This article is copyright 2006 by Antonio J. García and originally was published in the International Association for Jazz Education Jazz Education Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3, December 2006. It is used by permission of the author and, as needed, the publication. Some text variations may occur between the print version and that below. All international rights remain reserved; it is not for further reproduction without written consent.

(This version of the article is expanded beyond that which appears in the December 2006 JEJ.
IAJE had published this extended online version in recognition of
the public's need for in-depth information on this topic—
the first and only time that IAJE published an expanded web version of a print article from its Journal.)

 

Jazz Education in New Orleans, Post-Katrina

by Antonio J. García

The then-office of Basin Street Records on Canal Street in New Orleans, about two weeks after Katrina and the subsequent flooding. Photo credit: Will Samuels	The gutted interior of Basin Street Records on Canal Street in New Orleans. Mark Samuels had to let the property go and has since moved operations to his home's also-flooded but now gutted basement. Photo credit: Will Samuels

 

            This is a different sort of article for me to write, as New Orleans is my native home, where I lived for 25 years. As most of us, I have seen on television the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. As some of us, I have visited New Orleans since that disaster and seen family and friends. Being there amid the utter destruction and then—a few minutes’ drive away—also walking through the active and beautiful parts of a city that still lives is an experience television of course cannot convey.[1]

            The status of jazz education in New Orleans is its own story—and in my view, a very interesting one. It is entwined with the wider music-ed system (both public and parochial), affected by the informal mentorship of street musicians, focused by the sound of school marching bands, and utterly enmeshed in the future opportunities and challenges of the city itself.

            My goal here is to share with you the many facets that affect jazz education in New Orleans and therefore the future of jazz in New Orleans—and therefore the future of the roots of jazz anywhere. For there are few genres of jazz unaffected by the language formed by New Orleans jazz musicians, not just of last century but also of this one.

            I will share residents’ own words with you in an apolitical—yet politically engaging—manner. This tale will not be all gloom and doom: there will be proven avenues of assistance and growth and recommendations for the future. As I write this, I am listening to the live performance of the Treme (pronounced “trah-MAY”) Brass Band at the National Folk Festival in my adopted hometown of Richmond, Virginia. The band, a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Recipient, had members scattered throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana who are still facing the reconstruction of their personal and professional lives. But their sound remains glorious and uplifting, as does the spirit of New Orleans itself.

I hope that through this article I have found a way to provide you, as a member of the global jazz community, added reason to care and to act in any positive direction you can.

 

 

Formal K-12 Public Education in New Orleans     

—Joseph Torregano, Director of Bands, East St. John High School in Reserve, Louisiana.[3]

—David Freedman, General Manager, community radio station WWOZ-FM.[4]

—Irvin Mayfield, Founder and Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Inc.[5]

                       Before the hurricane the Orleans Parish School Board administered 120 schools. This year...five.

—Guy Wood, Music Educator, District VI (New Orleans).[6]

            With this takeover, the public schools in New Orleans are currently operated under one of four umbrellas: the Louisiana Department of Education (through its Recovery School District); the Orleans Parish School System; the Algiers Charter School Association; and additional, independent schools chartered by either the Orleans Parish School System or the state-run Recovery School District.[9] This did not occur without great controversy:

Some see the move as being a very positive one:

            The rising student numbers did not restrain interest in protesting the manner in which educators and staff had been fired; they filed a lawsuit against the state in September 2006:

            Meanwhile, without even its previous level of infrastructure and most especially without many of its educators, formal jazz education in the K-12 public system has all but disappeared:

—Brice Miller, the recent Coordinator of Music Programs for New Orleans Public Schools and the Artistic Director/CEO of the New Orleans Jazz Education Foundation.[14]

NOCCA

            The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts has long been a beacon for area arts education at the pre-college level. Well-known for such

Wynton Marsalis mixes with NOCCA students at an open rehearsal of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New Orleans. Photo credit: Elizabeth McMillan

former students’ names such as Marsalis, Connick, Blanchard, and Harrison, its facility benefited from the wisdom of the city’s founder, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who in 1718 had the foresight to build the old city of New Orleans on some of the area’s highest ground.

            “Fortunately NOCCA is very healthy at the moment,” assures Michael Pellera, NOCCA’s Jazz Department Chair. “We are back to our pre-Katrina numbers. Of course we did not have a fall semester in 2005, and we operated at a satellite site in the spring at about half of our pre-Katrina numbers. Some students participated online and returned for an intensive, five-week summer program.”[15] But, says NOCCA Chair Michael Rihner, there are notable downsides to the fiscal and musical foundations of this institution long known for its diversity in musical instruction:

Parochial Education

            The Catholic administrative system was better suited to meet the challenge of the displaced students, as the pre-Katrina needs of Baton Rouge and New Orleans had already resided under one roof. And the Catholic music programs had often been better funded than their secular counterparts. “Students responded very well to being back in music, establishing some normalcy in their lives. The ones that came to Baton Rouge from New Orleans were absorbed at no charge,” explained Sister Mary Hilary, O.P. As the Director of Instrumental Music for the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Dioceses, she is responsible for the 35 schools in the two regions. “But our biggest challenge is replacing the students’ personal instruments lost to Katrina.”[18]

            Has the influx of students and families from New Orleans affected music education in Baton Rouge? “I do not see a difference,” states Duane LeBlanc, the Director of Bands at Catholic High School. “Baton Rouge has had a strong history of jazz education for many years. I do, however, see a difference in the community and have noticed an increase in opportunities to be exposed to jazz.”[19]

            That’s because of the additional New Orleans musicians evacuated there. One of those displaced musicians is jazz educator and avant-garde champion Kidd Jordan, father of musicians Kent, Marlon, Stephanie, and Rachel. He is no longer teaching at his longtime post in New Orleans at Southern University, now lives in Baton Rouge, and has had only one performing engagement in New Orleans and taught at only one jazz camp there since Katrina.[20]

N.O. Universities

            Universities in the New Orleans area have generally had the benefit of more substantial financial holdings—plus more storm-dedicated alumni gifts—than the typical middle- or high-school.

