heard that you two began playing together as babies basically.

Tanio: We started as seven-yearold kids. We’d walk over to the school to be the ones to get the drums every day. He said, “You have to get there early.” You’ve been late, so 6 or 7 a.m. in the morning, I’d go by Fatman’s house. Before you know it, we were like peanut butter and jelly.

write most of the tunes. We all bring a song in. We cover some things, but when we do, we like to twist it up a little bit.

How did the Nightcrawlers end up on The Simpsons [Episode 635 from April 2018]?

Klein: David Silverman is one of the animators for The Simpsons. He’s a tuba player too and loves New Orleans. When they did the New Orleans show, he said “I want to put the Nightcrawlers in it.” He’s a big fan. My kids thought that was the greatest thing that I’ve ever done.

Tanio: They did a sketch off a picture, because everybody looked pretty good.

Teams come up in brass bands. The Olympia Brass Band had Nowell Glass and [Leroy] “Boogie” Breaux. Like Benny Jones and Uncle Lionel. It’s combinations of being together, wanting to play this music, and having the love.

Fast forward decades, if the drummer is the captain of the ship, what does the Nightcrawlers ship look like to you?

Tanio: You better pay attention, or you’ll be lost. Fat always said, “These are players right here. We should have been playing with some horn players like this. There’s a whole different style of music when I’m playing with the Nightcrawlers.”

Klein: I know the music is pretty adventurous with the structure and the harmonic knowledge that we put into it, mixed with the rhythms that Tanio and Fatman put into it. A great combination. We thoroughly compose. We really think about our music and put a lot of work into it. The music is different than any other brass band. Matt Perrine, Brent Rose, and Jason Mingledorff

Klein: Lisa loses her mojo. She couldn’t play. Couldn’t get the sound out. She comes into New Orleans trying to figure it out and got her sound back when she got on stage with us.

Tanio: Got her groove!

What do you see for the future of the Nightcrawlers?

Tanio: Remi will bring more spirit to uplift the band like Fatman. I know this. I found my drummer. She comes out of Roots of Music. I had her in drum class at Preservation Hall when she was four years old. Bass drum. About a month after that, Fatman called me up and said, “Remi sounds good on bass drum. Now I have to give her a snare drum.” And that was a wrap.

Klein: When I talked to her the day before yesterday, she said “I know the whole Atmosphere record,” and I wanted to say, “Well, we don’t!”

This is official.

Tanio: She’s the one and she’s coming with it. I have to get ready.

Klein: She said every Tuesday Fatman would come, pick her up, sit her in the truck, and play the record for her. He told her everything. She got the blueprint straight from the source. It’s pretty deep. Every show we do will be a Fatman tribute. We still have Jafet [Perez] on the congas too.

For background, young Remi Evans is the daughter of Reuben “Buck” Evans, whose family founded Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club, while her mother Quindell Quinn was part of Tambourine & Fan, the youth organization founded by Jerome Smith. O

Sunday, May 5, Lagniappe Stage, 4:10pm

The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars

Celebrating Over Three Decades Together

BY MICHAEL ALLEN ZELL

The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars are celebrating 33 years together. When one thinks of Klezmer and the Crescent City, they’re solely the ones who come to mind, and in doing so they’ve expanded the New Orleans sound in turn. They have the musical chops and vision to pull Yiddish dance music in a modern age while being wryly respectful of tradition. Befitting a multi-talented band with in-demand members, getting them all in a room is not an easy task, but lo and behold, they’re playing shows in support of Tipish, their new album, just in time for Jazz Fest. I hiked the Maple Street construction zone along with Glenn Hartman and Jonathan Freilich to discuss the new album and more.

This is the band’s sixth album. Threadhead Cultural Foundation, the organization started after Hurricane Katrina by Jazz Fest fans to support recordings by New Orleans’ artists, helped to make the new album happen. Hartman explained, “They have a foundation and people apply for grants. We wanted to record, because we have a lot of energy

with this lineup. We have no recording with Joe [Cabral] and Doug [Garrison] as a crushing rhythm section, and the horn section is insane right now with a lot of energy. We wanted to capture that. The grant was the impetus to go and do it.”

The renowned producer and musician Mark Bingham was brought in for Tipish. This is an album with no overdubs or edits, with the group in a circle on the floor of the Happyland Theater in November 2023, using no headphones or monitors. “Mark’s a genius,” Hartman praised. “His skill at how to mic instruments is amazing. The way we were able to set up was kind of ingenious. There are a lot of things that happen when you play music. Only one is playing the right note. When you get into an isolated studio setting where you’re playing essentially alone in a room listening to other people, you’re hyper-focused on the note. In real time, if the energy is there, and all these other things are happening, then the energy comes. That’s the intangible thing that’s hard to capture.”

Freilich seconded, “One of the things about

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

THE NEW ORLEANS K LEZMER ALL STARS

this record is the closeness of relationships. Mark approached us to do our first record [1995s New Orleans Klezmer All Stars] when he set up his first studio, which was The Boiler Room. We’ve all worked with him a lot. That’s a long-term relationship having learned about somebody, what they like, and the kind of things they can bring to a piece of work. Now we all understand our positions in relation to each other in a different way than we did then.”

Those in the round for the recording were a veritable who’s who of New Orleans and beyond. Hartman mused, “Aurora [Nealand] is extraordinarily busy now. Dan Oestreicher is in Trombone Shorty’s band. Ben Ellman is in Galactic. Nick Ellman is now living in Los Angeles and is in Maroon 5. I play with Alex McMurray, Paul Sanchez, Lulu and the Broadsides, and whomever; and Jonathan is doing, doing, doing.”

“Amarim,” in particular, is a lovely piece that has a contemplative way that it moves in the world. The song’s namesake is an idyllic village overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Hartman explained, “It’s a vegetarian moshav. I was there last summer. I wrote the rhythm as two things happening in that song. There’s this internal melody going on, and it has another rhythm too. These dance rhythms are old. It has a specific name, the chosidl, and it’s more of a mid-tempo thing. I’m saying a Yiddish word, which is an Eastern European dance form, and there is no English for it. I was on a Glenn vision quest. I’m a rabbi. Pretty new to that, and I was studying in Israel over the summer. I had spent a bunch of time in Jerusalem. I went up to the mountains, was hanging out in Amarim, and had a beautiful experience. I wrote the basis of that tune. When we were getting stuff together for the record, I said, ‘I have this thing. Let’s put a melody on top of it.’ Jonathan and I finished it together. There’s a quiet about it, I think.”

trek to Tulane University with a stowaway that was sitting in the closet, his father’s accordion. He had never played it. “I grew up in California where accordion was silly. I came up playing in rock bands with keyboards.” he recalled. “I was watching Lawrence Welk with my grandma. Slowly but surely, I became aware here that accordion wasn’t necessarily corny. It also gave me the ability to walk in and play like having a horn. I could play it on the porch.”

Hartman is now at 50/50 for accordion/ keyboards, but the fall of 1991 was a different era. Few may realize that New Orleans’ own Kermit Ruffins had a hand in the origin story of The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars.

“I grew up in California where accordion was silly. I came up playing in rock bands with keyboards. I was watching Lawrence Welk with my grandma.

Slowly but surely, I became aware here that accordion wasn’t necessarily corny.”

Freilich broke it down: “The way that this worked was that Kermit was starting his own thing and getting out of the Rebirth [Brass Band]. There was a jam session at Little People’s Place when it was called Junior’s (named after owner Andrew “Junior” Robertson Jr.) My system for getting back to New Orleans from L.A. was to go to UNO. They let me in. That was the first year of the jazz program. I was there and saw a flyer that said yoga and Tai chi on the lawn. I go out there early in the morning, and teaching the class are Ben Schenk and Arthur Kastler. We sat there, they said it was too early, and told me there was a great jam session that goes on at Junior’s. Later on, I went down there. It was a totally wild scene and there were a lot of people sitting in. Young brass band cutters, old timers. It was a pretty unbelievable scene in a very small place. I played at the jam session and got a call the next day. ‘Hey, Jonathan. This is Kermit. I want you to play with me.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, next Monday?’ ‘Yeah, but for good,’ whatever he meant by that.”

Both Freilich and Hartman came to New Orleans with music in their minds. Freilich, armed with his guitar and friend/musician Ben Ellman, made the rounds from Santa Cruz, California to Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City until they hit here. Hartman drove from the West Coast on a

Freilich continued, “The Kermit Ruffins jam session, the original one, was me, Davis Rogan, Arthur Kastler played bass, Derrick Shezbie played drums—“Spodie,” who was a trumpet player with Rebirth for years. He played drums back then. Also, Ben had a trio [“Ben and the Boys” with Freilich and Kastler] much the way he operates now as a mixture of stuff, and he put in a few klezmer continued on page 98

Saturday, May 4, Lagniappe Stage, 12:50pm

Lights On

Kristin Diable always had a pulse in the real world

BY BRETT MILANO

Icannot believe it’s been nine years,” Kristin Diable says with a sigh and a laugh. “Honestly, after being in the business of music this long, and even teaching the craft and business of songwriting at Loyola, it’s as mysterious to me as it ever was. But that’s all right, I’m all for the long game.”

Nine years ago was when Diable released her most recent album, Create Your Own Mythology. Her first for the Thirty Tigers label, it was everything a national debut should be: Tuneful yet haunting, rootsy but pop-friendly, just polished enough to be true to the artist’s vision. At the time the album seemed destined to earn her some major national attention. But just because that hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean that it never will.

“There are a lot of records out there,” she says. “I felt that was my first fully-realized one, and a lot of good things came out of it. We got some film and TV placement, we got some radio play, we reached a lot more people than many records do. I’ve been around enough musicians and enough

artists to know that feeling that if you’re talented enough and all the resources are in place, then the record is going to be successful—and of course that’s not always the case. But I also feel that if a song is well-structured and strong enough lyrically, then it’s not a fast-fashion song, it will hold up over time. Hopefully those are the kind I write.”

She hasn’t exactly retired; she’s played every Jazz Fest since the album came out and has lately been mixing new songs into her sets. But she’s released exactly three tracks in the past nine years—a pair of Christmas songs and a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia,” all as downloads.

And she spent the 2017 TV season as a panelist on the locally produced TV show Sing Like a Star, essentially a New Orleans take on The Voice-type shows. She was part of a star panel with Marc Broussard and Terence Simien who evaluated the weekly round of singers; Arthel Neville was the host. “We shot everything live, and our role was to give honest feedback on what was strong in their

performance and what could use a little more work. I liked to think of us as mentors more than judges. I didn’t think about it as ‘You’re going to Hollywood and you’re not.’”

And the show did wind up having one surprise benefit: One of the more impressive contestants was Caren Green, who’s since made a local name as a performer. “She was absolutely stunning; her humanity is amazing and the way she channels that through her singing is beautiful and special. When she was on the show, she mentioned that she was also a birth doula. I wasn’t close to getting pregnant yet, but I said to her, ‘If I ever bring a child into the world, I need you to be the doula.” Which is exactly what wound up happening a couple years later.

Interestingly, she just said no on another occasion when The Voice itself courted her as a contestant. “The contracts they sent were more like indentured servitude; they want your intellectual property and your publishing rights. I looked that over and said it wasn’t my cup of tea.”

As a songwriter, Diable’s always had a pulse on the real world: Her catalogue is full of deeply felt love songs as well as more philosophical ones about the workings of time and life. And it so happens that life threw a lot at her during the long break between albums, a period that saw a lot of personal growth and obstacles navigated. One of the factors was pure goodness—namely the birth of her daughter Lucinda. “My child is the love of my life. I’ve always felt that you can be a mom and an artist, you don’t have to choose between one and the other, but your priorities do change a little bit—and she is my priority. If anything, I feel that I have more capacity as a songwriter by being a parent. It’s opened more doors creatively and emotionally and has given me more awareness of the human spirit.”

But there was abuse in her relationship which wound up affecting her life on every level, including her ability to play music. “The relationship I was in was not healthy. Lu’s dad and I split a year after she was born, which was April 2020 and that was also when COVID hit. So, I had my hands full, and the situation was challenging in so many ways— mentally, emotionally, financially. My priority was making sure Lu was safe and had what she needed— both of us, but especially her. There were stalking, protective orders, criminal charges. Particularly with stalking, and the tracking and monitoring. These are things in life that we never know about until they happen to us.”

Domestic violence, she said, has a number of

What can be powerful about songs is that they transcend our politics and the ego identities that we have to be so staunch about. Songs can create a space for people to be closer together—not that all of my songs are quite that deep.”

hidden ways to mess up the life of the victim. “There is the loss of control and the omnipotence that the other person has over everything—legally, and never having a sense of physical safety and digital safety. All this was very hard to navigate, very much a learning process. I was fortunate in that I have my own home and career, a great therapist and great friends in the New Orleans music community. But it’s all brought back to me how pervasive domestic violence is—I’ve seen the many arms of how it affects work and life as it should be lived. It’s pretty terrifying, but so many things in America are terrifying right now.”

“The ability of domestic violence to limit where you can live and where you can seek safety—that’s a pretty big process,” she says. “It has slowed me down, but it hasn’t stopped me—but it’s why there hasn’t been more regular output than I would have had otherwise. And I feel it’s important to talk about this because I can’t be honest about life and creativity, if I can’t be open about the life that’s occurred.”

This also prompted a lot of thought about the bigger picture. “There are a lot of systemic things in America right now that are rage-provoking—in Louisiana especially, and I’m glad my daughter is far enough away from the age of getting pregnant; maybe we can fix things for her by the time she gets there. I’m feeling hyper-aware, and enraged and terrified, to be living in a time when human rights are not for all people; they are for people in positions of power. But at the same time, we can’t meet people anywhere other than where they’re at. What can be powerful about songs is that they transcend our politics and the ego identities that we have to be so staunch about. Songs can create a space for people to be closer together—not that all of my songs are quite that deep.”

One bright spot is that there will indeed be a follow-up album to Mythology. She’s already got continued on page 98

The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars continued from page 95

tunes. The idea about the second line klezmer band happened later. We were playing a bunch of stuff much like Panorama Jazz Band, and people went crazy for the klezmer songs.”

Hartman took the band’s coming together forward, “I met Jonathan on Magazine Street and ran into him at Tipitina’s at three in the morning. He goes, ‘Hey, we’re starting this klezmer band,’ and, I was like, ‘Cool, man. I’m in.’ I thought I was going to play piano. Ben Schenk came over to my house with the three songs that they knew and said, ‘You don’t by any chance have access to an accordion?’ and, I said, ‘I do. I have one sitting right there. It was my dad’s.’ That was it, and I brought it to Kaldi’s [a famed, now-defunct coffee house on Decatur Street]. The day I showed up, Ben Ellman showed up as well with his horn. That’s when we were like, ‘Oh, this is a thing.’ Everyone reacted to the klezmer tunes the most, therefore it was more fun for us to play that music. From there we got the Café Brasil gig, ended up with ‘Mean’ Willie Green as our drummer, and then it got wild. The band name quickly changed. We settled on The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, which, of course, was a joke, but my, how we have grown into that name.”

Picture the early 1990s in New Orleans and being on the road with a band of young men making a name for themselves and up for anything. In a 1999 documentary, Freilich referred to the group as, “An unstable molecule that stays together.” He recalled even further, “Those days we were a lot more volatile. Very assertive personalities. Even the people that were trying to pretend that they were unassertive personalities are very assertive personalities. We had situations where we were driving, suddenly someone would get out of the van in the middle of nowhere, and we’d find him sitting in Yonkers two days later. Yet we got on stage and had these shows that were highly entertaining for everybody else and for us.”

Hartmann compared the present version of The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars to the past by saying “People still come to me and say, ‘Wow, what happened? There was no argument,’ meaning no one was yelling at each other on the stage.”

This is a dance band known for playing horas and music for celebrating, but at the same time they have, dare I say, grown up and added a certain sophistication to the sound. I’m not sure if they would concur, but Hartman stressed, “I could make fun of the band and say we have three things: the slow thing, the fast thing, and the really fast thing, but there’s a lot of other stuff in there too.” O

Kristin Diable & the City continued from page 97

studio time and a producer lined up and plans to record it later this year. “I hate to say that anything is going to happen, because shit comes up every time I do. But yes, I am recording this summer. I feel like I’ve healed enough and have enough tools to be putting out a record. I’ve never done one after so many heart- and mind-rending experiences, and it wasn’t just the relationship [there were deaths in her immediate family as well]. I feel that every day I get to show up now is really a blessing—that used to be a given, now it’s more like a gift. And hopefully that benefits the songs as well.”

One particular song was charged by her experience—not one she’s ready to play out just yet, but which will definitely be on the next album. “I don’t like writing a ‘Fuck you, you’re abusive and you’re horrible.’ That’s not interesting and it doesn’t solve a problem. And my life wiring is to find solutions. But there is one important one that I’m trying to finish up, called ‘Shame Say.’ It’s a compassion song for the abusive person, not saying that person is bad or evil, but recognizing the inner suffering that causes the suffering that person puts on others. And the words go, ‘Tell me, what does shame say when you can’t call it out? Tell me how your love must ache when you can’t feel it for yourself.’

“It’s an important song for me and I hope it can be useful to other people. It asks those questions from a place of compassion, and when your compassion is greater than your fear, this puts you back in a position of being in full power again. And that’s really all we have—We can’t control what happens in the world, what our human rights are. But we can control our mindset and how we approach things. And music has been the rope that’s led me back to the light.”

She traditionally does a special event show during Jazz Fest along with her Fair Grounds set, this year it will happen at the Hotel Peter & Paul on May 1, where she’ll play newly arranged versions of her songs with the Radio Bird Quartet, who are string players from the Louisiana Philharmonic.

Meanwhile she’s got loads of songs she plans to finish. And though there will be live gigs in the future, she can even imagine a time when she’d make the transition from being a performer to being a full-time songwriter. “Initially it was all about me being the artist performing the song. It almost feels like cheating to do the other way—I don’t have to do my hair and makeup to go on tour, I can send the songs out and I can stay at home. That sounds pretty good to me.” O

KENNY BA R RON TRIO

Thursday, April 25, WWOZ Jazz Tent, 5:45pm

A “Barron” of Philadelphia Pianist

Kenny Barron loves to play in New Orleans

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

Pianist and composer, the hugely talented Kenny Barron, 80, jumped into the jazz scene when he was still in high school and through circumstances met and performed with the legendary and progressive saxophonist Yusef Lateef. Lateef would become a major influence in his life.

Their association began when Lateef was in Barron’s hometown of Philadelphia for a week-long gig at the noted club, The Showboat, that included a Monday matinee. “The pianist missed his flight,” Barron remembers, “so Yusef called [Philly native, saxophonist] Jimmy Heath to ask him if he knew anybody who could play the matinee and Jimmy gave him my number.”

“We became fast friends, and I did my first gig, one week in Detroit, on the road with him,” says Barron. “I was just out of high school, so I had to ask my mom if it was cool.” Incidentally that was also Barron’s first plane trip.

The offshoot of those initial collaborations is that right after the gig, Lateef told the pianist that he had a recording coming up and asked Barron about writing some music for the session. Though he didn’t play on the album, Barron did get to head to New York for the date and got to meet some highly notable musicians including trumpeter Clark Terry and keyboardist Joe Zawinul.

“It was a great experience for

me,” says Barron—in what could be considered almost be an understatement—as it was also the first time he was given the opportunity to compose for someone other than for himself.

Highly prolific in the studio and regarded as influential in the world of jazz as a musician, composer and educator, in 2010 Barron was recognized by the prestigious National

Endowment for the Arts. His youthful dedication to listening and playing—first at small Philadelphia clubs before he was legally allowed to enter— and then establishing himself as a major artist, certainly earned him such an honor.

“Philly had a wonderful 24-hour jazz station, so I got to hear the music a lot just listening to the radio,” he remembers. “One night while listening there was a singer named Teresa Brewer who had a hit on a song called “Music, Music, Music” with a piano trio. And I’m saying ‘Who is that?’ because it was so incredible. And they announced that it was [pianist] Ahmad Jamal from a brand-new recording. I became a fan of his from that point on, so he was very pivotal.”

The first time Barron performed in New Orleans was way back in the 1960s when he played with the legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s band at trumpeter Al Hirt’s Bourbon Street club. They played for three weeks without, incredibly, a day off. “They had a revolving stage which I hated,” Barron adds.

After playing with Dizzy for four years, it was a big change for Barron to again be back with Lateef. “There was a certain amount of freedom working with Yusef,” the pianist understandably offers. “It allowed me to stretch,” he explains adding that it also gave him a further opportunity to compose for the group. “Yusef said, ‘Bring it in and we’ll play it.’”

play.”

“When I was teaching, I always had a studio with two grand pianos and we would always play together,” explains Barron of his approach to music education. “That allowed me more than anything else to hear exactly where a student was. I could kind of connect the dots and say okay you need to work on this, or you need to work on that. Or if it’s technique, touch, ideas or learning how to tell a story—not just playing notes, or learning how to leave space, and not to play everything you know all of the time.”

“When I was teaching, I always had a studio with two grand pianos and we would always play together. That allowed me more than anything else to hear exactly where a student was. I could kind of connect the dots and say okay you need to work on this, or you need to work on that.”

Barron first performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1996 along with the wonderful saxophonist Frank Morgan and returned to the Jazz Tent in 2017. This year he’ll be leading his regular trio with his bassist of 30 years, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer and fellow Philadelphian Jonathan Blake.

“One of things I like about playing with younger musicians is that they tend to kick my behind which I like—it’s very challenging,” says Barron who in a quartet setting sometimes adds another Philly native, the hot-on-the-scene, next generation saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. “They present me with different ideas as well, so it keeps me on my toes.”

Yet another way Lateef influenced Barron’s direction in life and music is that he encouraged him, as well as all the members of his band, to go back to school. “At one point everybody in the band was in school, in addition to traveling with Yusef.”

Monumental is that Barron went on to teach at Rutgers University for 25 years, followed by time as an instructor at Julliard and the Manhattan School of Music.

“Right now, I’m not teaching anywhere, I’m trying to learn more myself,” says the very affable Barron. “I think it’s important to share your knowledge and to encourage younger people to

“I love playing in New Orleans, I have a lot of friends there,” declares Barron, who also raves about the food and especially gumbo and Bananas Foster which he learned to prepare. Barron, who says he sometimes comes to the city just to eat, made one of his too-rare stops here in 1981 for a performance at the Faubourg [now Snug Harbor] presented by the Xenia Foundation that brought in national jazz artists for live shows and educational seminars.

Kenny Barron has performed at venues and festivals all over the world and finds the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival special because of its diversity. “It’s about all different kinds of music from the Black, the African continuum,” he offers. “That makes it exciting. I was there with Yusef and got to hear the Staple Singers. I like to listen to all kinds of music.” O

Sunday, April 28, Lagniappe Stage, 1:40pm

A Whirling Dervish Improviser

BY CREE MCCREE

Helen Gillet’s cello is much more than just an instrument. It’s a visceral extension of her body and soul and her peripatetic mind, which ranges as far and wide as a childhood spent shuttling between Belgium, Singapore and Chicago, where she first picked up the cello at age nine.

Tonight, before a rapt audience at Tigermen Den, she invites us to explore “a topographical map of the ephemeral” with music that shapeshifts from a tribute to a Chilean guitarist killed by Pinochet, to a haunting French chanson dating back to the Black Plague, to a lovely elegy for her late Belgian cousin Julien. And though she’s alone on stage, with all the electronic loops she creates swirling around us, it’s hardly a solo show. “It’s arguably a septet,” Gillet agrees when we sit down to discuss her journey after her performance. “I’m able to pivot and be really flexible with sharing what’s truly in my soul when I’m by myself.”

Gillet will also be flying solo on her favorite Jazz Fest stage, Lagniappe. “The sound is so good,” she enthuses. “It bounces off that concrete wall and really envelops people. People sometimes ask, don’t you wanna graduate to a bigger stage? I mean, I wouldn’t mind a raise,” she adds with a laugh. “But not really.”

Her sound is more than big enough to project from the many large stages she’s played, most notably at Lincoln Center for a show with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. In fact, her very first Jazz Fest gig in 2004 was on the Acura Stage. “I

played cello in the string section for Smokey Robinson,” she recalls. “New Orleans can bless you sometimes. It was only my second year here, and that was one of those moments where I thought, okay, I think I’ve been accepted into this city.”

She played Fest every year after that with other bands and musicians, ranging from Clint Maedgen’s New Orleans Bingo Show!, to the Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra, to a big funk band led by Reggie Scanlon from the Radiators. But it wasn’t until 2014 that she made her official debut as Helen Gillet. “I’ll never forget the year because my mom passed away right after,” she notes. “So, she got to hear my first Jazz Fest set.” Gillet’s mother was also posthumously instrumental in

transforming her relationship to her cello.

“I grew up with a lot of trauma in my family and was barely holding it together,” she recalls. “And after my mom died, I fell apart. Then I realized that my music makes me whole. My cello reflects the reality of the fact that I’ve gotten knocked down and I’m bruised, and I’m scarred. I used to try to keep it clean and pristine. Now it’s covered with nicks on the patina of the wood from slapping the cello. My music makes me whole and allows me to express myself. My cello is the one thing that has been the most consistent throughout my life, and I’m so lucky to be an artist.”

So are all of us on the receiving end of her artistry. Aptly described as a “whirling dervish of the cello,” Gillet is a world-class improviser who moves effortlessly from Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra riffs, to Belgian folksongs sung in the Walloon language, to orchestral crescendos that invoke her many years of classical training. And you’ll have ample opportunity to experience her shapeshifting prowess in various configurations during her nighttime shows. Be sure to stop by the music tent to pick up

a copy of her captivating new album, ReBelle, a collection of all-French songs. “The title is a play on words from a quote by a Belgian poet that translates ‘Poetry is not only beautiful, but she is also rebellious,’” she explains. “She is re-beautiful. I love how that honors the cyclical process of coming in and out of creativity.”

Planning to catch her solo on the Lagniappe Stage? Quick bit of advice: Gillet has legions of local and out-of-town fans so get there early to score a seat. Not that you’re likely to stay in it.

“If you’ve never heard me play, I am definitely taking the cello to a new place,” promises Gillet. “It creates a whole world of rhythm. I hope to make at least half of the audience get up and dance or at least move around in their seats.”

And trust me, that will happen.

Catch her after Fest on April 28 at The Rabbit Hole; May 1 at The Broadside with Nikki Glaspie and Skerik; May 2 at The Tigermen Den; May 4 at Marigny Opera House; and May 5th for her annual Other Instruments show at Saturn Bar, where this year’s edition includes Luke Brechtelsbauer on harp and bagpipes and Alex McMurray on banjo, among many others. O

JOURDANTHIBODEAUX ET LES RÔDAILLEURS

Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs

Friday, May 3, Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, 6pm

With Cedric Watson & Joel Savoy

Friday, May 3, Rhythmpourium Tent, 3:35pm

Jourdan Thibodeaux - Preservation For A New Generation

BY STEVE HOCHMAN

Jourdan Thibodeaux apologizes for his appearance as he signs on to a video chat. He’s taking a break from work, he explains, and he’s covered in sweat and sawdust. “We got a new business out here,” he explains, looking around at the construction he’s been doing. “Cypress Cove Landing.”

This is out in the swampland just east of Lafayette. He and some partners bought the business recently and are expanding it as a full-service destination. “We’re doing swamp tours, and houseboat rentals, a boat launch, a bait store, alligator hunts, all kinds of stuff,” he says.

And of course, food. He’s a partner in Comeaux’s, which makes and packages Cajun and Creole specialties of the region. “I do the boudin sausage and all,” he says. “And we’ve built out a big dance floor and stage.”

