Reflections on Jazz Fest 2006

Abstract

Section 2 conveys our impressions of the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the first iteration of this event after Katrina and the occasion of a first visit to the city in the wake of the flood. I ponder how what we observed at and around jazz festival, and what became apparent in retrospect after learning more about the history of the event, exemplifies some of the issues that have emerged when music has been invoked or deployed to rebuild New Orleans, given the competing claims on the city and its musical cultures, the fault lines of race and class in play before and after the storm, the long-standing ways that local musical cultures have reflected social exclusions, and the complexities that emerge when the complicated cultural practices of the past and present collide in the context of disaster.