            “Loyola University had a slightly smaller freshman class in jazz studies (and other music majors) but not as small as we had feared,” summarized John Mahoney, the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Loyola University. “Tulane is supporting Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Xavier is coming back under the leadership of Dr. Tim Turner.”[21]

            “There has been an unbelievable amount of devastation. Much of the city is still in ruins, but jazz music and jazz education are alive and well. There are many great musicians still living here and a lot of great young students coming up,” suggested Edward Petersen, Associate Chair and the Coordinator of Jazz Studies for the Department of Music at the University of New Orleans. “Jazz education is in a healthier state now than it was before Katrina because more people recognize not only the cultural value of jazz but also the economic value. As more people realize that music is one of New Orleans’ and Louisiana’s most valuable exports, the state and private organizations (especially the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation) are providing a higher level of support.”[22]

Informal Jazz Education

Brass and Street Bands

—Leroy Jones, trumpeter/composer, Leroy Jones Quintet, Harry Connick, Jr. Orchestra/Big Band.[23]

—Brice Miller

—Gregory Davis, Educational Programs Director and Jazz Coordinator, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.[25]

—Joseph Torregano

Recordings

—Mark Samuels, President, Basin Street Records.[26]

Radio

—David Freedman

Neighborhoods

—Jordan Hirsch, Administrator, New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund.[27]

—John Mahoney

Clubs

—John Shoup, Manager, Dukes of Dixieland.[28]

—Irma Thomas, vocalist, owner of the club “The Lion’s Den.”[29]

Marching Band

            The words “marching band” bring very different images to mind to a New Orleanian or Louisianan than to most others; and even in that region, contrasting genres abound.

            The typical image prompted in most of the United States and beyond might well be of an ensemble that projects the military tradition: lines and rows as sharply carved as a bed-cover in the barracks, right-angle turns as crisp as a well-oiled machine, bodies as rigid as a regiment, musical tone-qualities modeled after a military or concert band, and drum cadences taken directly from John Philip Sousa. Such bands draw the admiration of many in and out of the music-education ranks, while others see them as a distraction from other musical pursuits the students could be learning.

            This is simply not the marching band in the majority of New Orleans, where its look and sound is so greatly influenced by—and carries forward the tradition of—African music and dance. Its lines and rows flow in a coordinated but un-militaristic manner. Its right-angle turns convey a dance step, as does every move of the bandmembers’ bodies. Its tone qualities are carried down from the brass-band street tradition.

            And perhaps most significantly, its drum cadences are most often based in 3-2 clave, taken directly from the Afro-Cuban traditions of Latin folk music and jazz. There probably isn’t a well-known melody—pop, jazz, classical, or folk—that hasn’t been performed and transformed in New Orleans as a funkier rendition over the legendary streetbeat of that city. And because of this, not only have the vast majority of school-kids in The Crescent City over the last century grown up playing music over that streetbeat, virtually every child and adult in the city has heard and danced to that sound every Mardi Gras season, live and via the radio, if not every week during football season’s band halftime shows, basketball pep band performances, and more. In my opinion and that of many historians, that streetbeat and its overlay of musical ideas are a primary reason why so many jazz musicians of all styles have come out of New Orleans—and why so many genres of music have roots in New Orleans history:

—David Freedman

—Michael Rihner

            To illustrate the wide-ranging influence and importance of how the New Orleans marching band tradition has educated so many students of all cultural backgrounds about the fundamentals of New Orleans musical style, I often show people a particular video-clip of a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. A marching band from a New Orleans suburban, private, religious-based, all-boys high school makes its way down the street. Suddenly its two drum majors, one African American and one white, break out into choreographed dance steps. Seconds later, the entire, mostly white band also dances steps as it performs its music. Here is freedom from judgment about one’s motives for dancing, even in a suburban, private, religious-based, all-boys school marching band: you dance.

            Such expression and risk-taking is fundamental to improvisation and to jazz. The New Orleans marching band style has for generations been at the root of passing that spirit of exploration to every resident of the region, no matter the individual’s cultural background.

Housing

Mold covers the instruments that had been left behind on high counters by trumpeter Leroy Jones. Photo credit: Katja Toivola	Jones' music room. Photo credit: Katja Toivola

            The affordability of housing (owned or rented) in a given city is a crucial ingredient for its police, nurses, firefighters, teachers, artists, and certainly for its jazz musicians. It is here where the fate of Katrina’s path tore most deeply into New Orleans’ musical heart:

Recent and Future Solutions

            The challenges of formal and informal education and of the very existence of affordable housing have surfaced in New Orleans on a scale if not unprecedented in the U.S., then certainly unprecedented for its sudden and sharp increase, as this level of natural disaster is unique in America. To humanity’s credit, people have stepped forward at every level to assist, from the single individual to a national effort.

