Though called “Jazz and Heritage”, the annual New Orleans Festival is as diverse as any music event you can find, that offers every genre you can name, and indeed a very healthy WRC contingent were there at the end of last month to sample its musical delights over the first four days of the first of two weekends, held at the Fair Grounds Race Course further out in the city. Suffice to say that our schedule was going to be tight, hence an advance party consisting of our American correspondent Rick and intrepid photographer/reviewer Simon already being out in The Big Easy enjoying the build up.

Indeed, when me, Mark C and CJ boarded our American Airlines flight to Dallas from Heathrow that morning, with a planned later onward connection to New Orleans, we knew that we would miss a big chunk of Day One, given Jazz Fest ends each day at 7pm, in order for punters to later experience NOLA's laid-back and easy going atmosphere. Given how well looked after we were by the cabin crew, with plenty of alcoholic beverages on this ten hour leg, we weren't too bothered when the plane's landing was slightly delayed by bad weather. Wrong!

Upon searching for our connecting flight, we ultimately discovered that it had been cancelled and that we were now booked onto another flight in five hours! A knee-jerk reaction of "let's get an Uber!" was immediately dismissed as we realised New Orleans was actually 500 miles away. American geography was never my strongpoint and where were the bloody Proclaimers when you needed them? As we consoled ourselves in a Dallas airport bar watching the American Football draft (seriously) on a big TV screens, our thoughts immediately turned to our two buddies enjoying Southern California rockers Robert Jon & The Wreck performing in the Blues Tent as well as John Fogerty headlining on the Festival Stage. Doh!

As we finally flew into the Crescent City, with the night lights beautifully highlighting The Birthplace of Jazz's unique shape, curving along the Mississippi River, our earlier disappointment turned into eager anticipation given the welcoming balmy temperature, as we took a twenty minute taxi drive to our hotel in the Business District, just a stones throw from the iconic Bourbon Street. Our three were now finally five as we all headed towards this aforementioned famous and vibrant street in the heart of the French Quarter for a deserved drink (or two) and a catch up at The Erin Rose Irish Bar. Loosely quoting that classic movie line from 'Gone With The Wind', filmed in Louisiana's neighbouring State of Georgia, indeed "Jazz Fest Day 2 Would Be Another Day".

With the festival kicking off at 11am each day, and after a good night's sleep and a hearty hotel breakfast, it was time for us to take the twenty minute Shell courtesy shuttle bus ride, from just across the road from our hotel, direct to the festival. Not only have Shell sponsored Jazz Fest since 2005's devastating Hurricane Katrina, but very coincidentally, with the exception of Simon, all of our group have worked for Shell at some stage, hence this welcome perk! As we boarded the bus, our specially designed 2025 WRC 'Jazz Fest On Tour' t-shirts, not for the last time today, created a lot of interest and amusement on board, as the three of us finally headed towards the festival for the first time.

To be honest, given you purchase your tickets in advance, before actually knowing who's playing the festival, as well as awaiting the "Cubes" (performance times and stages), we were a bit disappointed as in our opinion, it was a stronger line up the following weekend featuring Santana, Pearl Jam and Lenny Kravitz. However, all was forgotten as we arrived on a beautiful sunny day with a warm welcome at both the Shell entrance and the hospitality tent situated centrally in the vast grounds. Indeed, this air-conditioned oasis, with its wonderful staff, facilities and complimentary refreshments, would become a pivotal part of our plan of attack over the following three days.

We were all Jazz Fest virgins, with the exception of Rick of course, and it was very pleasing for me personally after all these years of promising to join my good friend here, that I'd finally made it. Another one off the bucket list! So what better way to start the day, than with a conducted tour from this Jazz Fest veteran, as we started to make our way around the numerous stages taking in contemporary Americana songwriter/musician Dusky Waters on the Lagniappe Stage, Eleanor McMain "Singing Mustangs" in the Gospel Tent, Brother Tyrone & The Mindbenders in the Blues Tent and then very poignantly in the WWOZ Jazz Tent, The Florida State University Jazz Orchestra, given just eight days earlier a mass shooting had taken place on their campus in Tallahassee.

After a very moving performance, we then turned our attention to the main Festival Stage for New Orleans very own Crowe Boys, an Alternate/Folk band consisting of three brothers, Ocie, Jacob and Wes, before returning back to the cavernous Blues Tent for the marvellous Wanda Rouzen & A Taste Of New Orleans, who well and truly lived up to her name, as she twirled her yellow second line parasol in the air. With the Goodyear Blimp cruising overhead, and after another oasis pitstop, at this stage I should point that when I say "we", this excludes Simon bless him, who was already on his way to 25,000 steps for the day, moving from stage to stage with his trusty camera.

