U2 guitarist The Edge hosted the Icons of Music Auction II at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City last weekend (May 31) with proceeds going to help the New Orleans music scene. Some of the items for auction: A Kurt Cobain played early bass guitar with home photos of him playing guitar (est. $40,000/60,000), a Jim Morrison handwritten poem (est. $4,000/6,000), a Miles Davis stage played trumpet (est. $10,000/20,000), a Jimi Hendrix signed receipt (est. $2,000/3,000), Slashs first stage played Gibson Les Paul Guitar with Velvet Revolver at The Roxy on May 9th, 2004 (est. $20,000/30,000), and several personal items from The Edge including his early stage played 1976 Gibson Explorer Guitar.
The auction is set to help benefit The Edge's Music Rising organization which, The Edge said seeks to rehab, preserve and fund New Orleans' unique music culture.
The Edge On Music Rising
"Three years after hurricane Katrina hit a lot has been achieved, but there's still a huge amount to do down there, not only issues for housing and the infrastructure, but the culture of the area still really needs to be supported if it's going to survive this tragedy."
The Edge said that he's committed to the organization for the long haul.
The Edge On New Orleans Progress
"We're looking at a situation where New Orleans hopefully won't shrink any further but also may not grow for a while. They're talking about a ten year program to get it back to what it was. So we're three years in and it will probably be seven more years before we see it really back at full strength, but we don't want to see New Orleans repopulated at the expense of its great traditions in the music culture. We want to see the music survive through the next seven years so New Orleans is still New Orleans."
The Edge said they've completed the first two stages of their goals by buying musical instruments for musicians that were lost in the hurricane and also by fortifying institutions like churches where much of New Orleans gets and shares its music. The ongoing efforts of Music Rising have, thus far, aided over 2,700 professional musicians and nearly 50,000 students and parishioners.
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