I hope everyone survived the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The clubs are hopping all week, there are special shows all over town, and even a couple of festivals to tide you over until the second weekend kicks off on Thursday. Here’s what’s on my radar.
The NOLA Crawfish Festival returns for its third year. It’s going down Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights beginning in the early evening at Central City BBQ at 1201 S. Rampart Street. Headliners include performances by George Porter Jr., John Medeski, Eric Krasno, Luther Dickinson, Jon Cleary, and Ivan Neville.
Some of the bands scheduled to play are Khris Royal and Dark Matter, Corey Henry and the Tremé Funktet, Raw Oyster Cult with special guest Darcy Malone, and Good Enough for Good Times. Much of the rest of the schedule looks to include some major jams with the best funk and soul musicians around. Here’s the full schedule.
The Louisiana Music Factory has a great lineup of talent scheduled to perform all day on all three daze-in-between. These are free shows. Monday’s closer is John Mooney, on Tuesday it’s Anders Osborne (pictured at top), and on Wednesday it’s Little Freddie King. The full lineup is here.
Basin Street Records, my favorite local boutique label, is starting their 20th anniversary celebration on May 5 at the Little Gem Saloon. Expect to see many of artists who call the label home including Henry Butler, Dr. Michael White, Jason Marsalis, and Davell Crawford as well as a Trumpet Battle between Kermit Ruffins and Irvin Mayfield. Get tickets in advance here as this will sell out.
Keyboardist Marco Benevento has a number of performances including three with his own band supporting their recent live release, Woodstock Sessions. You can catch Benevento opening the evening for Lettuce on Thursday, May 4 at the Joy Theater, as well as late night sets on Saturday, May 6 at the Blue Nile with special guest Scott Metzger, and Sunday, May 7 at the Maple Leaf.
Benevento will be making additional appearances with Johnny Vidacovich and Oteil Burbridge (May 4 at the Maple Leaf), Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (May 5, 6 and 7 at the Joy Theatre), and Worship My Organ (May 5 at the Maison).
Chickie Wah Wah has a full roster of great shows extending through Ed Volker’s performance with Quintet Narcosis on Monday, May 8. Tonight, Luther Dickinson appears with Roosevelt Collier, Terence Higgins, and Eric Vogel. He returns Thursday night with the South Memphis String Band featuring Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus with special guests Louis Michot and Corey Ledet.
Friday, May 5, Eric “Benny” Bloom presents his Jazz Extravaganza featuring EBB and the Melodies and Brian Thomas and Alex Lee Clark’s Funk Big Band with special guests.
For something completely different consider checking out the Morning 40 Federation on May 6. Angry Lovers featuring Rachel Nagy of the Detroit Cobras open. The full schedule of shows at Chickie Wah Wah is here. Discounted advance tickets for these shows and more are available at events.com.
Have fun out there. Tomorrow my first weekend recap with second weekend picks coming the rest of the week.
