Description
Release Year: 2011
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover, 260 pages
The recent history of New Orleans is fraught with tragedy and triumph. Both are reflected in the city’s vibrant, idiosyncratic music community. In Keith Spera’s intimately reported Groove Interrupted, Aaron Neville returns to New Orleans for the first time after Hurricane Katrina to bury his wife. Fats Domino improbably rambles around Manhattan to promote a post-Katrina tribute CD. Alex Chilton lives anonymously in a battered cottage in the Treme neighborhood. Platinum-selling rapper Mystikal rekindles his career after six year in prison. Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard struggles to translate Katrina into music. The spotlight also shines on Allen Toussaint, Pete Fountain, Gatemouth Brown, the Rebirth Brass Band, Phil Anselmo, Juvenile, Jeremy Davenport, and the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. With heartache, hope, humor, and resolve, each of these contemporary narratives stands on its own. Together they convey that the funky, syncopated spirit of New Orleans music is unbreakable, in spite of Katrina’s interruption.
