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This past weekend, my second time at Satchmo Summerfest at the Old Mint Museum in New Orleans, a free festival celebrating Louis Armstrong. Over the course of the weekend, the festival presented 21 concerts on two outdoor, tented stages, six concerts (mostly duos) inside the second floor of the museum (the Gallatin records piano sessions), and ten lectures on Armstrong related topics in the museum's performance room.. I hope to return next year. Two things the city has in abundance, fine pianists and trumpet players. On Saturday: Preservation Brass. The Preservation Hall version of a brass band features Wendell Brunious and Mark Braud on trumpets, and Rod Paulin on clarinet and tenor sax. Quite enjoyable and their new CD, For Fats, is recommended. Performing Mondays at Preservation Hall. Victor Campbell: Very talented young Cuban jazz pianist plays a diverse set that veers from acoustic jazz to funk and fusion. He's good on organ as well. No leader recordings yet. Jesse McBride and Andrew Baham. An excellent piano/trumpet duo. Before this was the tail end of Ricky Riccardi on piano with Wendell Brunious on trumpet. I caught the last couple of songs of this and it was also enjoyable. Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra. This band plays weekly at Snug Harbor. Nothing like the sound of a seasoned big band. This one swings like mad, like a classic Kansas City swing big band, but mixed with the sounds of New Orleans.  Lots of good soloists, including the leader, Rod Paulin (alto) and Andrew Baham (trumpet). A great set and best of the day. On Sunday: A day of duos for me. Keiko Komaki and Rurik Nunan: Piano and violin. Keiko Komaki is Japanese and has lived in New Orleans for 18 years. She is an excellent two fisted pianist. No leader dates so far, only a smattering of sideman recordings. Too bad. Jamil Sharif and Larry Sieberth. Another piano/trumpet duo. Jamil Sharif is from a multi-generational family of New Orleans musicians dating back to the 1850s. His father was also a trumpet player who played with Luis Russell, among others. He is equally adept at the performance of traditional New Orleans jazz and modern jazz, though he appears to make his living off the former. For this set of mostly Louis Armstrong associated songs, as he explained, it is impossible to improve on the originals, so he performs basically 95% transcriptions of Armstrong's solos, which he described as extremely difficult and demanding. (i note he did this from memory, without sheet music.) As Jamil is himself a great trumpet player, this was awesome to hear in person. Tom McDermott and Marta Dixon: Finally, for the last of the Gallatin Records piano sessions, the great pianist Tom McDermott performs with trumpeter/vocalist Marta Dixon (Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band). Tom McDermott is a master of ragtime, early Jazz,and latin music and is a pure joy to hear. This was the end of the festival for me. I did not catch any of the lectures this year. Closing out the weekend at Snug Harbor, for the Peter Vernado Trio. Peter Vernado is a jazz drummer, in this case leading a piano trio for a set of original music that he hoped to record soon. It was quite good.

August 14, 2025: Shelley Carrol Quartet, Kitchen Cafe, Dallas August 22-23, 2025: Jamille Brazilian Quartet, Windmills, The Colony August 23, 2025: Pt Kushal Das (Sitar) & Sandip Ghosh (Tabla), ICMC, Plano August 30, 2025: Doreen Ketchens, Pete Escovedo, Riverfront Jazz Festival, Fair Park, Dallas August 31, 2025: The Texas Tenors (Shelley Carrol, Jason Davis, Quamon  Fowler), Riverfront Jazz Festival, Fair Park, Dallas September 6, 2025: Xuefei Yang, Unity of Dallas September 11, 2025: Miguel Zenon Quartet, Parker Jazz Club, Austin September 12-13: Miguel Zenon Quartet, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Houston September 11, 2025: Ben Lamar Gay, Damon Locks,  Sonic Transmissions Festival, Draylen Mason Music Festival, Austin September 12, 2025:   Ibelisse Guardia Feragutti and Frank Rosaly's Mestizx, Sonic Transmissions Festival, Austin Scottish Rite Theater,  Austin September 13, 2025: Pt Sandeep Chatterjee (Santoor) & Shubhojyoti Guha (Tabla), ICMC, Plano September 23, 2025: Mdou Moctar, White Oak Music Hall, Houston September 24, 2025: Mdou Moctar, Radio/East, Austin October 5, 2025: Kushal Das (sitar), Abhijit Banerjee (tabla), Unity Church of the Hills, Austin October 9, 2025: Paul Cornish Trio, JazzTX, San Antonio October 12, 2025: Joy Clark, Little Freddie King, Bobby Rush, Crescent City Blues Festival, New Orleans October 17, 2025: Walter Smith III Quartet, Wortham Theater, Houston October 21, 2025: Lila Downs, Jones Hall, Houston October 24, 2025: Jackie Venson, Tulips FTW, Fort Worth November 12, 2025: Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Meyerson, Dallas November 14, 2025: Nicholas Payton Quartet, Wortham Theater, Houston November 15, 2025: Wynton Marsalis, Hogg Auditorium, Austin November 16, 2025: Wynton Marsalis, Hobby Center, Houston February 22, 2026: Branford Marsalis Quaret, Wortham Theater, Houston March 7, 2026: Pat Metheny Side-Eye, Wortham Theater, Houston March 21, 2026: Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival, Southside Preservation Hall, Fort Worth March 26-29, 2026: Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee April 2, 2026: Kaia Kater, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, Arkansas April 10, 2026: Coltrane at 100 (Joe Lovano, Melissa Aldana, Ndudzo Makhathini, Matt Garrison, Jefftain Watts), Cullen Theater, Houston April 23-26, 2026: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 30-May 3, 2026: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival May 9, 2026: Hiromi's Sonic Wonder, Cullen Theater, Houston May 16, 2026: Chucho Valdes, Paramount Theater, Austin