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By PHILIP BOOTH
Published November 22, 2005

Various Artists, Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert (Blue Note)

New Orleans is America's "soul kitchen," essential to the vitality of our country's musical culture, as Wynton Marsalis writes in the eloquent liner notes for Higher Ground, a document of the Hurricane Katrina benefit at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, which the trumpeter serves as artistic director.

The music heard at the concert, an emotion-laden artistic triumph broadcast live Sept. 17 on PBS and NPR, handily supports that thesis. It's a real smorgasbord, performed by New Orleans artists, including some who lost family members and homes to the storm, as well as hitmakers - Norah Jones, James Taylor, Bette Midler - with hearts for the cause.

The program, a 15-song sampler from the five-hour concert, reflects the diversity of the city's musical heritage.

Shirley Caesar opens with an exuberant gospel workout on This Joy, and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, whose father apparently was lost in the storm, closes with the spiritual Just a Closer Walk With Thee, with Ronald Markham on piano, the emotional high point of the show (and this recording).

Aaron and Art Neville drive home the second-line parade rhythms of Go to the Mardi Gras, with the help of Marsalis and members of his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Buckwheat Zydeco does his bluesy, accordion-injected thing on I'm Gonna Love You Anyway.

Jazz, of course, is here in several varieties. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard (Over There), the Jordan Family (Here's to Life) and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano's trio with bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Idris Muhammad (Blackwell's Message) offer modern jazz. Diana Krall (Basin Street Blues), Marsalis' Hot Seven (Dippermouth Blues) and pianist Marcus Roberts' trio (New Orleans Blues) dig into traditional jazz.

First-rate jazz vocal performances liven the proceedings, too, with Dianne Reeves' The House I Live In and Cassandra Wilson's spooky, slow-mo Come Sunday, with violinist Mark O'Connor and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Here's hoping Blue Note won't wait too long to release a more comprehensive document - CD boxed set? DVD? - of the year's most compelling live television event. Grade: A

Dr. John and the Lower 911, Sippiana Hericane (Blue Note)

It's always a pleasure hearing New Orleans native son Dr. John and his reliably supportive Lower 911 band dig into his potent brand of Big Easy R&B and funk, and the Katrina benefit disc Sippiana Hericane is no exception.

He wears his heart on his sleeve for this one, dispensing gospel blues on the eco-conscious Clean Water and reworking the spiritual Wade in the Water for the first and last sections of the four-part Wade: Hurricane Suite. The highlight is a new version of Mac's funk-to-Latin Sweet Home New Orleans, with additional lyrics by his wife, Cat Yellen: "We're gonna be back/Twice as strong," he growls. Our hopes, exactly. Grade: B

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 02:15:27]