Connick breaks ground on New Orleans project

09/13/2007 8:07 PM, Reuters


Actor and musician Harry Connick Jr. returned to his hometown to break ground on Thursday on a project aimed at restoring a New Orleans music scene damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Connick and musician Branford Marsalis took part in a ceremony to start construction of a center meant to help sustain the musical culture of the city where jazz began by bringing together musicians of all ages to play together.

The $5.5 million Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, named for the jazz pianist and father of Branford and Wynton Marsalis, is the centerpiece of the Musicians' Village, a complex of homes in the Upper Ninth Ward being built by Habitat for Humanity's New Orleans branch and marketed to local musicians.

Connick said the village could signal a turnaround in the New Orleans music scene. "It's really bringing a lot of guys back," he told Reuters. "The spirit's really high."

Marsalis and Connick have raised money for the center, which is expected to be completed next year.

Connick, 40, played piano in French Quarter clubs before he was 10 years old and said he worried that New Orleans no longer gave young musicians places to play alongside jazz veterans.

"New Orleans is very different now," said the recording artist and star of the 2007 movie "Bug."

Many musicians lost their homes to flooding when Katrina struck on August 29, 2005 and have not come back to New Orleans.

Those who have returned have found a shrunken music scene, with fewer venues and a diminished tourism and convention trade.

The Musicians Village now has 38 homes and eventually will reach 72, Habitat for Humanity spokeswoman Aleis Tusa said. The homes sell for about $75,000 each.