DJ SweetMarie: Treme music blog

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2010-08-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Right Time, Wrong Place
Season 1, Episode 03

Musically speaking, episode 3 is a toss-up between piano players and Mardi Gras Indians – and the piano players win, by a hair. Even so, the pianists slide into some Indian music now and then. In fact, we're introduced to five icons of New Orleans piano music this time: Dr. John, Huey 'Piano' Smith, Tom McDermott, James Booker, and, by way of Davis McAlary, the late Professor Longhair. We start with Dr. John, aka Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr., or Mac to his friends.

The episode's title is taken from what is probably Dr. John's best known tune. ...

Read more ...

Meet De Boys On The Battlefront
Season 1, Episode 02

In this episode, we get a better idea of the problems facing the main characters and where their battle lines are drawn. Which makes the choice of the song/title of this episode appropriate.

"Meet De Boys On The Battlefront" is a tune first recorded by The Wild Tchopitoulas. It has since been recorded by others, including Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. It refers to the mock battles that Mardi Gras Indians engage in and signs of respect they exchange when they meet on the streets of New Orleans in full regalia. ...

Read more ...

Do You Know What It Means?
Season 1, Episode 01

The pilot episode introduces us to the ensemble of characters whose lives the series follows. The musicians in that ensemble include the eternally short of money trombonist Antoine Batiste, played by Wendell Pierce; deejay, gadfly and occasional musician Davis McAlary, played by Steve Zahn; deadly serious 'Big Chief' Albert Lambreaux, a Mardi Gras Indian, played by Clarke Peters; the chief's expatriate son, trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux, played by Rob Brown; cynical street musician Sonny, played by Michiel Huisman; and his considerably more talented girlfriend, the classically trained violinist Annie, played by real-life violinist Lucia Micarelli. These characters mix it up with real New Orleans musicians ...

Read more ...

Another Tremé blog is not too much

Sometimes, too much is just enough. That might be a Mardi Gras motto, but it applies to so many things New Orleans.

It’s been said that Tremé the TV series is a love letter to New Orleans, and to Tremé the neighborhood in particular. True, dat (as they say in the local vernacular). ...

Read more ...

Right Place, Wrong Time

2010-08-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

Season 1, Episode 03

Musically speaking, episode 3 is a toss-up between piano players and Mardi Gras Indians – and the piano players win, by a hair. Even so, the pianists slide into some Indian music now and then. In fact, we're introduced to five icons of New Orleans piano music this time: Dr. John, Huey 'Piano' Smith, Tom McDermott, James Booker, and, by way of Davis McAlary, the late Professor Longhair. We start with Dr. John, aka Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr., or Mac to his friends.

The episode's title is taken from what is probably Dr. John's best known tune. From the 1973 album In The Right Place, "Right Place, Wrong Time" was a huge top-40 crossover hit and is heard early on in the episode. A second hit single, "Such A Night," came from the same album. Whereas Dr. John's earlier records were best described as a blend of voodoo R&B and traditional New Orleans blues, In The Right Place was seasoned with a generous dose of funk, an element that has remained part of his playing style to this day.

The album was produced by the locally ubiquitous Allen Toussaint and for back-up featured The Meters, who were probably one of the most influential exponents of funk nationally and the most influential funk band in New Orleans. Art Neville was the group's leader. It depends on whom you ask, but there's a pretty good consensus that James Brown, Toussaint, and The Meters are most responsible for the introduction of funk in R&B, providing the musical foundation upon which other blues and soul musicians built.

Toussaint had a considerable stable of musicians for whom he wrote and arranged and whose records he produced and promoted, including Dr. John, among many others. Toussaint and The Meters were connected at the hip: they were the house band for Toussaint's label, Sansu Enterprises (Toussaint even wrote several songs under the pen name 'Naomi Neville;' his connection to the Nevilles goes back at least to the early 1960s). After The Meters broke up, the Neville Brothers formed their own group and continued the funk tradition. For an excellent retrospective of The Meters' work, check out Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology – at $25 for 43 tracks via Amazon, it's a steal.

