Music archive · New Orleans · 1984
The Who Dat Band at the World’s Fair
Jazz carried onto the Mississippi River during the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.
Mark Hess, his brothers Len and Kevin Hess, Mike Bergland and David Lucke performed at the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans as the Who Dat Band.
The group performed aboard riverboats on the Mississippi River, bringing stride piano and New Orleans-style jazz to visitors attending the exposition.
This photograph preserves one chapter of the Hess brothers’ musical history and their connection to the riverboat tradition that has long been part of New Orleans jazz.