Merriment on Mardi Gras!

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

There are as many ways to apply for a personal loan with bad credit online do Mardi Gras as there are people. Any thought of keeping the shutters closed and pretending that it’s just another day – a temptation perhaps following five days and nights of parades and partying – should be strongly resisted. February 17 might be just Tuesday in most parts of the world but it’s Carnival Day here in New Orleans.

The first thing to do to get into the spirit – even before making coffee – is to turn on the radio to WWOZ-97.7FM on the dial. All day, the station’s programers play Mardi Gras music or tunes that capture the vitality of the holiday. (Think Little Bob & the Lollipops’ “I Got Loaded” by the originators or the steaming cover version by Los Lobos.) If the stars line-up correctly, the first song you’ll hear is Art Neville and the Hawketts’ classic “Mardi Gras Mambo.” With its Latin-tinged rhythm it’s difficult to vanquis instant cash advance resist and never grows old. If Professor Longhair instructing folks to “Go To the Mardi Gras” or his rollicking piano on Earl King’s “Big Chief” lights your inner fire, just wait, they’ll be playing them soon enough and often. Naturally, the wonderful Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time” is on the repeat list. “Throw the baby out the window…”

Mardi Gras Indians outside of the Backstreet New Orleans Culture Museum

Plans are optional on the holiday unless one is a hard-core parade goer though costumes should not be considered an elective. At least grab a silly hat or a wig. It’s good to consider a couple of “bases of operation” – places to meet friends, eat and use the facilities.

The Tremé’s Backstreet Cultural Museum has developed into such a destination for many downtown Carnival merrymakers. Beginning at 6 a.m., early risers, or those who never made it home from the online payday loans best night before, can share breakfast at the museum with the Northside Skull & Bone Gang, a group that carries on the tradition of masking as skeletons and arousing back-of-town neighborhoods at dawn on Carnival day.

The museum, which specializes in Mardi Gras Indians, jazz funerals and social aid and pleasure clubs, keeps the party going all day long. Many Black Indian gangs make it a stop often on their way to or from the corner of N. Claiborne and Orleans avenues. It is also the “home base” of the Spirit of Fi-Yi-Yi and the Mandingo Warriors tribe and chiefs like Little Charles Taylor of the White Cloud Hunters and Kevin Goodman of the Flamingo Arrows say they’ll they plan to pass that way. Baby Dolls often come by and dance on the museum’s porch to the music provided by a deejay who, like those at WWOZ, don’t forget that it’s Carnival Day personal loans cabramatta in New Orleans. The Backstreet Cultural Museum, 1116 Henriette Delille Street (formerly St. Claude St.), also makes a great place for checking out the costumes donned by revelers as they dance and play in the street. Reasonably priced food and beverages are for sale at the party that ends at 5 p.m.

As the Rebirth Brass Band enthusiastically advises, “Do whatcha wanna!”

Lagniappe Brass Band
(Independent)

The Lagniappe Brass Band, which was formed in 2010 by leader, saxophonist Chet Overall, has gained its reputation and solid following primarily from its stage performances and particularly its Sunday night gigs at the Blue Nile. On this self-titled, debut album and its club dates, the group uses a trap set – as does the Dirty Dozen – rather than a separate snare and bass drum as employed on the streets. So its style, as heard on the CD’s opening cut, the group original, emergency loans with no credit “Got Docked,” reflects that hot, modern approach. The Lagniappe does have the capability to take it to the streets with two drums and its big, bold sound.

It’s notable that all of the material on this CD comes from the pens of the members of the Lagniappe collectively, trumpeter Mario Abney, who contributes two originals or trombonist Roy Lancaster who also adds a pair. That’s rather unusual as first releases by brass bands usually bow to a traditional number or street favorite for the sake of familiarity. Here it’s all new.

Many of the talented artists in the group, which also includes trombonist Robert Walker, trumpeter Ryan Roberts, tuba player Joshua Brown and drummer Joshua “Jams” Marotta, are New Orleans transplants and also come out of other musical genres. Abney, perhaps the most recognizable member of the band, is a regular on this city’s modern jazz scene and it shows vacation loan even in this funky brass setting. The progressive sound also prevails when Overall stretches out on his solo on the band’s groove-laden “Marais Street.”

Solid and often explosive arrangements prevail as the album’s and band’s greatest strength whether the a tune is a burner like Lancaster’s furiously speedy and aptly-named “Roller Coaster” or the more relaxed and melodic “Marais Street.” A few numbers include vocals such as Abney’s “Instant Grits” that is somewhat reminiscent of the Treme Brass Band’s “Food Stamp Blues” and Lancaster’s “Mystery Machine.” The latter boasts the essential, lyrical hook “I’m a do me!” that can really rally a crowd.

With the release of its debut album, the Lagniappe Brass Band takes a major step in setting itself apart and establishing its identity on New Orleans ever-expanding brass band scene.

This article originally published in the February 16, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.