The Independent Ear

Q&A with emerging pianist HELEN SUNG

Posted on March 27, 2008 by The Independent Ear

For the launch of our annual Debut Series, which presents artists new to the Cleveland community, Tri-C JazzFest included the exceptional young pianist Helen Sung.  On a lovely Sunday afternoon in the exquisite chamber-hall like confines of the new performing arts auditorium at East Cleveland Public Library, Helen Sung and her trio totally enthralled a packed house of folks who threatened to jump out of their seats at every nuance the pianist delivered.  It was a major love-in and Helen’s CDs quickly sold out after the performance by folks eager to scoop up some of her recorded skills; her performance was that magnetic!

 

I first became acquainted with Helen Sung at one of the Monk Institute piano competitions at the Kennedy Center.  That afternoon, though she didn’t win the competition, there was something about her artistry, a certain sparkle that came across in her presentation and her general carriage at the keyboard, coupled with her obvious piano facility that marked her as someone to watch.  When you see Helen Sung in performance you are immediately taken by the sheer joy of her artistry.  She decidedly is not some brooding, introspective pianist intent on navel gazing.  There is an energy, warmth and a palpable humor in her playing that is quite infectious.  Helen’s latest recording Sungbird  (after Albeniz) is on the Sunnyside label.

 

Willard Jenkins: What originally compelled you to want to learn and play jazz music?

Helen Sung: Probably two things: 1) the incredible feeling of swing, and 2) the desire to learn how to improvise… to be able to do more than just the written note — this thrilled and terrified me at the same time!

 

How and where did that quest begin?

It began at the end of my undergraduate studies in classical piano at the University of Texas at Austin.  A friend dragged me to a Harry Connick Jr. concert (I didn’t know who he was at that point), and a couple of solo [piano] pieces he played during the concert floored me.  I didn’t know the piano could be played like that!  Along with some fellow classical majors, I enrolled in an "Intro to Jazz" class (taught by UT’s excellent jazz piano professor Jeff Hellmer) and things kind of took off from there.  I listened to everything I could get my hands on and read books on the history and masters of jazz music.  I didn’t know much so my listening was unorganized but fun — from Bill Evans to Charlie Parker to Ornette Coleman to Keith Jarrett to Sun Ra.

 

How do you explain the fact that Houston now has not one but three very vital young pianists (in addition to yourself there’s Jason Moran and Robert Glasper)?

Well I’m totally honored that you included me in this group because I see myself more as a party crasher (she smiles).  Better late than never I suppose!  Anyway, I attribute this to the excellent performing arts high school in Houston — HSPVA — and its former jazz director Dr. Robert Morgan.  Although I wasn’t a part of his class, he ran what must have been an amazing jazz program because so many great musicians on the scene today come from PVA, folks like drummers Eric Harland, Chris Dave, Mark Simmons, Kendrick Scott, another great pianist Eddy Hobizal, the list goes on and on.  People also say there must be something in the water…

 

What did growing up in Houston contribute to your eventual pursuit of jazz and the various flavors and approaches you bring to your music?

I was totally immersed in the classical thing when I lived in Houston.  I also played the violin so I was in youth symphony (and the HSPVA orchestra too, in fact).  So the colors, textures, and forms of classical music play a big part in what I hear.  Houston is also an urban city so the feeling & attitudes must be in there somewhere!  My years in Austin were also important, it being a center for so many different types of music — classical, jazz, rock, folk, alternative, bluegrass, Dixieland, etc.

 

Your latest recording "Sungbird" brings elements of both your jazz and your European art music experiences together.  Talk about why you decided to explore this kinship and are these two musics really so far apart as some think?

