♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Nobody knows the trouble I've seen ♪ ♪ Nobody knows my sorrow ♪ ♪ Nobody knows the trouble I've seen ♪ ♪ Glory, hallelujah ♪ MoeJoe: New Orleans is that place where history doesn't die.

Whatever has been here, whatever has been created here, is just gonna find a way to just, like, make its way back.

♪♪ Alexander: When they imported all of those those African songs and rituals, it was not, like, imported.

It was just, the people that were here, there were freaking suffering.

There's no better way of putting it.

There's no worse way of putting it, either.

A lot of these buildings were literally, like, built off the backs of slaves.

Flaherty: People remembered, and brought their dances from Africa to Congo Square, and preserved them.

So much of of dancing in this country, I think, comes out of that preservation of those African traditions.

♪♪ I'm sure that you can find a throughline from that into the way people dance at a bounce show, the way people dance at a second line.

The way people dance in New Orleans in general, you know, it comes out of this tradition.

Alexander: Music means something to everybody, whether you're in Ghana, whether you're in Spain, whether you're in Sweden.

The people have a message.

They have a struggle.

Those songs, those histories, those traditions.

And they got to keep being passed down through generations, through generations.

MoeJoe: Music, dance, language, movement, all of it is really like in the soil of this land.

And everybody and everything that has passed through here has just, like, been a part of it.

So, I think it's really just a part of the land that's here.

There's something about the soil.

It just latches onto whatever has some spice, whatever has some soul, whatever has some flavor.

♪ Glory, hallelujah ♪ [ Blues music playing ] ♪♪ Guillory: When I was a young boy, I would sit in the old dance halls, the church hall, and watch all these different people dance zydeco.

And it didn't matter how much money you had, it didn't matter who you were, what Statue of Life style you lived, that kind of thing.

It was just, basically, let's just come and have a good time.

♪♪ I was 5, 6 years old, running through the crowd, as a dancer.

Just being able to -- to feel the music, and to know that the people that was on stage, that was my my grandparent, or my uncles, you know?

And a lot of them were doing different steps.

Some of them were more erect with the body statue, and it wasn't really moving a lot.

And then, you look over to the left or to the right, and, you know, they're, like, almost salsa dancing, or something.

I mean, real loose body, you know.

And then, another couple over there, they're spinning around.

So, it wasn't like a designated one, two, three here, one, two, three there.

When I teach zydeco dancing, I use the basic ingredients of cooking a gumbo -- water, seasoning, meat, and root.

Everything else that you're gonna add to that is your shrimp, your okra, your neck bones, that kind of thing.

But it still makes zydeco.

So, nobody can't say because you're doing it this way, that you're not zydeco.

It's just the feel of the music, you know?

And you stay within that traditional groove.

And from there, we're zydeco.

Man: I'm ready.

Yes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm in the building, baby.

[ Whoops ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Here, you know, it's the South, and it is what it is, and a lot has changed.

But we can imagine a young Cajun boy teaching a young African-American -- slave, if you would -- an opportunity to learn how to play the accordion.

But because of his African descent, his Caribbean, whatever he has that's built in him already, now, he learns how to play Cajun music, but then, he spices it up, or he just oomphs it a little bit more than how that guy would've done it.

And that's basically how -- another way how zydeco came to be.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The main thing that you cannot forget -- listen to the music.

Listen to the beat.

Feel the beat.

It's a soul connection, but not like a soul man, soul woman.

You know, it's -- it's spiritual.

You know, to me, it's eternal.

And whenever you see somebody dancing zydeco music, they're not really smiling.

It has more of a serious, sober face.

But they're just so into it.

One may say to the other, "Are you having a good time?"

But if they're so serious into the dancing, they don't even say anything.

They just do the finger, like this.

Yeah, 'cause they just all into the groove, and they -- "You having a good time?"

♪♪ ♪♪ I remember playing with my cousin, Chris Ardoin.

And we were getting off the interstate to go to this festival.

And when we -- there were state troopers everywhere.

And he slowed the van down.

And he said, "Where are you guys going?"

And we said, "Well, we're one of the bands performing for the Crawfish Fest."

And the guy says -- she says, "So, which side of you go?

The Black side or the White side?"

You know, and this was, like, early 2000s.

And I was like, "Y'all still do that around here?"

♪♪ Today, I don't see that to be an issue.

Being a true Louisianan of Creole culture, we never had an issue with it.

