PaulC
04-26-2007, 07:48 AM
Post-Katrina, Musicians Seek Mentors
By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer
Wed Apr 25, 3:48 PM
NEW ORLEANS - Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews remembers hanging out at local jazz clubs with the Neville Brothers and knocking on the door of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins for help with a song he couldn't quite get.
But that was before Hurricane Katrina, when finding a musical mentor was easy. Some 20 months after Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, musicians young and old are struggling to ensure the jazz beats and rhythms born on the streets of New Orleans continue.
New Orleans' population is about half its pre-Katrina level, and the black community _ the wellspring of improvisational jazz _ remains scattered around the country.
"It's a tough situation right now," said Andrews, among the crop of young musicians set to play at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which opens Friday. (It runs on consecutive weekends, including May 4-6.)
Young people are lucky if they can track down a musician to help these days, he said. Many musicians are still living elsewhere, traveling farther for work, or working second jobs to make ends meet.
Since Katrina, formal music programs have become one of the best ways to unite musicians with youngsters wanting to learn, said the 21-year-old Andrews, himself a former student and teacher through a program offered by the Tipitina's Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the city's public schools with instruments and helping artists recover from the hurricane.
While that program is geared for older students, another started by black social clubs allows children as young as 3 years old to perform with bands on Saturday mornings at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in the French Quarter.
"It's not just about teaching music but teaching etiquette, and where the music comes from," said Bruce Barnes, a park ranger, vocalist and musician who plays the accordion, harmonica and African drums.
For the past three months, Barnes had lined up the Treme Brass Band to work with the children. Last weekend, they performed with the Storyville Stompers Brass Band.
Eric "EJ" Calhoun, an 11-year-old drummer who attends Harry S. Truman Middle School in Marrero, La., beat the drums and tooted a red whistle to such songs as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "A Closer Walk With Thee."
Calhoun will be among the young musicians performing in the children's tent at Jazz Fest on Sunday. Andrews will perform at one of the main stages on opening day, while the Storyville Stompers will play during the festival's second weekend.
Calhoun said he looks for any opportunity to perform with seasoned musicians.
"They show me a lot of things," he said. "They'll tell me to keep the tempo down, or about being ready, keeping the beat. It's pretty fun."
One of the programs in place before Katrina struck has been headed for six years by saxophonist Donald Harrison, a Jazz Fest regular.
On a recent Monday, a dozen or so students met Harrison in a warehouse-turned-recording and rehearsal studio called the Music Shed, where the group performed "The Girl from Ipanema" _ but with a New Orleans spin.
As the students played their trumpets, drums, guitars and piano, Harrison would at times stop to show them how to hold the instrument differently or play it differently.
Mostly, he directed.
"Make me feel it," he told them, stomping his feet, clapping his hands.
Harrison, who performs the second weekend of Jazz Fest on May 5, said he believed in mentoring young musicians long before Katrina struck.
"New Orleans music, it's an oral and audible tradition. You have to hear it. That's the way music has always been told," he said. "I pass on a musician's perspective rather than just a classroom perspective."
Andrews says he's one of the fortunate ones. Years before his performances with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, U2 and Green Day, he honed his musical skills in a pre-Katrina New Orleans, where musical mentors filled the city's neighborhoods.
Ultimately, Andrews says, it's going to be up to the musicians to keep the musical culture alive as New Orleans recovers.
"We have to step up," he said.
___
Cool read,.. love the stuff about Donald Harrison.... howz' about that comment about playin' " 'The Girl from Ipanema' ,... but with a New Orleans spin".... i'd sure like to hear that.......
By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer
Wed Apr 25, 3:48 PM
NEW ORLEANS - Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews remembers hanging out at local jazz clubs with the Neville Brothers and knocking on the door of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins for help with a song he couldn't quite get.
But that was before Hurricane Katrina, when finding a musical mentor was easy. Some 20 months after Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, musicians young and old are struggling to ensure the jazz beats and rhythms born on the streets of New Orleans continue.
New Orleans' population is about half its pre-Katrina level, and the black community _ the wellspring of improvisational jazz _ remains scattered around the country.
"It's a tough situation right now," said Andrews, among the crop of young musicians set to play at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which opens Friday. (It runs on consecutive weekends, including May 4-6.)
Young people are lucky if they can track down a musician to help these days, he said. Many musicians are still living elsewhere, traveling farther for work, or working second jobs to make ends meet.
Since Katrina, formal music programs have become one of the best ways to unite musicians with youngsters wanting to learn, said the 21-year-old Andrews, himself a former student and teacher through a program offered by the Tipitina's Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the city's public schools with instruments and helping artists recover from the hurricane.
While that program is geared for older students, another started by black social clubs allows children as young as 3 years old to perform with bands on Saturday mornings at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in the French Quarter.
"It's not just about teaching music but teaching etiquette, and where the music comes from," said Bruce Barnes, a park ranger, vocalist and musician who plays the accordion, harmonica and African drums.
For the past three months, Barnes had lined up the Treme Brass Band to work with the children. Last weekend, they performed with the Storyville Stompers Brass Band.
Eric "EJ" Calhoun, an 11-year-old drummer who attends Harry S. Truman Middle School in Marrero, La., beat the drums and tooted a red whistle to such songs as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "A Closer Walk With Thee."
Calhoun will be among the young musicians performing in the children's tent at Jazz Fest on Sunday. Andrews will perform at one of the main stages on opening day, while the Storyville Stompers will play during the festival's second weekend.
Calhoun said he looks for any opportunity to perform with seasoned musicians.
"They show me a lot of things," he said. "They'll tell me to keep the tempo down, or about being ready, keeping the beat. It's pretty fun."
One of the programs in place before Katrina struck has been headed for six years by saxophonist Donald Harrison, a Jazz Fest regular.
On a recent Monday, a dozen or so students met Harrison in a warehouse-turned-recording and rehearsal studio called the Music Shed, where the group performed "The Girl from Ipanema" _ but with a New Orleans spin.
As the students played their trumpets, drums, guitars and piano, Harrison would at times stop to show them how to hold the instrument differently or play it differently.
Mostly, he directed.
"Make me feel it," he told them, stomping his feet, clapping his hands.
Harrison, who performs the second weekend of Jazz Fest on May 5, said he believed in mentoring young musicians long before Katrina struck.
"New Orleans music, it's an oral and audible tradition. You have to hear it. That's the way music has always been told," he said. "I pass on a musician's perspective rather than just a classroom perspective."
Andrews says he's one of the fortunate ones. Years before his performances with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, U2 and Green Day, he honed his musical skills in a pre-Katrina New Orleans, where musical mentors filled the city's neighborhoods.
Ultimately, Andrews says, it's going to be up to the musicians to keep the musical culture alive as New Orleans recovers.
"We have to step up," he said.
___
Cool read,.. love the stuff about Donald Harrison.... howz' about that comment about playin' " 'The Girl from Ipanema' ,... but with a New Orleans spin".... i'd sure like to hear that.......