[Dixielandjazz] New Orleans Brass Bands update since Katrina

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Long article but good.  delete now if not interested.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins



-----Original Message-----
From: info at ambassadorsofamericanculture.com
To: tcashwigg at aol.com
Sent: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 12:03 PM
Subject: Brass Bands update since Katrina

      On the Road Again
 By Geraldine Wyckoff

  “Hey, you’re back!” is a greeting repeatedly heard around New Orleans 
these days. “Well, not really,” is too often the reply, followed by, 
“I’m still in…” fill in the blank—Houston, Atlanta, Austin. Musicians 
have scattered around the country since Katrina, but those who are 
close enough to do so are returning to town as often as they can 
despite skyrocketing gas prices and grueling hours on the highway.

  While most people would consider driving into New Orleans from Houston 
for a job a really, really long commute, Lumar LeBlanc, the leader/bass 
drummer of the Soul Rebels, views it as the group being on the road. 
“That helps us put ourselves in a mental fix,” LeBlanc says. “It’s like 
we’re the Dirty Dozen or Rebirth or something. We look at it like we’re 
on tour to do a New Orleans gig every week.”

  The band’s Thursday destination is Le Bon Temps Roule, and it has 
played there weekly for the last six years. When the club called the 
Rebels after Katrina and told LeBlanc that it wanted to help pioneer 
the return of live music in the city, the group immediately committed 
to traveling in for the gig. The hard-hitting ensemble returned to blow 
its singular brew of brass, funk, hip-hop and jazz at the Magazine 
Street club in early October in front of a very appreciative crowd. 
Those were the days when the crowd spilled out on to Bordeaux Street 
because Le Bon Temps had no neighbors, and the National Guard might 
step through the doors with weapons on display to enforce the 2 a.m. 
curfew. The Thursday night gig has become the core around which the 
band books other jobs in the New Orleans area. On Saturday, August 5, 
the Soul Rebels will close the Nola.com Brass Band Stage at Satchmo 
SummerFest at 5:30 p.m.

   At the end of June, the Soul Rebels racked up an impressive seven 
gigs over a four-day period with stops at the Bon Temps, the Louisiana 
Music Factory and d.b.a., along with dates in Baton Rouge and 
Lafayette. “It was a profitable weekend,” LeBlanc says, even 
considering that gas alone rings up at an intimidating $200 for a round 
trip that, without traffic tie-ups, takes five to six hours each way.

  LeBlanc puts the tip money aside to cover travel expenses but 
sometimes, when the band’s schedule isn’t quite as hefty, the group 
will take a gig and dedicate the money to gas and vehicle maintenance. 
Nonetheless, the leader sees the bright side of the experience. His aim 
has always been for the Soul Rebels to evolve further as a road band in 
the mode of the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth brass bands.

  Because the majority of the members—all of whom boast college 
degrees—had day jobs including careers as teachers and counselors, 
traveling used to be prohibitive.

  “I’ve always wanted to gravitate the Soul Rebels to a place where 
we’re ‘legitimate’—the members just to be musicians. Because of the 
storm, we were forced to do that,” says LeBlanc, who before Katrina was 
a teacher in the Orleans Parish school system and a psychiatric 
technician with Ochsner Hospital, where he remains on call. “It’s 
helped me to finally get the band focused on touring. It’s really 
helped the Soul Rebels mature as a touring band.” The band is also 
enjoying more out-of-town exposure than it ever has in its 15-year 
history. Albums such as last year’s explosive Rebelution sell quickly 
off the bandstand, often scooped up by those digging the band for the 
first time.

  Because the Rebels enjoy a busy schedule and his wife’s job at Tenet 
was transferred from New Orleans to Houston, LeBlanc says the income 
 from playing music is all he needs to survive. But, he quickly adds, 
“If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think we would have made it.”

   Damion Francois, the Rebels’ tuba player, displays more frustration 
than his bandmate with the situation. He is one of the band’s three 
members who now live in Houston, and he says of New Orleans, “The city 
doesn’t give a damn about musicians.” He would like to see the city 
offer some sort of gas card to the New Orleans musicians that are now 
commuting to gigs from Dallas, Houston, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and 
other points outside the city. “They really need to consider the 
importance of the musicians in New Orleans and try to work with them to 
ease up the pressure on us so we can feel comfortable to produce what 
we need to produce. When you come to New Orleans, you’re so stressed 
out and beat out from just trying to get there. The amount of money 
you’re spending is really becoming a deterrant.”

  Both LeBlanc and Francois praise the work of Bethany Bultman of the 
New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, as well as Tipitina’s Foundation, Jazz 
Fest, MusiCares and the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund. 
The clinic donated the 1986 Ford truck with a camper on the back that 
carries LeBlanc, Francois and trumpet player Marcus Hubbard and their 
equipment to New Orleans each week.

  “The people are the reason we come back,” Francois acknowledges. “You 
come back because you love the people—our family members and our fans. 
LeBlanc agrees, saying, “We’ve committed ourselves to our fans and 
we’ll do it as long as we physically can.”