In this episode, we also hear Dr. John playing "My Indian Red," a traditional New Orleans song for Mardi Gras Indians that he recorded on an album of New Orleans favorites, Goin’ Back To New Orleans. Finally, over the closing credits, we hear him backing homeboy saxophonist Donald Harrison on another version, "Indian Red" from their joint album Indian Blues. The album is best described as half jazz, half chant, and respectful of both. Harrison himself is chief of the Guardians Of The Flame, a position previously held by his father, Donald Harrison, Sr., who founded that tribe. In a later episode, we see Harrison's tribe meet up with Big Chief Albert Lambreaux's tribe in the street when both groups 'mask' and march on St. Joseph's Day.

Both Indian Blues and Dr. John's 1968 debut album, Gris-Gris, feature several Indian chants. Typically, many Mardi Gras Indian chants and ceremonies are considered private; strangers aren't allowed to witness them, and the Indians themselves don't talk about them. This is a lesson that the tour bus driver and tourists learn during the episode when they are bluntly turned away from an Indian memorial service by Chief Lambreaux (Clarke Peters) and his fellow Indians. During the service, we hear them chant an Indian standard, "Hey Pocky Way" – not to be confused with a Meters song of the same name that references the chant but sounds way different (and funky, of course).

Tom McDermott, a contemporary of Dr. John's, shows up as himself during this episode and tempts Annie (real-life violinist Lucia Micarelli) into accepting an invitation to play a paying gig with him. The song they play together during the gig, "King Porter Stomp," is a jazz classic. McDermott reappears in later episodes.

Huey 'Piano' Smith, now 76, is better known outside New Orleans as the one who gave us the "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu." Backed by his group, The Clowns, Smith's style was highly influential on early rock 'n' roll. He himself was influenced by one of his own contemporaries, Fats Domino, as well as Professor Longhair, boogie-woogie pianists Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson, and the granddaddy of all New Orleans and jazz pianists, Jelly Roll Morton.

Morton, another son of New Orleans, had a style that blended ragtime, stride piano, and barrelhouse, and he was gifted and prolific. Fans of traditional jazz piano would do well to check out the 8-CD boxed set of Morton's work that music historian Alan Lomax recorded, called The Complete Library Of Congress Recordings. It's currently an incredible bargain at $19.98 for a full MP3 download at Amazon. Chicagoans should get a kick out of the fact that disc 5 contains a track titled "State And Madison," which no doubt originated during the brief period of Morton's career when he was living and playing in Chicago. I've referenced the boxed set in the playlist below as a suggested alternative to an unrecorded version of "New Orleans Blues" played by Annie and Tom McDermott during the episode.

If Morton was the granddaddy of New Orleans piano music, the late Professor Longhair (aka Henry Roeland Byrd, or Fess to his fellow musicians) must have been at least its godfather. Indeed, he's probably the pianist most closely associated with New Orleans music during the second half of the 20th century and Mardi Gras music in particular. During the episode, we see the usually irreverent Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn) solemnly trying to teach Sofia Bernette (India Ennenga) to play "Tipitina," one of Longhair's most famous songs. Davis also tries to imbue his young student with the proper amount of respect for the Professor, whom he considers a music god.

Another note of interest to Chicagoans: in 1980, Professor Longhair appeared on PBS's Soundstage (a production of WTTW-Chicago) with Dr. John, The Meters, and blues guitarist Earl King, yet another son of New Orleans. That's one show I'd love to see rebroadcast, or at least released on DVD. Shortly after that program, Longhair was in the middle of filming the documentary Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together when he died of a heart attack in his sleep. The film is available on DVD from Louisiana Music Factory. Joining the Professor in that film were two other New Orleans pianists, Allen Toussaint and the late Tuts Washington. Some of Washington's music is heard in later episodes.