This was my first recorded attempt to bring jazz and western European art music together in a way that I hope is authentic and does justice to both styles.  I remember hearing classical treatments of jazz (and vice versa) and feeling that one side always got the short end of the stick.  In the end, I think music is about sound and style, although specific concepts & aesthetics might differ.  I remember being blown away when I found out classical cats back in the day all improvised — and in the style they wrote!  Can you imagine J.S. Bach improvising a Prelude & Fugue, Mozart or Beethoven improvising a sonata, Chopin improvising a ballade?  Amazing!  I remember playing piano concertos, which always have a cadenza in the 1st movement where the soloist is supposed to improvise (the "big soloist" moment).  But I always played written out cadenzas.  I remember feeling funny about that, and am very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to learn how to improvise.

 

Have you mapped out any plans for your next recording?

Yes!  My next recording will probably be a live recording, a mix of old and new music (sneak preview).  For my next studio project I would love to record my "electric" music.  I’m a big fan of fusion (Weather Report, Headhunters, Return to Forever, etc.) and want to record the music I’ve written that is inspired by those groups.

 

What’s happening with, and what are your aspirations for your performing career?

Someone said to me once, "slow & steady."  I appreciate and agree with that, but I’m also ready for that "big something" to happen!  I’m grateful to have more and more bandleader situations and look forward to what 2008 will bring.  One upcoming highlight is a performance at the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival [Helen won the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center].  I’m also wrestling with the whole management/agent thing.  This music business is no joke!

 

Obviously it takes more than pure talent to be successful in music.  What skills do you recommend that young aspiring musicians MUST bring to the table if they are to have a shot at success?

Above all I would say persistence and patience.  And community.  This is a tough field and can be discouraging at times.  I’m a big fan of those who have longevity and continuing relevance in jazz music, and I aspire to the same.

 

You’re a highly communicative artist — both in terms of how you connect with your audiences, and in terms of how you are building and communicating with your audience (or "fan") base.  Talk about the importance of those elements in building a successful career.

I believe the artist is the ambassador for their music to the listening audience.  I never thought I’d be one to speak on the mike and all that, but I’ve had to, and have grown to appreciate it as a learned skill and important way to connect with the audience… to get to know them and let them get to know me.  People respond to music, and when there is a good artist-audience connection, the response is even better.  This takes time, and is a building process.

 

If you were afforded ample resources for a dream project, what would that be?

A large ensemble (rhythm, horns, percussion, voice) with Wayne Shorter as the guest star!  To tour and perorm a jazz song cycle and also an instrumental suite…

 

You can catch up to Helen Sung at: www.helensung.com.  Don’t sleep!

Posted in Artist's P.O.V. | Leave a comment

New Orleans Diary Vll: On WWOZ

Posted on March 26, 2008 by The Independent Ear

                             WWOZ On the Good Foot

 

After 18 years on-air doing a Friday evening jazz slot on DC’s bastion of community radio, WPFW, one of my first priorities upon landing in New Orleans last October was a prospecting visit to the studios of WWOZ, community radio in the Crescent City.  GM David Freedman and Program Director Dwayne Breashears, clearly recognizing a community radio diehard, were quite welcoming.  I had been familiar with WWOZ mainly from many trips to Jazz Fest, the two New Orleans IAJE conferences, and assorted other conference and meeting trips down here.  Familiarity with WWOZ came courtesy primarily through the programming exploits of Michael Gourrier ("Mr. Jazz"), Michael Kline, and the late, lamented "Moose".  

 

I vividly remember pulling over on Canal Street one sultry April morning during Jazz Fest while Suz dashed across the street for a coffee and being thoroughly enthralled by a John Sinclair spin of George French’s unforgettablly rich-voiced rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael classic "New Orleans."  A quick trip to the now-defunct Decatur Street Tower Records store and I was introduced not only to George French but to his drumming brother Bob French and his Tuxedo Jazz Band.  Arriving down here last fall for this as yet undetermined spell in the Crescent City, 90.7 FM (listen live at www.wwoz.org) became my instant broadcast soundtrack for life in NOLA.  Flipping on the station Tuesdays and Fridays 9-11 am even yielded the sardonically-humored, New Orleans-proud, Musician’s Village-dwelling Bob French himself (hear him musically on his ’07 Marsalis Music Honors series disc).

