Jazz acts are scarce in this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the sprawling outdoor event that runs for two weekends in late April and early May. The headliners announced on Thursday include Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Maroon 5, the Black Keys and John Mayer. The city’s spring music festival has become a potpourri of American genres, including pop, blues, jazz, funk, country, rock, gospel, zydeco and salsa. Some of the other big-name acts on the bill are Earth, Wind & Fire; Willie Nelson and Family; the Dave Matthews Band; Jill Scott; Widespread Panic; Jimmy Cliff; the Gipsy Kings; and B.B. King. Among the well-known jazz artists will be Ellis Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Wayne Shorter and Stanley Clarke. Much of the lineup still includes musicians born in New Orleans or Louisiana, and the list of local heroes appearing this year includes Irma Thomas, the singer and pianist Allen Toussaint, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Neviles and Dr. John.
