In the early 1900s, jazz was created in New Orleans. Soon afterwards the fear began...it’s moving away, it’s going to die out, it needs to be preserved. Yet each generation has put time and energy into making sure the roots of the music stay strong in the city. This book is about the history of that kind of organizing work, and what happened when the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park brought together a new group of young people to learn traditional brass band music from older musicians and the Black Men of Labor Social Aid & Pleasure Club.
Rachel Breunlin is co-director of the Neighborhood Story Project. She is currently the ethnographer-in-residence in the Anthropology Department at the University of New Orleans where she teaches courses on public culture and collaborative ethnography.
Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana as a musician, writer, and photographer. His music ranges from blues, to jazz, to zydeco accordion.