He’ll be providing some of the music too. As a fiddler, singer and songwriter, he’s quickly become a rising force in Cajun music with his group, Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs, featuring Joel Savoy (of the noted Savoy Family) on guitar, Creole boundaries-pusher Cedric Watson on accordion and assorted other instruments, bassist Alan Lafleur and drummer Jay Miller.

Savoy also produced the band’s two albums and released them on his Valcour Records label. The 2018 debut Boue, Boucane, et Bouteilles established them as a dynamic, rough and rowdy ensemble. Last year’s La Prière took it further, rivaling the Lost Bayou Ramblers for wild intensity. Think of the raw tunes Iry LeJeune and Nathan Abshire played in the mid-20th century for farmers and oilfield workers wanting to get loose after hard weeks’ work.

He’s got it all covered it seems. But covering

all of this is something bigger. As he sings in the closing title song of La Prière: Oh tu vis ta culture /Ou tu tues ta culture /Il n’y a pas de milieu. Translated from the Cajun French, it says: You live your culture /Or you kill your culture /There is no middle.

He’s happy to provide the English for those of us not from Acadiana. He’s not happy at all that many right around him need the translation. too. As he sings elsewhere in the song: Oooooo oh mon bon dieu /Mon pays est après changer /le cou est coupé, et le sang vidé /Y a trop de jeunes qui peut pas me comprendre. Which translates as: Oh my god / My area is changing /The throat is cut, the blood emptied /There are too many young ones who can’t understand me.

Thibodeaux, 39, grew up around Lafayette, mostly speaking English, listening to rock and hip hop and blues. But when he’d visit his grandmother, who mostly spoke French, it was different. “With my grandma, we’d listen to the music on the weekends, and we’d dance in the living room, her and I, until she couldn’t dance no more,” he says. “She’d sit in her chair, and I’d hold her hand and I’d dance next to her chair.”

The connection was profound. “When she died, I set my mind to it that I was gonna learn to play music,” he says. “And after a while I would see that as I was playing music, how many people would come from other places and love what we had to offer, you know? And I would see other kids my age that had no concern. And it blew my mind because it’s one of those things, you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone. And I feel like our generation is really starting to see that, with the old folks dying off, they’re starting to go, ‘Wow, things are different now. Maybe we should do something about it.’”

with them, right there along with clips of him feeding his cows on his farm. One of the jokes features his youngest of two daughters, Esmé, who though just eight, has the comic timing of a pro.

But it’s a trick. The jokes are in Cajun French, but with both French and English translations written, simultaneously, on the screen. The clips are language lessons. “People just kept asking me how they can learn the language,” he says. “You know, ‘I miss that language, my grandparents spoke it and this and that. I have no way to learn.’ So, I said, ‘What’s something I can do that is engaging and people actually want to listen to?’ And if they pick up a word here and there, a phrase here and there, then I feel like I’ve done something. And telling simple old jokes, it works.”

“With my grandma, we’d listen to the music on the weekends, and we’d dance in the living room, her and I, until she couldn’t dance no more. She’d sit in her chair, and I’d hold her hand and I’d dance next to her chair.”

It became a mission for him. “It was as those old people died, these were people I was spending my time with. Suddenly I’m in a whole new environment without ever going anywhere. It’s the same concept as some other country invaded us tomorrow and suddenly your kids didn’t speak the language you speak, they don’t practice the religion, they don’t cook the food, they don’t dance your dance.”

It’s becoming generic American, he fears. “But it’s what our parents and grandparents lived through and it’s what we are now transitioning through. And to me that’s depressing, because if you don’t know who you are, if you don’t know where you’re from, how the hell you gonna get where you’re going, you know?”

It’s the same, he says, with the Creole French language Kouri-Vini, which is also endangered. Thibodeaux sprinkles some of that in the songs, too, shifting back and forth with ease.

“All of that just really sits heavy on me. Nobody wants to see everything they know go away. That’s a real hard concept.”

So, what’s he doing about it? Telling bad dad jokes, of course. His Instagram account is loaded

People come up to him now and say a few French words but apologize that it’s all they know. “And I say, ‘Well, that’s okay, because six months ago you couldn’t have said that,’” he says. “So that’s something. It’s a step in the right direction.”

To some extent, the music has the same role. Not all of it is—at least on the surface—is about fighting for the culture. Much of La Prière (The Prayer) is made up of sad laments, working-person tales and celebrations of getting a little crazy—the band name translates as “the gallivanters,” after all—steeped in blues and folk along with the Cajun traditions. Take the group’s ad hoc theme song, “One Step de Rôdailleur,” in which he basically coerces Savoy to go gallivanting with him. And take “Cypress Island Stomp,” where he does the same thing with Watson.

Ultimately, though, that paves the way for the defiant title song. While the lyrics make his case, the opening illustrates it even more vividly. Against a haunting drone of accordion and fiddle, we hear the voice of Thibodeaux’s grandfather from a tape made of him talking more than 30 years ago.

“Gradually my voice joins him, and then me and Cedric together, which shows here’s our generation coming in, me and my friends, And then gradually my children come in. The later my grandfather’s voice fades out, like he died. And then gradually me and Cedric fade out and it’s just my children. It’s just that transition. Just keeping it going.” O

CELEBRATING JIMMY BUFFETT WITHTHE CORAL REEFER BAND

Saturday, May 4, Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 4pm

Sunday, May 5, Festival Stage, 3:35pm

A Hell of a Ride

Mac McAnally of the Coral Reefer Band

BRETT MILANO

Singer and guitarist Mac McAnally isn’t about to forget the last time he saw his longtime friend and musical partner Jimmy Buffett. “It was 24 hours before he passed, and I was there with [Coral Reefer Band] keyboardist Mike Utley. ‘Keep the party going’ was exactly what he said to us—and then he put his hand on his heart and said, ‘What a hell of a ride.’ Those were the last things we ever heard him say. And what I saw on his face was that big smile, the one you always saw from him, whether he was onstage or at the grocery store, or the smile that you could just feel when you were hearing him sing. And he took that smile with him to the next place.”

True to Buffett’s wishes, the party will indeed continue. The Coral Reefer Band is about to play for the first time since Buffett passed on September 1 last year, and at this writing they have just two shows on the calendar: The first was the splashy, all-star extravaganza at the Hollywood Bowl on April 11, for which he corralled Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, the Eagles and others. But the Jazz Fest set will be their first, postJimmy show as a self-contained band (McAnally says there should be a guest or two, but don’t expect McCartney or the Eagles this time). What will happen after that isn’t certain, but the band’s agreed that New Orleans is the place to get things relaunched.

“Jimmy is going to be there, no question about it,” McAnally says. “I think this show is equally important to the Hollywood Bowl, because New Orleans and the Jazz Fest were so significant for him. He always credited New Orleans as the place where he learned to be Jimmy Buffett, where he honed his songwriting and became an entertainer.” Memorable Buffett moments at Jazz Fest were many, including the post-Katrina Fest

where he and Allen Toussaint did “Do You Know What It means to Miss New Orleans” as an encore. “I was offstage for the moment and it’s still one of my great memories. One thing I remember is that he always controlled the weather whenever we played, somehow, he kept the rainstorms from happening. And the times when he couldn’t control the weather, when storms would happen anyway, were the times I saw him work the hardest. He would just keep throwing fastballs and make things a little better out there.”

Though the band’s been dormant for most of the past year, McAnally has been doing a number of club shows. “I call myself the urgent care singer-songwriter, because I’ve really been doing

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

CELEBRATING JIMMY BUFFETT WITHTHE CORAL REEFER BAND

a lot of healing for some ailing fans. There’s a lot of displaced Parrotheads out there, and for them it really feels like a family member has departed. And think about it: You have some family that you might see once or twice a year, but some of them went to 25 shows every year and work their vacation plans around it. At my shows I’ve been going back like a mediocre preacher, shaking hands with everybody when they tell their stories of the personal connections they had. A lot of people say that they haven’t been able to listen to the music, they’ll say ‘I love the music and you’ve made it okay again.’ It’s become a very cathartic thing—and not just for the crowd, it certainly is for me too. There are some songs I couldn’t get through if I was sitting at home alone, but it’s more uplifting to sing them with a roomful of people who are feeling the same pain as me.”

For the Jazz Fest show, McAnally will be sharing the lead vocals with Scotty Emerick, who was a diehard Buffett fan before joining the Coral Reefers on their last tour with him. And McAnally admits it can be a challenge to take these tunes on. “You know how these shows always are— When you start some of these songs up, you’re just leading the choir. But I’ll admit here that I had to go back and learn some of these songs, even though I’ve been playing guitar and singing the harmonies on them for 40 years. Like, I had to learn the lead part of ‘Pencil Thin Moustache,’ and threequarters of the crowd already knows it.”

to play but there has to be an intersection of art and commerce, if you will; we don’t know what kind of scale we’d be doing this on. We want to stay together for selfish reasons, because we all care about each other. So, we’re looking at a couple of different agencies but haven’t settled on anything yet. We don’t have Jimmy, and we don’t have his jet, and we’re an older band. But it’s still everybody’s intent to keep doing it.”

Meanwhile McAnally, who has a number of solo albums to his credit, has released his first tribute song—“Oysters and Pearls,” which he and Buffett wrote together and Buffett recorded some years ago. “It originally came out of a conversation that he and I had, and I was thinking that he was the pearl, and I was the oyster—that he was the kind of person who loves being out in center

stage, and I’ve never had that kind of ambition. I’ve never been a big fan of my own singing, but I love Jimmy and I love that song, so I thought that it could give people a little comfort.”

McAnally was headlining when Buffett made his last live appearance, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in early July last year. He strolled onstage, picked up his surprise cue on “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and stayed for a few more hits. “He knew he wasn’t strong enough for a whole show, but he was addicted to that energy of what we do. And what he told me was, ‘The doctors know a thousand things, but you and I know one thing they don’t: They don’t know what we get from being onstage. So, get yourself somewhere close and I’m coming.’ And when he did that show, he was the happiest man in the world—even more than he usually was.”

The band does want to stay together and do more shows, but he says the logistics haven’t been put together yet. “We know that Jimmy wants us

He says that Buffett remained upbeat until the end. “We really thought, just as all the fans did, that when September came around, we’d be onstage in Paris instead of saying goodbye. He was such a positive guy that I know he was always thinking he’d come out the other side. But at the same time, he knew he was facing a struggle and that when he was making the album [Equal Strain on All Parts], he was thinking it could be the final one.

“There really is a dual aspect to losing someone like Jimmy,” he says. “It hurts a lot when something kicks you in the gut like that, but it also means you had something wonderful for a long time. And with him and his work and the positive feeling that all generated—Most of that is still here, and it’s still rolling through us.” O

THURS 4/25 8PM Toulouse Theatre Tell Me Something Good: A Tribute to Chaka Khan

Jennifer Hartswick, Shira Elias, Erica Falls, Jelly Joseph, Ari Teitel, Tony Hall, More

FRI 4/26 8PM Toulouse Theatre Jimi’s Dead: A Mashup of Jimi Hendrix & the Grateful Dead

Eric Krasno, Ross James, Nikki Glaspie ft. Brandon “Taz” Niederauer

FRI 4/26 1AM Toulouse Theatre Wednesday Night Titans

SAT 4/27 8PM Toulouse Theatre TAUK Presents Tower of Wonder: A Tribute to Tower of Power & Stevie Wonder

TAUK ft. Kanika Moore, Lyle Divinsky, The Horn Section

SAT 4/27 8PM Civic Theatre LP Giobbi Presents: Dead House

SAT 4/27 1AM Toulouse Theatre The Funk Sessions

Skerik, Stanton Moore, Nels Cline,Wil Blades

SUN 4/28 8PM Toulouse Theatre Kitchen Dwellers Present: A Bluegrass Tribute to Dr. John

MON 4/29 9PM Toulouse Theatre Frequinauts

Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr., Stanton Moore, Robert Mercurio, Robert Walter, Will Bernard

TUES 4/30 9:45PM House of Blues Andy Frasco & The U.N.

ft. Kris Myers (Umphrey’s McGee) , Daniel Donato, Maggie Rose, Dogs In A Pile Members

TUES 4/30 -WED 5/1 12:30PM Faubourg Brewery Daze Between New Orleans

Gov’t Mule, Lettuce, Galactic, John Scofield, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Karl Denson, Daniel Donato, The Rumble, The Iceman Special, More

WED 5/1 8PM Toulouse Theatre Papa Plays the Nite Tripper

John “Papa” Gros Tribute to Dr. John

WED 5/1 8:30PM Tipitina’s The Daze Between Band

John Scofield, Chuck Leavell, Eric Krasno, Ivan Neville, George Porter Jr., Tony Hall,Jennifer Hartswick, Ryan Zoidis, Raymond Weber + DJ Soul Sister

THURS 5/2 -SAT 5/4 8PM Toulouse Theatre Tank and the Bangas

THURS 5/2 1AM Toulouse Theatre Stanton & Friends

Stanton Moore, Robert Walter, Skerik, Will Bernard, Big Sam

FRI 5/3 8PM Joy Theater Lettuce: RAGE!FEST

FRI 5/3 1AM Toulouse Theatre Joe Russo’s Selcouth Quartet

SAT 5/4 8PM Joy Theater

Crescent City Classics: A Celebration of New Orleans Funk

Members of The Meters, Dumpstaphunk, Lettuce, More

SAT 5/4 1AM Toulouse Theatre Break Science

SUN 5/5 11PM Toulouse Theatre

Purple Party: A Tribute to the Music of Prince

Members of Cool Cool Cool, The Nth Power, Doom Flamingo, Magic Beans, More

APRIL 29 & 30

MAY 1, 2024

MONDAY APRIL 29

BROADSIDE THE 600 NORTH BROAD STREET

ERIC KRASNO & FRIENDS

Ivan Neville, Tony Hall & Raymond Weber & special guest Anders Osborne

KAPOW!

Kevin Scott, Ari Teitel, Jennifer Hartswick Jamison Ross and Swatkins

IKO ALLSTARS Play JGB

ZITA

TUESDAY APRIL 30

TAB BENOIT

LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS

with Luther Dickinson & More

RUMPLESTEELSKIN

featuring Ed Williams and members of The Revivalists

DAVE JORDAN’S ALMOST ACOUSTIC TRIO

WEDNESDAY MAY 1

JON CLEARY & THE ABSOLUTE MONSTER NCF ALLSTARS

The Absolute Monster Gentlemen PLUS a tribute to Snooks Eaglin with George Porter, Jr., John Boutté and more special guests (TBA)

GEORGE PORTER, JR. & RUNNIN’ PARDNERS

JOHN BOUTTÉ

RIVER ECKERT BAND

Vintage Vinyl Treasures

Five albums from a Louisiana-based perspective

BY JOSEPH BOND

If it gets any better than these five albums from a Louisiana-based vintage vinyl standpoint, then someone please let me know. And if you are lucky enough to catch any of these New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival stalwarts live at this year’s ritual gathering, consider yourself blessed in witnessing some of the very best, from Soul Queen to Slide Master, in the business.

Irma Thomas: Wish Someone Would Care (Imperial Records) - Catalog Number 12266, released 1964.

While this phenomenal debut album was released a little over 10 years before Ms. Thomas’ standout Jazz Fest performance on Stage 6, Sunday afternoon, April 27, 1975, certain tracks had already become timeless.

From her title track to “Please Send Me Someone to Love,”

“Time is on My Side,” and “Straight from the Heart,” Irma’s silky-smooth vocals always warm the heart. Some of the stellar composers and backing musicians included Jackie DeShannon, Lloyd Pemberton, Robert “Pops” Powell, Paul Hornsby, Jesse Willard Carr, and Jerry Williams, Jr.

Irma Thomas will perform on April 27 and May 5 at Jazz Fest.

Marcia Ball: Circuit Queen (Capitol Records)Catalog Number ST-11752, released 1978.

Ms. Ball’s first Jazz Fest appearance was on Day One, Stage One, April 7, 1978, the same year that this, her debut solo album, was released. Her love of New Orleans music started 16 years earlier when in 1962 at age 13, Marcia saw one Irma Thomas perform at the Municipal Auditorium.

You might say the rest is history. Ten great tunes with “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” and “I’ll Be Doggone” as two of my favorites. An abbreviated list of the fine studio talent lending a hand includes Albert Lee, Rodney Crowell, Carlene Carter, Susannah Clark, Nicolette Larson, Buddy Emmons, John Sayles, and one of my all-time favorites, Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns. Mon, oh mon!

Marcia Ball will perform on May 5 at Jazz Fest.

The Radiators: Law of the Fish (Epic Records)Catalog Number E 40888, released 1987.

New Orleans’ mainstay of rock music took the WVUE Stage on Sunday afternoon, May 3, 1987, the year their second studio album was released. Strong from start to finish, this one brought it on home with standout tunes including, but not limited to “This Wagon’s Gonna Roll,” “Like Dreamers Do,” “Doctor Doctor,” Oh Beautiful Loser,” and, “Love is a Tangle.” The Louisiana-based video for the Ed Volker-penned “Like Dreamers Do,” which reached Number 23 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, is quintessential in a word and undeniably “laissez les bon temps rouler” in five.

The Radiators will perform on May 5 at Jazz Fest.

Sonny Landreth: Blues Attack (Blues Unlimited Records) - Catalog Number 5012, released 1981.

The Sonny Landreth Blues Band performed at the Jazz Fest on Stage 3, Saturday afternoon, May 8, 1982, the year following the release of this incredible debut album. Soon the world witnessed as innovative a slide guitarist as any to date. Just ask one of Sonny’s biggest fans, Eric Clapton. And hats off to the musician’s musicians backing this effort including C.J. Chenier, son of one Clifton Chenier, on sax; Mel Melton on harp; Robert Peter on drums; and long-time bassist David Ranson. Sonny’s live performances are indeed something to behold so if you get the chance, do yourself that favor. You can thank me later.

Sonny Landreth will perform on May 4 at Jazz Fest.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now (Concord Jazz Records) - Catalog Number GW-3005, released 1984.

For the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, 1984 was indeed a good year. Milestones included their first European tour, a six-week engagement in New York, a Jazz Fest performance on Stage One, Saturday afternoon, May 5, and the release of this their first album. The tumblers clicked into place with the Concord Jazz record label at hand, George Wein and Quint Davis as producers, and the Dozen, as tight as ever, consisting of Gregory Davis, Roger Lewis, Benny Jones, Jenell Marshall, Kevin Harris, Charles Joseph and Kirk Joseph. Horns rule!

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will perform on April 28 at Jazz Fest. O

OFFBEAT EATS

BY MARIELLE SONGY

It’s Jazz Fest again, and we all know how delicious the food is on the Fairgrounds. However, when the shows are over, you will be looking for a delectable bite to eat from one of the many incredible restaurants New Orleans has to offer. To set you in the right direction, here are OBeat’s suggestions for the tastiest spots you won’t want to miss!

NEW HIGH-END RESTAURANTS

Emeril’s Brasserie: 228 Poydras St., 504-533-6996 Located in Harrah’s Casino, Emeril’s Brasserie is the newest restaurant from famed chef Emeril Lagasse and his first French-inspired restaurant. Lagasse’s latest endeavor has all the elegance you would expect from one of his restaurants. Menu selections include Roasted Bone Marrow, Louisiana Crawfish and Angel Hair Pasta, and Warm Goat Cheese Salad.

Pigeon & Whale: 4525 Freret St., 504- 249-5487 John Michael Rowland wants to create an experience at his new Freret restaurant, Pigeon & Whale. This restaurant is different from any other in the city and offers oysters and other snacks in an atmosphere that you have to see to believe. Menu selections include Swordfish Schnitzel, ParmesanCrusted Bass, New Zealand Rack of Lamb, and Squid and Mushrooms.

Tana: 2919 Metairie Rd., 504-533-8262 The latest restaurant from Chef Michael Gulotta serves Sicilian dishes in a modern atmosphere. The restaurant boasts an extensive wine selection and a menu that offers Red Snapper alla Piastra, Smoked Pork Cappelletti with Blue Crab Crema, and Tagliatelle al Tartufo.

NEW CASUAL RESTAURANTS

Fives Oyster Bar: 529 St. Ann St., 504-399-6954

Fives Oyster Bar has a fabulous raw menu and a delicious cocktail menu. The restaurant offers oysters from all over the country and mains such as tuna crudo, Butter-Poached Lobster Roll, and Tomahawk Porkchop. Fives is also a great place to try an array of iconic New Orleans cocktails like the Sazerac and the Ramos Gin Fizz.

Nighthawk Napoletana: 141 Delaronde St., 504-6053365 Just across the river in Algiers Point, Chef Adrian Chelette wanted to fill the void left when

Tavolino Pizza closed. Nighthawk Napoletana serves unique pies like the Fun Gus Pizza, made with charred poblano cream, confit garlic, and mushrooms; LeBlanc Pizza, made with mozzarella, raclette, ricotta, and pecorino, red chili flake; and Salsiccia Pizza, made with fresh sausage, poblano cream, and taleggio cheese. The restaurant also has a cocktail menu if you want a refreshment.

Plates Restaurant & Bar: 1051 Annunciation St., 504-582-9020 Chef Farrell Harrison works closely with local farmers and fishermen to bring the freshest food to Plates Restaurant & Bar. Plates is located in the Warehouse District and is the perfect spot for after-work cocktails and a bite. Menu highlights include Grilled Prime Flank Steak, Beef Short Rib, and Duck Confit.

OLD STANDBYS, HIGH-END

Brigsten’s: 77 Dante St., 504-861-7610 You can’t go wrong with this Riverbend restaurant serving classic New Orleans fare since 1986. Menu highlights include Fried Des Allemands Catfish, Pan-Fried Speckled Trout, and New Orleans BBQ Shrimp.

Galatoire’s: 209 Bourbon St., 504-505-2021 Many say that no trip to New Orleans is complete without a trip to Galatorie’s. This restaurant is famous for its French-Creole menu and Friday lunch. You can’t go wrong with anything served here, from the Crabmeat au Gratin to the Shrimp Creole.

Gautreau’s Restaurant: 1728 Soniat St., 504-899739 7 Since its inception in 1982, Gautreau’s has had a few different owners, but the restaurant’s classic feel and delicious food remain. Stop in for Duck Confit with blue cheese-imbued lentils, Gautreaus’s chicken with whipped potatoes, or Redfish a la Maxime.

OLD STANDBYS, CASUAL

La Crepe Nanou: 1410 Robert St., 504-899-267 0 Since 1983, this French bistro has been considered a hidden gem in Uptown, New Orleans. This cozy spot is perfect for a date night or when you feel like being transported to another world without purchasing a plane ticket. Menu highlights include Escargots de Bourgogne, Saumon Grillé (grilled salmon), Côtelettes d’Agneau (lamb chops), and

Filet Mignon. The restaurant also has a selection of delicious, savory crepes.

Liuzza’s Restaurant & Bar: 3636 Bienville St., 504-4829120 Liuzza’s is one of those places that feels like home. A New Orleans classic, the restaurant boasts a friendly, family atmosphere, beer served in huge icy glasses, and a selection of New Orleans classics such as po boys, gumbo, red beans and rice, seafood platters, and Italian specials.

Mandina’s Restaurant: 3800 Canal St., 504-482-9179

Mandina’s is one of my favorite restaurants in New Orleans. With a friendly atmosphere and down-home menu, you can’t go wrong. Not to mention that Mandina’s is a central hub in New Orleans, and it’s easy to run into someone you know there. Menu highlights include Fried Chicken, Gulf Fish Meuniere or Almandine, Soft Shell Crab, and Chicken Parmesan.

RESTAURANTS WITH MUSIC

Carrollton Station: 8140 Willow St., 504-865-9190

Carrollton Station has a little bit of everything happening in its famed walls. This spot right off of Carrollton has live music and open mic comedy nights every week. Bertie’s Intergalactic Diner is the nightly popup here and offers out-of-thisworld fare like Mac ‘n Cheese Pancakes, Hot Honey Chicken Biscuits, PB ‘n J Wings, and Croque Ma’Dang.

Kermit’s Tremé Mother-in-Law Lounge: 1500 N. Claiborne Ave., 504-975-3995 This iconic spot was opened by Ernie K-Doe in 1994 and named after his most famous song. In 2014, musician Kermit Ruffins bought it and brought it back to life. This spot doesn’t have a set menu, but it serves home cooking that Ruffins himself often makes. When he isn’t on stage, Ruffins is on the grill or boiling pot, serving up crawfish, fried fish, and more.

Rivershack Tavern: 3449 River Road, Jefferson, 504-834-4938 Located just outside of New Orleans, Rivershack Tavern is where novice and seasoned musicians come to take the stage and perform their latest music. You never know who you’re going to run into at this little spot, which is a combination dive bar and music venue. Rivershack boasts a selection of bar food such as burgers, po boys, chicken tenders, and catfish.

CASUAL BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH

Ayu Bakehouse: 801 Frenchmen St., 504-302-7985

For two years, Ayu Bakehouse has been serving breads, sweet, and delicious breakfast in the Marigny and they were just named one of Bon Appetit’s most exciting bakeries in the nation! Breakfast highlights include Scrambled Egg and Cheese Roll, Cro’ Madame, Frittata, and an assortment of sweet and savory pastries.

Bywater Bakery: 3624 Dauphine St., 504-336-333 6

Owners Chaya Conrad and Alton Osborne are known for their amazing king cakes during carnival season, but Bywater Bakery is so much more than just king cake. Along with incredible cakes and pastries, this spot boasts a menu that includes Breakfast Gumbo, Tofu Scramble, Yaka-Mein, Tuna Melt, and Bacon, Eggs, Grits, and Cheese served in a tasty bowl for enjoying on the go.

Satsuma Café: 3218 Dauphine St., 504-304-5962 Since 2009, Satsuma Cafe has been serving breakfast and lunch using quality, local and organic ingredients. Owners Peter and Cassi Dymond want to provide healthy food options to the neighborhood they love and the result is a cozy café with breakfast options that include a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese breakfast sandwich, a Green Breakfast sandwich packed with veggies, Mexican breakfast plate, and a Breakfast burrito made with eggs or tofu.

HIGH-END BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH

Chapter IV: 1315 Gravier St., 504-766-7851 Chapter IV proprietor Edgar “Dook” Chase IV is the grandson of Leah Chase and her husband Dooky Chase of Dooky Chase’s fame. The Chase family is New Orleans culinary royalty, and Edgar Chase brings his expertise to this spot on Gravier. Menu highlights include Shrimp and Grits, BBQ Shrimp Omelette, Oyster Benedict, and Grilled Redfish.

Commander’s Palace: 1403 Washington Ave., 504-8998221 Commander’s Palace serves brunch in the city and puts brunch on the map. The atmosphere during brunch at Commander’s Palace is hard to beat, and every seat is the best in the house. Menu highlights include Creole Gumbo, Shrimp and Tasso Henican, and Cochon de Lait Eggs Benedict.

OFFBEAT EATS

Miss River: 2 Canal St., 504-434-5701 Located in the Four Seasons Hotel, Miss River serves an upscale, unforgettable brunch in an elegant atmosphere on Saturday and Sunday. Menu selections include Beignets and Ham, with Sliced Prosciutto Crudo, Gorgonzola Dolce, Honey, Spicy Chili Crunch, Persillade; Duck and Andouille Gumbo made with a Rich Dark Roux, Louisiana Jasmine Rice, Yukon Gold Potato Salad and Scallions; and Giardiniera Salad with Pickled Market Vegetables, Iceberg Lettuce Cabernet Vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Freshly Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. The restaurant also has cocktail service, fresh juice, and smoothies.

NEW ORLEANS-STYLE FOOD

Coop’s Place: 1109 Decatur St., 504-525-9053 Located in the French Quarter, Coop’s Place is a great place to people watch while enjoying some tasty food. You’ll meet everyone here, from local musicians to pros in the service industry. This place is 21+, so leave the kids at home. Selections include Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya Supreme, Chicken Tchoupitoulas, and Red Beans and Rice.

Dooky Chase Restaurant: 2301 Orleans Ave.504821-0600 Dooky Chase restaurant has not only been serving delicious food since 1941, but it has also been a cultural center in New Orleans. The late Leah Chase spent her life feeding the neighborhood, visitors to the city, and sitting presidents. Eating at Dooky Chase is a bucketlist experience in New Orleans. Menu highlights include Chicken Creole, Stuffed Shrimp, and Fried Chicken.

The Munch Factory: 6514 Congress Dr., 504-459-2180 Jordan Ruiz and his business partner and wife, Alexis, have served tasty Creole classics at this hidden gem for over ten years. Fans of The Munch Factory know you can’t go wrong with anything you order here. Menu highlights include Fried Pork Ribs, Hot Sausage Patty Melt, and Blackened Fish.

SEAFOOD AND CRAWFISH

Cajun Seafood: 1479 N. Claiborne Ave., 504-948-6000 With a vast menu, you can’t go wrong with Cajun Seafood. This spot offers every type of seafood you can imagine, and if that isn’t your thing, they

also have sandwiches with roast beef, ham, turkey, hamburger, and hot sausage. Cajun Seafood has four locations in different corners of the city, so check the website to find the one closest to you.

Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar: 739 Iberville St., 504-522-4440 Since the 1940s, Felix’s has served tasty seafood to eager New Orleanians. Just steps away from Bourbon St., the oysters here are fresh and shipped straight from the oyster bed to the restaurant. Here, you’ll find every kind of seafood you could want served in poboys, platters, and gumbo. They even have alligator and Bloody Marys!

Porgy’s Seafood Market: 236 N. Carrollton Ave., 504-429-3474 Don’t let the name confuse you— while Porgy’s Seafood Market is a market, it’s also a restaurant serving the freshest catches. Here, you can get boiled seafood by the pound and po boys, gumbo, and their variation of the Muffaletta made with Gulf tuna conserva.

LATE NIGHT EATS

Beachcorner Bar and Grill: 4905 Canal St., 504-4887357 Beachcorner Bar and Grill is the perfect spot for when that late-night craving hits. Open until 2:00 a.m., Beachcorner is famous for its wide selection of burgers. If a burger doesn’t strike your fancy, this spot also has chicken sandwiches, a fried shrimp sandwich, and cheese fries.

Dat Dog: 601 Frenchmen St., 504-309-3362 The Frenchmen location of this local hot dog chain is open on weekdays until midnight and until 3:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Locals have fallen in love with Dat Dog’s selection of hot dogs and sausages served in a funky atmosphere. After a night of enjoying the music the Frenchmen St. has to offer, a gator dog hits the spot.

Buffa’s: 1001 Esplanade Ave, 504-949-0038 Buffa’s is so beloved in New Orleans that when this bar and restaurant was in danger of closing, fans of this spot came from far and wide to support them. Saved from the brink of extinction, Buffa’s is the perfect late-night spot for burgers, boudin balls, chicken wings, and specialty sandwiches. If you come early in the evening, you can catch some incredible live music in the bar’s backroom. Can’t make it over? Buffa’s live streams performances on its website! O

BY OFFBEAT STAFF AND CONTRIBUTORS

This guide should help in choosing from the panoply of cultures, rhythms and sounds available at Jazz Fest to ensure your experience hits all the right notes. It’s arranged alphabetically by band name so you can search when your favorite act is

STAGE CODES

(AM): Alison Minor Music Heritage Stage

(BLU): Blues Tent

(CEP): Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion

(CON): Congo Square Stage

(ECO): Economy Hall Tent

(FDD): Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage

(FLS): Folklife Stage in Louisiana Folk Village

(FS): Festival Stage

JAZZ FEST A TO Z

playing by stage and time, with handy reference bio information. It’s easy to use on any mobile device to look up info by band, day, time or stage. Just go to our responsive site OBeat.com.

Happy Festing! Please note that performance information may change.

(GEN): Shell Gentilly Stage

(GOS): Gospel Tent present by Morris Bart

(J&H): Jazz & Heritage Stage

(JAZ): WWOZ Jazz Tent

(KID): Ochsner Children’s Tent

(LAG): Lagniappe Stage

(PAR): Parades

(RHY): Rhythmpourium Tent

ACCESS OFFBEAT’S JAZZ FEST 2024 ONLINE GUIDE.

# 21st Century Brass Band, 5/3, PAR, 12:30p: This young, Treme-based group finds room in its repertoire for New Orleans jazz standards as well as modern R&B hits.

50 Years of NOCCA, 5/5, AM, 12:15p: Interview with Ben Jaffe, Big Sam, Kyle Roussel and Alexis Marceaux by Al Kennedy.

79rs Gang Mardi Gras Indians, 5/3, CON, 12:20p: Big Chief Jermaine Bossier and Big Chief Romeo Bougere from the 7th and 9th Wards come together to form the 79rs Gang. Bossier’s baritone voice combines with Bougere’s alto voice as they sing about the Mardi Gras Indians’ unique culture. 9th Ward Black Hatchet and Wild Squatoulas Mardi Gras Indians, 5/4, PAR, 12:10p, Mardi Gras Indian parade led by Big Chief Alphonse “Dowee” Robair.

AA Tribute to Johnny Dodds featuring Dr. Michael White, Washboard Chaz & Jade Santrell, 5/4, ECO, 3:05p: New Orleans clarinetist composer and jazz historian, Dr. Michael White, played his first professional gig with Ernest “Doc” Paulin’s Brass Band in 1975. His clarinet influences include Sidney Bechet, Johnny Dodds and Willie Humphrey. Dodds recorded with Joe “King” Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. He is joined with Washboard Chaz and vocalist Jade Santrell.

Adonis Rose and The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra tributes Tina Turner ft. Erica Falls & Grace Gibson, 4/26, JAZ, 5:55p: Adonis Rose, the artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra has performed and recorded with the biggest names in jazz, including Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Harry Connick Jr, Wynton Marsalis, and on six recordings with longtime friend Nicholas Payton. Celebrating the late singer Tina Turner with Erica Falls and Grace Gibson.

Agrupación Changó, 4/25, FS, 12:35p; 4/25, CEP, 3:35p; 4/26, CEP, 12:50p; 4/26, J&H, 4:25p; 4/27, CEP, 3:30p: A Columbia band specializing in Pacific Coast marimba de chonta music. Their latest release Bereju explores the sounds of Nariño (a department of Colombia).

Alex McMurray Band, 4/27, LAG, 2:45p: Singer songwriter and guitarist Alex McMurray with accordionist Glenn Harman are referred to as “The Kings of the Small Time” on their Facebook page. McMurray was a member of Royal Fingerbowl; Hartman was with the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars.

Alexey Marti, 4/25, JAZ, 1:30p: After relocating to New Orleans, Cuban-born conga player and percussionist Alexey Marti has become a key fixture on the local Latin scene, performing a mix of jazz, funk, salsa, son, rumba and more.

Alfred Banks, 5/4, CON, 11:20a: A New Orleans rapper and singer. He recently toured with Tank & the Bangas and has collaborated with The Soul Rebels. Banks was named “Best Hip-Hop Artist” at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards. He co-founded the duo SaxKixAve with saxophonist Albert Allenback.

All for One Brass Band, 5/3, PAR, 4:30p: Bandleader and trombonist Keanon Battiste formed this band in 2003 with friends from Warren Easton Senior High School. Members include saxophonist Corey Hosey; trumpeters Terrence Foster, Louis Brown and Jeremy Haynes; tubist player Brandon Ewell; snare drummer Phillip Armand; bass drummer Brandon Blouin; and percussionists Kenon Hudson and Mark Cunningham.

Allison Russell, 5/3, BLU, 3:55p: Canadian singer-songwriter,

musician and activist. Born in Montreal, Russell has received Grammy nominations in the Americana category. Russell has collaborated with Brandi Carlile on the song “You’re Not Alone.”

Amanda Shaw and The Cute Guys, 4/28, GEN, 2:55p: This Cajun fiddle prodigy has been in the spotlight since age 10. Her sets can jump from teen-friendly pop to straight-up Cajun, with a classic rock cover or two thrown in. Amanda Shaw has dominated the best violinist category at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards.

Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, 5/3, JAZ, 2:45p: Classical trained jazz pianist and composer Amina Figarova is no stranger to New Orleans as she is often booked at Snug Harbor. Her sextet includes her husband, flutist Bart Platteau along with drummer Chris “Buckshot” Stik, bassist Jeroen Vierdag and saxophonist Marc Mommaas.

Amina Scott, 5/5, JAZ, 1:30p: Born and raised in Oakland, California, now based in New Orleans, Scott, is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and arranger. She is the current bassist for Dee Dee Bridgewater’s DDB Big Band and teaches as an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans.

Amis du Teche, 4/27, FDD, 11:20a: Cajun band from Breaux Bridge, that sing only French lyrics to traditional Cajun songs. The band consists of Adeline Miller on fiddle, Amelia Powell, the granddaughter of the late Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa, on guitar, and Robert Miller bass guitar and upright bass.

Amy Bluemel, 5/4, KID, 3p: Award-winning Native American storyteller, artist, and stomp dancer. Amy tells stories and educates audiences of all ages about Chickasaw and Southeastern tribal customs.

Amy Helm, 4/26, FDD, 4:20p: American singer-songwriter and musician and the daughter of drummer Levon Helm. She was a past member of Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band and Ollabelle. She has a commanding and deeply expressive voice. Her songwriting draws upon a deep well of American musical traditions.

Anders Osborne, 5/3, FS, 1:30p: Swedish-born guitar hero and songwriting titan Anders Osborne has charted a difficult path since his arrival in New Orleans more than 30 years ago. Osborne writes songs about all the stages he has gone though. He first played Jazz Fest in 1992 and has done so every year since.

Anderson.Paak & The Free Nationals, 4/28, FS, 5:30p: Born Brandon Paak Anderson, Anderson .Paak is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, and drummer who has won several Grammy awards. His band The Free Nationals play a variety of instruments, such as electric guitar, bass, piano, keyboards and drums, and also serve as backing vocalists.

André Bohren + The Electric Yat Quartet, 4/26, KID, 12:40p: Pianist, Andre Bohren with the Electric Yat Quartet will bring classical music to Jazz Fest. Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” was written in 1936 for orchestra and narrator and is one of the most frequently performed works in the classical repertoire.

Andrew Duhon, 5/3, FDD, 12:25p: With his achingly tender voice and penchant for lyrical depth, folk-pop singer songwriter Andrew Duhon taps into personal experience to tug at listeners’ heart strings while strumming his way through original music that echoes the blues.

Andrina Turenne of Canada, 4/26, LAG, 1:50p: Singer songwriter from Winnipeg with a two-decade career. Her influences are Irma Thomas and Gillian Welch reflecting bluesy R&B and roots rock. Turenne’s recently released debut solo project, Bold as Logs which contains a mix of English and French tales.

Andy J Forest & The Swampcrawlers, 5/2, BLU, 11:15a: Washington State harmonica player and singer songwriter influenced by Charlie Muselwhite. At age 19 he went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and stayed. He has recorded 22 albums, which feature his original songs. Forest has performed with B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, James Booker and many others. John Swenson said in OffBeat that Forest was “an exceptionally good harmonica player and even better songwriter.”

Ann Savoy: Another Heart, 4/26, AM, 3:30p; 5/4, LAG 2:15p: A singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her latest album Another Heart can be considered the spiritual follow-up to her 2006 collaboration with Linda Ronstadt, Adieu, False Heart. Savoy explores a wide array of musical influences that date back to her childhood and adolescence in Richmond, Virginia. Tunes featured are by The Kinks, Donovan, Bruce Springsteen, Sandy Denny, and more. Interviewed by Ben Sandmel.

Anna Moss & The Nightshades, 5/3, LAG, 3:05p: Moss is a multi-instrumentalist with roots in Arkansas. Now living in New Orleans, her music is a mix of jazz and R&B. Moss calls her music “bedroom pop from New Orleans.”

Antioch Baptist Church Choir, 4/27, GOS, 6:10p: Antioch Baptist Church is located in Tickfaw, Louisiana. Expect music styles such as traditional hymns and praise and worship.

ANTWIGADEE!, 5/4, CON, 5:10p: Born and raised in New Orleans, Antoine Barriere, known as ANTWIGADEE! is a DJ. His many influences resulted in his brand of “gumbo” for music. Apache Hunters, Black Hawk Hunters, and Wild Red Flame Mardi Gras Indians, 4/27, PAR, 1:30p: Apache Hunters are lead by Big Chief Preston Whitfield an Uptown-based Mardi Gras Indian tribe, headquartered at Third and LaSalle Streets.

Archdiocese of New Orleans Gospel Choir, 5/4, GOS, 11:15a: The Archdiocese represents the largest religious demographic in New Orleans. Its choir upholds a tradition of Crescent City Catholicism dating back to 1793.

Ariee & The AMG Band, 5/2, CON, 11:20a: New Orleans vocalist Ariee began singing in church at the age of eight. She sings R&B and pop and has backed other musicians including Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Mystikal, Glen David Andrews, and Kermit Ruffins. She recently recorded her debut album, Truth

Arrianne Keelen, 5/3, GOS, 2:50p: Vocalist, songwriter, and Hurricane Katrina survivor, Arrianne Keelen’s song “I Still Love You” landed her a spot as an amateur night contestant on Showtime at the Apollo. Keelen won the grand prize in the Dream New Orleans Talent Search.

Arthur and Friends Community Choir, 4/28, GOS, 5:20p: This New Roads, Louisiana-based gospel choir, founded by Arthur Gremillion, focuses on fostering a spirit of togetherness through music.

Arthur Clayton & Anointed For Purpose, 5/3, GOS, 5:10p: Singer songwriter Arthur Clayton IV is from Marrero Louisiana. Along with his gospel group Anointed for Purpose they will undoubtedly perform his 2018 hit “He Never Fails.” It’s a song for Sunday morning church choirs to sing that encourages those dealing with life issues.

Astral Project, 4/26, JAZ, 2:50p: All four members of this band—guitarist Steve Masakowski, saxophonist Tony Dagradi, bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich—are influential bandleaders in their own right. Together, they’ve been one of New Orleans’ premiere jazz groups for three decades.

Aurora Nealand’s Royal Roses, 5/4, ECO, 4:30p: Inspired by Sidney Bechet and Django Reinhardt, singer/saxophonist Nealand is a player whose non-Roses work spans performance art-inspired improvisation and the rockabilly of Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers.

BBaby Boyz Brass Band, 4/26, J&H, 5:45p: The next generation of players from the Treme neighborhood, Baby Boyz is led by trumpeter Glenn Hall III who is often joined by

Glen David Andrews.

Bad Boyz Social Aid & Pleasure Club, 4/25, PAR, 12:15p: Social aid and pleasure club parade.

Balaklava Blues of Ukraine/Canada, 4/26, CEP, 2:15p; 4/26, LAG, 4:15p: Mark and Marichka Marczyk fuses Ukrainian polyphony and other folk traditions with EDM, trap, dub step. They explore the blues that have long emanated from the Ukrainian steppe. “Balaklava Blues music is a reclamation of the violence perpetrated on my home country,” says Mark Marczyk.

Bamboula 2000, 5/4, J&H, 12:15p: “Bamboula” was originally a ceremony held in the earliest days of Congo Square. Bamboula 2000 leader Luther Gray brings that ancestral spirit into the present with a troupe of drummers and dancers. Banu Gibson, 4/25, ECO, 2:55p: Singer/dancer Banu Gibson, a longtime staple of the New Orleans music scene, specializes in swing, hot jazz and the Great American Songbook.

Batámbora of Colombia, 5/2, CEP, 11:30a; 5/2, CEP, 1:55p; 5/2, PAR, 2:45p; 5/3, CEP, 11:30a; 5/3, PAR, 4:05p; 5/3, CEP, 4:20p; 5/4, KID, 12:40p; 5/4, KID, 3:55p; 5/4, PAR, 4:20p; 5/4, CEP, 4;30p: Afro-Colombian drum group. They play the Colombian cumbia and fuse amalgamated rhythms of the Caribbean. Batambora is a project led by young entrepreneurs from the Afro-descendant community of La Boquilla, in the city of Cartagena de Indias.

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, 5/4, AM, 12p; 5/4, FDD, 2:50p: BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, 5/4, FDD, 2:50p, Fiddler Michael Doucet’s venerable Cajun band was the first of its genre to win a Grammy in 1998. The band has explored eclectic influences from West African music to James Brown and beyond. Interviewed by Michael Tisserand.

Bejuco, 5/3, CON, 1:30p: This Columbian band started in 2015 and is known for the bambuco beat, a blend of currulao and marimba. Their deep ancestral Afrobeat sound connects social movements to original and powerful music.

Bejuco, 5/3, CEP, 5p; 5/4, CEP, 2p; 5/4, J&H, 4:35p: This Columbian band started in 2015 and is known for the bambuco beat, a blend of currulao and marimba. Their deep ancestral Afrobeat sound connects social movements to original and powerful music.

Béla Fleck - My Bluegrass Heart, 4/28, AM, 1p; 4/28, FDD, 4:15p: Béla Fleck - My Bluegrass Heart, 4/28, FDD, 4:15p, Banjo player from New York named after composer Béla Bartók. Considered an ambassador of the banjo, Fleck plays music from bluegrass, jazz, classical and rock. My Bluegrass Heart is his latest studio album. Featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz and Bryan Sutton.

Interviewed by OffBeat’s Steve Hochman.

Betty Winn & One A-Chord, 4/25, GOS, 12:05p: Formed in 1995 by Betty Winn and her husband Thomas, this sprawling choir traces the history of gospel from slave spirituals to new compositions. They perform with as many as 40 singers.

Big 6 Brass Band, 4/28, PAR, 1:30p: Big 6 Brass Band was formed in 2017, is hugely popular in the city’s second line community. With a repertoire bridging traditional with hiphop, R&B, gospel and more, the group will perform a set of New Orleans classics plus original material.

Big Chief Bird & The Young Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/4, J&H, 11:15a: Coming out of the Carrollton neighborhood each year since 1995, The Young Hunters tribe of Mardi

Gras Indians is led by Big Chief “Bird.”

Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & the Wild Magnolias, 5/5, J&H, 5:40p: Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. carries on the legacy of his father, leading the Wild Magnolias’ impassioned, funk-inspired Mardi Gras Indian music. On his release, My Name Is Bo, Dollis combines a traditional Indian session with a cross section of other genres from funk and blues to zydeco and reggae from producer Cyril Neville.

Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. with a special appearance by The ICONS featuring Choppa, BlaqNmilD, and Tonya BoydCannon, 4/26, CON, 2:45p: Saxophonist Donald Harrison is a renaissance man of New Orleans who has explored reggae, funk and Mardi Gras Indian music through the filter of jazz.

Big Chief Dow & the Timbuktu Warriors and Cheyenne

Mardi Gras Indians, 4/25, PAR, 1:15p: The Mardi Gras Indian tribe of the Timbuktu Warriors are led by spy boy Dow Michael Edwards, a lawyer from New Orleans. Big Chief Dow’s slogan: “I kill’em dead with the needle and thread.”

Big Chief Juan & Jockimo’s Groove, 5/3, J&H, 5:55p: Skillful Golden Comanche Chief Juan Pardo, who grew up with the sounds of elder Mardi Gras Indians like Monk Boudreaux and Bo Dollis, updates classic and original Mardi Gras Indian songs with a mix of funk and R&B.

Big Chief Kevin Goodman & the Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indians, 5/3, J&H, 12:35p: Singer and Big Chief Kevin Goodman, who’s called Austin home since evacuating during Hurricane Katrina, leads this Mardi Gras Indian tribe and stage band, the Flaming Arrows.

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles, 4/26, AM, 4:30p; 4/28, J&H, 4:25p: Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, who performed for many years alongside Big Chief Bo Dollis in the Wild Magnolias, is one of the most prominent Mardi Gras Indian performers and a soulful vocalist. The Golden Eagles’ reggae-heavy performances often get into heady, near-psychedelic territory. Three Generations of Mardi Gras Indians. Interviewed with Joseph and Jwan Boudreaux by Steve Armbruster.

Big Chief Trouble & Trouble Nation, Monogram Hunters, and Algiers Warriors Mardi Gras Indians, 5/5, PAR, 2:45p: Big Chief Alphonse “Dowee” Robair leads this West Bankbased Mardi Gras Indian tribe.

Big Freedia, 4/27, CON, 4:10p: All hail New Orleans’ queen diva who’s emerged from the “sissy bounce” subculture to become a nationally known personality, helping to bring other bounce divas (Katey Red, Sissy Nobby) into the spotlight. Big Freedia has guested on singles by Drake, Kesha and Beyonce.

Big Nine and Valley of Silent Men SA&PCs, 4/27, PAR, 3p: Social aid and pleasure club parades.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation, 4/26, GEN, 2:10p: The charisma of former Dirty Dozen trombonist Sam Williams makes him an able focal point for a musical party that blends brass, Metersstyle funk, hip hop and rock.

Billy Iuso, 4/25, RHY, 1:10p; 4/25, LAG, 3:05p: Singersongwriter and guitarist Billy Iuso formed the funk jam band Brides of Jesus in the ’90s. Iuso regularly performs with a variety of local players, including Anders Osborne and The Wild Magnolias. He also worked as a tour and stage manager for The Neville Brothers, the Meters and George Porter’s Runnin’ Pardners. Iuso has released a number of CDs that received critical acclaim, his latest received a Best of the Beat nomination.

Bishop Joseph Carter & The Boyz, 4/28, GOS, 11:15a: From Slidell, this high energy Gospel group has been performing for 5 years and makes its Jazz Fest debut.

Black Feathers Mardi Gras Indians, 5/3, PAR, 1:30p: Mardi Gras Indian Parade.

Black Flame Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/26, PAR, 1:10p: The Black Flame Hunters will present a Mardi Gras Indian parade.

Black Foot Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/25, J&H, 11:20a: One of the newer Mardi Gras Indian tribes is led by Big Chief Donald Claude.

Black Magic Drumline, 4/28, KID, 12:30p; 4/28, KID, 2:10p; 5/4, J&H, 1:25p: Black Magic Drumline is a New Orleans group that formed at Xavier University of Louisiana in 2007.

Black Mohawk and Young Seminole Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/25, PAR, 2:10p: Big Chief Byron Thomas leads this Mardi Gras Indian parade.

Blodie’s Jazz Jam, 5/4, JAZ, 12:20p: Blodie is better known as Dirty Dozen trumpeter Gregory Davis, whose jamming partners include other members of Dirty Dozen, Trombone Shorty’s Orleans Avenue and other horn men who will join him on stage.

Bomba Estéreo of Colombia, 4/27, CON, 2:50p: Bomba Estéreo is a Colombian band founded in Bogotá Simón Mejía. Their music has been described as “electro tropical” or “psychedelic cumbia.” Their songs have been used in commercials for Walmart and Grubhub. They recently collaborated with Bad Bunny on the song “Ojitos Lindos.”

Bon Bon Vivant, 4/28, GEN, 1:45p: Formed in 2013, Bon Bon Vivant is a collection of musicians steeped in the traditional jazz of New Orleans. Their original songwriting includes blues and folk music that makes for a unique sound. Bonerama, 5/3, GEN, 1:30p: Mark Mullins and Craig Klein’s trombone-centric jazz/funk/rock combo is as comfortable with James Brown as it is with Black Sabbath. Their release Plays Zeppelin showcases the music of Led Zeppelin. Vocalist Michael McDonald joined Bonerama to record Mark Mullins song “Empty World” a tribute to the late Allen Toussaint.

Bonnie Raitt, 5/5, GEN, 5:30p: Blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter and Jazz Fest regular is no stranger to New Orleans. She has worked with Allen Toussaint, performing with him “What is Success” and is responsible for Irma Thomas to star singing again “Time is on My Side.” Raitt has received 13 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bonsoir, Catin, 4/28, AM, 12p; 4/28, FDD, 2:55p: This Cajun music supergroup features rhythm guitarist Christine Balfa (a founder of the Louisiana Folk Roots organization), accordionist Kristi Guillory, fiddle expert Anya Burgess, Feufollet vocalist Ashley Hayes, electric guitarist Meagan Berard, and drummer Danny Devillier. Interviewed by Barry Ancelet. Boyfriend, 4/27, GEN, 1:30p; 4/27, AM, 3:30p: Part rapper and part performance artist, Boyfriend’s “rap cabaret” shows are entertaining and intellectually engaging experiences that make destroying gender norms fun for everyone. Boyfried won the Best Rap/Hip-Hop/Bounce at 2022 Best of the Beat Awards. Interviewed by Alex Rawls.

Brass-A-Holics, 4/25, CON, 12:25p: This band adds a keyboard, guitar, and trap drums to the basic brass band lineup. They bill themselves as the “Go-Go Funk Brass Band” perform-

ing original music or pop songs with fiery improvisations.

Brazos Huval’s Student Showcase, 4/27, KID, 1:50p: Music instructor and multi-instrumentalist Brazos Huval leads students from his school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Huval teaches fiddle at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is a member with his siblings in the Huval Family Band. Huval is also a bassist for the Mamou Playboys.

Brian Courtney Wilson, 5/4, GOS, 4p: Gospel and contemporary Christian singer from Chicago. Wilson has had a number one song on the Billboard Gospel Charts and has been nominated for multiple Grammy and Dove Awards.

Brother Tyrone & The Mindbenders, 4/25, BLU, 12:30p: Tyrone Pollard, a.k.a. Brother Tyrone, is a deep-soul vocalist whose original songs could pass for long-lost vinyl tracks.

Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, 4/27, FDD, 1:35p: A New Orleans-reared Cajun, this self-taught accordion player and songwriter is back hosting his popular fais do do dances at Tipitina’s. OffBeat featured Bruce Daigrepont in its My Music series in 2022.

Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. and The Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band, 4/27, FDD, 4:15p: Carrying on his father’s legacy Stanley Dural Jr. leads his father’s band Ils Sont Partis Band that will have you dancing in the isles. Dural won a Grammy and a Best of the Beat Award for his album, New Beginnings

Burris, 5/5, RHY, 12p: A New Orleans based jazz-rock band that mixes soulful vocals with jazz harmonies and funk grooves. Members of Burris have shared the stage with George Porter Jr., Rebirth Brass Band, Snarky Puppy, FORQ, The Revivalists, Louisiana’s Leroux, Grace Potter, GIVERS and many more.

CC.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, 4/26, FDD, 2:55p: Zydeco king Clifton Chenier’s son has long emerged as a bandleader in his own right. His 2011 album, Can’t Sit Down, has a killer version of Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands.”

Calliope Puppets, 4/25, KID, 3p: Humor and satire are priorities in performances by this Louisiana-based puppetry group, which features hand-carved and sculpted puppets.

Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, 5/4, FDD, 1:35p: A popular young fiddler, accordionist and singer, this four-time Grammy nominee boasts equal parts star power and skill. Cedric Watson’s influences range from Creole and Cajun to West African music and beyond.

Celebrating Jimmy Buffett with the Coral Reefer Band, 5/4, AM, 4p; 5/5, FS, 3:35p: Celebrating Jimmy Buffett with the Coral Reefer Band, 5/5, FS, 3:35p, Singer songwriter, Jimmy Buffett, who launched his career in New Orleans, passed away in 2023. His band celebrates Buffett with a tribute that is sure to include Buffett’s popular songs. Interview with Savannah Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band by Keith Spera.

Cha Wa, 4/25, CON, 2:55p: New Orleans brass band-meetsMardi Gras Indian outfit Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. My People, the band’s follow up to their Grammy-nominated album Spyboy, feels like pure joy, a distillation of generations of New Orleans expression.

