In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, two of New Orleans most famous sons, the legendary Dr John and Grammy-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard have been helping to put their city back on the music map.

Dr John's heartfelt homage to his native New Orleans, the 2005 mini benefit album Sippiana Hericane, was a direct response to the unfolding crisis.

Meanwhile Terence Blanchard has teamed up with his longterm collaborator Spike Lee for the director's forthcoming Katrina documentary When The Levee Broke.

Like Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino before him, Dr John is one of the great voices of New Orleans. He paid his dues in the late Fifties playing session for R 'n' B icons Professor Longhair and Joe Tex.

After a gunshot wound forced a change from guitar to piano, he moved to the West Coast, where a stint with Sonny and Cher finally kick-started his career. His 1968 debut album Gris-Gris, a glorious gumbo of Louisiana bayou blues, Creole music and boogie woogie, announced to the world the arrival of Dr John Creaux - "The Night Tripper".

Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger were all immediate converts and the good doctor has been pedalling his cure-all of jazz, blues and psychedelic voodoo ever since.

He won a Grammy for a moody Making Whoopee with Ricky Lee Jones in 1989, another in 1992 for his album Going Back To New Orleans, and in 1998, teamed up with Paul Weller, Primal Scream and Supergrass for the album Anutha Zone.

For his latest Herbie Hancock - produced album, Flow, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Terence Blanchard has signed up with iconic jazz label Blue Note, following in the hallowed footsteps of Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

Today, alongside fellow label mate and New Orleans resident Wynton Marsalis, Blanchard is one of the major trumpeters of his generation.

Like Marsalis, Blanchard cut his teeth with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers before striking out to form his own quintet. Since then, he has divided his time between performing and mentoring, and snapping up Grammy nominations for a string of film scores with director Spike Lee.

Blanchard has scored all of the director's works since the early Nineties, from Jungle Fever and Malcolm X to 25th Hour and 2004's She Hate Me.

In Lee's 1990 jazz flick Mo' Better Blues, it is Blanchard who plays Denzel Washington's sultry licks. The lifeblood of New Orleans has always been its music. Now, in this one-off concert, exclusive to Brighton Festival, Dr John and Terence Blanchard bring the authentic sounds of New Orleans to life.

The future of the Crescent City may be uncertain, but its spirit continues to soar in its jazz, its blues and its joyous Mardi Gras grooves.

Starts: 7.30pm. Tickets: £25, £22.50, £20.

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