Cimafunk, Lakecia Benjamin Among Highlights for First Day of Jazz Fest 2024

Lakecia Benjamin

Our picks for Locals Thursday start with jazz, funk and the blues.

It will be interesting how it feels to start Jazz Fest with a Locals Thursday this year—to start on a Thursday, not a Friday, and with a lineup of familiar, cost-effective talents instead of one designed to start Jazz Fest with a bang. No knock on Widespread Panic, The Beach Boys and the Kenny Barron Trio, but they don’t provoke the same excitement as Lizzo, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Wu-Tang Clan with The Soul Rebels did on Friday last year, or like The Killers, Jon Batiste, and Kem will this Friday.

One sad change to the lineup took place in early April when Clarence “Frogman” Henry died. He was scheduled to be part of the New Orleans Classic Recordings Revue (Shell Gentilly Stage, 3 p.m.) with The Dixie Cups, Wanda Rouzan, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, and a tribute to Jean Knight. I expect a tribute to Frogman to be added to the set.

You don’t need anyone to tell you about the closers on the big stages, but here are some sets that you shouldn’t overlook.

Robert Finley (Blues Tent, 1:45 p.m.; Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 3:45 p.m.) - Most of the world met the Louisiana-born Finley when he appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2019, but the 70-year-old has been playing since he was 11. His pre-AGT career included albums recorded with a couple of sound barometers of soul, The Bo-Keys from Memphis and Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys.

Cimafunk (Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 12:45 p.m.; Festival Stage, 2:55 p.m.) - Cuba’s Cimafunk mixes Afro-Cuban and African-American musical impulses compulsively and seemingly effortlessly, with stylish results that don’t sacrifice anything you notice in the process.

Lakecia Benjamin (Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, 1:45 p.m.; WWOZ Jazz Tent, 4:05 p.m.) - In a review of her 2023 Phoenix, Kevin Le Gendre wrote, “Rhythmically, Benjamin's songs move coherently from heavy, funky backbeats to zestful swing to Dolphy-like avant-blues, and her punchy, high-energy attack and growling, rasping tone lend authority and momentum to the material, which is helmed by a fine rhythm section.”

Mokoomba (Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion, 12:40 p.m.; Congo Square Stage, 4:15 p.m.) - In his review of last year’s Tusona, Neil Spencer of The Guardian wrote, “their sound is pan-African. A blend of Zimbabwe’s tumbling chimurenga rhythms and Congo’s soukous guitars underpin uptempo numbers such as ‘Nyansola,’ where they are joined by a horn section from Ghanaian highlife troupe Santrofi.”

Recently, I posted my highlights in the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion, which focuses on Columbia this year. Rancho Aparte  (5 p.m.) is on the list with street party music that borrows from a number of traditions, much the way street party music in New Orleans does.

Finally, Disney+ will premiere the new documentary The Beach Boys on May 24. The trailer doesn’t promise much—not a fresh perspective or narrative-changing, unearthed material. That doesn’t mean the doc doesn’t have either—it might—but the only original insight in the trailer comes from Janelle Monae. For the most part, the trailer sells a familiar story and good footage, and perhaps that’s enough.

Their recent setlists promise the show you’d expect from the Mike Love-led Beach Boys, heavy on the surf hits. They have been playing The Ramones’ “Rockaway Beach” for a while now including recent stops on this tour, so it will be interesting to see if they get to it in the hour-long set.