Description
Release Date: 2023
Label: Troubadour Jass Records
Track List
- Carnival Time
- Uptown On A Mardi Gras Day
- Big Chief
- Uptown Boogie
- New Suit
- All On A Mardi Gras Day
- Midnight At The Zulu Ball
- Street Parade
- Mardi Gras Mambo
- So New Orleans! (2023)
- They All Ask’d For You
- Mardi Gras Mambo (For The Jass Cats)
Notes
The entire city of New Orleans becomes one big party
during Mardi Gras, but Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown
Jazz Orchestra know that there’s no place to be quite like
Uptown on Mardi Gras Day. With their latest album, due
out February 3, 2023, the UJO provides the ultimate
soundtrack for Carnival Time in the Crescent City with a
spirited collection of Mardi Gras classics and buoyant new
originals. A celebration like no other, this album is a unique
combination of big band swing feel, small group jazz spirit,
and brass band funkiness that would feel equally buoyant
on the parade route or in the concert hall.
In addition to the close-knit ensemble of gifted New
Orleans musicians that makes up the UJO, UoMGD features
guest appearances by Branford Marsalis on saxophone,
drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith, and vocalists Glen-David
Andrews, Dr. Brice Miller, and Tonya Boyd-Cannon. All of
the arrangements for the session were crafted by both
Marsalis and UJO trumpeter Andrew Baham, who also
contributes vocals on several tracks. “This album is a
celebration of the greatness of New Orleans music and
culture,” Marsalis says. “We play with the feeling of an R&B
group, but add the rich harmonies and textures that you
can only get from a larger band. It’s the only collection of
modern big band versions of Mardi Gras music to date, so
we want folks to feel like they’re in the streets with us
catching beads and doubloons.”
