Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
Flea Finds His Jazz Thing
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation will present a new festival later this month on the city’s storied Congo Square.
The inaugural Congo Square Rhythms Festival on Sept. 30 will feature a lineup of Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, and African drum and dance performances, as well as a special mass featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama.
The festival will pay tribute to the square’s significant past as a birthplace of sorts for new African-American art forms. The festivities include a mass at St. Augustine Church (1210 Governor Nicholls St.), a procession to the square and two stages of free music throughout the day.
For more information about the festival, visit jazzandheritage.org/congosquare.
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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