Connick Jr., Marsalis break ground on New Orleans music centre

Harry Connick Jr. returned to New Orleans this week, joining fellow Louisiana son Branford Marsalis on Thursday for a ground-breaking ceremony for their joint music centre.

Thejazzmen sat in on performances by New Orleans musicians during the event, which marked the construction launch of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

Named for the jazz pianist and patriarch of a family of talented composers and instrumentalists, the Marsalis Center is being touted as the future heart of the new Musicians' Village neighbourhood of New Orleans, a housing complex designed to house displaced musicians.

Slated for completion in 2008, the new musiccomplex is designed to be a community centre and performing hall. It will also include recording studio facilities and teaching space.

"It will ensure there will be a physical place where young musicians can go to learn from older musicians," Connick Jr. said earlier this week.

Organizers have said they hope Musicians' Villageand the Ellis Marsalis Center will help revitalize New Orleans's iconic music scene, still suffering two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Like most New Orleans citizens, many musicians were forced to leave the city to find work and shelter in the aftermath of Katrina.

Being built by Habitat for Humanity, Musicians' Village now consists of nearly 40 homes in the city's Upper Ninth Ward. The community will eventuallycomprise about70 homes, as well as several elder-friendly duplexes to be rented exclusively to musicians and administered by the music centre.

"I try to focus on the good more than anything else, because there's not much I can do about all the bad stuff," Connick Jr. said.

"The thing I think I can do better than anything else is keep the awareness in front of people and remind people how much work still needs to be done."