With hundreds of performances out at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, it’s hard to know where to start. So Gambit has some suggestion for bands and musicians to see on the last day of Jazz Fest 2025.
TBC Brass Band
11:15 a.m.-12:05 p.m., Festival Stage
For generations, New Orleans brass bands have developed their individual sounds and styles while playing through the city’s streets during Sunday second lines. These days, there are few harder-working parade outfits than the TBC, whose thick, propulsive horn lines, indefatigable rhythms and creative spins on classic brass band tunes and pop, hip-hop and R&B hits have helped make them the second line community’s first-call brass band — and a fan-favorite of New Orleans’ best dancers, including Second Line Shorty.
Founded in 2002 and led by tuba player Brenard “Bunny” Adams, TBC maintains club residencies including Tuesday nights at the Maple Leaf, which the band took over following Rebirth’s decades-spanning tenure, and they also tour regularly. — JENNIFER ODELL
Naughty Professor feat. Tank Ball, Maggie Koerner and more
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., WWOZ Jazz Tent
If you’re looking for a sample platter of contemporary New Orleans music, look no further than who Naughty Professor plays with at Jazz Fest this year. The jazz-funk band’s reputation for tight horn sections and intricate arrangements certainly precedes them — and makes them frequent collaborators with other musicians around the city.
Naughty Professor formed at Loyola University New Orleans, an academic launchpad that helped sharpen their technical chops and lock in their high-energy sound. Since then, they’ve played alongside Big Freedia, Chali 2na, Galactic, The Soul Rebels, and other notables — always flexing versatility without sacrificing complexity.
This year’s Jazz Fest set brings in Tarriona “Tank” Ball and soulful rock vocalist Maggie Koerner. There are rumors of a few more special guests in the mix, but even when it’s just the core six on stage, Naughty Professor delivers a set full of tight turns, improvisational runs and polished surprises. — LIAM PIERCE
Cha Wa
12:25-1:25 p.m., Festival Stage
Drummer and bandleader Joe Gelini has played with Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles, The Wild Magnolias and Alvin Youngblood Hart, and over a decade ago formed the band Cha Wa. Fronted by Black Masking Indians like former vocalist J’Wan Boudreaux and current vocalist Irving “Honey” Banister of the Golden Sioux, Cha Wa blends Indian traditions, funk, soul music and other New Orleans musical traditions. The band received Grammy nominations for its albums “Spyboy” and “My People.” — SARAH RAVITS
Zigaboo Modeliste’s Funk Revue
1:25-2:15 p.m., Gentilly Stage
Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste anchored the drums for The Meters and put his stamp on New Orleans funk. He had been in The Hawkettes with Aaron and Art Neville and worked with the musicians who became The Meters, doing studio work for countless hits before launching their own career.
After 25 years in the Bay Area, Modeliste moved back to the Gulf Coast two years ago. At Jazz Fest, he’s joined by his longtime band, featuring his son Kelly Jones and Kathleen Moore on vocals, keyboardists Kyle Roussel and Kurt Brunus, bassist Chris Severin, guitarist Chris Rossbach, saxophonist Lance Ellis and trumpeter Tracy Griffin. Many of those musicians appear on Modeliste’s five solo albums, and his Funk Revue sets draw on those albums and his Meters catalog. — WILL COVIELLO
Pearl Jam, Tems, Ledisi, The Headhunters, Rickie Lee Jones and more musicians and bands to see on the second Saturday of Jazz Fest 2025.
El Conjunto Nueva Ola
2:10-3:10 p.m., Cultural Exchange Pavilion
4:20-5:20 p.m. Jazz & Heritage Stage
If you don’t enjoy the idea of lucha libre mask-clad gentlemen singing cumbia versions of New Wave (Nueva Ola) music, then stop reading here. Because this is El Conjunto Nueva Ola — and they’re a ton of fun.
The Mexico City-based band brings a playful, party-first ethos, reinterpreting songs by The Cure, Beastie Boys and Depeche Mode as tropical dance-floor anthems. They’ll swap in Spanish lyrics, layer in accordion and the unmistakable scrape of the güiro and somehow make it all work. Their high-energy stage show leans into camp, comedy, and spectacle — but don’t let the shtick fool you: the musicianship is razor-sharp, and the arrangements are smart. Give in. — LIAM PIERCE
Banda MS de Sergio Lizarraga
2:15-3:30 p.m., Congo Square Stage
If the bouncing energy, quick-fire horn hits and multiple simultaneous rhythms don’t suck you in, the acrobatic musicianship and exuberant zapateado dance moves probably will. Banda MS hails from Sinaloa’s historic town of Mazatlán, where musical director Sergio Lizárraga set to work updating traditional Mexican brass music in 2003.
Their sound quickly pushed them to the top of the Latin music charts, earning the dynamic group more than a dozen Billboard Music Awards and a Legacy Award at the 2024 Latin American Music Awards, where they were honored for helping to popularize regional Mexican music worldwide. — JENNIFER ODELL
Lenny Kravitz
3:40-5:20 p.m., Festival Stage
Lenny Kravitz has spent the last three decades walking the line between rock star cool and studio nerd. Since his 1989 debut “Let Love Rule,” he’s written, produced and performed most of his catalog himself — often playing nearly every instrument on his records.
