The Legends of Jazz: Wanda Rouzan, Part 2

Wanda Rouzan leads her own band, the “Taste of New Orleans,” but insiders know that the singer herself is more of a “Whole Meal.” Singer, actress, choreographer, grand marshal and educator, Wanda is the quintessential Big Easy performing artist. Her show business career spans nearly 50 years.

“See, as a child I grew up singing with my sisters, Barbara and Laura (The Rouzan Sisters),” Wanda says. “We’d be singing in the kitchen, on the front porch, anywhere anybody would listen. I was called Wanda Lee then or simply my nickname, Huckle-Buck. I used to sing and do the huckle-buck dance as well as eat huckle bucks (frozen cups), as many as I could as often as I could on a hot New Orleans day.”

In the video below, Wanda Rouzan talks to Edward Anderson in a follow-up to her first Legends of Jazz interview, published here.

Edward Anderson, founder of Nola Art House Music, produced this series of jazz interviews as part of a Dillard University grant to celebrate the lives of local musicians who have made significant contributions to the legacy of New Orleans musical traditions, funded by the Louisiana Endowment for the Arts. Read his introduction to the series here. Film editor Seth Rodrigue, a graduate of the UNO film department, is editor of the series.