“KONKREIT MUSICK” is sound collage piece composed entirely from different field recordings I took while in New Orleans. Sounds include: church bells, a brass band, an out-of-tune steamboat organ, sound effects from an action figure, a streetcar, and birds. I deconstructed the content from these recordings to form new melodies and used digital effects such as echo to create repeating rhythmic patterns and reverb to create a sense of space.

“Dream Melody” was something I came up with while playing around with a sanza, an African instrument also known as a “thumb piano”. I then took the melody and transposed it onto guitar and later added a chord progression to support it. In this recording you will hear the lead guitar and sanza playing in unison accompanied by guitar chords underneath. It then segues into a piece I call “Sombre Ecstasy”. This composition is one that I had been developing throughout my time in New Orleans. It based around acoustic guitar with some added ambience also created with guitar and an electronic device called an Ebow.

*recordings recommended for headphone listening* Enjoy!

On my last day in New Orleans, there was a rainstorm that lasted all morning until noon. After it had cleared up, I decided to go out for a final walk around the neighborhood cemetery. Along the way, I spotted a broken tree branch lying across the middle of the street. This branch was enormous, like a tree growing out of another tree. As I stood there staring at it I wondered, how long before somebody does something about it?

For me, this was the perfect picture of New Orleans. It is a symbol and a summary of what I learned about the history of Hurricane Katrina and about the city as it exists today.

• Clearly restate the purpose and research question of your study

-My goal is to explore the connection between the city of New Orleans and its music. Over the course of the city’s history, New Orleans has undergone many changes in its social and physical landscape; particularly in recent years due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I am interested in learning about how these changes have impacted musicians and their music and how the current state of music in New Orleans reflects these changes. Have musicians striven to retain a sense of tradition despite these changes or have they aimed to progress into newer musical territories? How has the music developed along with the city?

• Classify the research methods employed in your research and report their effectiveness

-My research methods included internet sources, books, and a documentary. However the bulk of my research was done on an interactive basis and involved doing field work such as exploring the city, chatting with and interviewing different people (musicians and artists), handing out surveys, and taking field recordings and photos. I found that going out and interacting with the city that I was studying was the ultimate way of learning about it first-hand. I found it to be a much more valuable experience than staying inside and reading about someone else’s impression of the place. However, after conducting this type of work I referred to texts and other sources to compare my experience and validate or reconsider my own ideas.

• Collate and display the data that you collected

-The objective data I collected in my research was based on a survey that I created and distributed to different people in the city. From these surveys I was able to determine some statistics about the city’s people and the significance of music, art, and the current state of the two in New Orleans. Interviewing people provided me with insight on a more personal level and highly influenced the conclusions I made about my work.

• Explain how your readings further informed your study.

-My readings further informed my study by providing me with more specific information about the different topics I was interested in. They also offered different perspectives for me to consider.

• State the outcome of your research, that is, the answer that you arrived at for the research question(s)

-What I learned about the music’s development along with the city is that the music did not undergone any detectable changes. However, the main difference now is not the music that is being played but the new group of people that are playing it. After Hurricane Katrina, the displacement of most of the city’s original musicians ushered in a new wave of musicians coming from other parts of the country. For example, you can walk around the city and hear a man playing a clarinet in a traditional New Orleans Jazz style and think about how authentic it must be but the chances are that that performer has only been there within the last decade. Currently, the music of New Orleans is a perpetuation of tradition performed by mostly newcomers.

• Discuss your research results from a broader perspective, that is, how did your field study contribute new information to the study of musical cities?

-I believe that by traveling to New Orleans and trying to gain first-hand insight about it,        I put into practice everything we discussed in the program. That is looking for and making connections about the place itself, its people, and all the facets of that place that make it what it is (history, politics, culture, architecture, music, art, etc.)

• Share a story or two that illuminates the context (the city) of your field study

-I have two musical stories that will be included in my next post.

• State conclusions of your study and needed future research

-Knowing what I know now, I would have spent more time looking around at the most afflicted, slowly re-developing parts of New Orleans such as St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward. This would have provided me with more valuable first hand research for this project however, I did not spend time doing this while I was there.