A Random Sampling

—Brice Miller

—Leroy Jones, trumpeter/composer, Leroy Jones Quintet, Harry Connick, Jr. Orchestra/Big Band.[33]

—John Mahoney

—Mark Samuels

—D. Santiago, Backbeat Foundation.[34]

—Michael Pellera[35]

—David Freedman

 

The Jazz Foundation of America

AAt the JFA's "Great Night in Harlem" at the Apollo Theatre: Jarrett Lillien (President of E*TRADE Financial), Mrs. Joyce Dinkins (wife of former NYC mayor David Dinkins), Danny Glover (actor and JFA board member), Agnes Varis, and Dick Parsons (generous donors). Photo credit: Jazz Foundation of America

            For 17 years the Jazz Foundation of America has been an organization at the forefront of providing emergency assistance and long-term support to veteran jazz and blues musicians across the country. “Our small staff normally handles 500 cases a year,” says Wendy Oxenhorn, the organization’s tireless Executive Director and advocate. “Since Katrina, we’ve assisted 1,100 New Orleans emergency cases—plus 600 non-Katrina elderly musicians in crisis that we would typically serve. We have received active assistance from such celebrities as Danny Glover, Bill Cosby, Elvis Costello, Quincy Jones, Bonnie Raitt, and Chevy Chase.” The JFA has focused on three specific needs: housing, employment, and instruments.[36]

            “Days after the flood, because of the ongoing efforts and contributions of Jarrett Lilien, President of E*Trade Financial, the JFA was able to establish New Orleans’ first post-Katrina Emergency Housing Fund for musicians: housing, relocating, and saving hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their families from homelessness and mortgage foreclosure in nearly 20 states. To date, the Jazz Foundation has not lost one musician to foreclosure, eviction, or homelessness. All who came for help were saved.

            “Through the beautiful heart of “Saint Agnes” Varis of Agvar Chemicals, Inc., the Jazz Foundation created the first performance-employment program, which has grown into an $800,000 solution. This Agnes Varis Jazz Foundation in the Schools Program was also made possible with the help of Richard Parsons and the good people at Time Warner, Inc., actor/producer Fisher Stevens, and the rock band Pearl Jam. To date, this program has already given 3,100 individual employment opportunities. It has put several hundred displaced musicians back to work, with a minimum of $200 per gig, bringing free performances to thousands of children in schools and the elderly in nursing homes in over eight states where the musicians have been forced to settle.

Displaced kids dance to music provided by displaced artists at JFA Agnes Varis/Jazz Foundation in the Schools program. Photo credit: Jazz Foundation of America

            “The program is run and coordinated by the New Orleans musicians themselves. Alvin Batiste, Brice Miller, Davell Crawford, Jonathan Bloom, Steven Foster, and Bill Summers—all established educators in New Orleans for many years—are all coordinators of the program in the various states they have landed. Recording sessions are being planned to give musicians a CD they can sell to help increase income at club and festival gigs.

            “Through the huge hearts at Music & Arts Center, Yamaha, and New York’s Beethoven Pianos, the Jazz Foundation secured over $250,000 worth of new, top-shelf instruments for New Orleans’ most beloved senior and junior jazz and blues artists, including the Treme Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band, The Hot 8, Davell Crawford, Shannon Powell, Dr. Michael White, Fats Domino, Henry Butler, Cyril Neville, Derwin Perkins, and 95 year-old Lionel Ferbos.

JFA Executive Director Wendy Oxenhorn (center) celebrates delivering new instruments to displaced musicians, including Red Morgan (sax, sitting), Terrell Battiste (trumpet, on porch), and James Andrews (trumpet, far right). Photo credit: Dr. Max Prince au Schaumburg-Lippe of Salzburg

           “The Jazz Foundation acknowledges special thanks and love to all we worked with in this effort. What we cannot do alone, we can do together: Arabi Wrecking Crew (musicians helping to rebuild each others’ homes), Baton Rouge Foundation, MusiCares, Derek Gordon and Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Higher Ground, New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, Tipitina’s Foundation, Actor’s Fund, Society of Singers, Preservation Hall, and all the others who are working as we are to help keep the musicians ‘afloat.’ We give special thanks to Delta Air Lines for making a few real miracles possible.”

            For years I had heard of Wendy’s round-the-clock efforts to assist musicians, and now I can report first-hand that she was accessible and on-task at literally any hour I attempted to reach her. It is no wonder that acclaimed author and music commentator Nat Hentoff has called Ms. Oxenhorn “the most determined, resilient, and selfless person I have ever known.”[37] Her vision for New Orleans’ future is very clear: “If low-income housing is not created for artists and for the poor, the very garden that grew this city of music will be at risk of extinction; and New Orleans will become a cardboard city without a soul.”

The New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic

            Mentioned above, the NOMC is a 501(c)3 non-profit under the Foundation for the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, co-sponsored by the Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Its mission is to provide for the health-care needs of musicians and their families.[38]

            “We all know that the unofficial toll of the storm is rising higher as we suffer the post-Katrina suicides, heart attacks, and strokes of seemingly healthy friends. Mental health advocates project that 260,000 Louisiana residents will develop post-traumatic stress syndrome.”[39]

French-American Cultural Exchange

            Even if I had never researched it, I would have expected the Jazz Foundation of America to make heroic efforts in order to assist afflicted New Orleans musicians: it fits its noble mission. But I was completely surprised to learn of the level of organized relief assembled in short order by the country of France, which one might assume would have many other priorities a half a globe away.

