Recently, Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO) completed a study of profiling the state of New Orleans music scene—including Mardi Gras Indians and Social Aid and Pleasure club members—and found good and bad news.

The good news: Of the musicians that checked in with agency since the first days after Katrina when it operated at the New Orleans Musicians’ Hurricane Relief Fund, 75 percent are back in New Orleans. They’re concentrated in Uptown and along the Esplanade ...