New Orleans Homecoming (for the Lucky Ones) by Jon Pareles
NEW ORLEANS, April 30 — Every so often at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival over the weekend, musicians would announce that they were finally back in their old homes after being displaced for a more than a year by Hurricane Katrina. Songs of Loss and Survival The queen of New Orleans soul, Irma Thomas, returned to her house two weeks ago; Jean Knight, who had the hit “Mr. Big Stuff,” said she was back; and Brice Miller, the trumpeter for the Mahogany Brass Band, announced on Saturday that he had just spent his first night in his old bedroom.
They’re the luckier ones. They didn’t live in destroyed neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward that are still virtually empty. And they can return to a livelihood: jobs at clubs in the more-touristed parts of New Orleans, which are back in business and ready to party. The culture of New Orleans — the thoroughly local music, food and rituals that are connected to African processions, European carnivals, Caribbean rhythms and America’s history of slavery and intermingling — is a draw not just for tourists, but for New Orleanians. Through sheer perseverance, it is being rebuilt.
The 38th annual Jazzfest was its old celebratory self, with an undercurrent of determination. Jazzfest, which continues this coming weekend, has stoked the city’s culture by gathering it for the outside world to see since 1970. More than 80 percent of this year’s performers are Louisiana musicians who cover a century of music, from brass bands to bayou zydeco to hip-hop. - complete article
NY Times Arts Beat blog featuring pieces by Jon Pareles at New Orleans Jazz Fest and Jeff Leeds/Ben Ratliff at the Coachella Music Festival in SoCal.
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