Issue Articles
OffBeat EATS: Jazz Fest Guide
It’s Jazz Fest again, and we all know how delicious the food is on the Fairgrounds. However, when the shows are over, you will be looking for a delectable bite to eat from one of the many incredible restaurants New Orleans has to offer. To set you in the right direction, here are OffBeat’s suggestions for the tastiest spots you won’t want to miss!
John Sinclair (1941-2024)
Poet, political and marijuana activist and writer John Sinclair died of heart failure at the Detroit Receiving Hospital on April 2, 2024, he was 82.
Clarence “Frogman” Henry (1937-2024)
Singer and songwriter, Clarence “Frogman” Henry passed away, after years of declining health, on Sunday, April 7, 2024. He was 87.
Jazz Fest A to Z
This guide should help in choosing from the panoply of cultures, rhythms and sounds available at Jazz Fest to ensure your experience hits all the right notes. It’s arranged alphabetically by band name so you can search when your favorite act is playing by stage and time, with handy reference bio information. It’s easy to use on any mobile device to look up info by band, day, time or stage. Just go to our responsive site OffBeat.com.
Nine Lives is Back: First full concert staging at the Civic in nine years
“Nine Lives,” the acclaimed book by the late journalist Dan Baum that tells the stories of nine New Orleansians and their families and communities in the years from 1964’s Hurricane Betsy through 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, may have even more than nine lives.
Vintage Vinyl Treasures (Episode 38)
If it gets any better than these five albums from a Louisiana-based vintage vinyl standpoint, then someone please let me know. And if you are lucky enough to catch any of these New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival stalwarts live at this year’s ritual gathering, consider yourself blessed in witnessing some of the very best, from Soul Queen to Slide Master, in the business.
Blue Sky: Allman-Betts Band messing with tradition
The very name of the Allman-Betts Band is steeped in music history. And so’s the band itself, led by Duane Betts and Devon Allman, the sons of Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman. If any band ever seemed cosmically destined to play hard-driving, Southern-styled blues-rock, it would be this one.
Another Heart and Another Ann Savoy
Ann Savoy doesn’t have an exact count of how many performances she’s done at Jazz Fest over the course of the 45 years since she first played there. But it’s a lot: 80? 90? Maybe as many as 100?
A Hell of a Ride: Mac McAnally of the Coral Reefer Band
Singer and guitarist Mac McAnally isn’t about to forget the last time he saw his longtime friend and musical partner Jimmy Buffett. “It was 24 hours before he passed, and I was there with [Coral Reefer Band] keyboardist Mike Utley. ‘Keep the party going’ was exactly what he said to us—and then he put his hand on his heart and said, ‘What a hell of a ride.’ Those were the last things we ever heard him say. And what I saw on his face was that big smile, the one you always saw from him, whether he was onstage or at the grocery store, or the smile that you could just feel when you were hearing him sing. And he took that smile with him to the next place.”
Finding Something Epic: Béla Fleck’s Bluegrass Heart
Trying something he’s never tried before is a passion for Béla Fleck. Trying something no one has tried before—on the banjo at least—is a calling. “Yeah, that’s my happy place,” he says, truly beaming on a video chat from his Nashville home. “To try to find something epic, or at least that I perceive as epic. Whether it’s epic or not, it’s enough to get me to feel like it’s worth going to work every day—if you call this work.”