Charles Lloyd featuring Gerald Clayton, Larry Grenadier & Marcus Gilmore, 4/27, AM, 1:30p; 4/27, JAZ, 4:10p: Composer, saxophonist and flutist, Charles Lloyd, started as a sideman for blues artists Bobby “Blue” Bland, Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King. His jazz quartet included pianist Jason Moran, acoustic bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland.

His current quartet is pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Interviewed by Ahley Kahn.

Charlie Gabriel and Friends, 5/3, ECO, 1:55p: Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s clarinetist and vocalist. The band includes Kyle Roussel on piano, Ben Jaffe on bass, Shannon Powell on drums, Kevin Lewis on trumpet and Craig Klein on trombone and others. Though the band will focus on traditional New Orleans music, Gabriel often credits the vitality of jazz with its unique ability to reflect the modern experiences of those who interpret it along with the history in which it’s rooted.

Charmaine Neville Band, 4/28, BLU, 1:30p: An exuberant jazz singer whose influences run the gamut of New Orleans music styles, Charmaine Neville has long been a staple of the city’s live music scene, particularly at Snug Harbor.

Cheikh Ibra Fam of Senegal, 4/28, CEP, 1:45p: Senegalese singer, composer and musician based in France. He is also a singer for Orchestra Baobab, the Senegalese Afro-Cuban jazz band. Cheikh is a socially involved artist and has collaborated with organizations like the UN Refugee Agency and Innovation: Africa.

Chloé Marie, 4/26, RHY, 1:10p: Singer songwriter from North Dakota. She has been writing pop songs since she was 8 years old. She transitioned to country music and is currently recording and writing new material in Nashville.

Chris Stapleton, 4/27, FS, 5:20p: Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Lexington, Kentucky. He has won numerous Grammy Awards and as a vocalist, Rolling Stone included Stapleton in its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, 5/3, AM, 3:15p; 5/3, BLU, 5:35p: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, 5/3, BLU, 5:35p, Blues guitarist and singer from Clarksdale Mississippi is a virtuosic guitar player, stunning vocalist, and memorable songwriter. He is confident and masterful on stage. Influenced by Hendrix, Prince and many blues greats, Kingfish is a high-energy blues performer. Hopefully he will close with Hendrix’s “Hey Joe.” Interviewed by Nick Spitzer.

Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band, 4/25, FDD, 4:05p: One of the most energetic zydeco groups around, Chubby Carrier and band won the 2010 Cajun/Zydeco Grammy for the album Zydeco Junkie

Cimafunk, 4/25, AM, 12:45; 4/25, FS, 2:55p: Cimafunk, 4/25, FS, 2:55p, Erik Iglesias Rodríguez, aka Cimafunk, dropped out of medical school a few years back to perfect his mix of Afro-Cuban funk. The first result was “Me Voy,” an international hit that blends an infectious guitar lick, reminiscent of Kink Sunny Ade’s juju music, with a Cuban Carnival rhythm.

Interviewed by Marc Perry.

Cimarron, 5/4, FS, 1:20p; 5/4, CEP, 3:20p; 5/5, FDD, 12:55p; 5/5, CEP, 5p: From Bogota, Colombia this group presents festive dance music combining Latin with Andalusian, Indigenous American native and African roots. Their music includes four-stringed cuatro, harp, maracas, and also Peruvian-flamenco cajón, Brazilian surdo, afro-Colombian tambora, a stomp dance as a percussion component and tribal indigenous whistles.

Clay Parker and Jodi James, 4/27, RHY, 3:30p: This acoustic duo is from Baton Rouge. Their sound has been described as “mesmerizing back porch music.” Their music is stark yet expressive, accessible yet deep, shadowy yet real.

Clive Wilson’s New Orleans Serenaders, 4/26, ECO, 12:25p:

Known for their lively interpretations of old New Orleans classics by Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and others, the members of the Serenaders have played together in various musical contexts since the ’60s.

Comanche Hunters, 4/26, J&H, 11:20a: Mardi Gras Indians led by Big Chief Alphonse “Dowee” Robair.

Conjunto Tierra Linda, 5/5, J&H, 11:20a: Latin band from New Orleans is a collective of musicians, committed to highlighting the musical roots of the genre known as Salsa.

Connie and Dwight Fitch with St. Raymond & St. Leo The Great Choir, 4/27, GOS, 1p: Seventh Ward couple Connie and Dwight Fitch sing romantic R&B as well as gospel. She has sung in the past with Ray Charles and Dr. John.

Coolie Family Gospel Singers, 4/28, GOS, 1:05p: Gospel group from New Orleans. They have performed at Jazz Fest for many years.

Corey Ledet & His Zydeco Band, 4/25, FDD, 1:35p: Corey Ledet was already two years into his music career when he switched from drums to accordion at age 12. His latest selftitled release has been nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award. Cowboy Mouth, 5/4, GEN, 3:45p: They’ve been on the road for nearly 30 years, and still tend to pull out the stops for Jazz Fest shows. Go ahead and knock them for working so hard to be inspiring: If Fred LeBlanc, John Thomas Griffith and the newer guys get it right, by the end of the set you’ll be jumping in the air waving your fists to “Jenny Says” along with everybody else.

Craig Adams & Higher Dimensions of Praise, 4/28, GOS, 6:10p: Hammond player and Houston/New Orleans native Craig Adams leads this dynamic, 16-piece gospel group.

Creole Group, 5/3, CEP, 12:45p; 5/3, J&H, 3:15p; 5/4, CEP, 12:40p: Grupo Creole is from the islands of San Andres and Providencia. They interpret the traditional music of the islands. Founded in 1986 by Orston Christopher with the mission to preserve the Creole language and the musical diversity of the islands. With the use of three acoustic guitars, a mandolin, the maracas, a horse jaw, and a ‘tina’, the group invites the audience to an authentic Caribbean fiesta.

Creole Osceola Black Masking Indians, 5/4, PAR, 3:15p: Big Chief Clarence Dalcour, who counts Bo Dollis as an early Indian mentor, leads this downtown tribe.

Creole String Beans, 4/27, FDD, 12:25p: Creole String Beans is a sextet playing New Orleans rock ’n’ roll from the glory days of J&M Studios. Rob Savoy (bass/vocals) and Rick Olivier (guitar/vocals) front the band with Brian Rini (keyboards/vocals) and Mike Sipos (drums/vocals) rounding out the rhythm section. The powerhouse “Terrytown Horns” adds punch and brass with Travis Blotsky on tenor, and Derek Huston on baritone sax.

Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians, 4/27, J&H, 11:20a: Big Chief Walter Cook leads the Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians.

Culu Children’s Traditional African Dance Company, 5/5, KID, 4:15p: Founded in 1988, this New Orleans-based company has toured the US and performed for Winnie Mandela.

Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble, 5/5, FDD, 11:15a; 5/5, AM, 1:15p: After getting his start as a drummer with Cajun country music stars like Steve Riley and CJ Chenier, Curley Taylor switched to accordion and launched a successful career as a bandleader. His blues-infused sound is a staple on

the Lafayette and Opelousas zydeco scenes. Interviewed by Herman Fuselier.

DD.K. Harrell, 4/26, BLU, 12:25p: Harrel is a 25-year-old Louisiana blues guitarist from Ruston. He is dedicated to preserving the music and style of B.B. King.

Da Souljas Brass Band, 5/4, PAR, 2:10p: This next-generation brass band plays in the hot, modern style that makes a second line roll.

Da Truth Brass Band, 5/3, J&H, 1:50p: Da Truth’s highenergy, tight renditions of New Orleans second line classics and originals have made them one of the best new brass bands in the streets on Sundays.

Dancing Grounds Elite Feet Dance Krewe & Youth Company, 5/5, KID, 11:30a: Dancing Grounds is a nonprofit community arts organization that provides dance education in New Orleans.

Darcy Malone & The Tangle, 5/2, GEN, 11:25p: Led by the daughter of the Radiators’ Dave Malone, husband-and-wife team Darcy Malone and Christopher Boye blend their tastes for soul and indie rock.

Dave Jordan’s Almost Acoustic, 4/27, RHY, 1:10p: Formerly of the funk band Juice, Dave Jordan earned his rep as a firstclass roots/rock songwriter when Anders Osborne produced his solo debut and Art Neville recorded one of his songs.

Davell Crawford, 5/3, GEN, 2:40p: Grandson of the late New Orleans R&B great James “Sugarboy” Crawford, Davell is an energetic singer/keyboardist drawing from R&B, jazz and gospel. Special guests are Steve Jordan and Jay Jay French.

David & Roselyn with Arlee Leonard, 4/25, KID, 11:30a: Local duo David Leonard and Roselyn Lionheart’s blues and jazz sounds have been a French Quarter staple for years. They’ve also performed on the Smithsonian Institute’s PBS River of Song documentary. They are joined by their daugher Arlee.

Deacon John, 4/25, AM, 2:45; 4/27, BLU, 2:50p: Deacon John, 4/27, BLU, 2:50p, Singer-guitarist Deacon John’s long history in New Orleans music includes leading the band at debutante balls, performing at the Dew Drop Inn and playing on such classic records as Aaron Neville’s “Tell It Like It Is” and Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-In-Law.” Interviewed by Jason Barry.

Debbie Davis, 4/25, RHY, 4:45p: Debbie Davis sings blues, jazz, and show tunes with brassy candor and a twinkle in her eye.

Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, 5/5, JAZ, 4p: The trombonist, composer and producer, his album Uptown on Mardi Gras Day received a Best of the Beat Award. Delfeayo Marsalis’s energetic Uptown Jazz Orchestra sets balance humor and fun with tight ensemble interplay and memorable solos.

Delgado Community College Jazz Band, 4/27, JAZ, 11:15a: This modern jazz and big band-focused student ensemble hails from the emerging music program at the city’s largest community college.

Devastation and Scene Boosters SA&PCs, 5/3, PAR, 3:10p: Join a second line parade with this social aid and pleasure club.

Divine Ladies, Men Buckjumpers, and Original CTC Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SA&PC), 5/5, PAR, 12:15p, This Uptown social aid and pleasure club’s annual parades generally kick off in serious style at St. Charles and Jackson Avenues.

DJ Captain Charles, 5/5, CON, 3:15p: The self-proclaimed “most renowned DJ in New Orleans,” Captain Charles has been fortifying his music collection for more than 20 years.

Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music, 5/5, LAG, 11:30a: These student players aged 11 to 17 hails from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s principal education program and study under the artistic direction of Derek Douget.

Don Vappie’s Creole Jazz Serenaders, 4/27, ECO, 4:35p: This eclectic banjo player and singer has made a career of exploring his Creole heritage through music, whether it’s traditional jazz, island music, or joining bluesmen in the Black Banjo Project.

Donald Lewis, 4/26, KID, 1:50p: Local actor and educator

Donald Lewis Jr. teaches drama and storytelling and performs regularly with the group Young Audiences of Louisiana.

Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans, 4/26, ECO, 1:40p: Clarinet-

ist Doreen Ketchens and her band perform traditional New Orleans jazz all over the world, and have played for Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton.

Double Whiskey, 4/25, ECO, 5:50p: A New Orleans duo featuring guitarist Tyler Thomson and vocalist and guitarist Jon Atkinson. They perform frequently at Three Muses on Frenchmen Street.

Dr. Brice Miller & Mahogany Brass Band, 5/5, J&H, 12:30p: Trumpeter and ethnomusicologist Brice Miller leads this long-running traditional New Orleans jazz ensemble, his go-to band when he’s not delving into other pursuits like avant-garde jazz and electronic music.

Dr. Michael White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band with guest Thais Clark, 4/27, ECO, 1:45p: A clarinetist and jazz scholar, Dr. Michael White frequently fuses traditional and modern styles in his Liberty Jazz Band. Vocalist Thais Clark is his regular Jazz Fest guest.

Dragon Smoke, 5/5, GEN, 12:30p: Dragon Smoke is super group from New Orleans consisting of Ivan Neville, Robert Mercurio, Eric Lindell, and Stanton Moore. Basically, Galactic with Neville and Lindell. The music centers around Lindell’s blue eyed soul.

Dumaine Gang Social Aid and Pleasure Club, 5/4, PAR, 1:15p: The Treme-based Dumaine Street Gang Social Aid and Pleasure Club hits the Sixth Ward’s hottest spots during its annual parade.

Dumpstaphunk, 5/2, FS, 3:10p: Ivan Neville the well-traveled keyboardist makes some of the deepest funk of his career with this band, which features double bass guitars, giving it one of the fattest bottoms in town. Neville released a solo album Touch My Soul bursting with powerful original songs.

Dusky Waters, 4/28, RHY, 12p: Described as “Black hillbilly music,” Dusky Waters is a project by singer-songwriter Jennifer Jeffers. From Little Rock, now a New Orleans resident, the band includes Analiese De Saw, Conner McCready, Dylan James and Kasey Ball. They perform non-traditional melodies with experimental harmonies, drawing inspiration from Elizabeth Cotten, Rhiannon Giddens, and the Avett Brothers.

Duwayne Burnside, 5/3, BLU, 11:15a: Singer-songwriter guitarist and son of North Mississippi musician, R.L. Burnside. He grew up playing Hill Country blues with his father and has performed with Junior Kimbrough, Preston Shannon, Dave Matthews and others.

Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers, 5/5, RHY, 1:15p; 5/5, FDD, 4:05p: Dwayne Dopsie is a second-generation accordion slinger who carries on the blues-infused style of his dad, Rockin Dopsie Sr., often with a whole lot of added speed and volume.

Dylan LeBlanc, 4/27, LAG, 4:05p: Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Shreveport. His first album Paupers Field featured Emmylou Harris. He has toured with Lucinda Williams and played with Bruce Springsteen, The Drive By Trucker and the Alabama Shakes. His heartfelt song lyrics, voice and guitar playing has earned praise and has been dubbed “the next Neil Young.”

E Earth, Wind & Fire, 5/5, CON, 5:40p: One of the bestselling bands of all time. The band has won six Grammy awards and Rolling Stone declared that the band “changed the sound of black pop.” Three of its original members, Philip Bailey, Ralph Johnson and Verdine White, are still performing. Expect to hear “Shining Star,” “Sing A Song,” “Boogie Wonder-

land,” “Let’s Groove,” and other hits.

E’Dana, 4/27, GOS, 12:05p: Gospel singer and stage actress E’Dana has been touring and recording since she was 15. She hits the Fair Grounds with her Louisiana-based group, Divinely Destin.

Eden Brent, 5/2, BLU, 12:45p: Eden Brent, a blues pianist and vocalist from Greenville, Mississippi, combines boogiewoogie with blues, jazz, soul, gospel and pop. She is often compared to Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie.

Eight Dice Cloth, 5/3, ECO, 5:45p: A traditional jazz and early blues band from New Orleans. They play deep cuts of early jazz and draw upon the music of Armand J Piron, Clifford Hayes, and Joe Venuti, as well as legends such as Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington.

Eleanor McMain Singing Mustangs, 4/26, GOS, 1:25p: The McMain Secondary School Gospel Choir, a.k.a. the McMain Singing Mustangs, return under the guidance of Clyde Lawrence.

Enkelé of Columbia, 5/2, J&H, 12:15p; 5/2, CEP, 2:25p; 5/3, FS, 11:20a; 5/3, AM, 1:15p; 5/3, CEP, 3:30p: In the African Bantu language, the word enkelé means wisdom, illumination and starlight. The band consists of eleven women from across Colombia who sing about their land, their ancestors and the problem of machismo since they dared to play drums and were run out of town, years ago, because they were women. Interviewed by Ann Maria Ochoa.

Eric Lindell, 4/28, BLU, 2:45p: Once a California skate punk, Eric Lindell had more success as a blue-eyed soul singer and bluesman after moving to New Orleans. His tight backing band explores the slightly country-influenced edges of Louisiana roots rock.

Erica Falls and Vintage Soul, 5/5, CON, 12:35p; 5/5, RHY, 3:35p: This soulful R&B vocalist who recently won a Best of the Beat Award for Best Female Vocalist has sung with Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas, but her chops and songwriting skills demand attention on their own merit.

Esther Rose, 4/26, LAG, 3:05p: Former New Orleans resident, she began her career collaborating with musician Luke Winslow-King. She is probably best known as Jack White’s duet partner on his last album Boarding House Reach. An expressive singer, her music has an out-in-the-wilderness ambiance, with fiddle, upright bass and brushed drums.

Evangelist Jackie Tolbert, 4/28, GOS, 2:55p: Preaching through song and witness, Baton Rouge-born Jackie Tolbert brings it a little jazzier than most of her contemporaries, yet there’s no denying the power of her faith—and voice.

F Fantasia, 4/27, CON, 5:45: Singer and actress, she is noted for her performance of the Porgy and Bess standard “Summertime” during the third season of American Idol, and eventually became that season’s winner. She was cast in the original Broadway cast of The Color Purple. She has been nominated for several Grammy awards. Her song “Bittersweet” won a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2011. Barrino’s voice has been described as raspy, gritty and soulful just like that of Tina Turner.

Feufollet, 5/4, FDD, 12:25p: This Grammy-nominated crew of young Cajun musicians helmed by Chris Stafford recently expanded their sound by adding keyboardist Andrew Toups violinist/singer-songwriter Kelli Jones-Savoy, who co-wrote much of the group’s 2015 release, Two Universes.

Fi Yi Yi & the Mandingo Warriors, 4/28, J&H, 12:35p: The Fi Yi Yi tribe of Mardi Gras Indians uses African instead of the traditional American Indian themes. Big Chief Victor Harris recently retired and was replaced by his son, Victor Harris, Jr. known as Little Vic.

First Division Rollers Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SA&PCs), 4/28, PAR, 1:30p: An esteemed branch of the historic Young Men Olympian, Jr. Benevolent Association.

Flagboy Giz, 4/27, J&H, 5:55p: Flagboy Giz, the hip-hop vlogger/activist turned Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian, was OffBeat’s cover subject. Giz has become a force in the Mardi Gras Indian music world and beyond, landing deals with Mannie Fresh and making a headdress for production designer Hannah Beachler of the Black Panther movies.

Foo Fighters, 5/3, FS, 5p: No strangers to New Orleans, this rock band was founded by former Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl in 1994. The documentary Sonic Highways brought Grohl and company to Preservation Hall where the band played a surprise show for 90-minutes, which proceeded to shut down an entire block of St. Peter Street. Their 2022 Jazz Fest show was cancelled after the death of their drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

Forgotten Souls, 4/25, J&H, 12:20p: From New Orleans the Forgotten Souls Brass Band pay their respects to the unique musical traditions of New Orleans with a special blend of second line, traditional jazz, modern jazz, funk and hip hop.

Franklin Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir, 5/5, GOS, 5:05: One of New Orleans’ largest and most powerful church choirs, Franklin Avenue is a former winner for Best Gospel Group at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards.

Free Agents Brass Band, 5/3, J&H, 11:20a: Bass drummer Ellis Joseph formed this band in September 2005 with other musicians who’d returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before their regular bands did. Don’t miss their moving hit, “Made It Through the Water,” a modern riff on the spiritual “Wade In the Water.”

Free Spirit Brass Band, 4/26, PAR, 2:40p: A local festival favorite, the young and heavy-hitting Free Spirits are known for bringing a rock edge to the typical brass band sound that proves a dance-friendly fan favorite.

Funk Monkey featuring Arsene DeLay, 5/5, LAG, 3p: Former Bonerama members Greg Hicks, trombone and Bert Cotton, guitar started the band. Other members include Brad Walker on saxophone, Rik Fletcher on keyboards, David Pomerleau onbass and Eddie Christmas on drums. Joining the band is New Orleans vocalist Arsene DeLay.

Furious Five, New Look, and Big Steppers SA&PCs, 4/28, PAR, 3p: Social aid and pleasure club parade.

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Gaita Loop, 4/27, CEP, 11:30a; 4/28, CEP, 12:40p; 4/28, RHY, 3:35p: From Barranquilla, Colombia, Gaita Loop is Leang Manjarrés a composer and interpreter of Columbian folk music. He plays the Gaita, a flute native to the indigenous peoples of Columbia, over electronic beats and loops.

Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue, 4/27, FS, 12:30p: Big-voiced Maryland native Vanessa Niemann fronts one of New Orleans’ leading Western swing bands, which plays originals, honky-tonk favorites, and less obvious choices like Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” They are often winners at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards.

Galactic featuring Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, 5/3, FS, 3p:

Approaching their music with open ears, Ben Ellman, Robert Mercurio, Stanton Moore, Jeff Raines and Rich Vogel draw inspiration from quintessential New Orleans musicians such as The Meters and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, as well as from each other. Brass band elements, old-school soul and hard rock figures as prominently as the funk for these long-running jam-band stalwarts who are known for their high-energy sets that often feature vocalist Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph.

Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, 4/26, BLU, 4:20p: Originally the drummer in his late father John Delafose’s band, Geno took to accordion and became a popular bandleader specializing in country-styled zydeco, when not raising horses and cattle at his Double D Ranch outside Eunice, Louisiana.

George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners, 5/5, FS, 12:30p: Best known as the bassist and singer of The Meters, George Porter Jr. brings a silky touch to jazz and blues standards. His album, Crying for Hope, reaches back into funk history while establishing a new standard for modern-day recording techniques.

George Thorogood & The Destroyers, 5/5, AM, 2:15p; 5/5, BLU, 5:40p: Singer and songwriter from Wilmington, Delaware. His music can be described as “high-energy boogie-blues” with original songs “Bad to the Bone” and “I Drink Alone.” The band has also popularized songs such as “Who Do You Love?” and Move it on Over.” They have sold over 15 million records and are now celebrating their 40th anniversary. Interviewed by David Kunian.

Gerald French & The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, 4/28, ECO, 12:25p: The late drummer and colorful WWOZ personality Bob French led this band for 34 years, schooling young talents like Shamarr Allen and Kid Chocolate. When he retired from the band, French passed the torch to his nephew Gerald, also a drummer. The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band is the oldest established jazz band in the world, organized in 1910 by Oscar “Papa” Celestin.

Germaine Bazzle, 5/3, JAZ, 1:30p: This locally prized jazz singer can caress a ballad or scat-sing an uptempo number with the best. Her history includes a stint playing bass on Bourbon Street with Alvin “Red” Tyler. Both OffBeat and the Jazz Journalism Association have honored her 50-plus years of work in music education. She celebrated her 92nd birthday on March 28, 2024.

Ghalia Volt, 4/27, LAG, 12:35p: Born in Brussels Belgium as Ghalia Vauthier, she is a blues rock singer, guitarist, drummer and songwriter. Since moving to New Orleans, she has been featured on 60 Minutes performing in Clarksdale, Mississippi. OffBeat says of her latest album Shout Sister Shout! It has no duds or down moments with every track up-tempo and rocking. A real buzz of a record.

Girls Play Trumpets Too under the artistic direction of Troy Sawyer, 5/3, KID, 1:50p: Trumpeter Troy Sawyer created this non-profit program that teaches trumpet and other musical skills to girls ages eight to 19.

Glen David Andrews, 5/4, BLU, 2:50p: This singer/trombonist, cousin of Troy and James Andrews, is a brass traditionalist and a testifying R&B vocalist who honed his entertaining chops in Jackson Square.

Golden Comanche, 7th Ward Creole Hunters, and Black Flame Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/26, PAR, 1:10p: Big Chief Jermaine Bossier leads this 7th Ward-based Mardi Gras Indian gang. The Buffalo Hunters tribe is led by Big Chief

Spoon.

Golden Sioux, Wild Apaches, and Big Chief War & 7th Ward Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/26, PAR, 2p: Mardi Gras Indian parade. The Golden Sioux perform regularly at Bar Redux.

Gov’t Majik, 4/26, J&H, 3p: Keyboard riff s amid the relentlessly funky bass work by the band and leader, New Orleans music scene veteran Bru Bruser. The band also includes guitarists Danny Abel and Raja Kassis and trap set drummer Jermal Watson and percussionist Luke Quaranta.

Gray Hawk presents Native American Lore, 4/25, KID, 1:50p: This resident of Houma, Louisiana, shares stories from his Choctaw heritage.

Gregg Hill, 5/3, LAG, 11:30a: Singer-Songwriter and guitarist who moved to New Orleans in 2018. He has recorded several albums with bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Doug Belote. He has worked with guitarists Shane Theriot and Anders Osborne. You could say, Gregg Hill sounds like John Prine or Guy Clark, but actually the reason is because he taps into the same inspirational well.

Gregg Martinez & the Delta Kings with guests TK Hulin and Johnnie Allan, 4/25, LAG, 1:50p: Gregg Martinez is a powerhouse swamp pop vocalist from Cajun country. He inspires audiences through his big, emotional performances of classic swamp pop and R&B. Joining Martinez are vocalists TK Hulin and Johnnie Allan. Hulin, from St. Martinville, Louisiana, recorded his first single, “Many Lonely Nights,” at the age of 14. Allan, from Rayne, Louisiana, a pioneer of swamp pop, recorded “Lonely Days, Lonely Nights,” his first single, in 1956. If it’s swamp pop you want to explore, don’t miss this set.

Gregg Stafford & His Young Tuxedo Brass Band, 4/28, ECO, 1:40p: Trumpeter Gregg Stafford made his Bourbon Street performing debut in 1970; he has led the Young Tuxedo Brass Band for more than three decades.

Gregg Stafford’s Jazz Hounds, 5/4, ECO, 12:25p: Gregg Stafford’s other traditional New Orleans jazz ensemble, the Jazz Hounds, have been under his direction since the death of Danny Barker in 1994.

Gregorio Uribe, 4/25, FDD, 12:25p; 4/25, CEP, 2:05p: Singer, songwriter, accordionist and big band leader, Uribe was born in Bogotá, Colombia currently living in New York. Uribe has made a name for himself in the Latin music scene of both New York City and Boston. He is well known for leading a 16-piece orchestra that blends cumbia and other Colombian rhythms.

Greta Van Fleet, 5/4, GEN, 5:20p: American hard rock band from Frankenmuth, Michigan formed by twin brothers Josh and Jake Kiszka. They are compared often to Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant said of Greta Van Fleet, “they are Led Zeppelin I” and described Josh as “a beautiful little singer.”

Grupo Niche of Colombia, 5/5, CON, 2:05p: Salsa group from Bogotá. Founded by songwriter and vocalist Jairo Varela and trombonist Alexis Lozano. Varela passed away and Lozano left the group. They are known for their vigorous, uptempo dance music as well as slower-paced romantic numbers.

Guitar Slim Jr, 5/3, BLU, 2:40p: Blues guitarist and singer from New Orleans. He was born Rodney Glenn Armstrong. His father Guitar Slim is best known for the song “The Things I Used to Do.” His 1988 album Story of My Life was nominated for a Grammy. His repertoire relies on his father’s material.

HHans Williams, 5/4, LAG, 3:35p: Singer-Songwriter and guitarist from Vermont, now living in New Orleans, Hans channels his emotions into each song. His raspy vocals and guitar work are at the core of his presentation.

Hardhead Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/4, J&H, 6p: Big Chief Otto “Fiyo” DeJean leads this parade of Mardi Gras Indians.

HaSizzle “The King of Bounce”, 4/26, CON, 12:20p: HaSizzle known as “The King of Bounce” is a master of beats. His music has been sampled by Drake and others. His shows are filled with free-styled scatting, rapping, and instructions that set the blueprint for how to let loose.

Heart, 4/28, GEN, 5:30p: Legendary rock band from Seattle features sisters Ann Wilson (singer songwriter) and Nancy Wilson (guitarist and vocalist). Known for powerful guitar work expect to hear their greatest riff s in songs like “Magic Man,” “Crazy On You” and “Barracuda.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have been nominated for several Grammy Awards and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.

Helen Gillet, 4/28, LAG, 1:40p: This Belgium-born cellist and singer performs avant-garde jazz and French chansons with gusto. She’s become a cornerstone of the city’s music scene in recent years, lending her skills to multiple improvisational projects.

