Musicians' Village

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Musicians' Village (New Orleans, Louisiana) is a new neighborhood built around a music center where musicians can teach and perform. Musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis teamed up with Habitat for Humanity International and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to create the village for New Orleans musicians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.

According to The Village Voice, per May 5th 2006, the Musicians' Village is "the largest-scale, highest-profile, and biggest-budget rebuilding project to have gotten underway in the eight months post-Katrina." [2]

1 Story of the project
2 Music
- 2.1 NBC, live performance
- 2.2 Home building events
3 Buildings
- 3.1 Ellis Marsalis Center for Music
4 Location
5 Who can live in Musicians' Village?
6 Volunteers
- 6.1 President Bush volunteers
- 6.2 Hootie & The Blowfish
7 Funds
8 External links

[edit] Story of the project

Habitat for Humanity and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, working with Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, was announcing their plans Tuesday, December 6, 2005, for a “Musicians’ Village” in the Crescent City.

The initial idea for the project, came from Harry Connick Jr and Branford Marsalis, both honorary chairs for Habitat for Humanity's national hurricane rebuilding program. When they returned to their hometown several weeks after the storm and were trying to come up with ways to help. "I had been kind of coming up blank. The problem is so massive, it's hard to know where to begin," Connick said. "As we talked, we both realized we should really stick to what we know, which is music." Sharing the idea with Jim Pate and with the members of Habitat New Orleans, made the big idea into a big project, in New Orleans.

The village and the home-replacement project are initiatives that reach beyond the mission of the nonprofit that for the past 22 years has been building only single-family homes for low-income residents on vacant lots, according to The Times-Picayune.

Habitat expects to begin building in March, 2006. Branford Marsalis, said on the March 02 Larry King show, "we started moving dirt on the project two days ago, so we hope to have a significant number of homes up by the end of the year."

[edit] Music

Harry Connick Jr., Branford Marsalis, Bob French (drummer), George French, and 2 more musicians, performing at the location of the Musicians' Village, on the Upper Ninth Ward, January 23, 2006

[edit] NBC, live performance

Before construction had begun, Brian Williams and the NBC Nightly News crew met with Harry Connick Jr, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) Executive Director Jim Pate, and NBC-Universal Chairman and CEO Bob Wright, on the Upper Ninth Ward, Jan. 23, 2006.

A raised platform, instruments, microphones and amplifiers was put up, Harry Connick jr, Branford Marsalis with musicians warmed up by playing themes to television shows -- before giving a live jazz performance.

[edit] Home building events

The keys to the first 3 houses were given out on June 1, 2006. New homeowner Fredy Omar con su Banda, and fellow new homeowner Jerome Deleno "J.D." Hill - with J.D. and the Jammers - played for the 300 or more people who had gathered for the dedication ceremony and party. [3] [4][5]
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway was touring Musicians' Village on October 15, 2006, and was treated to jazz music by new home owner Larry "Steamboat Willie" Stoops on the front porch of a newly built house. (Photos)

[edit] Buildings

Plans to build 74 single-family homes, as well as seven two-family homes for older musicians and a music center.

Hopes to build possibly as many as 250 to 300 houses in the surrounding neighborhood of the Musicians' Village, if enough funds come in. [6]

The houses are designed with two, three, and four bedrooms. Homes are being built a foot above the flood level in the area, 5-feet, 7-inches up. Habitat will use a total of seven different traditional New Orleans facades that will sometimes be flipped left to right.

[edit] Ellis Marsalis Center for Music

A centerpiece of the village will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, dedicated to celebrating the music and musicians of New Orleans and to the education and development of homeowners and others who live nearby. The center will feature indoor and outdoor performance spaces as well as practice rooms and classrooms.

The multipurpose music center, are meant to be constructed near Roman and Bartholomew streets adjacent to the two-family homes for elderly musicians. Tentative plans call for a 5,000- to 8,000-square-foot center with a 100- to 200-seat interior performance area as well as an outdoor performance area.

A design is far from complete, but proposals include meeting, classroom and storage space. Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, are "heavily involved in the design process" of the center, according to Jim Pate.

[edit] Location

Upper Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Friday, January 06, 2006, the governing board for New Orleans public schools approved the sale of eight acres of surplus property in the Upper 9th Ward to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity was the only bidder for the advertised property. The board unanimously approved the $676,500 sale.

The property was a residential area for decades and the former site of Kohn Junior High School, which was razed. The land covers two city blocks bounded by North Roman, Alvar and North Johnson streets. It also includes parts of three other blocks along what once was Bartholomew Street -- the stretch between North Johnson and North Derbigny streets.

New Orleans Habitat for Humanity's executive director Jim Pate says the particular neighborhood had some flooding, but not the severe flooding. "It's safely within a fairly secure levee system that's going to be rebuilt very nearby. And it's a neighborhood that has all the services in — power, water, sewer."

[edit] Who can live in Musicians' Village?

Habitat is an equal opportunity housing organization, and non-musicians will also live in the village. However, musicians who lived in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina and are in need of safe, affordable housing are encouraged to apply for the program.

The selection process is based on three basic criteria: Need for Shelter, Ability to Pay, and Willingness to Partner.

Jim Pate reminds potential applicants that Habitat is not a giveaway program. Each homeowner is responsible for paying an interest-free mortgage, normally for 20 years. Volunteer support and donations allow the housing to be sold at an affordable price. The average mortgage payment is about $550 a month. Homeowner families also contribute 350 hours of "sweat equity" to the construction of their homes and other Habitat homes.

