Ivan Neville & Robert Walter Square Off At Worship My Organ Showdown During Jazz Fest [Photos/Videos]

A Jazz Fest tradition returned to New Orleans this year with the 2025 showing of Worship My Organ. This year’s matchup saw organist extraordinaires Ivan Neville (Dumpstaphunk) and Robert Walter (Mike Gordon, Roger Waters) square up for a B3 beatdown instigated by saxophone savant Skerik and backed by Adam Deitch (Lettuce) at the Toulouse Theatre on Saturday, April 26th.

A longtime staple of the Jazz Fest calendar, Worship My Organ was notably absent from last year’s late-night menagerie that takes over New Orleans after the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival powers down each evening. In 2023, the rotating superjam brought in John Medeski and Wil Blades, and though Hammond haymakers abounded, it just wasn’t the same as ringmaster Skerik was unexpectedly sidelined by a shoulder injury shortly before Jazz Fest. Trumpet provocateur Eric “Benny” Bloom (Lettuce) graciously stepped in as a substitute, but there’s simply no replacing Skerik. While the tradition made its Mile High debut earlier this year at Denver Comes Alive with Skerik, Walter, Blades, and Deitch, there’s just something in the air in New Orleans during Jazz Fest.

With all this in mind, it was a joy to see Neville and Walter assume control of their keyboard bastions on opposing ends of the Toulouse stage, separated by Skerik and Deitch in an I-formation. Though Neville is never a hard man to find during Jazz Fest, even the most seasoned attendees have rarely seen him in the highly malleable improv-heavy format of Worship My Organ.

It was a sight to behold seeing the progeny of the royal family of New Orleans funk, the Nevilles, explore borderline dancetronic territory at one point, pushed that direction by Deitch’s disco backbeat and Walter’s Roland synthesizer. In another instrumental passage, the band entered into a dark ’80s synthwave mode that would’ve felt at home in the soundtrack to Blade Runner. The group was also sure to tread on some New Orleans-style funk, with Walter feeding Neville with his left-hand basswork (and NYC bassist Brad Miller coming out to take over low-end late in the show). Throughout the seamless performance, Skerik never failed to make things weird in the best possible way.

Over the past decade-plus, Worship My Organ has included organists John Medeski, Marco Benevento, Neal Francis, Wil Blades, and Walter, with NOLA drummer Simon Lott, Lettuce trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom, ever-present Jazz Fest after dark trumpeter Maurice “Mobetta” Brown, DJ Logic, and even Phish’s Mike Gordon sliding into the flexible lineup.

Check out photos of Worship My Organ from Jay Strausser and some fan-shot videos.