Jazz Music

The Desert Nudes are a New Orleans trio bringing impeccable vocal harmonies and a well-developed sense of humor to cowboy songs, classic country, and roots rock. The band — J.P. Carmody, bassist and vocalist Dave Pomerleau of Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes, and multi-instrumentalist Andre Bohren, a classical pianist and longtime drummer for Johnny Sketch — formed during the pandemic while together in the Western desert, in conditions that may have inspired the name.

Their debut record, Keep A-Movin’, Dan: Songs of Hydration, Vigor, Horses, and Wide Open Spaces, earned immediate local acclaim and led to performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Bayou Boogaloo, and venues from Florida to the Rocky Mountain states. They call Marty Robbins their patron saint.

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Ado Soul & the Tribe are a New Orleans soul band whose sound has earned them the tag “the South’s Most Soulful Sound” — a blend of traditional New Orleans rhythm, funk, R&B, and Afrofuturist soul anchored by roaring brass and deep pocket grooves. The group is fronted by Ado Soul, whose gravelly vocal growl traces back to a childhood spent performing gospel alongside his father, a pastor and singer, across Louisiana. He honed his craft at Xavier University of Louisiana and has built a reputation as a performer who leaves nothing on the table. Essence Magazine named him one of their “New & Next Artists” in 2023, and the band performed at the 2025 BET Awards Red Carpet Pre-Show.

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SOUL Brass Band is a modern New Orleans brass ensemble led by drummer, vocalist, and bandleader Derrick "Smoker" Freeman, whose work bridges the city's deep-rooted traditions with a forward-looking sound.

Drawing from the lineage of second line culture, the band blends classic brass band instrumentation with elements of funk, hip-hop, and soul. Their performances move fluidly between tightly arranged horn lines, improvisation, and rhythmic interplay — reflecting the evolving language of New Orleans street music.

Under Freeman's direction, Soul Brass Band has appeared at major international festivals including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Telluride Jazz Festival. The group features some of the city's most accomplished players, including Billboard-charting saxophonist James Martin and Grammy Award–winning tubist Miles Lyons.

Basher plays highly improvisational dance music with the energy of a punk band and a free jazz spirit — two drum sets, analog synthesizers, and two saxophones. Led by saxophonist and composer Byron Asher, the band has built a devoted following in the New Orleans creative music scene through a combination of danceable grooves, anthemic melodies, and a wild collision of avant-garde acoustic and electronic textures. Celebrated for their ability to bring intense experimental improvisation out of traditional jazz rooms and onto dance floors, they have performed everywhere from the Saturn Bar and Broadside NOLA to halftime shows for the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center. Their 2022 LP Doubles on Sinking City Records earned four stars from DownBeat and was called "unbearably beautiful" by Pitchfork. Their 2024 follow-up, May Day, was described by WeJazz Magazine as a "euphoric release."

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Vibe with Ayanna & Zahria brings together sound curator and DJ Ayanna Cooper Vasquez and saxophonist and bandleader Zahria Sims for a live collaboration that sits at the intersection of house music and jazz. Ayanna's sets draw from house, disco, Afro-Latin rhythms, and globally inspired sounds, built around deep grooves and soulful, unhurried programming. Zahria Sims is a Baton Rouge native now rooted in New Orleans, founder of the Zahria Sims Collective, and a Loyola University jazz graduate whose credits include opening slots for Kenny Garrett and Arturo Sandoval, a recording with Nicholas Payton, and a 2025 debut EP. Together they layer live saxophone melodies and looped textures over Ayanna's DJ sets, a format the two have developed through regular performances at 3oneone6, a creative collective and art space on St. Claude Avenue. 

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Julian "Juice" Gosin is a 7th Ward-born artist, producer, trumpeter, MC, and educator best known as a longtime member of the globally renowned Soul Rebels. Through that platform he has performed and recorded alongside Metallica, Nas, Lenny Kravitz, Wu-Tang Clan, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and Maceo Parker, and has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and GZA's NPR Tiny Desk performance. His debut solo album, Be Intentional, self-produced and self-written with features from Trombone Shorty, Nicholas Payton, and Nigel Hall, spans hip-hop, pop, R&B, and dance music. Off the stage, Gosin taught music for five years at Warren Easton Charter School and serves as Musical Director for Trombone Shorty Foundation's Trombone Shorty Academy. 

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Pocket Chocolate is a seven-piece funk, blues, and soul collective of born-and-raised New Orleans musicians who have spent the years since their 2019 formation playing their way across the Gulf Coast and back. Their debut EP Live From New Orleans was recorded at multiple venues across the city, and their debut LP, produced with Jake Eckert of the New Orleans Suspects, arrived in October 2025. The band builds on original songwriting and a deep familiarity with the styles of music that founded New Orleans' musical culture, updated for a contemporary audience without losing the feel of the original.

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Charlie & the Tropicales bring the sound and spirit of a 1950s Caribbean hotel band to life with torrid horns, tropical rhythms, and infectious grooves. Drawing on New Orleans' deep connections as the northernmost port of the Caribbean, the group explores musical traditions from Trinidad, Venezuela, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and beyond.

As jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton famously said, New Orleans music carries a “Spanish tinge,” an essential seasoning in the city’s musical DNA. The Tropicales embrace this spirit, blending  traditional New Orleans jazz with 1950s R&B, beguine from the French Antilles, and Trinidadian calypso, the Tropicales create a sound that feels both timeless and transportive — equally suited for listening and for the dance floor.

Led by trombonist Charlie Halloran — a fixture of the city's traditional jazz scene — the band reflects a broader exploration of Caribbean and New Orleans musical exchange. Halloran has been twice named a "Rising Star" in DownBeat Magazine and is a multi-time honoree in OffBeat Magazine's "Best of the Beat" awards, with credits including Jon Cleary, Allen Toussaint, Rickie Lee Jones, and U2.

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