NEW ORLEANS SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUB PARADES

NEW ORLEANS SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUB PARADES

This page contains videos of and brief commentary about a small number of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Club parades

These videos are posted for their aesthetic, folkloric, historical, educational, and entertainment value.

This page is not meant to be a comprehensive listing or study of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

Note: This page was previously published on jambalayah's sister website http://www.cocojams.com

Source of Videos

All videos embedded on Cocojams .com are from http://www.youtube.com/ . Videos are posted on this site for educational, entertainment, aesthetic, historical, and folkloric purposes. All rights to these videos remain with their respectful owners.

I sincerely thank all the video uploaders whose videos I have reposted on Cocojams.com. I also sincerely thank YouTube.com for helping to make these videos available to the general public. If an uploader of a video sends a request to cocojams17@yahoo.com for me to remove his or her video from Cocojams.com, I will do so.

Special thanks to BigRedCotton who has uploaded a number of the videos featured on this page and a number of other YouTube videos of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

Please note that links to YouTube videos or to other online resources may not remain viable. Please also be aware that comments posted on YouTube viewer comments threads may not be suitable for children.

Overview of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Second Line, and Buck Jumping

Excerpt from http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/multicultural/multiculturaltr...

"Strutting and jumping and high-stepping underneath their decorated parasols, blowing whistles and waving feathered fans, the African-American members of New Orleans’ social aid and pleasure clubs are the organizers, originators, and sponsors of the second line parades for which the city is famous. The brass band that follows the parade’s grand marshal and club members, who are always dressed in coordinated suits and classy hats, blast out exuberant rhythms to propel everyone’s high-spirited march through the streets. The club and brass band are known as the first line, and the audience that forms behind the parade to join in the festivities is the second, hence the term second line parade.

African-American social aid and pleasure clubs aren’t just about parading, however. They grew out of organizations of the mid to late 1800s called benevolent societies, which many different ethnic groups in New Orleans formed. Serving a purpose that today has largely been supplanted by insurance companies, benevolent societies would help dues-paying members defray health care costs, funeral expenses, and financial hardships. They also fostered a sense of unity in the community, performed charitable works, and hosted social events. Benevolent societies always had strong support in the African-American population, and some scholars trace the roots of the African-American societies back to initiation associations of West African cultures from where the majority of New Orleans blacks originally came"...

-snip-

"Buck jumping" ("buck dancing") is the type of dancing that is associated with New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs and second liner dancers.

Here's a definition of buck jumping from
"buck·jump (bkjmp)
intr.v. buck·jumped, buck·jump·ing, buck·jumps
1. To buck, as a horse or mule does.
2. To move in sudden jerks; lurch.

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Given that many old & present day Afro-Caribbean and African American dances imitate the movements of animals & birds, it's not far fetched to believe that "buck dancing" originated as a dance form which imitated the sudden jerks of untrained horses. I've also read that "buck dancing " may have come from the Indian deer dances, as "buck" also could refer to "male deer".

Here's a link to a video of Zuni deer dance that was performed in San Juan Pueblo by a San Juan (New Mexico, USA) family dance group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRD4nIHSNA&feature=related

-snip-

Certainly the term "buck jumping" or "buck dancing" has nothing to do with "bucks" as a slavery referent for Black males.

As an aside, it was interesting to note that many of the groups in these videos and/or many of the scenes of second liners include at least one man in a wheel cheer. I'm not sure what if anything to make of that observation, but wanted to note it for the record.

Possible Dance Sources For Second Lining

A commentator in the documentary video "Faubourg Tremé: the Untold Story of Black New Orleans" mentions that people "second lining" are actually doing forms of "bamboula", "chica", and "calinda". The Bamboula, Chica, and Calinda are names that were used for 18th-19th century Afro-Caribbean and African American dances (or the same dance).

In her book Black Dance From 1619 to Today (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Book Publishers, second revised edition, 1988; p. 24), Lynne Fauley Emery writes that "The Calenda...has certain general characteristics : it was performed by one or more couples encircled by a singing, clapping ring; the movement of a couple consisted of a rather shuffling advance and retreat; with most of the movement originating at the hips, while the limbs played a very small part of the dance. Except for [one historical documentation by] Labat, there was no physical contact between dancers."...

