The BBC World Service daily arts program The Strand headed to New Orleans for two shows this week for a look at how the city's arts community had been recovering in the five years since Hurricane Katrina struck and in light of the current BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite these tragedies, says the show's host, Mark Coles, "creatively, artistically, the city is reborn."

For the first of the two episodes, which first aired yesterday, Coles, spoke with legendary New Orleans pianist-singer-songwriter-producer Allen Toussaint, whose 2009 Nonesuch debut album, The Bright Mississippi, showcases the work of New Orleans jazz greats like Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. "The spirit here is alive and well," says Toussaint, in an interview conducted backstage after his performance at New Orleans Jazz Fest earlier this year.

You can listen to the entire episode of The Strand, which includes music from The Bright Mississippi and also visits Treme, the neighborhood that lends its name to the new HBO series from the creators of The Wire, at bbc.co.uk.

Allen Toussaint will perform a free set in Brooklyn's Prospect Park this Saturday as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! series of free outdoor concerts. For more on this and other upcoming performances from Toussaint, head to nonesuch.com/on-tour.