Originally published in the Quad City Times

A moment of silence, please, for New Orleans: a city never before silent – from the lone trumpeter serenading dawn on the Mississippi River levee to the scores of funky horn players, drummers, and guitarists who nightly defended the Crescent City’s centuries-old reputation for musical excellence – and a city that will not remain silent for long.

In the second year of its existence, New Orleans was erased from the map by a long-forgotten hurricane. They rebuilt. Nearly a century later, two devastating fires consumed all but a fraction of the city. They rebuilt. The spirit is strong in this town, and they will rebuild again.

Everything we love came from or through New Orleans, or La Nouvelle Orleans, as the French colony was called in the beginning. Ships arrived at the end of the seventeenth century carrying French, African, Italian and German adventurers who planted seeds for the magnificent multi-cultural extravaganza to come. Slavery came later, though in a much different form than over in America. Rather than forbid cultural behaviors from Africa – music, arts, dancing, cooking, language – New Orleanians encouraged them. The sounds of the slaves from the sacred ground of Congo Square, just north of Rampart and Orleans, continue to resonate in the music of every jazz, blues, and yes, even rap artist, who picks up an instrument anywhere in the world.

New Orleans, with her spectacular Mardi Gras Indians, celebrated cuisine, world-renowned architecture, subtropical ambience and that glorious music, will rise again. Her physical appearance will undoubtedly be changed somewhat, but her spirit will remain strong and wild. Indomitable.

In a world that is daily more homogeneous, we need New Orleans. The wind from Hurricane Katrina that blew with such ferocity as to rip the physical and emotional heart from the city will once again blow through saxophones, trombones, clarinets, trumpets and tubas on its storied avenues, at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen Street, the Maple Leaf on Oak Street, Tipitina’s at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas, and countless other little clubs throughout this legendary place.

Spencer Bohren
Sept. 2005
St. Louis, MO

Tags: hurricane, Katrina, new orleans