Jordan Hirsch and Gabriela Hernandez of Sweet Home New Orleans. Photo by Elsa Hahne.
Non-profit organizations did as much as anyone to help the New Orleans music community recover. Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO) formed in 2006, and it was the culmination of that effort, a needs-based organization that coordinated the resources of a number of non-profits to help get the city’s musicians and culture bearers—Mardi Gras Indians and social aid and pleasure club members—get back to New Orleans and back to work.
Shortly before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, SHNO released its third annual State of the New Orleans Music Community Report, a statistical snapshot of the financial, social and physical health of New Orleans’ musicians as represented by SHNO’s 4,500 clients. OffBeat sat down with outgoing executive director Jordan Hirsch and incoming director Gabriela Hernandez to discuss the report and the future of SHNO in this economy.
What are the highlights of the report?
Hirsch: The cultural community of the city has rebounded very strongly, and the indigenous traditions are in a lot of ways stronger than they were in 2005, which is an astounding achievement because this community had so many obstacles to just getting back to level.
At the same time, the economic conditions for professional musicians in New Orleans are scary right now. The opportunities that New Orleans musicians have to earn a living are few and far between, and are not sufficient for this community to sustain itself long-term.
Do I read correctly that the study says the recovery has reached a plateau?
In a couple of ways. The percentage of the pre-Katrina music community that’s back in the metro New Orleans area has stayed steady at around 80 percent for the last 24 months. Most of the people who are going to be living here are here.
Another plateau we found was the number of gigs available to local musicians. It’s about half of what musicians had the opportunity to work before the storm.
What do we attribute this to?
It’s primarily a lack of visitors who come to town and pay money for live music. Venues that cater predominantly to locals are doing better than venues that cater predominantly to out-of-towners. Convention and Visitors Bureau numbers [show] fewer people holding meetings here and filling up hotel rooms.
Of course, there are fewer people living in New Orleans, so even though people are going out quite a bit, there’s fewer residents that can go out and fill up these rooms every night. Also, the spending is down everywhere. When you look at New Orleans broadly, there’s a lot of ways to say that New Orleans is in better shape than a lot of cities in the recession.
What musicians are most affected?
Older musicians, traditional jazz musicians. A lot of riverboat gigs and convention gigs that were dependent on that type of traffic have seen the biggest hit. [Musicians who] did lots of stuff in hotels and conventions.
Older artists are perhaps not as able to adapt to the new environment. Perhaps they’re living in an area where it’s harder to get to and from a gig.
You really have to get your hustle on to make things happen here now, and a younger person might be more nimble at building new relationships and adapting to where the work is and who to talk to. Our client’s average age is 50 and we have clients in their 60s; it’s harder to do business in a new way when you’ve been doing business one way for 40 or 50 years. Fifty percent of our clients are not online.
In the report, it says musicians’ earnings are down 43 percent. Is that in the last year or from 2005?
That’s a function of gigs-per-month and take-per-gig as opposed to ’05.
Do we know the average number of pre-Katrina gigs-per-month?
The average number of gigs per month was 12; it’s now around 6. The take per gig is down slightly as well, so there’s less work for less money. The post-Katrina, post-oil spill recession is rough—42 percent of our clients have had reduced hours or been laid off from day jobs. You have people looking for work outside of music but not able to find it.
You’ve got the music industry issues alongside the broader issues in the economy that hits wage laborers first; the unemployment rate of people who earn less that $25,000 is many times higher than the 10 percent you hear quoted for the national unemployment rate. It’s the confluence of all these issues that’s creating the urgency.
I wonder if some of what we’re seeing is the nationwide decline in audience for traditional jazz finally playing itself out here.
Sweet Home wasn’t here to take the measurement in 2003, but what I’d imagine if we were to extend our line graph farther back to the ’60s is that you’d have a downward slope, but what we’ve seen from ’05 to ’10 is a steep drop. The community had a greater capacity to absorb the decline and adjust to it [before]; the abrupt nature of the change now is a different story because it was overnight and alongside all these other issues.
Are you able to speak to the health of the brass band community?
My recollection from ’09 is that the brass bands are doing better than the traditional jazz guys. Second lines are at their pre-Katrina frequency. That’s only 35, 40 gigs a year, but they’re good gigs, and the number of bands in circulation to play them is relatively small. Club stuff has been happening and opportunities on the road have been happening a little bit. They’re by no means sheltered from these other conditions, but because they’re younger and better able to adapt, the contemporary brass bands have fared a little better than the traditional brass guys.
I find the state of brass interesting because brass bands seem to be doing well, but there are few brass band recordings.
About two-thirds of our clients don’t have a recording. I agree, the level of activity and the number of CDs on the streets are very different numbers. Part of it is the cost of recording. If you’ve got 11 friends in a brass band, getting all those guys into a studio, organizing it, paying for the time, the post-production and the pressing and everything else is a tough deal. There’s also a lack of management. If you’re a young brass band, there’s no building you can walk into and say, “Hi, we’re a young brass band. Everybody loves us on the street but we want to make a record.” There’s nowhere to go with that.
The numbers for people who are trying to make their living making music in the city are discouraging, but it seems like there are more people than ever trying to have national careers as recording artists that include regular touring.
What the data showed is that the statistical factor that determines your stability was the consistency of your non-musical income. If you’re a Sweet Home client—someone looking for additional resources to stabilize your living situation—you have the same number of gigs per month as a musician who isn’t, but the musician who isn’t, their household income is significantly higher because of their non-music income. Maybe it’s a spouse, maybe you’re in a brass band but you’re an electrician and that business is steady.
It [also] comes back to age. Certain types of musicians are in a position to pursue touring or marketing a recorded product, and some aren’t. Most of our clients are not. We’ve got so many clients who don’t have a press kit, who don’t have management, who don’t have an agent, who don’t have a Web site and don’t know how to get online. The people who are in a position to pursue those opportunities have more skills and resources going into it.
How’s the fundraising business?
Hirsch: Challenging.
Hernandez: What separates Sweet Home from other non-profits is that we have the data to substantiate the programs that we’re doing. Yes, the country’s in an economic slump, but there are resources available. Foundations are looking for high impact and visibility in terms of the moneys given and what you’re going to do with it, and we’re in a good place for that. New Orleans is a cultural gem and people are willing to invest, but they want to invest wisely. Sweet Home offers that opportunity because we’re looking at real people who contribute to the culture.
How have donations been in the last year?
Hirsch: They’ve been about what we expected, which is half of what they were two years ago. What we’re doing in response to that is delivering different types of services. In 2008, we helped a lot of people buy sheetrock and rebuild houses. This year, we’re helping more people with professional development. It’s as critical now as rebuilding houses was two years ago. We’re hoping as people step back and assess what’s happened over the last five years, they’ll see the return on their investment and build our revenues back up. That’s what Gabriela’s here to do.
What is your background?
Hernandez: My academic background is arts and education, so we’re looking at culture and forming identities. I’ve worked with at-risk communities, specifically at-risk youth, using art as a conduit for social change and social justice. My past six years have been at the Louisiana State Museum as director of education, and forming partnerships with cultural organizations to highlight what makes Louisiana culture different and unique.
What’s necessary for the long-term health of Sweet Home New Orleans?
Hernandez: Once the report is out, Jordan and I are going to sit down with the staff and look at the services we provide. Specifically, we’re looking at professional development and social services. Musicians want to be involved in the transmission of musical heritage to children. It helps the creative development of children as well as the cognitive development, and it enables the transmission of culture. A lot of the tradition bearers are getting older, so it’s important that transmission occurs.