Tom McDermott (piano) and Evan Christopher (clarinet). Photo credit: Scott Saltzman (2003)

            “Our immediate goal was to find means to provide lodging, per diem, and some work in France for as many musician storm-victims as possible,” explains Emmanuel Morlet, the Artistic Attaché and Director of the Music Office of the French Embassy Cultural Services (based in New York City). “We began raising funds from public and private sources in France and elsewhere, including from festival promoter George Wein. We recognized that we could only support individuals, not families; but we did raise sufficient money to begin the program in January 2006. We started with Paris, which hosted four musicians: Leah Chase (vocalist), Evan Christopher (clarinet), Tom McDermott (piano), and David Torkanowsky (piano).[40] Each performed concerts and gave master classes; and some artists then got additional gigs from these connections, including from the recording labels we had contacted.

“Our next avenue was to ask the various Cultural Centers in the Regions of France (beyond Paris) if they would also be interested in finding a way to host displaced musicians from Louisiana. Approximately 15 said yes; so we began planning. Among the musicians hosted was trumpeter Charlie Miller, who visited the Abbey of Ardennes in Calvados, where he performed at Jazz sous les Pommiers (Jazz under the Apple Trees).

“The Embassy also established grants that French festivals could apply for to assist in bringing Louisiana artists to their venues. Through this program, the eight members of the Mahogany Brass Band performed multiple times (including at Festival de Haute Garonne) and presented educational workshops. Twenty-six musicians performed at Festival de Perigueux, including Greg Stafford and Evan Christopher. Jimmy Thibodeaux performed at the Festival de Cognac and the Saulieu Festival. October 2006 brought the Hot Eight Brass Band to Festival de France Conte.

            “All in all, we have some 60 displaced musicians doing residencies. I have seen many of them arrive in a very weary state, then observed them virtually brought back to life by these opportunities to perform for, teach, and interact with the public. We plan to continue this residency plan into the future.”[41]

Tipitina’s Foundation

            “You don’t have a musical culture unless you’re bringing the younger generation up along the way. For a whole year, it didn’t happen at all,” outlines Bill Taylor, a Director of Tipitina’s Foundation. “After the storm, a lot of instruments were donated. But many didn’t function well and were hard for us to deal with. The Foundation buys new instruments wholesale locally, as inexpensively as possible.”

            “I really appreciate the work of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and the Preservation Hall Fund, but they assist mostly with professional musicians. We focus on the students. You need the older ‘legends’ who created the music, the middle-aged musicians who perform it, and the younger generation to pick it up.”[43]

            Sponsors for these efforts included Popeye’s, Starz TV, and Bruce Springsteen. Tipitina’s Internship Program (T.I.P.) also resumed in September under the artistic direction of Donald Harrison, Jr.[44] Also starting in September were weekly Sunday afternoon music workshops, free and open to any music student.[45]

NARAS

            The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (also known as The Recording Academy) is known for the GRAMMY^® Awards but has also created a variety of educational and human-services programs—including The GRAMMY Foundation^® and MusiCares^®, both established in 1989. The GRAMMY Foundation^® seeks to cultivate the understanding, appreciation, and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture; MusiCares^® provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need.

            By August 2006 the MusiCares^® Hurricane Relief Fund had provided more than $3.5 million in financial assistance for basic needs to approximately 3,500 individuals directly affected by the disasters. Longer-term, deeper requirements met have included rent, relocation costs, and funds for medical care that had been postponed.

            MusiCares^® is also a lead partner of “Music Rising,” an initiative that has replaced the instruments of more than 2,000 displaced musicians located in more than 34 states. The number of musicians affected by the hurricanes is estimated to be as high as 7,000; each week new clients emerge who need assistance. MusiCares^® was joined by Gibson Guitar, the Guitar Center Music Foundation, U2’s The Edge, and producer Bob Ezrin in this campaign.

            “Grants are still available to New Orleans residents and across the United States via MusiCares^®,” offers David Sears, Senior Director of Education Programs for the Grammy Foundation.[46] “Donations are of course not coming in as regularly as they were immediately after Katrina. We don’t accept musical instruments from the public, as the cost of fixing them up can be prohibitive. Instead, we use donated funds to purchase them from wholesalers and retailers.”

            The GRAMMY Foundation^® initiated a special grant cycle to archive and preserve recorded sound collections of the Gulf Coast, announcing in August that $250,000 in grants had been awarded to 10 recipients, with another $650,000 in funds planned for granting next year.

            The Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles^SM program rewards top high school instrumentalists and singers with a week of music-making, often with GRAMMY Award-winning guest artists. “Because some of the NOCCA students were displaced, we made extra efforts to locate them and give them access to auditioning for the Grammy Jazz Ensemble, sometimes by extending the application deadline a bit.” For example, described Sears. “One student was not displaced, but his fellow students in the rhythm section were; so we arranged for professional rhythm players to play with him on his audition recording.”

            The GRAMMY Signature Schools^SM program (presented by 7 UP, with assistance from MENC: The National Association for Music Education) honors top public high school music programs. But it also recognizes that many schools struggle to maintain any music classes, much less a full curriculum. So it offers the Enterprise Award for needs-based applicants. “We certainly hope that affected Gulf Coast schools will consider applying for that Award,” encourages Sears.

