City's long procession of music greatness will march again

New Orleans and music are synonymous.

It's the birthing ground of jazz, a city with chords and clefs in its DNA, a place where that "let the good times roll" spirit has inspired the creation of memorable tunes for decades.

It hosts one of the country's premier music fests. Jazz, Cajun, swamp rock, "second line" drumming, Dixieland brass and — sadly, in the upcoming weeks and months — the slow, mournful march of funeral bands, it's all part of the Crescent City experience.

Watching the scenes of devastation on TV in the past few days, I was instantly reminded of Randy Newman's song Louisiana 1927, a tale of an early 20th-century flood:

"The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright . . .
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away . . . "

And that lament led to the classic jazz ballad, a real heartbreaker now, sung by every city son from Louis Armstrong to Harry Connick Jr:

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And miss her each night and day
I know I'm not wrong because the feeling's
Getting stronger the longer I stay away . . . "

Jazz is the city's calling card. Armstrong, who grew up in Storyville, the infamous red-light district, eventually became the city's most famous musical ambassador. They even named the airport after him.

But just think about all the musicians nurtured in that fertile land:

Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, Buddy Bolden, Pete Fountain, the Neville Brothers, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Fats Domino (who was reported as missing in an Internet story), Louis Prima, Smiley Lewis, Huey "Piano" Smith, James Booker, the Meters, Gary "U.S." Bonds, Ernie K. Doe, Master P, Allen Touissant, Al Hirt, Galactic and the great Dr. John.

How long will it take for tourists to pack again into that creaky house on Saint Peter Street in the French Quarter, three blocks from the Big Muddy, and listen to the marvelous traditionalist sounds of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band? Or hear the Nevilles sing "Iko-Iko" at Tipitina's? Or listen to today's jazz stars at Snug Harbor?

More than almost any other American city, New Orleans is a song, a veritable rolling river of music: "Basin Street Blues," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "The Battle of New Orleans," "Christmas in New Orleans."

Many songs take place in the Big Easy, even if they're not in the title. "Mr. Bojangles " was in a cell there. "Bobby McGee " thumbed a diesel down and rode there. The city's slave market history was the opening scene of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar." Bob Dylan's character in "Tangled Up in Blue" drifted there, working for a while on a fishing boat.

And, of course, there is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun.

It will be awhile before things rise in New Orleans, before the city's unofficial slogan — Laissez les bons temps rouler — rings true again.

In the meantime, let the saints go marching in.

By LARRY AYDLETTE
Cox News Service

Larry Aydlette writes for The Palm Beach Post.

Technorati tag: Jazz