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City People

His rhythm remains

He cried when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Now, he's made it his mission to keep the city's jazz alive.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published July 21, 2006

OLD HYDE PARK - Ed Dowling was on the road playing his trumpet in Tampa when he caught his first glimpse of Hurricane Katrina on a television weather map.

"When I saw that big, red monster out there, I said, 'Oh my God.' "

Within days, it all washed away: his home in Mid City, the bayou where he caught his first fish, the taxicab business he owned. Dowling cried - and he's not a crying man, he said.

Dowling continued to tour, playing New Orleans Jazz wherever he could in Dallas and Orlando. He stuck around in Tampa for five months. Then, he returned to New Orleans to see if he could rebuild his life.

Not a chance. His visit was more traumatic than his service in Vietnam, Dowling said.

He heard gunshots in the streets. The old friends he saw had bags under their eyes. They were traumatized, depressed. The trees looked naked without leaves.

"Just these fingers" remained, Dowling said, wiggling his hand.

He stayed here and there with friends and in motel rooms until he found a small apartment in Bayshore Beautiful last week.

Dowling is scratching up gigs where he can. He has no stable job. But he has a mission: to save New Orleans music.

"If someone doesn't play this, it's going to die," Dowling said.

So he plays it - the bold, smooth, brassy sound he first heard when he was 9, when a music teacher brought a trumpet to his class. Dowling picked it up then and never stopped.

In Vietnam, Dowling carried a gun. But he also carried his trumpet. He played in the band for the Marine Corps and the Army.

Later, he played for Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett in the Blue Room at the Fairmont Hotel.

Dowling spent a lot of his life on the road, spreading the New Orleans sound. He has played on more rivers than he can name, but New Orleans was always home base.

Until now.

"It's going to be different," Dowling said of Tampa. "It's going to be a change. I hope it's for the better."

Dowling has had some help getting established in his new city. Toni Beddingfield, who recently retired from public relations, met Dowling at a South Tampa cafe and offered to help him promote his music.

"I've never seen anybody so in love with an instrument in my life," Beddingfield said. "The trumpet is his baby. He carries it with him wherever he goes, and he plays absolutely beautifully."

His gigs don't usually pay more than $100, and right now, he has two lined up - one next week and one six months away.

Dowling and his band, the French Market, will play at the Hyde Park Village Summer Concert Series on Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m.

It'll be some "pretty swingin' stuff," Dowling said in his New Orleans drawl.

Dowling doesn't know what his life will be like after that. But he does know one thing:

"I'll continue playing my trumpet."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at (813) 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 13:20:37]