Aretha Franklin, the Dave Matthews Band and James Taylor are among the acts who will perform at the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival's 40th anniversary.

"We've got a great party," festival producer producer Quint Davis said as tickets for the 2009 festival went on sale. "We want the world to come."

The outdoor musical event spans seven days over two weekends - April 24 to 26 and April 30 to May 3.

The list of performers scheduled to perform next year also includes Wynton Marsalis, Sugarland, Joe Cocker, Ben Harper, Tony Bennett, Earth, Wind And Fire and the Neville Brothers.

Jazz Fest founder and executive producer George Wein joked that the crowd for Tuesday's news conference surpassed attendance at the first festival in 1970 as about 300 people witnessed performances by jazz pianist Duke Ellington and gospel singer Mahlia Jackson.

While the crowds and ticket prices have grown exponentially since, he added some of the festival's popular draws -- food, a gospel tent and even a handful of performers -- have remained constant.

This year, the festival returned to its seven-day format over two weekends. It had been scaled to back to six days after Hurricane Katrina flooded much of New Orleans in 2005.

The Neville Brothers, the traditional closing act of Jazz Fest for more than a decade, performed at the festival this year for the first time since Katrina scattered the brothers around the country.

Attendance this year was between 375,000 and 400,000 people. About 400,000 people attended Jazz Fest in the spring of 2005, a few months before Katrina struck.

Wed 17 Dec