For the first time, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has announced it schedule not just before Mardi Gras, but before Christmas. At a December 16 press conference, festival founder George Wein played with a band that included Dr. Michael White, Nicholas Payton, Trombone Shorty, Roland Guerin and Shannon Powell to signal this year’s focus on jazz, and one of the centerpieces of that focus is an opening day performance of Wynton Marsalis’ Congo Squar...