 

WPFW is part of that last bastion of politically progressive radio stations the Pacifica network; a station whose motto "Jazz & Justice" is manifested by a balanced menu of jazz, Latin, blues, global rhythms, R&B and left-leaning politics, much of it from a decidedly African American perspective befitting DC’s populace.  On the other hand WWOZ is thoroughly, 100% about music; leave politics for others to ponder.  Much of WWOZ’s music is about roots — classic blues and R&B, New Orleans and Louisiana music, likely the most radio hours devoted to early jazz in America, modern jazz, a strong global strip on Saturdays, gospel on Sundays, and an "open door policy" towards resident artists’ recordings and interview opportunities.

 

Yes, I do know the drill at community radio; i.e. it wasn’t about walking in off the street with 30+ years of public radio experience in my pocket and being immediately installed in a programming slot.  The community radio pecking order calls for signing up as a program sub and abiding your time for openings.  Fortunately those openings have come at a decent clip for yours truly.  And in a fascinating twist I’ve been able to stretch a bit musically.  As is the case at WPFW programmers largely work from their own extensive record collections, in the case of WWOZ largely eschewing a station record library that was severely depleted by Katrina and is just now getting back up to speed. 

 

WWOZ, a station with an impressive percentage of ‘net listeners from across the globe who also contribute mightily during the station’s pledge drives, is a decidedly "character" driven radio station.  Besides Bob French the characters abound, including "Jelly Roll Justice", "The Problem Child", "Black Mold", "Gentilly", the stellar Saturday evening classic R&B spinner who goes by "The Soul Sister", "Hazel the Delta Rambler", "The Midnight Creeper", "Big D", "Jivin’ Gene", "The Minister of Swing", "Cousin Dmitri", "Brother Jesse", the Operations Director is the inimitable "Freddie Blue"… you get the drift.

 

My own stretching has enabled me to work towards fresh and unique combinations of music from my collection, often spinning styles of music I’d never had a previous opportunity to radio program particularly when subbing for one of the nightly "Kitchen Sink" 10-midnight slots which I’ve had the pleasure of doing on several occasions.  That particular format, as in "everything but…" has a tendency to be about R&B at the core with opportunities for myriad related spin-offs.  I’ve tended to take the format literally by its title, which might call for a set featuring for instance the neo-soul sista Sy Smith, followed by John Coltrane, Sekou Sundiata, the Neville Brothers, and concluding with some Jimi Hendrix.  Yes you can roll that way with the "Kitchen Sink."

 

Depending upon when/if you read this, the next upcoming opportunities to catch the Open Sky way on the WWOZ airways are Thursday, March 27 and Friday, March 28 subbing for the Morning Jazz Set from 6-9am CST; and sitting in for my man "Black Mold" on the daily New Orleans Music Show Thursday, April 11 from 11am-2pm CST.  And the WWOZ studio line is 504/568-1234.  Listen live at www.wwoz.org.

Posted in General Discussion | 12 Comments

Are artists really interested in audience development?

Posted on March 14, 2008 by The Independent Ear

The Most Critical Issue in Jazz: Audience Development Pt. 1

 

Consider this part of an ongoing series on the critical subject of audience development.  Most would agree that we have a wealth of competent-to-exceptional-to-Master level jazz artists.  Jazz education is quite healthy with an increasing number of education institutions offering good-to-excellent education opportunities to the aspiring musician.  There is a veritable glut of jazz recordings released on a daily basis (that glut being perhaps another issue to explore later). 

 

Yes, there is a huge disparity in the ratio of the number of viable jazz venues and performance opportunities v.s. the number of deserving musicians.  That disparity can be closed by growing the number of jazz consumers, increasing the number of consumers excited by this music… simple audience development.  More audience… more demand… more venues… more opportunity for the significant number of talented jazz artists to ply their craft.  The domino effect of growing the jazz audience is obvious.

