The joint was jumpin' last night at St. Andrew's Cathedral as musicians, chefs, general well wishers and jazz aficionados got together for "A Night in Old New Orleans" to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims.

A $25 donation to Episcopalian Relief & Development bought a bowl of Louisiana gumbo, a sinful New Orleans dessert and three hours of jazz.

The Rev. C.S. Honey Becker organized the event. Becker hails from New Orleans.

"Which is why we are not having a night in Old Mobile, or something," she said as she moved among the guests.

Despite rain, more than a hundred tickets were sold before the first hour had ended and attendees kept arriving.

Shannon Becnel, a New Orleans resident who escaped Katrina with her husband, Ricky, 2-year-old son, Maverick, and cat, Lazy, handed out free Mardi Gras beads at the door.

"I did have one gentleman ask me, 'Well, are they like lei? Do they come with kisses?' " Becnel said.

She told him they didn't.

Becnel said she'd recently learned her home in New Orleans has a tree through it, but she hopes to return. Meanwhile, she and her husband and child are staying with her mother-in-law in Waimanalo. Lazy is discontent in quarantine, racking up a $1,080 bill, she said.

Tennyson Stephens of the Bistro at Century Center stood outside the cathedral, waiting to perform with Azure McCall and other musicians including fiddler Lisa Gomes, the Iolani Jazz Band and the University of Hawai'i Jazz Band. The Hickam Gospel Choir was scheduled to bring the evening to a close.

Stephens said Becker's request for assistance from jazz performers came at just the right moment for him.

"I'd been praying about what I could do to help," he said. "The next day I got a call from Honey, and I immediately said yes."

William Trask, corporate chef for Genki Sushi, and Edward Frady, Chef's Association president, prepared Bananas Foster, a dessert from Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans. They mixed butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and flamed that mixture with banana liqueur before adding the bananas and flaming it again with rum. The bananas were then poured over vanilla ice cream.

The fiery demonstration, as well as the resulting dessert, drew rave reviews.

"Gooooood," said Jesse Reavis, a Pearl Harbor shipyard worker and Kane'ohe resident attending with wife Leonora.

"I'm glad we came," he said.

Trask said he wasn't surprised the dessert was popular.

"Sugar, butter and rum?" he said. "Well, yeah."

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.