It didn't matter to me.

You know, you guys, being from where you are, you could come.

And if you didn't know how to dance, we're gonna do our best to show you.

We want you to go back, and tell everybody how you had a wonderful time, and you can't wait to come back.

♪♪ Flaherty: Breaking down those lines, those barriers, those binaries.

That is so much a part of what New Orleans is.

Look at the Mardi Gras tradition that is different from the rest of the U.S. People of good being evil, evil being good, of breaking down those -- those lines, those barriers.

You know, even, I think, racial binaries are broken down in New Orleans, in different ways.

I think the way the people in New Orleans look at race is kind of more complicated than in the rest of the country.

And, you know, it comes out of, I think, this different history of French colonialism, in which you had free Black communities for a long -- longer times, and you had race-mixing for longer times.

And so, things are -- things are more mixed up, right?

It's the gumbo culture of New Orleans.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: If you've ever had gumbo, has all of these different items that you put in the pot.

And if you go to 10 people's houses, different houses, you're gonna get 10 different types of gumbo.

So, it's all of these different things you have -- you know, the French people, you have the African American people, you have the Spanish people.

You have, I mean, all of these diverse cultures that come together.

And it works, somehow.

We have differences, but, for some reason, we all, still, in the end, we all come together.

♪♪ ♪♪ Guillory: Right now, if I would take you to a zydeco dance where one of the top dogs in the industry is playing, you would have 1,500, 2,000 young people in there, to be able to become a part of that, and be actually one of the ambassadors, shall I say, to help people who don't know how to zydeco dance to now learn.

And then, years later, people are saying, "Well, yeah, years ago I didn't know anything about it, the dancing part.

But then, I took Harold Guillorys's class," or "I watched his video on YouTube, and now, you know, I know how to do it."

So, like I said, since a child to where I am today, you know, I thank God for this.

It's beautiful.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: Music, for us, in New Orleans, is the core of our city.

I don't know if you've ever been to a second line before, where the jazz band is playing.

And it may be for a funeral, you know, whatever.

But at some point in time, even though it's somber, you know, and you walk in, and it's a sad thing, eventually, you're gonna start buck-jumping -- which is dancing however you want to dance.

♪♪ ♪♪ MoeJoe: If you look around, just about everywhere, you're going to see some form of ritual.

You're going to see, randomly, a lot of parades that are here, that, usually, there's a funeral procession.

But it looks like people are happy, right, at the funeral procession, you know?

But that's a public way of, like, celebrating death.

♪♪ Guillory: What you're doing is, we're mourning the fact that you have passed away, so we're playing sad music taking you to the grave site.

But now that we've laid you to rest, and we know you're in a better place... [ Imitates upbeat music ] So, we second line, and we dance.

♪♪ And it's just basically knowing that whoever just left us was a good person, and they're in a good place, so there's no need for us to walk away from that, and be sad.

So let's just dance, and let's do it how she or he would have wanted it to be done.

♪♪ Anguiloza: New Orleans has a place and an energy where it values things that are natural -- natural to human beings, natural to communities.

And through art, especially, right?

That's what brings us together, is the art form, and the appreciation for that.

Here's another song made famous by Benny Goodman.

This one is called "Flying Home."

[ "Flying Home" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I learned how to swing dance in Southern California.

And we used to go to swing dance conventions all over the world, in New York and Connecticut.

And some of my swing dance friends moved here after Katrina.

And they said, "Well, you know, we're surrounded by music.

There's a vibe that we love when we go to these swing dance conventions.

Why not create that here?"

And I just fell in love with it.

It's almost like the city captured me, and brought me in, and said, "Okay, let's exchange this energy together."

♪♪ ♪♪ Tap dance is a rhythmic style of expression.

It started in Harlem, New York.

And so, is was a way of being percussive with the band.

Traditionally, in Rhythm Tap, what they do is, they're more of soloists.

They are the ones dictating the whole band.

What we do here is, I'm more another part of the band.

And I just add percussive elements.

When I get the solos, I treat it as riding a wave, as though you're surfing.

It's like, these waves are going, and you just, you've got to find that right wave.

And you just jump on in, and you start kind of going into it, and doing your thing.

And just knowing that you have the band to support you along the way.

It's your time to speak, basically.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Back in the swing era, which is my favorite era I'm inspired by the most -- 1920s, '30's, and '40's.

The swing era had a tap dancer in every single band.

