By Brian Wise
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Weekend 1, April 23-April 26, 2026
It’s almost exactly 20 years since Bruce Springsteen appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with his Seeger Sessions Band at the event’s first post-Katrina event and helped save a festival that could have easily gone under. In an incredibly emotional show, Springsteen captured the essence of what Jazz Fest is all about – the connection between fans and the musicians of all genres.
A lot has changed in 20 years, but JazzFest has survived – even through the pandemic – and managed to thrive via a canny balance of booking big name mainstream acts, having an incredibly strong undercard in many genres, and showcasing the incredible depth of the Louisiana music scene.
What is JazzFest in New Orleans now? Well, it’s not just jazz, that’s for sure. The dozen or so stages at the Fairgrounds Racetrack attest to that, with jazz, blues, Cajun & Zydeco, country, Americana, rock, rap, hip hop, African and reggae. It’s a feast of music, food and culture in which you will never quite get to see and experience everything you want. That’s why you come back.
Decisions, decisions. That’s what it is all about when trying to choose who to see at JazzFest.
The closing two days of the first weekend presented that dilemma in spades. Saturday’s closing acts: Stevie Nicks, Tyler Childers, Rhiannon Giddens, Bruce Hornsby & The Range, following Samantha Fish, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Sonny Landreth. Sunday: Rod Stewart, David Byrne, The Isley Brothers, Ron Carter and Jon Batiste’s Swamp show, following Irma Thomas, St Vincent and a tribute to Marcia Ball.
There are no repeats, apart from the fact that a few artists such as Batiste and Irma Thomas play in different formats (Thomas often does a secular and a gospel set). The good news is that you cannot make a wrong decision! It’s all good.
THE PRELIMINARIES
But first the preliminaries. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and that evening we went to see the band Goose (not to be confused with Geese) at the Saenger Theater in the middle of town on Canal Street. It is a grand old theater in much the same style as The Palais in St Kilda, but larger.
Last year, I first heard about the Connecticut band Goose while waiting in the line to get into Jazz Fest on the first day. Fans who had come all the way down from Wisconsin were raving about this ‘jam’ band. They were quite impressive then, despite the label, but this evening, they fully demonstrated why they might truly be considered a jam band. The first 3 songs lasted 65 minutes. The second song was an epic 30 minutes including a segue into The Moody Blues song ‘Nights In White Satin’ which invited to sing along. Of course, there were numerous guitar solos and a fabulous laser light show but there was not enough vocalising despite the fact that the lead singer has good voice. An hour and a half was probably enough to get a sense of what the band was about. Apparently, they went on to play for another two hours! Epic.
Wednesday was a chance to relax and enjoy the city. Coffee at the Croissaint D’Or café nearby, a stroll along Decatur Street past the Cafe du Monde and along the Mississippi to soak up the ambience of what is America’s most foreign of cities. That’s the most relaxed we’ll be for the fortnight.
It felt like we needed something a bit more focused musically, so we opted to see Lukas Nelson at the Joy Theater, just opposite the Saenger. Good decision. Lukas played selections from his latest album American Romance plus songs from his albums with Promise of The Real. The surprise was a cover of Billy Idol’s ‘Eyes Without A Face’. Weird but Lukas made it work. I was speculating that Lukas might never reach the heights of his famous father Willie but he does have another 55 years to catch up! An impressive show.
Thursday April 23. JazzFest Day#1.
We thought we would ease into JazzFest on the first Thursday of two weekends, except that it turned out to be one of the busiest first days I have ever experienced. I am feeling a lot better than I did this time last year, but it was still a bit of a struggle. It was 29C but with the humidity it felt like 35C! The day was spent largely in the Blues Tent starting with the soul/gospel of Brother Tyrone, then Mali’s Vieux Farka Toure followed by local legend Kenny Neal. An excursion to the Jazz Tent revealed Nicholas Payton featuring Butcher Brown presenting A Supreme Blue, which as the title suggests, paid tribute to both A Love Supreme and Kind of Blue.
