In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Harry Connick and Branford Marsalis vowed to see that New Orleans musicians affected by the storm would get long-term help. Six years of their hard work and the cooperation of hundreds of others are about to make a tangible difference in the city’s musical community and beyond. A new center named in honor of Ellis Marsalis (pictured)—father of four famous sons in jazz and teacher of hundreds of musicians—is officially open and will be in full swing in the fall. In today’s New Orleans Times-Picayune, Keith Spera writes:

Were it not for Hurricane Katrina, there would be no Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

“I was guilty of the same thing our city has been guilty of for 100 years: Resting on our traditions and thinking everything is going to keep on going status quo,” Connick said. “No one thought there would be a storm that would put the city under water. No one thought that the musical traditions would ever be in jeopardy.

“The storm really opened up a lot of dialogue.”

In the storm’s wake, housing was a more pressing concern. Connick and Marsalis partnered with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to develop the Musicians’ Village for musicians and others. From the outset, Connick said, the vision included a performing arts/community center.

The 72 single-family homes in the Village were built by thousands of volunteers. Habitat financed construction with donations and low-interest loans to the homeowners.

In a few weeks, the halls of the Marsalis center will ring with the music of its first class of students. To read Spera’s entire story, click here.

To see and hear Ellis Marsalis perform with his sons Branford, Delfeayo, Jason and Wynton, play this video.

Kristin Korb, you may recall, plays the bass as she sings or sings as she plays the bass. Take your pick; she does both equally well. This video is from a house-party concert she gave last year. The event was called Spring Soiree. The house provided a splendid view of the lights of Los Angeles. Korb’s colleagues in the rhythm section were her frequent pianist Llew Matthews, and drummer Matt Gordy. The clip gives a rare opportunity to hear former Stan Kenton alto saxophonist Mary Fettig, a veteran of touring with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, Joe Henderson and Marian McPartland, among others. It also demonstrates that properly cared for, good old songs are never really old.

Ms. Korb recently married a Danish man and is moving to Copenhagen, which will be her headquarters and point of departure for touring.

I had hoped to include in the post below something from André Previn, who was Mr. Rasey’s colleague in the studios and, like him, is one of the few remaining members of the remarkable MGM orchestra of the 1940s and ‘50s. My request for a few words from Maestro Previn made its way to him a day late. He responded with this:

Thank you very much for your email. I have many remembrances of Uan, all of which are complimentary and flattering. He was not only the best trumpet player working at the film studios in Hollywood, but also a kind and good friend.

Please wish him the happiest of birthdays from me. I wish I could see him sometime soon.

With best regards,

André

My peripheral involvement in Bob Belden’s Miles Español project has refired a longstanding interest in music that combines Latin and jazz elements. A story by Larry Rohter in today’s New York Times added more fuel. It is about the restoration and DVD release of a film that played an influential role in bringing widespread attention to Latin music and, in particular, to the brand of salsa cooked up in New York’s Latin melting pot. Rohter begins by quoting the master percussionist Ray Barretto about his hopes for the film’s success in raising awareness. Then, he writes:

In 1971 Latin music barely existed on the margins of American consciousness. But Mr. Barretto, who died in 2006 at 76, was prescient. If salsa is today a globally popular and influential dance music style, that is due in no small part to “Our Latin Thing,” which documents a concert by the Fania All-Stars at the Cheetah club on 52nd Street in Manhattan on Aug. 26, 1971, and the chain of events it set in motion.

In the history of salsa music and Fania Records, which for many years were all but synonymous, “Our Latin Thing” and the Cheetah show occupy a singular position. It took another Fania All-Stars concert, this time for a crowd of more than 45,000 people at Yankee Stadium in 1973, to alert mainstream English-speaking America to the vast commercial potential of the Latin music market, but it was the Cheetah performance that may have been the ensemble’s artistic pinnacle.

The article includes an embedded performance excerpt from the “Our Latin Thing” film. To read it, go here.

It was time to put up a new post. With a house full of guests, ideal summer weather and the attractions of all outdoors, I looked for an easy out. The solution begins with a perfect trumpet chorus, then gets better.

The gorgeous arrangement was by Russell Garcia.

At this hour in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Laurie Verchomin is celebrating the 82nd anniversary of Bill Evans’ birth. She is at Alberta College reading from her book about the brief, intense relationship with the pianist that inspired him to write “Laurie.” The composition became a central part of Evans’ repertoire in his final years. Ms. Verchomin was with him on his final day in September,1980. On the left, we see Evans with photo booth shots of Laurie.

For a Rifftides mention of the book, go here. For Roger Levesque’s story in the Edmonton Journal about Ms. Verchomin and this evening’s event, go here. For a performance of “Laurie” by Evans, Mark Johnson and Joe La Barbera in Rome in 1979, don’t go anywhere. Play this video.

Gordon Jenkins (pictured) wrote the music and Joe Bishop the words to “Blue Prelude” in 1933. Shortly after, the Isham Jones band introduced the song on record. In the reed section was a young saxophonist and clarinetist named Woody Herman, who ultimately became leader of a cooperative band that some of Jones’ members formed after Jones retired in 1936. That group, in turn, became the first of Herman’s own bands, known as The Band That Plays the Blues. Herman was so attached to “Blue Prelude” that he made it his theme song. The recording with his vocal was a minor hit in 1939 and ‘40.

Over the years, performers in a variety of genres have recorded the piece. Among them are Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Helen Humes with Bill Doggett, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Criss, Charlie Ventura, The Moody Blues, Linda Ronstadt and Nina Simone. Simone’s version is in a three-way tie with Garland’s and Humes’ as the most wrenching. Gretta Matassa’s approach to the song is right in there with Peggy Lee’s as the hardest swinging. Here’s Matassa singing “Blue Prelude” last year in a Beverly Hills, California, appearance. The trio is Mike Garson, piano; Bob Leatherbarrow, drums; and Matassa’s bassist of longstanding, Clipper Anderson. This is one of those rare web videos that you can watch full screen without losing significant picture quality.

The Rifftides staff is springing—well, easing—(all right, slouching) back into action after near-total immersion in the Miles Español project described three items down. Here is a pleasant way to do it.

Word from Sweden is that the Ystad Jazz Festival organized and supervised by pianist Jan Lundgren in his hometown was a sold-out success. The four-day festival concluded last Sunday. I had hoped to cover it for you, but was unable to make arrangements. Maybe next year.

Fortunately for all of us, the Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen arranged with Swedish Radio P2 to play on his website a recording of Lundgren’s mellow concert on Saturday with Andersen, trumpeter Peter Asplund and the remarkable Korean singer Youn Sun Nah. Brush up your Swedish for the opening announcement, after which Lundgren introduces the tunes and musicians in English. To hear the entire hour-and-a-half, click here, then on the SverigeSRadio box. Afterward come back, please, for a Rifftides archive special.