UPDATE: Dec. 17 – A reader says Erykah Badu did play Jazz Fest 8 or so years ago. I thought so, but wasn’t sure.]

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival just concluded its lineup announcment press conference. Some highlights, then the Jazz Fest info:

First cliche: Quint Davis announcing that “It takes a village” to raise a jazz festival to 40, this being the festival’s 40th anniversary.

Channeling Farrakhan: Mayor Ray Nagin launched into a numerology riff on the significance of the number 4 – “a balanced number” – then 40, then 4 was the number of times that Jazz Fest has been declared the Best Festival in the World.

Talent Check: Jazz Fest always gets good talent for these events. In this case, they put together George Wein, Dr. Michael White, Nicholas Payton, Trombone Shorty, Roland Guerin and Shannon Powell.

Theme No. 1: Everybody stressed “Jazz” from the microphone, and Davis used the phrase “the heritage of jazz” as his implied explanation of what the phrase “Jazz and Heritage Festival” means. I’ve heard him use that phrase before in this context – once in an interview with me – though it’s an odd way to interpret the word “and”. And perhaps at some point before the festival, I’ll figure out the jazz-heritage of Spoon and the Kings of Leon.

Questions from the Gallery: While Davis, Jackie Clarkson and George Wein spoke with great positivity about the festival being the greatest in the world, I had time to look at the art by Roy Ferdinand, Jr. on the Jazz and Heritage Gallery walls. Davis said the festival “is New Orleans,” and I wondered if the people in Ferdinand’s paintings are part of the festival, or if they benefit from Jazz Fest – African Americans who are underweight, perhaps addicted, with the body language of the defeated or the defiant with faces of barely suppressed anger. I wonder if those people love the festival.

Theme No. 2: I didn’t catch Davis’ exact language, but he touched on the “greatest hits” theme, which reminded me of the festival’s 35th anniversary theme, “the family of Jazz Fest,” or something along those lines. Like the 35th anniversary, the 40th anniversary features a lot of acts that you’ve seen before at Jazz Fest, some many times: Wynton Marsalis, Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Earth Wind & Fire, Robert Cray, Etta James & the Roots Band, Mavis Staples, Johnny Winter, Pete Seeger, Hugh Masekela, Roy Haynes, Del McCoury Band, Aretha Franklin, Ben Harper and The Relentless 7, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, The O’Jays, Toots & the Maytals, Solomon Burke, Doc Watson, and Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. That’s not a huge surprise, and there are a fair number of notable first time acts, but it lays the festival’s priorities out pretty clearly when they present the new fest, same as the old fest.

First Time Acts of Note: Spoon, Third World, Drive-By Truckers feat. Booker T. Jones, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Avett Brothers, Kinky, Locos por Juana, Yacub Addy and Odadaa of Ghana, Sugarland, Tony Bennett, Kings of Leon, Jakob Dylan, and Chuck Brown. I assume Guy Clark and Erykah Badu have played here before, but maybe not.

A Little Voodoo?: It’s tempting to notice how many touring acts playing the festival played Voodoo first in recent years – Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, Kings of Leon, Common, and maybe Erykah Badu – but that’s more likely a sign of who’s who in the post-jam touring world, and Voodoo picked up on what was going on in festivals just as Jazz Fest did, more than Jazz Fest watched to see how these acts did at Voodoo.

Valuable Territory: In addition to the Big Chief package (with viewing off to one side) and the Grand Marshall package (with access to the front of the stage in front of fans actually lined up or got their early to see their favorites), now there will be a Krewe of Jazz Fest package which will entitle buyers to special covered seating on the track side of Jazz Fest. And really – it’s about time the wealthy were properly taken care of at Jazz Fest. In a world where the game is rigged on behalf of the working man, it’s about time someone thought to bump those privileged middle class people and their lawn chairs and blankets and cardboard boxes full of beer and ice out of the way so that the poor, hard-done-by wealthy few could get a nice, covered seat to watch Tony Bennett and a number of other band their kids tell them are good.

A Sop to the Regulars: As ticket prices have gone up in recent years, so have complaints from the faithful who go daily. This year, ticket prices remain the same, but there are a limited number of ticket packages available that will allow those who buy a whole weekend’s worth of tickets to get them for $35 per day instead of $40.

For the full lineup and ticket details, go to NOJazzFest.com.