By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
Since Katrina, New Orleans’ musicians have been singing the blues, saying there aren’t enough gigs in the Big Easy.
On Aug. 26, the city’s musicians tried to illustrate what life would be like without them. Carrying their instruments, but not playing them, they walked in silence from Armstrong Park to Jackson Square in a “Solidarity March.”
But apparently, New Orleans never was a gold mine for musicians, at least according to a member of one of the city’s most famous bands.
“People thought there was a music scene in New Orleans – there wasn’t,” Cyril Neville, percussionist for The Neville Brothers, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “You worked two times a year: Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The only musicians I knew who made a living playing music in New Orleans were Kermit Ruffins and Pete Fountain. Everyone else had a day job or had to go on tour.”
Neville, who went to Austin, Texas, after Katrina, said he had more work there in two months than he did in two years in New Orleans.
That’s not a positive statement for New Orleans, whose leaders frequently proclaim the Crescent City’s music as one of its biggest assets, in addition to its food, of course.
New Orleans musicians are not alone in griping about lack of work. Musicians in Austin, Texas, another city with a big art and music scene, share the feeling.
“Nobody comes to see live music in Austin,” said singer and songwriter John Pointer. “I’ve got nine Austin music awards and have appeared in five national television commercials and I can’t draw a crowd in Austin.”
Bascially, times are tough all over for musicians. But it seems to be worse for those in New Orleans since Katrina.
New Orleans musicians aren’t willing to accept defeat, though. They are marching and calling attention to their need for more work. They recommend that they be booked to play for tourists getting off planes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. They want to play at more press conferences or when politicians and other leaders visit the city.
New Orleans is known around the world for its music.
But New Orleans musicians say it might not always be that way if nobody is willing to pay them to play.
1 response so far ↓
Valerie Henry // Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 10:44 am |
When the carpetbaggers come along–even before Katrina–and open new venues, they are more than happy to pay good musicians decent wages because they bring people in. Then, as soon as they start making money, they want to cut the number of musicians, cut the number of nights, hire thrown together, pickup bands that will work for less and just cover the same 10 “Mustang Sally”-type songs, and eventually they get so greedy, the just get a DJ. Liquor licenses should be tied to support for LOCAL music.