Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest performances due to COVID

Animal Collective have cancelled the remaining shows on their current US tour after Avey Tare and Deakin tested positive for COVID-19.The band are out on the road in support of their 11th studio album ‘Time Skiffs’, which came out back in February.As Pitchfork reports, Animal Collective recently scrapped three scheduled gigs on the West Coast due to an unnamed member of their touring party contracting COVID. Today (May 26), the group issued a statement to explain that the virus had “hit us and hit us hard”.“Both Dave [Portner, aka Avey Tare] and Josh [Dibb, aka Deakin] (each vaccinated and boosted) got very sick and are unable to play shows right now,” the message read.“Continuing to tour at this moment would be harmful to their health and could contribute to longer term difficulties.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Lincoln Center Theater’s The Skin of Our Teeth canceled performances over the weekend due to Covid cases within their companies, another sign that the virus isn’t finished with Broadway just yet.

I’ve seen you DJ at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon before, but you have a background in music that goes well beyond that, right?(Laughs) Yeah, yeah. I actually grew up in a musical family. My dad was a composer, jazz guitar player and producer at Capitol Records.

EXCLUSIVE: Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon Docs has come aboard to handle worldwide sales on Ben Chace’s Music Pictures: New Orleans, which is set to bow at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The company will introduce the film to buyers during the Cannes Market.

So, all that big happy family talk was just a lie then??

Jack Harlow is opening up about his new album.

Dua Lipa gave her blessing to Jack Harlow’s new song.

NEW ORLEANS -- Willie Nelson is cancelling an upcoming performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival and postponing other shows after a positive case of the coronavirus in his band.The 89-year-old musician posted on his band's website on Friday that “due to a positive Covid case in the Willie Nelson Family Band” two upcoming shows scheduled to happen May 6 and May 7 would be postponed and that Nelson's Sunday performance at Jazz Fest would be cancelled.Nelson was slated to close the Gentilly Stage — the same stage where his son Lukas Nelson is performing earlier in the day with his band the Promise of the Real. No replacement for the elder Nelson has yet been announced.The news comes after Melissa Etheridge announced Thursday that she would not be able to perform Saturday at Jazz Fest due to “COVID hitting my crew." Mavis Staples will perform during that time period instead.“Oh my heart hurts not to be there.

EXCLUSIVE: New Line’s feature take of John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down has added three: J. Smith-Cameron, Poorna Jagannathan and Maliq Johnson. They’re joining previously announced Isabela Merced, Cree Cicchino, Felix Mallard and Judy Reyes in the HBO Max movie.

NEW ORLEANS -- A cathartic return of music and culture to New Orleans' chief music festival after three years ended its first weekend with the Red Hot Chili Peppers honoring the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins by closing out the show for his band.Hawkins died March 25 and the Foo Fighters bowed out of their slot at Jazz Fest, the first time New Orleans has held the massive festival since COVID-19 cancelled it in 2020 and 2021.Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith's base drum Sunday had a hawk silhouette like the one tattooed on Hawkins' arm. Taylor was written across it, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported.And at the end of the 90-minute set, Smith took center stage as Hawkins' widow and members of the Foo Fighters stood just off stage.“We love the Foo Fighters and we love our brother Taylor Hawkins.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have paid tribute to Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins during their headline set at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – watch footage below.The ‘Unlimited Love’ group stepped in to replace Foo Fighters at the event following the tragic death of their drummer Hawkins on March 25. Dave Grohl and co.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Red Hot Chili Peppers paid tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on Sunday while frontman Dave Grohl, Hawkins’ widow Alison, and other members of the Foo Fighters looked on from the wings, according to reports in nola.com and on social media.Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, a close friend of Hawkins, had “Taylor” spelled out on his bass drum, emblazoned with a hawk silhouette, similar to one on Hawkins’ arm.Foo Fighters were originally scheduled to headline Jazz Fest but canceled all tour dates in the wake of Hawkins’ death on March 25. Grohl’s presence in town sparked unfounded rumors that he might perform.

NEW ORLEANS -- The memorial garden at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is about to get a lot more crowded as fellow musicians honor the many musical icons — known as “Ancestors” — who have passed since the festival was last held three years ago.Jazz Fest, which began Friday and will conclude on May 8, will feature on-stage tributes, as well as jazz funeral processions that will cross the Fair Grounds and conclude with the unveiling of the honoree’s likenesses alongside the other Ancestors at the rear of the Congo Square field.“That’s Jazz Fest,” Quint Davis, the festival’s longtime producer/director, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. Like many African cultures, “we stay connected to our ancestors.

Wilson Chapman editorEarlier this year, Kanye West made headlines for online harassment of Pete Davidson, who is currently dating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian. The harassment spanned several incidents, including the music video for the rapper’s song “Easy,” which depicted him kidnapping and beheading what appeared to be a cartoon depiction of Davidson.At his stop at the Netflix is a Joke festival this week, Davidson spoke publicly about the situation, poking fun at West’s behavior towards him.

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has said that the band will “celebrate” the life of Taylor Hawkins during their upcoming show at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.The ‘Unlimited Love’ group stepped in to replace Foo Fighters at the event following the tragic death of their drummer Hawkins on March 25. Dave Grohl and co.

NEW ORLEANS -- Once silenced by the pandemic, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival opens Friday for the first time in three years — a long awaited 2022 revival that holds echoes of 2006 when the annual celebration of music and culture went on even after Hurricane Katrina.The two-weekend production draws tens of thousands to the city's Fair Grounds Race Course, where as many as 80 musical acts perform daily on more than a dozen stages, complemented by art and craft exhibits and an array of booths featuring foods from Louisiana and beyond.Lionel Richie and Death Cab for Cutie are among Friday's draws. The Who headlines Saturday; the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sunday.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterWhen Kelley Wolf was first approached about reuniting with the cast of MTV’s “The Real World: New Orleans,” she was, she says, “extraordinarily skeptical.” While Wolf has remained somewhat of a public person as the wife of actor Scott Wolf — they met in 2002, two years after “New Orleans” first aired, and married in 2004 — she was deeply unsure she wanted to step back fully into the spotlight.“You know, we are middle aged people,” she says.