Fat Tuesday takes on a life of its own in Mobile, Alabama the birthplace of the modern-day Carnival celebration. Learn about the history and traditions of Mardi Gras in Mobile.
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Excelsior Band to lead Mardi Gras-style parade with ‘mixed emotions’ after losing longtime tuba player
Updated May 19, 3:31 PM;
Posted May 19, 3:31 PM
Tuba player Charles Hall plays with the Excelsior Band during an art opening for Kathy Whitinger at the Ashland Gallery in Mobile, Ala. on Sunday January 23, 2005. (Dan Anderson/ Special to the Register)
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The iconic Excelsior Band will lead Friday’s Mardi Gras-style parade with “mixed emotions.”
For one, there will be the thrill of performing before a large crowd lining the streets of downtown Mobile to watch the first Carnival parade in almost 15 months. But there will be an emptiness as well after the group lost their longtime tuba player, Charles Hall, on Tuesday.
Brown Bag concerts are back (at least for Daphne)
Updated Apr 01, 2021;
“We’ll start with a Mardi Gras scenario,” Excelsior Band leader Hosea London said Thursday afternoon, “and see where we go from there.”
Just like that, the music flowed and a new season of Brown Bag concerts got under way. The wind was driving whitecaps out on Mobile Bay, so this performance had been moved from the usual spot down near the shore to the upper lawn at Daphne’s May Day Park. But the move was no bad thing: The trees provided enough shelter to keep the music from being blown sideways, there was sun to counterbalance the chill in the air, and soap bubbles from a child’s birthday party in a nearby pavilion swirled all around.