♪♪ So, Duke Ellington had a tap dancer -- Bunny Briggs.

Just knowing that part of oral tradition and history, and how those dances are just passed down, a lot of those dancers, that's the only form of making a living at that time, for, you know, their circumstance.

As African-American artists during that time, it was difficult, and that's what they did to make a living.

A lot of them did.

And of course, they loved dance, too.

But, you know, I just want to say that I completely honor, you know, all the people that have come before me, and really set those traditions.

♪♪ It's a way of storytelling.

You tell your story through your movement.

Maybe it's one of those art forms that were more recognized with our ancestors.

And throughout time, over the centuries, with the implement of capitalism, and the implement of all the social structures that are happening now, maybe dance got lost through that, that kind of storytelling.

People have been fearful of expressing themselves in that kind of way, through the body, but it's the oldest way of communicating, because you don't need to speak.

♪♪ ♪♪ Here in New Orleans, you say "hi" to people in the street, and they say "hi" back to you right away.

We try to keep more space, more quality of life, so people can actually live their lives, and not just run.

I've learned that it isn't so much about money, you know, to be successful.

It's about connecting with others, you know?

And that's really what life is about.

And you can do it through painting, or through any kind of art form.

And I've chosen dance, and I've chosen music, as well.

♪♪ Here in New Orleans, everyone's so friendly, and we are always finding ways to connect with each other.

You know, and it has that kind of energy.

And I feel that that's really important.

And it's especially important nowadays, the way that the world is moving so quickly, and in the how this country can be divided, and the world can be divided.

and the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider.

We have to find ways to connect that don't have to do with materialism.

♪♪ ♪♪ Faherty: In New Orleans, anytime you have a group of people together, playing music, dancing, food, that's a block party, right?

And people have block parties everywhere.

But when you talk to people in New Orleans about block parties, there's this very specific route of where it comes from, of it being about community coming together.

One person once said to me, "Ms. Carroll was about to get evicted, so people throw a block party, and everyone pitches in, cooks some food, and people pay a few dollars for the food, or whatever.

And that money goes to stop Ms. Carroll from getting evicted."

♪♪ And that gets to the root of what so much of New Orleans is about -- combining community support with ecstasy, with celebration, with people coming together, and building community through dancing.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: It's New Orleans music.

I think, even with social causes, if we're doing a rally, like, to save a hospital, 50 people have come out.

But you get a jazz band, a second-line band -- like Hot Eight, or something like -- to come up, you guarantee at least 1,000 people are gonna come out, because they're gonna follow that music.

And that, again, comes together with that social cause, and it makes it bigger because people connect with it.

♪♪ MoeJoe: It's a part of our way of growing up.

You know, you can't be a kid or a teenager growing up here, and not have some form of, like, dance experience that you're a part of.

B-e-a-t. That beat.

That's what I feel.

♪♪ And dance has been that place, for us, where it's really just where we can feel free, you know?

And where we can't be judged.

And whatever society has placed on us, we really just say, "Screw society."

♪♪ ♪♪ Alexander: When I dance, I feel the messed up day I had at work.

I feel family troubles.

I feel financial burdens.

And I leave it all on the floor every time.

That's why I'm so happy, because I ain't got no problems.

I left it all on the dance floor.

And you can't really tell me anything.

♪♪ ♪♪ Producer: Are you born in New Orleans?

Alexander: What?

Yes.

Born and raised, from my first butt wipe into my first butt-whooping.

♪♪ ♪♪ Just how every other great music thing happened was because of the woman, I was going out with this Cuban dance teacher, And I was like, "Oh, I'm just -- I'm just liking this Cuban dance thing."

But then, like, we broke up, and I had nowhere to go.

It was just swing, swing.

And I go, "You know what?

All these people actually are kind of like me.

This is kind of where I can be me, and do what I want to."

And it actually gave me purpose, to, like, just keep going, to do something.

It's just something that's ingrained, I guess, you know, passed down from ancestors, genetics, you know, just -- I just got that little twitch, little something.

I mean, when it comes dance, things just connect.

♪♪ ♪♪ "Swing dancing" is the term that everybody uses.

But the "Lindy Hop" is something that people that only dance the Lindy Hop use.

It's those rock step swivels and triple steps.

Whereas, if there's a balboa dancer, they're still a swing dancer.

Balboa is the nice, tight, fast movements.

That's still a swing dance, though.

You may replace one or two moves, but it's the same thing.

