February 3, 2021
With No Parade This Year, New Orleans Is Festooned With Mardi Gras ‘House Floats’
The Krewe du Jazz: A Celebration of Life and Music
This house float was started to celebrate the lives and music of jazz and blues musicians who we have loved and lost throughout this past year.
The Krewe du Jazz house float is sponsored by one of Jazz Foundation of America’s board members, in hopes of raising awareness for the plight of jazz, blues and roots musicians deeply impacted by Covid-19, both economically and health wise.
Located on the corner of Laurel and Website, New Orleans, the Krewe du Jazz (Jazz Foundation) house float was initiated to celebrate the lives and music of jazz and blues musicians who we have loved and lost throughout this past year.
The house has been thoughtfully designed to honor some of our greatest jazz and blues artists the world has ever known, and whose music has been a constant source of comfort and inspiration.
Adorning the front of the house are images and artwork produced by local New Orleans artist, Brendon Palmer-Angell, and include floor high, vibrant portraits of well-known and beloved New Orleans figures including Ellis Marsalis, Al “Big Al” Carson, Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, and Jesse “Midnight Creeper” Hathorne. Another mural located on the side of the house, designed by Sanguine Skills, depicts a multitude of notable musicians performing together in an imaginary “Who’s Who” jazz lineup, including McCoy Tyner, Henry Gray, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Cobb, Wallace Roney, Keith “Wolf” Anderson and Steven Edwards, among others, with additional artistic interpretations on the house created by Shannon Delatte and Jared Valence of DVus.
Steven Edwards, a distinguished lawyer with a deep commitment to public service and social justice, a Board Member emeritus of the Jazz Foundation of America, and member of the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, passed following complications of the COVID-19 virus, and is honored in memoriam on the musician’s mural on the side of the house.
About The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA): For the past 32 years, the JFA, a national non-profit, provides life-saving, compassionate, discreet and personalized assistance to jazz and blues musicians in need, as a result of age, illness or circumstance. To learn more about the JFA and to donate to help musicians reeling from the devastation of Covid-19, please log onto www.JazzFoundation.org.
