The Big Easy Comes to the Big Apple
By Larrison Campbell and Susan Lee

On a warm spring evening, Jesse McBride, a jazz pianist from New Orleans, ambled down Christopher Street in the West Village, toting a large plastic bag of CDs.

“My friend and I, we just hit up the Vault,” said McBride, referring to the downtown record store. “I've got to restock, you know? I lost everything, all my music, even my computer. Everything.

Photo by Susan Lee

Mike Barile and Steve Armstrong of Tall Big Wish rehearse in Barile’s Brooklyn apartment.

Watch Jesse McBride discusses his experiences as a New Orleans transplant. Watch Allen Touissaint talk about the essence of New Orleans music. Watch New Orleans musicians reflect on bringing their music to NYC.

McBride, 26, left New Orleans the day before Hurricane Katrina hit last August with only his car and a few changes of clothes. He went to live with family in Houston until he was allowed back into his house in November. Then, salvaging what he could, he set his sights on New York's jazz scene.

While New Orleans is historically known as the birthplace of jazz, New York City has been
considered the jazz capital.

A number of musicians who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina moved to New York, drawn by the vibrant music scene or friends and family already living in the city. Kim Foreman, a spokesman for the New Orleans chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, estimated that roughly half of the city's 4,000 musicians relocated after the storm, though just how many of them relocated to New York is unclear. Only half of the New Orleans population, which topped 470,000 before the storm, still live there. 

Steve Armstrong, a 29-year old bass guitarist, lived in New Orleans for six years.  He evacuated on the Saturday before the storm hit and crashed with friends in Kansas City.

“Like everybody else, I thought I’d be evacuating for a week,” he said.

Worried about his apartment and belongings, he returned three weeks later to find his neighborhood littered with debris and tree branches and smelling of rotting food. His second floor apartment was in remarkably good condition. He was happy to find his bass guitar, music equiptment and computer — with all of his recorded sound files — were fine. He headed to New York in March and settled in Brooklyn.

“I miss New Orleans for a lot of sentimental reasons," he said. While he had planned to relocate to New York eventually, hoping his band would get better reception up North, Hurricane Katrina forced the move. Now, he and a bandmate, Mike Barile, are in the process of regrouping their band, Big Tall Wish.

David Mooney, a 25-year-old jazz guitarist, wouldn’t have moved to New York without the storm. He relocated because work became scarce.  The hotel where he played each week was in such bad shape that they weren’t holding gigs. The creative arts high school where he taught had to divert money to repairs and maintenance and couldn’t keep him on its staff.

Mooney and his wife made their way up from New Orleans somewhat circuitously. They first stayed with friends in Mississippi, then moved to Washington, D.C.  While in D.C., they heard that friends from New Orleans were living in Brooklyn and decided to make the move there, as well.   

Mooney described New York as the “jazz mecca” and said he knows at least ten musicians who have moved to New York since Katrina. Though he likes the city, he was surprised to find that he is now getting paid less for gigs. In New Orleans, a share of bar tips is divided with musicians each night.

“I love New Orleans, it’s where I grew up, but it can be the ‘big easy’ — it’s easy to stagnate,” said Mooney. “It’s relaxed and comfortable. I think I needed to be shaken up.”

As for New York, Mooney said, “It sort of kicks your ass every day.”

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