It's the difference between a banana and a plantain.

Make no real difference.

It's just a bigger banana, ain't it?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We're mimicking the music, and how, at that moment, how it made you feel, and how you're going to show it.

I wouldn't try to describe it.

Everybody's gonna feel it differently.

Everybody is gonna feel it differently.

Say it's a blues song.

Not everybody feels the blues.

I just go, "You feel it?

You feel it?"

This.

"It got your toe tapping?"

That's -- That's pretty much it.

That's essential.

That's it.

♪♪ ♪♪ It started off as, I like the blues, really, like, slow.

I can think, I can work, and do my thing.

But as I got better and better, I liked to move my feet.

That's why I start wearing sneakers instead of, like, leather soles, where you can slip a slide.

I wanted a little grip on the street to where to just keep going.

Django Reinhardt.

I dance to that like nothing.

That's my warm-up.

[ Imitates music ] And I felt like a ninja.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ This lady from London once told me, like, "Whatever you working on it, it probably ain't got nothing to do with what you're gonna actually be.

You're just taking those little skills."

I did years of wrestling, and jujitsu, with all of that -- with, like, aerials, and throwing people around.

I didn't know that the wrestling was, like, it was just preparing me to, like, go through those motions.

I'm kind of like months and months ahead of other people because I had those lessons that probably wasn't necessarily dancing.

But once I understand the dancing part, and connect those two, it's nothing.

♪♪ I've always been dancing.

It's one of those essential needs.

Some people need love.

Some people need war.

Some people just need war.

And they, like -- "Hotel California."

Some people dance to remember, some people dance to forget.

And some people have thought they felt something, and it turns out it was absolutely nothing.

But when it finally do hit them, they, like...

I love seeing the explosion of, like, brightness on their face.

Like, "Oh, you've never -- you've never done this before, have you?"

Oh.

Okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ As of this date -- it's 2020, right?

There is no official rule, as for, like, man and woman.

They did get into this whole nonbinary, no gender, gender fluid, and everything.

Man and woman can lead and follow.

Shoot, I lead and follow.

But it took me some time to, like, accept that.

When a guy first walked up to me and was like, "Hey, would you like to dance?"

I was like, "What?

So how are we gonna dance?"

He goes, "All right.

I'll follow.

You lead."

And I go... "Cool.

Cool."

You don't really need the traditional roles.

If you about to go out and dance, you can literally call all your boys.

I call all my boys out, and be like, "Hey, we've got to go out and throw down."

I can have more fun with my boys dancing the swing dance than I can with the girls, because now, we in the club, and it's a party.

This is what you do.

This is us, right?

♪♪ Wayne: It's not uncommon to see men in drag in New Orleans.

You know what I'm saying?

With Mardi Gras, having a Bourbon Street.

These are things that are kind of... crazily normal.

Flaherty: That culture of New Orleans is so special in the way that it celebrates queerness.

You know, if you go to a second line, and you see what people are wearing, it's this anything goes.

You know, people are dressed fabulously, but there's a million different definitions of what "fabulous" looks like.

♪♪ ♪♪ For example, at some bounce shows, it feels like you're breaking open this gender binary.

It's way more than two genders in the room, right?

There's many genders in the room, and they're all shaking it, and expressing themselves.

And it's a space that's open to everyone.

And there's a raw sexuality.

♪♪ It's a polymorphous sexuality.

It's a sexuality that is inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

♪♪ Bounce is real feel-good music.

You know, that's what I say.

Bounce is party music.

I mean, just one word -- party.

I mean, every time you go to a party, you're gonna hear bounce, in New Orleans.

And that's all you can say, is just "party," you know?

and everybody know what "party" means -- you know, have fun.

Nothing compares to when a bounce break beat hits.

It's over!

Period.

♪♪ ♪♪ What we're hearing in bounce music today, they've already been doing this in jazz.

Like, is just a form of hot music.

So, it's meant to get people up.

It's meant to get people dancing.

And it's also meant to preserve what does Louisiana language, what does it sound like, you know, in a music in a dance form, from whenever we were speaking French and Spanish to whenever we're now speaking English, you know?

What are these new hip phrases that we have for this?

If it's only through the instruments, or if it's through the instruments, our lyrics, our dance.

And then, what does it mean in a call and response fashion?

♪♪ Buck: The tempo of music defines what kind of music you do.

R&B is slow.

Rock is back and forward.

