New Orleans will always be the birthplace of jazz. But in wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city's famed music scene could take years to bounce back.
"This could really cripple it," says Jon Cleary, one the city's best-known keyboardists, speaking by phone from Los Angeles, where he's recording with Bonnie Raitt.
"A lot of the fans who have money to go see music will be leaving the city – and without audiences, clubs can't pay musicians, and then nobody gets gigs."
"New Orleans has been a musician's paradise," says Chris Lee of the rock band Supagroup. "But if musicians start leaving, that cool vibrant music scene could be gone."
Although New Orleans is synonymous with jazz – a sound invented at the dawn of the 1900s and later perfected by Louis Armstrong – it's also been a major spawning ground for R&B, funk and rock 'n' roll. The city has nurtured musical dynasties: the Nevilles, the Marsalis family and music landmarks such as Preservation Hall. Little Richard and Ray Charles made key early records there, as did Fats Domino, one of the city's most famous residents.
"I heard Fats Domino's house is under water," says bassist Robert Mercurio of the New Orleans funk-rock band Galactic, by phone from Seattle. "There's so much heritage, but I'm sure a lot of those old homes and recording studios will be ruined."
"History is literally drowning," says Mr. Lee by phone from Memphis. "Bourbon Street will always be there, but that's almost exclusively full of cover bands, and there are a ton of really classic old jazz places that aren't gonna come back."
New Orleans is also famous for its annual springtime Jazz & Heritage Festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of music lovers from around the U.S. More recently it's hosted a big annual rock fest, the Voodoo Music Experience, which is scheduled for Oct. 29-30.
There's no official word yet on the fate of those festivals, but Mr. Mercurio worries a lot of music fans will stop coming: "New Orleans really survives off of out-of-towners, and people will think: 'Do I really wanna visit there now? Maybe I'll wait a few years.' "
All three musicians had yet to find out what condition their homes were in Wednesday.
"I'm going on the assumption that it's all gone – my studio, my guitars, my keyboards, all my work," says Mr. Cleary, who lives in the Bywater neighborhood near the French Quarter. "And even if the house survived, I'm worried that people have looted everything in it."
"I heard big clubs like Tipitina's and House of Blues are fine," says Mr. Mercurio, "but I'm more afraid about all the little clubs where the local musicians play. If the little clubs are gone – or if they take years to be rebuilt – the community will never be the same."
The city is blessed with dozens of funky little nightspots like the Circle Club, the Maple Leaf and the Rock 'n' Bowl. But clubs or no clubs, the spirit of New Orleans music will still survive, says Mr. Cleary.
"They could tear the whole place to the ground and within a couple of weeks, you'd hear somebody walking around playing a trumpet," he says. "Thank God we have music. It's the one thing a hurricane can't blow away."
E-mail tchristensen@dallasnews.com
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