Jazz Fest 2025

The 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage poster is a pre-order. We anticipate beginning to ship in February.  Framed posters ship directly from the framer and take an additional 4 weeks to ship. 

Hear and Now: Tank and the Bangas @ Jazz Fest

by James Michalopoulos

This Festival - the one against which all others are measured - stands alone in ways that words cannot do justice. Only art is capable of transcending experience beyond imagining, as Jazz Fest itself does. Art alone can convey the Festival’s heart and soul; the diverse musical talent it fosters and showcases and the rich cultural tapestry it celebrates. James Michalopoulos puts Tank at the heart of the Festival's soul. 

THE SUBJECT

Tarriona "Tank" Ball and the band, Tank and the Bangas, anchors James’ panoptic panorama. The band’s eclectic blend of genres geared to the power of Tank’s expressive vocalizations embodies the fresh musical gumbo that New Orleans serves up. Their groove is spiced with soul, R&B, funk, hip-hop, jazz and rock seasoned with electronica to bring out the flavor of Tank’s poetic raps; refined, intricate and oh-so-tasty. Sonic foodies have viewed their 2017 break-out NPR Tiny Desk concert - a mere 6 weeks before they captivated tens of thousands at Jazz Fest with their infectious joy - 14 million times and counting. A nourishing banquet, locally sourced and exported with pride.

THE ART

Their transfixing stage presence, unbounded energy and creative interplay are on full display in James Michalopoulos’ 8th contribution to this poster series - the world’s most collected. This is a work of many parts. Michalopoulos captures the band in a vista extending from the abstraction of an admiring audience surging the stage in a manner reminiscent of Picasso’s 1901 expressionist painting, Le Quatorze Julliet, to the impressionistic rendering of the Crescent City skyline on the horizon. James’s artistic erudition suffuses and elevates his central figure’s rhapsodic form, embracing her in a ring of ecstatic dancers evocative of Matisse’s lyrical Dance painting. Stage left is an expressionistic depiction of New Orleans’ classic marching jazz band led by an umbrella wielding grand marshal.

Behind the main stage are tents teeming with community and a smattering of the artist’s signature buildings backstopped by an architectural tour de force from the twin span Crescent City Connection (1958 / 1988)  to St. Louis Cathedral (1718) to the Superdome (1975). Time traveling glory is delivered via the ancient tech of paper and ink that simultaneously telescopes the history of modern art as your eyes move across the image. Michalopoulos’ signature bold, colorful, perspective-distorting encyclopedic style brings insights into the intrinsic nature of his subjects that are rarely sensed directly except by the most perceptive souls. With thousands of knowingly precise strokes, perhaps the most complex work of his half-century oeuvre, he conveys the Festival experience in an iconic and immersive portrayal of time and place, transforming you into one of those souls as part of his process.

THE ARTIST

Michalopoulos is the preeminent visual interpreter of New Orleans’ spiritual underpinnings. He lives as he paints; rhythmically, with texture, dynamic movement and purpose. His paintings are in prestigious collections world-wide. His work graces many of the most iconic posters in this 50 year print series from the penetrating portrait of Dr. John (JF98), to the strikingly humanistic portrayal of Louis Armstrong (JF01) to the joyful depiction of Fats Domino post Katrina (JF06) to his survey of the French Quarter (JF23) to this masterwork. He is as beloved a figure in New Orleans’ as the subjects he paints. His work is synonymous with the City he has captured and revealed with empathy, imagination, grace and perception.

Previews of ReMarque & C-Marque prints prior to artist’s drawing / overpainting, respectively. Detail to be posted. Please email support@art4now.com with the Subject: Show me the Artist’s hand work, and we’ll email you when each is posted. All prints are displayed without numbers. Signed prints are displayed without Michalopoulos’ pencil signature.

EDITIONS 

10,000 Numbered prints on archival paper, 20" x 33”, $95 

2,500 Artist Signed & Numbered prints with Artist’s imprint on 100% rag paper, 20" x 33”, $275 

750 Remarques  Artist Signed & Numbered, Subject-signed with Artist’s imprint plus unique hand embellishment by the Artist on 100% rag paper, 22" x 36”, $675 

350 C-Marques  Artist Overpainted, Signed & Numbered, Subject-signed with Artist’s imprint plus paint embellishments, on canvas suitable for stretching; unstretched size 24.5 x 36”, $1095. 

FRAMING* 

Our solid wood frames are crafted from archival materials finished in beautiful satin black. The framed paper prints use a 1.25" profile frame. The C-Marque stretched canvas is surrounded by a frame with a .875 front profile and an elegant 1.25” depth. The float-mounted edition showcases the full archival print in a gallery format on an oversized pH neutral matte around the presentation. Matted prints feature a white neutral pH matte appropriate to the edition. Although Art4Now's inks are archival, our glass-clear acrylic adds additional protection, blocking 87% of UV rays. All framed prints come fully assembled and ready to hang! Art4Now only provides framing for the current year’s print for a limited period ending shortly after Jazz Fest. Framing is available for shipment in the continental U.S.

* Frames with prints shown are digital simulations. Sizes are approximate. 

Poster specifications & digital image may vary slightly from actual prints. 

©2025 art4now inc. Poster ©2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Foundation, Inc.