New Orleans and Mardi Gras Part 1

Hi friends, well what can I say but we are having too much fun. I think I set my own “Blog Bar” too high but here we go. I never have time to write because we are either exhausted or out doing more stuff. You don’t even wanna know how much time I have spent practicing my trumpet . . . .ouch.

Welcome to New Orleans. Our week in the Big Easy was just about perfect thanks to our new dear friend Dr. Raynard Sanders, life long New Orleans resident, community organizer, former high school principal, housing activist, traditional jazz fan, history buff, and man about town. Ray is good friends with our friend Kalima Rose who works for Policy Link and has spent much of the last 5 years working on Post Katrina housing issues in New Orleans. Ray spent the better part of the week with us taking us on a fantastic tour of the city and introducing us to an extraordinary number of people.

So here we go

Our late arrival in New Orleans was followed by a sleepless night. Our RV park was packed for Mardi Gras and located next to a major freight train depot. After finally getting used to the train noises we were awakened again at 1 AM when the yahoos camping next to us got back to the only tent trailer in the RV park and started an all night party, drinking and singing along with bad country music. . . .ouch.  

We somehow dragged ourselves out Sunday morning and met Ray in the French Quarter at his favorite watering hole, the Chart Room. After a drink . . . .or two. . .  we headed out to the Louisiana Record Factory, a French Quarter record store with more local music than you have ever seen and a sort of sister store to Down Home Records in El Cerrito. After browsing and meeting the owner, we popped over to Canal St for a bit of our first Mardi Gras parade and learned that African Americans were discouraged from watching parades from the downtown area as recently as 1970. When Ray was a kid they weren’t allowed to watch the parades on Canal Street.

After catching our first ever mardi gras beads Ray took us on an amazing walking tour of the Quarter that included a trip past Cosimo Matassa’s studio where Little Richard, Prof. Longhair, and Fats Domino recorded creating the classic New Orleans R&B sound. We learned about the architecture of the Quarter including private homes and their adjoining slave quarters. 

Classic French Quarter private home dressed up just a bit for Mardi Gras

Hard to photograph but you can see the slave quarters (left)  behind the main part of the house 

While we walked around the Quarter we must have run into 10 people that Ray knew including a highly respected New Orleans author, Keith Weldon Medley, who just completed a new book “We As Freemen” about the history of free men of color in the 1800s. The irony of this was that Ray had just been telling us about this book and the important history it covered and then boom. . . .here comes the author walking down the street. This is the story of our trip. (Whoops missed to photo op)

After the best bread pudding I have ever had we did a short driving tour of some neighborhoods and headed over to the Zulu Club. Now this was too cool. The Zulus are the most famous African American Mardi Gras Krewe and have been a benevolent Black social club since 1909.  All of the Krewes in New Orleans are now intergrated but until the 1960s the Black clubs were not permitted to parade thru the downtown area. Upon our arrival at the club Ray was introducing us to a number of his friends when a Black woman came running up to me, grabbed my hand and said, “come with me, there are some other white people here who think that whites don’t come to Zulu so I want you to meet them.” Ray was highly embarrassed that anyone there would be so crass but I just thought the whole thing was too funny.

Party time at the Zulu Club!

We headed into the club where we met, get this, the Minister of Fun. Now that has to take the cake . . . .literally. When I was growing up my mom was always criticizing me for only caring about having fun and now here we were meeting someone whose job was exactly that!! 

Dr. Raynard Sanders and Larry L. Roy, the Zulu Club "Minister of Fun". . . I want that job!

We next met, just by chance, this year’s king of the Zulus, Elroy James. Even Ray couldn’t believe our good fortune that the king had dropped by just when we did. The king is elected annually and it is considered a very prestigious position. In the 1940s Louis Armstrong was king one year and Louis said it was one of the greatest moments of his life. 

Kate with this year's King of the Zulus, Attorney Elroy James

Is that cool or what!!  "King Zulu '12

Inside the Zulu Club, the wall on the left is covered with framed pictures of past kings

One hundred and 3 years and counting !

After another adult beverage, a lot of that goes on in New Orleans, we headed to the Palm Court, the best place in New Orleans to hear great trad jazz and eat some amazing food. I met Mark Broad, one of New Orleans finest trumpeters and after a few sets we headed to the RV park at 12:30 PM. . . .and that was only day one . . . .oh my!!!!

The Sunday night house band at the Palm Court 

(More about the music soon)