Through the efforts of everyone involved, our benefit raised over $15,000.  All funds have been donated to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic.

Sep. 22, 2005. 01:00 AM

Massive benefit for New Orleans musicians KIM LOCKHART TORONTO STAR What better place to stage a benefit for New Orleans musicians than in the Distillery District? This coming Sunday, it's time to raise glasses, spit in the devil's eye, and strike up the band. As New Orleans expatriate trumpeter Kevin Clark said this week, lighting a candle for the French Quarter, "They say you still can't drink the water — but, hey, I never drank much water when I was living there." He's among a trainload of Canadian jazz players throwing a mammoth party to aid working-class musicians of the Big Easy who have been dispossessed, depressed and dislocated by the Big Storm. New Orleans music predates the Civil War, when free blacks and slaves from Western Africa began to play its public squares with drums, stringed instruments and rhythm makers. Uptown in the salons, classical music was flourishing in a sophisticated King Cotton society not long removed from Napoleonic rule. Inevitably, improvisionally, the two strains found and began to sample each other, and in the 20th century, the New Orleans creative climate of good times and live performance would incubate the Jazz Age and nurture its greatest practitioner, trumpeter Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. In honour of New Orleans then and now, Sunday's benefit has swelled to take over the entire Distillery site, with some 140 players on the card to create changing pools of music on five disparate stages. There are plans to have flowing street bands on the scene and other cheerful evocations of the Big Easy. The playbill has a bountiful list of headliners like Jane Bunnett, pianist Hilario Duran, Big Rude Jake and Club Django, along with a generous helping of session players like Alex Dean (sax) and William Sperandei (trumpet), aces who seldom "play out" on a stage. "The enthusiasm to get involved has been enormous from Toronto musicians, businesses and individuals," says publicist Michelle Bélisle. "The warmth and caring being shown by our community is something to be proud of." A special guest on Sunday will be Tom McDermott, 47, at the Boilerhouse restaurant. A New Orleans jazz pianist, he fled Katrina to his parents' home in Missouri. "You think of friends who live (in the worst-off neighbourhoods), of the other nearby homes you've been in, of pianos you've played on there," he says on the phone from St. Louis. "The losses are sickening. But others have suffered far more. At least no one I know has died." All Sunday proceeds will go to New Orleans Musicians Clinic, an agency temporarily blown by the storm to Lafayette, La. In the aftermath of Katrina, the agency is in acute need of funds to help the 1,000 or so "really good musicians who normally earn barely enough to stay off welfare," says Clark. "They provide the music that helps create New Orleans' special groove. They need our help."

Northern Hospitality

For the thousands of artists and musicians in New Orleans displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the idea of a benefit concert specifically for them must have been truly been music to their ears.

And that’s just what happened Sunday night in Toronto’s distillery district where more than 150 local jazz musicians got together to ease the pain of their fellow artists, having one tough time in the Big Easy.

New Orleans is a town known for its lively social scene and wide variety of entertainment, but with the tourism industry in limbo, much of the city’s infrastructure may be back in full swing before the sweet sounds of swing are fully back in the city.

Trumpeter Kevin Clark hails from Canada, but makes much of his living in the south, and understanding how many of his fellow musicians depend on playing to get by, decided to organize the event in the hopes of keeping the music coming.

“Everyone’s been so generous on the side of giving as musicians and artists and I could just see the people that aren’t musicians and artists doing the same,” he said.

And Clark didn’t exactly have to twist any arms to bring talent to his event.

“We’re so lucky that we’re not dealing with these disasters right now,” said performer Christopher Plock.

“We sit there, we watch it on the TV but it’s unbelievable and everyone needs to help.”

Just how much money Sunday’s benefit concert will end up raising is still unclear, but one thing Clark knows for sure is that the people he’s trying to support, need every bit of help they can muster.

“A lot of musicians in New Orleans live hand to mouth, so if they don’t got a gig, they aren’t eating, they aren’t drinking, they aren’t doing anything. It’s pretty devastating.”

All of the money raised from the event will go to the New Orleans Musician’s Clinic.

100% of all music, product and services are being donated.  No one is getting paid. 
100% of all proceeds will be forwarded to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic.

Sep. 2, 2005. 01:00 AM

And help from here ... A benefit has been announced for Sunday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at Toronto's Distillery District. Former New Orleans resident Kevin Clark and friends will gather to raise money at the Fermenting Room. Denis Keldie, Jane Bunnett, Christopher Plock, Alex Pangman, Richard Underhill and Jake Rude are some of the names confirmed. Tickets are $20 at the door.

"In New Orleans we respond to the concept of following tragedy with joy. That's a powerful philosophy to have as the underpinning of your culture."

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