I'm Frank De Blase, and I'm the music writer at City Newspaper.

Though I'm thrilled with this year's Jazz Fest line-up, I'm still holding out for the sleepers, the underdogs, the dark horses. Steve Martin and Trombone Shorty are the odds-on favorites, but you'll find me digging a little deeper over the next nine days.

For Day 1 of the fest I'm keen on checking out Diana Krall at Kodak Hall to see if she really is as cool as she comes off, or if she's just bored. I'm gonna gawk at the prestidigitatious dexterity of Acoustic Alchemy at Harro East, and end my night with honky-tonk queen/rockabilly filly Rosie Flores at Abilene.

In other words, tonight I'm easing my way into this year's XRIJF like an old man into a warm bath. But tomorrow I'm going to cannonball into the m*****f*****.

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