The memorial garden at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is about to get a lot more crowded as fellow musicians honor the many musical icons — known as “Ancestors” — who have passed since the festival was last held three years ago.
Jazz Fest, which began Friday and will conclude on May 8, will feature on-stage tributes, as well as jazz funeral processions that will cross the Fair Grounds and conclude with the unveiling of the honoree’s likenesses alongside the other Ancestors at the rear of the Congo Square field.
“That’s Jazz Fest,” Quint Davis, the festival’s longtime producer/director, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. Like many African cultures, “we stay connected to our ancestors. These people are part of us, part of our lives, part of New Orleans.”
