With hundreds of performances out at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival<\/a>, it’s hard to know where to start. So Gambit has some suggestion for bands and musicians to see on the second Saturday of Jazz Fest 2025.<\/p>\n Yusa Cuban Soul<\/strong><\/p>\n 1:25-2:15 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage<\/p>\n Yusa<\/a> grew up in Havana, Cuba, and was encouraged to pursue her musical curiosity from an early age. She trained at the prestigious Amadeo Rold\u00e1n Conservatory, where she absorbed a wide array of influences, from classic trova and son cubano to jazz, bolero, and North American pop.<\/p>\n A multi-instrumentalist, Yusa moves effortlessly between bass, guitar, keys and the Cuban tres. But it\u2019s her voice \u2014 deep, smooth, and quietly commanding \u2014 that centers each track. Often compared to Tracy Chapman, she\u2019s also known to rap, improvise, and bend melody and phrasing with poetic instinct.<\/p>\n Expect grooves that nod to funk and folk, bossa nova ballads that feel like ocean breezes, and inventive twists on Cuban accent and rhythm. Her music doesn\u2019t just reference Cuban history \u2014 it reinvents it in real time. \u2014 LIAM PIERCE<\/p>\n Rickie Lee Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n 1:40-2:30 p.m., Gentilly Stage<\/p>\n Chicago-born singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones<\/a> started her career off strong with her 1979 self-titled album, which was commercially successful and included her hit \u201cChuck E.\u2019s in Love.\u201d She soon after won the Grammy Award for best new artist. She\u2019s gone on to release 14 more albums since, spanning genres from jazz and soul to rock and pop in a signature soft and breathy tone.<\/p>\n New Orleans has been a part of her life for a while. In 1990, her cover of \u201cMakin\u2019 Whoopee\u201d with Dr. John earned her a second Grammy. Then, in the early 2010s, she moved to the city and has been here ever since, an experience she told Tidal in 2023 \u201chas changed pretty much everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Gwen Thompkins also will interview Jones on the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage at 12:15 p.m. Thursday. \u2014 KAYLEE POCHE<\/p>\n Samantha Fish<\/strong><\/p>\n 1:45-2:45 p.m., Festival Stage<\/p>\n Though she originally hails from Kansas City, Missouri, Samantha Fish<\/a> has made a home in New Orleans. She\u2019s built a following for her blues and retro rock \u2019n\u2019 roll recordings and searing solos onstage.<\/p>\n At her Jazz Fest set, expect to hear rollicking new tracks from Fish\u2019s latest full-length album, \u201cPaper Doll,\u201d which was released April 25. After the festival, the singer and guitarist will head out on a tour of the U.S., U.K and Europe. \u2014 SARAH RAVITS<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rickie Lee Jones<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Nicholas Payton and Triune feat. Karriem Riggins<\/strong><\/p>\n 4:20-5:30 p.m., WWOZ Jazz Tent<\/p>\n Multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton<\/a> has long outgrown his onetime Young Lions label, but the deep knowledge about and experience with the music that led him to that position haven\u2019t waned. Over the years, Payton has leveraged the reservoir of Black American Music as foundation for much more progressive works and expanded his primary instrument base from trumpet to a mix that also includes Fender Rhodes and Clavinet.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also teamed up regularly with drummer and producer Karriem Riggins. The pair\u2019s partnership dates back (at least) to a mid-\u201990s session they recorded with Common that Payton later dropped on SoundCloud as \u201cBoomBap,\u201d a nod to that era\u2019s fluid, jazz-infused hip-hop style. In more recent collabs like \u201cThe Couch Sessions\u201d and \u201cSmoke Sessions,\u201d the duo\u2019s dynamic still feel tied to that aesthetic, albeit with more cerebral grooves and liquid flows.<\/p>\n Bassist Esperanza Spalding is set to join them at Jazz Fest and at Caf\u00e9 Istanbul this weekend. \u2014 JENNIFER ODELL<\/p>\n The Headhunters feat. Bill Summers and Mike Clark with Eric Krasno<\/strong><\/p>\n 4:35-5:30 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage<\/p>\n In 1973, Herbie Hancock\u2019s album \u201cThe Headhunters\u201d made an indelible mark on the landscape of jazz, funk, rock and pop music for decades to come, making unlikely hits out of the recording\u2019s long, slinky earworms. Those included \u201cWatermelon Man,\u201d featuring the uber-dexterous Bill Summers on a slew of African percussion instruments and, famously, blowing into a beer bottle.