In August of 2005, New Orleans was devastated by the category 5 storm known as Hurricane Katrina. Although the media and officials originally attributed the city’s destruction to the hurricane, it was not the hurricane its self but it was the failure of the federal levee system to withstand it that resulted in the flooding of the city. The consequences were catastrophic; 80% of the city was flooded with water up to 20 ft. in some areas.

The city’s then-Mayor, Ray Nagin, issued a mandatory evacuation only one day before the hurricane had struck. Although 80% of the population were fortunate enough to make it out in time however, the remaining 20% who were unable to evacuate were left to either take shelter at the Superdome or suffer the consequences from the outside. The worst part of the hurricane’s aftermath was the state and federal government’s failure to manage the situation. In Spike Lee’s documentary, “When the Levees Broke”, it is explained that the delayed response to the situation was due to petty politics between the state and federal government. Basically the state’s then-Governor, Kathleen Blanco, prolonged asking the federal government so that it wouldn’t appear like she didn’t have the situation under control. She tried to defend her own ego at the expense of thousands of people’s lives. A great amount of criticism is directed at FEMA for failing to respond to the disaster in a timely manner and then making matters even worse when they finally decided to show up. FEMA was responsible for stopping civilian and corporate trucks and planes that voluntarily came to transport people and deliver water and fuel to those stuck in shelters. They decided that operating “by the book” and denying assistance from “unauthorized” people was more important than saving lives. I found it totally jaw-dropping and infuriating that a government agency would do this to its own people. The incompetence of government agencies combined with the corruption and lack of leadership from government officials transformed what could have been a relatively non-destructive storm into a monumental catastrophe.

Although Katrina is now historicized as the deadliest and most costly storm in American history, the people of New Orleans have still found a way to carry on despite the tremendous impact it has left behind. I believe that the key to their perseverance is embedded within their history and expressed in their deep respect for the city and its culture.

One of the books I read during my project was “Why New Orleans Matters”, by Tom Piazza. In one section, he describes one of New Orleans’ oldest traditions known as a Jazz Funeral. After a person passes away, family, friends, neighbors, and virtually anybody will partake in a special celebration of the deceased person’s life. However, the ideology behind this event is based on the idea that life itself is greater than the life of any one individual. Although that person’s life is honored and the ceremony typically begins with mourning, it is followed with a huge party filled with live bands, dancing, and lots and lots of eating and drinking. As Piazza puts it, “This isn’t escapism, or denial of grief; it is acceptance of the facts of life, the map of a profound relationship to the grief that is a part of life, and it will tell you something about why the real New Orleans spirit is never silly, or never just silly, in celebration, and never maudlin in grief. Under ordinary circumstances the word “irony” might come to mind, but the detachment implied by the word doesn’t seem to quite fit the situation. It is a way of containing the opposites that are a part of life in a way that allows the individual, and the community, to function with style and grace, even wit, under the most adverse circumstances.”

I think this shared perception about life and death is a very unique quality to the culture of New Orleans. It is something I find personally inspiring and it is a type of mindset that I wish was more widely appreciated.

After several days in New Orleans, I decided to dedicate more of my time towards doing field work. I refreshed myself on my original research goal which was to learn more about the physical and social landscape of New Orleans and how the affects of Hurricane Katrina have influenced it. Although my approach this time was still largely interactive-based, I added another dimension to my work by preparing a survey which I could hand out to interviewees and generate data from. The survey I made was composed of several basic demographic-related questions followed a series of statements to which the respondent could answer according to a Likert Scale (a scale rated from 1-5, 1 being Strongly Disagree and 5 being Strongly Agree). My plan was to distribute this survey to as many random people as possible and hopefully gather enough substantial information to use in my work. Although I learned a lot from the survey’s, I learned even more about how to properly conduct this type of work.

