A lot of musicians suffering in New Orleans

The Chicago Tribune has a story on Maurice Brown, the jazz trumpeter based in New Orleans. He was lucky enough to flee the city on Sunday at 2am after a gig... "Brown quickly drove to his home in the Treme neighborhood, grabbed a trumpet, flugelhorn, laptop and "enough clothes for four or five days." He then took his retooled 1989 Cadillac Brougham to a parking garage in suburban Metairie, where he left it for safekeeping, and jumped into his friend's truck to proceed to higher ground in Memphis.
"Though Brown said he's grateful that he got out in time, he nevertheless grieves for what he has left behind.
'My whole recording studio, tons of music, a lot of original scores that I can't ever get back, maybe 50 or 60 tunes I spent years working on - all gone," said Brown.
"He estimates the losses, which are uninsured, at $50,000, and he believes that his car has been sunk as well."
If you're in the area, I'm sure all MT readers are thinking of you today. And if you want to do more than just think, donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund or visit FEMA's help information.
UPDATE: Music Thing's favourite New Orleans band Quintron and Miss Pussycat are OK: "Our equipment is all we have right now, but we are alive and ready to ROCK the highlanders..."

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

At least his talent was preserved. Equipment can be replaced and new songs can be written, but the most important thing is the years of practice and experience that he saved by fleeing. There are perhaps dozens of musicians that lost their lives in this and thousands more in other tragedies. Is it better for the musician to outlive his/her music, or the music to outlive him/her?

I happen to think that art is best when it's temporary. Nothing lasts forever, and so much effort is spent trying to preserve works from the past, that I sometimes wonder if that effort would be better spent creating new works.

Terrible situation. For some perspective, however, the 2004 tsunami killed 150,000 people.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:59 pm

_aa, very odd point, but true, it's best that he got outta there in time with whatever he could salvage.

I don't get the tsunami comparison. What's the point of that? That we should be less concerned about these folks?

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:41 pm

ortho, In the tsunami, entire cultures were completely destroyed. Villages with musicians, artists, story tellers were simply wiped off the face of the earth, their histories with them. They didn't even have a moments warning to save their lives. I have nothing but sympathy for anyone affected in a tragedy such as this. And in times of great tragedy, it's sometimes helpful to realize how much worse it could have been.

# posted by

_aa_ : 1:56 pm

I understand _aa_, it just sounded to me like you were asking us to temper our sympathy for the Katrina victims or something with the comparison. It's hard not to feel devastated right now; there's not much we can do for these people (except please DONATE) and they aren't getting the help they need.

The tsunami was probably the worst natural disaster of my lifetime, you're right, i'm just hypersensitive about people politicising the hurricane i guess. Sorry, if i misinterpreted your point.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:05 pm

Oh, one more thing. My roomate/bandmate/friend Chris Case got an email from Josh of Telefon Tel Aviv and he said that he had to leave everything behind and their studio is gone, but that he got out OK.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:41 pm

I didn't mean to be insensitive... The situation seems to be worsening by the hour. Chaos.

Myself and my friends in Chicago and Toronto are glad to hear TTV is safe.

# posted by

_aa_ : 10:55 pm

wonder if trent reznors gear is recovered...

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:08 am