Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince once again set up shop in New Orleans during Jazz Fest 2025 for its annual salute to The Purple One, this year featuring all of The Motet, much of Cool Cool Cool, and more. During this year’s NOLA edition, Purple Party notably shifted from its typical slot as Live For Live Music’s final late-night on the last Sunday of Jazz Fest to an after-midnight window on Saturday, April 26th—giving all the little red corvettes in the Big Easy the chance to Partyup to the music of Prince with plenty of gas still left in their tanks.

Led once again by Magic Beans keyboardist Casey Russell, the 2025 Fest by Nite salute to Prince featured the full, six-piece lineup of veteran Colorado funk outfit The Motet—drummer Dave Watts, keyboardist Joey Porter, guitarist Ryan Jalbert, bassist Garrett Sayers, saxophonist Drew Sayers, and recently recruited vocalist Sarah Clarke—alongside an old colleague, soulful vocalist and former The Motet frontman Lyle Divinsky, and five longtime collaborators from the Cool Cool Cool family: Craig Brodhead (guitar, keys), Chris Brouwers (trumpet, keys), Shira Elias (vocals), Sammi Garett (vocals), and Greg Sanderson (saxophone). Cool Cool Cool drummer Deion Williams also got in on the action.

The talent-heavy group passed lead vocals around to Clarke, Garett, Elias, and Divinsky—and often multiple at once, as on notable team-ups like “I Feel For You” (Sammi, Shira, and Lyle), “Soft and Wet” (Sammi and Shira),”Head” (Sarah and Shira), “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Lyle and Shira), and more. After revving toward the finish with some newer entries to the Purple Party repertoire (“Chelsea Rodgers” led by Clarke, “Partyman” led by Divinsky, “1+1+1 is 3” led by Russell), the powerful party-funk ensemble blasted toward the finish with posse takes on classics “Call My Name”, “1999”, and “Purple Rain”.

Below, check out photos from the 2025 edition of Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince in New Orleans during Jazz Fest via photographer Jay Strausser.