Danny Barker Guitar and Banjo Fest at Jazz Museum and more | Events

The Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival celebrates Barker’s long career and many contributions to New Orleans’ music as a musician, mentor, preservationist and personality. The performing lineup is full of musicians who as teens were mentored by Barker.

This year’s festival runs March 18-23, and includes tributes and mentoring events throughout the week, as well as a three-day mini-festival Friday through Sunday at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.

Barker was born into a musical family and was the nephew of Paul and Louis Barbarin. He was in Cab Calloway’s band and played with Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Red Allen and many more. He married local jazz and blues singer Louisa Dupont, who became better known as Blue Lu Barker, the voice behind their recording of “Don’t You Feel My Leg.”

Danny Barker influenced generations of New Orleans musicians as a mentor, including Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Herlin Riley, Leroy Jones, Gregg Stafford and Michael White. He created the Fairview Baptist Church Band to teach traditional music to young people, and its members went on to launch many brass bands that both carried on the tradition and incorporated popular music into the brass band format.

One of the highlights of the festival is A Touch of Blue, a tribute to Blue Lu Barker featuring vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater at the New Orleans Museum of Art. She’ll be backed by a band including White, Wendell Brunious and guitarist Detroit Brooks, who is an organizer of the festival. New York jazz singer Catherine Russell, whose father was a band director for Louis Armstrong, often visits New Orleans to perform at the Satchmo SummerFest. She’ll lead tributes to Barker at Snug Harbor at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

Events at the Jazz Museum kick off with second line parades on Friday and Saturday morning. The festival has a music stage in the courtyard, as well as an indoor stage on the museum’s third floor and an interview stage on the first floor.

Drummer Shannon Powell leads off on the outdoor stage at 11 a.m. Friday, and the day concludes with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers at 4-5 p.m. The indoor stage kicks off with bluesman Chris Thomas King at 11:30 a.m. Interview sessions include Powell and Riley talking about drumming at 1 p.m., and a discussion of the Junior Pinstripe Brass Band with Brice Miller and Ronell Johnson.

On Saturday, the outdoor stage starts with vocalists Charmaine Neville at 11 a.m. and John Boutte at 12:15 p.m. Guitarist and composer Mahmoud Chouki follows at 1:30 p.m. Bluesman Little Freddie King performs at 2:45 p.m. and the stage finishes with the Treme Brass Band and the Black Men of Labor social aid and pleasure club.

The indoor stage features Cuban vocalist Yusa at 11:30 a.m., longtime Preservation Hall bandleader and trumpeter Wendell Brunious at 12:30 p.m., and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes at 1:30 p.m. On the interview stage, Jazz Museum curator David Kunian talks to Kermit Ruffins, Eric Cager talks to brass band leader and drummer Benny Jones, and Armand Sheik Richardson talks to trumpeter Leroy Jones, a veteran of Barker’s Fairview Baptist Church Band, and for a while its bandleader.

On Sunday, Jones leads his band at 12:15 p.m., and the outdoor stage finishes with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The indoor stage leads off with the harmonies of The Pfister Sisters at 11:30 a.m. and concludes with The Dixie Cups at 3:30 p.m. On the interview stage, Gregory Davis and Roger Lewis discuss the Dirty Dozen.

For a full schedule of events and tickets, visit dannybarkerfestival.com.

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