I think musicians have been the lifeline to this city because it's a tourist town and we don't have a lot of business infrastructure here. And without the musicians it would be very difficult to sustain that. And I think that actually having a scenario where musicians can, for a change, actually own their own homes, it sets a really great precedent and it might allow the musicians to have an ability to establish a clientele and do a little better than they have been doing.

Coltrane came to New Orleans one day and he was talking about the jazz scene. And Coltrane mentions that the problem with jazz was that there were too few groups.

A lot of musicians have a tough time hearing what we're doing in a trio format.

New Orleans is probably the only city in America that has its own culture. There are things you can't find anyplace but there.

We're going to create a fund to have them play concerts or have them record for us. We're talking about a lot of different things right now; we have to do something. A lot of the guys I'm talking about include the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Rebirth Brass Band, the Tuxedo Brass Band. There are all these different groups. It's a matter of finding all these musicians scattered across the South.

[Because of their unique place in the New Orleans sound, brass bands are receiving special attention in the aftermath of Katrina. For instance, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, one of the musician-brothers of the city's First Family of Jazz, will use a recording company he started three years ago to aid brass band musicians left jobless by the storm.] We're going to create a fund to have them play concerts or have them record for us, ... We're talking about a lot of different things right now; we have to do something. A lot of the guys I'm talking about include the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Rebirth Brass Band, the Tuxedo Brass Band. There are all these different groups. It's a matter of finding all these musicians scattered across the South.