In New Orleans, It
Bubbles Up From the Streets
Authenticity and Identity
in the Post-Katrina Music
Scene
Gretchen Caverly
Research Questions
 What are characteristics or trends in
authentic New Orleans music?
 What are some effects of Hurricane
Katrina on the New Orleans music
scene?
Informants
 12 formal interviews
 Men and women
 More white than
black informants
 Either professional
musicians or
professionally
involved with the
music scene
Fieldwork
 Musical performances in different areas
of the city (uptown and downtown)
 Mostly in clubs or music venues, some
street music
 December 2007/January 2008
Authenticity (Thornton 1996)
 Artistic Authenticity
 Culture as art
 Specific traits, such
as technical, stylistic
details
 Subcultural
Authenticity
 “Natural to the
community”
 A holistic way of life
“When you listen to the music you can look at two things,
percussion and melody. Or harmony rather. Percussion
is syncopated, and they have a particular pulse, the Hey
Pocky Way groove or whatever you want to call it. …then
harmonically you have this thing that is true of blues
music all over the south, where they mess with the minor
third and the major third, make them very ambiguous… if
you make it ambiguous you make it a certain kind of
feeling that no one can really explain and that’s what
sums up the blues. And then you can get to flatted fifths
and minor sevenths and other stuff too but essentially
New Orleans has all that stuff but it also has a very
strong tradition of very complex, sophisticated harmonic
arrangement. A lot of the Creole musicians play classics
and had to in order to get work. So it’s a world removed
from the blues you’d hear in Mississippi or Texas. Old
New Orleans music was very very sophisticated and the
players were very good. Also it’s predominately a horn
town, so most of the songs are in the flat keys, unlike
Mississippi or Texas or Chicago, which were dominated
by guitars.”
Artistic Authenticity
 syncopated, pulsing
percussion
 ambiguous minormajor third
 complex harmonic
arrangement
 heavy brass
influence
Subcultural Authenticity
Physical Spaces
and Events
Interactive
Performances
Participation
“They [Astral Project] played at Rock n’ Bowl. Which is very dancing and
zydeco, R&B type place. And people got right up front, like they normally
do, whoever’s playing, George Porter, Snooks [Eaglin], whoever it is,
and they started swaying to the music and before long Astral Project,
who are all world class musicians and can play any style, their music
was changing in reaction to the fact that people were participating. So
the more their music changed, the more people began to participate,
and by the end of the set, the dance floor was as crowded as if it was
the Neville Brothers, and everyone was rocking out saying, little did they
know, without really realizing they were listening to a band that usually
plays in a sit down setting, nobody talking, nobody smoking, and the
people nursing their beers! So you know countless examples of that.”
“…the Stooges Brass Band, young
guys, I’ve been watching them
since probably, shit probably, bet
you nobody in the band’s over
twenty five. And I’ve been
watching them play since they
were, you know, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old. And they were
in Atlanta, and I saw them
yesterday, the guy the leader of
the band, and I asked him, he
said, ‘Oh man, Atlanta didn’t know
what to do with us!’ They still
don’t! They still don’t, you know?’
So when I saw them they actually
came and played in Chicago when
I was there and it was the
strangest thing, you know,
because here you have this
amazing New Orleans brass band,
that just generates such energy
when they play for New
Orleanians that people just dance,
and everyone was just standing
watchin’ em. And you could sense
that they were like, come on
people, somebody please shake a
tail feather!”
Hurricane Katrina:
Celebration and
Escape
- The Immediate
- The Lingering
The Immediate
“Symbols are, in the first place, highly pertinent to a people’s reaction
to disaster. Symbols influence shared behavior. Equally important,
symbols can be utilized and manipulated by different factors
involved in a disaster, and thus become political. Disaster spoils
pattern, and matters in the state of disruption become less
restricted. The potential for change becomes greater, to the point
that disorder itself can become part of the pattern. …as for
individuals facing or experiencing catastrophe, they engage the
symbols evoking their predicament in an almost visceral manner.
…the symbolic process provides a continual feedback system in
which the symbol must be integrated with experience if a deeper
understanding is to be the end result.”
Anthony Oliver-Smith, 2004
“After Katrina it was
amazing. I mean this
place [the Maple Leaf]
was ground zero… They
fired up generators, they
didn’t have ice, they
didn’t have anything!
They powered the band
with the generator, you
know, and they had to
play, I think the music
started at like four in the
afternoon because the
curfew was like eight
o’clock! And it was the
same thing, it was like
people going wild, like it
was four in the morning
and they were all on acid
during Mardi Gras. But it
wasn’t. It was just people
with that energy.” Jay
“I got back as soon as I could. I think
it was about eight to ten weeks
after the storm… we did do a gig
fairly soon, yeah…. I think within a
day or two of getting back we
were at the Maple Leaf [Bar]
playing. And everyone was still
shell-shocked, and really no one
knew what the long-term
implications were, and was just
worn out and weary and tired and
beaten up, so it felt pretty good
actually to get up and play some
funk, and everyone in the
audience was ready for it, it was
good actually. … It was one of
those situations where the music
is just very medicinal, you could
just tell it was making everybody
feel better to have some music. It
was sort of a collective sigh of
relief, chugging of beers.”
John C.
“People go to see us play for two reasons: to celebrate life
and to escape life. After Katrina, there was a lot more
escape—a lot of folks who were gutting houses, dealing
with Hurricane Katrina life, and they came out to the music
and thanked us. I realized about three to five months
afterwards that the music was an important escape, a
means of letting go before returning to their normal lives.
The bars were meeting grounds where people went to
figure out what was going on. The music was key in
holding the city together at that time.”
John G.
The
Lingering
- Loss of Youth Music Culture
- Creeping Homogenization
- Expanding the realm of the Jazz Band
“Katrina will affect the
future because kids who
learn to play the trumpet
in elementary school
and around the corner
and in the communities
they live in are scattered
now. The Treme, which
is where the jazz bands
are from, is scattered.
The school music
programs where kids
started playing their
music aren’t there now.
Five, ten, fifteen years in
the future will see a big
shift in the base of the
musical community.”
John G.
“Unfortunately their lofty ideas are part of
mainstream America, you know? And
someone needs to take them by the hand
and say, this is how we behave here.”
Jay
Other Research Questions
 Do characteristics of the New Orleans music
scene correspond with characteristics that are
traditionally correlated with third world
countries?
 How do the ways that these characteristics are
perceived affect the relationship between New
Orleans and the rest of the United States?
 What are the implications of these perceptions
for New Orleanian musicians, both at home
and on tour?
Special Thanks To:
 The Sociology/Anthropology department, especially Dr.
Ben Feinberg and Dr. Lara Vance, for their support and
forbearance this year
 Candace Anthony, for midnight brainstorming sessions
and much more
 Jenny Bagert, without whom this project would have
been completely impossible
 Jonno Frischberg, for opening the door
 Family and Friends, who have provided boundless
support, inspiration, and love throughout this process
Questions?
Works Cited
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