INDIAN NEWS: Bo Dollis, Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias and the greatest singing Big Chief of them all, has been living in exile but will arrive in town tomorrow, to stay in a friend's apartment through Mardi Gras day and perhaps a little longer. I assume he's working on the finishing touches for this year's suit, which will probably require a room of its own in that temporary housing unit. If I learn anything of interest, I'll keep you posted (probably by starting a new thread with an appropriate title, since this thread is supopsded to be about Jazzfest).

JAZZFEST: A long list of participating acts was announced recently. I didn't study it closely, because I'll be going every day anyway, regardless of who's playing, but just from reading the newspaper headlines and seeing the local TV news, I can report that the big-name out-of-town acts will include Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Paul Simon, among many others. My brother, who will be visiting from England for the second weekend only, perused the lineup much more closely than I, and emailed me to say:

~ The first weekend would have been a better choice for him than the second, but he already made his arrangements, and hey, it's all good, anyway.

~ Conspicuously absent from the roster are the Neville Brothers, who have traditionally sreved as the closing act of the entire festival ever since the death of Professor Longhair back in 1980. What's up with that?