People kept asking me this year if Jazz Fest has out lived its usefulness to New Orleans culture. OffBeat is even getting letters from longtime fest-goers claiming that the festival is dead and has little reason to include “Jazz” in its name at all. There’s a strange deja vu about the charge that Jazz Fest has watered down its content because it’s an argument that has been raging back and forth in the press for years.

The people who want to silence...