 

What can artists do to assist in the positive development of the jazz audience?  Perhaps adapting more effective, meticulously crafted and considerate means of programming their performances is a good place to start.  There are many observers who feel jazz artists could be more effective at developing the audience purely by adopting more audience-friendly programming skills — without in any way compromising their music. 

 

I’ve seen first hand how students of this music often feel that all they need to develop is their playing acumen, the rest is beneath their consideration; to hell with stage comportment, stage craft, and programming be damned.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As jazz artists develop their craft they need to be very mindful of learning and adapting programming elements and methods that are more audience-friendly.  If you continue performing just for yourselves pretty soon that’s all that will be happening, you’ll be navel-gazing and engaging in self-aggrandizement exercises played to empty houses.

 

Let’s for a moment examine the issue of solos, including solo length, and the notion that perhaps the kind of head-solos-head format may induce audience boredom to the overall detriment of jazz audience development.  I recall two acute occasions where I questioned the issue of solo length as a real detriment to audience development.  In both cases the perpetrators were artists I greatly admire — two of the reigning titans of their instrument, and two artists I have written about in laudatory terms, have presented in concert, have played on radio shows, and in one case have interviewed on the air on more than one occasion.  In each case a segment of the audience, most likely jazz initiates, roared their approval while a significant portion of the audience appeared glazed over, dumfounded at what they’d just witnessed.

 

Awhile back I saw alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club and he was truly on fire!  Straight out of the box — sans intro — he roared into his opening piece and proceeded to play a stem-winding solo that I clocked at over 30-minutes in length.  A few months later at a festival I caught a duo concert featuring alto saxman Sonny Fortune and drummer Rashid Ali.  Incredibly they played "Impressions" for the entire 90 minute set… and Sonny’s solo lasted over 85 minutes!

 

In both cases these were amazing displays of sheer stamina, though I lost count on where the freshness of ideas ended — certainly well before they each mercifully concluded their solos.  In each case I was left asking myself how a new jazz initiate or tenderfoot audience member might have responded to such a solo.  How would your spouse, partner, children, friends who may not be as deeply immersed in the music as you are respond?  Ultimately I enjoyed both of these performances, but I’m a diehard.  They both left me wondering how someone perhaps less deeply immersed in the music might have responded to these heroic but ultimately monotonous displays.

 

These two solos and other gymnastic displays I’ve witnessed over the years always remind me of how economically effective grandmasters like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and their cohorts were with their soloing, particularly given the time limitations of the recording format during the majority of their careers.  Think about what brilliance those greats were able to accomplish in their solos on those 3-1/2 minute gems.  In fact Bird once said "…after two choruses you’re just practicing."  And remember what Miles told John Coltrane?  "Take the horn out’cha mouth…"

 

I polled several people close to jazz music, including enthusiasts, an industry professional, an educator, a critic, a television professional, and an active jazz musician on this subject.  What’s your take on what they had to say?

 

Enthusiast/fan: "On the one hand, jazz music is supposed to be about creativity, but on the other it does help to have structure, a defined program, and like a good book… an introduction, followed by the story, some low points, some high points, and an ending… before   the reader gets tired of the story."

 

Music education administrator: "…Less is more…"

 

Jazz musician: "Most jazz musicians… including myself… at some point in time can be accused of soloing too long on any particular tune.  As a soloist there comes a point when you can stop, or at least go for another helping.  As I get older I am trying to edit myself… say the maximum in the least amount of choruses.  I think every musician must determine what is relevant to them.  They must set some sort of priority or parameter as to what is important to their performance.  I, for one, would love to see more young people at jazz venues, concert halls, etc.  I believe that in order to attract more young folks, we must keep the music more groove oriented, we must have more ensemble arrangement interplay, and keep the solos short and to the point.  I don’t want to imply that we have to play one solo chorus and funk rhythms exclusively, simply that people can tap their foot or dance to the music.