The late James Booker is the one whom Dr. John and Harry Connick, Jr. consider the greatest New Orleans pianist of their generation (well, Mac's generation, anyway). Connick was a student of his and considers Booker an important influence. Booker was classically trained and considered a young virtuoso, but he was already being influenced by Tuts Washington early on. At the age of 19, Booker was introduced to and played for the great classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein when the latter came to New Orleans for a concert; Rubinstein was duly impressed and amazed at the speed at which Booker played some of his offerings, remarking that he himself could never play at that tempo. By that time, Booker had already done some session work in the studio with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, and Lloyd Price.

Booker's rendition of the jazz standard and ballad "Angel Eyes" is heard during a scene in Clancy's restaurant. It's from Classified, the last album that Booker recorded. He died in late 1983, just shy of his 44th birthday. To date, he has more albums that have been released posthumously than he did while he was alive.

Here's the episode's playlist, with the tracks in their order of appearance:

Tremé Song – John Boutté from the album Jambalaya

Lake Charles – Lucinda Williams from the album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Think Deep – Coleman Hawkins form the album The Hawk Flies High

unrecorded version of La Vie En Rose performed during the episode by Annie and Sonny (Lucia Micarelli and Michiel Huisman)
[suggestion: ballad duo version by Ingrid Lucia on the album St. Valentine’s Day Massacre]

unrecorded version of Toulouse Street Blues played by Annie, Sonny (Lucia Micarelli, Michiel Huisman) and The Black Dogs
[suggestion: version by The Black Dogs on the album Black Dogs on Bourbon, Amazon and CD Baby only]

Right Place, Wrong Time – Dr. John from the album In The Right Place

My Indian Red – Dr. John from the album Goin’ Back To New Orleans

Dog Days – Leigh 'Li’l Queenie' Harris from the album Polychrome Junction

recently recorded version of (I Don't Stand) A Ghost Of A Chance With You performed by Annie, Sonny, and Antoine Batiste (Lucia Micarelli, Michiel Huisman, and Wendell Pierce) from the Treme Season 1 soundtrack album

Funky Liza – New Orleans Nightcrawlers from the album Mardi Gras In New Orleans

Ace In The Hole – The Radiators from the album Dreaming Out Loud

A Certain Girl – Ernie K-Doe from the album Ernie K-Doe – Selected Hits, Vol. 1

unrecorded version of King Porter Stomp by Lucia Micarelli and Tom McDermott
[suggestion: version by Tom McDermott and Connie Jones on the album Creole Nocturne or the version by Jelly Roll Morton on the album The Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax]

Angel Eyes – James Booker from the album Classified

recently recorded version of New Orleans Blues by Lucia Micarelli and Tom McDermott from the Treme Season 1 soundtrack album

unrecorded version of Tipitina performed by Davis McAlary and Sofia Bernette during the episode
[suggestion: live version by Professor Longhair on the album The London Concert]

unrecorded version of Hey Pocky Way chant by various Mardi Gras Indians during the episode
[suggestion: Donald Harrison and Dr. John version of Two-Way Pocky Way from the album Indian Blues]

Indian Red – Donald Harrison with Dr. John from the album Indian Blues

As always, your comments on any of these are most welcome.

Next: Doc film 4U: New Orleans Music In Exile, episode break

Meet De Boys On The Battlefront

2010-08-03T16:07:00.001-07:00

Season 1, Episode 02

In this episode, we get a better idea of the problems facing the main characters and where their battle lines are drawn. Which makes the choice of the song/title of this episode appropriate.

"Meet De Boys On The Battlefront" is a tune first recorded by The Wild Tchopitoulas. It has since been recorded by others, including Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. It refers to the mock battles that Mardi Gras Indians engage in and signs of respect they exchange when they meet on the streets of New Orleans in full regalia. This could be during Mardi Gras season, but it's even more likely on St. Joseph's Day (March 19th), a day that is special to Mardi Gras Indians and on which you can expect to see them parading down the streets of the city. Many will also 'mask' and parade on the Sunday before St. Joseph's, better known locally as Super Sunday. However, Mardi Gras chiefs are also known for speaking out on behalf of their communities; it's a quality we see in Albert Lambreaux later on in the season, but we get the first hint of it in this episode.

