Thursday, April 25, at Jazz Fest: Stephen Marley, Beach Boys and more

Jazz Fest 2024 opens with Locals Thursday this year. Read below for Gambit's picks for artists to check out.

The Revelers

11:15 a.m.-12:05 p.m. Thursday

Fais Do-Do Stage

This Grammy-nominated, accordion-wielding, Cajun French-tongued band is a perfect, upbeat way to kick off the first Thursday of Jazz Fest. Although the band is more tidily nestled into the genre of swamp pop, it also weaves in R&B and rock ’n’ roll influences in tunes like “Toi, Tu Veux Pus Me Voir,” or English songs like “If You Ain’t Got Love.”

Lead singer Blake Miller is the grandson of an accordion maker and has been associated with South Louisianan acts like The Red Stick Ramblers and Pine Leaf Boys. They’re regular staples at Black Pot, a festival for Acadiana music and food.

You can’t really play zydeco without it being an homage to older folk traditions of Louisiana, but there’s something fresh and youthful about the band’s tempo and the emotion behind their songs.

The Tin Men

11:15 a.m.-12:10 p.m. Thursday

Blues Tent

New Orleans’ hometown washboard, sousaphone and guitar trio have been around since 2002, and the members play in nearly a dozen other bands across the city. While they have a wide range of pop covers in their repertoire, lead singer Alex McMurray delivers originals like “Still Drunk,” “Avocado Woo Woo” and “Livin’ and Lovin’ on the Westbank.”

They’re often theatrical, with McMurray riffing in between songs, and his vocal stylings often draw comparison to Tom Waits. The band will give you the feeling of a smoky Bywater dive bar —  except in the open festival air.

Agrupación Changó

12:35-1:20 p.m. Thursday

Festival Stage

3:35-4:35 p.m. Thursday

Cultural Exchange Pavilion

Agrupación Changó’s name pays homage to Changó, the Yoruban (West African) god of fire, lightning and sacred drums. Indeed, fiery percussion is certainly the group’s forte. The band formed in 2004 almost as an act of preservation of African diasporic music on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. A lot of their lyrics reflect the syncretism formed there between Catholicism and West African religions.

What makes the band a particularly strong representation of Colombia is that they center their music around an instrument specific to the region: the marimba de chonta, made from a type of bamboo that grows there.

Agrupació Changó’s large ensemble builds hypnotizing, looping rhythms out of that marimba, vocals and bongos that have even inspired some catchy remixes, building on that cultural legacy.

Mokoomba

12:40-1:40 p.m. Thursday

Cultural Exchange Pavilion

4:15 - 5:15 p.m. Thursday

Congo Square Stage

Based in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Mokoomba represents a fusion that spans the Atlantic Ocean, singing in Zimbabwe’s native Tonga language among others, but pulling from influences like Congo’s soukous, dancehall and Trinidad and Tobago’s soca music.

The sextet has collaborated since childhood and even though their album “Rising Tide” leaned a bit more on mixed electric instruments, their more recent music is acoustic-focused. Funky basslines ground a lot of super bright runs on the guitar that make for extremely danceable rhythms.

Robert Finley

1:45-2:40 p.m. Thursday

Blues Tent

Robert Finley has enjoyed the kind of late-in-life breakthrough that only a handful of soul singers have recently enjoyed in their twilight years. Think: Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. And like, them, Finley’s voice is rough hewn and gospel-influenced, contrasted with super clean musicianship.

Born in Bernice, Louisiana, in 1954, Finley is said to have picked up a guitar at a thrift store when he was 11 and then played for troops as a member of the military starting at age 17. He owes a bit of his late ascent to a music nonprofit after they picked him up while he was busking in Arkansas. By that point in his life, he had led a gospel group and had to retire from his side gig of carpentry after becoming legally blind. Fittingly, his first album was titled, “Age Don’t Mean a Thing.”

Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys took notice of Finley and helped him write the album “Sharecropper’s Son.” “Here I am at my age,” Finley told the Music Maker Foundation. “Just now fulfilling my childhood dream.” Fans can hear more of what he has to say at an interview on the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage at 3:45 p.m.

