International Musician Magazine
January 2007

Jesse Moore of Local 174-496 (New Orleans, LA) was surprised to win the 2006 Battle of the Bands Competition at the 14th Annual Cutting Edge Music Business Conference & Roots Music Gathering in New Orleans, especially because he didn't know he had entered.

"I thought I was playing my regular Saturday night gig. When they told me I won, I said, 'What contest?'" he laughs.

Moore, it turns out, was chosen by a committee of industry insiders from about 80 bands and musicians who performed at the August conference. Of course, he was very honored when he found out he'd won.

His prize included 10 hours of studio time at Piety Street Recording and one year's AFM membership. The Federation has been doing outreach programs at music festivals for a few years now, explains Dick Gabriel, AFM assistant to the president, special projects.

The outreach programs began with a few booths and have expanded to include educational panels and events such as battle of the bands competitions.

Gabriel was pleased that a New Orleans resident won the competition. "We want to do as much as we can to boost a New Orleans renaissance," he says. Moore plans on using his studio time to record a new album of original material. Moore's music has been described as New Orleans R&B, southern rock, rock and roll, and blues, but Moore hates labeling himself. "I'm all over the map musically," he says. "Why force a song into a certain type of sound?"

Moore is no newbie to the music industry. He already has two solo albums under his belt, The HooDooMan (2003) and More than Life Itself (2005). He grew up in Brooklyn, at a time when "everyone was singing doo-wops." "I first realized that I could sing in the Boy's Club Brooklyn bathroom," he recalls. "We used to sing in there because there was an echo!"

Music provided him with a way to excel in the violent environment that he grew up in, he says. By the age of 12, he had his own group and they won the prestigious Apollo Theatre Talent Night Contest.

He recalls going backstage at a Smokey Robinson concert where he met, not only Robinson, but also the Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Moore auditioned for them. "Smokey said, 'I'm sorry kid, you sound too much like me,'" Moore remembers, but they all told him he was talented and to keep pushing.

Moore also rubbed elbows with some of the most famous songwriters in rock and roll history when he was hired to sing at demo sessions for $25 a song at the Brill Building. He learned a lot from the songwriters who took him under their wing. "It was such a creative environment," he says.

Moore did not move to New Orleans until 2003, but he fell in love with the city rich in musical history. His response to Hurricane Katrina shows this love of his adopted home: "The main thing that's happened to me is that my heart's been broken," he says.

Moore had moved into the French Quarter three days before Katrina hit. His old home was destroyed and, if he hadn't just moved, he would have lost everything. He considers himself very lucky and feels it is his responsibility to stay in the city. He still gets steady work, but not everybody is so fortunate, and he is very concerned for the future of New Orleans.

"America has kind of abandoned us," he says. Tourists still come, he says, and for the visitors the city looks the same, but to the musicians who live in New Orleans, the changes are obvious.

"In order to have a musical renaissance you need a certain type of environment. You need a tolerable environment," he continues. "There is respect and tolerance for musicians in New Orleans. I think it still has that, but everything is so expensive. We're losing our musicians," says Moore.

With service projects like the Battle of the Bands, the AFM and revived Local 174-496 are trying to rectify the situation. Moore wants to do his part and urges people to visit the Crescent City. He wants visitors to know that he performs every week in the French Quarter, and he also guarantees you will be entertained if you go.