This review of “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” was first published March 13, 2022, after premiering at the SXSW Film Festival.
Anybody who’s been to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival could tell you that the hardest part of making a movie about the annual event, which takes up two weekends in late April and early May in the Crescent City, would have to be fitting it all in.
Jazz Fest, after all, showcases 7,000 musicians on 14 stages over eight days in a city whose homegrown music is a gumbo made up of every style and sound that came up through the Gulf of Mexico, down the Mississippi River or through the delta to the east and the swamps to the west of the city.