1) Long Labor Day weekend means lots to do in New Orleans! Southern Decadence will be in full swing in the French Quarter. The Louisiana Seafood Festival is going on in City Park with lots of local music and delicious seafood.

2) Jazz in the Park kicks off its 10th season on Thursday, September 8 with performances from Nigel Hall and Kid Merv. This free concert series will happen every Thursday thorugh November 3 at Armstrong Park. Check out the full schedule for Fall 2016.

3) The kids are back in school and that means we're back for another season of Cuttin' Class! WWOZ's Cuttin' Class is a monthly series of live in-studio performances by middle and high school students from the Greater New Orleans area. Our first school for the 2016-17 school year will be the Eisenhower Academy Middle School Brass Band from Algiers. Hear them live on Thursday, September 8 around noon, or watch the live video stream on our website.

4) This week's new music spotlight focused on John 'Papa' Gros and his recently released River's On Fire, a funk-filled 11-track album. Gros is a proud local who carries on the tradition of New Orleans piano music, both honoring its past and helping to shape its future.

5) The WWOZ video fo the week comes from Mario Abney's performance at Basin Street Station in February 2015. Born and raised in Chicago, jazz trumpeter Mario Abney, now of New Orleans, fuses traditional and extended trumpet techniques in a most inventive way; his strikingly personal instrumental vision endows the music with an array of tonal color.