New Orleans jazz rebuilds

Willie Washington, Jr., knows what it means to miss New Orleans.

Washington-known to the music world as singer/keyboardist "Blu'Z"-has been living in Memphis with his 7-year-old son since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

His home in Carrollton, a neighborhood in Uptown New Orleans, was flooded with eight feet of water, destroying his keyboard among other possessions.

Before the storm, Washington was a regular on the New Orleans music scene, playing in different groups with musicians such as trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. But for Washington, and for many other New Orleans-based musicians, the need to take care of basic necessities like housing forced music into the backseat immediately after the storm.

"We drove the car out of town after they declared martial law," Washington said. "There were dead bodies all over the bridge."

But with a new keyboard and a new band at his side, Washington will return to the city and the music scene he calls home.

The group is a jazz/funk quartet called Jafuso that Washington formed with two Memphis-based musicians and a Mississippi musician also displaced by the storm. The band has been spending 13 hours a day composing and practicing their songs, including a tune called "Katrina." The song takes the melody from Ray Charles' "Georgia" and features lyrics about the pain wrought from the hurricane.

Jafuso made its New Orleans debut at Café Brasil last Thursday, and the band recently auditioned at House of Blues New Orleans. Washington said he hopes to move back to the city for good once his son finishes his elementary school's spring term in Memphis.