[Dixielandjazz] New Orleans - musicians' relief fund?

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

 Hi Dick and All:

  Yes it is possible for us to set up a massive series of fundraising 
activities to assist all of which would be appreciated, but let us all 
sit back take a deep breath and understand the magnitude of this 
terrible disaster before we run off half cocked albeit well intentioned.

  There will be numerous organizations and fund raisers jumping on the 
band wagon and collecting monies to be allegedly dispersed to those in 
need. we should all be aware from the not to distant experience of the 
911 situation how easily millions of well intended dollars were 
diverted to bureaucratic salaries etc. with even the major 
Organizations like the Red Cross.

  The Musicians Union has long been proven to be inept at best, and the 
musicians that will be affected the most by this tragedy are probably 
not even members of the union anyway. Let us be smarter than that and 
not piss money down any proven rat holes.
Any business or organization in New Orleans for all practical reasons 
is effectively OUT OF BUSINESS.   They have not electricity, no phones, 
no television, no banks open. no access to money, no mail delivery etc. 
etc.   Life as we all know and enjoy it is for the time being over in 
New Orleans folks.   Hopefully many of our friends and musos did indeed 
escape and are safe.   Some however simply are not that smart or lucky. 
  The full shock of this situation is yet to come.

  This is a most tragic situation that will touch all of us on this list 
much deeper than most of the world, so we should think about it for a 
moment before jumping off into well meaning ventures to raise a couple 
of hundred bucks.   Let us put our collective heads together and 
enormous talents and energy to do something that will show the support 
world wide of OKOM and raise some real money to help those Musicians 
specifically that are probably in the best case scenario currently 
homeless.  They will also face many months of lost gigs, so it is in 
our best interest to try and coordinate employment situations for as 
many displaced New Orleans Musicians as possible.

This situation is our equivilant of the Tsunami situation of last Dec.

Let us be at least smart enough to use this unfortunate situation to 
further the image and preservation and cause of OKOM while supporting 
our very needy brothers and sisters in the musical community that WE 
ALL CLAIM TO ADORE AND REVERE.

Why not organize a Nationwide Festival tour of the best of the best and 
use all of the local supporting acts in each market to have some super 
OKOM events and get the long overdue media coverage and pump up the 
image of OKOM to National attention.

In other words folks lets back up a minute and look at the big picture 
and make it work for all of us.   We can all help of course but let's 
do it correctly and make it work much more effectively and really do 
some good instead of just feeling good about it.

I have already been contacted by several musicians in groups in the San 
Francisco bay area willing to help raise money for these musos and 
these folks are not even OKOM musicians.  They have even asked for 
donations of rooms to house displaced players till they can get it 
together to move on etc.   This is a very real tragedy folks much 
bigger than most of us can even imagine.

Think about it and I welcome all ideas and trust me I am already 
working on situations to help organize concerts and events with all my 
Big Name star friends and former clients in this industry to come 
together and raise some real money.  This is no easy task to coordinate 
but if we all go slowly we can do it and make a real difference and 
actually help some folks who will other wise simply fall through the 
cracks.   Our best endeavor is to tighten our ranks and support our OWN 
rather than blindly throw money at organizations because they are on 
the "A" list for receiving funding.

cheers,

Tom Wiggins

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Richard Broadie <rbroadie at dc.rr.com>
  To: Thompson <rebecca.e.thompson at verizon.net>; martno1 at aol.com; 
dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
 Sent: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:58:07 -0700
 Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] New Orleans - musicians' relief fund?

  Would it be possible for us to set up a series of concerts all over 
the country/world to raise funds. I wonder if the New Orleans 
Musician's Union would be able to disperse such funds. Dick Broadie 
  ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thompson" 
<rebecca.e.thompson at verizon.net> 
 To: <martno1 at aol.com>; <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com> 
 Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 8:36 PM 
 Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] New Orleans - musicians' relief fund? 
  
 > Great idea, Audrey... 
 > 
  > By the way, have you heard anything of the Judy's? I am SURE they 
left > New 
  > Orleans, but would like to hear if you have seen them there in your 
> area... 
 > 
 > Rebecca 
 > 
 > -----Original Message----- 
 > From: martno1 at aol.com [mailto:martno1 at aol.com] 
 > Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:07 PM 
 > To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
 > Subject: [Dixielandjazz] New Orleans - musicians' relief fund? 
 > 
  > If anybody hears anything about a relief fund set up that focuses on 
New 
  > Orleans musicians, could you email me with the information? I'm 
involved 
  > with our local jazz club, the Potomac River Jazz Club, and a couple 
of our 
  > local musicians who have spent time in New Orleans, Howard Kadison 
and > David 
 > Sager, have proposed we start planning a benefit concert. 
 > Thanks, Audrey Van Dyke 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > _______________________________________________ 
 > Dixielandjazz mailing list 
 > Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
 > http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz  
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