Last week brought us the 2017 Jazz Fest lineup, so it only makes sense that this week would bring us the 2017 Jazz Fest posters.
Lo and behold: The Meters are the subject of this year’s poster, which was crafted by painter Francis X. Pavy, the artist responsible for bringing the Neville Brothers to life on Jazz Fest’s 1997 poster. The stunning work stages the funk pioneers “in concert at Municipal Auditorium in front of a burgundy curtain embroidered with French Quarter buildings circa 1966.”
The 2017 Jazz Fest poster by Francis X. Pavy.
The Meters are a fitting selection for this year’s poster. The band is scheduled to perform at the Fair Grounds on the festival’s final day, and its core members—Art Neville, George Porter Jr., Leo Nocentelli and Zigaboo Modeliste—recently celebrated their 50th anniversary as a unit. That kind of longevity is something worth recognizing.
Jazz Fest’s Congo Square poster, one the other hand, focuses on a much younger exponent of New Orleans’ rich music culture. This effort finds Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts alumnus Jon Batiste rocking out with his signature melodica on the streets of the Crescent City. The poster was painted by fellow NOCCA graduate Brandan BMike Odums, who is best known as the man behind the socially-conscious street art phenomena ProjectBe and ExhibitBe (he now runs StudioBe in the Marigny).
The 2017 Congo Square Poster by Brandan BMike Odums.
Limited numbers of both posters are now on sale in four different formats, including prints, signed rag paper prints and signed canvas screen prints. More information can be found here.