Musicians interested in living in the village should call Habitat's homeowner hotline, (504) 861-2059, according to Jim Pate. [7]

From 151 applications Habitat received between February and September 2006, about 24% percent were denied, largely due to credit issues. This is significantly lower than the average credit denial rate for New Orleans Area Habitat applicants.

Musicians are often paid in cash and haven't always filed tax returns, and Habitat is working with musicians to find new and innovative approaches for income verification. Habitat for Humanity’s Sarrah Evans explains that for one applicant, she photocopied a spiral-bound notebook of upcoming gigs to verify upcoming income. Musicians who have received a denial letter are advised by Evans to call Habitat's offices, where the Family Services staff will explain step-by-step how to address any application issues..

There are in September 2006, 21 officially accepted musicians, with an additional 51 well on their way through the process.

Applicants are denied for bankruptcies within the past two years, federal judgments or tax liens, and outstanding collection accounts. The nature of home-ownership makes these restrictions necessary, as property could be seized for payment of past debts. [8]

[edit] Volunteers

"We are thrilled at this opportunity to play a central part in the rebuilding of New Orleans," said Andy Lee, a vice president of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity's governing board. "As soon as we acquire title to this property, we will move forward with plans to bring in thousands of volunteers from across the country to work alongside our homeowners."

Jim Pate, executive director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, "We'd hope some of our musician partner families could do some of their sweat equity by doing performances or concerts for some of our volunteers."

Many thousand volunteers have and are taking part in the project. Nearly every day of the week, a couple hundred volunteers from around the country, or even from other places in the world, can be found carrying wood, hammering and sawing. [9]

[edit] President Bush volunteers

Politicians George Bush, Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin and William Jefferson volunteered at the Musicians' Village on April 27, 2006. Put on tool belts and hoisted triangular roof beam sections up to workers scampering across the wooden skeletons of new houses. Then they went inside the framework, talked with individual volunteers, before Nagin and Bush climbed up and started hammering nails handed up to them by Blanco and Jefferson. [10] [11]

Photos: President Bush Volunteers in New Orleans

[edit] Hootie & The Blowfish

Hootie & The Blowfish brings their entire band and crew down to New Orleans for 5 days of building houses, on October 16-20, 2006. [12]

[edit] Funds

Habitat for Humanity are selling this poster on ebay where 100% of the sales benefit the Musicians' Village. Harry Connick, Jr. said in an interview: "It's of a drummer named Bob French. Now, I've been playing with Bob since I was five years old. Here's Bob, close to 70 years old, sitting there with a snare drum in his hands, surrounded by, on one side, a house that's collapsed on top of a car. Here's a musician who doesn't have a house, doesn't have anything anymore, who's a hero of mine." [1]

Habitat for Humanity accepts donations at their website.

Proceeds from the benefit concert From the Big Apple to the Big Easy held in 2005, was directed toward the Musicians' Village as part of the event's overall commitment to support long-term rebuilding efforts of the Gulf Coast region.

Funds raised through recordings such as Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now, and Our New Orleans: A Benefit for the Gulf Coast, benefit the project.

Events have been and are being held by musicians and others to benefit the project, as well as personal donations.

A few examples

New Orleans artist Fredrick Guess Studio and Café Amelie - special gallery opening and benefit. Sunday, April 9th, 2006 [13]
German Seaside Jazzmen – a Dixieland band from Norden - benefit concert. March 2006[14]
Ellis Marsalis - "Musicians Village" fundraiser in Calgary, March 24, 2006. [15]
The Washington DC music community - concert From the Beltway to the Bayou featuring Eric Hilton from the Thievery Corporation, KidGusto, and DC area Dj's and musicians, on March 27, 2006. [16]
Funk jam band Electronik Church announced Feb. 27, 2006, a nationwide music tour for the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity’s Musicians’ Village. [17]
KFOG - (San Francisco / San Jose) announced a promotion to benefit New Orleans Habitat during Mardi Gras weekend 2006. [18]
Gregg Stafford (trumpeter), joins the Heritage Hall Jazz Band and Jewel Brown (former Louis Armstrong vocalist) for a fundraiser February 18, 2006 in San Diego. [19]
Chairman of NBC Universal, Bob Wright made a major personal contribution, enough to build an entire house.
The Click Five - proceeds from selling limited edition, glossy photos on tour over six months, and proceeds from a pre-Mardi Gras concert sponsored by local radio station, B97. February 27, 2006. [20]
Alex Pangman & Colonel Tom Parker of the Backstabbers - proceeds from a 78 rpm recording, and proceeds from the Record Release Party, in Toronto, Canada. [21]
The Pajama Game, starring Harry Connick Jr with Kelli O'Hara & Michael McKean - 5 benefit performances. (Proceeds will benefit the Actors' Fund of America, the New Orleans Habitat Musician's Village, and the Roundabout's Education Program and Musical Theatre Fund.) June 13-17th, 2006.
Ivan Neville and his group Dumpstaphunk - benefit in Auburn, Alabama. April 19, 2006[22]
The Dave Matthews Band - $1.5 million dollars challenge grant. Contributions will be matched dollar for dollar through the grant, raising the total donation potential to $3 million. April 26, 2006 [23]
A portion of the royalties of Harry Connick Jr's albums Oh, My NOLA and Chanson du Vieux Carre will be donated to Musicians' Village, including all royalties from the CD single "All These People". [24]