Music For Tomorrow launched in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. In an effort to help displaced jazz musicians, Music For Tomorrow created performance opportunities for jazz musicians and raise awareness about jazz music.
Music For Tomorrow (MFT) is a non-profit 501c3 organization whose mission is to stimulate the creative economy by fostering performance opportunities for jazz musicians across the country. Through these efforts, it seeks to raise public awareness of the beauty of jazz music, as well as the extraordinary culture it has to offer.
Today, Music For Tomorrow's online band booking service provides performance opportunities while connecting jazz musicians with audiences and enables folks to find and book musicians quickly and within budget, creating more access to jazz music while extending the music's reach.
In keeping with the mission to help the creative economy, Music For Tomorrow requests a voluntary donation for each gig booked. These donations perpetuate MFT's band booking service, which ensures more performance opportunities and jobs, for musicians, while growing the jazz audience and celebrating the traditions of New Orleans.
In a recent interview with Examiner, Anthony V. DeFeo, Executie Director of Music For Tomorrow said,” At Music For Tomorrow, each stepping stone is met with the phrase "onward and upward". We have no plans of slowing down anytime soon. The more gigs we create with our jazz booking service, the more revenue is put into the creative economy, and the more opportunities are created for talented jazz musicians to get paid to do what they love. This furthers our cause and the jazz genre as a whole.”
Many nonprofits have had to change the manner in which they do business to survive in this economy without compromising the integrity of their programming. Music For Tomorrow is not immune to these types of changes but strongly believes in the arts are very beneficial to the American economy. Arts generate $166.2 billion in economic activity, support 5.7 million jobs and return nearly $30 billion in revenue to the government each year. Donations to MFT are investments that help jazz musicians find more employment opportunities and bolster the creative economy.
In 2006, the Mayor of New Orleans' Bring New Orleans Back Committee on Culture, chaired by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and prominent business leaders, prepared a comprehensive report on the importance of restoring the arts after Hurricane Katrina had decimated much of the cultural infrastructure. MFT co-founders Kabir Sehgal and Brent Reidy prepared a report for the committee, which showed the economic importance of supporting New Orleans culture. New Orleans' creative economy was one of the state's biggest employers, with over 15,000 jobs and a $300 million economic impact per year.
The MFT founders realized that government support alone wouldn't be enough to restore the creative economy of New Orleans, so they organized a concert to raise money to help New Orleans musicians and promote awareness. MFT was officially founded on September 18, 2006 with a gala fundraiser in New Orleans hosted by Jude Law. Actress Patricia Clarkson, actor James Gandolfini, and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu also attended the show. In less than two months, MFT raised over $100,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, of which $25,000 was donated towards the construction of the National Jazz Center, which was administered by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
Music For Tomorrow is run by a 9-member volunteer staff that spends countless hours donating their talents and services to creating opportunities for jazz musicians. DeFeo says, “Our operational expenses are fairly low. We tell people, "We don't want your money, we want your gigs,” he added.
Music For Tomorrow uses a tip jar model, which encourages jazz bookers to donate 10% extra to Music For Tomorrow. Everything MFT raises past operational costs, goes right back into the heart of New Orleans where jazz came from.