But bounce is straight fast.

And the reason why you want it fast is 'cause you want it to be different.

We didn't know it was gonna be bounce.

We were just trying to do the rap thing.

So, it was like, We were just trying to do the rap thing.

You know, all those kind of things, you know?

So, we was like, you know, "This is about to be something new and unique."

You know, and we just kept pushing it, and kept doing it.

And then, all of a sudden, the word evolved, "bounce."

Let's call it "bounce."

♪♪ Flaherty: Bounce is New Orleans hip hop.

It's sometimes also called "project music."

But there's a few things that make it different.

It's very neighborhood-specific.

Many of the bounce songs talk about specific neighborhoods.

It's beautiful, and passionate, and incredible.

And I don't know a better word than "ecstasy" to use to describe it.

It's just motion everywhere, and passion.

And, on the one hand, I think it's amazing what some people are able to do with their body.

I can not do that with my body.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: I saw a young lady, once, on a video, dancing to bounce music, and her belt was loose.

She bounced the belt out of the loops.

And I went home, and tried it.

I had to stay in bed for three days.

♪♪ Wayne: If you have ever seen the metamorphosis that goes on when a person hears bounce music -- like they might be upside down, they might be right side up.

The bones, I think, turn to jello for those 3 1/2 minutes that that song is on, because there's some incredible directions and angles that you see, especially women, shake to when bounce hits.

I wouldn't trade it in for anything, you know?

It's just almost unheard of, some of the things that happen when bounce -- when the music hits.

♪♪ You have to be unique.

You have to be different.

So, if I'm dancing in the club, and I see a chair, then, I'm gonna try to beat the other girl.

Me and her, we dancing.

We dancing together.

We're both doing the same thing.

But now, I got to beat her.

So, I see the chair.

"Ooh, I'm gonna go get on a chair, [indistinct]."

Ooh, she dancing on a chair.

So, then, "Oh, well, you dancing on a chair.

I'm gonna dance on a mirror."

You know, so it's sort of like this -- this unique type.

It's sort of like a competition.

♪♪ MoeJoe: Bounce dancing looks many different ways, so it's a little hard to, like, describe all of them.

But bounce dancing could happen in a two-step or a line dance.

So, somebody can say, "Do the beanie weanie.

Do the beanie weanie, beanie weanie, beanie weanie," And then, everybody starts doing what the beanie weanie is.

Or they may say, "Talk that stuff, now roll with it.

Talk that stuff now roll with it."

Or you could your shou-- your chest, and do more of, like, a tick with, it.

And then, roll.

You know, walk it like a dog -- which is also a very old dance move from from jazz here, where people will be walking it like a dog on the floor.

You can walk it like a dog.

You can dribble.

Or you can fall on the floor, and walk it like a dog.

♪♪ ♪♪ I learned later in life that my dad was a dancer.

And I just remember being a kid, and seeing, like, all of these disco, soul, and funk records coming up, and just being enthralled by the artwork of what I was seeing, let alone did I know that I was gonna become a dancer later on in life.

And little did I know that my father was also the same thing.

♪♪ ♪♪ Bounce Fitness with MoeJoe is my festive Louisiana dance-out.

So, I wanted to create a dance experience where people could learn about different styles of Louisiana's Creole dance.

So, I wanted to teach people not just about bounce dancing in New Orleans, because that's the generation that I grew up in, but I wanted to connect other generations.

That's option one for the song.

Option two.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I just wanted a way where I could combine all of the things that I grew up with.

I wanted to be able to teach that to people because that's a part of my dance culture, growing up, and it's also an art form that people can not only get fit to, but it's also a cultural tradition and practice.

♪♪ ♪♪ Whenever you dance to bounce, you have to be prepared to not just move for yourself, but you have to be able to be prepared to move the crowd.

It's about what's happening in that present moment.

So whatever is being created culturally is being dictated by the person, the individual, that's dancing, or it's being dictated by the collective.

What is the deejay saying, or what is the emcee saying, that can make the whole crowd do the same thing at the same time?

What I call it is "call and response" type music, sort of like Simon Says.

If I'm the emcee, you're the dancer.

What I say goes.

So, if I say, "Shake your leg," you're going to shake, you know?

And that's the whole point of bounce music, because, I mean, anything that come on, you're gonna shake your ass toward it, to shake your butt toward it.

Like, in other concerts, you go there, you sing along with them, whatever, whatever.

But here, you participate.

