Azizi (and all),

No offense taken, and I hope none on your end either. I do feel for you in your role as the almost-only black voice in this particular group. I myself, white as I am, sometimes feel slightly different just for being more *interested* in "blacker" (or perhaps "bluer") musical genres than the typical Mudcat folkie. Not unwelcome or uncomfortable at all, just a bit out of the mainstream. I'm sure you have similar feelings at times, and I'm glad that you don't seem to be dissuaded from participating!

And yes, we're always talking to *everybody* at the same time that we're responding to another individual. I try to remain conscious of this, both when reading and when writing, but don't always succeed.

I may have exaggerated my degree of intimacy with the Indians and the Zydeco players, but not by all that much, really. *Much* of the live music available in New Orleans and nearby is Zydeco; the players themselves, the bands, are generally based out in the country around southwest Louisiana, not here in the city, but they play in town regularly as they cover a circuit stretching from New Orleans in the east to Houston in the west. I once attended a church social at an all-white Episcopal church (St. George's on St. Charles Avenue) featuring Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Duran). The Rock 'n' Bowl at Mid-City Lanes, corner of Carrollton and Tulane, features Zydeco artists *very* regularly, but many other venues around the city, like Tipitinas and the Maple Leaf, book Zydeco acts often enough. And no outdoor festival around here would be complete without at least one Zydeco band, usually more.

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, my kid brother and his bandmates were more-or-less unofficial members of the Wild Tchoupitoulas Indian gang for a couple of years. They lived in the neighborhood, had mutual friends, hung out at "rehearsals," and came along on Mardi Gras day. There was never any question of these young white guys masking (wearing Indian costumes), but they were part of the procession, singing and banging on percussion all day long. Anyone encountered on the street (e.g., me) could also join in the chanting and follow along for a while, of course, but I was never on the march from the git-go, starting at sunrise if not earlier.

Indians "rehearsals" are something else. I have a number of friends who became regular attendees at Wild Magnolias rehearsals at a little bar at Philip and Carondelet for a few years back; this was back when my kids were young and Peggy and I didn't go out at night much, so I tagged along just once, not regularly. Rehearsal consisted of imbibing as much official Indian firewater as possible -- gin and white port, approximately half-and-half -- and chanting/singing/drumming to the point of self-hypnosis. Definitely big-time fun.

Last spring, I was talking to my across-the-street neighbor and asked if he would be attending Jazz Festival (which was coming very soon). He said, "I usually only go on the one day when my brother performs; he gets me in free." I asked (of course) who his brother might be, and the answer was Bo Dollis. I was amazed: Bo is the absolutely greatest singer of all the Big Chiefs, someone who has been a *big* star for many years in the insular little musical world I inhabit. You can hear his huge foghorn of a voice on the Wild Magnolias album issued back in the early 80s, and I think there's a very new release of Indian music on which you can hear him to even better advantage. (I've been hearing isolated cuts on the local radio station, but haven't learned the album title, or even whether the stuff has yet been released.) At any rate, I've since been introduced to Bo when he was visiting Rodney and while we're not the closest of friends, we've certainly become "acquaintences."

I take so many opportunities to plug my favorite all-volunteer community radio station, WWOZ, that I may sometimes self-censor and omit inserting a link when I should. There's no particular time slot dedicated either to Zydeco or to the Indians, but you're likely to hear either type of music during any of the programs not specifically dedicated to jazz to to particular world-music genres (on weekends). The DJ known as "The Doctor" is especially interested in Zydeco and plays a lot of it -- he's scheduled on alternate Fridays, 11am-2pm, and does a lot of "subbing" at various other hours. Actually, the 11-2 slot and 7pm-midnight, M-F, are probably the best times to happen upon either Zydeco or Mardi Gras Indian music -- but listen in anytime and you might hear something new and different. (The above link is to the broadcast stream.)