Struggling New Orleans musicians look ahead

08/27/2006 6:28 AM, Reuters


Before Hurricane Katrina hit, Tanio Hingle lived in a house in the Treme section of New Orleans with his wife and three kids, gigging around town with the New Birth Brass Band. The eight-piece played four or five times a week in places like Joe's Cozy Corner, Donna's Bar & Grill, Tipitina's and House of Blues.

Since Katrina, Hingle and his family have been living in an apartment in Houston; he drives back to New Orleans to repair the house when he's not playing shows. "We're still not back to normal. We're trying to get there," he says. "The insurance money wasn't enough to cover house repairs."

Today the band mostly plays shelters, schools and churches -- sometimes the airport. Hingle's been able to get one or two gigs a week, which come mostly as referrals from Bethany Bultman, co-founder and executive director of the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Bultman set up the NOMC Emergency Fund last year, after Katrina.

"We're hoping to create opportunities for the musicians to play in shelters and schools," she says. "We want to keep the culture alive."

Support directly to NOMC includes approximately $80,000 from Bruce Springsteen, about $25,000-$30,000 from Bonnie Raitt, plus contributions from Huey Lewis, Pearl Jam and others. "Gig fees" from donors go directly to musicians. One goal: to save the traditional music of New Orleans.

NEW INSTRUMENTS

And NOMC's not alone in that mission. On Tuesday (August 29), the one-year anniversary of Katrina, the Tipitina's Foundation will host a ceremony at the legendary Tipitina's Uptown venue to hand over $500,000 in new instruments to 11 New Orleans school music programs. The ceremony will feature performances by Ivan Neville and the Original Uptown Allstars with the Dirty Dozen Horns, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, the Rebirth Brass Band and other locals.

Help has been coming all along. Days after Katrina caused $8 billion in damages to the Gulf region and devastated an area that today is still trying to rebuild, relief started pouring in from throughout the music industry. Higher-profile efforts included a September 12 Dave Matthews benefit concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver; a September 10 special on MTV, VH1 and CMT; and "A Concert for Hurricane Relief," an hourlong TV special that aired September 2 on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, featuring Tim McGraw, Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis.

One of the industry's top donors has been the MusiCares Relief Fund ($3.5 million) set up by the Recording Academy, with representatives in New Orleans ultimately helping an estimated 3,500 people with basic needs such as food, clothing and water.

And within two days of the storm hitting, MoveOn.org set up HurricaneHousing.org. The organization -- with help from such acts as Michael Stipe, the Roots, Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Moby, Liz Phair, Vanessa Carlton and 311 -- sent e-mail blasts to millions of people in the region, asking if they could house an evacuee. About 160,000 responded, and within two weeks, MoveOn matched 30,000 people with temporary homes.

But the task is far from over. "The evacuees still need help, and the rebuilding effort isn't going well," says Laura Dawn, cultural director for MoveOn, which held a concert August 24 in New York featuring the Roots to raise money for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group dedicated to helping low- and moderate-income New Orleans families.

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, MusiCares and the Grammy Foundation, asks the industry not to lose focus. "We're not anywhere near to having solved this crisis," he says. "We need to continue the great charity and philanthropy our industry is known for."

FAMOUS SONS

A few well-known New Orleans musicians spoke with Billboard about their hopes for the city and how they've fared in the past year:

Aaron Neville, a member of the New Orleans-bred family the Neville Brothers, lost his house to Katrina, as did several family members. While he'd like to come back, he can't because of severe asthma. "The toxic stuff in the water has set so long, and with the dust in the air, that would do a job on me," he says. He and his wife, who is fighting cancer, have relocated to Nashville.

"New Orleans will never be what it was," Neville says. "But hopefully it can come back. The poor and working people won't ever be able to come back, though. Their houses were under water, and they had no insurance. They were the backbone of New Orleans. It's cool to say, 'Come on back,' but come on back to what? It's been a year and the Ninth Ward and other affected areas still look the same (as right after the hurricane)."

New Orleans native and soul/R&B great Allen Toussaint recently came off the road from an international tour, returning to the New York apartment where he's been living since Katrina. His house was completely flooded, and his famous SeaSaint Studio was demolished. He returns to New Orleans "every chance I get," he says.

"I want to be back in my neighborhood, which is not far from the Jazz Fest fairgrounds. I used to be able to hear every set from my balcony ... Most New Orleans musicians' spirits are high. Many have returned, and more will. The French Quarter is rolling even though a lot of our musicians aren't back. (Jazz club) Snug Harbor is busy. The brass bands like Rebirth are working ... The second-line bands are playing throughout the week. There's a good spirit."

Terence Blanchard is a Blue Note recording artist who wrote the soundtrack music to Spike Lee's four-hour documentary, "When the Levees Broke," which premiered in two parts on HBO August 21-22. A New Orleans native, Blanchard moved back to the city in March.

"It's not alive and well -- it's alive," he says of the state of music in his hometown. "Many of the musicians are still not home. Many are in Dallas and Houston. They actually travel from Dallas and Houston to New Orleans to play.

"When Spike (Lee) came to my old neighborhood, I wanted to show it off. But there was nothing alive there. No insects, rodents, birds, nothing. It was all dead. There's my house and the street where I used to play football with my friends and the picture window that I used to look out from while practicing my piano lessons."

Reuters/Billboard