Bounce.

You know?

Like you go to a concert, you see your favorite artist, right?

You're singing.

You're singing.

You're laughing.

He make a joke.

But with bounce, you're dancing.

You're singing, and you're turning it up.

You're grabbing that chair that I told you about.

You know, you hold a barricade on the ground.

You know what I'm saying?

With bounce, you participle.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ At a second line, there's no line between the audience and spectators.

We're all part of that.

Similar with bounce shows.

You don't often go to a bounce show where the performer is way up on the stage.

They're often right there with the audience.

So much of that music is about being there for it, the way it is to be in that club, surrounded by people, hearing the noise, seeing that ecstatic movement, feeling that celebration.

You know, I love bounce music, but I don't really listen to bounce music on a CD.

I don't really listen to it at home.

It loses something when you're not there.

♪♪ That's another about bounce -- it's an environment where everybody gets along.

It's sort of like church.

If you didn't come with that person that's sitting next to you, then, you're not really socializing, or nothing like that.

But with bounce, "Hey, girl.

What's up?

That song coming on.

I'm gonna catch that beat."

You know what I'm saying?

Same thing with church.

You know, "Amen."

You know what I'm saying?

You're socializing.

You know what I'm saying?

But the thing with bounce, we're outgoing, people, man.

We're gonna have fun.

We know we're gonna hear that Freedia song.

You know he gonna make us rock that ass, and it's going down.

♪♪ This is a dance that just represents something that's happening.

And we're responding to what is happening in front of us.

And it's more ceremonial.

You know, we just don't have as many ceremonies as we used to, you know, because now we live in this civil society.

So, you know, things aren't as meaningful.

So, because it's not as meaningful as someone thinks it is, people pass judgment on it, and they look down on it, because, "Oh, that's not a proper -- that's not a proper girl thing to do."

You know, "young ladies don't act like this."

Well, who's to say that I'm not a young lady.

I just like busting it open.

And the drum says to do this.

so, when I hear the drums say "Do this," this is what I'm doing.

[ Laughs ] ♪ I came in the door ♪ ♪ Said it before ♪ ♪ All we need is love, no time for war ♪ ♪ Dance floor is packed, stacked to the max ♪ ♪ Black, Asian, Latino, and Anglo-Saxon ♪ ♪ Only got one life, there ain't no sequel ♪ ♪ So love your bother, treat him as an equal ♪ ♪ People come together, good deeds is done ♪ ♪ To make a better place for your daughter or son ♪ ♪ One sun, one moon, one planet, one Earth ♪ ♪ One life to be livin' ♪ ♪ Said it all at the first ♪ ♪ One people, one blood, one breath, one death ♪ ♪ One mind, body, soul ♪ ♪ Never sweat, never sweat ♪ ♪ Swept, caught in the storm ♪ ♪ I crept up just to keep you warm ♪ ♪ Transform ♪ ♪ Been in two states at a great rate ♪ ♪ Unity is definitely in the hands of fate ♪ ♪ Come together ♪ ♪ Twist, bend, and blend a mixture ♪ ♪ You're the [indistinct] ♪ ♪ [Indistinct] ♪ ♪ More to imagine, like John Lennon ♪ ♪ Yo, there ain't no synonym ♪ ♪ The world keeps spinning ♪ MoeJoe: You know, when something makes you feel good, like, there are really no borders, you know?

If you hear something that you feel, it's not for a person of a specific class, or a specific body type.

It's really for your soul.

So, who am I, as the conduit, to say that, "Oh, well, you have to look this certain way, or this certain way, or this certain way."

No.

It really wouldn't be what it is if we had to dictate to what people had to look like.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: I think it is empowering and liberating, because it gives you that freedom.

And I mean, if you've ever seen a young woman dancing, and doing bounce, nobody's around.

It can be 1,000 people around, she doesn't care that there's 1,000 people around, because she's in her spirit of bouncing.

♪♪ You couldn't touch her, and stop her, because she's -- you can touch it, but she won't stop.

I'll put it that way.

It's very interesting how people still credit someone like Miley Cyrus, and say, "Oh, well, Miley Cyrus put twerking on the map."

♪♪ How is that poss-- [ Laughs ] How is that possible?

But because she's an identifiable White young woman, you know, that a lot of people can say, "Oh, yeah, I saw Hannah Montana.

Hannah Montana was on TV, twerking."

