A Look Back at Greg Miles' Jazz Fest Portraits

Photographer Greg Miles has shot a series of exclusive portraits for My Spilt Milk to accompany Jazz Fest coverage. Here are some of his greatest hits.

Updated: Greg Miles died on November 19, 2023. We have expanded this post to include as many of the photos he shot for My Spilt Milk as possible. For more of an appreciation of Greg’s work, see “Remembering Greg Miles.”—Alex Rawls

Since 2014, photographer Greg Miles has regularly contributed new, exclusive portraits of New Orleans’ musicians to accompany My Spilt Milk’s coverage of them during Jazz Fest. You can see a preview of his work this year on “My Spilt Milk at Jazz Fest 2023,” where a photo he shot of People Museum tops the one-stop page where you can find all of our Jazz Fest coverage.

I’ve always loved Greg’s bold, stylized look that often draws attentions to the textural and tonal differences in his subjects’ skin. His portraits frequently make his subjects look like stars, and on occasion his photos reveal something that seems both new and spot-on for the artist, helping fans make connections that made sense once they saw them.

We have worked together again this year, so his photos will accompany a number of our previews during this year’s Jazz Fest. While we’re waiting for Jazz Fest to start, let’s look back at some of the beautiful work he has done for My Spilt Milk.

Kelcy Wilburn of Kelcy Mae, by Greg Miles

Kelcy Mae

We have featured Kelcy Wilburn a few times since we returned to her when she changed her band’s name to Ever More Nest. This introduction to Kelcy Mae ran in 2014.

Alexandra Scott

This portrait was done to coincide with Alexandra’s appearance at French Quarter Festival 2015. Many of these photos accompany “The Milky Way,” a feature that asks musicians to select the eight songs that define their musical galaxies. (Not nine because Pluto is not a planet.) Alexandra dug into the task with the kind of wit, intelligence and passion that I always hear in her music.

Coyotes

More specifically, Duz Mancini of Coyotes, who was the last original member of the band when it made its Jazz Fest debut in 2015.

Maggie Koerner

We profiled Maggie when she played Jazz Fest in 2015.

Maggie Koerner will play Jazz Fest this year on Saturday, April 29 at 12:25 p.m. on the Festival Stage and at 4:15 in the AARP Rhythmporium..

Boyfriend, by Greg Miles

This Boyfriend photo is one of the few times Greg shot someone for My Spilt Milk for a story not connected to Jazz Fest. This photo first appeared in 2015 with our first piece on Boyfriend, but it did reappear when she played on the opening day of Jazz Fest 2019.

Boyfriend will play Jazz Fest on Saturday, May 6 at 2:15 p.m. on the Shell Gentilly Stage.

Luke Winslow-King

Luke Winslow-King talked about his relationship to the blues growing up and as an adult before playing Jazz Fest 2015.

Kristin Diable

In 2015, Kristin released Create Your Own Mythology and gave us a “Milky Way” populated by the most mythic names in music starting with Bowie, Sam Cooke and Nina Simone.

Kristin Diable & the City will play Jazz Fest on Sunday, April 30 at 2:55 p.m. on the Lagniappe Stage.

PJ Morton

In 2017, PJ Morton reflected on not fitting neatly into any one musical box before playing Jazz Fest that year.

PJ Morton won’t be at Jazz Fest this year, but he will play Chickie Wah Wah on May 4.

Leyla McCalla

Leyla McCalla’s “Milky Way” won me over by starting with Tom Zé, the most adventurous of Brazil’s Tropicalia artists. The songs point their way to the work she was doing in 2017 when we ran this piece, but you can hear their influence in last year’s excellent Breaking the Thermometer.

Aurora Nealand

This photo seemed spot on as it captured Aurora’s multifaceted creativity. I re-read this preview for her 2018 Jazz Fest appearances and found that it remains meaty and provocative.

Aurora will play Jazz Fest this year on Saturday, April 29 at 1:45 p.m. on the Lagniappe Stage with Panorama Jazz Band; on Sunday, April 30 at 4:15 p.m. in the Economy Hall Tent as part of a tribute to Sidney Bechet with Donald Harrison Jr. and Dr. Michael White; and on Thursday, May 4 at 1:40 p.m. in the Economy Hall Tent with Aurora Nealand’s Royal Roses.

79ers Gang

This photo for a 2018 Jazz Fest preview is an unusual one for Greg. They weren’t giving an inch, reminding viewers that, as Jermaine Bossier would say when we wrote about their Expect the Unexpected in 2020, “This is a warrior culture.”

79ers Gang will play Jazz Fest Friday, April 28 at 3:20 p.m. on the Jazz & Heritage Stage.

Joe Dyson

Drummer Joe Dyson posed for a portrait before leading his own band for the first time at Jazz Fest in 2018.

This year, he’ll play on Sunday, May 7 at 12:20 p.m. in the WWOZ Jazz Tent.

Ever More Nest

We finish—for now—where we began, with Kelcy Wilburn, who returned to Jazz Fest in 2022 with a more precisely Americana-focused act under the name Ever More Nest, which she continues to use now. We talked about what’s in a name before her show that year.

Ever More Nest won’t be at Jazz Fest this year, but it will play Porch Fest at the corner of Ponce De Leon and N. White streets on the way out of Jazz Fest on Sunday, May 7.

The next photos ran in 2023 to cover artists that played Jazz Fest that year.