Magnificent Fantastic Mardi Gras Ball and Burlesque in memory of the legendary Allen Toussaint
ONCE Ballroom at Cuisine en Locale in Somerville
156 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA
Saturday, January 30, 2016 at 8:00 PM - Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 1:00 AM
The announcement read: “Saturday, January 30, 2016 A Mardi Gras Ball—and loving tribute to Allen Toussaint one of the great geniuses of recordings, arranging, composing, and producing--PLUS a benefit for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Shaun Wolf Wortis & The Legendary Vudu Krewe large R&B band with special guests Jed Parish, Merrie Amsterberg, Carla Ryder, Chris Cote, and Boston BeauTease.
Everyone who walks through the door gets a Fan Admission pass to The Great Burlesque Exposition the following week!”
I didn’t click the link to The Great Burlesque Exposition but I signed up for the show in a heartbeat. Allen Toussaint is in my personal music Hall of Fame, cemented by a show at Scullers Jazz Club in 2009. He’s in much more elevated Halls of Fame - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1998, Louisiana Hall of Fame 2009, Blues Hall of Fame 2011 and awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2013.
He died in November after performing a set in Spain, and at 77 he was still firing on all cylinders. The New Orleans City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring Thursday, January 14 to be 'Allen Toussaint Day' on what would have been his 78th birthday.
Saturday night, listening and dancing to a big-assed R&B band doing homage to Mr. Toussaint was all I cared about.
That changed when a lovely lass wearing a huge pair of feathered wings clipped to her arms and little else stepped up in front of the band stand and did a glorious sinewy strip tease act ending with her rear end peeking from beneath the feathers as she took a bow.
The Boston Academy of Burlesque Education sent a half dozen of its “students” from the Boston BeauTease Burlesque Troupe to practice the fine art of strip tease as an enticement to head to the Great Burlesque Exposition this weekend.
Exposition is the key word here. During several intervals, the lasses, to the accompaniment of the all too willing band, shimmied and shook their goods right down to their pasties and g strings…including one artist who got her tassels twirling in opposite directions….a stunning piece of mammary gymnastics.
In an age where hard core pornography is a click away, these women with saucy smiles, batting eyelashes, and sexy, playful grinds were fabulous, making sex feel like good clean fun. They all seemed to be learning from the same playbook. Each act featured stylishly pulling off their elbow length gloves with their teeth, then fetchingly stripping down to the bare minimum before a grand finale, pastie pizzazz and arse flashing.
I was flabbergasted that I’d danced with two of them, one a gamine twenty something wearing a smashing off-the-shoulder ruby colored dress and a six foot tall, big boned woman with a stack of sleek black hair and demure black knee length dress with black stockings, before I realized they were in the Beautease corps.
In daily life, I’ll bet they’re teachers, bank analysts, entrepreneurs, and IT techies. We’ve all probably got an exhibitionist streak. Bravo for these women for reviving a nearly lost art form. If I weren’t going to be celebrating Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA, I’d find a front row seat to watch the Boston Beautease strut their stuff.
The Boston BeauTease troupe was a small but fitting part of the evening’s tribute to Mr. Toussaint. Some of New Orleans famous early musicians, including Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton got their starts playing in brothels.
The All-Star cast of The Legendary Vudu Krewe large R&B band rocked out with four hours of Toussaint songs mixed with good ol’ rock n roll and oldies. The dance floor was a playpen all night for all sorts and styles of dancing, just the kind you see in New Orleans.
Boston itself had a hotbed of strip joints back in the day in Scollay Square and in “The Combat Zone” on Washington Street. I’d say that Mr. Toussaint, born and raised in New Orleans, would chuckle about his music being paired with a burlesque show.
Let the good times roll, indeed. Long Live Allen Toussaint.
Photos courtesy of BostonBeautease http://www.bostonbeautease.com
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