 

Every solo must be based on the current circumstances surrounding it… the vibes…  No doubt that Paul Gonsalves thirty-plus chorus solo with Duke Ellington at Newport, on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", is a classic… and so [by contrast] is Hawk’s original short version of "Body and Soul", where he never plays the melody; that version was a big hit!  I would prefer that the audience would say… ‘hey, so and so played great; I wish that he/she had played another chorus.  As the wise masters would say, keep them wanting more!!!"

 

Music industry professional: "I agree with you wholeheartedly, and this is something Wynton has been saying too, that artists must find a balance between their art and the audience they want to connect with.  But do painters, sculptors, textile artists worry about the same?  Did Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock or Basquiat worry whether their art would be approachable while creating it? 

 

Are musicians held to a higher standard than others?  If musicians limit their expression and worry about approachability, are they or their art being clipped of creativity?  How can artists come to this balance?  Perhaps one way is to tailor their presentations to their audience; but that is problematic too!  Wasn’t Kenny Garrett performing in a jazz club?  And wasn’t Sonny Fortune performing at a jazz festival?  If artists have to clip their expression at jazz venues, just exactly where are they to practice and promote their art?

 

So one thought may be, "to hell with audiences, musicians are just introspective; they are playing for themselves"!  But why not?  With such little revenue trickling down to the artist and so few venues presenting unadulterated straight-ahead music, the artists are probably used to playing for themselves and a select few friends and fans more often than not.  Or perhaps musicians are used to performing in Europe, where audiences seem to have a wider acceptance and are more open-minded about improvised expression.  And come to think of it, what responsibility do audiences have in all this?  Do they just come to concerts, expecting to be fed only what’s enjoyable or should art be challenging?

 

Asking artists to abbreviate their expression simply for audience enjoyment goes squarely against the grain of what I feel is the right of expression.  But others have done it, and they have left the planet a little better place with tasty improvised gems scattered throughout their repertoire, like Armstrong, Monk and even Trane.  I suppose that like everything else in life, achieving a balance is paramount to success.  It woul serve both audiences and artists alike to endeavor to do so."

 

Television producer-camerman: "I also think some artists over-play their selections.  I’m not talking about the plastic jazz genre, they have nothing to play at best and go through the pseudo crowd-pleasing gymnastics without saying a damn thing, just boring you to death… all those wish-I-could-really-play-the-sax dudes and dudettes.  What is sad is when the audiences really think they are doing something!"

 

Jazz critic: "I heard [Sonny] Fortune and [Rashied] Ali do the same thing in Burlington last year and I walked out after 75 minutes.  Most of the audience loved it ("It was just like sex," said one mesmerized fan) but I was just happy that, not having to review the performance, I could leave, although I had had enough about 20 minutes earlier.  There was also little sense of interaction between the two, which actually reminded me of a Kenny Garrett/Tain experience I had [once] ("like two fighters working the heavy bags next to each other" I wrote).  And yet in my first nightclub experience I heard Coltrane play what I recall as a 45-minute solo on "My Favorite Things" that was interrupted twice (plus once more at the end) by standing ovations that I was right in the middle of.  There have never been many musicians who could pull such marathons off.  As you say, Garrett and Fortune are great saxophonists, but to my ears they take the easy way out when they opt for the long blowout rather than exploring a wider range of moods and structures."

