Excursion Plantation Blues and Jazz

Overview

The Marmillion family saved La Plantation Laura in the 1990s to commemorate the site where the West African tales of Compair Rabbit and Compair Bouki (Leuk The Hare in Senegal) were first collected in Louisiana. Between 1808 and 1850, more than 400 slaves of West African origin lived, worked and died on this plantation, home to several families of European origin and adjacent to an Amerindian village. The Historic Riverlands site was founded to celebrate the unique history of St. John the Baptist Parish and the contributions of African Americans to the development of American music and the civil rights movement. This tour honors the richness of the musical heritage of African Americans by exploring the development of the region’s iconic musical genres: jazz, zariko (zydeco), blues, gospel, soul, R,B and rock. Small groups of less than 14 people.