Herbert McCarver & The Pin Stripe Brass Band, 4/28, J&H, 1:40p: One of the best young bands playing traditional brass band music in town, the YPS represents a new generation of the Original Pin Stripes, founded by McCarver’s father. High Steppers Brass Band, 5/2, J&H, 1:30p: This local brass band mixes traditional New Orleans brass sounds with plenty of hip-hop influences.

Higher Heights Reggae, 5/2, CON, 2:05p: Performing an array of Studio One classics and other hits, this New Orleansbased reggae act is a staple of Frenchmen Street’s growing reggae scene.

Honey Island Swamp Band, 5/2, GEN, 2:10p: Formed in San Francisco by Katrina exiles who’ve since returned to town, the HISB is a hard-driving rock band with roots in R&B, country and funk.

Horace Trahan & the Ossun Express, 4/25, FDD, 2:50p: Accordionist and vocalist, Horace Trahan, is a Cajun and zydeco artist. Born in Ossun, Louisiana, he formed the Ossun Express consisting of accordion, fiddle, guitar, bass, drums, and sometimes a triangle. His influences range from Iry LeJeune, Aldus Roger, Boozoo Chavis, Beau Jocque, Clifton Chenier, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan.

Hot 8 Brass Band, 4/27, CON, 12:20p; 4/27, AM, 2:30p: The storied Hot 8 is a study in survival, having lost three members in shooting deaths. But the band has endured, and they carry on traditional brass band music while adding elements of hip hop and jazz. Their music interprets classic tracks from Joy Division, Michael Jackson and George Benson. Interviewed with Rancho Aparte by Matt Sakakeeny.

Hot Club of New Orleans, 4/27, ECO, 5:55p: These guys almost singlehandedly spearheaded the great Crescent City gypsy jazz revival by perfecting a more modern, less studious, more swinging style.

Hotboy Ronald, 5/4, CON, 11:20a: Rapper Ronald Redditt was born and raised in New Orleans’ Desire projects. It was

there that he found friends Juvenile and Magnolia Slim who motivated him to stick with his dream of being a rap star. He appears with Alfred Banks.

HOZIER, 5/3, GEN, 5:30p: Irish singer songwriter playing folk, soul and blues. His influences include John Lee Hooker, Otis Redding and Nina Simone. His guitar work draws from Celtic folk inspiration, as well as musicians Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen. His 2013 song “Take Me to Church” was a rock radio hit in the U.S. His music contains socially conscious themes.

Hurray For The Riff Raff, 4/27, GEN, 4p: Alynda Segarra, the New Orleans-based singer-songwriter who performs as lead vocalist for Hurray for the Riff Raff, has developed a highly personalized and often stark and haunting take on Americana.

IIce Divas SA&PCs, 4/25, PAR, 12:45p: Social aid and pleasure club founded in 2013.

ÌFÉ with special guest GOYO of Colombia, 4/28, J&H, 3:05p: ÌFÉ is percussionist, composer and producer Oturan Mun. From Puerto Rico, ÌFÉ lives in New Orleans. His music is hypnotic consisting of drums and percussion and while AfroCaribbean via New Orleans is the focus, the consciousness is informed by the larger picture of the African diaspora.

Indys Blu, 4/28, CON, 11:15a: New Orleans vocalist and songwriter who blends her classical training with contemporary influences. She studied under Tarriona Ball and has performed with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. She frequently performs R&B covers along with her original compositions.

Irma Thomas, 5/5, FS, 1:55p: One of this city’s musical treasures, Irma Thomas came out of the ’60s with a catalog to die for—including many of Allen Toussaint’s greatest songs plus the first and best version of “Time Is On My Side.” She then recorded some equally fine, grown-up R&B for Rounder.

Isabel Davis, 4/25, GOS, 3:50p: Singer songwriter and gospel singer from San Antonio, Texas, now living in New Orleans. Davis’ album The Call debuted at number three on the Billboard Gospel charts.

ISL Circus Arts Kids, 4/25, KID, 4:10p: Students from the

International School of Louisiana in New Orleans make up this young group of acrobats, stilt walkers and clowns.

JJ & The Causeways, 4/26, FS, 1:20p: Founded at the Maple Leaf on a hot summer night, J & The Causeways is a group spearheaded by singer-songwriter Jordan Anderson. Together with his pulsating rhythm section, intricate horn and guitar melodies and robust vocals, lead singer/keys player Anderson’s music is soul dipped in old-school rhythm and blues.

Jackson Square All Star Brass Band, 4/26, PAR, 4p: The Jackson Square All-Star Band is a rotating group of New Orleans musicians usually found entertaining the crowds at Jackson Square.

Jacobo Vélez y La Mambanegra, 4/27, CEP, 4:55p; 4/28. FS, 12:40p; 4/28, CEP, 3:10p: From Cali, Columbia, Vélez is a producer, singer and saxophonist. His music incorporates jazz, Latin jazz and traditional Afro music of Colombia. He is one of the pioneers of new Colombian music.

Jambalaya Cajun Band, 4/28, FDD, 12:30p: This group was founded in 1977 by fiddler Terry Huval. The band is joined by singer Johnnie Allan.

James Andrews & the Crescent City Allstars, 4/27, BLU, 1:35p: Nicknamed “Satchmo of the Ghetto,” trumpeter James Andrews (the grandson of Jessie Hill and brother of Trombone Shorty) has taken a funky, expansive direction with his AllStars, yet Louis Armstrong remains a key influence.

James Fortune, 5/3, GOS, 3:55p: Gospel music recording artist, songwriter, producer and radio personality. Fortune was nominated for two Grammy awards for Best Gospel Album of the Year and Best Gospel Song of Year.

James Rivers Movement, 5/4, JAZ, 1:30p: Perhaps the city’s only jazz/funk saxophonist who doubles as a bagpipe player, James Rivers was also known for a longtime (now discontinued) Sunday brunch at the Hilton Riverside, and for scoring Clint Eastwood’s movie The Bridges of Madison County.

Jamil Sharif, 5/3, ECO, 12:40p: This local trumpeter studied with Ellis Marsalis at NOCCA and went on to do a number of soundtracks, including the Ray Charles biopic Ray, for which he was music coordinator.

Jason Danti and the Krewe de Bechet, 4/26, ECO, 5:45p: New Orleans Jazz Band actively recreating the music of Sidney Bechet.

Jason Marsalis, 4/27, JAZ, 1:30p: New Orleans, vibraphonist and drummer, Jason Marsalis has established himself as the foremost straight-ahead vibraphonist, a bop torchbearer. Marsalis recently won the Best of the Beat Award for best other instrument - the Vibraphone.

Javier Gutierrez and Vivaz!, 4/25, J&H, 1:35p: This energetic and dance-inspiring Caribbean/Latin jazz fusion band, led by the Bolivian-born guitarist Javier Gutierrez, highlights the Cuban tres, a double three-stringed guitar.

Javier Olondo & AsheSon, 4/27, J&H, 12:30p: Local guitarist Javier Olondo leads this ensemble primarily through the songs of his native Cuba while drawing on the traditions of other Latin American countries, including Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

Jazz Funeral for Jimmy Buffett with Smitty Dee’s Brass Band, Dumaine Gang, The Revolution, and Family Ties Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SA&PC), 5/4, PAR, 1:15p: Singer songwriter, Jimmy Buffett, who launched his career in New Orleans, passed away in 2023. The Jazz Funeral is led by Smitty Dee’s Brass band followed by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs.

Jazz Funeral for Russell Batiste with Sporty’s Brass Band, Single Ladies, Single Men, and Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SA&PC), 4/27, PAR, 12:15a: Drummer, Russell Batiste, Jr. passed away in September 2023 at age 57. The Jazz Funeral is led by Sporty’s Brass Band followed by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs.

Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys, 5/2, FDD, 2:10p: Once a member of the funky Zydeco Force, singer/accordionist Broussard turns to old-school Creole and zydeco with this group.

Jeffrey Osborne, 5/5, CON, 3:45p: Singer-songwriter and former drummer and lead singer for L.T.D. Osborne’s solo career produced many hit songs including “Should be Mine,” “Back in Love Again,” and “On the Wings of Love.”

Jenn Howard Band, 4/26, LAG, 11:30a: Gritty and bluesy singer songwriter from New Orleans. Her latest release Valiant Women features a collaboration with Ivan Neville.

Jeremy Davenport, 4/26, JAZ, 1:30p: Schooled as the featured trumpeter in Harry Connick Jr.’s band, the St. Louis native has carved out a solo career with a tender tone to both his playing and singing on romantic standards and originals. Jermaine Landrum & The Abundant Praise Revival Choir, 5/4, GOS, 1:55p: Jermaine Landrum, the director of this New Orleans-based choir, has been leading gospel groups since the age of 9.

Jesse McBride Big Band, 5/4, JAZ, 2:45p: Pianist Jesse McBride has led The Next Generation for more than ten years, taking over for his mentor Harold Battiste who passed away in 2015.

Jessica Harvey and The Difference, 4/27, GOS, 1:55p: This gospel group from New Orleans are billed as “Just a group of ladies that serve a God who is ‘Simply Amazing.’” Leader Jessica Harvey is also a vocal music teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in New Orleans.

Joan Cadell & The Midnight Choir, 5/3, RHY, 12p: This band straddles the lines between several genres of music.

Americana pop rock with a little country on the side is how Joan Cadell describes her band. They play both the original music and cover songs with an infectious energy and passionate playing style.

Joaquín Pérez y su Herencia Ancestra, 4/26, CEP, 11:30a; 4/26, PAR, 4:10p; 4/27, KID, 12:40p; 4/27, PAR, 3:40p; 4/27, KID, 3:55p; 4/27, CEP, 4:25p; 4/28, CEP, 11:30a; 4/28, PAR, 4:05p; 4/28, CEP, 4:30p: Columbian group headed by flutist Joaquin Perez. who plays a kuizi a flute made from a hollowed cactus stem.

Joe Bonamassa, 5/5, GEN, 3:40p: Blues rock guitarist and singer songwriter from Upstate New York. Both Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck have inspired him. His collaboration with Beth Hart, Seesaw, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Blues Album.

Joe Krown, 5/4, RHY, 2:20p: New Orlean pianist.

Joe Krown +1 featuring Papa Mali, 5/4, BLU, 11:15a: New Orlean pianist and currently a full-time member of Kenny Wayne Shepherd band. Krown lost both members of his popular trio, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste, Jr. in the last year. He is joined with guitarist, singer songwriter Papa Mali.

Joe Lastie’s New Orleans Sound, 5/2, ECO, 11:15a: Drummer Joe Lastie, a member of New Orleans musical Lastie family, who perhaps remains most recognized for his years with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, steps out as leader of his New Orleans Sound band.

Joe Louis Walker, 4/26, BLU, 5:50p: Electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His music has been described as “blues-like” blending ideas and devices from a variety of sources, soul, rock, jazz and gospel. Walker was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame.

John “Papa” Gros, 5/2, GEN, 12:45p: New Orleans funk scene stalwart John “Papa” Gros took his music in a new direction after disbanding Papa Grows Funk in 2013. The powerhouse keyboardist, singer and French horn player recently took vocal lessons to improve the tone and range of his powerful tenor voice, the results of which are evident on his latest album, Central City.

John Boutté, 4/25, JAZ, 2:40p: A local favorite with a high and haunting voice, Boutté is an inspired, passionate interpreter of songs. His acclaim spread widely after his tune “Treme Song” became the theme of the hit HBO series Treme.

John Hollier, 4/27, FS, 11:20a: A longtime sideman to Carly Pearce, John Hollier, a native of central Louisiana who now lives in Nashville, stepped out on his own with his debut album. His music can be described as heartland rock with a twist of country soul. Hollier’s sets are highly energetic and are backed by a fi ve-piece band: two guitars, bass, sax, and drums, with John himself on acoustic guitar.

John Mooney & Bluesiana, 5/5, BLU, 12:30p: Real enough to record for Ruf and Blind Pig and to sit in with Snooks Eaglin and Professor Longhair, John Mooney more or less invented the melding of Delta blues with New Orleans funk.

Johnette Downing & Scott Billington, 5/5, KID, 1:05p: This local duo, comprised of children’s author and guitarist Johnette Downing and Grammy-winning producer and author “Making Tracks” Scott Billington, present a medley of Louisiana roots music dubbed “Swamp Romp.”

Johnny J & The Hitmen, 5/5, BLU, 11:15a: Guitarist Johnny

J. is best known for rockin’ blues and rockabilly.

Johnny Sansone Band, 5/4, BLU, 1:35p: A multi-instrumentalist who draws from swamp-rock, blues and zydeco, Sansone has two aces in the hole: his songwriting and his gut-shaking harmonica solos. For Jazz Fest, Sansone assembles a large band with many local musicians, that should not be missed.

Johnny Sketch and The Dirty Notes, 5/4, LAG, 5p: They’re a funky rock band with a few gonzoid touches. The band’s philosophy can best be summed up by the sentiments of the single and video, “Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance.”

Jon Batiste, 4/26, GEN, 5:30p: Long before he scored his prime gig as Stephen Colbert’s bandleader, Batiste was known here as a dazzling funk and jazz keyboardist who was open to modern pop and hip-hop influences. His album We Are won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, 5/4, FS, 2:30p: Since moving over from the UK in the ’80s, Cleary’s earned a place in the frontline of New Orleans blues singers and keyboardists. He won a Grammy Award for the album GoGo Juice. Cleary has been named Songwriter of the Year and Best Pianist (multiple times) at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards. His upcoming album contains the Mardi Gras anthem “Zulu Coconuts.”

Jonathon “Boogie” Long, 4/27, BLU, 11:15a: This soulful Baton Rouge-based blues guitar slinger has opened for B.B. King and performed with Dr. John, Kenny Neal and many others.

Jontavious Willis, 4/28, BLU, 12:15p: A Grammy-nominated blues guitarist, musician, and songwriter from Georgia. At 14 years of age, he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie Coochie Man” that started his career. He has played with Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ and released his debut album in 2016.

Jonté Landrum, 5/5, GOS, 2:45p: No stranger to Jazz Fest, Landrum sang with the Johnson Extension. A songwriter Landrum said “whatever I’m singing, you will see the Lord in me. I’m ministering, but my church is bigger. It’s the world.”

Josh Kagler & Harmonistic Praise Crusade, 5/4, GOS, 5:15p: This 20-member gospel group from New Orleans, founded in 2004, was originally known as Harmony. Following Hurricane Katrina, they regrouped with a new name and expanded to 20 members.

Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs, 5/3, FDD, 6p: Jourdan Thibodeaux is a fiddle-playing farmer from Cypress Island, Louisiana. Diagnosed with throat cancer at the age of 21, Thibodeaux said doctors planned to remove his larynx. He requested that his voice be recorded before it totally disappeared. Now cancer-free with his voice intact, Thibodeaux cherishes his newfound celebrity while his folksy personality and work ethic remain unchanged.

Jourdan Thibodeaux, Cedric Watson, et Joel Savoy, 5/3, RHY, 3:35p: Singer songwriter Jourdan Thibodeaux is joined with accordion payer Cedric Watson and guitarist Joel Savoy. Expect old style French songs of Southwest Louisiana sung in French.

Joy Clark, 4/28, LAG, 5:20p: New Orleans singer-songwriter and guitarist Joy Clark has performed with Water Seed and Cyril Neville. Her influences range from Tracy Chapman to Anita Baker. She gained notoriety as the founding member of Soulkestra.

Julio y Cesar Band, 5/5, LAG, 12:45p: This duo of local brothers performs Latin American music on twin classical guitars and have recently expanded into a larger band.

Juvenile with Mannie Fresh, 4/28, AM, 49; 4/28, CON, 5:40p: Two of New Orleans’ best-known rappers, Terius Gray (Juvenile) and Byron Otto Thomas (Mannie Fresh). The two are best known for the song “Back That Azz Up” which included rapper Lil Wayne. Fresh a producer for Cash Money Records and a DJ won several OffBeat Best of the Beat awards. Interviewed by Tammy C. Barney.

KKai Knight’s Silhouette Dance Ensemble, 4/28, KID, 11:30a: New Orleans troupe that aims to teach young African-American woman about positive image and selfexpression through dance.

Karma and the Killjoys, 4/25, LAG, 5:25p: From Baton Rouge this alt-rock group is built around voice and grand piano. OffBeat’s Brett Milano said of singer songwriters Sydni Myers and Rain Scott-Catoire, they produce a shimmering bit of pure pop. Karma and the Killjoys were nominated for a Best of the Beat Award in 2023 and they are making their Jazz Fest debut.

Kat Walker Jazz Band - Scat with Ms. Kat, 5/3, KID, 3p: Kids learn the art of scat singing with a live jazz band, karaoke style.

Keep N It Real and We Are One Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SA&PC), 5/3, PAR, 12:30p: This Bayou St. John-based second line club features solid dancers and parades with some of the best brass bands in town.

Kehoe-France Middle School Jazz Ambassadors, 4/26, KID, 4:15p: This Metairie private school choir is open to students from grades three to seven. They have performed at French Quarter Festival, Celebration in the Oaks and many others.

Keith Frank & the Soileau Zydeco Band, 4/28, FDD, 6:05p: A mix of funk and zydeco, OffBeat’s Dan Willging says the music has “killer dance grooves.” Recently he has returned to his Creole roots and brought his great uncle Carlton Frank—one of the few Creole fiddlers—out of retirement and recorded The Masked Band, of mostly time-honored standards.

Kelly Love Jones, 5/4, LAG, 11:30a: Kelly Love Jones calls her music New Orleans Swag. Influences include second line, R&B, hip-hop and folk.

Kem, 4/26, CON, 5:40p: Kim Lamont Owens, better known by his stage name Kem, is an R&B soul singer-songwriter and producer. Born in Nashville, he recently released his fifth studio album, Love Always Wins, featuring Toni Braxton.

Kenny Barron Trio, 4/25, JAZ, 5:45p: Nine-time Grammy nominated jazz pianist who is considered one of the most influential mainstream jazz pianists since the bebop era.

Barron was born in Philadelphia and toured with Yusef Lateef (my music teacher) was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s band, and Freddie Hubbard’s band. He is currently teaching at the Julliard School.

Kenny Neal, 5/5, BLU, 1:35p; 5/5, AM, 4:15p: Neal may be the best living guitarist in the Baton Rouge swamp-blues scene. Interviewed by Scott Jordan—Rolling Stones cover Louisiana Blues and R&B.

Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers, 5/4, CON, 2:05p: One of New Orleans’ most beloved trumpeters and personalities, Kermit Ruffins digs swingin’, smokin’ and partyin’ traditional style.

Kermit Ruffins’ Tribute to Louis Armstrong, 5/5, ECO, 5:35p: Kermit Ruffins shows off his more serious side in this set devoted to his hero, New Orleans’ own Satchmo.

Keyla Richardson, 4/25, GOS, 2:45p: Singer Keyla Richardson, from Pensacola, Florida, hit the gospel charts with her single “So Good.” Richardson was a contestant on BET’s gospel talent competition Sunday Best.

Kid Simmons’ Local International Allstars, 4/25, ECO, 11:20a: An early devotee of George “Kid Sheik” Cola, trumpeter Kid Simmons has been active in traditional jazz since his arrival in New Orleans in 1966. He cut his teeth in Harold Dejean’s Olympia Brass Band and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band.

KID smART Showcase, 4/26, KID, 11:30a: This organization brings arts initiatives to a range of public schools in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, and its student groups have been a fixture in the Kids Tent at Jazz Fest.

Kim Carson & The Real Deal, 5/3, LAG, 5:25p: A longtime New Orleans local who now resides in Houston, Kim Carson is a classic-model honky-tonk angel, able to charm with bawdy humor and then break hearts with a ballad.

Kim Che’re, 4/25, GOS, 1:55p: Gospel singer Kim Che’re Hardy has wowed Jazz Fest audiences. According to music writer Keith Spera, “She sounded a bit like a younger Patti LaBelle, with a slightly huskier voice, minus LaBelle’s overthe-top, upper-register histrionics. And she was every bit the show-woman that LaBelle is.”

Kinfolk Brass Band, 5/4, FS, 11:15a; 5/4, J&H, 3:25p: Formed in 2006, the Kinfolk are true to the traditional brass band sound, performing classics like “Bourbon Street Parade” and “I’ll Fly Away” along with original songs.

Kombilesa Mi, 4/27, CEP, 2:05p; 4/27, AM, 4:309; 4/28, CON, 2:50p; 4/28, CEP, 5p: Hailing from Palenque, Columbia, the first free black town in the Americas, this hip hop group overlays traditional Colombian rhythms and instruments with lyrics in both Spanish and the local language, Palenquero.

Interviewed by Dan Sharp.

Kristin Diable & The City, 5/4, LAG, 12:50p: This deepvoiced Baton Rouge native made a name for herself in New York City’s singer-songwriter community before returning to New Orleans. NPR likened her singing on Create Your Own Mythology (2015) to that of a lighter hearted Amy Winehouse. Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective, 4/28, J&H, 11:20a: Founded in 1983 and based in New Orleans, this troupe brings African music and dance to grade schools throughout Louisiana; members range from ages 10 to 55.

LLa Tran-K Band, 5/5, CEP, 11:30a: Latin band from New Orleans specializing in salsa.

Lacher Prise avec Michael Doucet, 5/2, FDD, 12:45p: Best known as the frontman for BeauSoleil, Michael Doucet’s solo project Lâcher Prise includes guitarist Chad Viator. The music includes Doucet’s originals that are not necessarily Cajun songs but a bluesy take on Louisiana songwriting great Bobby Charles. Lâcher Prise is founded on musical freedom and the concept of “letting go,” a loose translation of the Cajun French phrase. Doucet said, “I’ve reached a point in my life and career where I can do whatever the hell I want to do.”

Lakecia Benjamin, 4/25, AM, 1:45p; 4/25, JAZ, 4:05p: Lakecia Benjamin, 4/25, JAZ, 4:05p, Jazz and R&B saxophonist from New York. She has performed with Missy Elliot, Alicia

Keys, Stevie Wonder, Gregory Porter and many others. She performed for President Barack Obama’s 2009 Inauguration. She makes her Jazz Fest debut after suffering a serious car accident in 2021. Interviewed by Charles Burchell.

Lars Edegran & the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, 4/27, ECO, 11:15a: Lars Edegran played the first Jazz Fest in 1970 with the Ragtime Orchestra. Born in Sweden, Edegran most often plays piano but also plays the guitar, banjo, mandolin, clarinet, and saxophone. His theatrical arrangements include the music for One Mo’ Time.

Lars Edegran, Kid Simmons and Clive Wilson: European Expats in New Orleans, 5/3, AM, 12:15p: Interviewed by Sally Young.

Lawrence Sieberth’s Estrella Banda, 4/28, JAZ, 4:15p: New Orleans-based pianist and composer Lawrence Sieberth has a knack for blending classical and world music with modern jazz. When he’s not leading his own projects, he performs regularly with Germaine Bazzle, Lena Prima and Gerald French.

LB Landry Gospel Choir, 4/26, GOS, 12:35p: A 40-plus member gospel choir from the West Bank.

Legacy of Wayne Shorter with Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, and Special Guest Chris Potter, 5/4, JAZ, 5:30p: Saxophonist and composer, Wayne Shorter, passed away in 2023. His performances at Jazz Fest included pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and New Orleans own drummer Brian Blade. Saxophonist Chris Potter replaces Shorter.

Lena Prima and the TLP Band, 5/5, LAG, 5:20p: The youngest daughter of Louis Prima performs her dad’s classics along with her own jazz-pop material. Lena Prima’s recent album, Prima La Famiglia, issued by Basin Street Records, interprets her father’s repertoire.

Leo Jackson & The Melody Clouds, 4/28, GOS, 12:10p: This family group, known for its rousing vocals and synchronized steps, was formed in 1965 and is now led by founder Leo Jackson’s son.

Leo Nocentelli, 5/4, GEN, 2:05p: The original Meters guitarist played a key role in shaping New Orleans funk, working Hendrix-inspired guitar leads into the band’s slinky setting. He was also the most prolific songwriter in the group, taking the lead on “Cissy Strut,” “Hey Pocky Way” and other signature songs. With the discovery of a solo album recorded in 1971, it’s likely that Nocentelli’s Jazz Fest set will showcase original work from the earliest years of his career.

Leroy Jones & New Orleans’ Finest, 5/5, ECO, 1:40p: Trumpeter Leroy Jones is a protégé of the legendary Danny Barker. At age 13, he was leading the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. In 1991, Jones joined Harry Connick Jr.’s band. He has also appeared with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Dr. John.

Leyla McCalla, 4/26, FDD, 12:20p: A first-generation Haitian American, Leyla McCalla made a name for herself by mixing ancestral Creole folk with Cajun fiddle and Dixieland banjo—among other innovations—on the streets of the French Quarter.

Lil Mike & Funny Bone, 5/3, J&H, 4:35p: Native American brothers and rappers from Oklahoma City. They made their world debut with on America’s Got Talent. They are members of the Pawnee Tribe, and their music reflects their extreme faith in God.

Lil’ Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, 5/3, FDD, 3p: This young accordion player from Lafayette scored a regional hit with “That L’Argent,” a hip-hop flavored zydeco tune about the power of money. His dad is Nathan Williams of the Zydeco Cha Chas.

Lilli Lewis Project, 4/27, LAG, 1:35p: Classically trained singer-songwriter Lilli Lewis describes her music as follows: “If Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Odetta Holmes had had a baby, and that baby had had a baby, and that baby had had another baby…. well that baby would probably be me.” Her latest album, Americana, features country and folk-style songs along with spirituals and splashes of funk and rhythm and blues.

Little Freddie King Blues Band, 5/4, BLU, 12:25p: The Mississippi Delta-born Little Freddie King plays raw juke-joint blues with style, and he’s one of the best dressed performers found on any stage. King was recently honored with OffBeat’s Lifetime Achievement in Music Award.

Los Cumbia Stars, 4/26, GEN, 11:20a; 4/26, CEP, 3:30p; 4/27, CDP, 12:40p; 4/27, J&H, 3:15p: A Columbia group that performs Colombian tropical music. A large group led by composer and guitarist Juan Pablo Acosta. This cumbia group has been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. Their lead singers are Cristina Escamilla and Juan Carlos Torres.

Los Güiros, 5/2, CEP, 12:40p; 5/2, J&H, 2:45p: Led by Corina Hernandez, Los Guiros blends traditional Columbian cumbia folkloric dance rhythms with trippy guitar driven sounds of Peruvian chicha all with modern electronic instruments. They are one of the hottest Latin bands from New Orleans.

Lost Bayou Ramblers, 4/26, FDD, 6p: This band typically plays traditional Cajun music but incorporates Western swing, rockabilly, and punk rock elements. Leader Louis Michot has revived forgotten classics and sings almost entirely in Cajun French. The Lost Bayou Ramblers have collaborated with many artists, including Spider Stacey of The Pogues. The band’s 2017 release Kalenda received a Grammy for the Best Regional Roots Music Album.

Louis Ford & his New Orleans Flairs, 4/25, ECO, 1:40p: Clarinetist and saxophonist Louis Ford’s father was Clarence Ford, who played with Fats Domino. Louis will lead his old-time New Orleans jazz band through a set of traditional music.

Louis Michot, 4/26, RHY, 3:35p: Fiddle player and lead singer for the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Michot’s Melody Makers. His solo album Rêve du Troubadour is an eclectic, genre-defying blockbuster atypical of his work with the Lost Bayou Ramblers, with guests Leyla McCalla, Quintron, Shardé Thomase and Bombino.

