The Foundation

My return home to New Orleans in 1989, to work along with Ellis Marsalis in developing the newly created Jazz Studies program at the University of New Orleans, gave focus to projects on which I had been working on for some time. One of those projects, The Silverbook Series, would become a major teaching tool and an important vehicle for "Keeping the Music…and the Musicians…ALIVE!"

I was invited to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Black Music Hall of Fame & Museum by its founder, Ms. C.C. Campbell-Rock. The organization needed to create a historical music exhibit using items from local musicians. I was asked if I, as a board member, had any items that might be useful. It was decided, after examining my stuff, that the entire exhibit could be done with AFO items.

From the basic work done by AFO Records and At Last Publishing Co. in the early 1960’s, we will go back to research the period from 1950 through to 2000. We will not only expand the AFO Exhibit, but also uncover many of the treasures of the period that have gone unnoticed by history. 

We now have four of the Foundation’s components: