Community Chat

[pinkskates4]

Rather than focus on the negative, I had resolved to look for the good news in the world and thus I posted about the guy selling his restaurant to help his employee.

I see from the comments that maybe this wasn't the best choice as it has just caused people to argue about his motives.

So I'm trying again.

Music has always been very important to me. It touches the heart in a way that nothing else can. I applaud this talented musician for giving back to his community and particularly to youth.

Musician Troy Andrews, 27, is a New Orleans prodigy. His fans from Bourbon Street to Berlin know him as “Trombone Shorty.”

Long before he ever sold out arenas, he had the ability to steal the stage.

Now he takes his gift and shares it with the next generation of New Orleans musicians. “I just want to give back,” he said. He does this through the Trombone Shorty Academy at Tulane University. High-schoolers come to learn the technical skills that go with talent, an art form once passed along in the streets of New Orleans one generation to the next.

“He’s more like a big brother to me,” said Tassion Lott, 17, one of Trombone Shorty’s students. The pianist, 17, was adopted by her aunt.

“[Music] has helped me stay out of trouble. My friends, we’ve grown apart. We grew up differently and they’re on a whole different path than I am. I have some who won’t graduate, or aren’t in school, and I think if music wasn’t part of my life I’d be on the same track as them,” said Lott.

“I met Trombone Shorty and when I started this program, I just gained a bigger passion for music, and I want to do this the rest of my life,” said Lott, who is now weighing scholarship offers to college.

“Everyone in New Orleans knows struggle. That’s just the fabric that we deal with here,” said Trombone Shorty. “We all deal with struggle in different ways, but music has been a light for us and to see and to be happy and to know there is a purpose that we can get through whatever it is we are doing or going through.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2013/12/trombone-shorty-gives-back-to-new-orleans-youth-mu...

[game-on]

dagna..... I think that many times people choose to argue not because what we post is a subject of conflict but because they have problems they need to resolve and have no control over.... so they see this as a place they can lash out with few to no consequences....

re: this musician.... I think when hurricane Katrina hit I learned a lot more about the problems of new Orleans... and the area that surrounds it.... this young man and others who focus on positive things, things that people can enjoy and find escape from their not so perfect environment, are really helping people who live there.... thanks for the article.