J@LC

            Jazz at Lincoln Center announced in February that its Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Fund, administered through the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, had awarded 214 grants totaling $2.8 million for musicians and music industry-related enterprises from the Greater New Orleans area that were affected by Hurricane Katrina. These funds had been raised from ticket sales to the benefit concert produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center that had included a live national telethon on PBS/Live From Lincoln Center on September 17, 2005. Combined with an online eBay auction, a Blue Note CD, and other independent fundraising efforts by individuals and organizations all over the world, the event raised nearly $3 million for the fund. Some of the broad range of donors include the Jazz All-Stars at New Jersey State Prison; Umbria Jazz Festival, Italy; Guadalajara Jazz Festival, Mexico; festivals throughout Canada; American and Canadian Universities, High Schools, and Elementary Schools; Japanese Embassy; Festival de Jazz de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Rhode Island Hurricane Relief Festival; Turkish Government; Monterey Jazz Festival, California; Twins Jazz Club, Washington, DC; and Early Childhood Puppet Theatre, Ltd.[47]

RSOA

            The Rebuild the Soul of America (RSOA) Charitable Trust is an independent, not-for-profit entity with projected assets (as of September 2006) of $2 million. Among its founding trustees are Wynton Marsalis, IAJE Executive Director Bill McFarlin, Michael Kazanjian (Kazanjian Bros., Inc. and the Kazanjian Foundation), and entertainment veterans Daniel Carlin (Chair Emeritus of The Recording Academy) and Lisa Marie Hoggs (Celebrate Jazz! founder). All after-tax profits from ticket sales and related net profits from TV, DVD, and CD deals from the Rebuild The Soul of America concert at the New Orleans Arena will benefit the RSOA Charitable Trust.

            That August 2006 concert featured Stevie Wonder; Earth, Wind, & Fire; the Wynton Marsalis Septet; New Orleans Social Club; Yolanda Adams; Kirk Franklin; Kim Burrell; and Mary Mary. At the same time, renowned chef Emeril Lagasse and Wynton welcomed back 4,000 children to New Orleans with a culinary music experience, “Cooking with Music.” Also announced was the “Ambassador of Swing Talent Search,” in which Marsalis will search for the best undiscovered jazz talent in the Gulf Coast region: the thirteen-episode series begins in January.

Emeril Lagasse cooks while Wynton Marsalis and friends set the mood for "Cooking with Music." Photo credit: Hisa Ayano	Emeril Lagasse welcomes students back to school at "Cooking with Music." Photo credit: Hisa Ayano

            Why the “Soul of America”? Marsalis had alluded to his view almost a year earlier, just a month after Katrina. “In the history of New Orleans lies much of the originality of American culture. Yet, what investment is our nation making in the arts, in cultivating our understanding of who we are? ...Unfortunately for us, and more so for our children, cultural issues in arts education continue to occupy a position of little significance on the nation’s political agenda. What could possibly be more important than who you are: your humanity, your soul? ...Because the city of New Orleans is always discussed in cultural terms, perhaps the rebuilding affords us the opportunity to raise our social consciousness through a more substantial commitment to the arts.”[48]

            Through the review of grant proposals in the areas of cultural and integrated arts, the Trust will support projects in New Orleans in the fiscal years of 2007 and 2008 focusing on four key areas specific to Rebuilding the Cultural Economy in America: Supporting Civic Life, Informing the Public, Supporting Musicians, and Supporting Integrated Arts.[49]

Bring New Orleans Back Commission

            Most of the targeted areas for RSOA grant funding are in line with Wynton Marsalis’ role as the Co-Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission, whose other members represent architecture, artists, the economy, communications, festivals, restaurants, and local business and civic groups.[50]

            The committee’s three-year plan is to “rebuild our talent pool of artists, cultural groups, and cultural entrepreneurs; support community-based cultural traditions and repair and develop cultural facilities; market New Orleans as a world-class cultural capital; teach our arts and cultural traditions to our young people; and attract new investment from national and international sources.”[51]

            Mindful that money talks, it noted the relatively small amount of money that Louisiana and New Orleans had invested in 2003 in the “nonprofit cultural economy of the City”—and the return many times over of that money to City coffers by the jobs and spending generated. It also detailed the positive economic effect of the “city’s for-profit creative industries.”[52] But it lamented how low New Orleans’ investment in such creative endeavors was compared to other cities studied.[53]

            Armed with the data that “commitment to our future culture is business in New Orleans,” the Committee intends to pursue every possible avenue of funding in order to bring the city back—and better. “The Bring New Orleans Back Commission interviewed more than 1,200 persons and found that arts education was highly valued by the vast majority of the students, teachers, and clients,” stated Richard A. Baker, Jr., the Fine Arts Program Coordinator for the Louisiana Department of Education. “The population remaining in New Orleans, and scattered, values the arts both as economic and social influences necessary to make the area a better place to live.”[54]

New Orleans Jazz Treasures

            The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) recognized that many of the most important collections of jazz objects were destroyed or damaged by Katrina. Closed due to damage are The Louisiana State Museum (housing a jazz collection), the New Orleans Public Library City Archives, Southern University at New Orleans Center for African and African American Studies, Dillard University Archives and Special Collections, and Sisters of the Holy Family Collections.