-snip-

Some historical sources also describe Calinda as stick fighting done by males.

-snip-

In the same previously mentioned, Emery suggests that the Chica may have been the same dance as The Calinda. She writes that "The main characteristic of the popular Chica appears to be the rotation of the hips with an immobile upper body. The role danced by the woman was apparently one of coquetry, while the man pursued and enticed. Perhaps elements of the Chica appeared in the much later Rumba and Mambo" (op. cit. p .26)

Emery also indicates that "One of the drums used to accompany the Chica was known as the baboula. The dance Bamboula undoubtedly received its name from this drum. This dance is discussed by a few authors, but a careful examination of the descriptions leads to the conclusion that the Bamboula is in fact another name for the Chica. (ob sit; p 26).

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/caribbean-folk-dances to find the video "Mabèlo - Dança de Umbigada" (Martinique) for an example of a dance that propably derives from the Calinda (Chica; Bamboula).

-snip-

I'm unsure if the Calinda, Bamboula, & Chica are the source/s of the New Orleans strut and dance movements. However, watching the videos of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, there's no doubt that there is a distinctive dance that those African American (and other race/ethnicity) Orleans paraders do. I wonder if early African American dance The Cakewalk influenced second lining's syncopated strutting style. It's also likely that second lining/buck jumping is derived from the Juba dance (jig).

Here's an often quoted description of a Black man-probably Master Juba (William Henry Lane) doing the juba dance (jig). This description was written in 1842 by noted English novelist Charles Dickens while he was on tour of the USA:

..."Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut; snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing but the man's fingers on the tambourine; dancing with two left legs, two right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs—all sorts of legs and no legs—what is this to him? "...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Juba

-snip-

In his book Songsters and saints: vocal traditions on race records Paul Oliver wrote that the “Jig” featured “rapid footwork and almost motionless upper body”. Oliver also indicated that at least some of the characteristics of early African American dancing were from Irish dancers and African dancing.

"To what extent black capering and jigging were based on African steps remains questionable, though some West African dances have characteristics in common with early description of American dancing. Violent dancing with shoulder and elbow snaps, and with the knees drawn up to the chin in swift, jerking movements is typical of the Ewe of the former Gold Coast (Ghana).”

http://books.google.com/books?id=0bz5xm_m3dMC&pg=PA24&source=gbs_quotes&... [1984; p. 24]

-snip-

A video of Senegalese (West Africa) Sabar Dancing and other videos of African dances which remind me of African American dances can be found at http://www.cocojams.com/content/black-dance-lists-connections-comments-p...

-snip-

It also seems to me that some aspects of buck jumping/second lining are similar to the fast, fancy footwork of the Rock & Roll dances "The Slop" or "The Mashed Potatoes"

Contact Information

I'd love to know more about the sources for second line dancing/buck jumping. If you have any opinions about the sources of the second line dancing/buck jumping please share them with other Cocojams readers. And I very much welcome visitors' comments, additions, and corrections of the points that I've made on this page and on this entire website.

Please send comments about this subject and links to videos of Social Aid & Pleasure Club Parades to: cocojams17@yahoo.com

Your email address is never posted or shared. Or, if you are on Facebook, visit me at cocojams jambalayah, and befriend me, or send me a private message!

Ms. Azizi Powell, Founder/Editor
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Last update: February 4, 2012

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OVERVIEW OF MARDI GRAS INDIAN, SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUBS, AND SECOND LINE DANCING

Here's the video that was mentioned earlier in this section:

"Faubourg Tremé: the Untold Story of Black New Orleans"

Posted by californianewsreel
November 10, 2008

EXAMPLES OF SECOND LINE & BUCK DANCING VIDEOS
(Examples are posted in alphabetical order using the first letter of the club's or band's name.)

A, B

C, D

C.T.C. 2010 Second Line Parade Featuring Stooges Brass Band

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Feb 12, 2010

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Divine Ladies Social Aid & Pleasure Club Parade

Uploaded by MadeB on May 27, 2009

Second Line, Divine Ladies Social Aid & Pleasure Club Parade, New Orleans, Stooges Brass Band

Editor: This video includes some Mardi Gras Indian songs that contain one use of profanity & one use of the "n word".

