Jazz Fest 2026 Starts with One of its Best Days

Raye, by Aliyah Otchere

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell opens on Thursday with one of this year’s deeper days. The potential for pleasant surprises are dotted throughout the schedule, more so than I see on a number of days this year.

I’m not sure people schedule their day around a rare appearance from New Orleans’ rock steady band 007 (11:30 a.m., Sandals Resorts Jamaica Cultural Exchange Pavilion; 2:20 p.m., Rhythmpourium Tent), but sets like theirs or Michael Hurtt and his Haunted Hearts (5 p.m., Lagniappe Stage) can make the difference between a good and a great day at the Fair Grounds.. Jon Batiste gets a lot of stage time this weekend at Jazz Fest, but he’s such an interesting thinker about music that his interview in the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage (1:45 p.m.) will pay off too.

Throughout the day, there are cool options—the Afrobeat funk of Gov’t Majik (11:20 a.m., Festival Stage), the funk funk of Omari Neville & The Fuel (12:45 p.m., Congo Square Stage), Aurora Nealand’s Royal Roses (4:30 p.m., Economy Hall Tent), and the folk/Americana of Lynn Drury (3:40 p.m., Lagniappe Stage).

This year, Jamaica is in the musical spotlight, and I posted videos and notes on the ones that caught my attention elsewhere. On Thursday, I’d make an effort to see reggae artist Rik Jam and the Island Federation (11:20 a.m., Congo Square Stage; (2:20 p.m., Sandals Resorts Jamaica Cultural Exchange Pavilion) and Monty Alexander “Jamericana.” (2:45 p.m., Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage; 5:45 p.m., WWOZ Jazz Tent) A jazz guy covering Augustus Pablo won me over.

Even the headliner tier poses some tough choices with Raye, Monty Alexander, Charlie Musselwhite with GA-20, and Shinyribs. Raye (Gentilly, 5:20 p.m.) is one of this year’s best bookings—a British pop/R&B singer who is in the process of defining her musical self and charting her world right now. The word critics use to shorthand her is “maximalist,” and on this year’s This Music May Contain Hope, she goes over the top in a lot of good ways. “RAYE moves through genres—jazz, orchestral pop, R&B—with the range of an Oscar-winning actor,” Boutayna Chokrane wrote for Pitchfork. “One moment she’s belting show tunes; the next, she’s a distant echo in a Fred again..-style pulse. The arrangements sample Aretha Franklin, Fred Wesley and the J.B.’s, and Vivaldi. Hans Zimmer appears at one point. So does Al Green, her grandad Michael, and sisters Amma and Absolutely. While her classical training makes her tributes feel authentic, her 21st-century wit gives them new life. And when the emotions start to feel cosmic, the lyrics stay grounded: WhatsApp calls, Lime bikes, and petrol-station cigarettes. It sounds like the self-authored spectacle of a 28-year-old woman aware she’s romanticizing her own wreckage. She feels the pain; she also thinks, This would make a great movie.”

Blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite (Blues, 5:30 p.m.) has logged hours on Jazz Fest stages, but the addition of the Boston-based trio GA-20 changes the equation. They use two guitars, drums, and frequently distortion to get to a more urgent, rock ’n’ roll place, and should give Musselwhite a more ferocious base to build on.

While that’s happening, the Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do Stage will feature Austin’s Shinyribs (5:45 p.m.), who are their own kind of maximalist act. ‘Country soul’ is a good starting point, but Shinyribs goes where singer and band leader Kevin Russell’s heart leads. I love their oddly touching Louisiana Christmas song “Christmastime in Bossier City,” but I’m not holding out hope for it on a sunny April afternoon.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars playing at 11:20 a.m. (Shell Gentilly) since they’re one of New Orleans’ biggest recent success stories. They didn’t win NPR’s 2025 Tiny Desk Concert on a technicality, and their sound is firmly rooted in New Orleans’ musical history without sounding retro. The songs could come from New Orleans’ R&B heyday, but they sound natural coming from Sal Geloso’s pen and voice. He’s not referencing yesteryear when he sings “No More Tears Left to Cry”—even if it sounds like it could be a cratedigger’s prize find—and he sings it like the sentiment’s his truth today.   

Nicholas Payton always makes good use of his Jazz Fest time, and the one constant is to put himself in a contemporary, unexpected musical setting. For this year’s set, “Nicholas Payton featuring Butcher Brown presents A Supreme Blue,” he teams with the Virginia-based jazz-funk quintet to revisit the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Notes on Butcher Brown highlight their affinity for the ’70s, but it’s a 21st century version of the ‘70s so nothing sounds retro. That and past performances by Payton suggest that he’ll find something fresh in these familiar sources.