Celebrate the Spirit of New Orleans

New Orleans is a larger-than-life city whose rich cultural heritage, joyful celebrations and distinctive music keep visitors returning year after year to experience its inimitable spirit. Whether it’s traditions like Mardi Gras, the epic Carnival season, its second-line parades or festivals, the Crescent City knows how to let the good times roll. The Mondavi Center brings those good times to California with three unique concerts: Galactic, Herlin Riley Quartet, and Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen and Cha Wa.

Since its earliest days, New Orleans’ unique history and unusual blend of cultures have been the genesis of arguably the most influential music in America. By the late 1800s, European influences and African/Caribbean elements — dance music, call-and-response chants and drumming, ragtime — were starting to evolve into a new American genre. The city is known as the birthplace of jazz, and legendary musicians Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Pete Fountain, Harry Connick, Jr. and the Marsalis family.

Today, the tradition continues with a broad array of music and influences — from Cajun-Zydeco and brass band music to funk and bounce rap — expressing itself through cross-generational collaborations and experimentation. Funk and jazz fusion ensemble Galactic purchased New Orleans’ legendary nightclub, Tipitina’s, in 2018, and recorded an album with “Soul Queen of New Orleans” Irma Thomas in 2024. Afro-Indigenous band Cha Wa, a self-described “New Orleans brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit,” carries on the long tradition of songs about freedom and resilience. 

New Orleans has remained among the most important and influential music centers in the world. Its laidback lifestyle, family traditions, close community ties, Creole humor, amazing cuisine, and unique view of life promised to ensure that the communal flame and rhythms that run from Congo Square through jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, the Mardi Gras Indians, funk, and brass bands would continue to sustain its traditions while giving birth to new and exciting music forever.

Michael G. White, Folklife Magazine

Galactic

Featuring Jelly Joseph

October  29 / 7:30 p.m.

Jackson Hall

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First up is Galactic, the late-night funk outfit turned genre-defying collective. For more than 30 years, Galactic has fused funk with jazz, rock, hip-hop and soul. They’ll be joined by dynamic lead vocalist Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, whose soulful, commanding voice adds a powerful dimension to their expansive sound. Opener Bella Rayne brings her high-energy band and its blend of Americana, Southern rock, and improvisational jam music.

Herlin Riley Quartet

November 12–14 / 7:30 p.m.

Vanderhoef Studio Theatre

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Continue getting into the New Orleans groove with Herlin Riley, one of the premier drummers performing today. Celebrated for his dynamic soul and swing rhythms and infectious enthusiasm, Riley and his quartet deliver a high-spirited program of original compositions, jazz standards and blues, each infused with the unmistakable pulse of the Crescent City. 

Before starting his quartet, Riley collaborated and played with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for more than two decades. 

A shining example of New Orleans rhythm.

— The New York Times

Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen and Cha Wa

Wednesday, February 3 / 7:30 p.m. 

Jackson Hall 

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Get ready for a Mardi Gras celebration worthy of the Crescent City, but here at Jackson Hall.  Grammy Award–winning pianist and bandleader Jon Cleary, long at the forefront of the New Orleans musical landscape, ignites the stage with his powerhouse ensemble The Absolute Monster Gentlemen. Joining the celebration is New Orleans–based Afro-Indigenous funk collective Cha Wa, described by PopMatters as “a grand gumbo of singing, intoxicating rhythms, and deep funk grooves.”