New Orleans. The birthplace of jazz. But like all children must grow to leave the nest, so too has jazz all but left its mother city.

It did not, however, choose to leave. On the contrary, the jazz musicians who continue to call New Orleans home have sacrificed being in the heart of the jazz world to live in the city they love. No, jazz was disowned by its mother city's apathy.

Although it relies largely on its image as a jazz town to draw tourists, New Orleans in many ways fails to l...