If you don’t make it out to Slackers Day today, then you’re definitely a real slacker. Locals play hooky and hit the Fairgrounds tomorrow for the last less-than-packed day of the 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Here are my picks.
There are newcomers in every genre of New Orleans music including the Mardi Gras Indians. You can’t go wrong by starting your day with a little of that Indian spirit. The Red Hawk Hunters are a relatively new tribe, but they definitely bring the fire.
Theresa Andersson (pictured) took a year off to have a baby and stoke the creative fires for her new album, Street Parade. She returns to the Fairgrounds with a huge band that features members of the nearly-all-female ska band the Local Skank on horns.
If you only see on one brass band this entire weekend, make it the Forgotten Souls. They only play a few times a year and feature some of the best players in the city including Kirk Joseph (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) on sousaphone and Keith “Shorty” Frazier (of the Rebirth) on snare drum.
My colleague Geraldine Wyckoff has a saying that I just love—don’t miss the legends. The Blues Tent will surely be rockin’ when Deacon John (pictured) takes the stage. He doesn’t play that many public gigs, so don’t miss this one. He is definitely a legend.
Though I’m sure that many world music fans will flock to the Congo Square stage for the set by Ziggy Marley (replacing another legend, Bunny Wailer), I highly recommend that you check out Rodrigo y Gabriela (pictured at top) and C.U.B.A. The co-leaders are a couple that play incredible acoustic guitar music. They were rockers in their youth and you will detect strains of heavy metal in their unique sound. But they are touring in support of a new album that was recorded in Cuba. A 12-piece Cuban orchestra is accompanying them. If this show isn’t one for the ages, I will eat my Jazz Fest hat!
