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Enjoying coffee and NPR while the dawn chorus of my new neighbourhood in McCully chimes in.We have Brazilian Cardinals but alas no Shama Thrush nearby.

The Royal Elephant Brass Band and anti-Poaching Society did the first of our two Mardi Grasevents, the "concert on the lawn". Happy with ourselves. I have always loved to stroll....

With Kona weather, a south wind brought pouring rain all day, but the venue did not cancel.Despite the rain it was still eighty degrees and sticky but was merely a drizzle by 6 PM. The basetrombone guy was unable to make it due to work (leaving just one trb instead of two) but ScottVilliger did get there. He's the Julliard graduate who's played backup sax for such persons asFrank Sinatra. Modest and unassuming guy with a sly smile. For this he played clarinet. With allbrass, we sounded too clean and precise so he added a musical colour we sorely needed. Thetwo USMC guys picked his brain about the business side of music.

The Hawaii State Art Museum is located five blocks from the Arts District with thebars/restaurants/art galleries; so we conferred with the promoter and twenty minutes before ourscheduled time we made a short parade up thataway and back, for the purpose of making a smallspectacle of ourselves that might lure people our way. Our clarinet player didn't want to get rainwater on the pads on his expensive Selmer instrument, so he stayed behind.

There is a one-block section of Hotel Street which has five bars (or clubs or dance venues w DJsetc) on each side (ten or so in total) and people came out, drinks in hand, to hoot and dance aswe passed. It had that tawdry Bourbon Street sort of feel to it.... We turned at the end of HotelStreet to head back, looking over our shoulder to see a bonafide second line, people taggingalong. Unassembled pieces for the sound system for the stage on the Lawn lay under the tent ina forlorn pile, delayed because of electrical hazards posed by the rain, but only the food vendorswere outside anyway. People straggled in, and some of my students said hello. We decided tostand under the portico and play our first set from there, not using a sound system. We did eighttunes, including some vocals by me; and I was proud to recall all the lyrics without a hitch. Sixverses of Saint James Infirmary were punctuated by blazing clarinet - Scott lived up to his billing.We played at dirge tempo in the background while he tore into one jazzy cadenza after another.My vocal intonation held up when I sang the three key changes in "Do You Know What it Meansto Miss New Orleans". We held a crowd of about a hundred people. The Tuba player took the

melody for a chorus of Hello Dolly while people sang along.

Then a break while a capoeira group did their thing. The venue provided a musician's prep roomwith food and refreshments, and we bantered with the members of a women's burlesque-styledance troupe as they adjusted their costumes (adjust-shimmy; adjust-shimmy. Getting the tasselsand fringe going.....adjust then bump-and-grind.... ) Oddly, one woman's costume revealed twotattoos in Hindi script, on her body; I offered to read them if she would hold still for a second. Sheobliged and was surprised at my skill. (Question to myself: was this my destiny? did I study theDevanagari syllabary for seven months in 2007 so that I could cast my eyes on the peri-umbilicalregion of some buxom 36D sequined woman backstage and confirm that her bikini-line tattoosread "Karuna" and "Premi"? .... Was that God's purpose for me?) She herself did not speak Hindi.Knowing the permanence, how did she chose those? I elected not to show her mine.

Shades of The Old Howard........

After such an edifying break we set off on our second parade, at seven thirty PM. This was thescheduled one. The rain has eased off so our clarinet guy came along....it's fun to hear the echocaused by playing in a canyon lined with urban buildings.

Now, by this time, the art galleries were crowded and there were long waiting lines outside thosesame bars, and more of a crowd on the street.... So we played under an awning, as LOUD as wecould - sure enough it was like calling the cows home as people streamed toward us. (Haven'tbeen measured in decibels, but we were loud enough so that people had to shout if they were

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nearby). A couple of hundred people crowded around with two dozen or so street dancers, right infront of us. When the crowd disrupted traffic we had to move along, but in the meantime I sangverses to one of our bluesy second line tunes and I hit a bunch of high Ds and some "shakes" inthat register, something of which I was physically incapable six weeks ago before resuming adaily practice regimen in the park.

We paraded back but took a slightly different route past Indigo, the best restaurant in the artsdistrict. Fifty people waited outside, but three beefy sixfootsix Samoan bouncers shouted theywould cut us through the line if we wanted to go in. But of course! So we played as we paradedthrough, which got a lot of cheers from the patrons of the bar. Bare brick walls gave niceacoustics.

Back at the venue, we did our short set, wrapping things up with "When The Saints". As thepromoter paid us he said we were the only band in town that could do what we did and pull it off.

Judging by the reaction of this small crowd on Hotel Street, we are going to have fun next weekon the actual Mardi Gras; Scott and I wondered whether we would need security since we plan tobe playing on street level. (They do close the area to vehicular traffic that day). Our portableplaying provides a sort of in-your-face concert. - up close and personal. A bit un-nerving when thecrush of onlookers behind are close enough to pick your pocket and you have both hands

occupied. The crowds then will be partaking of Hurricanes and Caipirinhas sold on the street.This event attracted ten thousand people last year, you can find last year's photos on theinternet...... Hawaii Public Radio already announced that the police have added extra patrols andare planning road blocks. Mardi Gras here goes until 0300. (We expect to be long gone by thathour.) There is a sizable Brasilian community on Oahu, and most of the program has anexuberantly Brasilian Carnival theme. After our set and then some second lining, we bring up thetail end of the parade through Honolulu's ad hoc Sambadrome.I learned that there is also a kick-ass African drumming group in town formed by a bunch ofGhanaians. (I love Ghanaian brass band music with percussion, wonder if they would ever joinforces). The Royal Elephants are the only N'Owlins style brass band in this town. Tuesday ourprogram includes the Limbo as well as "All the Single Ladies" and "YMCA".

We start the day Tuesday with a TV appearance at 0500 and again at 0600. I think I will sing

Saint James Infirmary again, and use the plunger mute, but leave out the suggestive verses. Ithen teach Tuesday morning, but fortunately I have Wednesday off.