Photo Credit: Dino Perrucci
On May 4, fans swarmed the Fair Grounds Race Course once more for the second Saturday of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Jazz Fest 2024 has continued the festival’s 50+ year legacy of setting the highest bar for music festivals with unbelievable performers like The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Widespread Panic and more. Saturday’s penultimate program proved one of the finest of this grand return, bringing a powerful brew of local legends and global superstars to 12 stages throughout the day, including Leo Nocentelli, Nickel Creek, Greta Van Fleet, PJ Morton, Sonny Landreth, Rhiannon Giddens, Samara Joy, Queen Latifah, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
Beaming the unmistakable sound of the city out to audiences around the world, Saturday’s bill continued to highlight local artists and styles. Among those ambassadors for The Big Easy was Leo Nocentelli, the iconic NOLA-based singer, songwriter and instrumentalist best known as the longtime lead guitarist for the foundational funk outfit The Meters. The mid-day performance from Nocentelli–who wrote such classic tracks as “Hey Pocky A-Way” and “Cissy Strut”–was followed by further Louisiana natives Tab Benoit and PJ Morton, both of whom honored longstanding legacies at the festival with thrilling sets. The final hometown hero to perform was Blues Tent headliner Tab Benoit, whose blues guitar prowess and zydeco innovations have led him to be affectionately known as The “King of Slydeco” and held by guitarists around the globe as one of the instrument’s greatest current performers.
Earlier in the Blues Tent, keen-eyed attendees could witness a second public appearance from the festival’s biggest star. In casual attire and a discrete ballcap pulled low, Mick Jagger returned to the festival grounds after Friday’s headline set from The Rolling Stones to witness the performance from the Grammy-winning Americana forerunner Rhiannon Giddens. Jagger, a noted lover of New Orleans music and culture, was also spotted actively participating in the celebration at the Gospel Tent during the performance from Josh Kagler & Harmonistic Praise Crusade. Meanwhile, massively popular rock band Greta Van Fleet took the Gentilly Stage, differentiating its set with covers of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Arthur Crudup’s rock and roll classic “That’s All Right.”
Saturday’s final performance came from Neil Young & Crazy Horse, which presented a hard-rocking set of certified classics like “Cortez the Killer” and “Down by the River.” Young kept the energy lively by mixing in some deeper cuts like “Fuckin’ Up,” which was featured (as “Heart of Steel”) on the band’s live album of the same name from earlier this year. The legend’s performance also featured a dust-off of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s earth-shaking protest anthem “Ohio,” 54 years after the incident that inspired the song. Read more on Young’s set here.
View the gallery below for a look inside the festivities from the second-to-last day of Jazz Fest 2024, courtesy of photographer Dino Perrucci. The festival concludes today with one final program; read up on the concluding lineup here.
