I went down to New Orleans in early August for the annual Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans—to present a panel on HBO's Treme and do a public interview with trumpeter Kermit Ruffins about our 2009 visit to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY. Both events dealt on some level with facts and myths about New Orleans jazz history, not to mention ideas of what we can hold onto and what might be lost.

As always, Satchmo Summerfest—a free outdoor music festival combined with a two-day symposium—began with a second-line parade. Led by the Treme Brass Band, whose trumpeter Kenny Terry is deserving of more renown, the first parade opened somewhat uncharacteristically with the Bobby Womack tune (best known as a 1964 Rolling Stones hit) “It’s All Over Now.”  Most of the bands, including The Rebirth Brass Band, rolling in the streets these days regularly play the song, but it’s outside the Treme’s traditional repertoire.

As if in contradiction to the song’s literal title, three younger bands followed in the Treme’s wake: Baby Boyz, Young Ones Brass Band, and To Be Continued Brass Band. The Baby Boyz have been coming on strong for the past several years and are among the most inspiring flowerings of brass band tradition in Katrina’s wake.  The Young Ones Brass Band is a relatively new band started by Earl Weaver IV, who plays a mean tuba but favors the bass drum instead. Most of its members met in the marching band of St. Augustine High School under the direction of Edwin Hampton.

Ah, Hamp: I recall interviewing trumpeter Terence Blanchard, a three-time Grammy winner, in July.  During the interview, he stopped to read an urgent text message. "My band director just passed," he said with heavy sigh. Edwin Hampton, the founding director of the St. Augustine High School's ‘Marching 100’ band, had died in his sleep that morning at the age of 81. Blanchard recalled how Hampton, under whom he’d played more than 30 years ago at St. Aug, "brought something to the African-American youth in that community that they wouldn't get any other place—a certain level of excellence."

That level of excellence, not to mention strong senses of camaraderie, commitment and groove, have been upheld and passed on by esteemed New Orleans educators like Hampton and trumpeter Clyde Kerr, who died the day I arrived for Satchmo Fest at the age of 67. Kerr, who graduated from St. Augustine High School, is best known for his 16 years heading the jazz department at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), a finishing school for many of the best-known jazz musicians from New Orleans.

Another  quintessential finishing school, especially when it comes to brass bands, is the street. Not just the routes where, for four hours at a stretch, a second-line parade wends its way through and between neighborhoods. But also the streets of the French Quarter, where, in time-honored tradition, brass bands hone their craft, connect with peers and elders, and play for tips. I remember Sean Roberts, a 23-year-old trumpeter in the To Be Continued Brass Band talking about the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, where TBC plays most nights. “I learned how to play trumpet on this corner,” he said. Joe Maize, a trombonist in the TBC band, calls the spot “our practice room.”

The TBC sounded sharp and potent at the Satchmo Fest parade. They’d worked hard on the corner. I’d been talking with their members about that corner a month or so ago because a controversy had begun to stir regarding noise ordinances and quality of life issues in the French Quarter after the police served notice to the band regarding an 8:00pm curfew. (See my lengthy piece on this issue at Truthdig.com.) This controversy, and a slew of others, pointed to the fact that the ordinances governing such activity throughout New Orleans, and especially in the French Quarter, need reform.

Here’s an update: According to Scott Hucheson, the cultural economy advisor to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a working group of some 15 people—ranging from French Quarter residents to WWOZ-FM general manager David Freedman to attorneys and city council members to the TBC’s Roberts—have met several times to “go line-by-line and scrub the relevant law,” as Hucheson put it, “looking at inconsistencies, contradictions, and blatant unconstitutionality.” (All of which exist, according the lawyers and experts I’ve consulted.)

Hucheson says that when this process is through, sometime before the end of the year, the recommendations will be posted in the administration’s website for 14 days, with public comments invited. Only then will the ordinances be revisited by the city council—the first such reconsideration in decades.

Now is a moment for Landrieu to signal a clean break from the policies (or lack thereof) of his predecessors, and of long-standing but ill-serving local laws relating to culture. While he and his City Council consider the ordinances that tell bands to keep quite past 8:00 p.m., why not revisit the full scope of cultural policy that is at odds with New Orleans’ true identity?

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In the five years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, residents have developed innovative approaches to tackling some of the city’s—and the nation’s—most persistent problems: criminal justice reform, unresponsive government, and racial and economic inequality.  In recognition of these efforts, during the month of August the Open Society Blog shines a light on people and organizations in New Orleans bringing change from within one of the country’s most important cities. Read more posts in this series.