Charlie Musselwhite & GA-20 finished off the day for us in the Blues Tent and it is really an inspired combination. Guitarist Matthew Stubbs worked with Charlie for many years, and his trip are the perfect foil adding some extra grunt to the sound.
I interviewed Matt and Charlie after the show and then headed back into town for a quick shower and change as we were seeing Gillian Welch & David Rawlings with Paul Kowert playing their Grateful Dead tribute show at The Saenger. Sublime. (More on that later).
Friday April 24, JazzFest Day #2
It turned out to be a fairly quiet day. Arriving at the festival just after lunch we saw Cyril Neville’s Uptown Ruler show on the main stage. The headed to the Grandstand’s Lagniappe Stage to see Joy Clark, who is on Ani Di Franco’s Righteous Babe label. After this we walked back to the Fais Do Do Stage to see Ani herself. The day was closed out by the Lost Bayou Ramblers.
Saturday April 25, JazzFest Day #3
The Deslondes opened the Gentilly Stage at 11.15am so we made sure we caught the entire set. Afterwards, I got to interview Riley, Sam and Hugh about the new album Don’t Let It Die Vol.1. After that it was a day in the Blues Tent. 85-year-old Little Freddie King was understandably seated at a throne for his set. Davell Crawford, dubbed The Prince of New Orleans, was as impressive as ever. It was then good to hear a whole set from Sonny Landreth and his brilliant slide guitar stylings.
There were plenty of options to close the day but as I had seen Rhiannon Giddens at her previous visits to the Blues Tent I felt compelled to stay. Back with Dirk Powell, Giddens was as brilliant as always, exploring the origins of American music.
It was then a rush to get back into town by bus to make it to see Judith Owen launch her new album, Suit Yourself, at the Jazz & Blues Market across town.
Sunday April 26, JazzFest Day #4
We woke to the sound of thunder as lightning flashed and a storm rolled through. JazzFest sent a message that the opening might be delayed but it was only 15 minutes. As it turned out, we didn’t get out to the festival until the afternoon after a busy day yesterday.
The day started with the end of Chris Thomas King’s set and his ‘future blues’. Then Glen David Andrews proceeded to wow everyone with his traditional New Orleans classics, taking a second line through the audience.
The set that we didn’t want to miss was The Music of Marcia Ball, a tribute to the great Louisiana-born, Texas-based, piano player and singer. This is why we arrived earlier to peg out our seats. This star-studded array of musicians featured Marcia’s band plus Sue Foley, Tracy Nelson, Cindy Cashdollar, Carolyn Wonderland, Shelley King and Emily Gimble with Jon Cleary and Terance Simien. Meanwhile, Marcia looked on proudly from side of stage and even played keyboards on Randy Newman’s ‘Louisiana 1927’. It was a brilliant and emotional tribute.
The final act in the Blues Tent was Jon Batiste Presents Swamp, which was unlike anything I think I have ever seen at JazzFest. Batiste had already had his spot on the main stage on Friday, but this was what he described as a ‘dystopian-swamp sci-fi drama musical’ and, while it featured a few songs from his latest album such as ‘Lonely Avenue’ (which he performed with Randy Newman), it was a spectacular concept. The stage was set to resemble a swamp village complete with Spanish moss, a soup cauldron and a cast of 20 or so, including children. A narrator introduced the show and Batiste arrived dressed as an older man in a grey wig and dirty overalls. The story, if I have got this right, centred around on a musician (Willy Bambino?) living in a, ecological refuge in a future destroyed by environmental ruin. It was an amazing show and one which looks like it could easily end up as a theatre show.
On the way out of the festival we dropped by the JazzTent to catch a glimpse of the legendary Ron Carter playing bass with his quartet. A nice way to finish.
The weekend was closed out for us back at the Joy Theater with the Take Me To The River show which featured Irma Thomas, who sounded great, River Eckert, Cyril Neville and others.
On Monday we head off to Baton Rouge to see Bob Dylan!