MUSICIANS VILLAGE
As a musician with excellent credit, I felt compelled to write after reading “Backtalk” in the March issue. My wife and I returned to the city in November 2005. I had no work. We had to take early social security to survive. I was encouraged to apply to the Musicians’ Village. We visited the site, spoke to Jim Pate and asked him if social security would be considered income. He told us it would be as long as it was $1,600 per month. We filled out an application and passed Phase One. Moved to Phase Two, attended a meeting and submitted all required documents. We received a letter three days later saying that we were ineligible for the program.
Our assets made us overqualified. One of the criteria was the ability to pay; there was no mention of a financial limit. Our assets included our IRAs and savings, which we used to supplement our living expenses (rent, medical expenses, etc.). We have no other pension or retirement plan. So we are penalized.
—John “Kid” Simmons, New Orleans, LA
I am a homeowner in the Musician’s Village. I cannot understand why OffBeat, in it’s two articles written about the Village has such an axe to grind with one of the few spots in New Orleans where there is visible progress. Do I wish Habitat’s approval process was easier, of course. I have friends who at my urging applied and were turned down. I’m not happy about that. Do I care that not all the homeowners are musicians? No, I don’t. My next door neighbor was in the program long before the flood. Should she have been passed over?
There are so many issues regarding musician in this town that your magazine, a New Orleans music magazine, could be writing about. Why are there laws that allow police to hassle street musicians? I’m sure there’s a councilperson you two could tag team. Or how about letting the public know about organizations like Tipitina’s or Sweet Home New Orleans that are doing everything within their power to help improve the lives of struggling musicians of all ages. I volunteer at the Tip’s Co-Op office and am surprised that there are still many musicians who are not aware of what resources are available to them.
And nowhere in either of your hard-hitting investigative journalistic pieces did you mention the positive impact the Ellis Marsalis Center will have on this city. A state of the art community center focusing on music with performance space, classrooms and rehearsal facilities to be built in the Upper 9th Ward? Nah. No story there.
—Margie Perez, New Orleans, LA
I just read your [Jan Ramsey with Alex Rawls] recent Backtalk with Harry Connick, Jr. and Brandford Marsalis. It was quite eye-opening. After all these months of hearing about the upcoming Musicians Village, I was shocked to hear Harry say—and I quote “It’s a name, let’s be real.”
Hats off to OffBeat for “keeping them honest,” getting Habitat on the record and helping people see through the spin. I have no doubt that the head honchos at the Musicians Village will be paying careful attention to include more musicians as a direct result of OffBeat’s investigation.
—Jeremy Campbell, New Orleans, LA
Regarding “Backtalk with Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis,” March 2007, your inserts to this interview miss some important facts:
First, although your introduction is correct that OffBeat first reported credit problems among musician applicants for Habitat homes (“They Got it Bad,” August 2006), and that “[t]he murmur of discontent that story provoked was amplified when The Times-Picayune ran a similar story” (“Sour Notes,” January 2, 2007), you failed to point out: (a) that the Times-Picayune later issued a correction in which the paper admitted it should have disclosed that its reporter and her brass band musician companion were joint applicants for a Habitat home (“Corrections,” Feb. 10, 2007), and (b) that the same reporter wrote the OffBeat article several months earlier. Is OffBeat prepared to acknowledge the reporter’s conflict of interest that existed when she wrote “They Got it Bad”? Especially if you are referencing the original article in the Harry/Branford interview, I would expect that your readers would want to know about that.
Second, in the middle of the printed interview you insert a statement that suggests Habitat has been disingenuous because non-musician families have been allowed to purchase homes in the core site of the Musicians’ Village. You state that including ONLY musicians “was certainly the tone of the initial message”—presumably you mean at the time of the announcement in December 2005—“so much so that none of the stories written about the Musicians Village printed in New Orleans mentioned that the village would not be reserved strictly for musicians.”
This editorial statement is factually incorrect. Within weeks of the Musicians Village’s being announced, the Times-Picayune reported on Habitat’s plans to acquire the Upper Ninth Ward site (“Stage is Almost Set for Musicians Village”, Jan. 6, 2006, Metro, p. 1), as follows: “The musicians village will be inhabited by non-musicians as well, [Habitat Executive Director Jim] Pate said. The mix has not been determined.” Later, as ground was being broken and the 30-foot-deep pilings were going in, Gambit Weekly reported that “non-musicians are eligible to live in Musicians Village.” (“It Takes a Musicians Village,” April 25, 2006)
So at least two articles “printed in New Orleans” set the record straight from the start. There was no deception or trickery. OffBeat got it wrong and should admit it.
Finally, one of several odd things about the interview is that you attribute to Harry a quote about a discussion he had with his 21-year-old son. As far as I know, Harry has three daughters, and none of them are yet teenagers!
I can assure you that many good people (including musicians) are working hard to make sure that the Musicians Village has plenty of musician homeowners. As Harry and Branford said, give it a chance.
