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This version of the article is expanded beyond that which appears in the December JEJ. Mark Samuels had to let the property go and has since moved operations to his home's also-flooded but now gutted basement. This is a different sort of article for me to write, as New Orleans is my native home, where I lived for 25 years.
As most of us, I have seen on television the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. As some of us, I have visited New Orleans since that disaster and seen family and friends. The status of jazz education in New Orleans is its own story—and in my view, a very interesting one.
It is entwined with the wider music-ed system both public and parochial , affected by the informal mentorship of street musicians, focused by the sound of school marching bands, and utterly enmeshed in the future opportunities and challenges of the city itself. My goal here is to share with you the many facets that affect jazz education in New Orleans and therefore the future of jazz in New Orleans—and therefore the future of the roots of jazz anywhere.
For there are few genres of jazz unaffected by the language formed by New Orleans jazz musicians, not just of last century but also of this one. This tale will not be all gloom and doom: there will be proven avenues of assistance and growth and recommendations for the future. The band, a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Recipient, had members scattered throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana who are still facing the reconstruction of their personal and professional lives.
