With the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on their minds, members of the Regal Brass Band of New Orleans helped open the Detroit International Jazz Festival with a rousing rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In."
 Butch Gomez | Saxophonist and bandleader Butch Gomez, who saw the New Orleans convenience store he owns underwater on an Internet news broadcast, was among the members who played to an audience of about 2,000 on Friday. |
"We decided it wasn't going to do any good to stay where we were," Gomez, 59, told the Detroit Free Press. "We might as well come and keep the spirit going. ... It feels very therapeutic. Music is our life."
The band is in residence through Monday, marching from downtown's Campus Martius to Hart Plaza on the Detroit River twice a day.
Gomez and his wife evacuated Sunday to Covington, Ga. He located one of his tuba players in Panama City, Fla., a drummer in Houston and his trombone player returning from Japan. But four other players were missing.
Two Detroiters, drummer Leonard King and trumpeter James O'Donnell, were filling in for the missing members.
During Friday's performance, many were overcome with emotion.
"I don't know how they did it knowing what they left behind and what they have to go back to," said Archie Rawlings of Farmington Hills.
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