            With the assistance of a grant awarded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation, NOJO’s New Orleans Jazz Treasures program engages scholars, collectors, students, musicians, and more in mapping out for posterity the invaluable cultural wealth generated by the city’s jazz tradition. It will establish a baseline for what existed before the storm, reveal what remains, and point to the areas in need of conservation and—where possible—replacement.[55]

Louisiana Recording

            “Louisiana is serious about jump-starting its recording industry, with an investment-based tax incentive...,” points out George Petersen of Mix magazine. “Modeled after the highly successful motion-picture incentives in many states, the music program rebates 10 to 20 percent back on money spent in the state for production expenses, such as studio fees, session players, engineers, hotels, catering, media, etc. The minimum expense to qualify is $15,000 over the course of a year—not necessarily on one project...as long as the work was done within the state.”[56]

Priorities

—Jordan Hirsch

—John Mahoney

—Mark Samuels

—Leroy Jones

—Michael Rihner

—Brice Miller

—D. Santiago

—Irvin Mayfield

—David Freedman

Housing Solutions

The devastated Lower Ninth Ward, formerly home to musicians such as Peter Badie. Photo credit: New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity

            Clearly the affordable-housing challenges are mammoth ones that will take equally gigantic efforts from many entities in order to solve them. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and others have offered concrete recommendations, such as “preserving existing federal housing resources by repairing and reopening—rather than demolishing—habitable public housing and replacing all destroyed units.”[57] And one organization has taken the lead in action for musicians’ housing.

The Musicians’ Village

            When New Orleans native pianist/singer Harry Connick, Jr. agreed to be honorary chair of Habitat for Humanity’s “Operation Home Delivery” to assist the rebuilding effort, jazz saxophonist and fellow New Orleans native Branford Marsalis agreed to be honorary chair of the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity efforts. They, and Marsalis patriarch Ellis Marsalis, have brought heightened visibility to a plan to restore homes for displaced New Orleans musicians: The Musicians’ Village.

            “As of late September, 26 musicians have been approved for housing in the Musicians’ Village,” updates Jim Pate, the Executive Director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, which serves a five-parish area. “Over 60 more have already cleared the credit-check process or otherwise advanced significantly. This represents an upturn in numbers that stems from several primary causes, including assistance for the musicians by members of ELLA (Entertainment Law Legal Assistance) and other, pro bono, lawyers.

Badie's new home is now a Habitat House on this block. Photo credit: New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity

            “I remain confident that the core area of the Musicians’ Village will be populated 40-50% by musicians and their families. This area includes 75 single-family homes, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, and the six senior-friendly duplexes. But that’s not the limit of what we can offer. There are 304 lots in the immediately surrounding area of the Upper Ninth Ward that are available for purchase by Habitat. This translates into space for 350-400 more homes. Factoring that in, I will estimate that some 30% of the overall footprint will be musicians’ homes.

            “And if we fill that up, we do not intend to turn musicians away for lack of space. We are now buying yet more houses and lots adjacent to this area and also in the Treme community.

            “All of these locales have been certified for rebuilding, and the living area of our houses is built a good two feet above the newly required height to avoid future flood damage.”

Related Avenues

            “As needed as this home-ownership program is, it’s only one piece of the puzzle,” offers Pate. “Another piece took effect in September and will have a major effect within six months: the Louisiana Recovery Assistance Program offers significant incentives to rental owners to maintain affordable rates at the lower end of the housing spectrum, even within higher-level developments.

            “Another needed puzzle-piece is to find a way to bring back the rental owners who used to live in a neighborhood and then rent out several homes nearby. Such owners are frustrated by the high cost of building materials and the inordinate time it takes standing in line to get them. I believe part of the answer may be to establish a ‘building-materials bank’ along the model of a ‘food bank’: create a co-op of entities willing to group their buying power together in order to obtain lower costs.

            “Habitat is also meeting with other organizations to explore the potential of creating two specific kinds of housing for musicians: ‘gig housing’ and ‘transitional housing.’ The former would parallel the business model of extended-stay hotels. The transitional home would be a locale where some displaced musicians might be able to live while working in the city to establish their qualifications as a Habitat applicant.

            “Among the city’s biggest needs right now is an accelerated distribution of currently blighted properties. There are some 27,000 such lots in the New Orleans area; and only about 2,500 have been distributed for rebuilding. But now that the LRA buyouts are beginning, acceleration should occur. Habitat needs those lots. We have the funds to buy five times the number of houses that we currently have, if we had the land. It’s important that a significant percentage of new housing be affordable.”

Lending a Hand

            “The most crucial need for Habitat right now is volunteers,” states Pate. “The volunteers to date have been unbelievable, immeasurable, and have as a team accomplished more than all the governmental entities put together. However, their numbers now fluctuate greatly, as the post-Katrina rebuilding process is not foremost in the news these days. I know we can count on a steady stream during summers and ‘alternative’ spring breaks, when so many college students come here to assist. But during the rest of the year, the varying numbers of volunteers of course wreaks havoc on our construction schedules.

            “In our five-parish service-area alone, we could use 1000 more volunteers on any given day, 500 of those in the Musicians’ Village area alone: we could put them all to work. And the Gulf Coast Habitat affiliates could use another 1000 volunteers each day. So we welcome all volunteers!”[59]

Why Care?

Wynton Marsalis leads a "second line" for New Orleans returning school children at "Cooking with Music." Photo credit: Hiso Ayano

            By this point in your reading, you have hopefully found numerous reasons to act. A month after Katrina, Wynton Marsalis spoke at the National Press Club Luncheon as to why the nation and the world should care about the future of his hometown:

            Branford Marsalis served as guest editor for the September 2006 issue of DownBeat, a special edition largely dedicated to an exploration of New Orleans roots. I urge you to find a copy and read it. I spent over half my life in The Crescent City but still learned a lot from this edition about why the city is so important to jazz—to music—and why it should be restored.

