Jazz Fest. (Why am I not there?!)

I was nineteen when I fell in love with the Big Easy and it’s an affair that has bested time, distance, and natural disasters; and like Louis Armstrong, I know what it means to miss New Orleans. I miss the wrought iron balconies, the musky scent of magnolias, the waxy banana leaves, and decadent crawfish etouffé. But more than what I see, smell, or taste, I miss what I hear—the music—of the Crescent City. There’s always a jazz band blowing brass into the swampy air and bustlers working to make my hips swing a little more as I walk the Quarter. I once paid a homeless man $10 to sing R&B classics while I waited for the trolley to take me back uptown. He didn’t have any teeth but he still had some chops.

This weekend is the last half of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, a thick gumbo of musical styles and traditions with twelve stages, food booths, and collapsible bars stewing on the Fair Grounds Race Course, a mere ten minutes from Bourbon Street. The first half of Jazz Fest showcased bands like Joe Cocker, Drive By Truckers, Spoon, Wilco and Erykah Badu. This weekend promises to be even bigger, and the following acts should not be missed.

Ben Harper (Thursday, 5:30 pm, Acura Stage)
Ben Harper is a music festival staple. It seems like you can’t have one without the other. After Jazz Fest, Harper and his Relentless 7 will headline Beale Street, and then Sasquatch, Bonaroo, Southside, Hurricane, Austin City Limits in October…

Kermit Ruffins (Friday, 3:55 pm, Gentilly)
If you missed Ruffins last weekend, you have a second chance to hear his trumpet this Saturday. His new album Living a Treme Life pays homage to his hometown of Treme, one of America’s oldest African American neighborhoods in Orleans parish, and now, the title of a new TV series directed by David Simon (The Wire, Homicide). Ruffins is a consultant for Treme and is also a central character in the pilot season.

Sugarland (Friday, 5:30 pm, Acura Stage)
The duo is nominated for six CMT Music Awards (the country equivalent of MTV) including Video of the Year for All I Want To Do, a summery ditty about playing hooky. Buy a hand grenade and sing along.

Tony Bennett (Friday, 5:45 pm, Gentilly Stage)
Listening to Tony Bennett will be more interesting than watching Anthony Benedetto paint. The two men, musician and artist respectively, are actually just one. Apparently, the lauded crooner has been painting for as long as he has been singing and his portrait of Duke Ellington hangs in the Smithsonian.

Aaron Neville/ The Neville Brothers (Saturday, 3:30 pm, Gospel Tent/Sunday, 7:00 pm, Acura Stage)
I don’t know much, but I know you shouldn’t miss the Neville brothers. That may be, all you need to know.

Kings of Leon (Saturday, 4:55 pm, Gentilly Stage)— Their single Sex on Fire catapulted them from opening-band status to the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone. Their rock star status and Caleb Followhill’s skinny jeans should draw a ridiculous crowd.

Bon Jovi (Saturday, 5:00 pm, Acura Stage)—Come on…it’s BON JOVI. Plus, wouldn’t you go just to see if the humidity will turn Jon’s famous coif into a dandelion? Look for Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles during Bon Jovi’s set. The two collaborated on the hit country-rock single Who Says You Can’t Go Home.

Neil Young (Sunday, 4:55 pm, Acura Stage)
Aretha Franklin is out and Neil Young is in. Listen for tracks from Young’s new album Fork In The Road as well as crowd favorites.

Allen Toussaint and Trombone Shorty (Sunday, Foundation Gala)
Toussaint plays piano, Shorty plays the slide trombone; Toussaint graces vinyl covers, Shorty could be in a music video. One is old school and one is new, but both are amazing in their own right. See the two perform side by side at the Foundation Gala, the festival’s capstone event.