Hurricane Katrina

Instruments of renewed spirits

Several efforts are under way to help New Orleans musicians replace the lost tools of their trade.

TAMPA - Ten days after Hurricane Katrina plowed through the Gulf Coast, a man with a beatup trumpet walked into Paragon Music on Hillsborough Avenue.

The man said he lost two nicer horns when the waters rushed into his New Orleans home, remembers owner Dick Rumore.

This was the only one he had left. No case. Not even a mouthpiece.

"That was the only thing he could get out with," Rumore said. "He was looking to get this piece of c--- fixed."

He was looking for something else. A job playing music.

"I suggested maybe Ybor City," Rumore said. "I told him it was going to be very difficult. It's just not the same here (as New Orleans). He's going to have a really hard time."

After the man left with his new mouthpiece, Rumore thought about all of New Orleans' working musicians - how the floodwaters stole more than homes and clothes. They ruined instruments and livelihoods for thousands who lived from gig to gig.

Rumore felt a strong emotional pull to the Crescent City. His two teenage children have played at legendary Preservation Hall and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Rumore used to run the Jazz Cellar in Ybor City.

He picked up the phone and made some calls, got a couple of bands on board and contacted the city of Tampa. Now plans are in the works for an all-day benefit concert in early October at Lowry Park to help raise money and donated instruments for the displaced musicians.

"There are a lot of retired people who have instruments left up in the attic," Rumore said. "This is a great way to get it recycled."

A few hours down the highway, the owners of Ellington's Jazz Bar & Restaurant on Sanibel Island are doing the same thing. When word got out last week that they were collecting musical instruments for New Orleans' musicians, the phones started ringing off the hook.

Residents of Tampa Bay have offered organs, horns and accordions.

"Some of them are driving them down themselves," said Ellington's co-owner Sharon Wise. But others can't make the trip.

Wise is working with the Jazz Foundation of America in New York to get the instruments to displaced musicians now relocated in Lafayette, La., and lining up vans and trucks to drive up to the Tampa area to collect the instruments.

A Tampa woman is donating a Wurlitzer five-octave keyboard that Wise and the Jazz Foundation have promised to Eddie Bo, called one of New Orleans' finest pianists, who has crafted a unique style that mixes New Orleans jazz, funk and R&B.

Wise said when Eddie Bo got word of the donation, he almost started to cry.

"If you need inspiration to keep doing this. ... It's magical when you see that kind of emotion," Wise said.

Marjorie Wheaton of Clearwater saw an article about Ellington's efforts and thought, "That's where the keyboard has got to go."

She inherited a Yamaha keyboard after the death this June of her brother, Jim Wheaton, who played trombone for more than 30 years with the Williams Reunion Jazz Band and was the leader of the local Black Cat Jazz Band. Jim Wheaton also was a driving force in the Suncoast Dixieland Jazz Society as well as the Suncoast Dixieland Jazz Festival.

Marjorie Wheaton, 72, a singer and pianist in her youth, played the keyboard a few times after his death. But arthritis nagged her thumbs, and her hands cramped after an hour of playing.

"For me, it's just a diversion, and there are people out there whose livelihoods depend on this," she said. "I could not keep it. I checked with all the family, and they thought it was a fine idea (to give it away)."

Sonny LaRosa, who leads America's Youngest Jazz Band out of Clearwater, decided to donate proceeds of a recent concert after hearing of plans to help musicians in New Orleans.

The night of the band's concert at the Palladium Theatre in early September, LaRosa stood before the audience and asked if members would mind if he and the band donated ticket income to the musicians.

The audience roared its approval, he said. The band raised about $2,500 and plans to send it to the Jazz Foundation.

Wise of Ellington's rummaged around her own house and found a guitar, violin and two keyboards to donate.

Both she and Rumore want the public to know they'll take used or new instruments.

Paragon will check to make sure the instruments are playable, and those that aren't will be salvaged for their parts, he said.

Some manufacturers have already told him they'll donate new instruments, Rumore said.

He plans to call the concert Here to Stay Music Heritage Benefit Concert.

Nilo Menendez, the city's arts and special programs manager in the Parks and Recreation Department, said he's trying to nail down a date at the Lowry Park band shell that doesn't conflict with other events. The concert likely will be on a weekend in early October.

"This is a great way to be involved," Menendez said.

For Rumore, musicians are the city's backbone.

"The city was based on that."

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