Son Rompe Pera, Banda MS, Mexican Institute of Sound Among Mexican Acts at Jazz Fest's Second Weekend

El Conjunto Nueva Ola

The Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage is often the most exciting at Jazz Fest because even the most experienced festgoers can discover something new to them. I also make sets there a priority because the only chance we’ll have to see many of these artists is at Jazz Fest. 

This year’s international showcase is Mexico, and before the start of Jazz Fest, I wondered if any of the artists would address the tariffs leveed on Mexico or the tensions the president has sparked over the southern border. I didn’t see or hear any statements and really, I didn’t expect any. We’ll see if anything changes this weekend.

The experience is usually pretty varied, and that’s how the first weekend went for me. El Dusty and the Homies played a cumbia rave with Dl Dusty DJ’ing the music and live percussionists to give it muscle. At the other end of the spectrum, Lila Downs was magical as a cultural ambassador, with a big, very professional band playing music indigenous to different parts of Mexico. I wondered if her set would be more focused if seen in Mexico, but she was captivating.

My recommendations are based on my preferences. I usually look for artists who feel like they’re engaged with the world we live in now. I admire deeply traditional artists that work to preserve those traditions in their classic forms, but I’d rather hear contemporary artists honor traditions while finding ways to make music that reflects the artists and the world they live in now.

Based on videos, the band that people are most likely to be buzzing over is El Conjunto Nuevo Ola, who perform in luchador masks and have a Conjunto version of Lipps Inc’s “Funky Town” up their sleeve. 

The list is in order of performance, not preference.

La Santa Cecilia 

Los Angeles’ La Santa Cecilia has won and been nominated for multiple Grammys, and you can hear why. Their Mexican and Latin American heritage is very clear in their music, and their arrangements are spare enough to make the songs easy to approach.

(Thursday, 12:25 p.m., Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage; 3:30 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage) 

Alejandro Escovedo 

Rock critic David Fricke wrote, ““Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre,” and he’s right. Escovedo has been on the national stage since 1977 when he played punk rock on the West Coast and in New York City. His career since has covered a lot of ground, from borderline classic rock, to woozy ballads, to 2018’s moving exploration of the relationship between Texas and Mexico on The Crossing. 

(Thursday, 1:15 p.m., Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage; 4:30 p.m., Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage)

Pasatono Orquestra 

Pasatono Orquestra is a band of ethnomusicologists preserves the music of the Mixtec people from the area around Oaxaca.  I find this lovely and slightly magical, but individual mileage may vary.

(Thursday, 12:45 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; Friday, 12:15 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; 2:15 p.m., Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage)

La Insistencia Nortena 

There’s not much online in the way of information about this sax and accordion-led norteña band, probably from Texas judging by the site of the concerts they advertise on Facebook. They also release their music through the Corpus Christi-based Freddie Records, which has released music by Tejano artists since 1969. Whatever the case, this is dance music that will make sense to zydeco fans. 

(Thursday, 2:05 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; Friday, 12:25 p.m., Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage; 4:55 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage) 

Son Rompe Pera 

Son Rompe Pera played Jazz Fest in 2022 and lit up crowds with their traditional marimba music that’s kept at a near-boil by brothers Kacho and Mongo’s love of punk and psychobilly. We have an interview with them up elsewhere on My Spilt Milk.

(Friday, 1:45 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; 4:15 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage; Saturday, 11:20 a.m., Festival Stage; 2:40 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage) 

Damian Ch

Damian Ch is from Veracruz, but he’s also a student at Loyola University right now. His Spanish language contemporary dance music fuses hip-hop, reggaeton, house and dancehall. He has a new EP, SEA, and will play material from it and his other recordings.

(Friday, 11:30 a.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage)

Mexican Institute of Sound

DJ/producer Camilo Lara has crafted music with Mexican Institute of Sound for the dance club, using cumbias and traditional music as the starting place to create pop music in the contemporary, semi-electronic vernacular.

(Saturday, 12 p.m., Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage; 1:35 p.m., Congo Square Stage; 4 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; Sunday, 1:40 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage; 5 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage)

Las Hermanas Garcia

I’m curious about how Las Hermanas Garcia will translate to the festival environment. The Garcia sisters started singing professionally as teenagers, and their harmonies are a big part of their appeal. They’re from Costa Chica of Guerrero south of Acapulco and specialize in bolero music–not the Ravel composition but the artful Spanish language love song. Their set could be magical, but I could also imagine it being a little fragile for the rough and tumble atmosphere of Jazz Fest. 

(Saturday, 11:50 a.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; Sunday, 12:40 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; 3:30 p.m., Rhythmporium Stage)

Mariachi Los Camperos 

This is a guarded recommendation. Unlike many of the acts here, I can’t imagine returning to Mariachi Los Camperos for pleasure. For me, it lacks the idiosyncrasy I value in music, whether it’s a wild streak or a personal commitment to a regional body of music. 

Mariachi Los Camperos are a Grammy-winning, very professional big band playing mariachi with clear, measured showmanship. Still, because they’re professional, I have no doubt that it will be engaging, and they’re going to be a visual spectacle, no question. On the smaller stage in the Cultural Exchange Pavilion tent, it could find an energy that didn’t translate in the videos I watched.

(Saturday, 1:15 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage; Sunday, 12:15 p.m., Shell Gentilly Stage; 3:40 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion Stage) 

Banda MS 

Unlike many of the acts representing Mexico at Jazz Fest, Banda MS is a commercial proposition first, and a successful one. Since it started in 2003, it has won numerous Grammy-like awards in Mexico. It has regional roots in Mazatlán and foregrounds the tuba more than any pop act in the U.S. ever would, but their primary impulses are not preservation or ethnomusicological. I’m looking forward to them and seeing a version of Mexican regional pop.

(Sunday, 2:15 p.m., Congo Square Stage)  

El Conjunto Nuevo Ola 

It’s hard to imagine how El Conjunto Nuevo Ola’s sets won’t turn into dance parties. Start with a band from Mexico City wearing luchador masks, have them play cool, surf-inflected cumbias, and add covers of Lipps Inc’s “Funky Town” and a-ha’s “Take on Me” and you have the Mexican act that people will be telling their friends about. It’s fun, but they’re no joke. 

(Sunday, 2:10 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion; 4:20 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage)