Description
Half a million people attended this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in late April! Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, this annual week-long event celebrating the vibrant jazz culture of Louisiana and further afar has made its mark as one of the premier jazz events in the U.S. and the world – and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. To celebrate, Smithsonian Folkways will release Jazz Fest, a five-disc box set of live recordings from the iconic fest, spanning 1974 through 2016.
This compilation features some of the most outstanding performances from the past 50 years. The 53 tracks span the various genres represented at Jazz Fest, while putting the focus on local artists rather than big-name headliners. Disc One covers jazz; Discs Two and Three spotlight blues, R&B and gospel; Disc Four features Cajun and zydeco artists; and Disc Five winds the set down with everything from funk to hip-hop.
Some of the artists featured are Trombone Shorty, Irma Thomas, Big Freedia, Professor Longhair, The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Terence Blanchard, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Champion Jack Dupree, and Buckwheat Zydeco.
The set also includes a series of essays and recollections dealing with the history of the fest, plus detailed notes on each track.