Louis Prima Jr. & The Witnesses, 4/28, ECO, 3p: The youngest child of Louis Prima and Gia Maione. Like his father he plays the trumpet and sometimes drums. Expect a medley of “Angelina” and “Zooma Zooma” and their rendition of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody.”

Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, 4/26, ECO, 11:15a: Fred Starr leads this local traditional jazz septet with a focus on tight arrangements of tunes by Sam Morgan and other music from the turn of the century.

Loyola University Jazz Band featuring Bria Skonberg, 4/25, JAZ, 11:15a: Students from Loyola’s jazz program—the oldest in the city—make up this group. They are joined by Canadian trumpeter Bria Skonberg, a frequent visitor to New Orleans, with a trumpet style indebted to Louis Armstrong.

Lucio Feuillet, 5/4, GEN, 12:45p; 5/4, CEP, 5p; 5/5, PAR, 2:15p; 5/5, CEP, 3:40p: From Nariñense in Columbia, Feuillet is a songwriter and guitarist. His original song “Una Pena” was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Feuillet mixes sounds and harmonies inspired by the carnaval “murgas” of South Colombia with more contemporary electric elements.

Lulu & the Broadsides, 5/3, LAG, 4:15p: Singer-songwriter Dayna Kurtz wanted to be a broad she named Lulu all her life. The band plays “lost songs” of all types and has been described as if the American standard moved down to New Orleans, got drunk and had a baby. Kurtz also includes some original material.

Luther Kent & Trickbag, 4/26, BLU, 1:40p: This Southernfried soul man, who fronted Blood, Sweat & Tears for a short stint in the ’70s, is joined by the funky Trickbag.

LVVRS, 4/28, GEN, 12:30p: LVVRS (lovers) are rockers crafting sounds that are a blend of disco pop and ’70s rock ’n’ roll. They released their debut EP Midnight Fantasy this past February.

Lyle Henderson & Emmanu-EL, 5/2, GOS, 12:55p: A former radio DJ at R&B and gospel stations for WYLD, Lyle Henderson also coordinates the gospel brunches at the House of Blues.

Lynn Drury, 4/27, LAG, 5:25p: Lynn Drury was part of the artistic migration to New Orleans that took place around the turn of the millennium. Always a powerful performer in both solo and group contexts, she grew in stature as a songwriter as she thrived in the local music scene and helped to reestablish that culture in the heroic years following the 2005 Katrina flood. Today Drury is a stalwart presence in the city and recently appeared on OffBeat’s March 2024 cover.

M Maggie Koerner, 5/4, GEN, 11:20a; 5/4, AM, 3p: Maggie Koerner earned plenty of new fans when she held down the vocal role during a series of Galactic tours a few years back, but her powerful voice and intense stage presence make her solo shows equally exciting. Interviewed by Alison Fensterstock.

Mahmoud Chouki, 5/5, LAG, 1:50p; 5/5, RHY, 4:45p: Born in Morocco and now living in New Orleans, Mahmoud Chouki is a classically trained guitarist, oud and banjo player. Chouki composed the music score for the 2021 Sundance Award winning film Ma Belle, My Beauty. In 2021, Chouki was named Best Emerging Artist at the 2020 Best of the Beat Awards. He is often joined by local musicians, including saxophonist Brad Walker, and Khris Royal, bassist Martin Masakowski and others.

Marc Broussard, 5/3, GEN, 4p: The Lafayette singer, songwriter and guitarist grew up around vintage swamp-pop but has since found his niche with a mix of soulful roots music and adult-contemporary pop. His style is best described as “Bayou Soul,” a mix of funk, blues, R&B, rock, and pop. He has opened tours for both the Dave Matthews Band and Maroon 5.

Marc Stone, 4/28, BLU, 11:10a; 4/28, RHY, 2:20p: Singersongwriter and guitarist Marc Stone is a roots and blues slide guitarist. Stone was born in New York but arrived in New Orleans more than 20 years ago. Stone has collaborated with Walter “Wolfman” Washington, John Mooney, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr., Shannon McNally and many others.

Marcella Ratcliff, 4/26, JAZ, 12:20p: Jazz and R&B singer from Baton Rouge.

Marcia Ball, 5/5, BLU, 4:10p: A Jazz Fest perennial, the singer, songwriter and pianist born in Texas and raised in Vinton, Louisiana, is a multi-award-winning artist. Her work with Tracy Nelson and Irma Thomas for “Sing It!, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Mariachi Jalisco, 5/5, PAR, 1:15p; 5/5, CEP, 3:10p; 5/5, J&H, 4:25p: Baton Rouge-based alumni of Cuba’s Mariachi Real Jalisco reunite to perform music from their hometown of Havana.

Mark Braud’s New Orleans Jazz Giants, 5/2, ECO, 12:40p: Mark Braud is the musical director of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This trumpeter and vocalist leads a different cast of traditional jazz players for a change of pace.

Matachinde, 5/3, CON, 11:15a; 5/3, CEP, 2:05p; 5/4, CEP, 11:30a; 5/4, J&H, 2:15p; 5/5, CEP, 12:40p: Grupo Matachindé is a folk music group from Yurumangui, Columbia. They seek to preserve cultural and artistic identity through the staging of Colombian roots music.

Melvin “Maestro” Winfield Jr. & The Glory Chorale Commu-

nity Choir (GCCC), 4/25, GOS, 11:15a: New Orleans Gospel choir lead by Melvin “Maestro” Windfield, Jr.

Mem Shannon & the Membership, 4/25, RHY, 12p; 4/25, BLU, 3p: Inspired to play the blues by B.B. King, local guitarist and singer Mem Shannon made a splash when he incorporated recorded conversations from his previous cabbie gig into his first major album.

Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, 5/3, BLU, 1:30p: Once a Royal Street performer, Meschiya Lake made herself a marquee name in the local traditional jazz scene. Lake and her band are getting more attention worldwide thanks to her vintage sass and great storytelling.

Mestre Curtis Pierre “The Samba Man” and the Samba Kids, 5/4, KID, 4:15p: The self-professed “Samba King of New Orleans” leads the Afro-Brazilian troupe he founded in 1987 in a series of parades and performances.

Mia Borders, 5/5, GEN, 11:20a; 5/5, AM, 3:15p: A native of New Orleans, singer-songwriter Mia Borders has great vocals and compelling songwriting. Her recent album, Good Side of Bad, is “well-steeped in classic soul.” Interviewed by Holly Hobbs.

Michael “The Sheik” O’Hara, 4/27, RHY, 2:20p: Frontman and vocalist for the ’80s band The Sheiks, O’Hara left the band in 1985 and wrote songs for Anita Baker, Patti LaBelle and Donna Summer. He is back with his trademark Arabianstyle headscarves, and a collection of new songs.

Michael Franti & Spearhead, 4/28, FS, 3:45p: Singer songwriter, rapper, poet, and activist, known for his participation in musical projects with a political and social emphasis. Franti brings a positive message, singing about peace and love. Expect to hear “Life is Better With You,” “Say Hey (I Love You),” “Work Hard And Be Nice,” “Life Is Amazing,” and “Follow Your Heart.” You should leave the show feeling happy, fulfilled, and with a better outlook on life.

Michael Skinkus and Moyuba, 4/25, CEP, 11:30a: Moyuba was founded in 2002 by Skinkus as a pet project specifically to bless the fairgrounds during the first day of Jazz Fest. Moyuba compositions are based upon the sacred rhythms and songs of the Yoruba culture as preserved in Cuban Santeria. Skinkus, an “Aña” drummer, uses this sacred source music for his African diasporic Jazz compositions which this year will feature Cuban pianist Victor Campbell as part of his 10-piece band.

Michael Ward, 4/25, LAG, 12:35p: Electric violinist Michael Ward is a San Antonio native but has long been a resident of New Orleans. Known as a smooth jazz musician who prefers calling his style “contemporary instrumental urban music.”

Midnite Disturbers, 4/27, J&H, 4:45p: This all-star brass band only comes together at Jazz Fest when schedules allow, and the planets align. Drummers Stanton Moore and the late Kevin O’Day cofounded the band; among those who’ve been part of the lineup are Mark Mullins (Bonerama), Ben Elman (Galactic), Matt Perrine (Tin Men), Big Sam (Funky Nation) and many other notables.

Minos The Saint, 4/27, LAG, 11:30a: Songwriter and guitarist, Peter Simon and multi-instrumentalist Ben Herrington are Minos The Saint, a rock band from Baton Rough that are compared to Simon & Garfunkel, Antonio Jobin and Philip Glass. They have evolved from a duo to include a brass section grows to a powerful fi ve pieces.

Miss Martha & her Goodtime Gang, 4/25, RHY, 2:20p: A New

Orleans country music band that have been playing for over 10 years and are often at the Old Point Bar in Algiers.

Mohawk Hunters and Shining Star Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 4/28, PAR, 2:15p: Big Chief Tyrone Casby leads the Mohawk Hunters and Big Chief Jimmie Ricks, a veteran Spyboy and Second Chief for Larry Bannock’s Golden Star Hunters.

Mokoomba of Zimbabwe, 4/25, CEP, 12:40p; 4/25, CON, 4:15p: From Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, the group sings in a number of languages. They combine traditional and modern instruments and a variety of international pop and pan-African styles, including soukous, funk and reggae.

Mokoomba was the subject of the 2010 documentary film

Mokoomba: From One River Bank to Another.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, 4/27, AM, 12:30p; 4/27, FS, 3:25p: Molly Tuttle is a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist and singer, songwriter from California. The music is bluegrass but pushes the genre into new directions. Her latest album is co-produced by dobro player Jerry Douglas. Interviewed by Mollie Farr.

Monogram Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/5, PAR, 2:45p: James Harris, aka Big Chief Yam, created this uptown gang after stints with the Creole Wild West and the Wild Magnolias. Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church Mass Choir, 4/27, GOS, 11:15a: The members of this large local church choir range in age from teenagers to septuagenarians.

Motel Radio, 4/27, GEN, 2:45p: This local quintet performs Americana with an indie rock streak.

Mount Hermon Baptist Church Praise Delegation Choir, 5/3, GOS, 6:05p: Bishop Sean T. Elder, who writes much of his group’s music, leads this choir from a church on North Broad Street in New Orleans.

Mr. Sipp, 4/26, AM, 12:30p; 4/26, BLU, 3p: Singer-songwriter and guitarist Castro Coleman, a.k.a. Mr. Sipp, is from McComb, Mississippi. He started playing the guitar at age six. He has won several awards for his Malaco recordings and was featured in the James Brown biopic Get On Up. Interviewed by OffBeat’s John Wirt.

Muévelo, 5/5, J&H, 1:55p: Muévelo, which means “move it” in Spanish, is a nine-piece Latin music ensemble led by singer Margie Perez and saxophonist Brent Rose. Perez is a versatile singer who performs with many bands and emulates the energy and spirit of Celia Cruz.

N Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, 5/4, FDD, 6p: Nathan Williams sprung from his brother’s club, El Sid O’s in Lafayette, to become one of zydeco’s biggest names—and to write its two greatest porcine songs, “Zydeco Hog” and “Everything on the Hog is Good.”

Naturally 7, 4/26, JAZ, 4:15p: An a cappella group from New York. Formed in 1999 by brothers Roger and Warren Thomas, from Rosedale, Queens. The group gained success by the partial cover of Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” titled as “Feel It (In the Air Tonight).” They have performed with Michael Bublé and Ludacris.

Naughty Professor, 5/3, GEN, 11:15a: Naughty Professor is a New Orleans-based jazz-funk sextet.

Neil Young Crazy Horse, 5/4, FS, 5:30p: Singer songwriter known as the “Godfather of Grunge.” He was a member of Buffalo Springfield and a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him

twice, and Rolling Stone placed him number 30 on their list of 250 greatest guitarists. His songs include “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” “Rockin’ in the Free World” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

New Birth Brass Band, 4/27, GEN, 12:20p: Featuring trumpeter Will Smith and other former students of the famed Olympia Brass Band, this long-running ensemble boasts Glen David Andrews and Trombone Shorty among its alumni.

New Breed Brass Band with guest Trombone Shorty, 5/2, FS, 12p: Their latest album Made in New Orleans was nominated for a Grammy and was produced by Trombone Shorty. The group is led by drummer Jenard Andrews who is James Andrews son and Trombone Shorty’s cousin.

New Generation Brass Band, 5/5, PAR, 4:15p: New Generation Brass Band will be parading with Lady & Men Rollers and Scene Boosters Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

New Generation Social Aid & Pleasure Club, 5/4, PAR, 1:45p: Social Aid & Pleasure Club parade in Economic Hall.

New Hope Baptist Church Mass Choir, 5/4, GOS, 6:10p: This 100-plus choir is from Birmingham, Alabama. Gospel greats Ruby Boyd and Dr. John David Brown previously led the choir. Currently, the choir is led by Reverend Prince E. Yelder.

New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra, 5/3, ECO, 11:20a: A multi-generational, always-entertaining large ensemble that plays only ’90s music—as in the 1890s, when the shipboard dance music and early jazz they favor was first created.

New Orleans Dance Collective, 4/27, KID, 11:30a: The New Orleans Dance Collective (NODC) is a non-profit organization using dance as intervention for inner-city at-risk youth. NODC teaches tap, hip hop, jazz and ballet.

New Orleans Gospel Soul Children, 5/5, GOS, 12:55p: Led by Craig Adams, this long-standing local gospel group delivers energetic and choreographed renditions of gospel standards.

New Orleans Guitar Masters: John Rankin, Jimmy Robinson, and Cranston Clements, 5/3, LAG, 1:50p; 5/3, AM, 4:15p: The New Orleans Guitar Masters is a collaboration between some of the best New Orleans guitarists: John Rankin, Cranston Clements and Jimmy Robinson. The trio has been performing together for several years and include original compositions from each member along with interesting arrangements of cover material. Interviewed by Missy Bowen.

New Orleans Jazz Vipers, 5/2, ECO, 2:10p: This swinging drumless quintet brings a mix of still-timely standards like “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and lesser-known swing tunes to their frequent gigs in New Orleans.

New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, 5/5, LAG, 4:10p: Innovators of a funked-up localized take on traditional Jewish music, this band’s past and present members include scions of the city’s jazz and funk scenes.

New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Rhythm Section, 4/27, PAR, 2:15p: Parading Mardi Gras Indians.

New Orleans Nightcrawlers, 4/25, GEN, 1:45p: Not your average second line street band. The Nightcrawlers add new harmonic substance and challenging arrangements to the funky New Orleans sound. The band includes familiar faces from Bonerama and Galactic. Their latest album, Too Much To Hold was nominated for a Grammy and Atmosphere won a Grammy in 2021.

New Orleans Suspects, 4/25, GEN, 11:20a: The New Orleans Suspects were formed in 2009 for a jam session. Comprised of some of the most seasoned players, the group called themselves The Unusual Suspects. They have established themselves as one of New Orleans’ best supergroups. The band consists of Neville Brothers drummer “Mean” Willie Green, Dirty Dozen guitarist Jake Eckert, James Brown’s bandleader saxophonist Jeff Watkins, keyboardist CR Gruver and bassist Eric Vogel.

New Wave Brass Band, 4/26, PAR, 12:10p: Snare drummer Oscar Washington is at the helm of this updated traditional New Orleans brass band.

Nicholas Payton & Nth Power, 4/27, JAZ, 5:50p: In recent years, the #BAM proponent has shifted from trumpet to the keyboard chair, from which he often plays both instruments together. A savvy producer, Nicholas Payton has lately been delving into electronic music with an R&B sensitivity.

Nickel Creek, 5/4, FDD, 4:15p: Bluegrass band with Chris Thile on mandolin and siblings, Sara Watkins on fiddle and Sean Watkins on guitar. The band has received several Grammy nominations and released a new album in 2023.

Chris Thile is also a singer, songwriter and composer. In 2012 Thile received MacArthur Fellow known as “Genius Grant.”

Nineveh Baptist Church Mass Choir with Dr. Hezekiah Brinson, 5/5, GOS, 6p: The roof-raising Nineveh Mass Choir is directed by Minister of Music Hezekiah Brinson Jr. Ninth Ward Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/5, PAR, 1:50p: Mardi Gras Indian parade.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 4/27, FDD, 5:45p: They began with psychedelic-tinged jug band music, but they are now known as a straightforward country band. Known for “Mr. Bojangles,” “Fishin’ in the Dark” and the Will the Circle Be Unbroken projects, this is their Jazz Fest debut as well as their farewell tour. See the interview with frontman Jeff Hanna in this issue.

NOCCA Jazz Ensemble, 4/28, JAZ, 11:15a: This student group is based at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, whose graduates include Harry Connick, Jr., Nicholas Payton, Trombone Shorty and the Marsalis brothers.

NOCOA Community Choir, 4/26, GOS, 11:10a: Besides providing assistance to older adults, the New Orleans Council on Aging supports a community choir.

Norbert Susemihl’s New Orleans Allstars, 4/25, ECO, 12:30p: No stranger to New Orleans, Susemihl is a German trumpeter, drummer, singer, and bandleader. He has studied in New Orleans and makes frequent trips to New Orleans. He has recorded with Jason Marsalis, Seva Venet, Wanda Rouzan, Freddie Lonzo and Lars Edgegran.

Northside Skull & Bone Gang, 4/28, PAR, 4:30p: In the wee hours of Mardi Gras morning, a group of men dressed as skeletons roam the streets of the New Orleans neighborhood of Tremé as part of a centuries-old Black Carnival tradition.

OOld & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Club, 4/26, PAR, 4p: Social aid and pleasure club parades.

Omari Neville & The Fuel, 4/25, CON, 1:35p: Cyril Neville, Omari’s father, featured the Fuel at Jazz Fest for years. Now on his own, Omari’s band is a fusion of New Orleans funk, rock, reggae, punk and soul. Daryl Johnson and Eric Struthers (alumni of the Neville Brothers) and Omari Neville make up the group.

One Mind Brass Band, 4/25, PAR, 4p: This ten-member

group is influenced by the Rebirth Brass Band, New Birth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Stooges Brass Band. Their sound is a unique mix of traditional jazz, R&B, blues, soul and rap.

One Shot Brass Band, 5/2, PAR, 1:15p: From New Orleans this hard-working traditional brass band, One Shot Brass Band, can be found at Mardi Gras parades and other events.

OperaCréole, 5/5, KID, 2:45p: This vocal ensemble focuses on lost or rarely performed operatic and classical music, often spotlighting the contributions of African American and Creole artists from New Orleans’ past.

Original Big 7 and Sisters of Unity SA&PC, 4/26, PAR, 12:10p: Social Aid and Pleasure Club parade.

Original Four and VIP Ladies Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, 5/2, PAR, 1:15p: Social Aid and Pleasure Club parade.

Original NO Lady Buckjumpers, Prince of Wales, and Good Fellas SA&PCs, 5/5, PAR, 4:20p: The Original New Orleans Lady Buckjumpers and Men Buckjumpers have been rolling in second line parades for more than 32 years.

Original Pinettes Brass Band, 5/3, FS, 12:15p: Billed as “The World’s Only All Female Brass Band,” the Pinettes were formed by a group of students at St. Mary’s Academy in 1991. They won the Red Bull Street Kings brass competition in 2013.

Oscar Rossignoli Quintet, 4/28, JAZ, 12:20p: Jazz pianist and composer. Rossignoli is a native of Honduras but has been based in New Orleans since 2015. Rossignoli folds many traditions into his music, from his classical music formation to his passion for Latin and North American jazz.

Oumou Sangaré of Mali, 4/26, CON, 4:10p: Grammy Awardwinning musician and singer from Mali, often referred to as “The Songbird of Wassoulou.” Sangaré won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Herbie Hancock, Pink, India Arie, Seal, Konono Nº1 and Jeff Beck.

PPalmetto Bug Stompers, 5/4, ECO, 5:40p: The Palmetto Bug Stompers are some of New Orleans finest purveyors of traditional New Orleans jazz. Band members include Washboard Chaz on washboard and vocals and Charlie Halloran on trombone.

Panorama Jazz Band, 4/26, LAG, 5:25p: Influenced by styles from around the globe, this hip band comprised of top local instrumentalists blends New Orleans jazz traditions with klezmer, Latin and Balkan sounds.

Papa Mali Trio, 4/25, FS, 1:40p: Best known as frontman for 7 Walkers (a band that includes Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and the Meters’ founding bassist, George Porter Jr.), Papa Mali is an accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Pardon My French!, 5/4, RHY, 1:10p: A New Orleans-based vintage French jazz band, members of Pardon My French! include guitarist Pete Roze, singer Caroline Fourmy, bassist Joshua Gouzy and accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman. The band performs music by Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, and others, including Serge Gainsbourg, Eartha Kitt and Pink Martini favorites.

Pastor Jai Reed, 5/5, GOS, 12:05p: This New Orleans Baptist minister is a soulful singer in the Stevie Wonder tradition, doing gospel with a contemporary R&B influence.

Pastor Tyrone Jefferson, 4/25, GOS, 5:05p: This New Orleans native is the Senior Pastor of the Abundant Life Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Church and the CEO of Abundant

Life Ministries. His extensive work serving the community has included efforts to improve voting rates, feed the hungry and get more young people enrolled in college.

Patrice Fisher & Arpa with guests from Martinique, 5/3, LAG, 12:40p: This Latin jazz ensemble is led by versatile professional harpist Patrice Fisher, who has been performing and recording her original compositions since the early ’80s.

Patrice Rushen, 4/28, AM, 3p; 4/28, JAZ, 5:45p: Jazz pianist, R&B singer and composer. She has been nominated several times for a Grammy award. Her song “Hang It Up” was featured on the 2005 video game Fahrenheit. Interviewed by Melissa Weber.

Paul Sanchez and The Rolling Road Show, 5/4, FS, 12:05p: Cowboy Mouth alum Paul Sanchez has since been a friendly godfather to the local songwriter scene, and the co-writer of the post-Katrina musical Nine Lives. Sanchez transforms audiences with a unique blend of music and storytelling.

Paula & the Pontiacs, 4/28, LAG, 11:30a: New Orleans blues band Paula and the Pontiacs are fronted by saxophonist, harmonica player and vocalist Paula Rangell. After losing her home after Katrina, Rangell now lives in Folsom. She hasn’t been at Jazz Fest since 2019.

Paulette Wright, 5/2, GOS, 1:45p: Gospel singer from New Orleans. She has toured the globe and has been singing since the age of 4 years old.

People Museum, 4/27, GEN, 11:15a: A pop art, electronic band from the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. Formed by Jeremy Phipps and Claire Givens, they are joined with Aaron Boudreaux and Charles Lumar ll. Michael Sell in OffBeat described them as “Brian Eno producing dream pop in New Orleans.”

Peter Harris and Firm Roots ft. Herlin Riley, Dwight Fitch, Jr., Derek Douget and Ashlin Parker, 5/3, JAZ, 12:20p: A New Orleans jazz super group headed by New Orleans bassist Peter Harris. Firm Roots also includes drummer, Herlin Riley, saxophonist Derek Douget, trumpeter Ashlin Parker and pianist Dwight Fitch, Jr. They frequently perform at the Bayou Bar at the Pontchartrain Hotel.

Pine Leaf Boys, 4/27, FDD, 3p: This band has spearheaded the latest revival of Cajun music, bridged new and traditional music and snagging four Grammy nominations. Leader Wilson Savoy is the son of Cajun music’s first couple, Marc and Ann Savoy.

PJ Morton, 5/4, CON, 3:45p: New Orleans native PJ Morton came to fame as the touring keyboardist for Maroon 5 and was made a full-time member in 2012. He launched his solo career with the hit “Only One” featuring Stevie Wonder and has consistently been nominated for a Grammy Award. PJ Morton has also won several Best of the Beat awards, twice for Allen Toussaint Songwriter of the Year Award.

Players Ella & Louie Tribute Band featuring Kiki Chapman & Wendell Brunious, 4/25, ECO, 4:30p: Bassist Mitchell Player is joined by trumpeter Wendell Brunious and vocalist Kiki Chapman for a tribute to the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. The band usually includes drummer, Gerald French, pianist Leslie Martin and guitarist Eric Merchant.

Pocket Aces Brass Band, 4/28, J&H, 5:40p: This Bridge City brass-hop band began as a few friends who got together for an annual Mardi Gras jam before expanding to a full-time touring outfit.

Pow Wows with Native Nations Intertribal, 4/25, FLS,

12:05p; 4/25, FLS, 1:15p; 4/25, FLS, 3:40p; 4/26, FLS, 12p; 4/26, FLS, 1:10p; 4/26, FLS, 3:40p; 4/27, FLS, 12:05p; 4/27, FLS, 1:15p; 4/27, FLS, 2:35p: Daily exhibition of pow wow performances include traditional shawls, straight dance, grass dance, and jingle, hoop, southern cloth and stomp dances. The groups include Grammy winners Northern Cree of Canada and Native Nations Intertribal.

Pow Wows with Nimkii & The Niniis, 5/3, FLS, 12:05p; 5/3, FLS, 1:20p; 5/3, FLS, 4p; 5/4, FLS, 12:05p; 5/4, FLS, 1:15p; 5/4, FLS, 2:30p; 5/5, FLS, 12:05p; 5/5, FLS, 2:25p; 5/5, FLS, 3:30p: Daily exhibition of pow wow performances include traditional shawls, straight dance, grass dance, and jingle, hoop, southern cloth and stomp dances. Nimkii Osawamick is an Anishinaabe dance artist from Wikwemikong, Unceded Reserve located in Manitoulin Island and is a member of the Wolf Clan. Nimkii has been dancing since the age of three years old.

Preservation Brass, 5/4, ECO, 1:45p: Featuring bass drummer Tanio Hingle, snare drummer Kerry “Fat Man” Hunter and trumpeter Will Smith, plus a rotating roster of players, the Preservation Hall Brass aims to serve as the jazz collective’s go-to brass band arm, like the Olympia Brass Band once did in past decades.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 4/26, GEN, 3:45p: This New Orleans music institution’s profile is higher than ever. Their guest-heavy Jazz Fest sets are always festival highlights.

Prophetess Flora and The Angels of Light Gospel Singers, 5/2, GOS, 11:15a: Gospel group headed by Pastor, Prophetess Flora Alexander from Abbeville, Louisiana.

QQueen Latifah, 5/4, CON, 5:40p: Rap pioneer turned actor, was born Dana Owens. Her performances contain a mix of hip-hop, jazz, gospel, R&B soul and dance. She has received numerous awards include a Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe. Her performances include “Ladies First” and “Just Another Day” as well as covers from Naughty By Nature.

Quiana Lynell, 5/5, JAZ, 2:40p: Jazz vocalist Quiana Lynell won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2017 and was featured on a cover of OffBeat.

RRainy Eyes, 4/26, RHY, 2:20p: Norwegian born singer songwriter, Irena Eide, moved to California, but is now living in New Orleans. The band’s music, swampy folk Americana is soulful with tight-knit harmonies. The band includes Louisiana musicians, Chris Stafford on electric guitar, Ian Guidroz on bass and Ethan Brasseaux on drums.

RAM of Haiti, 5/5, CEP, 2:05p: RAM is a mizik rasin band from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Led by the group’s namesake and founder Richard A. Morse and his wife, Lunise, the group has recently relocated to New Orleans. Mizik rasin means “roots music” in Haitian creole. RAM’s music is a hybrid of styles mixing traditional voudou lyrics and Haitian rhythmic instrumentation including rara horns and petro drums with funky rock-influenced sounds.

Rancho Aparte, 4/25, PAR, 2:45p; 4/25, CEP, 3:10p; 4/25, CEP, 5p; 4/26, FS, 12:15a; 4/26, CEP, 5p: A group from Columbia consisting of young musicians playing songs and rhythms that evoke Africa. They perform on traditional instruments including copper saxhorn, the tambora and traditional cymbals. Dino Manuelle is the vocalist.

