My Morning Jacket Debut New Orleans Tributes and Galactic Welcome Irma Thomas on Final Sunday of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Photo Credit: Silvia Grav
On Sunday, May 4, the 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival came to a close with one final day of music at the Fair Grounds Race Course. For the final slate of performances in the two-week celebration that drew some of the biggest names in rock, jazz, funk, jam and more, Jazz Fest staged a staggering 77 sets across 18 stages, including appearances from longtime scene favorites like The Radiators, Kamasi Washington, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners, Maze and the Festival Stage headliner Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Amid this dizzying blowout, two of the day’s most memorable performances came from Galactic and My Morning Jacket.
In the early afternoon, Galactic stepped onto the main Festival Stage as the first of Sunday’s big draws. The pioneering six-piece funk and fusion ensemble greeted the gathering crowd with a fistful of old favorites from their three-decade discography, then underscored their rock chops with Led Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times” and honored their home in the Crescent City with the Allen Toussaint-penned, Pointer Sisters-popularized “Yes We Can Can.” Both of these standouts were propelled by soaring vocals from powerhouse collaborator Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, but for their final movement, the band turned the spotlight over to a more recent musical connection: the legendary Irma Thomas.
As Galactic moved into the final three songs of their festival set, the Soul Queen of New Orleans–and “the rest of the world,” according to Joseph–joined the ensemble and brought the audience to a roar with a stirring performance of her signature song “Time Is on My Side.” Thomas notably joined The Rolling Stones for their version of the soul standard during their 2024 Jazz Fest headline set.
Following this glance back to the classics, Thomas turned to her current outlook with “Where I Belong,” a reflection on her life and legacy co-written with Galactic’s Ben Ellman and Robert Mercurio. This moving entry, on which the vocalist relates, “Seen the world, places I didn’t think I’d ever see / And I love what I’m doing, lovin’ every minute of it,” appears on Audience with the Queen, her new collaborative record with Galactic that landed on April 11. Finally, to close out their performance, the Galactic and Thomas returned to the roots of their connection with their 2010 Ya-Kay-Ma collaboration “Heart of Steel.”
At the end of a long week of music, as Trombone Shorty served up one last blast of bayou brass-funk on the main stage, My Morning Jacket arrived to close out the Gentilly Stage. MMJ have had a long week of their own–including a triumphant five-night hometown stand at Louisville, Ky.’s Louisville Palace Theater–but their return to Jazz Fest and finale to the packed first lap of their is tour was defined by an undeterred energy.
My Morning Jacket swiftly set off their performance with a debut cover of Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans,” a bluesy entry point that quickly shot up to full-blown rockers as the Americana heavyweights moved into “Mahgeetah,” “Anytime,” “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1” and “Spring (Among the Living).” From further essentials like “Off the Record” and is standouts like “Time Waited,” “Squid Ink” and “Die for It,” frontman Jim James took a beat to speak on his appreciation for New Orleans’ vibrant musical heritage and pay tribute to Thomas, who he saw perform at Preservation Hall on Saturday. This story springboarded the band’s debut cover of “Time Is on My Side,” a slow-burning and tender salute that set a contemplative energy for the show-closing selection “Wordless Chorus.”
With another incomparable cultural celebration in the books, the many participants in New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will dash into their summer live itineraries. Find tour dates and tickets for Galactic and My Morning Jacket at galacticfunk.com and mymorningjacket.com.