I took a streetcar down to the French Quarter and only a few blocks down from my stop I approached my first interviewee. He was 24-year-old black man named Jeffrey. Before I approached him, Jeffrey was performing a style of spoken word similar to rapping but without any beat or accompaniment to go along with it. He was friendly and gladly obliged to fill out a survey and chat with me. He said he was not originally from New Orleans and that he didn’t move there until after Katrina had happened. He said he originally moved there for school but was now working as a tutor and performing around the French Quarter whenever his schedule allowed it. I thanked him for his time and moved onward.

A few surveys later, I realized that all the people I was approaching all shared something in common: they were all expressing or showcasing some type of art form. I realized that I was gravitating towards these people only and that in turn, I was subjecting my intended research methods to my own bias. Although I intended for the survey to be distributed randomly, there was no possible way to do this as long as I was going to be selecting and approaching each person myself. I worked around this slight complication and decided that I would just use artists and musicians as the focus group for my survey.

Several hours later, I had made my rounds through most of the French Quarter and had accumulated about 15 surveys from various musicians, painters, and street performers. By this point I was becoming aware of the fact that I had barely met a single artist or musician who had lived in New Orleans before and after Katrina. However, I soon met someone who completely changed my outlook on my research and affirmed my already forming skepticism about what I was hoping to find in New Orleans.

A couple blocks over from Jackson Square, I found myself gazing at vintage movie posters and art deco-style lithographs inside a small art gallery called, “Rue Royale”. There I introduced myself to the gallery’s director, Deborah. She was a middle-aged white woman who had been living in New Orleans since 1993 and was there to witness Hurricane Katrina, before and after. She assured me that the only street musicians I would find in downtown New Orleans were mere “wannabes” who conveniently swooped in on the work left behind by all of the city’s previous musicians who were displaced by Katrina. A painter I talked to in the French Quarter described this is as “cycling”. The native musicians and artists were washed away and younger musicians from around the country came to New Orleans while all of the permits were left available to them. Although some of the new artists I talked to described this as “not necessarily a bad thing” and maintained that it provided work for the next generation of artists and in some ways even refreshed the scene in New Orleans. Deborah argued that these people were entirely phony and just trying to capitalize on something that wasn’t theirs to begin with. She also described what it was like to be in the city during the hurricane and how she witnessed the dark side of humanity unfold outside her gallery window when citizens looted the streets and in panic and desperation, turned against one another. She felt that all of this was portrayed in the media as a giant spectacle that attracted the interest of national politicians, investors, and celebrities alike. I appreciated hearing this very candid and radical perspective.

Although I didn’t find the exact information I had originally sought after in my survey, it was through the process of interviewing and experimenting with the survey that I found answers to some of the “bigger picture” questions related to my project. I felt inspired to become more critical about my investigation of New Orleans and intrigued to delve deeper into the seedy undercurrent beneath all of the idealism and tourism on the city’s surface.

Soon after acquainting myself with the city, I realized that it was time to for me to immerse myself back into my creative zone and work on some music. During the day, I spent my time in between my friends’ apartment and a studio space playing guitar and trying to develop different riff ideas into full-fledged songs. As much as I tried, I found difficulty in trying to make myself write during times when I was probably feeling more inspired to do something else. This often led me to dissatisfaction with many of the things I was coming up with. After accepting this, I decided to take a break from writing and again extend my attention outwardly onto New Orleans, hoping that something would spark my imagination along the way.

I left the house and resumed wandering around Uptown New Orleans. The places I found myself frequenting became more or less facilities for my creativity. While out seeking my morning cup of coffee, I would go to either the nearby gas station or Rue de la Course coffeehouse, where I would get my fill of coffee, sit outside and knock out my daily reading. From there I found myself hanging around outside a church down the street. I don’t know what it was that attracted me to this place. I have no religious affiliations of any kind and the church seemed very old and dilapidated but for some reason I was drawn to it. I would sit outside on the steps and jot down notes and lyrics and occasionally capture some field recordings of passing streetcars, church bells, pedestrians, and other general ambiance of the neighborhood. Eventually I found myself walking back towards my friends house and along the way pass by the neighborhood cemeteries, one in which I would later attempt to record music in. By this time I had some musical ideas brewing and when I got home, I tried to translate them onto guitar. Through this casual excursion, I began to find the parts to my compositions but had not yet realized the whole.

