The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presents the 2025 Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1, celebrating the rich musical traditions of Southwestern Louisiana. This year, the festival is happening outdoors at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N. Rampart Street) and WWOZ will be there, video streaming live, 3-8:30pm CT, both days! Watch here on our Facebook page. Check out the full festival details at cajunzydecofest.com! 🪗 📷 Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers will headline Saturday, May 31. Photo by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee. (fb)

Club Desire, a legendary rhythm and blues and jazz nightclub that helped launch Fats Domino, was the brainchild of Charlie Armstead, a bulky Upper Ninth Ward businessman. A bootlegger during Prohibition, Armstead later ran a restaurant and bar and in 1948 realized his dream of opening a grand nightclub at the corner of Desire and Law streets, with a big vertical neon sign reading “Club Desire” lighting up the intersection. Opening night was on Fat Tuesday, featuring Dave Bartholomew and his stellar orchestra. Men and women arrived at “New Orleans’ Most Modern Nightclub” in their Sunday finest and were tended to by bodyguards. Inside, lights played off of glass brick walls. From a second-story balcony, diners ate fine New Orleans cuisine and looked down on the stage and the huge dance floor. Learn more, including the integral moment Fats Domino's life was changed forever here, via WWOZ's A Closer Walk: Interactive New Orleans Music History Map! (fb)