Ray Boudreaux, 5/3, GEN, 12:20p: From Lafayette singer songwriter, Ray Boudreaux was one of top eight contestants on NBC’s The Voice. Boudreaux was influenced early on by

Cajun culture and swamp-pop music, but today he is more of a soul singer.

Real Love, 5/5, CON, 11:20a: A New Orleans R&B vocal group. The three vocalist are Rene “Horse” Fleury, Nathaniel “Nat” Brooks and Cornelius “C.C.” Celestine. They perform old school hits from Motown, Atlantic Records, Stax and more.

Real Untouchable Brass Band, 5/5, PAR, 12:15p: This local brass crew adds congas to its otherwise street-centric sound. Rebirth Brass Band, 4/28, CON, 4p: Rebirth was one of the first bands to modernize and funkify the New Orleans brass band sound. They won their first Grammy in 2012 for the album Rebirth of New Orleans and are frequent award winners at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat.

Reggie Houston’s World Of Rhythms: From Africa to Congo Square to The World, 5/3, KID, 4:10p: A New Orleans born saxophonist who joined the Batiste Family Band when he was 12 years old. He helped create the Jazz & Heritage Festival where he was employed for several years. He has performed with Irma Thomas, Dr. John and was a permanent member of Fats Domino’s band for 22 years. Reggie uses performance and hands-on teaching to trace musical origins from Africa through the slave routes all the way through its evolution to modern styles and explores the rhythms underlying blues, jazz, and funk.

Renée Gros & Tiago Guy, 4/27, RHY, 12p: New Orleans based singer songwriter Renée Gros with Brazilian guitarist and singer Tiago Guy perform music steeped in R&B and Gospel with a touch of Brazilian sounds. Gross was the lead singer for Russell Batiste, Jr.’s band.

Rhiannon Giddens, 5/4, AM, 2p; 5/4, BLU, 4:15p: Folk music violinist and banjo player was one of the founding members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Singer songwriter and composer Giddens won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera “Omar” and received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellows. She has worked with Jason Isbell, Dirk Powell, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell and many others. NPR called her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.” Interviewed by Gwen Thompkins.

Rich Collins, 4/26, LAG, 12:40p: Singer-songwriter, multiinstrumentalist and co-founder of the Imagination Movers, Rich Collins writes songs with stick-in-your head melodies. Collins combines pop sensibility with a more complex sound. Ricky Sebastian & Pat Casey present the music of Jaco Pastorius, 5/2, JAZ, 2:30p: OffBeat’s 2023 Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Education and drummer, Ricky Sebastian is joined with bassist Pat Casey in a tribute to Jaco Pastorius. Jaco Pastorius was a bassist and composer known for the jazz fusion movement as well as an electric bass virtuoso. Sebastian has performed with Dr. John, Ellis Marsalis and Georger Porter. Casey and his wife vocalist Robin Barnes perform as Da Lovebirds.

Rising Dragon Lion Dance Team, 5/5, KID, 12:30p: Marrerobased traditional lion dancers display a colorful and acrobatic part of Vietnam’s cultural heritage. Often performed at festivals and holiday events, the dance is intended to ward off evil spirits.

Rising Dragon Lion Dance Team, 5/5, KID, 2:10p: Marrerobased traditional lion dancers display a colorful and acrobatic part of Vietnam’s cultural heritage. Often performed at festivals and holiday events, the dance is intended to ward off evil spirits.

Rising Stars Fife & Drum Band, 5/3, RHY, 2:25p: Fife and drum music has a long history in African American folk culture. Many accounts survive of black fife and drum units accompanying soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Otha Turner, founder of the long-running Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, was born in rural Rankin County, Mississippi, around 1907, and began playing the fife as a boy. After his death his granddaughter Shardé Thomas took it over.

River Eckert Band, 4/26, RHY, 12p; 4/26, KID, 3p: Carrying the torch of the New Orleans piano tradition, River Eckert is a 14-year-old piano player born and raised in New Orleans. He plays in the styles of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino among others.

Robert Finley, 4/25, BLU, 1:45p; 4/25, AM, 3:45p: Blues, soul singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Louisiana. His album Easy Eye Sound centered around Finley’s upbringing on a crop share in Louisiana was produced by Dan Auerbach. At 69 years old, Finley still has driving rhythm guitar riff s and a solid back beat. This is music with a rootsy range, swampy, juke joint, southern soul feel. Interviewed by Snug Harbor’s Jason Patterson.

Robin Barnes and The FiyaBirds, 4/27, CON, 11:15a: Steeped in R&B, this self-professed “soul pop” vocalist first sang in the choirs at St. Phillip and St. David Catholic Churches, and later with her family’s jazz band the Soul Heirs. She is joined by her bassist husband, Pat Casey.

Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, 4/25, GEN, 4:35p: One of the few rubboard players to lead a zydeco band, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. plays it wilder than his accordionist dad, and his sets are guaranteed party-starters.

Roddie Romero & the Hub City All-stars, 5/5, FDD, 2:45p: This eclectic Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop and rock ’n’ roll band is built around accordionist/guitarist Roddie Romero and pianist Eric Adcock. Their double album The La Louisianne Sessions was nominated for a Grammy.

Ronnie Lamarque, 4/25, GEN, 12:25p: New Orleans’ silverhaired singing car dealer Ronnie Lamarque is a convincing Sinatra-style crooner. He appeared on America’s Got Talent but was cut when judge Simon Cowell referred to his performance as “very karaoke.”

Rosalie “Lady Tambourine” Washington, 4/27, GOS, 1p; 5/5, GOS, 12:55p: Rosalie Washington has become a presence at the Gospel Tent playing her tambourine with enthusiasm.

Rosie Ledet, 4/28, FDD, 11:20a: Known as the Zydeco Sweetheart, singer-accordionist Ledet has long been zydeco’s premier female bandleader. She’s also a master of the lyrical double entendre, as evinced by her local hit “I’m Gonna Take Care of Your Dog.”

Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings, 4/25, BLU, 5:45p: Blues and rock slide guitarist from Redding, California. Rogers has recorded with many artists including Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Steve Miller and Ray Manzarek. In 2010 Rogers suffered a heart attack on stage during a concert in Guerneville, California. The Delta Rhythm Kings include drummer Kevin Hayes and bassist Steve Ehrmann.

Rumba Buena, 4/28, CON, 12:25: This popular New Orleans Latin band is a 12-piece group with four singers, four percussionists, horns and rhythm to spare.

Ruthie Foster, 4/25, FDD, 5:30p: Singer, songwriter and guitarist of blues and folk music. Often compared to Bonnie

Raitt and Aretha Franklin. She has performed with the Allman Brothers Band, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Warren Haynes.

Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition, 5/3, FDD, 11:15a: From the Westbank of New Orleans, Ryan and Brendan Foret grew up playing music alongside their older relatives. They started playing as the Foret Tradition in the late ‘90s, with Ryan on bass and Brandon on guitar. The music is swamp pop (think of Johnny Allen, Warren Storm and Tommy McClain) but in their vocals, you can also hear the influence of singers like Otis Redding and the whole canon of Southern soul music.

SSamantha Fish, 5/2, FS, 1:30p: This Kansas City guitarslinger was originally perched on the bluesy side of classic rock. Her early albums included Rolling Stones and Steve Miller Band covers. Yet she’s got far more interesting on her last couple of releases exploring roadhouse rock. Samantha Fish is a frequent big winner at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards.

Samara Joy, 5/4, AM, 1p; 5/4, JAZ, 4:10p: Jazz singer from a musical family in New York City. Her grandparents were founders of the gospel group, the Savettes, and her father was a vocalist and bassist with Andrae Crouch. She won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and has performed with Christian McBride and Bill Charlap. She has won numerous awards including two Grammy’s. Interviewed by Karen Celestan.

Savoy Family Cajun Band, 4/26, FDD, 1:40p: Marc and Ann Savoy have done as much as anyone to celebrate and preserve Cajun music and culture. This group finds the couple with their sons Wilson (of Pine Leaf Boys) and Joel.

Selwyn Birchwood, 4/27, BLU, 4:15p: Blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from Tampa. He is known for his power and precision which is reminiscent Buddy Guy. A gritty vocalist and powerhouse guitarist he invented the description of “electric swamp funkin’ blues.”

Seminoles and Young Brave Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/2, J&H, 11:15a; 5/2, PAR, 1:50p: Big Chief Demond Melancon leads the Young Seminole Hunters, taking it to the streets for decades as a part of the Black Masking Indian culture of New Orleans.

Seratones, 4/28, FS, 11:20a: American soul rock band formed in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2013. The group’s original line-up consisted of AJ Haynes (vocals, guitar), Travis Stewart (guitar), Adam Davis (bass guitar), Tyran Coker (keyboards) and Jesse Gabriel (drums).

Shades of Praise New Orleans Interracial Gospel Choir, 5/3, GOS, 1:55p: This gospel choir is integrated across race, gender and denomination, and had its first scheduled performance on September 12, 2001. They’ve since been dedicated to spreading a message of hope.

Shamarr Allen & The Underdawgs, 4/26, CON, 1:30p: Jazzfunk-hip-hop trumpeter Allen resists categorization, having performed with Willie Nelson and written the local anthem “Meet Me on Frenchmen Street.” He was awarded Best Trumpeter at the 2019 Best of the Beat Awards.

Shawan Rice, 4/25, CON, 11:20a: Vocalist from Central Pennsylvania, now living in New Orleans. Her music is a mix of rootsy neo-soul that is influenced by Black American music. She has performed with Grace Potter and George Porter, Jr.

Shawn Williams, 4/28, RHY, 1:10p: Singer songwriter from New Orleans, calls her music “alt-rocka countrybilly.” She has

been nominated for multiple OffBeat Best of the Beat Awards for her albums. She has been compared to Lucinda Williams and Chrissie Hynde. She has performed with Lynn Drury, instrumentalist Dave Easley and the Iguanas.

Sierra Green And The Giants, 4/27, BLU, 12:25p: Vocalist Sierra Green performs a mix of covers and originals with influences that include Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Bruno Mars and others.

Silver Synthetic, 4/28, LAG, 2:50p: Garage punk band from New Orleans. Guitarist and songwriter Chris Lyons started the band with drummer Lucas Bogner. They were signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records label in early 2020.

Smitty Dee’s Brass Band, 5/4, PAR, 1:15p: This band was formed in 1991 by former Olympia Brass Band sousaphonist Dimitri Smith. They play regularly at Preservation Hall and on the Creole Queen riverboat.

Smoking Time Jazz Club, 5/4, ECO, 11:15a: A New Orleans based traditional jazz band reviving the music from the 1920s and 1930s. Expect to hear music from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and others. They have been nominated for numerous OffBeat Best of the Beat Awards.

Sonny Gullage and the Blues Groovers, 4/26, BLU, 11:15a: New Orleans vocalist and pianist Kevin Gullage was born into a musical family. His father Tony played bass with Henry Butler, Carol Fran and others and his brother is hip-hop artist Kr3wcial. Gullage appeared on American Idol with Lionel Richie saying: “You got so much flavor.”

Sonny Landreth, 5/4, BLU, 4:10p: A thoughtful songwriter and scorching slide guitarist, Landreth can claim Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, John Hiatt and John Mayall as collaborators and fans.

Sons Of Jazz Brass Band, 4/25, J&H, 2:55p: This local brass band often provides the soundtrack for parades by the Ladies of Unity and Revolution Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

Soul Brass Band, 5/5, J&H, 3:05p: Drummer Derrick Freeman and saxophonist James Martin lead the Soul Brass Band, which was formed in 2015.

Southern University Baton Rouge Jazz Ensemble, 5/3, JAZ, 11:15a: This student group from the Southern University of Baton Rouge is part of a modern jazz program designed by the late Alvin Batiste.

Sporty’s Brass Band, 4/27, PAR, 12:15p: Sporty’s Brass Band will be parading with the Sudan, Revolution, and Men Buckjumpers Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

Spyboy J & Thee Storm Mardi Gras Indians, 4/26, J&H, 1:45p: Parading Mardi Gras Indians.

Square Dance NOLA, 4/28, KID, 1:10p: The string band gets kids and grownups moving to the sounds of old-time fiddle tunes and a variety of uptempo blues while caller Dan Wally Baker shouts out invitations to swing yer partner.

St. Joseph the Worker Music Ministry, 4/25, GOS, 6p: The choir of this New York-based church plays a key role in their community’s daily activities.

St. Mary’s Academy Gospel Choir, 4/26, GOS, 11:45a: All girl Gospel Choir from the New Orleans East school St. Mary’s Academy.

Steel Pulse, 5/3, CON, 5:35p: Reggae band from Birmingham, England. They are the first non-Jamaican act to win the

Grammy Award for best reggae album. The charismatic lead vocalist David Hine plays both electric and acoustic guitar and is a high energy performer.

Stefon Harris & Blackout, 5/3, JAZ, 5:45p: Jazz vibraphonist and composer from Albany, New York. He has recorded with Charlie Hunter, Steve Turre, Jacky Terrasson, David Sanchez and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (Christian Scott). His concerts include original compositions “Let’s Take a Trip to the Sky” and “Ellison’s Song” as well as songs from Wayne Shorter and Horace Silver.

Stephen Foster’s Foster Family Music Program, 5/4, KID, 11:30a: No relation to the early American composer, this family foundation is dedicated to music education in New Orleans.

Stephen King and Shaggadelic & Raw Revolution, 4/26, CON, 11:15a: A Louisiana minister who is also a hip-hop artist and songwriter. His brand of “Christian Gospel Rap” is a blend of hip-hop and R&B. King has performed at the House of Blues Gospel Brunch, Praise Fest and toured with Dee-1.

Stephen Marley, 4/25, CON, 5:45p: The son of reggae superstar Bob Marley, he has won eight Grammy Awards. He began playing music with his older brother in his band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. His song “Hey Baby” features Mos Def.

Stephen Walker N’em Swinging in New Orleans, 4/28, ECO, 5:55p: Stephen Walker is a songwriter and an Irish riverdance performer. A theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music.

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, 5/5, FDD, 1:35p: The venerable band is equally capable of playing straight-up Cajun music as they are of going progressive. Some recent gigs have even included a ten-minute jam on Neil Young’s “Down By the River” in French.

Stooges Brass Band, 4/28, GEN, 11:20a: The Stooges are one of the busiest brass bands on the second line circuit, and one of the best. They’ve also performed in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as musical ambassadors on US Embassy tours, as well as throughout Europe.

Storyville Stompers Brass Band, 4/27, J&H, 1:50p: The tradition of second line jazz is well embodied by this group, which formed in 1981 and has performed innumerable concerts, parades, riverboat cruises and jazz funerals.

Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, 4/25, BLU, 4:20p: Accordionist and harmonica player Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, who grew up surrounded by blues masters like Sonny Boy Williamson in Arkansas, infuses plenty of R&B into his brand of contemporary zydeco.

Susanne Ortner’s Macumba, 5/4, RHY, 12p: New Orleans based German via Pittsburg clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer. Her love for Brazilian choro, a musical cousin of New Orleans jazz, developed into Susanne Ortner’s Macumba. Pianist Tom McDermott described Ortner is OffBeat: her tone is always impeccable, and she has mastered much of the Brazilian choro vocabulary.”

Sweet Crude, 4/26, FS, 2:30p: New Orleans indie pop septet Sweet Crude plays an energetic brand of percussion-driven, sparkly rock, often sung in French.

TTab Benoit, 5/4, FS, 3:50p: Tab Benoit is equally adept at swamp grooves and sizzling blues. As a founder of Voice of the Wetlands, he has also been one of the most outspoken

advocates for preserving Louisiana’s imperiled coastal environment.

Tami Neilson, 4/28, GEN, 4:10p: Country and soul singer songwriter born in Canada now living in New Zealand. Neilson has won multiple awards and was named the Best Female Artist at the New Zealand Music awards for several years. She recorded her song “Beyond the Stars,” with Willie Nelson. TBC Brass Band, 4/26, FS, 11:15a: If a brass band on Bourbon Street ever stopped you in your tracks, it was probably TBC Brass Band.

Tchefunky Playground, 4/25, KID, 12:40p: Formerly known as the Swing Setters, singer Jayna Morgan’s spirited new band covers standards, folk tunes and Disney songs with a jazz lilt.

Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective & Turtle Island Quartet, 5/3, JAZ, 4:10p: A New Orleans born trumpeter, pianist and composer was a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and The Jazz Messengers. Blanchard has composed film scores for Spike Lee and the Metropolitan Opera staged Blanchard’s second opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” His first opera “Champion” premiered at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Flow is the name of his Grammy nominated album that featured “Benny’s Tune.” With Herbie Hancock on piano.

Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience ft. Marcella Simien, 5/5, BLU, 2:50p: One of zydeco’s ambassadors and one of its most energetic performers, are joined by Terrance Simien’s daughter Marcella, the Swamp Soul Songstress. Terrance Simien has performed at Jazz Fest for at least the last 31 years.

The Allman Betts Band, 4/28, AM, 2p; 4/28, BLU, 5:35p: Rock group that includes the sons of three founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, Devon Allman (son of Gregg Allman), Duane Betts (son of Dickey Betts), and Berry Duane Oakley (son of Berry Oakley). The multi-guitar Southern rock jam tradition pioneered by their fathers continues. Interviewed by David Fricke.

The Anointed Jackson Sisters, 4/28, GOS, 4p: Gospel group from North Carolina. The members of the group are Barbara Jackson-Pope, Marie Jackson-Bell, Carl Ann Darden, Doris Jackson-Toler, Pamela J. Ceesay, Catharina J. Mitchell and Catrina Jones.

The Batiste Brothers: Tribute to Russell Batiste, 4/27, CON, 1:30p: Drummer, Russell Batiste, Jr. passed away in September 2023 at age 57. Batiste the son of David Batiste of the Batiste Brothers received OffBeat’s Lifetime Achievement Award this last year. Russell played drums for the bands the funky Meters, Papa Grows Funk, and Vida Blue.

The Beach Boys, 4/25, GEN, 6p: When the Beach Boys played Jazz Fest in 2012 Brian Wilson was front and center with a strong voice and stage presence. However, singer Mike Love, although 82 years old, still maintains his remarkable voice. Even without Brian, it’s a safe bet that their set will rely heavily on the hits “California Girls,” “Sloop John B,” “Good Vibrations” and “Do It Again.”

The Bester Singers, 4/25, GOS, 1p: A cappella gospel harmonies are the specialty of The Bester Singers, a Slidell, Louisiana-based group. Evangelist Rosa Lee Smooth founded the Smooth Family group three decades ago, and her daughter Cynthia Smooth Plummer now leads the group.

The Betty Shirley Band, 5/2, JAZ, 11:30a: Jazz vocalist Betty

Shirley performs traditional New Orleans classics and jazz standards. Shirley and her band frequently play at the uptown cigar bar Dos Jefes.

The Caesar Brothers Funk Box, 4/25, J&H, 5:50p: Drummer Rickey and keyboardist Norman Caesar were born and raised in with funk music in uptown New Orleans. Related to the Nevilles by marriage—Cyril’s wife, Gaynielle Neville, is their aunt—the Caesar Brothers’ musical roots—including Mardi Gras Indian rhythms—run deep in their sound.

The Chosen Ones Brass Band, 4/27, PAR, 3p: The rocksteady members of the nine-piece Chosen Ones bring a hip hop-infused, high-energy style to traditional New Orleans backbeats and horn sections.

The City of Love Music & Worship Arts Choir, 4/27, GOS, 2:50p: Singers from New Orleans’ City of Love ministry perform as part of the group’s arts focus.

The Cole Williams Band, 5/2, CON, 12:40p: Williams is a Jamaican American singer songwriter composer and percussionist. Known as the Grande Dame of R&B, Williams is also a WWOZ host and actress.

The Crybabies, 4/25, RHY, 4:45p: From New Orleans, The Crybabies are fi ve vocalist in four-part harmony. They play banjo and guitar and have performed at the Howlin’ Wolf and many other New Orleans venues.

The Desert Nudes, 4/25, LAG, 4:15p: The Desert Nudes are guitarist Andre Bohren, John Paul Carmody and bassist David Pomerleau. They play a mix of rock, country and cowboy songs. The band often includes a drummer as well.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, 4/28, FS, 2:05p: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band was formed in 1977 by Benny Jones. The band has continued to evolve and won OffBeat’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Music at the Best of the Beat Awards in 2020.

The Dynamic Smooth Family of Slidell, 4/25, GOS, 1p: A cappella gospel harmonies are the specialty of this group based in Slidell, Louisiana. Evangelist Rosa Lee Smooth founded the Dynamic Smooth Family group three decades ago, and her daughter Cynthia Smooth Plummer now leads the group.

The Electrifying Crown Seekers, 5/2, GOS, 12:05p: Keep an ear peeled for this Marrero, Louisiana-based group’s rendition of “Walk Around Heaven,” featuring a soloist whose falsetto voice won’t preclude him from topping out on the tune’s highest-register notes.

The Gospel Inspirations of Boutte, 5/2, GOS, 2:40p: These Gospel Tent regulars, formed in 1979 by David Diggs Jr. and Kevin Drake, perform music of the spirit. Not related to the local Boutté singing family, the ensemble’s name derives from their hometown of Boutte, Louisiana.

The Gospel Soul of Irma Thomas, 4/27, GOS, 4p: If you heard 1993’s Walk Around Heaven, you know how stirring Thomas can be as a gospel singer. She has a personal rule against singing gospel during a secular set, but her sacred side feeds into everything the Soul Queen of New Orleans sings.

The Headhunters featuring Bill Summers, Donald Harrison, Jr. & Mike Clark, 4/25, J&H, 4:15p: The Headhunters are a jazz fusion band formed by Herbie Hancock in 1973. The original band’s lineup included Louisiana native percussionist Bill Summers, who is also performing at the Fest with Jazalsa. Summers is joined by drummer Mike Clark, a past member of the Headhunters, and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr.

The Hoot-n-Holler Inn, 4/27, KID, 3p: The Hoot-n-Holler Inn is an artist-run workspace in New Orleans with a focus on providing unique art.

The Hot Plates, 5/5, ECO, 12:25p: A New Orleans traditional jazz band featuring Dwayne Burns on trumpet and vocals, Jory Woodis on clarinet, Steve Detroy on piano, Cody Coulon on drums and JD Haenni on bass.

The Iceman Special, 4/25, FS, 11:20a: The Iceman Special is 4-piece outfit transplanted from the swamps of Louisiana. They combine a sound of dirty funk and delicate groove with elements of disco and rock and roll to create danceable jams with plenty of edge and substance. Screeching yet smooth guitars, wandering yet punchy bass lines, electronic synth samples, driving drum beats and powerful vocals form one a kind soundscapes.

The Iguanas, 4/28, FDD, 1:40p: With Tex-Mex rock as their base, the Iguanas can swing freely into jazz, country, garage and Caribbean music.

The Jazz St. Louis All-Stars, 5/4, JAZ, 11:15a: New Orleans born saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and educator, Victor Goines, is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Jazz St. Louis. “Jazz is alive and everywhere,” Goines said, “and we want people to see this St. Louis for what it is.”

The John Mahoney Little Band featuring Meryl Zimmerman, 4/25, JAZ, 12:20p: Trombonist, pianist and Loyola music professor Mahoney leads this large modern jazz ensemble, featuring a slew of the city’s top horn players including vocalist Meryl Zimmerman.

The Johnson Extension, 4/27, GOS, 5:15p: New Orleans spiritual leader and matriarch Rev. Lois Dejean leads four generations of family members in sacred song.

The Jones Sisters, 4/26, GOS, 5:15p: Grade school-aged sisters Kayla, Kiera, Dalia and Dejon Jones comprise this gospel quartet, which first performed when the youngest sister was only two.

The Killers, 4/26, FS, 5:30p: Rock band from Las Vegas. They are considered one of the biggest rock bands of the 21st century, selling more than 28 million records, and headlining venues such as Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium.

The Knockaz Brass Band, 4/28, PAR, 3p: Formed in 2014, the band specializes in New Orleans second line arrangements.

The Lady Pigeon Town Steppers SAPCs, 4/25, PAR, 4p: Based way (way) Uptown in the Leonidas neighborhood, this club’s annual Sunday parade follows a unique route.

The Lee Boys, 5/3, AM, 2:15p; 5/3, FDD, 4:25p, A funk and gospel band based out of Miami, Florida. The band plays in the Sacred Steel tradition mixing funk and gospel. They are similar to Robert Randolph & the Family Band. Interviewed by Bryan Wagner.

The Legendary Rocks Of Harmony, 5/3, GOS, 12:05p: New Orleans gospel in its purest form, this all-male group has been singing praises and spirituals for a half-century.

The Louis Armstrong Camp 30th Anniversary Celebration featuring Donald Harrison Jr., 4/28, JAZ, 1:30p: The Louis Armstrong Camp is a jazz education program developing the next generation of jazz artists. Many musicians attended the camp including Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty, Joe Dyson, and many others. Saxophonist and composer, Donald Harri-

son Jr. is the artistic director. Joining him are Wycliffe Gordon and Davell Crawford.

The Mid-City Aces, 5/2, FDD, 11:20a: The Mid-City Aces are accordionist Cameron Dupuy, his father, guitarist Michael Dupuy and fiddler Gina Forsyth.

The N’awlins D’awlins Baby Dolls, 4/28, PAR, 1:40p: For more than a century, groups of Black women in New Orleans have worn short dresses, bloomers, and bonnets as a distinctive masquerade for Mardi Gras. Parade in the Economy Hall Tent.

The New Groove Brass Band, 4/25, PAR, 12:15p: Brass band from New Orleans.

The New Orleans Classic Recording Revue featuring The Dixie Cups, Wanda Rouzan, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, and a Tribute to Jean Knight, 4/25, GEN, 3p: This annual revue (clearly copied from OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Award show) remains the only place to catch some of the originals of local R&B. Expect to hear essentials like “Chapel of Love,” “Carnival Time,” “Ain’t Got No Home” and the Rouzan Sisters’ “Man of War” direct from the sources. Jean Knight “Mr. Big Stuff ” passed away in 2023.

The Palm Court Jazz Band, 5/5, ECO, 11:15a: The house band from the Palm Court brings their brand of traditional New Orleans jazz to the Fest. Lars Edegran leads the ensemble.

The Paulin Brothers Traditional Brass Band, 5/5, ECO, 4:20p: Ernest “Doc” Paulin founded this band in the 1920s; his sons now perform strictly traditional brass band music, complete with the requisite black-and-white uniforms and spiff y white caps.

The Pfister Sisters, 5/3, ECO, 4:30p: Inspired by the close harmonies and lively personalities of New Orleans’ Boswell Sisters, the Pfister Sisters are all about the ‘30s in both sound and look. Expect to hear the Andrews Sisters’ best-known songs, particularly their 1941 hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

The Radiators, 5/5, GEN, 1:50p: The quintessential local rock band, the Rads ceremoniously quit the road ten years ago, and leader Ed Volker has stuck to his guns about staying put in New Orleans. Their annual reunion/anniversary shows at Tipitina’s have since become the stuff of legend. They even released a new album in 2016, Welcome to the Monkey House, which has no fewer than fi ve monkey-themed songs.

The RamBull Rompers, 5/3, RHY, 1:10p: New Orleans based duo, featuring multi-instrumentalist songwriters Rose Cangelosi and Natalie Mae Palms. They sing and play guitar, banjo and piano performing folk, country and pop songs.

The Revelers, 4/25, FDD, 11:15a: An Acadian supergroup made up of founding members of Jazz Fest perennials the Red Stick Ramblers and the Pine Leaf Boys.

The Revivalists, 4/26, FS, 3:50p: Long before they became rock stars, the Revivalists were performing like they were, swinging for the rafters when they still had early-morning Jazz Fest slots. Their efforts were rewarded with a nationwide hit, “Wish I Knew You,” in 2015. Last year front man David Shaw became ill and had to cancel.

The RiverBenders, 5/4, RHY, 3:30p: Roots/Americana Quartet from New Orleans. Members included Aaron Wilkinson (Honey Island Swamp Band), Jake Eckert (New Orleans Suspects) and Myles Weeks (James Hunter, Andrew Duhon), showcasing three premier songwriters and performers.

The Robert Cray Band, 4/27, BLU, 5:45p: The man who almost single-handedly resuscitated blues in the ’80s returns to grace Fest stages with his winning combination of Southern-Soul vocals, twangy Texas guitar, and deep lyrical confession. This fi ve-time Grammy winner has played with Clapton and the Vaughan brothers and Buddy Guy and God knows who else, and if that all means anything to you, you’ve probably been with him since “Smoking Gun.” A master of smooth modern blues.

The Rolling Stones, 5/2, FS, 5p: Hopefully they won’t cancel this time around. The world’s greatest rock band is still a fantastic live act. Even at their age, Mick Jagger (79), Keith Richard (78) and Ron Wood (75), they are still a gas, gas, gas. The 1966 song “Out of Time” never performed live, has been part of the set along with “Street Fighting Man” “19th Nervous Breakdown” “Get Off My Cloud” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Gimmie Shelter.” Jagger’s voice is still strong, and the guitars cut through with raw power.

The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders, 5/5, PAR, 3:30p; 5/5, KID, 3:50p: Rebirth snare drum player Derrick Tabb’s program aims to support, teach, and protect at-risk youth through music education while preserving and promoting New Orleans’ musical heritage. Songwriter Ani DiFranco is on the board of directors.

The RRAAMS, 4/27, KID, 4:15p: The River Road African American Museum Society in Donaldsonville presents an educational program for kids.

The Rumble ft. Chief Joseph Boudreaux, Jr, 5/4, CON, 12:40p: The Rumble distills classic Mardi Gras Indian funk with brass band music and contemporary popular music, bringing forth a pure New Orleans product of our time. They were nominated for a Grammy award for their album Live at the Maple Leaf.

The Russell Welch Hot Quartet, 4/25, RHY, 3:30p: A New Orleans based guitarist and composer. He is considered one of the finest Django style players in the world. Welch has been frequently nominated at OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Awards he remains the most sought after guitarist in New Orleans. The Sarah Quintana Band, 4/25, LAG, 11:30a: Singer songwriter from New Orleans. Her band features Rex Gregory, Jason Jurzak, Rose Cangelosi and Chris Beros-Hagis. Leyla McCalla, Louis Michot and Corey Ledet are frequent guests. You will hear music from the ’60s, Cajun covers, French blues and upbeat originals.

The Shanks, 5/3, KID, 12:40p: Country funk band from New Orleans, that includes Joe Gelini on drums from Cha Wah. The Soul Rebels, 5/3, CON, 4:05p: An object in motion stays in motion. For the Soul Rebels, that’s been an unspoken mantra since the band formed in 1991. Borne from the wellspring of traditional brass and marching bands, with a goal of becoming the standard bearer for performing popular music through horns and drums, the Soul Rebels have moved in a consistently impressive trajectory for nearly three decades. They are probably the local brass band most open to hip hop and other nontraditional influences as their album Poetry in Motion demonstrates. As founding member and snare drummer Lumar Leblanc says, “Throw whatever you want at us; we’ll be able to play it.”

The Tennessee Mass Choir, 5/5, GOS, 3:50p: Grammy nominated music producer Jason Clark leads this choir from Lakeland, Tennessee.

The Uptown Ruler Cyril Neville, 5/3, CON, 2:40p: In addition to stints playing with the Meters and the Neville Brothers, reggae-loving percussionist and singer Cyril Neville has helmed funk outfit the Uptown Allstars and conducted a successful solo career.

The Wallflowers, 5/5, FDD, 5:30p: Rock group headed by Bob Dylan’s son Jakob Dylan, a multi-instrumentalist and singer. The Wallflowers have won two Grammy Awards, and their song “One Headlight” was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Pop Songs.

The Walls Group, 4/26, AM, 1:30p; 4/26, GOS, 4:15p: Urban contemporary gospel quartet from Houston. The group consists of four siblings: two sisters, Rhea Walls and Ahjah Walls, and two brothers, Darrel Walls and Alic “Paco” Walls. Interviewed by Joyce Jackson.

The Zion Harmonizers, 5/4, GOS, 1p: This venerable group has been a Jazz Fest favorite since the beginning. The gospel group’s history goes back to 1939, when the original lineup was formed in the Zion City neighborhood of New Orleans.

Tim Laughlin, 5/5, ECO, 3:05p: Clarinetist Laughlin’s compositions fit within the classic traditional jazz idiom, but his skill in bringing old-time New Orleans jazz into the 21st century gives the songs a more modern feel. He was the first New Orleans clarinetist to write and record an entire album of originals.

Tin Men, 4/25, BLU, 11:15a: The band includes Alex McMurray, Matt Perrine and Washboard Chaz.

T’Monde, 4/26, FDD, 11:15a: A trio of Cajun musicians— Kelli Jones-Savoy on fiddle, Drew Simon on accordion and Megan Brown on guitar—mines regional traditions and each members’ own creativity.

Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand, 5/5, RHY, 2:25p: Tom McDermott, a virtuoso pianist whose skill and deep knowledge of music history allows him to play everything from New Orleans jazz and blues to Caribbean and classical music, is joined by singer and saxophonist Aurora Nealand. Nealand and McDermott never cared too much about musical boundaries, so expect their set list to be eclectic. On their album Live At Luthjen’s, you will find Chopin, Carole King, Duke Ellington and a handful of obscurities.

Tommy McLain & C.C. Adcock, 5/2, BLU, 2:15p: Singer songwriter and classic swamp pop singer, Tommy McLain’s ballad “Sweet Dreams” was released in 1966. Fifty-six years later the 82-year-old singer is joined by Lafayette songwriter and producer C.C. Adcock. McLain’s latest album features collaborations with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe.

Tommy Sancton’s New Orleans Legacy Band, 4/28, ECO, 11:15a: This clarinetist served as Time magazine’s Paris bureau chief for 22 years. As a child, he took music lessons from Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s George Lewis, an experience he documents in the book Song for My Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White.

Tonia Scott and the Anointed Voices, 5/3, GOS, 1p: Primarily comprised of women, this local gospel choir has become a Jazz Fest regular.

Tonya Boyd-Cannon, 4/28, CON, 1:40p: This New Orleansbased soulful singer boasts a powerful contralto voice. Her delivery is sharp yet inspirational, contemporary and authentic. In 2015, she had a near-winning run on The Voice.

Toronzo Cannon, 4/28, BLU, 4:05p: Singer songwriter and blues guitarist Toronzo Cannon grew up on the South Side

of Chicago. His influences include Albert Collins, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Jimi Hendrix. His album The Chicago Way was nominated for a Blues Music Award.

Tower of Power, 5/5, JAZ, 5:30p: R&B and funk-based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California. Tower’s horn section has recorded with Otis Redding, Aaron Neville, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, David Sanborn, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Labelle, Huey Lewis, Little Feat, Heart, Michelle Shocked, Paula Abdul, Santana and Stevie Nicks.

Treme Brass Band, 4/27, ECO, 12:30p: Led by Benny Jones, the Treme Brass Band is one of the longest-running traditional brass bands in town. The Treme Brass Band contributed to the Carnival repertoire with “Gimme My Money Back.”

Treme Sidewalk Steppers and Lady & Men Rollers SA&PCs, 4/26, PAR, 2:40p: Social aid and pleasure club parade from Treme.

Trevarri, 5/2, JAZ, 12:55p: Saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger, born in Shreveport now living in New Orleans. His influences include John Coltrane and Miles Davis. In 2021 he became a member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and has worked with Terrance Blanchard, Branford Marsalis and PJ Morton.

Tribute to Al Hirt featuring Wendell Brunious, Doyle Cooper and Kevin Ray Clark, 4/26, ECO, 3:05p: Trumpeter Wendell Brunious played regularly with Lionel Hampton, Linda Hopkins and Sammy Rimington and with the Preservation Hall Jazz. His tribute to New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt, who received a Grammy award for his version of Allen Toussaint’s “Java,” is joined by trumpeters Doyle Cooper and Kevin Ray Clark.

Tribute to Sweet Emma Barrett featuring Yolanda Robinson and Kiki Chapman with the Lars Edegran Band, 5/3, ECO, 3:10p: “Sweet Emma” Barrett was a self-taught jazz pianist and singer who worked with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and other bands. She passed away in 1983. The Lars Edegran Band with vocalists Yolanda Robinson and Kiki Chapman present “The Bell Gal and Her Dixieland Boys Music.”

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, 5/5, FS, 5:35p: One of the current kings of New Orleans music, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews can do everything from sexy old-school soul to heady jazz excursions to full-throttle dance workouts drawing both from hip hop and local traditions. Since he took over the closing Acura slot from the Neville Brothers, he’s been sure to include music from them and other local touchstones in his sets.

Trombone Shorty Academy, 4/28, KID, 4:15p: The Trombone Shorty Academy at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation educates the next generation of musically gifted students. Students are fully immersed in the history and key influencers of New Orleans music, while preparing for ensemble performances under the instruction of accomplished musicians.

Trout Fishing in America, 4/28, KID, 3p: The guitar duo of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet has been performing together for over 40 years. They’ve received four Grammy nominations and are considered one of the 100 most influential independent artists of the past 15 years.

Trumpet Mafia, 4/28, JAZ, 2:50p: Skilled local trumpeter Ashlin Parker, a member of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, brings a hip hop sensibility to the modern jazz-rooted approach of his forward-thinking, multi-trumpet ensemble.

Tuba Skinny, 4/26, AM, 2:30p; 4/26, ECO, 4:25p: This band of New Orleans street musicians specialize in traditional jazz, Depression-era blues and spirituals. They are frequent Best of the Beat Award winners. Interviewed by Bruce Raeburn.

Tubad, 5/3, RHY, 4:45p: From Chicago, now living in New Orleans, Tubad is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He has worked with Fox’s Empire and MTV’s Are You The One. If you’re curious about hip-hop tuba and sexy trumpet playing don’t miss Tubad.

Tulane BAM Ensemble, 4/26, JAZ, 11:15a: Students from Tulane University Newcomb Department of Music, led by pianist Jesse McBride.

Tyron Benoit Band, 4/28, LAG, 4:05p: OffBeat’s Brett Milano declared that Tyron Benoit’s debut album was the best swamp-rock album ever to open with a Cure cover. Benoit (the brother of Tab Benoit) was a Marine during Desert Storm and a working actor in New York but chooses to stay in music.

Tyronne Foster & The Arc Singers, 4/28, GOS, 2p: These Jazz Fest regulars formed in 1987 when Tyronne G. Foster started working with the St. Joan of Arc Youth and Young Adult Choir. In 1992, they opened their ranks to singers from all denominations.

U Undefeated Divas and Gents The Sudan, Original Men Pigeon Town Steppers, and New Generation SA&PCs, 5/4, PAR, 2:10p: Social aid and pleasure club parades.

UNO Jazz Studies Allstars, 5/5, JAZ, 11:15a: Student group from the University of New Orleans’ jazz program, which was established by Ellis Marsalis in 1989.

Uptown Swingers, Westbank Steppers, Big Nine, and Valley of Silent Men SA&PCs, 4/27, PAR, 12:30p: Social aid and pleasure club parades.

V Val & Love Alive Mass Choir, 5/5, GOS, 1:50p: Few things sound more spirited than 100 school-age kids singing praises. Valentine Bemiss-Williams directs this large choir. Vampire Weekend, 4/27, GEN, 5:30p: Rock band from New York with lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio. Their album Modern Vampires of the City was recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Victor Atkins Quintet, 4/27, JAZ, 12:20p: Pianist from Selma, Alabama now living in New Orleans. He began playing with Delfeayo Marsalis and was a member of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He has performed with Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Aaron Neville, Nnenna Freelon, Brian Blade, Lalah Hathaway, and Nicholas Payton.

Victor Campbell, 4/27, JAZ, 2:45p; 4/27, RHY, 4:45p: Jazz pianist from Cuba now living in New Orleans. Influenced by Gonzolo Rubalcaba, Campbell’s first introduction to New Orleans music was when Wynton Marsalis brought his band to Cuba. Campbell in says: “Now when I play Cuban music, I try to put a little New Orleans in it too.”

Victor Goines, 5/5, JAZ, 12:20p: Jazz saxophonist and clarinetist from New Orleans. Goines was the director of the jazz program at Juilliard and has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet. He has collaborated with many musicians including Terence Blanchard, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, Branford Marsalis, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Wonder.

Voices of Femme Fatale, 4/26, GOS, 6:05p: The Mystic

Krewe of Femme Fatale was founded in 2013 for social purposes for women to establish ties of friendship of its members and the promotion of good fellowship.

Voices of Peter Claver, 5/4, GOS, 12:05p: This choir is based at St. Peter Claver Church on St. Philip Street in New Orleans.

Voices of Pride Edna Karr High School, 4/26, GOS, 3:10p: Edna Karr High School is a public school on the West Bank of New Orleans. The Voices of Pride is led by choir director Senais Edwards. The choir is noted for their Christmas concerts and is often featured at Celebration in the Oaks.

WWarren Easton Charter High School Gospel Choir, 4/26, GOS, 2:20p: This New Orleans school was founded in 1843 as a Boys High School. It was the first school in Louisiana that was formed to educate the working-class. Actress Sandra Bullock adopted the school donating thousands of dollars.

Washitaw Nation and Young Cherokee Mardi Gras Indians, 4/27, PAR, 2:15p: This Mardi Gras Indian tribe is named in honor of Indingenous inhabitants of North America.

Water Seed, 5/5, FS, 11:20a: Keen to steer clear of the genre label “neo-soul,” the band’s fi ve to eight members create the thick, rich sonic fabric only true soul groups possess. Perhaps R&B is a more appropriate label for their sound—original R&B, that is.

Watson Memorial Teaching Ministries Mass Choir, 5/4, GOS, 2:50p: Based in Algiers and the Garden District, these singers are led by Pastor Tom Watson.

Wayne Toups, 4/27, FS, 1:50p: Wayne Toups is a native of Crwoley, Louisiana, whose long-running band Zydecajun blurs the lines between Cajun, zydeco, and larger-than-life arena rock. Li’l Band O’ Gold member C.C. Adcock put it best around the time his band played with Robert Plant: “Hell, we’ve opened for Wayne Toups and he is bigger than Led Zeppelin where we come from.”

Wendell Brunious & the New Orleans All Stars, 4/28, ECO, 4:35p: Trumpeter Brunious took over as the leader of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in 1987 and remained a Hall regular for many years. Brunious has played regularly with Lionel Hampton, Linda Hopkins and Sammy Rimington.

Widespread Panic, 4/25, FS, 4:30p: Athens’ famous neohippies return to Jazz Fest. They replaced Fleetwood Mac who replaced the ailing Rolling Stones in 2019. They perform Southern rock, blues-rock, progressive rock and funk. They have been compared to other jam bands such as the Grateful Dead and Phish.

Wild Mohicans and Buffalo Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, 5/3, PAR, 1:30p: The Buffalo Hunters tribe is led by Big Chief Spoon.

Wild Tchoupitoulas and Semolian Warriors Mardi Gras Indians, 5/3, PAR, 2:30p: Allen Toussaint recorded the original eponymous album by this tribe of Mardi Gras Indians, led by Big Chief Jolly. Today, their call and response remain influenced by that early funk-steeped disc, which featured appearances by members of The Meters and the Neville Brothers.

Wimberly Family Gospel Singers, 5/5, GOS, 11:15a: The Wimberly family from Marrero, Louisiana, have been singing and praising God nearly 40 years. They have been a regular at Jazz Fest.

Women of Class, Lady Prince of Wales, and Men of Class

SA&PCs, 5/3, PAR, 4:30p: Founded in 1928, Prince of Wales is among the oldest parade clubs in New Orleans.

Wycliffe Gordon, 4/27, ECO, 3:10p: Jazz trombonist, arranger, composer, band leader, and music educator from Waynesboro, Georgia. Gordon has worked with Wynton Marsalis and has conducted the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

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Xeno Moonflower, 5/4, RHY, 4:45p: Singer songwriter and guitarist, Xeno Moonflower, a native of Baltimore has made New Orleans his home. He has a rick vocal tone with a soulful reggae style reminiscent of Bob Marley.

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Young Audiences Performing Arts Showcase, 5/3, KID, 11:30a: This top arts education and integration program offers a review of its latest work.

Young Eagles and Young Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians, 5/4, PAR, 3:15p: Mardi Gras Indian parades.

Young Fellaz Brass Band, 5/3, PAR, 3:10p: One of the city’s newer brass bands, the Young Fellaz add plenty of youthful swagger to traditional brass band instrumentation. They are participating in the Jazz Funeral for Dr. John.

Young Generation, 8th Ward Black Seminoles, and Uptown Warriors Mardi Gras Indians, 4/28, PAR, 12:15p: The 8th Ward Black Seminoles tribe was led by Cyril “Big Chief Iron Horse” Green until his unexpected death in 2013.

Young Guardians of the Flame and Congo Kids, 5/4, KID, 1:50p: Big Queen Cherice Harrison Nelson, cofounder of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, tailors this educational look at Black Indian culture to a kids’ audience.

Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent Association, 4/28, PAR, 1:30p: Considered the oldest active benevolent association in New Orleans, the Young Men Olympians Benevolent Association is not a social aid and pleasure club but strictly a charitable organization.

Young Pinstripe Brass Band, 4/26, J&H, 12:25p: Formed in 2009 and led by fourth-generation musician Herbert McCarver IV, the group puts a funk and hip-hop spin on the brass band sound.

Yusa Cuban Soul Band, 4/28, LAG, 12:35p; 4/28, RHY, 4:45p: Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer born in Havana now residing in New Orleans. Yusa is often compared with Tracy Chapman.

Yvette Landry & the Jukes, 5/4, FDD, 11:15a: Singer/guitarist Yvette Landry is part of the Cajun supergroup Bonsoir Catin, and her own sets are solid, swinging honky tonk with Richard Comeaux playing pedal steel guitar.

ZZachary Richard, 5/3, FDD, 1:40p: Zachary Richard is a singer-songwriter from Lafayette. His idiosyncratic fusion of rock and Cajun elements has made him a regional treasure and have taken him to different musical destinations over the years.

Zigaboo Modeliste and the Funk Revue, 4/26, GEN, 12:45p: The Funk Revue with Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, Ian Neville, George Porter Jr. and Zigaboo Modeliste the closest thing to a full-fledged Meters set.

Zulu Gospel Male Ensemble, 5/3, GOS, 11:15a: Local New Orleans gospel group performs gospel music through an R&B and soul filter. O

BACK TALK

Friday May 3, Festival Stage, 1:30pm

ANDERS OSBORNE

Anders Osborne moved to New Orleans from his native Sweden when he was 19 and never looked back. Sixteen albums and four decades later, Osborne is a legacy New Orleans artist set to headline Jazz Fest for the 35th year in a row. His new album, Picasso’s Villa (5th Ward/ Missing Piece) is out this month.

Your Friday evening Zoom shows took off in the early days of COVID-19. The combination of your infectious energy and your ability to connect with people through the camera made you one of the few artists who successfully transcended the medium. I assume viewers got a lot out of it, but what did it do for you? Number one was getting off the road. But once I settled into that livestream and decided to play for free and see who’s out there, what came back was … overwhelming is almost not strong enough of a word. I was completely floored by the response and the amount of people and the emails and the contributions in the form of tips. Some people every week would religiously pitch in and make sure we were okay. I would start making connections with people. We got to start conversations.

Even before I got clean, I would say, “the gift is not for me, it’s for others.” But I wasn’t really walking the talk. I was just saying lines. Now I understand it’s not about me, it really is about them. That was the big shift. Live performance was not my favorite thing to do. Recording and writing was my favorite. So that changed. I felt I needed to do a better job, be very present and focus on whoever is there, to play their favorite songs, play them well, and stay present and focused. That was a huge shift.

You now are sober for over 15 years. How did staying sober affect your songwriting? The main thing is that being in the present moment without substances, without partying, without even playing music, is a way of trying to be in the present for the listener. A few years prior to getting sober, songwriting was more selfish or self-involved. But when you’re sober

talks back

BY MARK GUARINO

there’s an honesty where you can start talking about things more as a piece of what you’re thinking and feeling and drawing from the only experience you have, which is your life. The focus came back.

Does that mean before you were sober you were afraid to delve into your own life as a subject in your music? You’re hitting it on the nail in one way. I don’t really worry about whether the song is good or not anymore. I don’t worry if people like it or not anymore. I just make it a habit to always write every day. What comes out is much more of a stream of consciousness, and a natural way of writing. I’m sober so I can sit for hours and use my craft and the skill set I have to craft the lyrics, change the opening lines, change a chord, “shorten that section up, make sure that goes quicker to that change because that’s going to be boring,” or “I don’t need to say that.”

When I was still using and being loaded most of the time, you don’t get into fine nuances. You just rely on your raw talent. But that only lasts so long and takes you so far. The biggest thing now is I can utilize my craft better. Then the honesty part is—I can’t really write about something I don’t know anything about.

The songs on Picasso’s Villa and your last two records do feel more grounded and confident. They’re much more writerly songs than, say, songs built around riffs or a simple phrase. Yeah, they’re more focused. Again, when you write loaded, sometimes really amazing raw talent comes out. There’s a carelessness and carefree attitude that can be really amazing. But the question is how much substance in the big picture are you really providing?

Many of your songs reference New Orleans in ways that are not cliché—and there are a lot of clichéd songs about New Orleans! How do you avoid those traps while still wanting to remain true to writing about your city? I try to pay attention to what I find interesting myself. I really try to trust my intuition when it comes to the language. I also spend a lot of time making sure

I have a voice that’s authentic to how I speak and think. If I write a letter to my mom, what words and cadence would I use versus if I was writing my brother or a friend? I try to apply that everyday voice that I have and make sure that’s in there. I’m not just writing, “cool line, cool line, clever line.” I don’t operate like that. I operate from perspective of, “is the story honest or truthful and is it interesting?” If I write about my wife, what would be an interesting perspective? What would make it interesting to speak about?

Most song topics are the same—either you’re heartbroken or you’re joyous. And it all lives in that landscape. “I’m heartbroken because I was abused,” or “I’m joyous because I’m in love or bought a new car or I own half the block.” It’s all the same. But the language—how you say it—is what can make it different.

Let’s say I speak about New Orleans. What is it I like about New Orleans? Well, I like gumbo, but I don’t eat meat anymore. So, what is an angle just about the seafood part? If I am writing about food, let’s find a place I actually go to and mention a dish I prefer, not a dish everyone prefers, and let’s find a funny rhyme that’s really odd that brings me to that dish. And now the song is interesting.

Any writer that has skin in the game or has done it long enough, that’s what we all do. You try to navigate how you get to the place where people truly see the story. Sometimes you have to be abstract and not get too clear to give people room to interpret their own story on top of [what’s in the song.]

Was there a different approach to making this record? I wanted it to be a little more guitar-based. Maybe not licks, but [the songs] needed to drive with straightup heavy folk-rock guitar. “Let’s grind the shit out.” Then I had a couple of up-tempo ballads. During the session Mac [Rebennack, Dr. John] died, so I wrote a song about him, “Le Grand Zombie,” and put it at the end of the record.

I used the same band from [the 2019 album] Buddha and the Blues. The idea for that record was go to Southern California and use guys on the records I grew up on—Waddy Wachtel (Warren Zevon), Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell), and Bob Glaub (Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne).

This time I wanted to work with the same band— but in New Orleans, and see what the difference would be.

Which was? The main thing is a looseness. Even though these guys are not New Orleans musicians, it’s darker, not in terms of depressing, but there’s a hue of dark green and it has a little orange and deep pink in the feel of the atmosphere that’s always

looming here. In California it’s beige and clear blues and pale baby blues and bright yellows. It’s very different.

You get that thickness down here. You spend a week together and after a while you can hear it. And then the season mattered too. Buddha and the Blues was recorded during a beautiful late spring, early summer. This one was winter. New Orleans was humid but colder and darker.

You mentioned Dr. John dying not long before the sessions. What was his influence on you? He was obviously one of the mentors. The influence was his genuine, authentic voice. Even though I know he put on the whole thing, it was him. Part of his true identity was to talk like that, come up with those words, and write like that, and be really wise but with humorous street smarts.

And then musically, he’s an old session cat too, who really steeped simplicity into his craft. There’s not a lot of fat. Just whatever needs to be in there. Even the crazy voodoo stuff he did—there’s not a lot of fat on it. It gets to the point very quickly. That influenced me. I try to really get to the core of who I am and just say it.

And then, he’s just funky. Everything about him. And working with him, he would always be honest, very frank, direct, but he would praise you if you did really good stuff. He helped me get sober too.

Many of his generation is gone, and now you are the emerging generation that represents the old guard of musicians in New Orleans. Do you feel that shift? It has come up a few times. I don’t know if it’s something you can declare yourself. The age thing I enjoy. At this point, there’s a lot more for me to give others and to help others than I need to serve myself. That part feels really inspiring. I am always inspired by what other people are doing. Like [songwriters] Andrew Duhon and Dave Jordan. The list is endless with these young people.

I was teaching some songwriting classes in town and there were a few kids playing their stuff and it was incredible. It was really on point. They are so good at what they are doing.

The shift has happened. [Meters bassist] George [Porter] obviously is one of the last ones left. We’re all hanging on to George to make sure he gets what he deserves. The best leaders don’t want to leave. He’s one of those. I can’t speak enough about that man. He’s been there since I moved here in 1986. He was on my first session and played for fifty bucks. He played gigs for me for $50, $40, whatever it took. It was never complicated. There’s so much to learn from that unselfish attitude if you want to be great. I try to

BACK TALK

mimic him as much as I can.

The new record’s opening track, “Dark Decatur Love,” is a revisiting of your youth living and working in the lower French Quarter. What brought you to that place? I got genuinely sentimental. I was truly feeling how I am closing in on 60 and how those years were absolutely amazing.

Back then I was truly in the moment every single day. I don’t remember having any plans. I don’t know what I was doing for the next four hours. Things just happened, you ran into somebody, you were out of money, so you played Jackson Square, and then you got a salad. It was so incredibly stimulating and in the moment. The only fear I would feel was if a moment presented itself where something was a little shaky, or some characters showed up and were weird. That was the only time I would feel it. But I wouldn’t sit around and worry about anything. It was a special time. I am grateful and blessed I got to meet all those cats.

Are they still here? A few. Half of them passed away. Not all of them survived. Back then, Check Point Charlie had just opened. I was living on Decatur Street. I had just started to tour. It was

1990 and I saw this place open on the corner where there used to be a Mexican restaurant. I went in and I thought, “They should have music in here.” I walked in few days later and asked, “Can I play here?” The guy said, “Yeah, we had another guy come in and ask the same thing. He will have Mondays you can have Tuesdays.” So that’s how it started. Later, I met Theresa Andersson and she joined. She played fiddle and then on other nights Irene and the Mikes played and Brian Blade. It built up into a little scene. We were always there. It was a little clubhouse. I didn’t go to college. That was my college.

This is your 35th year playing Jazz Fest. What does the Festival ultimately mean to you now? It helped create my whole career. Literally. It’s one of those building blocks that allowed me to get in front of a lot of people every year and after that, I would get summer gigs and other festivals. So, it’s been instrumental. I have the upmost respect for the gift of that Festival. [Founder and producer] Quint [Davis] has been a fan and a supporter since the very beginning. The festival is the same. In some regard, it might be a little bigger, but it felt huge to me the first time. O