Jazz Fest Started Strong on Congo Square Stage, and Friday's Picks

Denisia at Jazz Fest, by Erika Goldring

[Updated} Sometimes Jazz Fest does nice things. On Thursday the Congo Square Stage opened with R&B singer Denisia, followed by the pop R&B of LeTrainiump, and on paper, neither has the resumé for the festival. Both put in the work and have enough talent to use the time well though, so much of the fun early Thursday afternoon was watching them rise to the occasion. 

The booking clearly meant a lot to Denisia, who outfitted her band, family and friends with “Denisia Festival Takeover” T-shirts, and made a special mic stand encircled with flowers. 

Those homemade touches gave the set some idiosyncrasy early on when Denisia’s commitment and performance were stronger than the off-the-rack material. At one point she called out special guest Dawn Richard, who deserved more love than she got when singing “Hold On,” a song she recorded with Kaytranada in 2024. The crowd was interested and involved, but not yet at the singing along stage she hoped they’d be.

In retrospect, Denisia’s Takeover may have meant programming her set like a revue, but since Jazz Fest rarely rolls like that, the second and third guests just deflated the crowd. Then, Denisia returned to the stage and won the crowd with her bounce-oriented cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Want to Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).” Admittedly, the song did a lot of the work, but so did the more distinctive arrangement and the obvious fun that she and her band had playing it. 

Denisia made her name on bounce remixes, and something that locates Denisia in a distinctive sonic space is good for her.

LeTrainiump made good use of his time on stage, showing off a crowd-friendly manner and pop-friendly sound. He danced like he was having more fun than anybody else, and his songs gave the crowd a reason to join him. The work paid off as the audience grew rapidly and kept coming throughout his set. 

He covered Michael Jackson’s “Rock with You,” Player’s “Baby Come Back,” and Bobby Brown’s “Every Little Step I Take,” and in a 50 minute set, three covers was more than necessary, particularly when his own songs were going over great. Still, the audience clearly loved “Rock with You” and “Every Little Step I Take,” and on his first Jazz Fest gig, it make sense to listen to the crowd.

Elsewhere at Jazz Fest:

The most high octane set I saw came from El Dusty and the Homies in the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion. “It’s like a rave for adults,” El Dusty called from the stage while DJ’ing cumbias with two live percussion players to ramp up the beat. There was a lot of energy coming off the stage in the performance and the sound, and the audience more than matched it. They play again on Friday at 2:25 p.m. in the Rhythmporium Tent and 5:15 p.m. at the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage.

El Dusty, by Alex Rawls

Drink of the Day: the Paloma at the Cultural Exchange Bar. Mezcal and grapefruit juice. A great break from beer.

Cover of the Day: Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis,” covered by Goose. They had the good sense not to try to imitate Waits’ growl or musical milieu. 

Moment of the Day: Lynn Drury looked like she had been waiting the whole set to get to sing a ska version of Irma Thomas’ “Time is on My Side” with Papa Mali’s Shantytown Underground in the Lagniappe Stage. She then parlayed that excitement into a version that seemed true to Lynn, Irma and ska.

Friday at Jazz Fest

The last time Kacey Musgraves played Jazz Fest, she closed the 2015 edition on the Sheraton Fais-Do-Do Stage and included a charming version of TLC’s “No Scrubs.” There will be a few more people in attendance when she closes the Festival Stage on Friday. 

The day on the Festival Stage is loosely focused on country for people who don’t like mainstream country now. It opens with traditional takes from Gal Holiday & the Honky Tonk Revue and Crowe Boys, and ends with the Nashville-esque working class pop of Chapel Hart and Musgraves, who uses country as her launching pad.

Real talk: If I didn’t love Cheap Trick, I’d have questions about Cheap Trick as headliner., but Jazz Fest has stretched the name and concept in so many directions that the festival has created precedent to accommodate almost anything. 

Cheap Trick started as an almost perfect rock band, complete with an intro song (“Elo Kiddies”), a clear concept (two rock stars, two average joes), bulletproof three-minute songs, and a high octane live show. They still have most of that, though they’ve shed the accountant-looking drummer Bun E. Carlos. The songs aren’t quite as lean as they once were, but that’s what almost 50 years on the road will do to a band.

The booking of Deano & Jo (12 pm, Rhythmporium Tent) is a pleasant surprise. Deano is Dean Schlabowske of Chicago’s insurgent honky tonk band The Waco Brothers, and Jo is Jo Walston from Austin’s indie country band The Meat Purveyors. Together, they present another vision of country, one that’s homespun, rowdy and personal–the sound of two people talking to each other over beer and a shot about the shit that matters in their lives. 

For more on Friday, this weekend, and Jazz Fest in general, visit My Spilt Milk at Jazz Fest. We have links to relevant features, interviews and reviews from this year and years gone by. There’s a lot there to help you find new acts to you and better appreciate the festival. 

Updated April 25, 10:19 a.m.

The post has been changed to lead with Erika Goldring’s photo of Denisia