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Daniel Stocker
Professor Schmidt
HI221/PO394
11/5/15
Music and the Arts after Hurricane Katrina
For my final project, I plan on looking at how music played an important role in rebuilding
and moving on after Hurricane Katrina and conversely, how Hurricane Katrina affected musicians
living in New Orleans. While we have discussed concrete memorials for most of this semester,
another type of memorial and way of moving on is through music. New Orleans is a cultural hub
for music and many people used this music as a way to show solidarity and work toward rebuilding
and remembering. I will prove this point by creating a website that highlights memorable works
of art and performances and compositions that helped victims not only in the immediate aftermath
but also in the following years after this natural disaster. This website will include two main
pagesone for visual art and one for musicthat describe the impact and contribution that these
arts had in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
I will include a page that describes the background of jazz music in New Orleans prior to
Hurricane Katrina. One musician in particular, Wynton Marsalis, grew up in a musical family from
New Orleans learned trumpet there, and later helped establish the Jazz at Lincoln Center program
in 1987. In New Orleans, he played in jazz and funk bands, as well as the New Orleans Symphony.
It would be interesting to include small biographies of prominent New Orleans musicians prior to
Hurricane Katrina and after a page about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, include how these
musicians gave back to the community.

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I am also interested in discussing some performances put on immediately after Katrina in
the New Orleans area. I have learned that the Hot 8 Brass Band reunited to perform for evacuees
in Baton Rouge. This is an important moment in the musical history of New Orleans and Hurricane
Katrina because it shows the power of music in rebuilding. In the words of the tuba player of the
Hot 8 Brass Band,
when they saw it was us, a lot of them people we knew. It was family members some family members, a lot of friends, a lot of fans of the band, so once we've seen
their faces, you know, it was all - it was like everybody had forgotten about the
storm and everything they went through just for that moment (Hot Brass Band).
I think stories such as this one have the power to show exactly what reaction music got out of the
community who was just hit with a devastating hurricane. I would also include a video of the Hot
8 Brass Band at a performance from 2012 in New Orleans. Although this video is from seven
years after Hurricane Katrina, it is a good representation of the music that this band makes and
how it brings a community together.
One interview that I find interesting and will find a way to incorporate into my website is
one with Donald Harrison, Jr. Harrison is a jazz saxophonist from New Orleans, and he discussed
the effects that Katrina had on the musicians themselves. He mentions the real tragedy at this
point is musicians are not here to even play anymore, and thats a problem. In New Orleans all
the people including musicians are just trying to get a place to stay, and musicians are all in the
same

situation

as

the

rest

of

New

Orleans

residents

(http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.bu.edu/stable/pdf/4488452.pdf). Harrison and his comments will

help me prove the conversely section of my thesis, that Hurricane Katrina had a strong effect on
musicians as well.

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This past August was the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and I would like to
discuss the long-term effects of music on the reconstruction of New Orleans. It was also the 10year anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina Benefit Concert. This relief concert featured many
prominent musicians of the time and headlined by four musicians from Louisiana: Harry Connick
Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Tim McGraw, and Aaron Neville. Another example of the power of music,
the benefit concert raised $50 million in donations to the Red Cross, with an autographed guitar
also auctioned at an additional $30,900. With this event, the American Red Cross raised money
to help its organized relief efforts in the areas affected by the Hurricane. Wynton Marsalis
The power of music can also be seen in how many groups helped get children off the streets.
Irma Thomas describes, Music kept the kids out of trouble Music teaches them discipline
(How Music Helped Save). Although not immediate in helping rebuild New Orleans, music
education helped lessen the risk of crime among teenagers and children. As the Hot 8 Brass Band
explains, We knew that the music culture is here its just a matter of tapping into your
creativity (Flipping the Script Together). Their mission is to get kids off the streets and make
them interested in something that will help them and bring them into a musical family. In their
own words, [well] take their hand from the trigger and put it on a trumpet (Flipping the Script
Together). If I include this documentary in my website, the viewer will have a better understanding
of the role that music plays in the everyday lives of New Orleans residents. The viewer will also
better understand that there is not much else for kids to turn to when they are living on the streets
except for drugs, crime, and violence. Music acts as an escape from the lives that one would
otherwise lead.
Tipitinas Foundation is another example of the initiative to provide music education and
opportunities to young people impacted by the storm. Tipitinas Foundation has four main

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objectives: to provide musical instruments to children, to provide workshops to teach children how
to play, to provide after-school internship programs, and to provide co-ops for those wishing to
enter the musical workforce. On my website, I could dedicate a section to this foundation and
others like it, and include video testimonies about their work and how they use music to recover
and remember the natural disaster.
Music also plays a big role in remembering the hurricane. There are numerous songs written
about the devastation that New Orleans experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It
would be interesting to do a lyrical analysis of some of the songs, for example Shelter in the Rain
by Stevie Wonder. This song can be interpreted as the voice of God or a higher power talking
to those who suffered in the aftermath of the storm. Throughout the song, he tells the victims to
put their trust in him and he will help them through this difficult time. Another musical example
is All These People by Harry Connick Jr. Each verse tells a story about a different man that he
had a different experience with while walking through post-hurricane New Orleans. Songs such
as these two are a great way to memorialize and tell the listener about what the singer saw and how
it impacted them. Similar to how artists in the Unforgettable Fire collection were able to draw and
share exactly what they saw in the aftermath of the atomic bombings, artists such as Connick Jr.
are able to write songs and eternalize New Orleans experience with Hurricane Katrina.

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Preliminary Sources:
1. Crovesi, Flavia. "Rebirth Melodies: Music's Instrumental Hold in the Rebuilding Efforts
of New Orleans after Katrina." Rebirth Melodies: Music's Instrumental Hold in the
Rebuilding Efforts of New Orleans after Katrina. PIT Journal, Summer 2011. Web. 04
Nov.

2015.

http://pitjournal.unc.edu/article/rebirth-melodies-music%E2%80%99s-

instrumental-hold-rebuilding-efforts-new-orleans-after-katrina
2. Harrison, Donald, Jr., and Charles Henry Rowell. "Donald Harrison, Jr. with Charles
Henry Rowell." Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488452>.
3. "Hot 8 Brass Band - New Orleans." YouTube. N.p., 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wrsa4V-0Ng
4. "Hot 8 Brass Band: Flipping the Script Together." YouTube. 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 4 Nov.
2015.
5. "Hot 8 Brass Band Play for A Living New Orleans." NPR. NPR, 7 Dec. 2007. Web. 04
Nov. 2015. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16999013
6. How Music Helped Save New Orleans after Katrina. Common Dreams, 9 Aug. 2010.
Web. 04 Nov. 2015. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2010/08/09/how-musichelped-save-new-orleans-after-katrina
7. New Orleans: Capital of Jazz. Creating Jazz Counterpoint: New Orleans, Barbershop
Harmony, and the Blues. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 109125. Web.
8. The Blues and New Orleans Jazz Creating Jazz Counterpoint: New Orleans, Barbershop
Harmony, and the Blues. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 126130. Web.
9. Tipitinas Foundation. Web. 04 Nov. 2015. http://tipitinasfoundation.org/

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