FoodMusicJustice.com

Between wind damage and the long term soaking they suffered as the result of the Army Corps of Engineers levee failures, New Orleans’ trees took a tremendous hit in 2005.

(more…)

Today’s Times Picayune had an important, breakthrough story about the New Orleans levee system.

It’s not pretty, but it does contain a seed of hope.

(more…)

You can help by going to this video on YouTube, viewing it there, ranking it, rating in and discussing it.

The more activity a YouTube video gets, the higher its ranking and the more YouTube viewers it will get.

Here’s the direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFquKZh-3I

Ben Schenck (leader and clarinet), Aurora Nealand (alto saxophone) and the Panorama Jazz Band riff on a Hugh Masekela tune at French Quarter Fest 2008.

The band also plays traditional, old time New Orleans jazz; klezmer; balkan; Mexican; Caribbean and who knows what else.

I love this band. They’ll be at Jazz Fest (good!)

They’ve got two albums:

* Another Hot Night In February (2003)
* Panoramaland (2005)

There’s a reason New Orleans has been a continuous source of music and musicians for the rest of the world for well over 100 years.

Here are some clips of children being invited to perform with professionals at the French Quarter Fest.

Larry Blumenfeld did the interview. David Aman shot and edited. FoodMusicJustice.com produced it.

This was one of the videos Larry showed at the International Jazz Educators Conference in Toronto last summer.

Meanwhile, I shot a ton of nice stuff at the French Quarter Fest which I’ll be posting in the coming days.

We all know about Stephan Grappelli and Django Rheinhardt who fronted one of the best jazz groups of all time “The Hot Club of France.”

Most are also aware of the important role France played in providing a supportive environment to jazz musicians from Sidney Bechet to Ornette Coleman.

Less well known is the French contribution to the American song book.

(more…)

One of the rare and beautiful things about New Orleans his how integrated live music is with daily life.

This used to be the norm. Now New Orleans seems to be the last place in North America where this is true.

And more than that, New Orleans has a music community that consciously develops its young; maintains its traditions (including a vast repertoire of New Orleans-based songs); and honors its elders for their open-handed generosity of spirit to the new generation.

It’s a very beautiful, very human system.

In this less-than-perfect video (the light was bad and I was cut off before things really got rolling) one of the most beloved figures in the New Orleans music community “Uncle” Lionel Batiste shares a moment at the Palm Court.

I finally found a good resource on the state of children in Louisiana and New Orleans.

The group is called Agenda for Children and I found them by WALKING past their office on St. Charles. Thank goodness for the power of random ambling.
This statement from their web site cuts right to the chase:

“Released annually by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, the 18th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book ranked Louisiana 49th among states based on 10 key indicators of child well-being.

Since 2000, Louisiana experienced setbacks on 7 of those 10 indicators–infant mortality, low-birthweight babies, child death rate, teen death rate, children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment, children in poverty, and children in single-parent homes.

Louisiana did experience dramatic improvements in 3 indicators that reflect teenagers’ wellbeing. The teen birth rate, teen dropout rate, and the number of teens not attending either school or work all declined substantially since 2000.”

For more information, download the Louisiana press release”

New Orleans is being rebuilt, to a surprisingly large extent with undocumented Hispanic labor.

How are these workers being paid and treated. In all too many cases, not too well.