After a session teaching young children music at a church after - school club, K College students found a chilling reminder of the gulf between West Kent, UK and New Orleans USA.

A ‘murder board’ at the church listed everyone killed in that district in the past five years, what age they were, and how they had died.

Learner Manager Music, Julie Parker, said: ‘Many cultural bridges were crossed. The students did not know what to expect as they had very little experience of working with people from different cultures. They found the most lively, musically talented group of youngsters they could have possibly wished to meet’.

‘Then for them to see the murder board – which lists the name, age, and how a person died i.e. bludgeoned, children as young as two beaten to death, shootings, stabbings, suicide, etc... that really brought home the situation’.

‘It was a unique work experience for the students and they absolutely loved it - so did the children they were teaching’.

Julie Parker was supervising a visit to New Orleans by the 13 students on the Year 2 Foundation Degree in Popular Music course. They are aged from 20 to 30 and Julie hopes this will be the first of what will become annual field trips to New Orleans.


Julie toured round the Deep South of the United States 3 years ago, with James Sedge, who also teaches at K College. They explored Memphis, Mississippi and New Orleans, to investigate musical style and culture.

Julie says: ‘We were inspired, and decided whilst in New Orleans one afternoon, that our students would really benefit from such an experience. We resolved that day to organise a student field trip. We then went back last year to find out what exactly we could do and what accommodation we could get, and this year we actually made it happen.’

The trip is built into curriculum. Students spent this year studying genres that originate in New Orleans – such as funk, rhythm and blues, jazz, zydeco, hip hop and Cajun traditional music. They studied the history attached to these genres whilst performing related musical material and learning specific instrumental techniques. The performance and contextual aspects of the trip contribute towards two core modules of the course.

Julie says she spent the whole of the last year planning the itinerary so that it was a good mixture of educational, volunteering and performing activities, assisted by James.

‘Each student had to bring £300 to cover food and local travel. The rest we funded ourselves. We used door takings from concerts, together with a contribution from course fees, and we also gained some funding by running a course called Project Music Maker. The students could never have afforded to go without a joint effort to raise this money.

‘This was a test to see if it would work. It was a raving success and I hope now it can happen every year.’


The music workshop at St Anna’s Episcopal Church was organized through Julie Parker’s relationship with the famous jazz singer, Lillian Boutte.

Julie said: ‘We know her because she worked with one of the K College music staff, Richard Simmons. She was born in New Orleans and is a musical ambassador for her home city. She now lives in Germany but sings New Orleans jazz and promotes the culture in performances across the world. She’s trying to encourage tourism back to New Orleans to regenerate the economy. She’s closely involved with the church, and suggested we contact Darryl Durham about his after school children’s project.’

The workshop and church is in a district of New Orleans called ‘Treme’, which is currently featured in a TV series of the same name. It’s the oldest African American district in America, and has a rich musical culture, though it suffers from poverty and crime. The children attending the workshops came from very disadvantaged backgrounds, many with parents who have criminal records.

Children aged 6 to 14 attend the church after school every day and participate in an arts-based programme, in which Darryl Durham invites visiting professionals to work with them on activities which encourage positive outlooks in life, positive role models, and team work.



Julie Parker says: ‘Lillian specifically asked me if we could be part of the programme. So we turned up with our instruments and taught them how to play the New Orleans traditional song “Iko, Iko” along with clapping and rhythm games.’

Lillian Boutte’s brother, John Boutte sings the theme song to the TV series Treme, and is becoming extremely well known. He spoke to the K College students and they saw him in concert with his sister. Julie says “We hope to work with John and Lillian again next year and to further build our relationships.”

They also spent a morning at Tulane University, where they listened to a lecture on modern jazz. Julie said: ‘We sat there with all the US students and they had guests in especially for us. We saw some musicians performing who will be playing with Donald Harrison at Ronnie Scott’s in London in July.

K College students also spent a morning with Shaka Zulu, a Mardi Gras Indian. He is a member of one of many tribes in New Orleans who dress up in Native American Indian costumes in honour of those who sheltered and hid African American slaves hundreds years ago. They also visited the Voodoo Museum, where the links between early jazz, voodoo and rock & roll were explained.

Julie Parker also enrolled the students with the charity, Volunteers of America, who set them up with a placement planting marsh grasses to regenerate the bayou swampland that was ruined by Hurricane Katrina. She says: ‘The swamps were flooded with sea water, damaging the delicate eco balance. The students worked diligently for a whole day and succeeded in planting hundreds of marsh grass seedlings’.



Through the connection with Lillian Boutte, the K College students had a slot playing at the French Quarter Festival, which is attended annually by half a million people. There were 20 stages featuring the finest musicians from New Orleans and Louisiana. The K College band appeared on the United Airlines International Stage - where non locals have a chance to perform – and they appeared between a Japanese “trad’ jazz” ensemble and a Belgian jazz band (in which James guested impromptu on the drums, due to their drummer missing his flight).

‘Students performed the music they’d been practicing all year to a native New Orleans audience. They were introduced by Lillian Boutte, who told the audience about K College and the purpose of trip. They were nervous, but performed with great panache and style for an hour and a quarter, finishing with a half hour set backing Lillian herself. The place was packed with hundreds of people, and by the time we finished, everybody was dancing. It was exhilarating.’ Many of the audience came up an complimented the students on their performance, including local journalist Laura Cayouette who featured us in her blog. The students also blogged daily about their experiences – and uploaded James’ excellent photos, together with video clips. Our blog can be seen on http://kcollegeneworleans.tumblr.com.

The Foundation Degree in Popular Music is accredited by University of Kent, and has run at K College since 2007. It has a 100% success rate.