Meet Me at Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras in Louisiana is one of the world’s great public celebrations. The Cajuns have their own country Mardi Gras quite different from the loud, urban spectacle that takes over New Orleans every February. What both share – beyond the Catholic rituals – is a love of music.

This album gathers 12 different artists who have all recorded Mardi Gras anthems. Kicking things off are The Soul Rebel brass band with a punchy ‘Say Na Hey’ followed by a rocking slice of jazzy R&B as Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers perform ‘Going Back to New Orleans’.

Next up is ‘Mardi Gras Mambo’, originally a 1950s stomper as performed by Art Neville’s band The Hawkettes. Here Cajun rocker, author, composer, singer and poet Zachary Richard takes the song at a slower pace: it’s pleasant but the original still rules supreme. Better is ‘La Danse de Mardi Gras’ by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys from southern Louisiana – this is a slice of downhome Cajun music and it really conjures up a swampy party. Al Johnson’s ‘Carnival Time’ – first cut in 1960 – is here and sounds good (although the version recently recorded by the New Orleans funk band Galactic with Johnson would have been an inspired choice).

The piano-pounding Professor Longhair is here with ‘Go to the Mardi Gras’, one of his many Mardi Gras songs, while Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias (the first Mardi Gras Indian troupe to record back in the mid-1970s) play Longhair’s ‘Tipitina’, giving the tune an appropriately tribal vibe.

This is a fun compilation and a good introduction for any Mardi Gras novices. A little bit more imagination and several more tunes – it feels all too brief – stop me from being able to recommend it more strongly.