New Orleans: Playing a Jazz Chorus

This book is a deeply personal portrait of the people and music of today’s New Orleans—a city that has been hard hit by Katrina, but is managing to keep its great jazz tradition, brass band scene, incomparable food, and unique lifestyle vital and intact.

Among the musicians appearing in this book are: the Rebirth Brass Band, Hot 8, the Soul Rebels, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Johnny Vidacovich, Barry Martyn, Lars Edegran, Chuck Badie, Pete Fountain, Michael White, the Hot Club of New Orleans, Coco Robicheaux, record company owner George Buck, and gospel musician Billy Edwards.

The book also presents portraits of everyday New Orleans people confronting a challenging situation.

A book about the music the hurricane couldn't destroy.

Now in his seventies, Sam Charters is a jazz expert with over 11 books on jazz to his name. His 1959 book The Country Blues was the first serious examination of this seedbed of virtually all American music. He followed this book with The Legacy of the Blues and The Roots of the Blues (all Marion Boyars publications).