New Orleans and Manchester have a history together that goes way back – but everyone forgets because no one on the US side of the ocean asks the question:
“Where did the cotton from New Orleans go?”
To Manchester, where textile mill workers – including children as young as five – faced conditions every bit as brutal as Delta slavery.
In spite of their own situation, Manchester workers stood in solidarity with enslaved Africans in America and called for Abolition.
Today, victimized by government corruption, incompetence and neglect on an epic scale, the people of New Orleans have been beaten, but are not bowed.
If ever there were a time for Mancunians who love the beat to turn their eyes back to New Orleans, now’s the time.
Every beat in popular music – jazz, R & B, rock and roll, funk – originated on a drum kit in New Orleans.
Chicago and Detroit? Musical nephews of the Big Uncle Big Easy. Look it up…and share the video.
Thanks to videographers Hubie Vigreaux, Ken McCarthy, and YouTubers. Edit by Matthew Lipscomb and Ken McCarthy.
Special thanks to A Guy Called Gerald.
Info about the upcoming Food Music Justice program in Manchester, UK is here:
Stan Getz