Mardi Gras Musical Festivities Transcend Geography and Genre

With the possible exception of Paris, of all the cities in the world where music is created, New Orleans is the only one that is a pure concept unto itself, one that is bigger than the place itself or any of the innovators who came from there. You can’t create a New York vibe without being in New York or actual New Yorkers present, and the same goes for Chicago or Kansas City or Los Angeles. But New Orleans music is a notion that transcends both genre — jazz, R&B, blues, pop, cajun and zydeco, gospel, folk— and geography.