  “Living on the road now, it’s different; it’s crazy,” says trombonist 
Corey Henry. As leader of the Lil’ Rascals Brass Band and his own 
swing/jazz/R&B/hip-hop group, the Young Fellas, he is jumping between 
Houston, New York City and New Orleans. “It ain’t the greatest but we 
manage to make it,” he says, explaining that in Houston he’s usually 
playing with the Fellas, in New Orleans he meets up with his family and 
the scattered members of the Rascals and in New York he visits his girl 
while trying to book some gigs with cats living there. He still plays 
when he can with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, and he will 
lead the Rascals at Satchmo SummerFest at 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 5.

  The Jazz Foundation in Houston has been instrumental in setting up 
Henry and the Fellas at performances in schools, universities, museums 
and homes for the elderly. And though he’s done his share of trucking 
back and forth between cities, the trombonist often catches a flight to 
connect with members of his various ensembles at a destination.

  “Houston is good and New York is good but there’s something about New 
Orleans, you can’t get it anywhere,” says Henry, who is also trying to 
“get something started” in Austin. “I’m making a living.”

  The New Orleans brass band scene is a close-knit community and has 
long involved a mix-and-match of musicians. Rebirth and New Birth once 
completely swapped their front horn lines. It’s natural that on 
occasion, Henry has added his sweet-toned trombone with members of the 
New Birth Brass Band (SummerFest, August 6 at 5:30 p.m.), who are also 
based in Houston. Combining forces led to the emergence of another 
group on the New Orleans scene, the Free Agents Brass Band. Though the 
group was formed just prior to Katrina, after the storm it brought 
musicians together who were in need of work. It has also filled a void 
when other bands like the Hot 8 (SummerFest, August 6 at 2 p.m.) or New 
Birth were out of town or unable to take a job.

  “I consider myself a free agent, so that’s where the name came from,” 
says leader, bass drummer Ellis “EJo” Joseph, who was headed to France 
with the Pinstripe Brass Band at press time. “We’re all trying to be 
generous to everyone to make sure everybody has work.”

  The group’s first gig after the storm was the funeral for Chef Austin 
Leslie in Atlanta and on its return, the band picked up a house party 
job from Rebirth. With most of its musicians in town, the membership of 
the Free Agents has recently become more stable. However, Joseph, a 
cousin of Rebirth’s Frazier brothers, points out that with people going 
back and forth to visit and check up on relatives in various states, 
“everybody is still on the road.”

  All of these guys have become the mortar cementing the New Orleans 
brass community—the musicians and followers—together. They do, however, 
express a deep concern for the building blocks that will secure the 
future of this city’s brass band musical heritage. It has been a 
tradition that the music and culture be handed down from generation to 
generation. The music blossomed and was nurtured on neighborhood 
streets and stepped out of school marching bands. With those links weak 
or missing, how will the tradition survive?

  There are some young groups such as To Be Continued (TBC), the 
Truth—whose members range in age from 15 to 20 years old—and All For 
One brass bands, but they could suffer from lack of tutelage.

  “We have enough musicians but not enough quality musicians,” Free 
Agent’s Joseph observes. “Learning the tradition is what completes you. 
Actually, that should be first.” He says that there are musicians who 
have extended a hand but for many, just making gigs and trying to keep 
things together is already a challenge.

  “Young kids would be around and piggyback on what we were doing every 
day,” LeBlanc says of those budding musicians who would pick up licks 
and tunes from the Rebels. He, along with other members of the Soul 
Rebels, have made it a point to put horns in their own children’s hands 
in hopes of keeping the music vital. “The storm has definitely affected 
the younger generation’s ability to be involved. You don’t have the 
neighborhood genre like you did before.”

  Banjoist/guitarist/author Danny Barker saw the decline of the brass 
band tradition when he returned home from New York in 1965, and he took 
action. Approached by the Fairview Baptist Church’s Reverend Andrew 
Darby, who was looking to establish a church band, Barker began 
gathering up young musicians. He started with a then 13-year-old 
trumpeter Leroy Jones who lived nearby, and enlisted trumpeter Gregg 
Stafford, trombonist Lucien Barbarin and numerous other now well-known 
names. The Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band played its first gig in 
1971 and its members have filled the ranks of jazz bands ever since. We 
sure could use Barker right now or someone with his dedication.

  “I think the music would have died if it wasn’t for Mr. Barker 
creating interest in people like myself,” Stafford once declared.

   With their kids in good schools in Houston, their wives working, and 
the Soul Rebels gigging enough to meet expenses, LeBlanc and Francois 
don’t envision returning to live in New Orleans any time soon.

  “I have to see what happens after the storm season,” says LeBlanc. 
“Nothing’s going to stop me—but the Lord—coming to New Orleans and 
doing my work every week. New Orleans will always be home. I’m home 
every week. I think I have my family in a safer place until the city 
gets back on its feet. What’s been interesting in Houston,” he 
continues, “is we’ve been able to do jazz funerals.

  Unfortunately, there were some people from New Orleans who died here 
and they had jazz funerals. So when the funeral parlors saw what we do 
they said they’d like to offer that to other families. You’ve got a lot 
of our culture seeping in here. People are amazed at how we are like 
professionals on partying.

  “I try to get the positive out of everything,” he says. “When the 
storm hit, we kept in touch. I told the band, ‘Don’t give up because 
the only thing we have right now is the music.’”

  When playing out of town, Corey Henry says, “It’s almost like we have 
to educate the people on what’s really going on with the music.” He 
hopes to return to his hometown as soon as possible. One reason: “In 
New Orleans, we just strike up the band and everybody just parties 
automatically. In New Orleans, we just do it like that.”

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