A classic New Orleans song recorded much more frequently is "Careless Love," which we hear during the episode from that ill-suited busker couple, Sonny and Annie. Sonny's singing isn't up to snuff when compared to Annie's exquisite violin work.

While we're talking classics, there's "When The Saints Go Marching In," which is probably the first tune most people think of when you mention New Orleans, known to locals as just "Saints." In fact, it's so popular and overplayed (not to mention over-requested by tourists) that it's become stereotypical and trite to some. In this episode, Annie reveals to some out-of-town do-gooders who request the song that it's tradition for locals to charge extra for playing "Saints," but she never says why that is (probably because it would've cost her the tip; how do you tell tourists in a friendly way that it's a pain in the ass to play that song for the umpteenth time that day?). In New Orleans, "Saints" is as much a cliche as "Melancholy Baby" and "My Funny Valentine" are to jazz musicians elsewhere. Of course they'll charge extra.

Also heard in this episode is Lee Dorsey, a New Orleans R&B singer. If his name doesn't ring a bell and neither does the song "Ya-Ya," try "Workin' In A Coal Mine," a crossover top-40 hit for Dorsey during the 1960s. Dorsey was one of many musicians who worked with the well-known pianist, songwriter, arranger and record producer Allen Toussaint. Dorsey is heard in the background during a scene at Antoine Batiste's house.

We soon see maestro Toussaint with Elvis Costello, Delmond Lambreaux, and others in the middle of a recording session. At the end of the session, some of the musicians try to persuade Costello to go with them to hear the funk and swamp jazz band Galactic over at d.b.a., a nightclub on Frenchmen Street. Costello declines, pleading too much work left and the need for an early bedtime, but we get the distinct impression that the rocker doesn't think Galactic is really authentic-New-Orleans enough (too bad: it's Costello's loss). What did he miss? Galactic with Delmond sitting in really swinging out on Blackbird Special.

At another point in the episode, we're treated to Antoine Batiste's ambivalence over a gig on Bourbon Street. Some local musicians consider working on Bourbon Street with distaste, given that the area is mostly tourist traps and strip joints, catering to the lowest common denominator of musical taste and the home of the highly commercialized traditional jazz called Dixieland. But Batiste is encouraged to take the gig by others, who remind him "there's pride on Bourbon Street." Indeed, both Pete Fountain and the late Al Hirt worked for many years in the Bourbon Street area.

Batiste then runs into his old teacher, Danny Nelson, portrayed by
Deacon John Moore, a New Orleans jump blues musician, studio musician, and bandleader; this is one of the rare instances in Treme when a local musician doesn't play himself. Moore is also the subject of a jump-blues documentary titled Going Back To New Orleans.

Here's the episode's playlist, with the tracks in their order of appearance:

