Emotions Run High at Katrina Jazz Concert

NEW YORK Sep 18, 2005 — With the exception of the now-famous Kanye West outburst, celebrity-driven benefits for Hurricane Katrina victims have followed a familiar formula musicians singing heart-tugging ballads while famous faces implore viewers to give, all in a sanitized, apolitical tone.

Those elements were present at Jazz at Lincoln Center's “Higher Ground" hurricane relief benefit concert Saturday night. But the five-hour concert was also stirring for the emotionally charged performances and speeches that assigned blame for the tragedy.

“When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country … it revealed one," actor and activist Danny Glover said in a speech with Harry Belafonte in which both criticized the government, not only for the response to the hurricane but for the conditions prior to it.

“Katrina was not unforeseeable," Belafonte said. “It was the result of a political structure that subcontracts its responsibility to private contractors and abdicates its responsibility altogether."

Celebrities taking part included Bette Midler, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, Toni Morrison, Robert De Niro, Cassandra Wilson, Meryl Streep, Shirley Caesar and the evening's host, Laurence Fishburne. A condensed version was broadcast on PBS.

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