Mardi Gras and Jazz in the French Quarter

Laissez les bons temps rouler....Let the good times roll

Finally, the sun decided to show itself today, but it was still cold and windy.  We started our day off by visiting Mardi Gras World, down by the cruise ship pier on the Mississippi snaking around New Orleans. Mardi Gras World is a huge warehouse, 1 of 15 that this particular family owns, to prepare and store props and floats for the Krewe Orpheus.  There are over 50 such warehouses, known as dens, by other families and krewes througout the city.

Hey!  Pick your own nose!

Queen Kong

Artists at work

As we entered the warehouse, we were given our official beads and badges.  Fifteen to twenty artists work in this warehouse, designing, sculpting, paper macheting, painting, gluing the props and floats that will be used in this year's Mardi Gras Parade.

 They were busily working as we toured the den. We had an opportunity to walk around without the guide and thoroughly enjoyed what we saw.  It is a huge production that gears up right after the first of the year.  Many of the warehouses become venues for conferences, weddings, meetings, etc.  And some of the krewes hold their Masquerade Balls in their own warehouses.

 This coming Saturday is the first of the parades leading up to the week before actual Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) before Ash Wednesday.  The parade we will see is the grandfather of the parades and it is on foot through the French Quarter.  We understand it is quite raunchy and definitely for no one under 18 years of age.  I'm not even sure we are old enough. but we are looking forward to it, and then glad to be out of New Orleans before the crush of tourists move in for the big stuff.

Under 18 at Heart

The original parades were walking parades.  Now the big parades with their large floats cannot make their way through the French Quarter because of their width and  length. One float was over 300 feet, the length of a football field!  By city ordinance, the krewes all where masks so spectators cannot recognize the people on the floats.   The krewes stand on their floats tossing swag to the the spectator/participants.

In the afternoon, we strolled through the French Quarter to the French Market and the Old Mint Building where the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park of Louisiana was presenting a free concert of a quartet of New Orleans renown jazz musicians.  We enjoyed an hour an half of wonderful music, from pianist Steve Pistorius, clairinet by Orange Kellin, trombone by Charlie Halloran, and base by Tyler Thompson.

This group calls themselves Halfway House.  Each plays in several different groups.  This quartet specializes in the old, traditional jazz.  It's the kind we like the best so this was great.  We bought one of their CDs and will play it for you when you visit.   Here are some links to their other works:

Steve Pistorius:On the piano
Charlie Halloran: On the trombone
Orange Kellin:  On the clarinet
Tyler Thomson: On the bass

We had a great day and looking forward to tomorrow when we head out of the city into plantation land to visit the Oak Alley Plantation.

All is well with the Worrall Travel R's