Music Group 2025-03-20 Music of New Orleans

Above: Louis

Myndall presents Music of New Orleans, inspired by her trips to New Orleans.

African Influences

       Gottschalk: Bamboula, Op. 2

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1828-69). Bamboula: a music-dance form whose name comes from the bamboula drum. It developed in Africa and was brought to the United States and Caribbean by enslaved Africans. The bamboula moved from Haiti (Saint-Domingue) to Alabama and Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. The bamboula became one of many music-dance traditions that became part of the city’s soundscape. The pianist is Alan Feinberg.

Jazz

       Buddy Bolden Blues

Buddy Bolden (1877-1931), cornetist, is supposedly the first jazz musician in New Orleans.

       Dixieland

First recording of Dixieland or original jazz music: Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass (Jazz) Band (1917). Sicilian influence of Bandleader Nick LaRocca & drummer Tony Sbarbaro.

       Jelly Roll Morton: The Spanish Tinge

Jelly Roll Morton (1890-41).

       Louis Armstrong: When the Saints Go Marching In

Louis Armstrong (1901-71) recorded When the Saints Go Marching In, originally a Christian gospel song, in 1938. It’s now an iconic song in New Orleans.

Rhythm and Blues

       Fats Domino: County Boy

Fats Domino (1928-2017), County Boy. Cuban tresillo rhythm.

Zydeco

       Zydeco

Performers are Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys. Zydeco is a music genre that was created in rural Southwest Louisiana by Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends blues and rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles, such as la la and juré. Musicians use the French accordion and a Creole washboard instrument called the frottoir.

Hip Hop

       Mia X: I'll Take Ya Man.

Mia X (1970—) the mother of southern rap.

Heavy Metal

       Exhorder: Year of the Goat

Exhorder — first band to combine doom metal & up-tempo thrash metal.

Scenes Around Town

       New Orleans Second Lines

Introduction to second line parades. We participated in one with 801 Royal, our favorite bar and a casualty of Covid.

       Second Line in New Orleans

We see second line parades after weddings throughout the day on the weekends.

       Fats Domino Memorial Second Line

9th Ward New Orleans Funeral Procession. This parade took place in the Ninth Ward (a black neighborhood) that was decimated when the levee broke during Hurricane Katrina. The typical music for a funeral starts at 8:40.