            The post-Katrina exodus of musicians from New Orleans is surely the largest since Storyville closed in 1917. That exodus of far fewer musicians some 90 years ago accelerated the spread of jazz nationwide, and perhaps great musical gifts will come out of this tragedy as well. You can bet that doctoral theses will still explore the topic a century from now. But in the meantime, we should do all we can to employ the talents of these artists, either where they have migrated or by creating opportunities for them to return to their native home.

The National Jazz Center

            Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, and the Hyatt District Rebirth Advisory Board announced on May 30, 2006 plans to create a 20-acre performance-arts park that is to be anchored by a new National Jazz Center. The plans were created by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and also call for an outdoor auditorium, new city government buildings, a new civil courts building, a major redevelopment of the Hyatt Regency site, and an open-air Jazz Park. The National Jazz Center will house the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) as well as performance space, studios, classrooms, a library, and offices.

            “The new National Jazz Center can be a focal point for rebuilding our talent pool of jazz musicians as well as other artists, cultural troupes, and entrepreneurs that the Cultural Committee of the Mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission found to be a critical component of rebuilding the City,” says Wynton Marsalis. “This project will complement and enhance New Orleans’ vibrant Jazz Culture.”

            The Hyatt District Rebirth Advisory Board is composed of leaders in architecture, urban planning, real estate, economics, business, and the arts from New Orleans and worldwide and includes Marsalis and Irvin Mayfield, NOJO Founder and Artistic Director.[62]

            “When it comes to rebuilding, the infrastructure of the National Jazz Center is another approach that works: investors,” emphasizes Mayfield. “We have people who are invested—financially, emotionally, civically—in seeing this thing built, regardless of the demands of the marketplace. Because the bottom has dropped out of the marketplace. New Orleans is at 50% of what it used to be. But 50% of New Orleans is better than 100% of a lot of places.

            “I’m optimistic about the Center; but at the end of the day, it’s the economics that will make it happen. The developers and city are behind it, but a lot of the money has to come through the federal government and then the state government.”

The water-line on the van demonstrates the intensity of the post-Katrina flood in New Orleans. Photo credit: Jesuit High School

A Call to Action: Stay Engaged

            “All this stuff is so connected: education, jazz education, the state of jazz in New Orleans. Any folks who don’t think they should be engaged in the political process need only take a look at what’s going on right now,” says Mayfield. “I see millions of dollars coming in at the state level; but I’m very concerned as to whether we’re going to see this money come in locally for our needs—a stated, big portion of which is for education and jazz education.

            “People in New Orleans understand that we’re at risk for losing jazz. The country needs to understand that this is their music, America’s music. It would be as if Washington, D.C. burned the original Constitution, saying, ‘We don’t need this one; we have a lot of copies; we’ve got it in our heads.’

            “This is not a small issue about a bunch of jazz purists who love jazz; no, it’s a lot bigger than that. Americans have to stay engaged with this challenge. Because believe me, a lot of funding checks are coming this way—but we need to stay engaged to ensure that this money is going where we all said it would go. I’m looking at these federal dollars that are supposedly coming into the State of Louisiana, that the State is then saying it doesn’t have, that the federal government is saying the State does have. That’s the time for me to wear my hat as Cultural Ambassador for New Orleans.

            “This is the American people’s money. So if you are a jazz fan, now is the time to engage in a revolution for jazz. I had thought that the worst time was when so many major record labels killed their jazz departments a few years ago. But this is a whole ’nother kind of war, trying to explain to people how important this culture is. You can find jazz across the country, from Arizona to Wisconsin to New York. But people should understand that when New Orleans loses its battle for jazz, everyone loses everywhere else, too.”

The Battle for New Orleans

The next decade of New Orleans music-making will affect the future generations of all kinds of music, just as it always has—not just influencing jazz. The streetbeat and jazz sounds of New Orleans are part of the roots of the jazz, rock, pop, hip-hop, and dance musics heard around the world. New Orleans has always been a place where virtually all genres of music were performed simultaneously. You could go there to hear opera or the classics; or traditional New Orleans jazz, swing band, bebop, modern, avant-garde; or rhythm and blues; or zydeco, cajun, bluegrass, and other folk; or metal, rock, or house music. You could not only hear it there, you could learn it there. It was all present; it was all alive; it was not a museum piece. That existence has been threatened and is perhaps now half its former self, and that will have an effect on the musical world around it.

            This city is not done. Its residents are not done. If you’ve visited there since Katrina, you know that most New Orleanians are not citizens for the status quo: they do not take many things for granted anymore. They have effected significant changes in the city in a short period of time, and they are ready for more.

            Be a tourist: the city is open for business. Go hear the music and eat the food; drink a little. Buy some records there; make a record there. Then tour some of the destruction. Lend a hand and build, if you can. Call your senator or congressman with your opinion. Make a donation of time or money. It’s an investment in the future history of jazz—because the people entrusted with its cultural origins are not done contributing, either.

            “I’m engaged: my dad would not want me to do anything else,” proclaims Irvin Mayfield, who lost his father to the floodwaters of Katrina. With determination in his voice, he reiterates his stance: “I am going to fight this to the bitter end, kicking and screaming until that National Jazz Center is built and until any kid who wants to learn jazz in New Orleans can.”