Walking With The Spirit – Coco Robicheaux from the album Spiritland
Tremé Song – John Boutté from the album Jambalaya
Meet The Boys On The Battlefront – Anders Osborne and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux from the album Bury The Hatchet
unrecorded version of Careless Love performed during the episode by Annie and Sonny (Lucia Micarelli and Michiel Huisman)
[suggestion: version by Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band on the album Kid Ory, New Orleans Jazz Man]
unrecorded version of When The Saints Go Marching In performed during the episode by Annie and Sonny (Lucia Micarelli and Michiel Huisman)
[suggestion: version by Tuts Washington on the album New Orleans Piano Professor]
When The Saints Go Marching In – Dr. John from the album N'Awlinz Dis, Dat, or D'Udda
Waltz For Pud – Tony Green from the album Gypsy Jazz (at http://orleansrecords.com only)
I Hope You're Comin' Back To New Orleans – New Orleans Jazz Vipers from the album Hope You're Comin' Back (at CD Baby and Louisiana Music Factory only)
Long Hard Journey Home – The Radiators from the album New Dark Ages
Ya-Ya – Lee Dorsey from the album Lee Dorsey – Selected Hits
Tears, Tears And More Tears – Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint from The River In Reverse
Dolores’s Boyfriend – Allen Toussaint (no recording available)
unrecorded version of Up For The Down Stroke by JT Ka-Nection Band
[suggestion: version by Parliament on the album The Millennium Collection: Best Of Parliament]
unrecorded version of Blackbird Special by Galactic
[suggestion: version by Stanton Moore from the album Take It To The Street (The Music)]
Little Old Money Maker – The Meters from the album Look-Ka Py Py; also on Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology
Tremé Mardi Gras – Kermit Ruffins and Baby J from the album Livin' A Tremé Life
Go Go – Galactic from the album Coolin' Off
Moore Women Shuffle – Joe Krown from the album New Orleans Piano Rolls
St. Louis Blues – The Boswell Sisters from the album That's How Rhythm Was Born
unrecorded chant of Shallow Water performed during the episode by Albert Lambreaux and George Cotrell (Clarke Peters and Otto Dejean) and friends
[suggestion: version by Donald Harrison, Dr. John and friends on the album Indian Blues]
unavailable recording of New Orleans by Willy DeVille
[suggestion: version by Roomful Of Blues on the album Raisin’ A Ruckus]

As always, your comments on any of these are most welcome.

Next: Right Place, Wrong Time, Season 1 - Episode 3

Do You Know What It Means?

2010-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Season 1, Episode 01

The pilot episode introduces us to the ensemble of characters whose lives the series follows. The musicians in that ensemble include the eternally short of money trombonist Antoine Batiste, played by Wendell Pierce; deejay, gadfly and occasional musician Davis McAlary, played by Steve Zahn; deadly serious 'Big Chief' Albert Lambreaux, a Mardi Gras Indian, played by Clarke Peters; the chief's expatriate son, trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux, played by Rob Brown; cynical street musician Sonny, played by Michiel Huisman; and his considerably more talented girlfriend, the classically trained violinist Annie, played by real-life violinist Lucia Micarelli. These characters mix it up with real New Orleans musicians playing themselves, who in this episode include the Treme Brass Band, the Rebirth Brass Band, trumpeter Kermit Ruffins and his band, and rock musician and Brit Elvis Costello, whose album The River In Reverse is about the hurricane and the levee break and was recorded in New Orleans (the album was co-written and produced by another famous denizen, Allen Toussaint, who appears in later episodes).

The episode's title is taken from that oft-recorded tune, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? – a sentimental favorite that now has an urgent poignancy since Katrina and the levee failure wiped out so much of New Orleans. It is an unconscious, wistful refrain in the hearts and souls of so many present and former New Orleansians and, as such, is a perfect musical motif for an episode about the return to a lost home and a very nearly lost city and culture. A version of the song by Fats Domino, a favorite son of New Orleans, is heard about halfway through the pilot episode. An influential figure in the history of rock 'n' roll, Domino (sometimes known as simply the Fat Man, after his first hit single) sold more records than any other black rock 'n' roll star of the 1950s. As of this writing, Fats is still around; his house got washed out during Katrina and the flood, but he's back in New Orleans now, to the relief and joy of many.

What we hear first in the episode, though, is New Orleans Hip-Hop/rap, which probably surprised viewers who expected an all-jazz playlist. The rap, Nolia Clap, shouts at us from a passing car. In fact, this episode features two rap artists: Juvenile and Mystikal.

But place of pride, however, goes to the second line, that ubiquitous street dance that is a New Orleans trademark. There are not one but two second lines in the premiere episode, and the story shows us both aspects, but in reverse – first the cheerful one, the part that pulls people out of their houses and shops into the street and makes them join in, then at the close of the pilot, the sober aspect, with musicians leading a funeral parade to the cemetery. Folklorist Nick Spitzer, an anthropology professor at Tulane University (formerly at the University of New Orleans) and host of PRI's weekly radio show American Roots, discusses the meaning and importance of the second line here in part 7 of his interview series Rebuilding the "Land of Dreams": Expressive Culture and New Orleans' Authentic Future.