 

Everybody ain’t Coltrane!  What’s your take?  Coments welcome below…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in The Tip | 8 Comments

New Orleans Diary VI: The Next 50 Years

Posted on March 13, 2008 by The Independent Ear

All For One: Harold Battiste

 

Dillard University has embarked upon an ambitious initiative to develop the Institute of Jazz Culture on one of New Orleans’ three HBCU campuses.  Under the direction of trumpeter-educator Edward Anderson one of the first projects of the Institute of Jazz Culture (IJC) is to conduct oral histories of some of New Orleans’ most important contemporary jazz musicians, including several who are Dillard alums.  Recently I had the privilege of conducting an oral history interview with the sage saxophonist-composer-arranger-educator Harold Battiste at his home adjacent to Bayou St. John in the Mid-City area.

 

Though physically slowed by some of the inevitable infirmities of age, at 77 Harold Battiste is blessed with exceptional recall of his rich and varied career in music.  A white-bearded, gentle spirit, the coffee-complected gentleman is one of the scions of New Orleans’ modern jazz — or if you’d prefer as he might — late 20th century NOLA jazz development.

 

Born and raised in New Orleans and a product of Booker T. Washington High School, Harold Battiste earned his Bachelor’s in music at Dillard in 1953.  In ’57 after connecting with producer Bumps Blackwell, Battiste experienced his first pop success as the arranger of Sam Cooke’s classic hit "You Send Me."  What followed was a raft of other work as producer and arranger for recordings and television.  These included Barbara George’s gold record "I Know", Lee Dorsey’s "Ya Ya" and a long stint as music director for Sonny and Cher, notably their hit records like "I Got You Babe" and their television show. 

 

Harold Battiste is also responsible for unleashing on the music world a quirky New Orleans music character born Mac Rebennack who under Battiste’s production morphed into Dr. John.  Rebennack is someone who literally learned much of the business under Battiste’s tutelage.  During our interview Harold chuckled as he recounted how Rebennack adopted the Dr. John moniker somewhat by default; a personna based on NOLA’s voodoo folklore, and how Mac’s intial records like "Gris Gris" and "Babylon" (both under the direction of Harold Battiste on the Atlantic label) were more spoof than anything thoroughly serious; a murky mix of folkloric expression leavened with bayou funk and edgy jazz inflections that recall Sun Ra.  But somehow that spoof caught on and Dr. John was born and transformed into one of the quintessential New Orleans-identified music personalities.

 

Despite all his successful pop hits, major tours, and television activity  — all achieved during an extended stint in Los Angeles —  Harold Battiste has always been at heart a jazz modernist, a saxophone playing disciple of Charlie Parker to the core.  Perhaps most significantly from his jazz perspective he was a contemporary of a coterie of fellow New Orleans modernists that included the clarinetist Alvin Batiste, drummers James Black and Edward Blackwell, pianist Ellis Marsalis, and saxophonists Nat Perilliat and Alvin "Red" Tyler.  These artists and others were all featured on Harold’s All For One, or AFO, Records label.  Formed in 1961 AFO was significantly the first African American musician-owned label.

 

After so much success in Los Angeles in the studios, Harold Battiste succumbed to the siren song of his hometown New Orleans and returned home in 1989, assuming a teaching position on the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of New Orleans under the direction of Ellis Marsalis.  In 1991, with the assistance of poet and fellow sage Kalamu ya Salaam (www.kalamu.com, where you can check out his dialogues and downloads on black music at Breath of Life) Harold re-birthed AFO. 

 

If you can locate it, perhaps the quintessential key to experiencing the early efforts of the very vital but quite overlooked work of Harold Battiste and his intrepid crew of New Orleans jazz modernists is the four-Lp boxed set New Orleans Heritage: Jazz 1956-1966.  These records detail a vibrant kind of New Orleans jazz underground.  Traditional New Orleans jazz has become one of the city’s trademarks, but little is known of these modernistic developments.  Its almost as if the modern approach to jazz expression was born with the NOCCA generation, including the Marsalis sons, Blanchard, Connick, Harrison, et. al.  The musicians represented by the earliest days of AFO were indeed the mentors of that very prominent generation.  One only hopes Harold is able to reissue this superb package on compact disc or perhaps make it available in some downloadable form.  It can certainly unlock what to many is the unknown story of modern jazz development in the Crescent City.

