Fats Domino's Katrina-damaged grand piano restored

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A white Steinway grand piano salvaged from musician Fats Domino's home after Hurricane Katrina has been restored and will be the centerpiece of an exhibit in New Orleans' French Quarter...

Adam Howard

May 2, 2013

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A white Steinway grand piano salvaged from musician Fats Domino’s home after Hurricane Katrina has been restored and will be the centerpiece of an exhibit in New Orleans’ French Quarter.

The piano was damaged after water poured through a broken levee during the August 2005 storm, flooding Domino’s home in the Lower 9th Ward.

Its restoration came through $30,000 donated to the Louisiana Museum Foundation.

The largest gift of $18,000 came from Allan Slaight, a retired music producer in Miami. Other donations came from Sir Paul McCartney, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Tipitina’s Foundation.

The piano was to be unveiled Thursday at the Old U.S. Mint, now a museum in the French Quarter.

It will be part of the Louisiana State Museum’s music exhibition opening in 2014 but separately will go on display at the Mint in June.

A second Steinway piano belonging to Domino is on permanent display at the Presbytere museum in the exhibition “Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond.”

“Fats Domino is a seminal figure in American music, and he will have a prominent place in the coming Louisiana music exhibit,” said Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, who oversees the Louisiana State Museum. “His beautiful grand piano, fully restored, will serve as the perfect symbol for Louisiana’s resilient nature and ever-evolving musical heritage.”

Born in New Orleans in 1928, the pianist, singer and songwriter sold more than 65 million records between 1950 and 1963, made Billboard’s pop chart 77 times and its rhythm and blues chart 61 times.

Katrina tore into Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005. Flooding from storm surge and broken levees washed over an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans.