Make a financial gift; Donate an instrument; Get involved; Arrange a Gig; or Attend the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival!

As the initial shock of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding on New Orleans gives way to stiff-upper-lip resolve, the country faces long years of recovery and rebuilding.  There will be many campaigns and causes along the road to a reconstructed Gulf Coast .  For our part, we at Afropop Worldwide want to put our focus on the living, breathing musicians of the region, because they, more than any building or street, carry the incredible cultural traditions that have meant so much to this country.  We want to see these musicians  back in New Orleans , or their homes in the bayou and elsewhere, creating music for future generations. 

Sadly, that prospect is a long way off.  For the moment, merely sustaining these treasured souls is a tall order.  Even great musicians often live close to the line, and a catastrophe of such proportions has wiped out many defenses and safety nets.  We offer here information about ways that you can help Gulf Coast musicians.  The organizations listed here come to us from trusted sources.  We encourage you to do your own investigating, but we are confident that these institutions are legitimate and worth supporting.  Please give generously.  If you want to get involved in more creative ways, the telephone numbers and email addresses you need to get started are here.  Go for it!

New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC)

New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC) is a hands-on organization that has collected the names and addresses of many great musicians over the years, because musicians have often visited their FREE health clinic.  NOMC are currently busy tracking down local musicians and finding them shelter. 

“The New Orleans Musicians Clinic is determined to keep Louisiana Music Alive!  It is our beacon to soothe our souls. We want to relocate our New Orleans musicians into the Lafayette/ Acadiana community where they can remain a life force! But most of them have lost everything... we must help them rebuild their lives.  They can't access any of their NOMC accounts. They desperately need money to fund these efforts.”

Learn more by visiting musiciank@swlahec.com.  Or call directly to Kathy Richard at 337 989-0001.

Funds are distributed by the Soutwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center Foundation.  So send donations to:

NOMC Emergency Fund
SW LA Area Health Education Center Foundation, Inc.

desk: 337-989-0001
fax: 337-989-1401

email: finance@swlahec.com
http://www.swlahec.com

Jazz Foundation of

The Jazz Foundation of America is concentrating on providing money to jazz and blues musicians for first month rents and security deposits on new apartments and relocations.  They are also working on replacing instruments, many of which were lost or destroyed in the floodwaters.  The organization is alsoaddressing longer term needs, as many of these musicians have just lost everything.

“Remember, New Orleans was only "New Orleans" because of the musicians...We will be raising funds and distributing money for the musicians to get a new apartment or room for rent: by giving a first month's rent, possibly more, for them to start over, a place to live.  This is what we normally do on a daily basis for musicians across the country who become sick and can't pay their rent.  We also keep food on the table and get employment to hundreds of elderly musicians through our Jazz in the Schools program.  Our operations normally assist 35 musicians a week.

“As well, we will be attempting to help New Orleans musicians by replacing the thing that matters most and the only way they can ever work again: their instruments. To those who lost their instruments, like drummers and bassists who could not carry their heavy equipment, and guitarist with their amps, we will be making an effort to work with manufacturers and music stores to replace those instruments for as many as we possibly can.”

Send donations to:

Jazz Foundation of

Director: Wendy Oxenhorn
Phone: 212-245-3999 Ext. 21
Joyce@jazzfoundation.org
http://www.jazzfoundation.org

To make an online CREDIT CARD DONATION OR PLEDGE, go to: http://www.jazzfoundation.org/index2.html and click bottom right corner of page where it says "instant pledge.”

The Leela Foundation

“The Leela Foundation is a non-profit organization in Boulder Colorado .  Through a network of people who are intimately involved with the New Orleans music community we are compiling a list of musicians in need. The money will be distributed directly to the musicians on a case by case basis with no overheads or operating cost taken out or extensive paperwork for the musicians to apply. This is a labor of love and compassion.  All donations are tax-deductible.

Here are the ways you can help:

• Make a donation  Send checks to:
  Leela Foundation/New Orleans
  6395 Gunpark Drive Suite A
  Boulder CO 80301
  Please be sure and include your return address for the tax-deductible receipt

   

• Let us know about a musician in need of help

   

• Donate equipment

   

• Set up gigs for displaced artists
  
  There will soon be a web site set up with a posting board of needs and locations at www.spiritland.com (the home of New Orleans based Coco Robicheaux).
  
  
  

Gigs for New Orleans Musicians

Logan Kleinwaks has just opened a free website to connect venues across the country with New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina, www.NOLAgigs.org.  The site is essentially a searchable database of gigs being offered to the musicians by the venues.  If you know venues that might be interested in hiring a musician displaced by Hurricane Katrina, please encourage them to log on and add to the database.  The more gigs there are in the database, the more useful it can be to the musicians (and aid organizations helping them).

“NOLAgigs.org is completely free to use, does not have commercial advertising, and I do not benefit financially from it.  It is simply my way of trying to help the musicians and music culture of New Orleans .  Thanks very much and best regards.”

Logan Kleinwaks
logan@NOLAgigs.org

The 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will go on.

"There will be a Jazzfest. We are committed to putting on the 2006 Jazz and Heritage Festival, whatever that may take," said Quint Davis, producer/director of the springtime musical extravaganza and president of Festival Productions Inc.-New Orleans, which produces the festival with AEG Live, the nation's second highest-grossing concert promoter.

Details are sketchy at this point.  "We don't know when, we don't know where, we don't know what format," Davis said. "There will be a Jazzfest in 2006. It will be in Louisiana . It will be as close to New Orleans as we can get it."  The producers would like to hold the event at its customary site at the Fair Grounds Race Course, but if that's not possible they are committed to holding it in Louisiana . "We'll be starting from the Fair Grounds and working our way out" in determining a location, Davis said, stressing that this commitment comes from all of the major stakeholders in the festival.

….Kind of gives you hope, doesn’t it?