The 36th Annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival arrives April 22 – May 1, and if the music has come to be more, um, "heritage" than jazz, well, that's still one outrageous line-up of talent (see below).
In an effort to explain the bewildering range of musicians, Quint Davis, producer/director of Jazz Fest, said, “Think of New Orleans and New Orleans music as the center of the music universe. Any music you can trace to or from that hub is music we’ve worked with renewed vigor to infuse into the party. Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Funk, Rock, Cajun, Zydeco, Latin, R&B, Jam, Mardi Gras, Hip Hop, African, and a whole lotta music you can’t put into any one category will be presented in the powerful way that only Jazz Fest can serve up such a celebration.”
That would seem to leave participation pretty open-ended, everyone but John Cage and Arnold Schoenberg, but I don't think anyone is complaining. Here's the talent:
The Original Meters Reunion, Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, Nelly, Brian Wilson, B.B. King, Juanes, The Neville Brothers, Trey Anastasio, Isaac Hayes, Widespread Panic, Jack Johnson, Anthony Hamilton, Elvis Costello, The Roots, Steve Winwood, Kem, the Black Crowes, Bishop Paul S. Morton Sr., Steel Pulse, Wilco, Dave Bartholomew, Toots & the Maytals, Randy Newman, Smokie Norful, Better Than Ezra, Buddy Guy, Luciano, Irma Thomas, Jamie Cullum, Shirley Horn, Evangelist Shirley Caesar, Pete Fountain, Victor Manuelle, Julieta Venegas, Galactic, Zap Mama, Ike Turner, Kermit Ruffins, Ozomatli, Ellis Marsalis, Madeleine Peyroux, Los Lonely Boys, Cowboy Mouth, Tribute to Little Walter featuring Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, Jerry Portnoy, Rebirth Brass Band, Doc Cheatham Memorial Jazz Band featuring Nicholas Payton, Banu Gibson & New Orleans Hot Jazz, Dorothy Norwood, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Radiators, Nickel Creek, Tribute to John Coltrane featuring McCoy Tyner, Ravi Coltrane, James Carter & Charnett Moffett, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Fishbone, Ba Cissoko of Guinea, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Allen Toussaint, Susan Tedeschi, Los Hombres Calientes, Jazz Messengers Legacy / Benny Golson feat Curtis Fuller, Buckwheat Zydeco, G. Love & Special Sauce, Marcia Ball, World Leader Pretend, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Tribute featuring Maria Muldaur, Tracy Nelson & Angela Strehli, Roy Haynes 80th Birthday Celebration, Tab Benoit, Heath Brothers featuring Jimmy Heath, Albert “Tootie” Heath and Percy Heath, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Howlin’ Wolf Tribute featuring Eddie Shaw, Hubert Sumlin and Henry Gray, Old Crow Medicine Show, Louis Hayes & Tribute to Cannonball Adderly, Ledisi, Trumpet Woodshed featuring Maurice Brown and Marlon Jordan, Slide Summit featuring Roy Rogers with Lil’ Ed, John Mooney, Bob Margolin & Drink Small, Donald Harrison.
Article comments
1 - g-diddy
Get a sneak peak of this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by tuning into Jazz Fest Radio, featuring dozens of Jazz Fest '05 artists!
2 - Eric Olsen
great suggestion g-diddy, thanks!
3 - Temple Stark
Welcome New Orleans !!!!!!
Eric,
I'm intruding here to let you know I posted your review of this to the Advance.net Web sites.
The review can be found at a few different places on the Advance network around the country, but here's one of them.
Thank you
- Temple Stark
4 - Eric Olsen
I say again, this is one outrageous line-up that makes Woodstock look like an amateur show, he said a bit hyperbolically
5 - tanyahide
WHERE IS BONNIE RAITT? I was very surprised this auburn/raven/silver-haired beauty was absent from the Jazzfest roster!! Two months before Bonnie won a slew of Grammys for "Nick of Time", she performed two sold-out shows at Center Stage in Atlanta, GA.
A friend and I decorated her dressing room with oversized balloon sculptures of clocks and hearts for the title song "Nick of Time" and "Have a Heart"! Bonnie invited us backstage where she told us the band took the six-foot-long balloon clock-hands back to the bus and pretended they were giant, medieval male organs! I swear to god this happened, and Bonnie Raitt was the coolest hostess ever!! She asked us if we wanted a drink and then Bonnie herself brought us two beers! When I asked her if she would join us, she said she didn't drink anymore, but when she did she went straight for the whiskey!!! She is an amazing woman and I will miss her presence at the world's greatest celebration of FOOD, MUSIC AND COMMUNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!