After the Riverside Jazz Band separated in the fifties, Pierre Claessens (current Chairman in 2006 of the Jazz Centre Flanders), met fellow musician George Lewis from New Orleans.

Pierre's invaluable contribution was to train many young musicians in the New Orleans style. In 1957 he went on to form The Roof Jazz Band which was made up of a small group of youngsters from Ghent which achieved in the revival idiom a standard of musicianship rarely seen before in Belgium. This band was the first in this country to acknowledge the major role played by English trumpet player Ken Colyer in the white New Orleans revival. This Ghent band has therefore always been greatly indebted to their British fellow musicians, but most of all to George Lewis.

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New Orleans Roof Jazzmen meet Lionel Ferbos in New Orleans

A CD produced by NOMA to support the New Orleans jazz musicians after hurricane Katrina.