New Orleans comes north for Mardi Gras 2019 at Proctors

New Orleans comes north for Mardi Gras 2019 at Proctors

Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Cha Wa make it a party for the ages

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—FEB. 5, 2019—Get your krewe ready, carnival is coming! It’s time to light the flambeaux, toss the doubloons and Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

Mardi Gras 2019 at Proctors, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, features the incredible music of Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Cha Wa in the GE Theatre, along with a pre-show party celebrating the approach of Fat Tuesday with light fare, a cash bar featuring Planter’s Punch (prepared with rum, grenadine and orange, pineapple, lemon and lime juices). 

And don’t forget the festive beads!

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, founded in 1977, has taken the traditional foundation of brass band music and incorporated it into a blend of genres including bebop jazz, funk and R&B/Soul.

This unique sound has allowed Dirty Dozen to tour across five continents and more than 30 countries; record a dozen studio albums; and collaborate with a range of artists from Modest Mouse to Widespread Panic to Norah Jones. Forty-plus years later, Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a world-famous music machine whose name is synonymous with genre-bending romps and high-octane performances.

A New Orleans brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit, Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. The group’s album Spyboy(a nod to frontman J’Wan Boudreaux’s role in the Golden Eagles) is a modern mix of fiery, toe-tapping sounds. Popmattersdescribes the band as “a grand gumbo of singing, intoxicating rhythms and deep funk grooves that are impossible to resist.”

Tickets for Mardi Gras 2019, $39.50, are available at the Box Office at Proctors, 432 State Street, Schenectady; by phone at 518.346.6204; and online at proctors.org. General admission, doors at 7 p.m.

###