In the spirit of solidarity, Czech artists such as Milan Svoboda and his Big Band, Jiří Stivín, J.J. Jazzman and Jan Jirucha, N.U.O., Jiří Hála, Jan Hála and other jazz and blues acts will be performing Sept. 28 at an open-air benefit concert on Wenceslas Square. The concert is free, though donations will be solicited. The money collected will go to Tipitina's Foundation, a charity organization based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which will distribute the proceeds to a music school in New Orleans.

Ondřej Konrád, who will be performing with his band Gumbo, has been working with members of the Czech Jazz Society and Divadelní Agentura ECHO to organize the event. Members of the Czech jazz community, he says, are anxious to help the city that produced a musical form that has influenced musicians around the world.

"The people of the Czech Republic know what floods are like," Konrád says through a translator, referring to the 2002 flood that swamped parts of Prague. "But I can't imagine what it would be like to evacuate a million people like they did in New Orleans."

Another musician involved in the effort, Václav Kotek, says the Czech jazz community recognizes the cultural significance of New Orleans, which he calls the "cradle of jazz." The impulse to help sustain the city was strong, he says, and holding a benefit concert seemed like the most natural way to support their international colleagues.

"We know what it's like to get help when you need it," says Kotek. "It means a lot to get moral support from other musicians."

The U.S. Embassy is helping to bring several New Orleans musicians here as well, including Brian Seeger, Cassandra Faulconer and John "Papa" Gros. They will be performing at local clubs such as Reduta and Agharta in the days following the concert. The musicians were invited to Prague as a show of solidarity, according to Michael Hahn, U.S. Embassy counselor for press and cultural affairs.

"This can only be further proof of how this music has such strong roots, not only in the American South but also in Central Europe," he says.

Hahn notes that jazz was created as a symbol of freedom of expression for the oppressed. The need for freedom is something that is easy to relate to, and the local musicians' impromptu effort to help the saturated city illustrates their desire to keep the jazz tradition alive.

"The treasure of that city can't be lost or forgotten simply because of a flood," Hahn says.