Music and Food of New Orleans

SWAMPFEST

Remember last week when I wanted to go to a Jazz/Blues festival, but I ended up at a Nine Inch Nails concert by accident? Well, on Saturday everyone said "There's a big music festival in the park, let's go!" I was a little skeptical, but they promised it would be regional music, and it was daytime, and near the zoo, so I figured I could always bail and visit my animal friends if the concert didn't work out.

I was so happy, though, when I got there and found out it was a zydeco festival! Zydeco is really upbeat music featuring the accordian, fiddle, and a washboard that you wear like a vest. It makes you so happy when you listen, and everyone gets up and dances. Some people just boogie on their own, but a lot of people couple dance. Some of the songs are waltzes, so they go very well with couple dances.

This year the Grammy Awards added a Zydeco/Cajun music category, and we were lucky enough to hear the winners of the Grammy for this year - Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience. Here they are playing a really famous song called "Iko Iko".

One really cool thing that happens here is bead necklace throwing! Here is Terrance Simien's "little coozan" throwing beads to the audience -

My friend Brenda was really good at catching necklaces. Here we are wearing all the beads we caught!














Of course no New Orleans music experience would be complete without hearing "When the saints come marching in"


At the end of the day, we went to the Gumbo Shop and enjoyed a New Orleans Specialty - Chicken Andoullie Gumbo!! It is like a thick stew with meat, rice, vegetables and yummy spices.














Another kind of music that New Orleans is famous for is jazz. On Halloween we saw this brass band just jamming on the corner of Canal Street and St. Charles...





Homework Challenge: Choose one of the following:
1) Find out the origin of either Zydeco or Cajun music - what is the difference between them?
2) I am really sad about leaving New Orleans and not being able to find good Gumbo in our area. Please find a good Gumbo recipe we can try when I come back.