TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVE and ZIGGY MARLEY with Special Guests MAVIS STAPLES and ROBERT RANDOLPH BAND

Experience a night of unforgettable artistry, energy and music as Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave return to The Rady Shell and reggae royalty Ziggy Marley makes his debut at the waterfront venue. Mavis Staples and the Robert Randolph Band get the evening started… don’t miss a single minute of this soulful, joyous celebration of music by these legendary artists.

Please note: the San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program.

It was after midnight when Trombone Shorty stepped offstage at the House of Blues in New Orleans, but he wasn’t done playing yet. Not by a long shot.

“I had an idea for a new song right after the show,” says Shorty, “so the band and I decided to go straight into the studio and record it that night. We were still sweaty and buzzing from the energy of the gig, and we definitely carried that vibe into the session with us.”

Take a listen to Lifted, Trombone Shorty’s second release for Blue Note Records, and you’ll hear that same ecstatic energy coursing through the entire collection. Recorded at Shorty’s own Buckjump Studio with producer Chris Seefried (Fitz and the Tantrums, Andra Day), the album finds the Grammy®-nominated NOLA icon and his bandmates tapping into the raw power and exhilarating grooves of their legendary live show, channeling it all into a series of tight, explosive performances that blur the lines between funk, soul, R&B and psychedelic rock. The writing is bold and self-assured, standing up to hard times and loss with grit and determination, and the playing is muscular to match, mixing pop gleam with hip-hop swagger and second line abandon. Wild as all that may sound, Lifted is still the work of a master craftsman, and the album’s nimble arrangements and judicious use of special guests – from Gary Clark Jr. and Lauren Daigle to the rhythm section from Shorty’s high school marching band – ultimately yields a collection that’s as refined as it is rapturous, one that balances technical virtuosity and emotional release in equal measure as it celebrates music’s primal power to bring us all together.

Ziggy Marley is an eight-time Grammy® winner, Emmy winner, musician, producer, activist and humanitarian who has cultivated a legendary career for close to 40 years. The eldest son of Bob and Rita Marley, Ziggy has hewed his own path as a musical pioneer, infusing the reggae genre with funk, blues, rock and other elements through mindful songcraft. Equal parts master storyteller and motivational guide, he deftly explores issues from environmental awareness to self-empowerment, social injustice to political inequity, while returning again and again to the transformative power of love. And over the past 15 years with his own companies, Tuff Gong Worldwide and Ishti Music, Marley has complete control of his masters and publishing; alongside his charity URGE – benefiting the well-being of children in Jamaica, Africa and North America. For more, visit ziggymarley.com and all socials at @ziggymarley.

“I’m the messenger,” Mavis Staples says on the eve of her 80th birthday. “That’s my job – it has been for my whole life – and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

That message – a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy – lies at the heart of We Get By, Staples’ spectacular twelfth studio album and first full-length collaboration with multi-Grammy® Award-winner Ben Harper. Backed by her longtime touring band, Staples breathes extraordinary life into Harper’s compositions on the record, delivering roof-raising performances with both a youthful vigor and a commanding maturity. The arrangements here are spare but weighty, matched by Harper’s suitably lean and thoughtful production, and Staples seizes the opportunity to showcase her remarkable and continued evolution as an artist, one still growing and exploring more than half a century into her storied career.

Robert Randolph grew up playing sacred steel music – basically gospel played on pedal steel guitar – in the House of God church in Orange, New Jersey, and began taking his joyous, gospel-infused music out to clubs, backed by family members who shared not only backgrounds, but blood.

“The Family Band” is not just a name meant to evoke connections of togetherness. They are an actual family; the group that supports Randolph is anchored by his cousins, bassist Danyel Morgan and drummer Marcus Randolph and his sister, vocalist Lenesha Randolph.

“That whole thing sort of gets lost,” says Randolph. “People are always wondering, ‘are these guys really a family?’ Yes we are! And it’s another thing we wanted to remind everyone with this album, Brighter Days.’” Given his goals for the album, it’s fitting that the lone cover song Robert selected for the collection comes from Pops Staples and The Staple Singers, one of gospel’s greatest musical families, who seamlessly crossed over to secular R&B success with inspirational songs like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” Their “Simple Man” is a deep, contemplative blues, its pensive nature amplified by Randolph’s signature weeping pedal steel guitar lines.

Ace Parking has provided a DEDICATED PARKING PURCHASE PAGE for this event.