WASHINGTON, D.C. –– After Louisiana businessman Glen Smith was formally introduced as the King of the Washington Mardi Gras ball, he faced the crowd and proclaimed, “Let the bands begin.” To the crowd’s surprise, from one side of the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel came the bouncing beat of the Grambling State marching band.

Aided by the giant TV screen, the crowd cheered as the drum majors did their back flips and limbo moves before the band broke out into a medley of unmistakable New Orleans jazz, with a blend of soul and even splashes of the theme of HBO’s Treme: "Down in the Treme, down in the Treme.” Then with the appropriate whistles and acrobatics from the drum major, the band stepped out from its corner and marched around the ballroom. Finely dressed women and men in tuxedoes, all part of the ball crowd of 3,000, grooved to the music.

That in itself would have been an evening’s worth of entertainment, but there was another surprise. From the other side of the ballroom came the equally brassy sound of another band, this one from Southern University, which put on a show that pulsated and rivaled Grambling’s. The band marched along the floor, too, led by dudes wearing black suits with matching derbies. At one point a jam between the two bands broke out, and even the ball’s princesses, sitting in a back room waiting for their moment in the spotlight, should have been entertained.

The King, to no one’s surprise, declared the challenge, billed as the Battle of the Bands, to be a draw.

Each year at Thanksgiving New Orleans braces for the Bayou Classic football game between those two universities. There is much fanfare for the game, although it has lost its wallop over the past few decades because the best black athletes have more choices about where to play. The game, though heated and historic, is not at the championship level. The bands, however, could be contenders in any division. While football gets the attention, it took the Washington Mardi Gras ball to stage the real Bayou Classic. There needs to be a rematch.

NEW: SEE ERROL LABORDE’S MARDI GRAS VIDEO HERE.

Krewe: The Early New Orleans Carnival – Comus to Zulu by Errol Laborde is available at all area bookstores. Books can also be ordered via e-mail at gdkrewe@aol.com or (504) 895-2266.

WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 11:30 P.M. ON WYES-TV, CHANNEL 12.