NEW ORLEANS — Willie Nelson is cancelling an upcoming efficiency on the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage competition and suspending different reveals after a optimistic case of the coronavirus in his band.
The 89-year-old musician posted on his band’s website on Friday that “as a consequence of a optimistic Covid case within the Willie Nelson Household Band” two upcoming reveals scheduled to occur Might 6 and Might 7 could be postponed and that Nelson’s Sunday efficiency at Jazz Fest could be cancelled.
Nelson was slated to shut the Gentilly Stage — the identical stage the place his son Lukas Nelson is performing earlier within the day together with his band the Promise of the Actual. No alternative for the elder Nelson has but been introduced.
The information comes after Melissa Etheridge introduced Thursday that she wouldn’t be capable to carry out Saturday at Jazz Fest as a consequence of “COVID hitting my crew.” Mavis Staples will carry out throughout that point interval as a substitute.
“Oh my coronary heart hurts to not be there. Mavis shall be wonderful, I do know. I hope I could be requested again once more. Dave and crew are therapeutic. Thanks for all of the nicely needs. COVID heartbreak,” tweeted Etheridge after information that Staples would seem on Saturday was introduced.
Additionally on Friday, legendary New Orleans bass participant George Porter Jr. stated on Instagram that he had the coronavirus and was out for the remainder of the competition.
The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported that Porter performed a number of reveals throughout Jazz Fest’s first weekend and had plenty of performances scheduled outdoors the competition through the second weekend.
The seven-day competition began on Friday, April 29, and ends Sunday, Might 8.
The occasion attracts tens of 1000’s to the town’s Truthful Grounds Race Course, the place as many as 80 musical acts carry out day by day on greater than a dozen phases, complemented by artwork and craft displays and an array of cubicles that includes meals from Louisiana and past.
Whereas it attracts nationwide and worldwide expertise resembling Nelson and Etheridge, the competition can also be identified for showcasing the broad gamut of musical expertise and genres present in Louisiana resembling zydeco, gospel, blues and naturally, jazz.
