Motet, Snarky Puppy, & Lettuce Members To Pay Tribute To Herbie Hancock During Jazz Fest

Over the years, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has evolved into a multi-genre celebration of contemporary live music. However, at its core, the festival-and the various satellite events that take place across the city during the eleven-day musical marathon-is still centered around a love and appreciation for the improvisational jazz music that inspired the modern music community. During this year's Jazz Fest, keyboard wizard Joey Porter will add to that celebratory vibe with his Herbie Hancock Tribute at Frenchmen Street's Maison on Sunday, May 6th. With him, Porter is bringing an impressive roster of funk and jazz players from his band The Motet, progressive jazz stalwarts Snarky Puppy, and iconic modern funk-fusion band Lettuce.

Porter has been organizing tributes to Hancock-the artist that has influenced him the most in his life-for many years now, always with a rotating lineup and usually in the Pacific Northwest or in Colorado. This past fall, Porter brought his tribute to the NOLA-inspired event Brooklyn Comes Alive, and the lineup he put together had so much fun playing Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock material that he arranged for a similar lineup to join him for this special late-night Jazz Fest show.

Porter's trusted partner in The Motet, Garrett Sayers, and Snarky Puppy/Ghost Note's percussive duo, Robert "Sput" Searight and Nate Werth, will all team back up with Porter on bass, drums, and percussion, respectively. Sput has recently joined Hancock's musical circle, recording with him in the studio and joining him on the road for select dates-which will inevitably bring a certain level of authenticity to his playing while paying homage to the lead Headhunter himself. Finally, a newcomer to the Herbie Hancock tribute universe, Lettuce's virtuosic tenor saxophonist Ryan Zoidis, will join forces with Porter and company to round out the lineup for this formidable tribute set.

Tickets for the special tribute to Herbie Hancock go on sale this Friday, February 23rd, but there is an early-bird pre-sale running NOW at this link. More details about this show can be found below.

To post a comment, you must register and login.