New Orleans Jazz & Acadian Culture: Jean Lafitte, Creole Nature Trail, Natchitoches & Rural Mardi Gras

Part of the 40-volume “Discoveries…America National Parks” series, this disc promotes four U.S. Park Service attractions in Louisiana, though in very uneven ways. New Orleans Jazz is a National Historic Park in the French Quarter. We see the visitor’s center, a long segment of a jazz band playing in a club, an interview with a Jackson Square artist, and a street performer entertaining a crowd outside Preservation Hall. The longest segment, well over half the DVD’s running time, shows Acadian Culture, part of Jean Lafitte National Historic Park. It includes interviews with a farmer and the mayor of Eunice, LA, which has parlayed Cajun folkways into thriving tourism. Easily the most informative element here is the section on rural Mardi Gras. Two other segments seem like afterthoughts, offering very brief looks at the Creole Nature Trail and Natchitoches, the oldest city in Louisiana.