by Chad Campbell, senior producer
Wow. We had a very successful trip to New Orleans last month. Bob and producer Geoffrey Redick recorded two big pieces of a forthcoming documentary on how the city is doing five years after Hurricane Katrina – and Bob interviewed 12 musicians in four days during the first weekend of the 2010 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The Katrina documentary will air around Labor Day this year, on the fifth anniversary of the storm and the flooding. Our series of music interviews begins today with a sampler segment of the summer series — followed by Bob’s interview with Dr. John backstage in the Blues Tent at Jazz Fest. The series will run every Wednesday and every weekend through the end of July.
Click here to see more pictures of our adventures in New Orleans.
Here’s the schedule for the music interviews:
Dr. John – May 26
Ben Jaffe – June 2
Stanton Moore / Trombone Shorty – June 9
Anders Osborne / Theresa Andersson – June 16
Allen Toussaint – June 23
Irma Thomas – June 30
Roger Lewis (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) – July 7
Jimmy Carter (of The Blind Boys of Alabama) – July 14
Keely Smith – July 21
Jon Cleary – July 28
And here’s a link to Voice of the Wetlands — a group of musicians and bands dedicated to protecting and restoring the rapidly disappearing marshes in southern Louisiana which used to lessen the impact of incoming hurricanes. The wetlands were in big trouble BEFORE the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. For much more about the spill, see our blog entry titled In Deep Water.