NEW ORLEANS

New Orleans' skyline by night

Photo source:Flickr

New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana. It is an industrial city and has an important harbour; it is located by the Mississippi River, 160 kilometres from the Gulf of Mexico.

The city has various nicknames: NOLA, acronym for New Orleans, Lousiana; Crescent City, referring to the course of the river throughout the city; The Big Easy, as for musicians in the early 1900s it was easy to find work there; The City that Care forgot, an allusion to the relaxed, easy-going attitude of its residents. It is famous because of its multicultural heritage and often regarded as the birthplace of jazz.

The climate in New Orleans is humid subtropical, with cool winters and hot, humid summers. Precipitation occurs mainly during the summer while October is the driest month.Snow falls rarely, but hurricanes are a real threat to the city, especially because many areas lie below sea level.

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HISTORY

New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company and named la Nouvelle Orléans, after Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Regent of France. The location was chosen because it was relatively high on the lower banks of the Mississippi River, as well as near a Native American trading route.

Between 1763 and 1800 the city was under the rule of the Spanish Empire. The French regained control of the city in 1801, but shortly afterwards Napoleon sold the city to the United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase (1803).

The British tried to conquer the city in 1812, but were defeated by the Americans led by general Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815). An equestrian statue of Jackson at the centre of Jackson Square, a park in the French Quarter (the oldest neighbourhood in the city), commemorates the event.

Jackson Square and St.Louis Cathedral

Photo source:Flickr

Because of its important port, New Orleans played a major role in the slave trade, but at the same time had a large community of free black people.

Up to the 20th century, New Orleans had expanded only on higher ground, along natural river leeves. At the beginning of the 20th century, engineer A. Baldwin Wood designed a drainage plan so that the city could expand into low-lying areas. As a result, during the 20th century subsidence caused many areas of the city to slip below sea level, leaving the city even more vulnerable to flooding.

Hurricane Katrina, which hit the city between 29th and 31st August 2005, had catastrophic effects on New Orleans. After the hurricane the levees broke, causing massive flooding all throughout the city. Most residents had evacuated before the hurricane, while others had to be rescued by helicopter or found shelter in the superdome.

As of October 2006, parts of the city are completely back to normal, other areas are still totally devastated. Many of the poorer families still do not have the means to return home and huge sections of the city remain largely uninhabited. However, it seems that the city as a whole has been forced to come together and reconcile differences between its communities.

MARDI GRAS

New Orleans hosts a very famous Carnival season, knows as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), a Catholic tradition brought to Lousiana by the first French settlers. Although tourists describe the whole period as Mardi Gras, locals call Mardi Gras only the last day of Carnival, the one before Ash Wednesday.

To avoid confusion, some residents have started to call the final day Mardi Gras Day. The Carnival season begins on January 6th (the Twelfth Night) and continues until Fat Tuesday. During the whole period there are balls, masquerade balls, and king cake parties. In the two weeks before Mardi Gras there is at least a parade every day.

Photo source: Flickr

The traditional colours for Mardi Gras, which were chosen in 1892, are purple (justice), gold (power) and green (faith). This tradition is mirrored by the official colours of Lousiana State University (purple and gold) and Tulane University (blue and green).

Parades and balls are organized by groups of people called krewes, who prepare floats and ride on them in the streets. Standing on the floats, krewe members toss throws to the crowd. Throws are usually colourful beads, plastis or metal coins called doubloons, and other small plastic toys.

During the Carnival season, people eat a special cake, called King Cake (see picture below). It can be prepared in many shapes and styles, but the most common one is a ring of twisted bread, with purple, green and gold sugar icing on the top. In addition to that, some cakes have fillings inside, usually marzipan or cream cheese. King cakes contain a trinket, i.e. a bean or a small plastic figurine in the shape of a baby or a king. The person who gets the trinket becomes king or queen of the party, and has to offer a king cake the following year, or organize a party, or both.

The King Cake

Photo source: Flickr

NEW ORLEANS AND JAZZ

New Orleans has always been a very important centre for developing new musical genres because of its mixed population and culture. In fact, since its foundation, its population has been composed of Europeans (mainly from France and Great Britain), Latin Americans, Creoles, Haitians and African Americans. Moreover, it was the only city in North America where slaves could play their native music in public.

New Orleans was the birthplace of ‘rhythm and blues’ in the 50s, funk music in the 60s and 70s, bounce music (a kind of hip hop) in the late 80s, New Orleans Rap, some sludge and doom metal bands in the 90s, a hardcore political punk rock band called In Distress, Cajun music (a kind of music deeply influenced by the ballads of the Canadian French-speaking Catholics), Zydeco music (a form of folk music influenced by that of the French-speaking Cajuns) and Delta blues. However, New Orleans is famous because of one particular music genre: jazz.

Jazz is a unique blending of African music traditions (for example, spirituals, blues and ragtime), religious hymns and Europeans military band music. Its main features are:

- blue notes (i.e. when the singer or vocalist sings a note at a lower pitch than that of the major scale);

- syncopation (i.e. when a usually unstressed beat in a bar is stressed, and vice versa);

- swing (i.e. when the singer or vocalist sings a pair of notes using two different durations);

- call and response (i.e. when different musicians play two parts of a song, in which one is the question and one the answer);

- polyrhythms (i.e. when you hear two or more different rhythms at the same time);

- improvisation.

At the beginning of the twentieth century one of the first popular jazz styles in New Orleans was called Dixieland, and later spread to Chicago and New York City. This style was characterised by earlier brass band marches (traditionally during funerals there were brass bands playing marches), French Quadrilles, ragtime and blues with polyphonic improvisation.

Bands were composed of two parts:

- a horn section, also called front line: trumpet (or cornet), trombone and clarinet

- a rhythm section: guitar or banjo, string brass or tuba, piano and drums.

Among the artists who played this particular music style, some worth mentioning are: Buddy Bolden and his band, Freddie Keppard, Joe Oliver, Kid Ory and Papa Jack Laine and his multi-ethnic band. However, the most important and well-known jazz musician was Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971) and his most popular jazz song When the saints go marching in. He was a trumpeter and also a vocalist. Thanks to his strong personality and musical skills, he was able to transform jazz into a popular art form.

Every year New Orleans holds an important jazz festival called New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (it is also known as Jazz Fest). The festival is held during the day on two weekends: the last in April and the first in May.

The New Orleans Jazz Festival

Photo source: Flickr

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• New Orleans. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_orleans
• Mardi Gras. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_Mardi_Gras
• King cake: a rich tradition. Mardi Gras Unmasked: The Lowdown of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://www.mardigrasunmasked.com/mardigras/king_cake.htm
• Jazz. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz|Jazz on Wikipedia
• Dixieland. Wikipedia. December 11, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixieland
• Louis Armstrong. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong
• Jazz History. New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://www.nps.gov/archive/jazz/index.html
• History. New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://www.nojazzfest.com/history/index04.html