John Boutte's "Treme Song," used as the series' theme song, is every bit as bouncy and infectious as a proper second line. But the best track by a hair, if you ask me, was left for the closing credits: Li'l Queenie's "My Dawlin' New Orleans." Frankly, I don't know which tune I listened to more after I watched this episode; all I know is that I played both of them to death and couldn't get enough of them for several weeks. (Be forewarned: the original version begins with a very lengthy rap section, until finally it bursts into the song proper; an edited version minus the rap was played over the closing credits of the episode. That's the one I keep on my laptop.)

Better known today by her given name, Leigh Harris no longer lives in New Orleans; as one of the many chased out by the hurricane, the flooding and the aftermath, she now resides in North Carolina. However, for a few years, she and her raw, edgy voice led the group Li'l Queenie and The Percolators, a group that definitely left its stamp on the local music scene. Two of the Percolators later went on to help form another local group, The Subdudes (we hear from them in a later episode). These days, Harris concedes that she doesn't miss the crime, the corruption, and the humidity of her former home, but she desperately misses the people and the culture. She's not alone in that.

Here's the episode's playlist, with the tracks in their order of appearance:

An until-very-recently-unavailable version of Nolia Clap by Juvenile from the album The Beginning Of The End
Feel Like Funkin’ It Up – Rebirth Brass Band from the album Feel Like Funkin’ It Up
Tremé Song – John Boutté from the album Jambalaya
It's All Over Now – Rebirth Brass Band from the album The Main Event: Live at the Maple Leaf
Mama Roux – Dr. John from the album Voodoo Hex; also on three other albums: Next Hex – The Nashville Sessions, Gris Gris, and The Anthology
Unrecorded version of I’ll Fly Away played by the Rebirth Brass Band
[suggestion: version by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on the album Funeral For A Friend]
Hook And Sling – Eddie Bo and The Soul Finders from the album The Hook And Sling
Unrecorded version of Big Chief played by Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn)
[suggestion: version by Dr. John on the album Martin Scorsese Presents Piano Blues]
Bouncin’ Back – Mystikal from the album Tarantula
Shake Ya Ass – Mystikal from the album Prince Of The South ... The Hits
Solace – as practiced by Sofia Bernette during the episode
[suggestion: version by Scott Joplin via his piano rolls on the album The Entertainer]
For Brenda – Tom McDermott from the reissued album All The Keys And Then Some
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans – Fats Domino from the CD boxed set They Call Me the Fat Man: The Legendary Imperial Recordings (disc 4), or the 8-CD boxed set Out Of New Orleans
Christopher Jr. – Donald Harrison from the album Nouveau Swing
Gatur Bait – The Gaturs from the album Wasted
Buona Sera – Louis Prima (2002 remaster) from the album The Wildest!; also on Jump, Jive an' Wail: The Essential Louis Prima

Somewhere Listening For My Name – Zion Harmonizers from the album Best of New Orleans Gospel
Gardez Donc – Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers from the album Pick Up On This!
West End Blues – Louis Armstrong, from the album The Best of The Hot 5 & Hot 7 Recordings or the album Ambassador Satch (with the All Stars); also on The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings, Volume 3
Whirlaway – Allen Toussaint from the album Alligator Alley
Skokiaan – Kermit Ruffins from the album Live At Vaughan's
Swing This – Kermit Ruffins from the album Swing This
Tetherball – Henry Butler from the album Blues After Sunset
Flame On – The Iguanas from the album Plastic Silver 9-Volt Heart
Just A Closer Walk With Thee – Treme Brass Band from the album Gimme My Money Back
My Dawlin’ New Orleans – Leigh ‘Li’l Queenie’ Harris from the EP single My Dawlin’ New Orleans

As always, your comments on any of these are most welcome.

