Chris Bickford

New Orleans holds a particular place in the history and legacy of marching bands. When the Spanish took control of Lousiana from the French in the eighteenth century, marching bands were a strictly military affair, and the primitiveness of instrument technology at the time limited the bands to the old-time fife-and-drum corps, which we all know too well from one too many re-enactments of the Revolutionary War. The Spanish, with a much more progressive attitude towards slaves and Free People of Color than the French, conscripted all free blacks to join in the militia, and put the fife and drum in their hands. In short order the free blacks were moonlighting at balls and dances as well, in addition to generally keeping up morale within the ranks with their tunes.

In those days, being a musician was no great honor to a white man, but to a black man it was both a source of extra income and a means of expression, as well as a deep part of his cultural heritage. People of color took to European instruments–be it the fiddle, the piano, or the new reed instruments–like white on rice, and in that swampy stew of cultural influences, the seeds of dixieland and jazz were born and grew like kudzu.

In New Orleans, the link between marching bands and jazz is still as strong as ever, as the city’s hundreds of brass bands perform in local clubs and on the national circuit, and front the Carnival Parades and Second Line processions that fill the city with the sounds of tubas, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, and of course, drums. Nearly every day of the year, there is a brass band marching somewhere in the streets of New Orleans.

For this reason, no other town in the country takes its high school marching bands more seriously. Playing in “band” here is serious business, and the competition between bands is just as ferocious as it is between the sports teams they represent. Many of these kids will go on to be the jazz greats of tomorrow, as have their predecessors.

Around Carnival time, the ante is upped a notch as high school bands are asked to march with the dozens of krewes and sub-krewes in their Mardi Gras parades. We were lucky to catch a couple of them in action as they ratchet up their rigorous practice schedules for the Mardi Gras season. Thanks to the members of the St Augustine High School and McDonogh 35 bands for letting us follow them through the streets.

You can check out more photos from my assistant Federica Valabrega on her blog. She got some good ones.