♪♪ Flaherty: Bounce started getting attention because of this hipster community that got into it.

But much more important story of bounce is the story of how it came up in the Black community, long before hipster folks from other cities started -- started to notice, and started to pay attention.

I think the story of how these artists rose up themselves, and built this community themselves, and sustained this community, and yeah, have really become role models and heroes to a new generation is a beautiful and inspiring story.

♪♪ MoeJoe: We live in a very colonized space where we're looking at, "What are the Europeans saying?"

and then.

"What are the Whites saying?"

And I guess that's just what it is.

What are Whites saying throughout the world that's acceptable for women to do?

And then, we, culturally, lose what -- How do we view our women?

You know, women of color have always moved this way.

So, it's not something that -- that should be surprising.

Like, our hips.

That's how we talk.

You know, that's how we show our passion.

That's how we make love.

We just need to go back to our roots.

And it's just for -- it's maybe not -- it may not be the same, ritual-wise, but it's the same whenever it comes time to expression.

And it should be respected.

♪♪ Buck: For the longest, a lot of our political people, and police, and stuff like that, they never understood bounce.

And they thought bounce was a bad thing.

The police, they can't monitor that, you know, because you've got -- they have to control their whole district.

But now, you have this big gathering of people.

"Now, how do we control these people and still patrol our district?"

You know, so, we -- artists know we're going against the political people, to try to get them to say, "Look, this is what we do."

You know, "If y'all can't let us do it like we should, at least let us do it on holidays, at least."

You know what I'm saying?

It's a culture thing.

It's something that we've been doing.

You know, we didn't just start this.

We've been doing it.

Now, all of a sudden, somebody new, you know, chiefs or whatnot, they all getting in office, and y'all want to stop us from doing what we've been doing.

But we've been doing it.

♪♪ Bounce is party music.

And what we like to do in bounce, we like to forget about all the negative things.

We like to forget about what happened this morning that made us mad, you know?

And the scapegoat is bounce music.

You know, we want to have fun.

So, let's think about the future, or let's think about getting over this.

You know?

I say, if I fail, I don't want to think about that.

You know, I want to think about when it's time for me -- for my wounds to heal, you know?

So, I'm gonna think about the future.

And that's what bounce is really about.

It's about the future, you know?

You know, sometimes, you go through things, you go through the struggle, and then, the struggle is about what happened back then.

And that's why people, they don't get over some things, because they keep thinking about it, and thinking about it.

We don't want to think about the past, you know, we want to think about the present, and move forward with it.

So, bounce is definitely that good -- that good music.

You know, that's how we get over, you know, all our problems, and everything.

Reporter: Everywhere here, there are signs both large and small.

that Katrina was here... Man: You're gonna be all right.

[ Man crying ] Reporter: ...as levees like these were breached today, searching for survivors from 500 feet.

A flood of water has made utility repairs impossible.

Man: They're gonna have to take them out by force, 'cause people think they can just stay through this.

Faherty: Our pre-Katrina population was 465,000, more or less.

Now, we're at about 355,000, right?

So, we're about 110,000 less people now than we had before.

And the surveys that have been done show the vast majority of those people that still are displaced are working class African-Americans.

Especially for working class African-Americans from New Orleans, bounce music is a key part of that culture.

And you immediately heard, after Katrina, of people having bounce parties in Houston, and other places where people were exiled to.

And you immediately had people from the bounce community talking about how we need to come back.

It did take on another whole sense of being after Katrina, because it was a rallying point for a lot of people, because they didn't play bounce anywhere else.

So, if you were a New Orleanian, and you went to Dallas, or you went to Houston, or you went to Atlanta, you went to Mobile, or you went to L.A., or Chicago, they weren't playing any bounce music, because 99% of the deejays didn't have it.

So, New Orleans, being New Orleans, people would have a disc, and go bring it to the deejay in another city, and almost force them to play it.

And it actually started getting some other fans in other cities.

♪♪ Buck: Katrina destroyed a lot of our music, because we didn't know Katrina was coming.

You know, so, the records got messed up, laptops, and stuff like that.

So, we invaded Houston.

We was like, "Look, we need to find a spot to do our music."

You know, "We don't have New Orleans.

We don't have our club."

Boom.

Club Max was born.

A lot of the Houston people start to love our music.

Katrina basically gave us that -- that exposure, shall I say.

It gave us exposure.

It was like, "Hello, world.

Here we go.

Here we are."

