Likemany dance-band musicians of that era, Ellingtonquicklyrealisedthat the vibrantnew jazzsounds coming up fromNew Orleans represented apotent source of new ideas.
Following Woody Allen on a 1996 concert tour through Europe with his New Orleans-style jazzband, the documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple touchingly reveals the inextricable unity of the man and his movie persona and suggests the psychic conflicts at the heart of his great films.
Today McDonogh 15 is more accustomed to happy hallways bursting with the colors of Mardi Gras and the strains of adolescents playing NewOrleansjazz in the school band.
These are musicians who "contributed to the architecture of rock 'n' roll, " Padnos says, by transforming the traditional, bass-heavy NewOrleansjazz of the marching band and whorehouse piano into something entirely new.