Coachella, take heed, you just went mainstream.

New Orleans, April 29—The heart of Sunday’s program at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was the midafternoon set by the New Orleans Social Club, an all-star group of musicians who gathered in Austin six weeks after Hurricane Katrina to make a benefit album, “Sing Me Back Home”(Burgundy).
Dr. John doubled up on the keys [...]

One thing that sets Coachella apart from most other major live music events is the relative invisibility of the festival’s sponsors. But Madison Avenue is still more than eager to establish a beachhead here.

Indio, Calif., April 29–More beats than drones yesterday. CocoRosie: spacey juvenilia with a beatboxer. Ghostface Killah: crew-ness is all. The French DJ duo Justice: a techno psychic-friends network, with instant-cartharsis breaks. Red Hot Chili Peppers: heard in the night air, those rhythm-guitar bits feel interestingly thin and fragile these days for a [...]

Hurricane Katrina has given New Orleans gospel groups a whole new reason to praise the Lord.

I have a new favorite New Orleans funk band: Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk.

Some music fans revel in the concept of losing themselves in an isolated oasis, a hundred miles from anywhere, where the only thing to do is rock and relax. Others, however, suffer a sort of separation anxiety this far from home.

It hadn’t occurred to me yesterday that I had signed up for a seminar on British black humor: Arctic Monkeys, the Jesus and Mary Chain (Scottish, I know) and Jarvis Cocker.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still on musicians’ minds at Jazzfest, both locals and visitors.

Coachella has long operated like a music festival is supposed to: the rock stars perform on stage and the Hollywood celebrities watch from a restricted VIP area (equipped with a bar and a shaded lounge ). But that isn’t always the case.

Within the first hour, there was big-band jazz, fervent gospel, Mardi Gras Indian songs, traditional jazz and electric blues; a brass band, splashy piano R&B and funk were in the next shift.

Indio, Calif., April 27–The five gentlemen crammed into the Mitsubishi? Yes, they were going. The four hipsters wearing over-sized sunglasses and multiple wristbands? Definitely going. It was easy to pick out the people who are here to attend the three-day Coachella festival – it sometimes appeared as if everyone in town is. Today an estimated [...]

Indio, Calif., APRIL 27: I don’t like trying to predict which performances will break through the blur and distinguish themselves at big, bustling festivals. But I especially wouldn’t want to do so at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which starts in about two and a half hours, as soon as [...]

A brief audio-visual look at the history of the Coachella music festival in California — and what to expect this year, including big-name reunions by Rage Against the Machine and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

New Orleans, April 26–The 38th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is doing something you don’t see much around this shrunken city these days: expanding. “There’s a lot in New Orleans now that’s about getting it back where it was,” said Quint Davis, who has produced every Jazzfest. He was behind the wheel of [...]