Jazz Fest: Country music artist Keith Urban performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. (AP/Gerald Herbert)

Friday's opening day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival highlighted a worldwide spectrum of musical influences, '€” from the alternative Chicago-based rock band Wilco to Irish singer-guitarist Hozier and the Jamaican and reggae stylings of singer Jimmy Cliff.

Headlining the day's biggest stage is country music star Keith Urban, who festival producer Quint Davis describes as one of the world's "monster rock-blues-country guitar players."

Davis said when the New Zealand-born Urban was told the Tedeschi Trucks Band was playing before his scheduled Friday evening performance, his reply was: "They're not opening for me, I'm closing for them."

Urban is a returning headliner, having last played Jazz Fest the year after Hurricane Katrina.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band is a Florida-based bluesy rock group founded by husband and wife musicians Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. This will be the group's Jazz Fest debut.

A Blue Moon beer in hand, Deborah Zingale bobbed to the group's tunes. Zingale and friends came in from Morristown, New Jersey, to take in the sights and sounds of Jazz Fest.

"The food, the music, the company. It's the best," she said, adding that she was last at the festival four years ago. But even as a veteran, there are firsts to be had.

"I ate alligator for the first time," she said with a laugh. "It was yummy."

Under a grey sky, music fans jockeyed for positions in front of their favorite stages when the gates opened at 11 a.m., laying out blankets, putting up umbrellas and erecting tall flags to mark their spots.

More than 50 acts will perform throughout opening day on about a dozen stages in such genres as jazz, blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco and rock. Among the day's local acts is the Honey Island Swamp Band, Brass-A-Holics, Wayne Toups, Lil Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra and a host of New Orleans brass bands.

The festival continues through Sunday, and April 30, May 1, 2 and 3. (*****)(+++)

Popular

China retaliates against EU ban with import restrictions on medical devices

KPK finds guns, Rp 2.8 billion in the house of an aide close to Bobby Nasution

Analysis: Indonesia’s competitiveness ranking falls amid weakening fundamentals