Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis played key roles in developing the Musicians Village, and the center, but as performers, they called this hall acoustically perfect.
"You're in the middle of the Upper 9th Ward," said Connick. "You've got the highest level of state-of-the-art technical facility here. it is like all these worlds coming together."
"You could bring a string quartet in here, and they could play without one shred of amplification, and everybody in here could hear every note in here regardless of the volume," raved Marsalis.
"You could also bring Dr. John in here with his full band, and people would love every minute of it."
The main performance hall has state-of-the-art recording equipment that is even a boost for Hollywood South.
"We have a facility like that with big screen projection capabilities, and these incredible acoustics, they can actually record the score of an entire movie here," said Jim Pate of Habitat For Humanity.
But it is also a community center, with meeting rooms, computer labs, and classrooms to train future music stars.
"We've got a couple of schools that we've partnered with in the Upper 9th Ward, with a lot of children that are interested in coming," said Center Executive Director Michele Jean-Pierre.
Opening the Ellis Marsalis Center is the culmination of the Habitat for Humanity Musicians' Village project that started in March 2006, just seven months after Katrina. At that time, this was an empty lot, now it's a community.
They built 72 homes and ten duplexes here, and Habitat work is continuing at sites throughout the city.
Download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak
Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com
Tweet