Next up was our first visit of the day to the Shell Gentilly Stage, situated right over the side of the racecourse which must have been about a mile away from The Blues Tent. So were very grateful, given it was a sweltering 90 degrees or so, for the complimentary access to the grandstand, as well as a free ice cold bottle of water to watch the thrilling, eclectic, Honey Island Swamp Band! Trying to outdo Simon, and given it was now unbelievably 3pm, with the day's various 5pm stage headliners in mind, we then hiked back to the Blues Tent for the excellent Kenny Neal, before heading over to the Congo Square Stage to catch seven seconds of Youssou N'Dour. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Neneh Cherry, but all the same we still hung around, thoroughly enjoying a very colourful and energetic set from his Senegalese band that had the vast crowd rockin' from side to side.

The dilemma of the day was which headliner to close out with. It was a no brainer for Mark C who had waited all day to watch his beloved, Stanley Clarke N 4ever in the WWOZ Jazz Tent. A great choice, although I could not resist introducing CJ, a Walter Trout virgin, to this Blues-Rock icon in the Blues Tent, following the release in March last year via Provogue/Mascot Label Group of his latest, raucous, wild and poignant twelve-track album, 'Broken'. As expected, this decision was well and truly vindicated, given Walter's poignant and heartfelt dedication to the late, great John Mayall, on 'Say Goodbye To The Blues', my highlight of a wonderful day.

Passing briefly by the splendid Mardi Gras Indians, Spyboy J & The Storm on the Jazz & Heritage Stage, my smorgasbord of headliners was complete when we went back to the Congo Square Stage to see American R&B, Soul and Funk legend, Gladys Knight. No 'License To Kill', but 'I Heard Through It Through The Grapevine' and 'Midnight Train To Georgia' will live long in the memory. As was hearing 'Dream Police' as we made our way to meet Rick at the Shell Gentilly Stage to see Cheap Trick, just about getting there in time to sit in the Grandstand to see them perform the awesome 'Surrender'.

With Mark C now accounted for after his marathon trek from the Jazz Tent, time for a photo opportunity with the festival landscape behind us against a beautiful evening sky, before our weary troops boarded the shuttle bus back to our hotel with two (yes two) extra-curricular gigs planned tonight featuring The Record Company at House Of Blues as well as Grace Bowers and the Hodge Podge at Chickie Wah Wah.

Indeed, quite a few artists double-hat over the two weeks getting in an extra gig in the evening, which is a major attraction for those gig punters who don't actually attend the festival. After a welcome change of garb, we all headed back to the French Quarter to see this Grammy-nominated Blues Rock band from Los Angeles comprising Chris Vos, Alex Stiff and Marc Cazorla.

Part of the franchise originally co-founded by Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd, designed and inspired by the Rhythm and Blues juke joints of the Mississippi River Delta, tonight The Record Company were supported for an hour by American Country Blues singer, guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Jontavious Willis. Softly spoken, but with some witty banter, it was good to finally put a face to this powerfully voiced, gifted acoustic guitarist, given the regular airplay he has received over the years on our Podcast Of The Day.

Similarly, we have our American correspondent Rick to thank for bringing The Record Company to our attention nearly seven years ago to the day, when he went to see them in Charleston. A band that write and play raw, sincere Rock n' Roll, influenced by the rough honesty of their heroes - Bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, early Punk bands like The Stooges and Rock greats like The Rolling Stones - their sound incorporates slide guitar, distorted bass, a garage-sale Ludwig drum kit and the heartland-hued voice of Vos, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm! I suppose it was a bit of irony that after a storming ninety minute originals set, and given the distance we had travelled, that the encore was a cover written by two guys both educated near where I grew up, namely Mick and Keith's 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'.

At this point, we were not only shattered, but also one man down, as Mark C had gone back to the hotel to get some shut eye before the Chickie Wah Wah. The deal was that for those who still wanted to go (we had three tickets) we would meet in reception at 12.30pm! Suffice to say the last two men (sort of standing) after CJ bailed were Mark C and I. Upon arriving in an Uber at CWW, we were a bit taken aback to see a long line (sorry queue) waiting to go in. The yin and the yang was that we managed to sell CJ's ticket to our new buddy, Eric from Wisconsin, but at this time of writing, the tosser has failed to do a Paypal transfer as promised! Not only that, but we also managed to get Eric in despite our UK pre-purchased tickets somehow expiring In America at midnight (me neither).

