"What Does It Mean To Miss New Orleans?" How many times have we heard that song in the past month?

The musicians, clubs, studios and musical heritage of Louisiana as well as Mississippi and Alabama took a direct hit by Hurricane Katrina. The damage is still being assesed, and there are even web sites listing area musicians who are safe or missing.

From 1958 to date over 120 Grammy winners have hailed from Louisiana or claimed the state as home. They cover every genre of music imaginable. While it is impossible to list every musician who has been influenced over the years by the musical melting pot known as "The Big Easy," here are some of those who have brought home Grammy Awards over the years.

At the first grammy Awards in 1958 Louisiana-born, Italian-American Louie Prima along with his wife Keely Smith won the Best Performance By A Vocal Group category with "Old Black Magic." Prima's first band was called "The New Orleans Gang," and the trumpet player's gravely voice was often compared to that of Louie Armstrong.

Prima wrote a load of great music, including the swing standard "Sing, Sing, Sing!" But the couple along with sax player Sam Butera and his band The Witnesses are probably best known for their Las Vegas night club act. In fact Prima is often credited as being the godfather the Las Vegas lounge scene.

Ed Sullivan once called him "the greatest act in entertainment today." Younger audiences will know him as "King Louie," the orangutan who sang "I Wanna Be Like You" in Walt Disney's animated classic "The Jungle Book." He is buried in Metairie Cemetery in his home town of New Orleans.

Louis "Satchmo"Armstrong, born in New Orleans, brought home his first Grammy in 1959 for his part in the soundtrack for "The Five Pennies." His contributions to that album included "After You've Gone" and "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home."

To say that "Satchmo" was the best known jazz artist of all time is an understatement. You simply can't do him justice in the confines of this column.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said "Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics."

Most of us grew up thinking of "Satchmo" as the guy with the trumpet, huge smile and alway present white handkerchief in hand. We remember the 1964 Grammy winner "Hello, Dolly" or the perennial favorite "What A Wonderful World." Not many recording artists in the '60s can say they knocked the Beatles out of the top spot on the charts. Armstrong did it in 1964.

But, his recording career spanned five decades. While many may gravitate to his early jazz improvisation, I have always been a fan of the two albums he cut with the great Ella Fitzgerald in the 1950s. There is simply something special in those duets.

With 22 albums on the charts in the '50s and '60s trumpeter Al Hirt took home Grammys in 1961, 1963 and 1964. He played with both Dorsey Brothers, Pete Fountain and Benny Goodman. His Top 40 hits "Java," "Cotton Candy" and "Sugar Lips" were AM radio standards. He died in 1999 is also buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Shreveport, La., pianist Floyd Kramer's style developed while working on the "Louisiana Hayride" with Jim Reeves and Hank Williams Sr. As a Nashville session player in the '50s and early '60s he sat in with Patsy Cline, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and early Elvis Presley recordings.

His "slip knot style" that somewhat resembled steel guitar technique of sliding from one note to another landed him a hit single "Last Date." He went on to win several Grammy Awards for country music instrumentals.

Several other winners with Louisiana roots are Ernie K-Doe with "Mother-In-Law" in 1961, Faron Young's "Hello Walls" the same year, Claude King's hit single "Wolverton Mountain" in 1962 and O.C. Smith for "Little Green Apples" in 1968. "The Killer" himself Jerry Lee Lewis for won a country Grammy for "Chantilly Lace" in 1972 , a remake of the hit by The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) from 1958.

It's hard to know where to stop. You can add Wynton Marsalis and his brother Branford along with Harry Connick, Buckwheat Zydecdo, BeauSoleil, and the Neville Brothers. Alabama-born Hank Williams, Sr. gets honorary Louisiana status as he joined the "Louisiana Hayride" early in his career. His son Hank Williams Jr. was born in Louisiana.

Add to the list bluesman Buggy Guy, country duo Brooks and Dunn, Lucinda Williams and Tim McGraw. OK, I'll mention it. Yes, Britney Spears hails from Louisiana. I'll let it go at that.

While not a Grammy winner, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Fats Domino hails from New Orleans and was rescued along with his family from the flood waters there after being reported missing. A picture of him being helped into a boat appeared on CNN and was identified by his agent.

Public Radio host Nick Spitzer from "American Routes" evacuated New Orleans before the storm and set up shop in a studio Lafayette, La. He does not know if his home and his French Quarter radio studio survived.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. One of the early still images I saw from the city after the storm was a picture of a man walking up the highway ramp carrying the only personal possession he rescued from the flood waters. It was his tuba. That tells you something about how Louisiana residents feel about their music.

Rick Chase can be reached at rick.chase@wcfcourier.com