Bringing New Orleans' Music Back Home

"It's in the devastated Upper Ninth Ward, and it's one of the most unusual, quixotic, and totally appropriate ideas to rise from the city where jazz was born: A neighborhood by musicians, for musicians."

"Laid out in tight rows, the homes – a mix of bungalow and shotgun styles – shimmer in Caribbean colors: sun-soaked yellows, sunset pinks, deep-sea turquoise. In a city where thousands of homes are rotting on their pilings, Musicians' Village is an island of hope in a tragic sea."

"Indeed, the village, dreamed up by music philanthropists Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis and made possible by Habitat for Humanity, is both a joyful vision and an ironic critique: So far, a nonprofit project aimed at bringing musicians – and thereby music – back to the city has become the largest redevelopment project to date, with another 150 homes planned in the surrounding neighborhood."