Overview: Despite the catastrophe caused by the 2005 failure of the New Orleans levee system, the biggest engineering failure in U.S. history, New Orleans was re-inhabited, rebuilt, and re-ignited with the spirit that makes it one of the world’s greatest cultural gems.

This book tells the story of how it happened with a special focus on the city’s musicians. They were among the first to return to the devastated city. The spirit they brought with them was the key to putting New Orleans back on its feet, and even dancing again - against all odds.

Verdict: New Orleans is known for its music. But 18 years ago, the music was drowned out by the howling winds and rising water brought by Hurricane Katrina.

Musicians joined other residents fleeing the city, but subsequently, part of the effort to bring New Orleans back to life focused on bringing back the musicians and creating a place where they could live and work, and make music.

In what was a all-hands-on event, and with help from 40,000 volunteers, Habitat for Humanity built 72 low-cost homes in one of the city’s residential neighborhoods. The village also includes a community center named after New Orleans jazz great Ellis Marsalis that features a performance hall and recording studio.

Since then, over 200 musicians have moved in, a lot there from the very first nail being hammered in, so that they learned the empowering feeling of seeing how their neighborhood was going to be reconstructed.

Featuring interviews with John Swenson, Ronald Lewis, Roger Lewis, Chuck Perkins, and Ornette Coleman, with excerpts from Glen David Andrews’ speech at the Silence Is Violence rally of 2007, and inclusive of links to NOLA videos of important historical events that took place after the 2005 flood that you won’t find anywhere else, Death, Resurrection, and the Spirit of New Orleans: Jazz on the Tube Conversations (by author Ken McCarthy) is an engaging, informative and downright easy read that will have you learning stuff about what happened that you have, most likely, never heard before today.

Written by someone who has an obvious passion for the city of New Orleans, and who not only holds NOLA in high regard, but has it freely, proudly flowing through his veins, McCarthy may well not physically live in New Orleans, but he most assuredly has a firm handle on the heartbeat that continual dwells within it.

Freely admitting early on that he had grown up in New York City, McCarthy also goes on to say that he himself thought he had grown up in the center of the musical universe, but thanks to subsequently-made new friends and projects attended to, suddenly he was on-and-off in New Orleans, learning these things along the way:

1. New Orleans is wildly underappreciated.
2. New Orleans is a paradise for musicians and has more world class musicians per capita than any place he knows.
3. New Orleans is deep.
4. New Orleans food is really good.

But, I digress, for this book showcases not only that, but even why the title was chosen due to it. You see, New Orleans was rebuilt by spirit, thus the title. The spirit was captured by many people, but first among equals were the musicians of the city. They were the first back. The first to set up shop. The first to say with their horns and keys and strings and sticks and skins and voices: This city must come back. This city will come back.

In closing, what McCarthy hopes is that his book encourages readers to come to New Orleans, but get off Bourbon Street and start the process of discovering the city’s real riches.

For, and musicians in particular, if you haven’t explored the city’s music scene, you are missing one of the great wonders of the age.

About The Author: Time Magazine (March, 2014) credited Ken McCarthy with being the person who had the fundamental insight that made it possible to transform the Internet from a non-commercial technical platform to the world’s biggest marketplace and publishing platform.

His insight? That clicks had a commercial value and that their value was variable depending on audience. This insight is literally the foundation that made online businesses like Google and Facebook and millions of others possible.

In 2002, when everyone else in the market had shut down after 9/11, and the Dotcom Crash, and declared that opportunities on the Internet over, Ken launched the most important and influential Internet marketing seminar series of all time: The System Seminar.

Thousands of students attended over the years from twenty-three countries and five continents and many went on to become leaders in the industry.

In the System Seminar, Ken laid down the fundamentals of Internet marketing still used today: opt-in, email follow up, A/B split testing, knowing your conversion rates, multiple forms of media (text, photos, audio, video), virtual seminars, and high quality ad copy.

Amazon Book Purchase Link

www.KenMcCarthy.com