Katrina Blues: John Gros
by John Swenson • offBeat Magazine • December 2005
“There’s no culture in the United States of America like New Orleans.”
John Gros was enjoying a breakthrough year in 2005 leading two bands, the enormously popular Papa Grows Funk and his own solo group. Papa Grows Funk was on the road when Katrina hit.
“We were en route back home from a tour,” said Gros, who has returned to New Orleans. “We played Japan for a month, then we went from Tokyo to Boston and did four nights in the Boston area. Our scheduled day to get home was August 29th. I never made it. We all knew watching it on TV it was bad. Some of the guys had flights scheduled and switched their flights. Jellybean rearranged his to Dallas where his wife was heading. Donald Ramsey and June Yamagishi flew into New Orleans earlier, Sunday morning. Donald’s sister picked him up at the airport and they went straight to Memphis. June made it back to his apartment, where he stayed until Wednesday afternoon. Jason Mingledorff couldn’t change his flight so Jason drove with us to Birmingham, where his dad picked him up and brought him to his home in Montgomery. Myself and my roadie Rick drove around the outer wall of the hurricane to Lake Charles. I stayed at a friend’s house who I grew up with. I got through to June Wednesday afternoon on his home phone and he said ‘I’ve got a ride. Can I stay with you at Lake Charles?’ So June and his roommate and Hiro the guitar player in Kirk Joseph’s band, so you had three Japanese guitar players and six cats in a small little car evacuating from the City of New Orleans. They stayed with us for a week, then June, myself and Rick took off for San Francisco for the next Papa Grows Funk tour, which was already scheduled. We stopped at Sequoia National Forest on the way out, then played San Francisco all the way up to Seattle, then everybody scattered—Jellybean went back to Dallas, June went to Miami to stay with some friends there. Marc Piro went to Baton Rouge and Jason went back to Montgomery. So me and Rick drove home, stopping at Yellowstone National Forest and Mount Rushmore on the way back. We came home for two or three days then we flew off to Prague for a week where we played a benefit with this Czech band. I got back the first Monday in September, flew from Houston to New Orleans, went home to my house, checked everything out, then went straight to the Maple Leaf. They were up and running on a generator and I set my piano up in the dark on the stage and pointed it toward the bar and started playing. I was so homesick and I was glad to be playing music in New Orleans again. I opened up with “Stealin’” back in my same old used to be. I did three Monday nights on solo piano and then Papa Grows Funk started the week before Halloween night.”
Gros lost a number of dates for his solo band, but has kept PGF going strong.
“Everything I had booked with the solo band was late September early October and it all got canceled. I was just determined that I was not gonna let the hurricane ruin all the hard work that I’ve been putting forth over the last five years with Papa Grows Funk. We had a game plan to focus on developing markets already in place. Luckily we didn’t lose all of our work, we just lost half of our work. Hank [Staples] at the Maple Leaf is a big proponent of getting things up and running and getting things moving. I don’t know how much business we will be doing but I call them community service gigs.”
Despite his positive outlook, Gros was shocked at what he saw upon his return to New Orleans.
“I see complete devastation, at all levels. Socially, economically, culturally, it’s just complete devastation. It’s weird. The whole vibe is completely different. The neighborhoods where you don’t see any green is the most disturbing to me. Of course it’s all gonna come back but it’s gonna be very weird to see what’s going to happen to New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish. But I look at it all as an optimist. The city of New Orleans, the political machines, the eviscerated school board, the housing situation, everything has been so corrupt over the years that this offers a chance for New Orleans to completely change the way the city does everything. Politically, economically, it’s the perfect time to put a new infrastructure together. One that’s gonna focus on communities and industry. The music industry is gonna be fine. It’s a shame and it’s totally understandable, that so many of our musicians have gone, but everybody’s trying to find work and trying to find a roof over their heads. In the short term there’s gonna be a big void in New Orleans musically, just like in a lot of other areas, restaurants are shut down, other businesses. But I predict the musicians will come back. This is a place where musicians can make a good, honest living while being around their families and the friends that they love, the culture that they love. You can’t do that in a lot of other cities. There’s no culture in the United States of America like New Orleans. We are so attached to it—it is a magnet. And I can’t see it watered down to any great extent, I just don’t see it going that route. Some musicians will make it back, I hope most of ’em do, a lot of them won’t, though. And if they don’t hopefully they’ll create opportunities for themselves wherever they go and they’ll spread New Orleans culture wherever they go. That’s good for all the non-cultural towns, meaning any other city besides New Orleans.
“I’ve got a positive outlook. I’m not in a position of power where I could really change the way the education system is set up, where all the government housing is set up. Set up home ownership so people have pride in their neighborhoods and the kids can bring that attitude to their schools and we can get rid of the apathy and negativity that has plagued us. If you can start there the great city of New Orleans is going to be an even greater city.”
Gros thinks the music is one of the main attributes of the city that will be on the leading edge of its revival.
“On my trip back from Prague I was on the plane with Quint Davis and he said we would have Jazz Fest but he just didn’t know where. My thought is that after the grandstand burned down we still had it there. I would assume they’re not gonna be expecting gangbusters attendance so they can easily do it without the grandstand.
“I just can’t wait to see the songs that are going to come out of all of this.”