Friday Starts Jazz Fest with Funk and Indie Rock

Dawn Richard

Our first thoughts on this year’s festival, and our picks for the first Friday

The 2022 edition of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell starts Friday, and it comes with a lot of uncertainty. How will two years without Jazz Fest affect attendance? Habits are broken in less time, and baby boomers who once were faithful may find that the aches now carry more persuasive power than seven days of shlepping around the Fair Grounds in search of music and food. 

Similarly, will rising gas prices affect attendance? Nola.com reports that gas prices and supply chain issues will affect the festival; the question is how many ways and how deeply those factors will be felt. 

But the music lineup still looks like a Jazz Fest music lineup thankfully, and it will be great to once again see and hear so much Louisiana talent in one place. Most musicians in New Orleans make more money from live music than they do from sales of recordings, and two years without Jazz Fest and with a reduced number of gigs has been hard for a lot of people. 

Friday looks like a good start to the festival with a solidly funky lineup on the Festival (FKA Acura) Stage stage to feed the faithful, while the Shell Gentilly Stage has a day that leans toward indie rock topped by the first Jazz Fest appearance of Death Cab for Cutie (Shell Gentilly, 5:30p). My day will end there, though I may swing by Third World (Congo Square, 5:35p) and The War and Treaty (Blues, 5:40p).

Here are the acts that might not be on your radar but should:

Kizaba - Modern Congolese music made with acoustic and electric instruments. 

(Festival, 11:20a; Cultural Exchange, 2p)

Dawn Richard - The R&B singer and one-time member of Danity Kane is now making electronic Afro-futurist funk as a local

(Congo Square, 12:20p)

Bombino - The Tuareg guitarist is a guitar hero for people who don’t like guitar heroes.

(Blues, 1:35p; Cultural Exchange, 4:45p)

Leyla McCalla - McCalla has made a career of exploring her Haitian Creole roots, and her new album, Breaking the Thermometer, adds depth and complexity to that project.

(Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do, 1:40p)

Partners-N-Crime - A party’s not a party in New Orleans without some old school bounce.

(Congo Square, 2:45p)

79rs Gang - This musical meeting of two Mardi Gras Big Chiefs has explored ways of updating the Mardi Gras Indian sound.

(Jazz & Heritage, 3p)

CeeLo Green as “Soul Brotha #100” - A James Brown tribute from Green, who has long been upfront about Brown’s influence on his career. 

(Festival, 3:25p)

Boyfriend - Boyfriend’s performances at Jazz Fest have incorporated a level of theatricality and technology rarely seen at the festival.

(Shell Gentilly, 3:40p)

Aurora Nealand presents The Monocle - Nealand’s musical interests spread in a lot of directions; this electronic, theatrical one has to be the most unexpected of them.

(AARP Rhythmporium, 4:15p)