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[SIDEBAR ONE:]

NEW ORLEANS, POST-KATRINA, AT A GLANCE

Housing

• Percent of Louisiana mortgages past due as of July 2006: 20
• National average for percent of past-due mortgages: 4
• Average rent for a one-bedroom New Orleans apartment before Katrina: $578
• Average rent for a one-bedroom New Orleans apartment as of July 2006: $803
• Occupancy rate of livable apartments in New Orleans: 99 percent
• Minimum percent of New Orleans public housing that is still closed: 80
• Months after Katrina that federal money for housing reconstruction was approved: 10

• Total federal funds dispersed so far to rebuild homes: $0^[A]

Infrastructure

• Level of electricity hook-up in New Orleans in August 2006, compared to former customer levels: 60 percent
• Of the 368 buses operating in New Orleans before Katrina, number operating as of July 2006: 61^[B]

Economy

• A year after Katrina, percent by which New Orleans’ workforce has shrunk: 30^[C]

• Percent of child-care centers re-opened as of July 2006: 21^[D]

Education

• Number of Louisiana students in private and public schools displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: 247,000
• Percentage of New Orleans schools damaged by Katrina: 83
• Estimated number of students expected to enroll in New Orleans public schools in fall 2006: 26,000
• Percent of the school system’s pre-Katrina population that number represents: 43
• Number of New Orleans public schools before Katrina: 117
• Number of New Orleans public schools scheduled to open for 2006-2007 school year: 57
• Amount given to Louisiana by U.S. Dept. of Education for charter schools since Katrina: $44.8 million
• Amount given for traditional public schools damaged by the storm: $0
• Number of employees who lost jobs in Orleans Parish school system’s post-Katrina downsizing: 7,500
• Average starting salary for public school teacher in Orleans Parish pre-Katrina: $29,494^[E]

Health

• Number of hospitals in Orleans Parish before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: 22
• Number operating as of August 2006: 11
• Approximate percent increase in New Orleans’ suicide rate since Katrina: 300^[F]

Arts and Culture

• Number of cultural workers employed in New Orleans pre-Katrina: 15,000
• Number of New Orleans cultural workers who lost their jobs due to Katrina: 11,000
• Estimated minimum number of New Orleans cultural workers who were displaced by Katrina: 4,000
• Annual earnings of New Orleans’ cultural sector pre-Katrina: $300 million
• Estimated uninsured losses to New Orleans’ cultural sector from the storm: $80 million
• Estimated number of working musicians in New Orleans pre-Katrina: 2,500
• Estimated number of musicians in New Orleans post-Katrina: 250
• Estimated percent of New Orleans musicians who have returned to the area: 10
• Percent of New Orleans cultural institutions that remain closed from storm damage: 75^[G]

[SIDEBAR TWO:]

MISSISSIPPI & BEYOND, POST-KATRINA, AT A GLANCE

            Though this article focuses on New Orleans, the devastation extended far beyond, including to the land of blues: neighboring Mississippi.

Housing

• Percent of Mississippi mortgages past due: 13^[H]

Economy

• Number of jobs eliminated in the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina: 230,000^[I]

Education

• Number of Mississippi students displaced: 125,000
• Number of schools damaged in both Louisiana and Mississippi: 715
• Number of schools completely destroyed in Mississippi: 30^[J]

Arts and Culture

• Per-day tourism sector losses to Louisiana and Mississippi as a result of Katrina: $44.7 million^[K]

Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director Malcolm White said that art is often the stepchild in recovery efforts. “Our greatest concern is that art will be considered something extra,” White said. “We believe it is essential, a major component of the DNA of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” ^[L]

[SIDEBAR 3:]

A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

            The scale of a disaster such as the Gulf Coast hurricanes is difficult for anyone to fathom. The following statistics may offer some perspective.

Human Rights

• Number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide: 25 million
• Number of persons displaced by Katrina from Louisiana: 645,000 to 1.1 million
• Number displaced from Mississippi: 66,000 to several hundred thousand
• Number of IDPs in Afghanistan since war began in 2001: 153,000
• Number of IDPs in Bosnia-Herzegovina: 182,000
• Number of people displaced or left homeless by the May 2006 Indonesian earthquake: 600,000
• Number of IDPs due to December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: about 1 million^[M]

[END SIDEBARS]

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End Notes for Sidebars

^[A] Kromm, Chris (editor). “One Year After Katrina: The State of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.” Southern Exposure, Volume 34, No. 2. Durham, NC: Institute for Southern Studies, August 2006. Items in this category listed above the footnote come from p. 15. The sub-organization sponsoring this report, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, was launched in October 2005 and “aims to promote a more democratic and accountable reconstruction in the South.” For print copies, visit <http://southernstudies.org/support.asp>.

^[B] Kromm, p. 19.

^[C] Kromm, p. 27.

^[D] Reece, Jason; Smedley, Brian D.; and Washington, Tracie L. (editors). Housing in New Orleans: One Year After Katrina. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Gulf Coast Advocacy Center, The Opportunity Agenda, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Published August 2006 at <www.opportunityagenda.org/site/c.mwL5KkN0LvH/b.2028631/k.72E0/PostKatrina_Housing_Report.htm>, p.3.

^[E] Kromm, p. 43.

^[F] Kromm, p. 59.

^[G] Kromm, p. 69.

^[H] Kromm, p. 15.

^[I] Kromm, p. 27.

^[J] Kromm, p. 43.

^[K] Kromm, p. 69.

^[L] Kromm, p. 70.

^[M] Kromm, p. 83.