During a Thursday afternoon interview for an overflow crowd at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, Jon Batiste discussed his bonkers travel schedule over the last couple weeks.
After bouncing from Japan to London to Marrakesh to Paris to Las Vegas to Los Angeles to New York, he arrived in New Orleans this week to rehearse — and, from how it sounded, finish planning — his Jazz Fest show.
Would it feel like a show thrown together at the last minute by a jet-lagged performer?
It would not, even if it teetered on the brink of losing the thread a couple times.
Just as he did in 2023, Batiste orchestrated one of the fest’s biggest performances. Big in terms of the number of participants. Big in terms of musical variety. Big in terms of meaning.
He did not squander the rare opportunity for a hometown artist to headline the biggest stage at Jazz Fest. And he elevated lots of other people in the process.
Kimberly Kaye and Rurik Nunan of Loose Cattle perform on the Fais Do-Do Stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Friday, April 24, 2026.
Loose Cattle corralled
Michael Cerveris is a Tony Award-winning Broadway star with a long resume in TV and movies who splits his time between New York and New Orleans.
In New Orleans, he and singer Kimberly Kaye cultivated a hybrid country/rock/Americana band called Loose Cattle.
At the Fais Do-Do Stage on Friday, Loose Cattle demonstrated just how far the band’s stage presence and sound have come. Cerveris’ electric guitar shared space with Alex McMurray’s and with Rurik Nunan’s violin. Ominous guitars swooped and raged in “The Shoals” as Kaye wailed in a metallic gold dress. Just as quickly, the storm passed as the band quieted down for a new song called “Quiet Town.”
Kaye invested herself in every number, her voice clear and strong. She also did a credible impression of the titular character in “Sidewalk Chicken.”
The band fully inhabited Lucinda Williams’ New Orleans tribute “Crescent City,” with Kaye, Cerveris and Nunan harmonizing out front over a supple foundation by bassist Rene Coman and drummer Doug Garrison.
Cerveris described the eclectic audience as “looking like I grew up believing the country should look like.” He then encouraged random kindness, such as letting the shorter person behind you stand in front of you. Or buying a rosemint tea for someone else in line.
Such small gestures won’t change the world, Cerveris acknowledged. But on a micro level, they might make it a little nicer.
Cyril Neville, the Uptown Ruler, performs on the Festival Stage during the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Friday, April 24, 2026.
Cyril Neville reps his brothers
Cyril Neville spent many years closing down Jazz Fest’s main stage on the final Sunday with the Neville Brothers. He’s now the last of the four Brothers still performing. Art and Charles are deceased, and Aaron is retired and living on a farm in upstate New York.
Cyril fronted his own band at Jazz Fest’s Festival Stage on Friday (and was slated to perform Friday night at the Fillmore for a Meters reunion). The red, yellow, orange and white boas decorating the microphone stands matched his shirt, bandanna and hat, as well as the stage décor.
Now 77 and as lean as ever, Neville came out dancing and spinning like a much younger man. From behind his percussion rig, he led his band through Steve Miller’s “Fly Like An Eagle,” which the Neville Brothers covered on their 1992 album “Family Groove.”
Neville, like Cerveris earlier, commented on the crowd’s make-up: “Look at that rainbow — a rainbow of humanity.”
In another Neville Brothers nod, he said “we used to do this with some friends of ours known as the Dead.” With Cyril’s son Omari Neville working the drum kit and Shamarr Allen playing pocket trumpet with the horn section, they conjured a version of the Grateful Dead’s “Fire On the Mountain” that ran Mississippi River deep and slow.
The groove rolled into the Brothers’ “Brother Jake,” from 1990’s “Brother’s Keeper” album. The Neville Brothers may be no more, but Cyril represented their legacy at the fest.
Jon Batiste performs on the Festival Stage during the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Friday, April 24, 2026.
Batiste’s many friends
I intended to break away from Jon Batiste’s closing set at some point to see a bit of Lorde — who played to a big crowd at the Gentilly Stage — and Sean Paul at the Congo Square Stage. I really did.
But Jon Batiste got started 20 minutes late. And once he got rolling, I felt compelled to stick around just to see what happened next.
The Blind Boys of Alabama opened his show with an invocation of “Amazing Grace.” Batiste, in a plain black T-shirt tucked into a pair of Levi’s, joined in by thumping on a tambourine.
Jon Batiste performs with the Blind Boys of Alabama on the Festival Stage during the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Friday, April 24, 2026.
He built a musical and cultural display with many parts. A choir of 20 or so souls. A brass (band) section. Three female dancers in denim. A brace of male dancers.
He reached back to his “Social Music” album for a percussive “Let God Lead,” with its “love will never quit” refrain, as part of the show’s opening salvo. He teased his way into a full-on “Freedom,” from his career-changing, multiple Grammy-winning “We Are” album. The stage was alive with dancers and musicians in ecstatic motion.
He stopped the song to remind the audience, “You only have one life … one soul … one body … one voice. In this performance, we intend to use the full extent of it all. It’s not a performance — it’s a spiritual practice. Live in the moment and shake what your mama gave you.”
The audience obliged.
The set turned hard into DJ Jubilee’s “Get It Ready Ready,” then turned again into Batiste’s own “Big Money.” He opened the piano showcase that followed with a bit of “You Are My Sunshine,” then Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which in turn led to Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is,” overlaid with a Batiste spoken-word meditation on the challenges facing Black youth.
Jon Batiste performs on the Festival Stage during the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Friday, April 24, 2026.
Guitarist Brandon “Taz” Niederauer got a showcase in “Cry,” then later tapped out an “Eruption” on the neck of his guitar.
“Chim Chim Cher-ee” from “Mary Poppins” gave way to Batiste’s “I Need You” – why not?
Flagboy Giz, in full Black Masking Indian regalia, showcased his own “We Outside.” The young New Orleans rapper La Reezy navigated his “Hardhead.”
Finally, the show swung back to Batiste as he broke out his melodica for the first time. The crowd clapped on cue during his “If You’re Happy And You Know It.”
To close out his musical journey, he embarked on a literal one: playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” on melodica while leading the entire collective off the stage, through the VIP sections, then down the chute toward the sound board and off into the crowd.
Jon Batiste, once again, did not go small at Jazz Fest.