Next: Meet De Boys On The Battlefront, Season 1 - Episode 2

Another Tremé blog is not too much

2010-07-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, too much is just enough. That might be a Mardi Gras motto, but it applies to so many things New Orleans.

It’s been said that Tremé the TV series is a love letter to New Orleans, and to Tremé the neighborhood in particular. True, dat (as they say in the local vernacular). I've been a fan of New Orleans music for most of my adult life, and in love with New Orleans cuisine since I first began to cook. Even though I became a jazz fan at a tender age, it wasn't until I really got into the food that I began to piece together the bits I already knew about New Orleans music and connect it all. You might say the food led me to the music – and I was smitten by both.

As it happens, the culture, the food, and the music are all of a piece in New Orleans. Each aspect of the culture fertilizes the others in a kind of big feedback loop. Once you get hooked on this, it's a lifetime addiction, like beignets or po' boys. The new HBO series Tremé, which debuted this spring, reminded me pointedly of everything that I love about New Orleans. Watching each episode made me alternately hungry, thirsty, eager to listen, concerned (again) about all that has beleaguered that town, and desperate to get a taste of it all again. Fortunately, that is most easily remedied for the musical part: the music travels well even when I can't.

Tremé the series, which is set in and is about post-Katrina New Orleans, focuses on but is not limited to the New Orleans neighborhood known as Faubourg Tremé (FAW-boorg truh-MAY) or just Tremé for short. Tremé is where many of the earliest pioneers of jazz and blues, such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Kid Ory, lived and worked. In fact, Tremé has produced the greatest number of New Orleans jazz and blues musicians as well as a rich musical legacy in several genres: jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, and rock ‘n’ roll. Which will probably be news to those HBO viewers outside Louisiana, but that's good: I'm all for more people learning more about jazz, which is still America's first and greatest art form. Good thing New Orleans's eclectic mix of music, which frequently crosses genres, is so infectious.

Seriously. Who doesn't love a second line? Especially when it's right there, live, in your face. Gotta be dead or a zombie. Musically, there's probably nothing more emblematic of New Orleans than a second line, which is probably why producers David Simon and Eric Overmyer began and ended the first season with second lines.

Simon and Overmyer get all the fame and the blame for this, tho I can't think of anything worth blaming them for whereas there's much to credit here. You may know them from their previous efforts, The Wire and Homicide: Life On The Street (which is still one of my all-time favorite TV shows). Their work here shines.

Tremé is filmed in New Orleans and uses both fictional characters and characters based on real people to tell the story of a neighborhood and a city trying to recover from the natural and man-made disasters that ensued following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the subsequent failure of the levees. The cast includes many local actors as well as many local musicians playing themselves. You'll get a kick out of seeing Kermit Ruffins, Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint pop up here and there, playing, drinking, barbecuing, and interacting with the fictional characters, which include a few musicians. I, for one, loved all the trademark Susan Spicer dishes that crept into the kitchen at Desautel's restaurant (Kim Dickens's character Janette Desautel is based on real-life chef Spicer, the owner of and head chef at Bayona). Another local, chef John Besh, makes a few appearances, too, as does a contingent of pros from Top Chef (too cool!). But I digress.

The series and its production have been a source of intense discussion, particularly in greater New Orleans itself, as has the playlist for each episode (see links to the left). And the consensus is: David Simon and crew got it right. Phew! Glad we're past that. Now we can mind the music and the storylines. But as Tremé won't be returning to HBO with new episodes until maybe next spring, that leaves us with just the music. And that's a-plenty.

The influence of New Orleans’s music pervades nearly every scene. Each episode title is taken from a famous song associated with the city or with New Orleans jazz and blues, and every episode features a wide range of musical styles and groups that represent the city. Thus, it’s no surprise that the HBO episode guide for each show includes a listing of all the music used for that episode, noting in which scene that track was used. Tremé’s musical director is the very capable sound designer and sound director Blake Leyh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Frida, Across The Universe, Rachel Getting Married), who is another veteran of The Wire and who freely confesses to loving this music.

