Katrina Relief Concert Lives On In DVD

The outpouring of support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina saw Americans donating billions of dollars to relief efforts.

Some $9 million of it came out of a star-packed jam session in New York's Madison Square Garden last September called "From the Big Apple to the Big Easy."

It was headlined by legendary New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint.

The concert is out on a DVD and proceeds will also go toward helping Katrina victims. To check out details, click here.

On The Early Show Tuesday, Toussaint showed Tracy Smith how some of the concert money is being used, and spoke fervently about efforts to get more music back in the Big Easy.

In a city known for its music, Smith observes, entire blocks still sit eerily silent. But Toussaint says there'll be no requiems, thank you.

"The music hasn't left," he told Smith as they walked through New Orleans streets. "It's just on a break. It's on a break. It's intermission right now."

Toussaint did the benefit three weeks after Katrina struck, while his own house was still underwater.

"I could tell right away it was, uh, highway love, from New York to New Orleans," he recalls.

The Early Show cameras caught a chance encounter with a childhood friend of Toussaint's. Standing in front of her gutted house made it clear to Smith that, with material things washed away, memories are all the more precious.

"He used to come to my momma's house," the friend said. "That's where he got his start playing music, on my momma's piano!"

And now, Toussaint is among those hoping other musicians get the same chance.

In the devastated Ninth Ward, there's a new, colorful neighborhood called Musicians Village, being built by Habitat for Humanity, and paid for in part by the proceeds from the concert.

"It's wonderful," Toussaint says. "And I love the individuality of the different colors. We're colorful people down here, for one thing."

The idea is to bring affordable housing to musicians and others, who own the homes.

Does Toussaint see those streets coming alive with music again?

"Oh, definitely," he says. "For one thing, this is New Orleans. And, where there's life, there's music. In fact, in one of the songs, I say, 'The music seeps right up through the streets.' "

There'll be 75 new houses in the village and, it's hoped, 300 more in the surrounding area.

A drop in the bucket, Smith reflects, when you think there were 100,000 homes that were damaged or destroyed.

"Well," Toussaint points out, "the whole ocean is filled with drops of water, so this drop in the bucket is a very important drop."

Money from concert and DVD sales will also go to a number of other causes, including buying musicians instruments, since so many were lost during the storm.

Toussaint is rebuilding his own home as fast as he can and hopes to move back in a month or so.