<\/p>\n The band\u2019s 1974 follow-up, \u201cThrust,\u201d found drummer Mike Clark in the mix, launching a musical partnership between Summers and Clark that continues today<\/a> with help from saxophonist Donald Harrison, keyboardist Kyle Roussell and bassist Chris Severin.<\/p>\n The Headhunters\u2019 latest album, \u201cThe Stunt Man,\u201d builds on the legacy of Hancock\u2019s seminal band while incorporating New Orleans rhythms and piano aesthetics, Afrobeat elements and heavy doses of groove. The addition of Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno should only up that ante. \u2014 JENNIFER ODELL<\/p>\n Pearl Jam<\/strong><\/p>\n 5-7 p.m., Festival Stage<\/p>\n Is Pearl Jam<\/a> now a legacy act? With 35 years under their belts, sure. But that also dramatically undersells Pearl Jam. The band formed in Seattle in 1990, and with Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, helped re-shape rock music. Songs like \u201cAlive\u201d and \u201cEven Flow\u201d are seared into the brains of not only Gen X slackers but virtually everyone born into the era after \u201cTen\u201d was released.<\/p>\n But last year\u2019s \u201cDark Matter,\u201d Pearl Jam\u2019s 12th studio album is arguably the band\u2019s best since their \u201990s explosion \u2014 probably helped by the fact the album\u2019s producer, Andrew Watt, was born in 1990 and grew up on Pearl Jam\u2019s music. It showed Pearl Jam is a remarkably consistent band of five guys who still enjoy making music together, know how to evolve and still write loud, socially conscious rock. \u2014 JAKE CLAPP<\/p>\n Kenny Wayne Shepherd with Bobby Rush<\/strong><\/p>\n 5:30-7 p.m., Blues Tent<\/p>\n Bobby Rush<\/a> was not a young man when he won a Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy Award for \u201cPorcupine Meat\u201d in 2017. He won the same trophy for last year\u2019s \u201cAll My Love for You,\u201d and at 91, he\u2019s not slowing down.<\/p>\n He teamed up with fellow north Louisiana native and bluesman Kenny Wayne Shepherd<\/a> to write and record \u201cYoung Fashioned Ways,\u201d released in January. Shepherd is half Rush\u2019s age, but the title is a nod to their shared admiration for Muddy Waters. The record is steeped in classic blues riffs, and it has some of the saucy lyrics Rush is known for, including on new versions of four or his songs. \u2014 WILL COVIELLO<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ledisi<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Margo Price<\/strong><\/p>\n 5:35-7 p.m., Fais Do-Do Stage<\/p>\n Though Margo Price<\/a> hails from Illinois, she sounds like she was immaculately conceived in Nashville. A background in theater and church choir harmonies eased her transition into Music City, where she waited tables and taught dance at the YMCA while chasing gigs.<\/p>\n Her voice hits those Dolly Parton highs but can grovel down to a rumble, making it ideal for country\u2019s personal narrative traditions. But in recent years, Price has turned that voice outward: to protest, channeling Bob Dylan-style Americana to tackle gender inequality, political hypocrisy and social unrest. Her sets are just as wide-ranging. Soaring psych-rock ballads like \u201cRadio,\u201d lonesome outlaw country, beer-soaked honky-tonk, and twangy barnburners all run side by side.<\/p>\n Price also will be interviewed by Scott Jordan at 1 p.m. Saturday on the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage. \u2014 LIAM PIERCE<\/p>\n Tems<\/strong><\/p>\n 6-7 p.m., Congo Square Stage<\/p>\n Nigeria has been the hotbed of contemporary Afrobeats, a genre dominated by club-ready, up-tempo rhythms. But while Temilade \u201cTems\u201d Openiyi<\/a> watched her peers ride that wave, she cooled those searing beats in favor of a soul-steeped brand of R&B. She puts narrative first, singing of longing and lost love in a slightly pinched, brassy register that wrings emotion from every line.<\/p>\n Ironically, that left turn opened the door to her biggest breakthrough: a feature on Afrobeats superstar Wizkid\u2019s 2020 hit \u201cEssence,\u201d the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, the collaborations have poured in: Drake, Future, Beyonc\u00e9, Rihanna. Each one sought out the depth she brings \u2014 not just a hook, but a feeling. \u2014 LIAM PIERCE<\/p>\n Ledisi Sings Nina<\/strong><\/p>\n 6-7 p.m., WWOZ Jazz Tent<\/p>\n
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