 

Harold Battiste has established AFO as a foundation, in the main under the credo he lays down on his web site (www.afofoundation.org) "One of the focal points of my life’s work has been the documentation and preservation of New Orleans Music of the Post WWll era."  In that light he has produced and released a series of recordings, some of which are issues of previously unreleased sessions from the late 50s and early 60s that chronicle the vitality of these New Orleans modernists.  You can access these recordings at www.afofoundation.org, which is also where you can catch up on Harold Battiste’s efforts on behalf of what he refers to jointly as "The Second 50 Years" of New Orleans jazz, gazing into the future or what he dubs "The Next Generation"; a generation typified by such promising young artists as pianist and AFO recording artist Jesse McBride, who holds forth weekly at NOLA’s bastion of modern jazz Snug Harbor under the Next Generation banner. 

 

We’ll try to make that Harold Battiste oral history available to Independent Ear Blog readers as a transcript becomes available.  Next up for Dillard’s Institute of Jazz Culture are anticipated oral history sessions with clarinetist Dr. Michael White and Ellis Marsalis.

 

 

 

 

Posted in General Discussion | Leave a comment

New Orleans Diary V

Posted on March 8, 2008 by The Independent Ear

Recent articles and reports in the daily New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper have detailed ongoing home demolition efforts in various still-devastated parts of the city.  Yes, now 29 months after the calamity of Hurricane Katrina, the subsequent collapse of the federal levees and resulting floodwaters, there are still hundreds if not thousands of devastated and dilapidated homes, unoccupied and abandoned yet still standing as ghostly reminders that New Orleans is far from whole. 

 

Other newspaper articles detailed the coming legions of good folks, many on Spring Break from school, who are on their way to New Orleans to further stoke the ongoing volunteer recovery efforts, including home building.  Yes… 29 months later this place remains in recovery at a snails pace.

 

Driving through various neighborhoods, notably the Ninth Ward, Lower Ninth Ward, Gentilly, and Ponchartrain Park areas, one is struck by their ghost town quality.  As Suzan Jenkins and many others have remarked, you can drive down those streets and sure you see homeowners who have persevered and determined to remake their abodes, but one cannot get beyond the fact that basic services are minimal (schools, hospitals, grocery stores, etc.) and the ongoing blight of abandoned structures tilting on their sides in various states of complete disrepair represent ongoing health and safety hazards even to those laudable post-Katrina pioneers.  So what must the quality of life be like on what one writer described as those "gap-toothed" streets?

 

Two young friends recently visited the city on holiday for the NBA All-Star game festivities.  That was a splendid weekend in the city, full of parties and various hilarity, and the presence of a galaxy of "stars".  The spotlight shone brightly on New Orleans during NBA All-Star weekend and the city came through like the champion host it has always been.  Numerous visitors, pretty much confined to the Central Business District (CBD) and the adjacent French Quarter, couldn’t help but leave satiated, impressed, and feeling the city was back together, made whole… it’s all good!  The total picture of New Orleans is quite a bit less than whole, as our friends were fortunate enough to experience.  We afforded them opportunities to contrast the real deal with the gloss of NBA All-Star game weekend festivities. 

 

In consideration of the fact that New Orleans is gearing up for the seven glorious days of it’s second biggest annual tourism period, the peerless event known as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (last weekend of April/first weekend of May), I asked one young lady, Adrienne Winston a budding ABC television producer, to reflect on her experiences that weekend and those glaring contrasts; thus offering a kind of preview for the thousands of impending Jazz Fest visitors.

 

Willard Jenkins: Had you ever previously visited New Orleans, and what were your past impressions of the city?

 

Adrienne Winston: I had never been to New Orleans but of course had heard wonderful things from people who had visited and friends who went to school there (pre-Katrina).