Here's an interesting exchange from that video's viewer comment thread:

Love this vid. Captures the misery, craziness and spontaneous joy of the NO street
-mlefevre; 2010

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@mlefevre

I was looking for this misery you spoke of?
-PatsBooks ; 2010

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Hey guys, it's not MISERY, it's being blessed dispite of your situation or circumstances!!! Even tho things may not be the best for us ya'll won't ever know cuz we still gone buck jump & roll with...but u couldn't even begin to understand if you're not from the N. O.!!!
-mzgray6 ; 2010

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@PatsBooks -i kinda get what mlefevre is saying... this is what misery looks like on us. we smile and dance in the face of it... every chance we get.
-oddbutcomplete ; 2010

E, F

Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club 2010 second line parade feat. Stooges Brass Band

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Oct 5, 2010

G, H

I, J

K, L

Keeping It Real 2010 Second line Parade rolling on St. Bernard with The Hot 8 Brass Band

uploaded by BigRedCotton on Apr 22, 2010

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Ladies And Men of Unity Social Aid & Pleasure Club with the Hot 8 Brass Band

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Apr 6, 2009

Ladies and Men of Unity Social Aid and Pleasure Club 2nd Annual Second Line Uptown

M, N

O, P

Pigeon Town Steppers 2009 Parade featuring Rebirth Brass Band

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Apr 12, 2009

Q, R

Rebirth Brass Band & The Lady BuckJumpers

Uploaded by MsHottPiece on Nov 29, 2010

Derek Shezbie of Rebirth Brass Band & One of the Lady BuckJumpers cuttin up!!

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Revolution Social Aid & Pleasure Club

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Apr 4, 2010

featuring Stooges Brass Band

S, T

Saint Augustine Church- New Orleans Second Line #2

Uploaded by me3dia on Jun 4, 2007

"A Second Line from St. Augustine Church in New Orleans, 6/3/07"

Sudan Social Aid & Pleasure Club

Sudan 2008 Second Line featuring Rebirth

Sudan 2008 Second Line featuring Rebirth

Posted by BigRedCotton
December 03, 2008

"Buckjumping at it's best! Sixth Ward"

Editor: Members of this New Orleans, Louisiana social club show off their buck jumping skills. This old form of dancing is performed to the music of the Rebirth Brass band. Onlookers gather in a circle around the men to watch them dance.

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Treme Sidwalk Steppers Second Line 2009

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Feb 1, 2009

"Treme Sidewalk Steppers Second Line with Rebirth Brass Band featuring Trombone Shorty"

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Treme Sidewalk Steppers 2010 Second Line - on St. Bernard

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Feb 22, 2010

U, V

Versatile Ladies of Style

Uploaded by BigRedCotton on Nov 9, 2009

From a viewer comment: This is Thee Versatile Ladies of Style with The Free Agents Brass Band

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The VIP Ladies Social Aide and Pleasure Club

Uploaded by onenawlins on Mar 6, 2007

"This is a traditional New Orleans Second line in 2007. The V.I.P Ladies."

-snip-

Here's a link to a website about the VIP Ladies Social Aide and Pleasure Club:
http://bluethroatproductions.com/audio/stooges-vip-ladies/

W. X

Women of Class Social Aid & Pleasure Club

Posted by BigRedCotton
November 15, 2009

“Women of Class 2009 Second Line Parade- The Sidewalk Masters. Women of Class SA&PC 2009 Second Line Parade featuring the Hot 8 Brass Band and a side of some of the best random second line dancing you'll ever see - MASTERS!”

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Here's one last sample video of New Orleans second line dancing:

Uploaded by SneakinSal on Dec 25, 2006

"Secondline dancing on a porch on Washington Avenue, New Orleans. New Generation Social Aid & Pleasure Club parade, December 10, 2006."

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Please send links to videos of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Club parades & second line videos to cocojams17@yahoo.com

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Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/ to visit my blog.

Pancocojams focuses on the music, dances, and customs of African Americans and other people of Black descent throughout the world.
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