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Stormy surges
A hearty handful of hurricane-relief CDs
BY CLEA SIMON
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There’s another Crescent City Connection. Not the beautiful, arching bridge that came to symbolize Hurricane Katrina–related atrocities in September, when Gretna police chief Arthur Lawson forbade stranded New Orleanians from crossing over the Mississippi to his suburb. This one’s a musical link between memory and hope, built by musicians who are rushing out benefit CDs to raise funds for the beleaguered Gulf States. The majority of these build from memory, reviving sounds heard in the clubs and streets and stages of JazzFest, mixing brass bands and jazz, Mardi Gras Indian chants and R&B. Most delve into blues and gospel as well, acknowledging pain and evoking faith. Rounder’s MusiCares benefit A Celebration of New Orleans Music draws on the label’s archives, a full 74 minutes of live recordings by 16 artists. It opens right, with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (from Live: Mardi Gras at Montreux) heralding the arrival of the band, if not the party. Two minutes of parade-ground sounds — sousaphone, snare, and the band’s combined whistling — conjure the folk-art magic of New Orleans, with its streets full of people, before the sax and the brass take over. Classics from Al Johnson, Irma Thomas, and Jelly Roll Morton fortify this set. It’s a great and surprisingly upbeat sampler, even if the closing gospel track — Aaron Neville’s æthereal tenor weaving around Johnny Adams’s earthy soul — brings the celebration back to the present. "Never Alone" indeed. Nonesuch’s Habitat for Humanity fundraiser Our New Orleans offers 63 minutes of 16 artists celebrating survival in the wake of Katrina with all new recordings. Allen Toussaint reimagines "Yes We Can Can" as a rousing if refined post-hurricane anthem. Elsewhere, the defiance is blatant: the Wild Magnolias work up a ferocious "Herc Jolly John"; Irma Thomas reflects directly on the tragedy, digging into her earthy lower register for Bessie Smith’s "Back Water Blues"; and Randy Newman closes the disc with an overly reverential take on his own de rigueur "Louisiana 1927." A better finale would have been Eddie Bo’s solo-piano take on "When the Saints Go Marching In": his frayed voice is the sound of resilience. Dr. John’s Sippiana Hericane (Blue Note), with its proceeds going to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, the Jazz Foundation of America, and the Voice of the Wetlands, has the cohesion only a single-artist project can achieve. It’s a short disc whose focus is Dr. John’s "Hurricane Suite," a 25-minute meditation on "Wade in the Water." Dr. John riffs on the gospel tune, trading solos with his trio in a slow, cool jam. At times meandering, at times inspired, the "Suite" is marred by weak, sentimental rhymes: "Home sweet home/We’re gonna be back/Twice as strong." They’re an unintended reminder that this New Orleans native hasn’t lived in the city for decades. A similar distance plagues Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert, Blue Note’s document of a September 17 Lincoln Center event for the Higher Ground Benefit Relief Fund. Like the concert, the disc just doesn’t have enough New Orleans. James Taylor and Norah Jones may bring seat-filling star power to the table, but why include them on a funk- and gospel-touched jazz disc? Better by far are Wynton Marsalis’s take on Joe "King" Oliver’s "Dippermouth Blues" and Shirley Caesar’s impassioned gospel opener, "This Joy." There’s a foundation on which New Orleans can rebuild.
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