 

WJ: What was your sense of the city on foot; in the vicinity of your hotel in the CBD, the French Quarter, your NBA All-Star Game experience, etc.?

 

AW: Well obviously NBA All-Star weekend is a slightly skewed sample so it was incredibly crowded everywhere on Canal Street, especially in front of the Sheraton and Marriott on Canal, which were just two blocks from our hotel.  We stayed in a great location which was just feet from the French Quarter which we did some touring of, on our way to and from different restaurants.  Walking around even on the first day I understood why people loved the city so much, it is incredibly charming.  Even if you never go into the stores just walking by them and taking in the presentation and the architecture you can feel the history all around you.

 

I had heard before on the news that the French Quarter sat higher up than other parts of the city and so it hadn’t sustained much [flood] damage which I was really able to appreciate.

 

WJ: On Saturday of that weekend you got a chance to get out and see more of the city, in particular St. Charles Avenue on a taxi ride to Loyola University, and areas which weren’t as hard hit by Katrina as others.  What were your impressions?

 

AW: Our ride to Loyola and later with Suzan throughout the Garden District was breathtaking, it makes me want to buy property down there.  The homes are beautiful and they are all so different, you can see all of the cultural influences the city has absorbed over the centuries.

 

WJ: On Sunday you were given a small slice of what I refer to as the New Orleans misery tour.  What was your impression of the areas in disrepair and recovery that you visited?

 

AW: What struck me first was that literally just a few blocks from where we had been partying there was a very literal tent city below the highway.  [At the corner of Canal Street and Claiborne Avenue, under the I-10 overpass is an ongoing encampment of the homeless, many of who were made homeless by the Storm.]  Dozens of people living in tents, homeless.  It doesn’t take a genius to know these people are victims of Katrina, which is evident by their mounds of belongings surrounding their tents.  As we continued on, the difference between the attitudes of the city became more plain.  Damaged structures were becoming more numerous.

 

We crossed a bridge and were able to get our first glimpse of a neighborhood and it’s shocking proximity to the levees that failed.  Dozens and dozens of homes were simply left abandoned and there were piles of debris everywhere.  The trip over the second bridge however was by far the worst, presumably because the land sat ever lower.  There are no words for what I saw, we all started crying.  As you came over the [St. Claude] Bridge, even hundreds of feet away you could see the barren trees and homes with no roofs.  There were literally blocks and blocks of decimated houses.

 

Homes that sat directly in front of the levees had been swept off their foundations.  It seemed as though only brick homes had been able to withstand the force of the water.  We did see some homes that had been rebuilt but that was one in every few dozen; there was no neighborhood left.  You couldn’t even call it a neighborhood because the area was so big; it was [more like] a city.  A city that had been allowed to wash away and was left to fend for itself.  We actually passed a home that looked like it had been stepped on; honestly the house had been squished like an accordion.  I presume that it had been picked up by the flood water and dropped.

 

You can’t help but feel a hopelessness. [as though] the town has been completely abandoned, and it doesn’t look as though the government has any intention of putting it back together.  Among the blocks we drove you never saw any construction equipment, no sign that something was being done.

 

WJ: Give me your overall impression of New Orleans, considering both sides that you experienced.

 

AW: Overall the trip was a positive one.  We got to experience the spirit of New Orleans and enjoy her excellent food.  Even though the trip to the lower wards was very painful it had a positive impact on me.  It made me angry in the best way and I feel as though if more people were able to get one-on-one time with the destruction they would be just as outraged as the people who live there.

 

Yes indeed, the Yin & Yang of New Orleans!  Here’s one place music lovers in particular are encouraged to assist in the recovery of the very real human needs of New Orleanians:

Sweet Home New Orleans

1201 Saint Phillip Street

New Orleans, LA 70116-2931

504/596-3924 or toll free 877/933-8466

www.sweethomeneworleans.org

Posted in General Discussion | 1 Comment