For a long time--up until the early Eighties I'd say--the New Orleans music scene was known mainly to New Orleanians and a very small number of outside fans. The city previously was associated mainly with traditional jazz, stereotyped as "Dixieland" in the popular imagination. That began changing as the Jazz & Heritage Festival--and associated events around the Crescent City-- started to become a destination festival for music fans from around the world. More importantly, the festival showcase not just musical artists but also the culture that gave rise to them. Currents of New Orleans music--R & B, Mardi Gras Indian Music, gospel, the new wave of brass bands--were showcased and ultimately broadcast in one way or another worldwide. Later in the 80's, The Neville Bros. took New Orleans music to the massive with large-scale touring. Mardi Gras celebrations mushroomed in many cities; Professor Longhair's name and that of the seminal club Tipitina's were on the lips of people who had never seen either.
Now New Orleans music gets another profile, beamed into the living rooms of millions, via the new HBO series Treme', which premiered three weeks ago. Named after a historically important part of New Orleans that contained the original Storyville as well as the largest community of free African-Americans in the pre-Civil War era, the show ranges all over town, via vignettes from several recurring characters' lives. Each episode is filled with music, actual performances and in the soundtrack in various ways, all suggesting the centrality of music to New Orleanian culture. What is refreshing is the authenticity of the peformances and the musical selections. In fact, the producers have almost made a fetish of authenticity. So far, in the first three episodes, we've seen Allen Toussaint and Dr. John conducting recording sessions, Coco Robicheaux playing some mean guitar and killing a chicken for spiritual purposes, Kermit Ruffin and his band holding forth in a club, Mardi Gras Indians (with authentic "big chief" Monk Boudreaux among them) drumming and chanting, Trombone Shorty joining a second line parade and more.
But music is part and parcel of the shows in other ways, some a bit forced. A young girl is taught to play Professor Longhair's "Tipitina" in her piano lesson; at home the teacher plays a bit of "Big Chief" on his piano. A trombone player relaxes with his family at home while Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya" plays on the radio--not the most likely of scenarios for that character in that context. And one character annoys his neighbors by play New Orleans rapper Mystikal's "Shake Ya Ass" at high volume.
Many of the characters are in fact musicians. That factor and the music make it a feast for lovers or New Orleans music. For such folk--and I'm one--it almost becomes a game of "spot the reference" or "notice the notable personage embedded in a scene. Taken as a whole it is a love letter to New Orleans music and certain aspects of New Orleans culture, all beautifully shot.
I hear Treme' has already been renewed for two more seasons. That's good news for its growing group of fans. I'm one of them and will be tuning in every Sunday as much as I can.
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