This Independence Day weekend, we celebrate the cultural minglings in New Orleans, the city whose unparalleled diversity gave birth to some of the most revolutionary sounds in American music. We visit New Orleans’ French Quarter Festival: a free, homegrown, four-day annual event featuring a vast array of local music presented on stages throughout the city’s oldest neighborhood. We’ll hear from Soul Queen Irma Thomas, piano patriarch Ellis Marsalis, and the Preservation Hall Brass Band. We’ll also catch the French-Creole jazz of Don Vappie and Evan Christopher, Cajun dance music from Bruce Daigrepont, vaudeville and gospel from Topsy Chapman and Solid Harmony, Klezmer-funk fusion from the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars and traditional jazz from Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band. Join the festivities with this holiday display of musical fireworks.