Later that evening, I found my friend Buster editing recordings on his laptop. Excited by my curiosity, he began to play me chunks of music from a rather prolific collection of songs that he had been working on. His music was largely based on 1970’s style Funk but with his own stamp on it, in which he recorded bass, guitar, drums, vocals and programmed horn and synthesizer parts. Although, the styles of music we make are very different, I felt inspired by his overwhelming enthusiasm towards what he was doing. I think it was at this point that I had finally caught the certain type of creative energy that New Orleans harbors. He had kept on telling me that along with other things, making music in New Orleans feels better than anywhere else. After he had left the house, I had taken over the living room as my personal practice space and spent the rest of the night, playing guitar and piecing together one of my compositions. I was beginning to understand what he meant.

That was one of the first nights when I chose staying in and working on my own music over going out to watching somebody else play music. Although I tried to make a balanced schedule that would include doing both things, my own music was certainly a priority during my stay in New Orleans. Although I usually designated my evenings for songwriting, my morning walks around Uptown became a part of my daily routine as well as a part of my creative process. I found it important to establish a work environment and and schedule in a place that was new to me and far from my typical comfort zone used for writing.

On a side note: Near the second half of my stay in New Orleans, my cellphone got nearly destroyed after being dropped onto the street after a concert. However, I was recently able to back up some of my data and recovered photos and audio from my trip. I will be posting some of those shortly. Stay tuned.

After two full weeks spent in New Orleans, I have returned back to my hometown of Redondo Beach, California where I am currently picking up the pieces and reflecting upon my journey. While I was there I kept entries in my personal journal along with recordings and photos but decided to save the bulk of my writing for afterwards so that I might recall my experiences with a greater scope.

On my very first night, I was picked up from the airport by my two friends from back home, Buster and Anthony, who had been living in New Orleans for the last 6 months. Along the way to their shabby, old apartment in Carrollton, (a neighborhood in the uptown New Orleans), they gave me a basic overview of what it’s been like to live there. Although neither of them could give me a very detailed description so briefly other than “it’s a trip” or “it’s like no other place”. So I accepted that and soon enough found myself agreeing with the same exact sentiment. After dropping off my suitcase and guitar at the apartment, Buster gave me some instructions on how to catch the streetcar towards downtown.

Soon enough I found myself racing after a streetcar down Carrollton Avenue and eventually hopped on at its closest stop. I paid my fair and was immediately in awe at the sight of this small, antique bus. The street car’s interior was composed of furnished wooden benches, small lights that ran along the ceiling, and a single shaft that was used by the driver to enable and discontinue the flow of power drawn from the overhead electrical wires. New Orleans has been using this type of electric-powered streetcar for 122 years and it has since remained the primary means of public transportation in the city.

I had reached the end of the line and arrived at my destination, Downtown New Orleans. The streets were much less populated than I had imagined; granted it was just past 12am on a Tuesday night. So I made my way towards the one street that seemed to be occupied by human life and a stream of neon lights, the infamous, Bourbon Street. With some disillusion, I discovered that Bourbon on a Tuesday night is a eerily bleak yet colorful wasteland occupied mostly by strippers, residual barflys, a few street vendors, and the quintessential Bourbon Street hobo who asks “Ay man, lemme guess where you got those shoes from”; expecting some amount of pocket change if he guesses correctly. I digressed, bought myself a beer and looked to strike up conversation with any locals looking to impart some information on their native city of New Orleans. I met a black man named George who told me he was 42 and had spent the majority of his life living in NOLA. He told me about the shoddy details of the city’s infrastructure and local politics. He told me about a scandal involving the former Mayor Ray Nagin during the Hurricane Katrina era where the then-Mayor had been charged for money laundering and bribery; trading local business to outside contractors and accumulating about several hundred thousand dollars in return. George assured me that despite all of the corruption and natural disaster in the city’s recent history, the city’s greater, cultural history is what keeps the spirit of New Orleans alive and strong. He followed this up by saying that the material history such as all the old buildings, streetcars, and traditions need to be preserved.

