WWOZ Piano Night is coming Monday, May 1! The 29th edition of Piano Night is subtitled "Back to the Roots" and for good reason. This Piano Night will be a return to the original concept: solo pianists, playing one at a time on the main stage at the House of Blues. Get your tickets now.

As usual, Piano Night will feature a great line-up of players, each of whom is a torch-bearer of the New Orleans piano tradition. They include Ellis Marsalis, Marcia Ball, Joe Krown, David Torkanowsky, Tom McDermott, Josh Paxton, John Gros, Tom Worrel, and Al "Lil Fats" Jackson.

In anticipation of this sure-to-be fantastic evening, we'll be taking a look back at some performances from recent Piano Nights over the coming weeks.

Born in New Orleans, John “Papa” Gros has spent more than a quarter-century championing the music of the Big Easy. He’s played it all — New Orleans funk, rock & roll, jazz, blues, Americana, pop/rock — and he swirls those styles into a genre-bending gumbo that pays tribute to his influences while still pushing ahead into new territory. Like Allen Toussaint and Dr. John, Gros is a proud local who carries on the tradition of New Orleans music, both honoring its past and helping to shape its future.

Check out two from John below. The first is the title track off his latest album, 'River's On Fire,' live at WWOZ and the second is an homage to Allen Toussaint at last year's Piano Night-- 'On Your Way Down.'