Description

Book a French Quarter hotel or other New Orleans hotel for Congo Square Rhythms Festival today!

If you consider yourself an aficionado of the New Orleans music scene, no festival reaches deeper into the history of the city's musical heritage than the Congo Square Rhythms Festival. Produced by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the festival celebrates the historic role of Congo Square as the birthplace of American music.

The festival draws from a diverse lineup of Caribbean, Latin American and African musicians and musical styles – from traditional African drums to contemporary R & B performers to brass bands and bounce, the uniquely New Orleans style of rap.

Highlights of the festival include the Tom Dent Congo Square Symposium, a panel discussion centered on themes and topics connected to world music and culture, named for the jazz scholar, New Orleans writer and activist. The topic of discussion for 2012: "Between Heaven and Earth: Soothing the Troubled Soul with the Arts of Our Ancestors," at the Joy Theater.

Details

Dates:  March  24 - 25, 2012

Hours: 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Location:
Congo Square - Louis Armstrong Park
901 N. Rampart Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Cost: Free

2012 Schedule

March 24, 2012
Time: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Location: Congo Square at Armstrong Park
Interactivo (from Cuba – 13 piece salsa/hip-hop orchestra)
Diblo Dibala (from Congo, king of the "soukous" guitar)
Chopteeth (afropop band from Washington, DC)
African Dance troupes
Battle of the Mardi Gras Indians
African drum circle
More TBA

Jazz Journey Concert: The Rhythms of Congo Square
Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Dixon Hall, Tulane University
Performers include the Kumbuka African Dance Ensemble and more to be announced.

March 25, 2012
Time: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Location: Congo Square at Armstrong Park
The Rebirth Brass Band with Partners In Crime plus DJ Jubilee
504 Radio: A Message In the Music showcase featuring Truth Universal, Dee-1 and Nesby Phips
Titos Sompa (from Congo)
Bamboula 2000
Stooges Brass Band
Fredy Omar con su banda
Garifuna (from Honduras)
Latin drum circle
More TBA

High School Brass Band Contest
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: Rampart Street entrance of Armstrong Park
Louisiana schools – which have "marching bands," but not "brass bands" – are invited to form brass bands of up to 12 members, along with "stepping" groups of up to six members. Up to 10 finalists will compete in a second-line parade, and a group of celebrity judges – including Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Dr. Michael White, Gregory Stafford and others – will rate the group on several criteria. The winning groups will receive gift certificates for instruments totaling $20,000.