Cimafunk

2:55-3:55 p.m. Thursday

Festival Stage

Even though Erik Rodriguez is from Cuba, he’s made something of a home for himself in New Orleans. Rodriguez's stage name is Cimafunk, a reference to “cimarrones,” the Spanish word for escaped, formerly enslaved peoples. He lived in New Orleans for a spell and even helped the Trombone Shorty Foundation launch two cultural exchange trips to Cuba, bringing Shorty, members of Galactic and Mannie Fresh along.

The self-proclaimed “Afro-Cuban Rockstar” tours the world, and his latest album “El Alimento” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. At times, his more soulful groove on tracks like “Parar el Tiempo” and “Rómpelo (featuring Lupe Fiasco)” can sound like his contemporary Theophilus London. But tracks like “Me Voy” or “Caramelo” have a more classically Cuban clapping rhythm, complete with a tidy punctuation of horns.

He’s featured on Galactic’s song “Ready for Me,” and it would be fun if any members of that band make a guest appearance. Either way, Cimafunk is going to bring a nice contemporary spin to the kinds of jazzy, soul, and funky Afro-inspired beats heard around Jazz Fest.

He’ll also be interviewed at 12:45 p.m. on the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage.

The Headhunters

4:15-5:25 p.m. Thursday

Jazz & Heritage Stage

Formed in Oakland, California, the Headhunters have a staggering list of associated acts. Co-founder Paul Jackson started playing bass with the Oakland Symphony in his early teens and went on to play with Sonny Rollins, Stevie Wonder and The Pointer Sisters. Oh, yeah, and the Headhunters’ other co-founder? Herbie Hancock.

While Hancock and the late Jackson will not be joining, percussionist and ethnomusicologist Bill Summers, saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and drummer and longtime band member Mike Clark will be heading the band partially comprised of New Orleans musicians.

Legend has it that Hancock came up with the name while doing Buddhist chanting, reminding him of the jungle, intellectual matters, and, well, giving head. The band personifies each, with hits like the deep funk-channeled “God Made Me Funky” and the instantly recognizable “Chameleon.”

The Desert Nudes

4:15-5:05 p.m. Thursday

Lagniappe Stage

Multi-instrumentalist Andre Bohren has plenty of musical talent and plenty of projects to show it off, from playing classical music on the piano to playing funk-rock with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, rockabilly with Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers and Beatles covers with The Walrus.

His latest project is The Desert Nudes, a band that plays old-school country and tumbleweed tunes. He’s joined by guitarist John Paul Carmody and Johnny Sketch bandmate and bassist David Pomerleau. The group released the album “Keep A-Movin, Dan” in February.

Stephen Marley

5:45-7 p.m. Thursday

Congo Square Stage

The second oldest son of reggae legends Bob and Rita Marley, Stephen Marley has been performing professionally since the tender age of 7, when he first took the stage with his siblings as part of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.

An acclaimed musician and producer in his own right, Stephen Marley has won numerous Grammys, including Best Reggae Album in 2012 for his record “Revolution Pt. 1 – The Root of Life.” He also produced a number of his brother Damien’s classic records, including the Grammy-winning 2002 “Halfway Tree” and 2005’s “Welcome to Jamrock,” widely considered one of the best reggae albums of the decade.

Marley’s live shows are an intense, high-energy affair, and this year’s Jazz Fest set will certainly be one of the day’s highlights.

Kenny Barron Trio

5:45-7 p.m. Thursday

WWOZ Jazz Tent

Pianist Kenny Barron has had a legendary career, playing alongside Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes and Stan Getz among others. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2010. At Jazz Fest, his trio also includes bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake.

The Beach Boys

6-7 p.m. Thursday

Gentilly Stage

So the Beach “Boys” — now in their 70’s and 80’s and without Brian Wilson — clearly won’t play like they used to. But also, a definition of “what they used to” might depend on what era one associates them with. Do you think of them more as pop-y surf rockers? Or do you think of them in more of their “Pet Sounds,” “Vegetables” experimental era, when they used to hang out with Charles Manson?

Either way, there’s something to be said for seeing some legends play. Which of those two bands will Jazz Fest get? More than likely, the former — three out of six songs on a recent setlist of theirs had with the word “surf” in them and a fourth was “Catch a Wave.” They’ve even recently covered The Ramones’ “Rockaway Beach,” well after the Ramones covered “Surfin’ Safari” 30 years ago.

The nostalgia doesn’t stop there, though, as frontman Mike Love’s son Christian joins them on stage as a guitarist.