After a few more drinks and some more conversation with other locals, I decided to catch the next streetcar back up to Carrollton. Along the way, I met two guys named Max and Patrick. They were both white guys in their mid and late 20’s who worked as accountants at a local firm. They offered a different perspective on the city. While on the streetcar, Max had a lot to say about the current state of New Orleans and what he thought would benefit it most. When the topic of infrastructure came up, he suggested that it drastically needs an upgrade. He complained about the poor quality of the roads (which is indisputable), the inefficiency of streetcars, the dilapidated buildings and the city ordinances regarding the renovation of homes. Meanwhile, the streetcar had passed a giant monument which I somehow failed to notice on the ride down. It turns out that monument was a 60 foot marble column with a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee placed on top. Max insisted that this was a symbol of racism; an ideological and cultural infrastructure that desperately needed renewal. He said it should have been demolished a long time ago. I didn’t disagree but playing devil’s advocate, I half-heartedly suggested that maybe if the monument remained intact it would remind people of the self-defeating ideology of a past generation so that they will want to strive to be something better than that.

I think that hearing several different perspectives that night had helped me form an impression of the city. Regardless of the differing viewpoints held by the people of New Orleans, the thing that I found most in common among them was their pride and irreverence for their city and its culture.

“Journey’s are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships, or trains.” This segment from The Art of Travel retrospectively rings true to my personal experiences with traveling. One of the things that is most attractive to me about long drives and flights on planes is becoming freely and carelessly absorbed in thought while traveling from Point A to Point B. When driving through familiar landscapes and spotting landmarks previously seen, I can’t help but succumb to an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Just like a familiar smell, a landmark or a specific place can open up a flood gate of memories for me. Often times, these sights can bring me back to the exact time and place in my life during which I had once discovered them. While driving past the scattered groups of windmills in California’s Palm Desert, I recall childhood memories of daydreaming in the backseat of my mom’s car while songs from a Beach Boys cassette tape blare through the stereo. As described in The Art of Travel, engaging another activity while in motion does indeed enhance the experience of that activity. For me, listening to music has been a constant in all of my travels. I feel that the music listening in tandem with traveling has always had a profound affect on me. I can experience my imagination infinitely unfold when listening to music while out walking, driving, or flying on an airplane. As a kid, I felt inclined to draw whatever it was I hearing or feeling in the music at that time. However, these days I find myself thinking about my own music creatively and critically. While on Spring break, I went home to Southern California and was left without a car or other means of transportation for getting around the city. Although feeling inconvenienced by the circumstance, I reveled at the opportunity to put on my headphones and have to walk everywhere I wanted to go. I walked between my parents’ houses and my girlfriend’s house almost everyday; racking up about 20 miles in total over the course of the week. I listened to music from my cellphone throughout all of my walks and along the way plotted all of the music I wanted to make as soon I got to the nearest guitar. This combined experience of traveling, sightseeing, and music listening and making is what I’m looking forward to most in my upcoming trip to New Orleans.

I have been overwhelmed with equal parts excitement and nervousness while arranging my plans to visit New Orleans. I’m trying to wrap my head around pursuing this trip and contemplating what will become of it. I will be taking myself far out of my comfort zone and placing myself into a completely new, unfamiliar environment in which I have to figure out my plan as I go while trying to make the absolute most of it. I look forward to this trip most as an opportunity to grow as a person.

Week 1: Drive down to Los Angeles, Fly out to New Orleans, Arrive in New Orleans, Find where I’m staying in Uptown, Explore City

Week 2-3: Wander around city, look and listen, attend concerts, art shows, museums, visit landmarks, find info on local upcoming events, mingle with locals, play music, return to room, read, record music, reflect

Week 3-6: Return to LA and then Olympia, reflect, compile data and prepare for final presentation.