Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced many musicians to flee New Orleans, the jazz and blues that was the city’s musical score have been harder to find, as have the musicians who seek to return, but, like so many, have no place to go.
“Music is as much a part of the fabric of life in New Orleans as the cuisine, the culture,” said Branford Marsalis, a native of New Orleans. “Katrina and Rita scattered musicians across the country, and shuttered many clubs and concert venues across the city.”
Habitat for Humanity and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, working with Harry Connick Jr., and Branford Marsalis announced a plan that will bring those scattered musicians and their music back home. Through a program called Operation Home Delivery, a “Musicians’ Village” will be built in the Crescent City.
The Musicians’ Village will consist of Habitat-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians, and in its center will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. The center will focus on celebrating the music and musicians of New Orleans, and will include performance rooms and classrooms.
Funding for the Musicians’ Village comes from proceeds of the “From the Big Apple To The Big Easy” benefit concerts, held in New York this past September. Funds raised through the CDs “Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now” and “Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast,” will also benefit Musicians’ Village.
“This plan, this village, will help restore New Orleans’ musical heritage, and protect it for the next generation that will follow,” said Marsalis. To having the center named after him, Ellis Marsalis said, “I am humbled and proud to have a role in the rebirth of this great city.”
For more information please visit www.habitat-nola.org.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
“If you don’t keep learning, your mind slows down,” Coleman says. “Use it or lose it.”
Jan 28, 2025 11:38 AM
PolyTropos/Of Many Turns — the title for Steve Coleman’s latest recording on Pi and his 33rd album overall —…
