[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: New Orleans update Long, delete if not interested.

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Folks:

Though some of you would enjoy reading this article:

Tom Wiggins



Subject: New Orleans update

      New Orleans Musicians Band Together
 Posted: April 4, 2006
  AUSTIN, TX (AP) -- The music of New Orleans is huddled in an old 
Austin recording studio.

  Some of the Crescent City's musical legends have returned to this 
Texas city where -- just six weeks after Hurricane Katrina -- they cut 
a therapeutic album dedicated to their ravaged hometown.

  At that post-Katrina recording session, names synonymous with New 
Orleans -- Neville, Porter, Nocentelli, Rebennack -- gathered to 
channel their raw emotions into the bittersweet tribute, "Sing Me Back 
Home."

 ADVERTISEMENT

  On a recent evening, a few weeks before the release of their album, 
they reconvened.

  "The music lives on in those players, no matter where they are," says 
George Porter Jr., the bassist and band leader of the New Orleans 
Social Club, the name the collective has adopted.

  The great talents of the New Orleans music scene had been accustomed 
to living minutes away from each other in the Ninth Ward, but Katrina 
scattered them across Texas, Colorado and elsewhere.

  "I think I live in South Austin," says Cyril Neville, still trying to 
get his bearings on his new home. On the album, released this week, he 
passionately sings Curtis Mayfield's "This Is My Country."

  In the weeks after Katrina, producer Leo Sacks assembled the New 
Orleans Social Club -- a five-piece band led by Porter, best known as 
one of the founding members of the Meters. Fellow Meter Leo Nocentelli 
joined on guitar, as well as Ivan Neville on organ, Henry Butler on 
piano and Raymond Weber on drums.

  Many guests were brought in. Dr. John (whose real name is Mac 
Rebennack) plays "Walking to New Orleans"; John Boutte covers Annie 
Lennox's "Why"; and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux sings the specially 
composed "Chase."

  "I knew as soon as you got New Orleans cats together you were going to 
have the spirit and sound of the city," says Sacks. "We could address 
all the emotions of the moment."

  As much of the album proves, those emotions were running high. Between 
songs, many were busy tracking the damage to their homes, looking at 
old photos or speaking to family members dispersed by the storm.

  "It helped me to be with these guys and be busy, take my mind off of 
it," says Weber, who has migrated to Austin with his family. "It was 
like being back home."

  Since portions of the proceeds from "Sing Me Back Home" will benefit 
the Salvation Army, the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and Music Cares, 
Weber says he's in the funny position of raising money for his own 
cause -- to rebuild his home.

  "I'm part of the project as well, because we did it for Katrina 
victims who want to come on back home," he says, laughing heartily. "I 
want to go back home!"

  Ivan Neville is the son of New Orleans icon Aaron Neville, whose house 
was ruined in the floodwaters of Katrina. Like countless New Orleans 
residents, Ivan feels the government has let down his city and his 
people, and expresses that by covering Creedence Clearwater's 
"Fortunate Son."

  "A song like `Fortunate Son' was pertinent when it was out during the 
Vietnam War," says Neville, who is currently living in Austin. "And the 
fact that that's still relevant now is ridiculous."

  Like "Fortunate Son" (which Rolling Stone called "outraged funk"), 
much of "Sing Me Back Home" is imbued with political protest.

  "Too many have died protecting my pride, for me to go second class," 
Cyril Neville (brother to Aaron and Art) sings on "This Is My Country."

  Much of the album, though, is full of toe-tapping optimism. The Mighty 
Chariots of Fire perform "99 1/2 Won't Do" and Irma Thomas and Marcia 
Ball sing "Look Up."

  "Music always takes the place of anything that's negative," says 
Nocentelli, who lost an office space to the hurricane, and whose mother 
and sister lost everything. "Even though the negativity was there, the 
music overcomes that."

 "The music heals," echoes Cyril Neville.

  Everyone in the band is concerned that the culture of New Orleans will 
never come back, even if the city does. Over 250,000 residents -- more 
than half of the pre-hurricane population, many of them black -- remain 
scattered all over the country.

  "It's never going to be the same because a lot of the poorest people 
who had to leave are not going to be able to make it back," says Ivan 
Neville. "To me, that's a major part of the heart and soul of the city: 
the people."

  Cyril Neville expects to stay in Austin, and suggests others will also 
remain in their new communities because "we've been treated how human 
beings are supposed to be treated."

  Porter would rather see money given to New Orleans than to cities 
coping with evacuees.

  "Like the guy from FEMA said, `We can't legitimize spending money on a 
flood zone.' Well, fix (it). Un-flood zone it," he says.

  "At this point, New Orleans music will start living in Austin or 
Denver, wherever the group of players are living that created what is 
known as New Orleans music," says Porter. "It will be New Orleans music 
by way of Austin."

 Nocentelli thinks projects like the New Orleans Social Club are vital.

  "That's the only thing that's left," he says. "With people like the 
Meters, the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Wild Magnolias -- the music 
will never leave it. That's something that nothing can take away from 
New Orleans."