Photos: Music rules the day at Jazz Fest

Tantalizing music and food lured many Tulane students to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, but some students were there to join the jazz performers and marching bands.

On the festival grounds, first-year student James “JJ” Houston, right, marches along with the Roots of Music, part of a service-learning assignment he is performing as a member of the Tulane University Marching Band. Roots of Music is a nonprofit music education and academic mentoring program for New Orleans schoolchildren.

At the Zatarain's/WWOZ Jazz Tent on Thursday (May 3), students in the Tulane Jazz Ensemble play and sing for a fest audience.

Tulane students in the jazz studies program are yearly performers during the annual festival at the Fair Grounds Race Course.

Their time on a Jazz Fest stage is a highlight of the year for the young musicians from Tulane.

A lineup of saxophones takes the lead on the Jazz Tent stage. Many New Orleanians are already looking forward to next year's festival, scheduled for April 26–May 5, 2013.