When Katrina struck New Orleans, bassist Michael Harris, who has played with Dr. John, Buddy Guy and Art Neville, had just come off a tour in Brazil. The house he was renting in the Lower Ninth Ward was destroyed. Mateo Smith, meanwhile, was not quite a year old when Katrina struck. At age 7, he started taking trumpet lessons, and seven years later was playing with the likes of Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis. For both, the creation of Musicians’ Village in the wake of Katrina proved invaluable to fostering the sense of community that they say defines New Orleans musicians. For Harris, one of the houses built as part of the Musicians’ Village rebuilding project became his home. For Smith, the lessons he learned at the “crown jewel” of Musicians’ Village, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, set him on the path to study music technology at Tennessee State University.