♪♪ Flaherty: I think, although New Orleans is still missing many people, one of the success stories of this post-Katrina period is that so many of the bounce musicians have come back, and that so much of that community has come back.

And you can still, almost every night of the week, go out, and see a bounce show.

You can tell a similar story with jazz music, with brass band music, with Mardi Gras Indians, with second lines, jazz funerals.

These cultural traditions have managed to come back.

And I think it's because of the way that culture is shaped in New Orleans, and the way the culture is about community, and the way in which people use culture, and use community, to help an entire segment of the population come back, and to push for communities to come back together.

♪♪ Wayne: In New Orleans, it held a whole new meaning.

Like, once Katrina passed and people started coming back, and the city started getting populated again, it was really like the rallying point of what was uniquely ours.

And bounce is one of the few genres that has been created of music in this city, in this country, you know, that we can claim.

You know, we have jazz.

We have bounce.

♪♪ ♪♪ Buck: Bounce definitely helped bring the city back, because remember, we out in Houston, we in Atlanta, we just all over the place.

But you had a small group of people that were still in New Orleans.

Right?

And really, we homesick.

So, it's like, "Well, you know we got this party at the Sports Vue."

"Oh, y'all got a party at the Sports Vue?

Well, you know, we in Houston.

We're gonna come down to New Orleans, and see what's going on."

Boom.

It's going down.

It's packed.

So, everybody like, "Man, it's going back down in New Orleans.

We got to move back home."

♪♪ ♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: When I first got back from being displaced from Katrina, it was three months after, in October.

And there was a jazz band, second-line band.

And I was just despondent, I was, you know, in the zone of, "Oh, God, you know, so much has happened," or whatever.

And I heard that second-line band, and I walked from the hotel that I was in about -- I think it was almost a mile away, or whatever -- and I just, I danced all the way there.

Because that -- it's like, "Okay.

we're coming back.

We're coming back now."

You know, you're looking at all of this destruction around you, but you hear that music, and you don't care, now, about the destruction, because, now, we know we've arrived, and we're coming back, because the music is here.

♪♪ The music again, it gave us life again.

It brought us right back to where we are, and who we are, which is strong people in New Orleans.

And once those bounce clubs started opening, and bounce music started happening, we had arrived.

It was time.

We had been given that that second shot of life injected into our system, and it connects, again, back to the soul.

And music is the core of New Orleans.

If we didn't have music here, I think the city would have just basically been just desolate, and just empty.

So, it's our survival.

It's in you.

Is it spiritual, and it connects you.

And even if you resist it, it'll pull you in.

You can't fight it.

You can't fight it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Alexander: New Orleans is resiliency.

There ain't nothing that can happen to you that you can't just bounce back from, or come back from.

Like, say, the storm, like the Katrina storm.

It was all about, "Oh, yeah, my whole -- my whole family is from here, so why would I leave, and do whatever?

We're gonna rebuild, and we're gonna bring that whole family back.

We're gonna do it even better than the last time."

♪♪ It really is a special place here.

It's really about enjoying what life is about, which is friends, and community, and connecting with others.

So, it's nice to be in a place where people from all over the world want to come here, and also take a little piece of that.

We can connect with each other.

♪♪ Guillory: We, here in Louisiana, we know we have that.

People will come from all over the world.

And when they hear Louisiana music -- jazz music, zydeco, Cajun music, Creole music, that kind of thing, swamp pop -- it's just something different.

You know, it's like a plug in of either something that they've never had, or maybe they do have some kind of connection to it in their roots, and they're just now just getting a little taste of what was already there.

You just never knew it was there.

♪♪ MoeJoe: There's always some kind of socialization around music and dance here, some form of, like, you know, this is just my presence.

Like, this is just me.

you know?

If it offends you, so be it.

You take it.

You leave it.

You know, you're going to be upset at what I do anyway, so I might as well just do my thing.

♪♪ And it's a part of our life, you know?

It's the way that we have peace.

It's the thing that brings us together.

It's the thing that allows us to express ourselves and live in our truth all at the same time.

♪♪ Montana-LeBlanc: Back to the gumbo thing -- in order to make gumbo, You have to make a roux, which is just basic flour and oil, but it's the consistency that keeps the gumbo together.

So, the music of New Orleans is the roux of New Orleans.

And without it, I mean, we're just soup.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ The thing that I think Louisiana is famous for is three things -- music, food, and fun.

That's it.

See see you next time.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