Artsjournal.com Commander-in-Chief Doug McClennan posted a lead to a BBC Radio report on the likelihood of New Orleans musicians returning home to a city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. It’s another good reason to regularly check the AJA home page.
The Beeb’s Stephen Evans has two reports, one in print, one a superb broadcast documentary. You needn’t agree with his editorial conclusion that Wynton Marsalis is “the world’s greatest trumpeter – classical or jazz” to admire the thoroughness of his reporting on the background of New Orleans music and its perilous future. But you’re likely to love hearing Ellis Marsalis, Wynton’s dad, propound his theory that if the English and not the French had ended up with New Orleans, there would be no jazz. To read and hear Evans’s reports, click here.