And just to add insult to injury, by the time we got in, the band had already started. Anyway all was sort of forgotten as the wonderfully precocious talent of 18 year old Grace (a YouTube rabbit hole discovery quite some time ago for Mark C, that he was delighted to ratify tonight, ahem, this morning, with a live performance), who grabbed this packed room (think of London's Islington Academy 2) by the scruff of its neck. Another artist who has featured heavily on our Podcasts Of The Day, her hour long set was literally a Rock 'n' Roll Hodge Podge of different genres, the highlight for mine being her cover of Steve Ray Vaughan's 'Scuttle Buttin'. A big shout out also to Leila from Boston's SOSS Records, Grace's biggest fan, who was stuck in the corner with us during the gig. Was this late night/early morning gig worth it? Hell Yeah! Make sure you catch Grace at London Bridge's Omeara on Monday 14th July.

Those of you who know us well, will also be aware of the fact that other than music, another obsession of ours is football. No, not American Football, but as they call it unashamedly in these parts, Soccer. Who would have thought that when we arranged this trip last year that our team, Charlton Athletic from Sarf East London, would be in with a chance of automatic promotion to the Championship. Cue Saturday morning when all five of us, resplendent in our red Charlton shirts had a date with destiny, or to be precise McCools Irish Pub, not far from the festival, to watch the game at 12.30pm.

"You couldn't make it up" fact number one, was that today's opposition were Welsh Netflix media darlings, Wrexham, owned by American film stars Ryan 'Deadpool' Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and managed by former Charlton boss Phil Parkinson. "You couldn't make it up" moment number two, as we ordered our beers before kick off, was that in the other corner of this lovely, well run pub, was a gathering of Crystal Palace fans (one of our sworn enemies) watching their FA Cup Semi-Final against Aston Villa. Suffice to say, with all of us already being well educated in the school of hard knocks, Charlton lost 3-0 and Palace won 3-0! Our obvious disappointment was tempered with a photo with some Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle fans that we also had met in the pub, kindly taken outside by a Palace fan, despite me jokingly singing that well known Smokie song with a twist to him earlier on!

Bearing in mind our escapades last night as well as in the pub earlier, plus the fact that we were also off to see Samantha Fish with Tab Benoit at the Civic Theatre tonight, we sensibly took our foot off the pedal when arrived in our Uber at around 3.30pm, given the heat and a seemingly much larger crowd today. As we hadn't eaten yet, our first port of call was the Shell Hospitality tent to refuel before we set off to take in today's final three hours. Similarly to yesterday, our Charlton shirts created a lot of interest as we headed towards the main Festival Stage, after a tip off to watch Tank and the Bangas (seriously). To be honest, it was all a bit of a crush to watch this colourful, American R&B/Soul Hip Hop/Rap musical group, so we made our excuses and left.

Albeit, being a long way away, we then retreated to the comfort of the Blues Tent for American Blues singer and pianist Marcia Ball, before honouring a promise I made to my dear 91 year-old Dad by seeing one of his all time favourites, Diana Krall, in the WWOZ Jazz Tent. Unfortunately, the Canadian pianist and singer initially experienced microphone problems, but turned things around with a wonderful rendition of Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer's 1940's composition 'Come Rain or Come Shine', with Tony Garnier's amazing double bass keeping up the standard set by Stanley Clarke yesterday. Dad would have been proud. Before boarding the shuttle, we finally took in another singer and songwriter performing on the Shell Gentilly Stage, none other than 'Memphis Belle's Harry Connick Jr. , wrapping up another albeit short, but memorable day.

Thankfully, tonight's walk from our Business District hotel was a short one on a beautiful balmy evening to this historic theatre originally built in 1906 as The Schubert. Over its varied history, under its many guises, it has hosted Vaudeville, Burlesque, Musicals and and Disco, as well as boasting a Cecil B. Demille production and performers such as Mae West.

After gratefully refuelling in the Civic bar, a much appreciated air-conditioned welcome greeted our quartet as we made our way down to the stalls where the seats had been replaced by boards. To be honest, we all did a double-take when Sierra Green and The Giants made their way on to the stage given it had just turned 9pm. Hailing from New Orleans' 7th Ward, Sierra apparently emerged from her church choir to become the Queen of Frenchmen Street. Hallelujah! Backed by her Giants, an outstanding sextet featuring sax, trombone, trumpet, bass, drums and guitar, blasted out a delightful mix of Soul, Blues, Motown and R&B, a dynamic performance featuring the energetic vocals of Ms. Greene, as well as her band of consummate musicians, prior to their forthcoming appearance at Jazz Fest Day 5.

Similarly, with Tab Benoit also appearing tomorrow on the main Festival Stage on Day 4, the consensus of opinion among our fatigued troops was that we were not too disappointed after Sierra's explosive set, if the Baton Rouge born Blues guitarist, musician and singer, would not be supporting Samantha after all. Wrong! Cue 10pm as Benoit's power trio arrived on stage to huge applause from a good sized crowd, with a kick arse ninety-minute long set beginning with the very apt 'Bring Me My Medicine', a ten minute epic that immediately blew our weary cobwebs away, including Tab amusingly placing a broken guitar string in his mouth before spitting it out. Suffice to say that we all couldn't wait to see Tab again at Jazz Fest tomorrow afternoon!