—Andy Lee, Board Member, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, New Orleans, LA
Andy Lee raises the question of Katy Reckdahl’s conflict of interest. OffBeat was aware that Reckdahl had co-applied for a Musicians’ Village house, but at the time she wrote the OffBeat story in April 2006, she was no longer a part of the Musicians’ Village application process with her partner. Aspersions about Ms. Reckdahl’s integrity do not change the problems that she reported in her stories. Lee quotes stories from January and April to refute our statement that “the tone of the initial message when the project was announced” was that Musicians’ Village would be musicians-only. Since the village was announced December 6, 2005, it’s unclear how articles published a month or more later show OffBeat to be factually inaccurate. Lee’s right in that Harry Connick, Jr. does not have a 21-year-old son; the quote should have been attributed to Branford Marsalis. OffBeat appreciates everyone who is helping to bring New Orleanians home, particularly New Orleans’ musicians. We’re glad the Musicians’ Village is taking the lead, and we look forward to it living up to its beautiful vision.—Ed.
THANK YOU
I would love to express my appreciation to Alex Rawls for the months of hard work he put into coordinating your celebration [Best of the Beat] of the great Fats Domino. It was an honor to perform for Mr. Domino with such a grand cast of Louisiana characters, all so eager to show their love for Fats and his music.
Thanks to the entire OffBeat staff for your dedication to creating new opportunities for musicians in New Orleans and for a memorable night.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I received a note in the mail from Fats Domino, thanking me and saying “you did a great job on my songs, and I really enjoyed it.”
—Derek Huston, New Orleans, LA
Thank you so much for the tribute you paid to me last Saturday night. I really enjoyed it and so did my family and friends. I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you did for me.
—Antoine “Fats” Domino, New Orleans, LA
TEXAS HONKY-TONK?
Great thanks, for the kind review of Do Your Thing..
I am eternally grateful for any and all press in my favorite rag from the best city on earth.
And while I never look gift horses in the teeth, I invite y’all to listen to “Honeybee” and see if you can hear what John Swenson describes as “Texas honky-tonk”. Just curious—is it me? Or is there a brand of Texas honky-tonk that I am unaware of. If so, I need to check it out (seriously, no irony or sarcasm intended).
I thought my song (thanks to Henry Butler’s magnificent performance) was more of a stylistic, tribute/love letter to the great Crescent City piano player tradition, starting with cats like Jelly Roll, Eubie, Tuts… on up through Fess, Booker, Mac and Henry himself, without whose expertise and participation, I could not and would not ever lay claim to such a grand notion.
This in NO WAY diminishes my gratitude or pride to be included in your pages.
Thank you for caring about the music and the city I love so true.
—Malcolm (Papa Mali) Welbourne, Austin, TX
LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP
I have lived in New Orleans for almost six months now and have alternately loved and hated this city. As I read February’s “Mojo Mouth,” I found my feelings for the city spelled out perfectly through your words (“Just like everyone else in New Orleans, we teeter-totter between loving the city so much that it hurts and wanting to get the hell out of here.”)
I moved here in September to volunteer with the St. Bernard Project, a rebuild organization in the Parish. I’m still doing that, as well as working at a restaurant on Bourbon Street. Before moving here, I used to visit on my spring breaks from St. Louis, and you’re right—something keeps pulling me back.
I’m moving home to Houston mid-March to spend some time with my family before shipping off with the Peace Corps, but I know that this won’t be the last I see of New Orleans. My boyfriend’s coming to visit over his spring break, and I truly hope he falls in love with it because I want to move here with him one day.
Thank you for words, thank you for OffBeat and thank you for helping me realize that my love-hate relationship with the city is standard.
—Linda Golden, New Orleans, LA
HALL OF FAME QUESTIONS
While I heartily endorse Jeff Hannusch’s call for the induction of Lee Dorsey into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, I’m compelled to point out several factual errors in his essay. (I’ve voted in the Hall of Fame “election” every year since 1988.)
Rosie & the Originals are not in the Hall of Fame and have never appeared on the ballot. Jeff mentions that Lee’s chart performance tops that of the Contours, but the Contours are not in the Hall of Fame and have never been nominated, either. One reason that Lee Allen has yet to be honored is that the Hall has not inducted anyone in the “Sideman” category since 2003—why, I do not know. (Sidemen were inducted each year between 2000 and 2003; these honorees were chosen by a special committee and not by the voters at large.)
1986 was not “the year the Hall of Fame opened” but the year of the first induction ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York (in January). The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio on September 1, 1995.
No New Orleans artists were inducted in the 2006 ceremony. However, the program book distributed at the event contained an essay written by Philadelphia DJ Jerry (the Geator) Blavat. In “New Orleans: It Will Stand,” Blavat recounts a visit to the Crescent City in 1958 at age 18. He saw Sam Butera play at Leon Prima’s 500 Club and attended a Fats Domino recording session at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio at the invitation of Clarence “Frogman” Henry. Blavat also mentions that in 1965, Tommy Ridgeley’s 1954 recording “Jam Up” became the theme song for his Philadelphia TV teen show, The Discophonic Scene.
—Andy Schwartz, New York, NY
A HEALING TOOL
Congrats on the new and shiny look of your magazine. C’est bon! Here in Lafayette, we love to see you all doing well and writing about the music that means so much to everybody. It’s a healing tool, indeed.
—Steve Landry, Lafayette, LA
CORRECTIONS
In March’s “Classic Songs of New Orleans,” we reported that Jessie Hill “rests” in an unmarked grave. He was buried in an unmarked grave, but James Andrews has since raised the money to have a headstone put on Hill’s grave in Holt Cemetery. We regret the error.—Ed.
