I've never visited New Orleans, but I'm a bit of a jazz fan and I've always wanted to join in the Jazz Fest and the Carnaval.

I've always been interested in the history of black and creole musical cultures in the US and in Latin America at large, and New Orleans is of course a central hotspot in this history.

From the earliest Lundu in Brazil over the Afoxê to the Forró (I'm just showing off here), from Jamaican griot, to ska and reggae or from American rural blues over ragtime, to all kinds of jazz to contemporary hip hop -- Afro-latin music is a truly fantastic tradition.

Of course, New Orleans had a unique musical culture and was central to many different styles. (Even its contemporary bootyshaking ghetto fests are very interesting from a historical and anthropological perspective, - it traces back to African fertility dances... I'm going to write a scientific study about this, so I can study those booties close up... )

Somehow, the music was inextricably tied to the atmosphere of the city, to its historic quarters and very mixed community.

Would all of this be lost now?

Americans can assess this better than I. Was there still a vibrant and creative community of musicians in the last decades, or did it dry up and become too commercialized, for tourism purposes? I bet not.

Of course it will be impossible to rebuild a copy of a community and its culture, because it was so tied to that city.

So I hope that the peepz from New Orleans get together again soon, and take up this brilliant tradition and find new power to rebuild their creative world.

Tragically many historic buildings are lost, but thank God, music and creativity is locked away in people's minds and can be revived simply by bringing people together.


If anyone knows of any specific donation campaigns to support the community of musicians in New Orleans, please let me know.

Save the fare, just go to Paris, you guys do jazz better anyhow, right?

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Mr. Obama, please release the UFO files!

I would have like to visit New Orleans just to see the french heritage, I know that there is not much left, but to see some french names around there is funny... like Baton Rouge, lac Pontchatrain? did I got the spelling right? I even heard that they were a bar there where people spoke in some sort of old french, it would have been funny to hear them speaking

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Are you refering to the cajun dialect? If so, it ain't just one bar.

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Mr. Obama, please release the UFO files!

yes, i was refering to the cajun dialect, how many people are speaking cajun?

from what Mrs. M told me, I had the impression that it was quite closed from the quebecois

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Um, the French culture is where I'm sitting!! Actually, New Orleans was not the home of it.

Ben

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To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

President Theodore Roosevelt
1918

It's about half a million or so, mostly in Louisiana.

So what's your guess Ben? How many cajuns can speak it? I know my friend in Breaux Bridge could.

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Mr. Obama, please release the UFO files!

Half a million is a bit high. Hmmm.... Maybe 100,000?

Ben

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To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

President Theodore Roosevelt
1918

I found around half a million, but that's Wikipedia (often inaccurate) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun - the number of those who actively speak the language is probably lower, like you say, Ben.

lol, that's quite big actually, I thought it was around... 10...

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Yeah, seems right.

Ben

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To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

President Theodore Roosevelt
1918

lol this is funny!

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Which brings us to the question: are the girls over there sexier? They should be.

I think they're just fine where I live.

Ben

__________________
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

President Theodore Roosevelt
1918