New Orleans' own PJ Morton returns home to Jazz Fest with new music

NEW ORLEANS -- Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and shaper PJ Morton comes location with a caller medium and memoir dropping soon amid a Saturday day show astatine the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which nears the extremity of an eight-day run.

Morton, a preacher's kid whose parents — the Revs. Paul and Debra Morton — are well-known successful the city, said helium looks guardant each twelvemonth to taking the signifier astatine the Fair Grounds.

“Jazz Fest ever feels similar home,” Morton said successful an interrogation with The Associated Press. “It feels similar a household reunion. We privation the food, conscionable similar everyone other does. You get to spot each your friends, spot everybody. There's thing amended than that.”

Morton said helium does not instrumentality for granted the emotion helium feels successful his hometown oregon successful performances done astir the world.

“I'm amazed astatine the crowds and the rooms we get to play,” helium said. “The joyousness started successful tiny clubs wherever we were playing to 20 to 50 people. Now it's thousands. I emotion to spot the growth. It's conscionable peculiar astatine each azygous level for me.

“I anticipation the fans permission with having had a bully time. I privation to springiness radical everything I person and fto radical already acquainted with my enactment permission knowing that and those who aren't acquainted with this ‘PJ Morton kid,’ consciousness it too.”

Since New Orleans is home, helium said the metropolis ever gets a small thing special.

“I play things present that I don't play anyplace else, similar 'New Orleans Girl,' which I wrote for Jazz Fest 10 years ago," helium said.

Morton has been a keyboardist for Maroon 5 since 2012. That twelvemonth helium besides dropped his archetypal debut solo EP, “Following My First Mind.” Maroon 5's pb singer, Adam Levine, was featured connected the pb single, “Heavy.” The adjacent year, Morton released his archetypal major-label debut album, “New Orleans.” And, successful 2017, helium released his archetypal self-released workplace medium “Gumbo,” earning him 2 Grammy Award nominations.

In 2019, helium took location a Best R&B Grammy for “Say So” and Best Traditional R&B Performance for “How Deep Is Your Love.” Since then, he's won 3 much Grammys for Best Gospel Album, Album of the Year and, this year, for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Good Morning.”

At Jazz Fest, Morton said fans tin expect to perceive a premix of aged and new, including songs from his latest project, “Cape Town to Cairo,” a postulation helium created successful 30 days during a travel that took him to South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt.

On Friday, helium released his caller single, “Smoke & Mirrors,” which is astir “defying preconceptions” and has a “message that connects backmost to self.”

He said the task forced him to spot his gut instincts.

“I wrote each time for 30 days and recorded each day,” helium said. “It was afloat written successful Africa and I present I'm giving it to the world. On my past album, ‘Watch The Sun,’ I had a batch of duets with dense hitters similar Stevie Wonder and Nas and had truthful overmuch clip to mull implicit everything due to the fact that of the pandemic. This, closes that section for me. This 1 I wasn't capable to overthink. I wanted to beryllium inspired by the infinitesimal and spell disconnected of instinct. And, it gave maine a existent deadlines. In the end, I learned that limitations tin springiness you freedom.”

In summation to the music, Morton said his memoir “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning,” is scheduled for merchandise Nov. 12.

“I don't mostly speech astir my journey. I marque albums, I circuit and I caput my business,” helium said, laughing. “But implicit the past respective years, the Grammy wins and being capable to bash each this independently, owning my masters and making my ain decisions, I thought it was a bully clip to enactment it connected paper. ‘Emotions’ turns 20 years aged successful October and I thought it was a bully clip to stock that people and fto radical cognize that immoderate of this brainsick worldly I did really worked. I've been capable to bash it this way, my mode and hopefully I tin animate immoderate others to instrumentality to their guns on their ain journeys.”

Jazz Fest concludes its eight-day tally connected Sunday. Other headliners Saturday see Queen Latifah, Neil Young Crazy Horse, Greta Van Fleet, Tab Benoit and Sonny Landreth.