Mid Summer Mardi Gras - Yesterday and Yesteryear
The Krewe of OAK Mid Summer Mardi Gras last night was great fun, as always. Good music, costumes, and friends on the streets of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans.
It's one of the 2 events of this type in my neighborhood each year, so I've long been an enthusiastic participant.
Ah, but the changes I've seen over the years.
Years ago started out small; a group of Carrollton neighborhood eccentrics gathered at local music venue/bar/hangout the Maple Leaf and went parading around in costumes, because once a year is too seldom to celebrate Mardi Gras. For years the "band" was the Kazoozie Floozies, as you might guess an all female kazoo band, playing old standards and singing them with some unusual risque lyrics.
Then efforts came to expand the celebrations. The Pair-O-Dice Tumblers were invited. The first time a drummer and me were the only ones to show; we played along with the Kazoozies. Then for a few years the Tumblers played, and it became an anyone can join French Quarter style Tumble in Uptown.
Ah, free admission to the after parade party, along with free food and drink, to those showing up in costume &/or playing an instrument. That was a fine tradition, now gone. I guess the success of the event wound up making it too expensive for the Maple Leaf.
As things got more organized, the Maple Leaf hired Mustang Sally to provide the Brass Band for a few years. She would hire a small group of core musicians (including yours frogly); we would play on stage, then go out to the parade, where Tumblers and whoever was still welcome to join in playing with us.
When Mustang went on musical hiatus for nursing school, Bob Schmidt took over the band. As the size of the parade had grown, it was decided to have the pro band at one end and the Tumblers & co. at the other.
The Floozies had gradually stopped bringing their kazoos, perhaps the first sign of how the event was becoming more formal.
This year there were not one, but TWO professional bands, the Lost Souls and the Trombone Shorty Brass Band. Word had gone out that there would be a place for the Tumblers (I'd been told at the tail end of the parade). We had enough players show up, including a few very fine musicians, to have a decent band, but it never really came together, as in confusion we were not in one place. A number of players wound up jamming with some of the other bands, sometimes to those bands' objections. Tip: you don't just start playing with someone else's band without asking. Sheesh. But hey, I guess the thought it was still a Tumble, as in days of yore. Ray, Sam, and I tried starting our band playing a few times. We played a couple numbers with no rhythm section-- the drummers seemed to all be somewhere else; we hoped that once we started playing at least some would come join us, but they didn't, so it sounded rather sad compared to the Andrews Brothers (James & Trombone Shorty) band, and we gave it up.
After the parade, there was fair sized street party on Oak Street-- many locals, costumers, and musicians wishing to continue celebrating Mid Summer Mardi Gras but not pay the $15 cover to go into the Maple Leaf. A few of us jammed in the street a bit. A comment I heard repeatedly: "I'll come to this next time, but won't bring my instrument". Um hum. Yep. Things have changed.
It's one of the 2 events of this type in my neighborhood each year, so I've long been an enthusiastic participant.
Ah, but the changes I've seen over the years.
Years ago started out small; a group of Carrollton neighborhood eccentrics gathered at local music venue/bar/hangout the Maple Leaf and went parading around in costumes, because once a year is too seldom to celebrate Mardi Gras. For years the "band" was the Kazoozie Floozies, as you might guess an all female kazoo band, playing old standards and singing them with some unusual risque lyrics.
Then efforts came to expand the celebrations. The Pair-O-Dice Tumblers were invited. The first time a drummer and me were the only ones to show; we played along with the Kazoozies. Then for a few years the Tumblers played, and it became an anyone can join French Quarter style Tumble in Uptown.
Ah, free admission to the after parade party, along with free food and drink, to those showing up in costume &/or playing an instrument. That was a fine tradition, now gone. I guess the success of the event wound up making it too expensive for the Maple Leaf.
As things got more organized, the Maple Leaf hired Mustang Sally to provide the Brass Band for a few years. She would hire a small group of core musicians (including yours frogly); we would play on stage, then go out to the parade, where Tumblers and whoever was still welcome to join in playing with us.
When Mustang went on musical hiatus for nursing school, Bob Schmidt took over the band. As the size of the parade had grown, it was decided to have the pro band at one end and the Tumblers & co. at the other.
The Floozies had gradually stopped bringing their kazoos, perhaps the first sign of how the event was becoming more formal.
This year there were not one, but TWO professional bands, the Lost Souls and the Trombone Shorty Brass Band. Word had gone out that there would be a place for the Tumblers (I'd been told at the tail end of the parade). We had enough players show up, including a few very fine musicians, to have a decent band, but it never really came together, as in confusion we were not in one place. A number of players wound up jamming with some of the other bands, sometimes to those bands' objections. Tip: you don't just start playing with someone else's band without asking. Sheesh. But hey, I guess the thought it was still a Tumble, as in days of yore. Ray, Sam, and I tried starting our band playing a few times. We played a couple numbers with no rhythm section-- the drummers seemed to all be somewhere else; we hoped that once we started playing at least some would come join us, but they didn't, so it sounded rather sad compared to the Andrews Brothers (James & Trombone Shorty) band, and we gave it up.
After the parade, there was fair sized street party on Oak Street-- many locals, costumers, and musicians wishing to continue celebrating Mid Summer Mardi Gras but not pay the $15 cover to go into the Maple Leaf. A few of us jammed in the street a bit. A comment I heard repeatedly: "I'll come to this next time, but won't bring my instrument". Um hum. Yep. Things have changed.