Has Jazz Fest Finally Achieved Truth in Titling?

The differences between the 2020 and 2021 lineups may be telling.

While writing about this year’s initial talent roll-out last week, I was trying to put my finger on why I was less excited by it than I was by 2020’s lineup considering they’re substantially similar (so far—there’s still a lot of lineup yet to be announced, though I don’t expect many more national acts). There were other things that needed to be addressed first like what wasn’t in the announcement, but now that that’s done, why so glum, chum? 

… and to be clear, “glum” is a drastic overstatement. There’s a lot I’m looking forward to starting with Chic, who connect a number of rock, funk and dance music threads in a chops-forward way consistent with Jazz Fest values. Jon Batiste is thinking big musical thoughts these days and executing them successfully, and I’m not sure there’s anybody on the lineup as must-see. Lizzo was brilliant at Voodoo in 2018, and I was really impressed by Brandi Carlile when she played Voodoo in 2019. I love Soul Rebels and can’t wait to hear how Wu-Tang translates through a brass band, and Brittany Howard blew me away singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” on this year’s Grammys. Many acts that don’t grab me at least spark my curiosity. I don’t know Terri Lyne Carrington very well, but I like what I’ve heard of her with Social Sciences, and I want to see if H.E.R. is more than just a Grammy dream—a young Black woman who embraces the electric guitar and classic rock/funk sounds.

I’m also happy to see what looks like a new New Orleans musical top tier including at least three or four stage closers in Shorty, Batiste, Soul Rebels, Revivalists, Tank and the Bangas, Big Freedia, PJ Morton, and Hurray for the Riff Raff joining Irma Thomas, Cyril Neville, Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Galactic and Rebirth at the top of the announcement. Most of them have played Jazz Fest regularly for a while now, but they haven’t necessarily been among the names used to sell tickets.   

But looking at the top 50 artists on the 2020 and 2021 announcements is instructive. 

2020

The Who, Dead & Company, Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighters, Lizzo, Lionel Richie, The Lumineers, The Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Brandi Carlile, The Avett Brothers, Norah Jones, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Erykah Badu, H.E.R., The Beach Boys, The Revivalists, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Of Monsters and Men, Irma Thomas, Nicky Jam, WuTang Clan featuring The Soul Rebels, John Prine, Maggie Rogers, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Aaron Neville, Buddy Guy, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Jimmy Cliff, Brittany Howard, Jon Batiste & Friends, The Isley Brothers, Tank and The Bangas, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Chick Corea: Vigilette, Keb’ Mo’, Kool & the Gang, Rickie Lee Jones, Big Freedia, Galactic, Anthony Hamilton, Chris Isaak, Jenny Lewis, PJ Morton, Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective, The War And Treaty, The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mike Campbell & TDK, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico

2021

Dead & Company, Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band, Lizzo, Demi Lovato, The Black Crowes, H.E.R., Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Beach Boys, Ludacris, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Jon Batiste, Wu-Tang Clan feat. The Soul Rebels, Ziggy Marley: Songs of Bob Marley, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, The Revivalists, Brittany Howard, Randy Newman, Irma Thomas, Melissa Etheridge, The Isley Brothers, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Boz Scaggs, Rickie Lee Jones, Ledisi, Tower of Power, David Sanborn, Tank and The Bangas, Big Freedia, Chris Isaak, Keb’ Mo’ Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, PJ Morton, Samantha Fish, Tribute to Dr. John, The Count Basie Orchestra, Galactic, Playing for Change Band,  Terence Blanchard feat The E-Collective, Rebirth Brass Band, Shovels & Rope, Cyril Neville, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Asleep at the Wheel, Arturo Sandoval, Davell Crawford, El Gran Combo

The 2020 lineup was the first after Jazz Fest’s 50th anniversary, and that anniversary understandably looked back at Jazz Fest’s history, embracing the artists, sounds, and aesthetics that brought the festival to 2019. It leaned heavily on rock ’n’ roll’s greatest generation and musical ideas that came of age in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, as did many iterations of the festival over the last decade. That has been the festival’s musical sweet spot for a good reason; it’s the time when rock, blues, R&B, jazz and folk came together in the acts that flourished during that time. That focus has also given Jazz Fest an identity distinct from other major music festivals more invested in current musical marketplace, but it has also given it a backward-looking feel. Unfortunately, Jazz Fest’s efforts to imagine a future less reliant on baby boomers have come off as impulsive rather than strategic. Jam bands and Americana acts had windows where they were booked in meaningful numbers, but when those trends lost legs, those bands became part of the overall jam/jazz/rock/funk mix without making much of an impact on the festival’s ongoing audience. 

After the 50th anniversary and the years leading up to it, 2020’s lineup felt like a noteworthy change because it didn’t rely on proven draws. Lionel Richie, Lenny Kravitz, and Elvis Costello have certainly played Jazz Fest a number of times each, but none of them have played it so often as to become regulars. That’s a big change, but more than that, the lineup felt like a plausible vision of a possible future consistent with the festival’s musical priorities. Almost everybody in the top 50 names has some measure of personal, musical or conceptual integrity, and all have demonstrated genuine talent on their instruments. The gesture toward the future wasn’t a big step, but in addition to booking new faces, 31 of the acts made their names in the 1980s or later. That’s not a big change, but it’s a change.

This year’s lineup maintains a lot of that, and it’s still a vision of a possible future for the festival that’s consistent with Jazz Fest’s musical values. But the addition of Jimmy Buffett, Randy Newman, Boz Scaggs, and Tower of Power feel like a drastic hedging of bets. Both present 30 or so artists from the ‘80s or later, but the loss of a musical polymorph like Erykah Badu, the reggaeton Nicky Jam, Americana singer Jenny Lewis, and young singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers next to those additions takes a little of the luster off of what looked like an exciting step forward. The 2020 lineup seemed well balanced so that no particular musical vision felt dominant, but the additions of Buffett, Newman and Scaggs along with Ziggy Marley paying tribute to has father Bob shift the balance so that the underlying message once again is that the ‘70s were the time when real music happened, and Jazz Fest is the time when we celebrate it.

There are too many possible for their bookings to read too much into them. Buffett, Newman and Scaggs have played Jazz Fest so often and successfully that it’s easy to imagine that if there’s a hole in the lineup, they’d fill it if they could; if there’s a problem they could solve, they’d solve it. They certainly have their constituencies, so they make business sense, but those additions suggest that the producers simply can’t imagine a Jazz Fest that doesn’t take care of baby boomers. Obviously, 2021 is a very unusual year, so I don’t want to put too much weight on one lineup, but after years of looking back, entering the next 50 years of Jazz Fest by reiterating the importance of music recorded 40-plus years ago feels like a regressive statement. 

Or, have we finally reached truth in advertising? Has the rock of the ‘60s and ’70s become heritage music?