The HBO music pages for Tremé provide song titles and performers for the tracks used on each episode plus a link to the ones that download on iTunes – but nothing else. The HBO lists don’t tell you which albums those tracks came from, which is inconvenient if you want to find the tracks elsewhere ... say, at your public library. So: I’ve provided album citations wherever possible.

Unless otherwise indicated, the tracks are available for purchase at both Amazon.com MP3 downloads and iTunes. Although I favor Amazon because the prices are generally either the same or lower than iTunes and there can be some real deals on compilation albums at Amazon, every so often iTunes will have a special that proves me wrong, so it’s worth checking both sources before you download. Then again, if you prefer to own the CD or vinyl, ans I often do, that's Amazon, too. But really, try the library first: many libraries have fine collections of CDs and vinyl LPs that you can check out. Also, some recordings are only available through local sources (like Louisiana Music Factory, for example), so you'll have to do some digging, but I'll point you in the right direction whenever I can. A few tracks are simply out of print; but when/if the licensees of that music catch on that more people are interested due to the success of the series, we may yet see those tracks made available again.

Some music used in the episodes duplicates real performances or recording sessions of that time period. For example, there are scenes of Elvis Costello and Dr. John recording their respective post-Katrina albums. Other performances were created specifically for certain scenes and no recordings of them (other than the episodes themselves) exist to date. For the latter, I have indicated suggested alternative tracks by the same artists (or, if necessary, other similar artists) for listeners interested in those particular songs. Such a wealth of music is being used for this series – not just traditional jazz but also ‘modern’ jazz, big band, swing, blues, funk, hip-hop, rap, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, and R&B – that there is something in this marvelous cornucopia for nearly everyone to love.

BTW, one note: it's traditional jazz, silly, not Dixieland. Dixieland is a label that record companies slapped on to market the genre, and the term refers to highly commercialized (read: inauthentic in style and performance) versions of traditional jazz. What Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong played back in the 1930s and Pete Fountain still plays is traditional jazz, although Louis went on to play far more than just that. Honor the music by using the correct term.

If you want to get more into the background and references for each episode, including more info on the music, Dave Walker's Tremé blog on Nola.com is probably the best source for that. Dave is the TV reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. His episode posts, Treme Explained, are most helpful. I found myself getting hooked on his blog and checking it daily while the series was on, and I still read it once a week to check for new developments, like when the Tremé soundtrack CD is due to be released (no word yet, at this writing). Other jazz blogs, such as NPR's A Blog Supreme, have also been following the episode playlists, whereas Alan Sepinwall's column "What's Alan Watching" on HitFix.com is second only to Walker's for episode reviews. You'll find the links for all of the above plus more Tremé-oriented music blogs in the Blogroll sidebar at the left.

A word of warning: once you start listening to this stuff, you may find yourself getting so involved as to be distracted. For days. And you might get hungry. Why, I myself had to interrupt writing this post to make myself a breakfast of two eggs sunny-side up over reheated jambalaya with sliced andouille sausage, and a cup of steaming café au lait (and a better breakfast you will rarely have, my friend). I felt the same way about seeing the show. Which meant I had to do my Creole cooking late Sunday afternoons so as not to interrupt the Sunday night broadcast, or else drool and starve while watching it. It's gotten to the point where every time I hear the first few notes of John Boutté's theme song, my mouth waters (it's from the album titled Jambalaya, no less; see what I mean?).

There's just no avoiding it. Once you become acquainted with Tremé and its music, you run the serious risk of becoming addicted to other things New Orleans. Well, if you do, consider this blog your bit of lagniappe (that's N'Awlins Creole for something extra, like a 13th praline or beignet when you buy a dozen). Hope you enjoy it – and if you do, please become a fan on my Facebook page. Encouragement is sure to bring on more goodies.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

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