Metacentricities

I mentioned that now and again I’d have a guest blogger. A friend of mine has a new passion, and here are the details.

By Julie Melrose

There are many things I envisioned doing in my lifetime. Buying used sousaphones for musicians in New Orleans was never one of them. But the floodwaters of Katrina changed the course of many lives, albeit some much more directly than others. So here I am in New England, almost two years later, giving myself a crash course in purchasing used low brass instruments—including those strange, clumsy tubas that curl like giant shiny snails around the bodies of the street and club musicians of The Crescent City.

Like the person you meet and instantly cannot imagine not having known, I entered the Tipitina’s Music Co-op by cyberspace a couple of months ago on a quick errand, and seem to have settled in for the long haul to see what I can do to help NOLA’s returning working musicians—although I do not recall ever making a conscious decision to do so.

I discovered the Co-op’s musical instrument recycling program through a simple internet search, while looking for a place that would fix up my late father’s old decrepit trumpet and give it to a musician who had lost one in Katrina.

My father was an ardent jazz fan who spent many happy hours listening to live music in New Orleans, and recordings of that music back at home in Massachusetts. When my mother and I scattered his ashes in the woods in spring of 2005, we did it NOLA jazz funeral style, playing slow brass band processional music on the way to the site my father had chosen, and a jubilant version of “When The Saints Go Marching In” on the way back to the car.

I was glad my father had not witnessed the destruction of New Orleans, but felt quite sure that had he been alive when NOLA’s levees were breached, he would have sent his trumpet to the Gulf Coast along with his financial donation.

So when the desire to carry out my father’s intentions grew bigger than my need to hang onto everything material that had belonged to him, I took that old musty case out of my closet and searched the web until I found a place in New Orleans that would accept donations of “musical instruments in any condition.” 


That place was the Co-op, located above the original uptown Tipitina’s nightclub. The workers’ cooperative is a shoestring-funded program of the nonprofit Tipitina’s Foundation (www.tipitinasfoundation.org), the mission of which is to restore the musical culture of New Orleans. It is doing so primarily by replacing the thousands of school band instruments that were lost or ruined in the flood, and by providing office facilities, community resource referrals, recycled instruments and music business skills training to working musicians returning to the region.


The Co-op’s instrument recycling program collects donated musical instruments in playable or reparable condition, has them repaired (often with labor donated by instrument technicians), and recycles them to working musicians in need of instruments to go back to work. Musicians who receive replacement instruments and skills training through the Co-op show an average 28% increase in music-related income, according to a City of New Orleans economic study.



Musical instrument recycling is a concept that just makes sense, and not only in New Orleans. Throughout the U.S., thousands of musical instruments end up in landfills when owners decide against expending money on repairing them.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of instruments sitting idle in closets, basements and attics—which isn’t good for either people or instruments, since instruments deteriorate with lack of use, and richen when they are played regularly. Many of these surplus instruments were played in school band and orchestra programs, or as part of adolescent creative exploration, and have outlasted their owners’ musical interests.


As I have talked with people as a volunteer instrument collector for the Co-op, I have found that many feel guilty about having these unplayed instruments, and are delighted to learn about a place where they are truly needed and will be put to good use.


Putting recycled instruments in the hands of NOLA musicians has a surprisingly wide ripple effect. Because the economy of New Orleans is largely built on tourism, and the tourist industry there is largely built on musical entertainment, restoring the unique musical culture of New Orleans—upon which crucial aspects of U.S. and world musical culture were built—also restores the economic well-being of New Orleans, as well as helping to restore the emotional and spiritual well-being of its returning residents.


With the reduction in landfill deposits, the savings of the energy and materials needed to produce new musical instruments, the creative and employment boost to New Orleans musicians, the charitable giving opportunity offered to instrument owners, the economic benefits of rebuilding tourism in a devastated region, and the restoration of a crucial part of U.S. musical culture, the Co-op instrument recycling program is truly a multi-dimensional version of a “win-win” situation.


Smaller instruments like clarinets, flutes and trumpets have proven comparatively easy to procure. But even low-end large low brass instruments cost several thousand dollars each when purchased new, and are generally owned by organizations rather than individuals. If there are people who have extra sousaphones sitting around in the back of their closets, the Co-op hasn’t found them yet!

So these days, as I sit at my desk in the course of my other work, I find my attention wandering to web sites where one might find used sousaphones, and putting together donors’ groups of kind souls willing to make modest contributions toward rescuing these precious forgotten giants from auction houses for a worthy cause.

The first collective sousaphone purchase was recently made by the seven members of what I fondly refer to as The Ladies’ Sewing Circle & Sousaphone Society (with a bow to a classic women’s movement T-shirt with a slightly less benign slogan). It went to a second-generation NOLA entertainer. One member of the Society dedicated her donation to her niece, a brave young woman who is learning to play the tuba. Donations ranged in size from $10 to $60, and each was essential to the happy outcome.

The second sousaphone purchase followed shortly thereafter, with the instrument going to a woman street musician whose apartment was looted after she had to evacuate.

Donations are now being sought for the third and fourth group sousaphone purchases, since two suitable fixer-uppers will be available only a couple of days from now. With donated shipping and professional instrument restoration already in place, acquiring the actual instruments (at an anticipated cost of under $700) is the only missing link in giving two NOLA musicians the tools they need to return to employment.

Please contact me at girlbanjoistsrule@yahoo.com if you are interested in making a modest contribution toward an upcoming sousaphone purchase, or would like more information about the musical instrument recycling program of the Tipitina’s Music Co-op. All financial and used instrument donations are fully tax deductible, with a “thank you” letter on Tipitina’s Foundation letterhead documenting your donation.

The shipping address for donations of used musical instruments in reparable condition is:

Mark Fowler

Tipitina’s Music Co-op

501 Napoleon Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70115

Co-op manager Mark Fowler can be reached by email at mfowler@tipitinas.com, or by phone at (504) 891-0580. As this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival miraculously kicks off two weekends of festivities, I thank you in advance for helping to restore the unique musical culture of New Orleans.

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