Okay, so where was I? Jazz Fest, that's right. Good times. And good music. I loved the broad spectrum of musical genres represented. It was fun to poke my head into the various tents to check out all the ethnic music, jazz, blues, and gospel. Saturday I had been looking forward to checking out The Roots and I wasn't disappointed. Their show had a fun, freewheeling feel that you can only get from a live band, a rarity in hip hop. They win Sara's award for Most Fun to Dance To at the festival. Okay, so I am a little biased since I've developed a soft spot for drummer ?uestlove. But how can you not love this mad lib thank you he wrote in the liner notes for The Tipping Point?

ahmir "?uestlove" thompson would like to send a special thanks to (insert your name here) for the following reasons. remember when (insert memory) when we (add verb and prepositional phrase) that last time? that was so friggin (adjective here). although it did worry me when you (place your character flaw that you are most in denial about that you know i secretly judge you on) but forget all that. even despite the fact that you (character flaw that both of us know you have) all the time when i frown upon it. i will say that i am so glad that we (whatever action course that brought us together like: business, dating, etc?)--because without that...we wouldn't still be down today...

Anyway, good times at The Roots' show. Hats off to G. Love & Special Sauce as well. Not only was their music fun and inspired, but also gloriously unclassifiable. Gets me every time. If you have no idea what genre to file an album in, the chances are quite good that I'll love it. Something wonderful happens when people are able to free themselves up enough to throw out all notions of what something is supposed be and just go for it. But I digress...

All in all, I would highly recommend The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to just about anybody. The menagerie of food and music contains something to please just about anybody.