For those of us who finished watching Grace Bowers at 2.30am this morning (seriously), and with Samantha's quartet now arriving on stage at around at 11.30pm, was this really going to be a test of endurance? Well, we needn't have worried as my partner in crime, Mark C, who also joined me for Grace Bowers, as well as being a live Ms. Fish virgin, later remarked that this was one of the best live performances he'd ever seen! Praise indeed from this renown WRC critic!

Cue the blonde bombshell, as she promptly appeared out of the Civic darkness in her trademark black leather attire, looking all the superstar she is and should be, backed up by Jamie Douglass - drums, Ron Johnson - bass and Mickey Finn - keys, just a day after Samantha had released her new nine-track album, 'Paper Doll'. Fish ended proceedings just before 1am with two big hitters. Taken from 2019's 'Kill Or Be Kind', the slow but beautifully constructed and emotional 'Dream Girl', for mine, akin to Joe Bonamassa's classic 'Mountain Time', with a standing (I mean business) keys solo from the flat-capped Mickey, that really showcased Samantha's awesome vocal range as well as a killer guitar solo.

An electrifying evening, ended with the epic title track from 2013's 'Black Wind Howlin'. With it's Hendrix vibe, Samantha was preaching to the converted as she duetted on this colossus at the front of stage with the Peaky Blinders, shades wearing Ron, in one incredible jam, fittingly ending with an absolutely stunning solo from Fish which was simply off the charts. She really is the whole package.

Indeed, it had been a long day (and night) but this purely phenomenal performance from this hugely talented artist left us buzzing and wanting more. Unfortunately, we would be back in Blighty by the time Ms. Fish made her actual Jazz Fest appearance on Day 7 the following Saturday, but who's to say we wouldn't be taking in one of the 2024 WRC Award winner's four UK gigs later in May despite no London date. O2 Academy Oxford anyone?

Sunday was not only the final day of the first week of Jazz Fest, but very sadly the day we were also flying home later that night. Indeed, it was our last journey to the festival on the shuttle bus, on a day when we also had the pleasure of catching up with Rick's lovely family in our treasured hospitality tent. Detaching ourselves from the home comforts within, just around the corner we stumbled across the Kevin Louis & The Friday Night Jazz band featuring the amazing vocals of Yolanda Robinson in the Economy Hall Tent, before heading off to our other favourite haunt, The Blues Tent, where we espied Simon, keeping up his 25,000 steps a day again, down the front photographing slide guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Marc Stone's excellent set.

Time to return to our beloved oasis, before setting off refreshed for the remainder of the day, positioning ourselves by the main Festival Stage, and reacquainting ourselves with Tab Benoit with another similar but outstanding set that ended just fifteen hours earlier. It was getting hotter and a lot busier now as we awaited New Orleans favourite sons The Revivalists. Given Rick was with his family, we were told earlier to watch out for them waving their 'Here For Good Sax' flag in order to find them. Nothing untoward here, given Rick's son-in-law Rob also plays saxophone in the band - get it?

In the meantime, starving hungry, I left Mark C and CJ searching numerous food outlets, oozing local delicacies such as Jambalaya, before ending back at, you've guessed it, our hospitality tent, where luckily enough I bumped into Simon and sad our final goodbyes. Sob. Returning to the Festival Stage, it was now heaving and I just about located the guys again. Indeed, despite spotting that flag, it was impossible to get to them, so despite Mark C leaving early to collect his stuff from our hotel, we watched an exceptional set from this eight-piece Rock band, the highlights of which were 'All My Friends' and 'Wish I Knew'.

Suffice to say, unlike Mark C, CJ and I were cutting it fine to get the shuttle back to the hotel and then a cab to the airport, however with us both positioned at the rear of the vast field, I just wanted to hear one Dave Matthews Band song before we departed. Cue not only the Charlottesville Rock outfit's classic 'Ants Marching', but also the added bonus of us sharing that moment with Rick, who had eventually found us to say goodbye. An emotional end to an incident packed four days. And yes, we did catch our plane in the end! Indeed, someone asked me when I got back what was it like? My answer was a long weekend of excess, but a short trip of a lifetime, with friends for life! Would I do it again? Never say never!

Review: AJ
Photos: CJ, Simon, Mark C, Rick and AJ
Simon Green's Photo Gallery: https://www.wrinklyrockersclub.com/gigg-data/new-orleans-jazz-%26-heritage-festival-/e3adf080-e0b6-4b9a-9d08-07c4a9db7c83