Aretha Franklin, Lionel Richie, Anita Baker and rock-turned-country star Darius Rucker are booked for the 2010 New Orleans Jazz Festival, scheduled for the weekends of April 23-25 and April 29-May 2.
Marking its 41st year, the festival features hundreds of acts in genres ranging from pop, rock and gospel to R&B, jazz and zydeco.
Though dotted with major national acts, the event is made up of more than 80 percent Louisiana artists such as The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Pete Fountain, Dr. John, rapper Juvenile, Trombone Shorty and Buckwheat Zydeco.
First-time Jazz Fest artists include Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket, Gipsy Kings, The Dead Weather, The Levon Helm Band, Drake and Johnny Lang.
Returning acts include the Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes and B.B. King.
“It’s just a way cool thing that Jazz Fest is so broad that it can embrace all these different things, all these different artists,” the festival’s producer, Quint Davis, told the Associated Press Monday. “We have jazz in the name, but it’s not just jazz music,” Davis said.
The 2010 festival will include a tribute to one of the genre’s founders, jazz singer, songwriter and trumpeter Louis Prima, who was born in 1910 and “brought jazz and New Orleans flavor to the world,” Davis said.- EUR Web.com
