New Orleans Children Raised with Rhythm

 

“He didn’t know how to play anything,” said George Hutchinson, Nico’s dad. “It was awful, you know.” But the kids raked in $80 in tips from passers-by.

 

 “Everybody was giving me tips just because they thought it was funny so I told my dad I wanted to take lessons,” said Nico. 

 

Now, 12, and a seventh-grade pupil at Lusher Charter School, Nico has six years of drumming experience under his belt. That musical experience has paid off. Not only is he a talented drummer, Nico earned $2,500 in tips while performing outside his home during last year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. 

“When I first played they were just amused,” said Nico. “This year they’re still amused, but I actually know how to play so they’re kind of surprised.”

 

“Music in general plays an important role in our city,” said Brian Hammell, director of communications at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. “It’s not only part of our culture, but it’s part of events, part of funerals, part of birthdays and a part of celebrations.” 

 

Nico’s foray into drumming kicked off six years of weekly drum lessons, Hutchinson said. He has studied at internships sponsored by Tipitina’s, the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music and was accepted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was the youngest student by at least five years, said Hutchinson. 

 

Nico also has studied with New Orleans funk drummer Johnny Vidacovich and has performed in several second line parades with the Kinfolk Brass Band. 

Daily practice before and after school is vitally important, Hutchinson said. “He practices,” said Hutchinson. “He works at it. Consistency is the key.”

 

 

For another New Orleans boy, music runs deep in his bloodline. Eleven year-old Lawrence Rawlins, Jr., nicknamed “Lil’ Lo,” is at least the third generation of men in his family to love and play music. Rawlins’ grandfather, Wilbert “Widow” Rawlins was the long-time drummer for Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans.” 

Lil’ Lo’s father, Lawrence Rawlins, Sr. is the band director at McDonogh 35 Senior High School and his uncle, Wilbert Rawlins, Jr. is the band director at Landry-Walker High School. 

 

When he was a small child, Lawrence Rawlins, Sr. would pick his son up from daycare and take him straight back to the band room where he would listen to marching band practice. 

 

Lil’ Lo, now a sixth-grade pupil at KIPP Morial School, plays the mellophone, trumpet, flugelhorn and is learning how to play the French horn. He has served as McDonogh 35’s drum major mascot for the past five years, said Lawrence Rawlins, Sr. 

 

Lil’ Lo also participates in “Roots of Music,” a non-profit, after school-music education program that keeps kids off the streets by “saving their lives through music” and mentorship, said Lawrence Rawlins, Sr., who is also one of the organization’s board members.

 

“It helps you,” said Lil’ Lo, who counts trumpeter Louis Armstrong among his favorite influences. “If you’re feeling bad, all you have to do is think about music or play it and it brings you into a happy mood.”

 

One musical teen is close to making music his profession. Ben Mader, 17, of Metairie, is completing his education at NOCAA and has already auditioned for admission at several universities nationwide where he plans to study piano performance and, eventually, play professionally as an adult.

The auditions don’t bother Ben who has been playing piano for 13 years. “It’s like a good stress,” said Ben. “It’s like I’m getting things done. It feels good. It’s a good feeling. It’s what I love doing.”

 

Ben began piano lessons at age four when his mother, Annie Mader, saw how bored her younger son became while waiting for her older son Ted to finish his guitar lessons. “It just came naturally to him,” Mader said, of piano lessons.

 

 

Ben said he particularly enjoys classical music because of how detailed and intellectual the pieces are. “I could spend hours digging into a piece,” said Ben. “I think that’s what really makes it great.” Russian pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Daniil Trifonov inspire him, Ben said. 

 

And for Ben’s mother, who simply wanted her younger son to have something to do while her older son was busy, her son’s love of music is wonderful, she said. “It’s beautiful,” said Mader. “There’s nothing like listening to music live and it’s in my own living room.”