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Mardi Gras Music
While we have everything that you
could you possibly need to make your Mardi Gras party memorable in the way of
beads and decorations, it is not really a Mardi Gras party without Mardi Gras.
Of course, Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans, and you know what that
means: jazz, jazz, jazz! While jazz of all kinds finds its roots in New
Orleans, Mardi Gras music is a breed of its own. Whether it is boogieing to
some of the most colorful zydeco music you have ever heard or celebrating with
old standards like "When the Saints Come Marching In," Mardi Gras
music is what getting down and having fun during Mardi Gras is all about.
While lots of jazz can be very cerebral and academic, this is not the case with
Mardi Gras music. In every track of the albums of Mardi Gras music that we
carry, you can tell just by listening how much fun the musicians themselves
were having while they improvised the party music that has become one of the
truly unique sounds to originate in America. An American art form onto itself,
jazz is one of the great cultural institutions of the United States, and Mardi
Gras is when jazz lets its hair to loosen up and just have a good time.
Probably the best known form of Mardi Gras music is zydeco music. Zydeco is
really a form of American creole folk music that evolved from the curious but
colorful mixture of black musicians in southwest Louisiana who created music of
their own by mixing the cultures of the French speaking creoles of the area. A
true form of Creole world music, this Mardi Gras music takes the celebratory
sounds from musical traditions ranging from diverse roots ranging from
Afro-Caribbean music and rock and roll to the blues and waltzes of yesteryear.
Mardi Gras music continues to evolve today, as exemplified by the selection of
albums that we are proud to carry.
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