Born in New York but with deep New Orleans roots on his mother’s side (actress Roxie Roker of “The Jeffersons”), Kravitz returns to the city just weeks after the release of “Blue Electric Light,” his self-made 12th studio album.
Expect a tight set of fan favorites (“Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Fly Away,” “American Woman”) alongside new material, all delivered with that signature Kravitz blend of movie-star charisma and vintage-magazine swagger. — LIAM PIERCE
Kamasi Washington
Maze Honoring Frankie Beverly
4-5:15 p.m., Congo Square Stage
Few people have meant more to New Orleans without ever actually living here than Frankie Beverly. The Philadelphia native may have helped create the “Philly Sound” style of R&B and soul, but he was, and always will be, a beloved son of the Crescent City.
Beverly and Maze are an integral part of the soundtrack to life in neighborhoods across the city, from cookouts to doing the laundry. Everybody in New Orleans loves Frankie Beverly, and the band recorded their 1980 live album at the Saenger Theatre.
For many longtime festival goers, seeing Maze and Beverly was a cherished tradition to wrap up another year of Jazz Fest. And this will be the first time since Beverly passed that Maze will play the festival. With Tony Lindsay at the helm, the band had already been performing prior to Beverly’s death, including at last year’s Essence Festival. Still, their show is sure to be an emotional affair not only for the band but for the thousands of devoted fans as well. — JOHN STANTON
Hot Club of New Orleans
4:20-5:15 p.m., Economy Hall Tent
For more than two decades, the Hot Club of New Orleans has been putting a local touch on swing era classics like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington’s “Azalea” and Joe Brown’s “I’ll See You in my Dreams.”
The band consists of Matt Rhody on violin and vocals, Leo Forde and Russell Welch on guitars, Nobu Ozaki on bass, Christopher Kohl on clarinet. The group self-released three albums in the 2000s, and over the years have become regulars on Frenchmen Street and at festivals. They promise “bone-crushing solos” and “witty banter” at their Jazz Fest set. — KAYLEE POCHE
My Morning Jacket
5:30-7 p.m., Gentilly Stage
For more than 20 years, My Morning Jacket has occupied a unique place in music. They’re a group of long-haired Kentuckians with bushy beards who could rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd but cover Radiohead. They write tight songs for their studio albums and love to jam on them onstage for four-hour Bonnaroo sets. And their music appeals to both blue-collar workers and heady, indie rock snobs.
The band likes to paint with a wide genre brush, from ’70s rock and country to psychedelia, art rock and experimental music, which has allowed Jim James and company to go with the wind on each of their 10 studio albums.
For their latest full-length, “Is,” the band worked with an outside producer for the first time, giving them a chance to push their boundaries even more for an upbeat, psych-driven indie rock record.
The band toured with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and they have shared the stage at Jazz Fest in the past. — JAKE CLAPP
Patti LaBelle
5:45-7 p.m., Congo Square Stage
If you don’t know who Patti LaBelle is or what she means to music, you’ve been living in a seriously deep, dark cave. For more than 60 years, LaBelle has helped shape popular music and culture, paving the way for generations of Black and women musicians and quite literally redefining the meaning of the word “diva.”
LaBelle began her musical career in the soul and R&B band Patti LaBelle and the BlueBelles in the early ’60s. Originally from Philadelphia, the band had some success, but it wasn’t until the ’70s when, after changing their name to simply LaBelle, her career took off in earnest thanks to her 1974 classic “Lady Marmalade.”
Produced by Allen Toussaint and recorded at Sea-Saint Studios, “Lady Marmalade” helped kick off the disco era, transforming dance floors and becoming an anthem for generations of people. It was the first in a long string of massive hits that helped turn LaBelle into music royalty. One of the last original R&B and soul divas, Patti LaBelle isn’t to be missed. — JOHN STANTON
Kamasi Washington
5:45-7 p.m., WWOZ Jazz Tent
When the Los Angeles-based tenor player Kamasi Washington released his ambitious and sprawling projects “The Epic” and “Heaven and Earth,” the jazz world celebrated the “arrival” of a forward-thinking musician who had, in fact, been here for quite some time.
By then, Washington had contributed key arrangements and solos to Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly.” He’d toured with Snoop Dogg and worked with a wide range of artists, from McCoy Tyner to Raphael Saadiq, while performing regularly with his West Coast Get Down crew. But the albums’ critical reception launched Washington into a new echelon, garnering praise for their blend of spirituality, Afro-futurism, modal jazz, hip-hop, funk and free jazz.
A long break from the studio followed, during which Washington co-founded the all-star ensemble Dinner Party and became a father. The 2024 album “Fearless Movement” reflects both experiences, from the Dinner Party-esque skittering rhythms (often at mind-bending speeds) to the album’s dance-oriented concept, which he’s attributed to feeling more “grounded” since his daughter’s birth. — JENNIFER ODELL
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
