Shrove Tuesday, the genuine Mardi Gras, was months ago. But early March isn’t the ideal time for outdoor music in Cold Lake.
Respect and Cold Lake Brewing and Distilling are teaming up for another music-themed fundraiser for Hearts For Healthcare, following the success of Tubas In The Brewery last December.
HEARTy Gras on Saturday, August 9 will feature New Orleans-style street music and New Orleans-inspired food and cocktail specials. There’s no cover charge, but patrons are encouraged to give generously when the donation bucket comes around.
The traditional New Orleans jazz sound was born out of a unique mix of influences that could only have happened in the fabled city known in song as “The Land of Dreams.”
Blues, working songs and field hollers, hymns and spirituals, marching bands, and highly-sophisticated ragtime all came together, especially among Black musicians, to meld into early jazz.
Saturday’s seven-piece band was especially assembled for the occasion. From 7:00 to 9:00 pm (ish) they will play traditional-jazz standards and parade music, including the famous jazz funeral sequence: the hymn “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” as played for the procession to the cemetery, and the spirited “Oh, Didn’t He Ramble” for the parade back home.
Many of the band’s arrangements are courtesy of the famous Preservation Hall, an organization that promotes traditional New Orleans jazz music and culture.
The band will be set up on the patio (weather permitting), the big doors will be wide open, and the New Orleans spirit of “Laissez les bons temps rouler” (“Let the good times roll”) will fill the air.
