Wade is Associate Professor of Human Services and director of the Institute for New Orleans History and Culture at Gwynedd Mercy University.
I was born in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. While I am not a musician, just growing up in New Orleans leaves a permanent jazz soundtrack in your head. My kids swear that when I walk down the street, Louis is playing in my mind. I feel most alive sitting in Fritzel's, Donna's, Preservation Hall, or the Palm Court Jazz Club in New Orleans. I married a Pennsylvania girl 25 years ago and left New Orleans. But New Orleans never left me. It can't--it's embedded in my cells. Shortly after Katrina, I started the Institute for New Orleans History and Culture at the small college I teach at outside of Philadelphia, Gwynedd-Mercy College. We have a collection of over 200 items from New Orleans and each year I take a group of students to New Orleans for a class called The History and Culture of New Orleans. I hope the city, its food, music, people and architecture can positively affect others as it has me. I am happy to be a part of bringing the sounds of New Orleans to the readers of All About Jazz.