Treme #4

Dear Jay,

I’m sorry. The Jazz Festival in New Orleans is a pretty intense work/party/network weekend. Since we communicated on Thursday I made my four gigs and saw countless shows and rocked a couple of house parties and simply didn’t have the energy to write anything yesterday morning. So I’m coming to you a day late. Fortunately for us there are no other major festivals in New Orleans between now and the series end so I see no problems with keeping the Monday deadline from here on out.

Regarding this blog - If you have any ideas about the focus of the scope I need to take I’d welcome that too. Do I have to explain brass bands, for instance? How much background do I need? Just curious to know what you think.

Re: Today’s dispatch. I am happy to report that

all the songs I mention are available on eMusic.

Episode 4. “At the Foot of Canal Street.” I’ll focus on the scene at Under The Volcano in Houston, Texas.

In episode 4 Sonny and friends take a road trip to Houston. There’s a club in Houston called Under The Volcano where the New Birth Brass Band held down a weekly gig after the storm. Due to the large number of displaced New Orlenians in Houston this turned into a bumping scene, so we see aspiring musicians actually leaving town to play there.

The scene was shot at Ruby’s Road House in Mandeville, a little town north of Lake Pontachatrain, about 30 miles outside of New Orleans, not as remote a location as taking the shot all the way to Houston, but it still gave the set a foreign “not in New Orleans” feel for the musicians and actors.

The brass band performing is the New Birth Brass Band. The first song we hear them play is “Who Dat Called The Police?” the response to that chant being “Them ho’s called the police.” (I was gonna write a paragraph about the unavailability of this tune, but WHOA, I found it on eMusic.) Available on eMusic via the Mardi Gras records release New Orleans Second Line.

Next Sonny jumps on stage and performs “Go To The Mardi Gras.” “Go To The Mardi Gras” alternately titled “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” is a carnival staple written by New Orleans pianist Henry Rolland Byrd, bka Professor Longhair. “MG in NO” was strictly a piano player driven song until it was rearranged by the Dirty Dozen Bras Band , heard here on their “Mardi Gras In Montreaux” album. Since then it has become a brass band standard also. The New Birth have a version on their NYNO records release “D-Boy.”

What’s cool abut this scene is it captures the on the spot confusion that happens when a piano player tries to jump in on the brass band arrangement. As a piano player from New Orleans I’m all too familiar with this dilemma. BTW the solution is to play along with the brass band arrangement, and when it’s your gig the brass players will bow to your left hand. I’m especially proud of Michael Huisman, the actor who plays Sonny. I’m Michael’s piano coach, one of the many hats I wear on this show. Michael is a solid guitar player who came to me in the beginning of November with zero piano playing experience, and a mere 6 weeks into the filming of the show he’s nailing the piano part in a camera close up. After “MG in NO” band leader Glen Andrews calls Joe Krown, a fine New Orleans pianist , along with Paul Sanchez, formerly of Cowboy Mouth, and John Boutte, the great singer who performs the opening theme, onstage to play the Sanchez/Boutte composition “At The Foot of Canal Street.” This song refers to the cemeteries at the foot of Canal Street, as in , rich poor, black, white we’re all going to wind up there. Both the Treme theme and “Foot Of Canal Street” can be found on Boutte’s record Good Neighbor.

As Sonny sits outside the bar we hear New Birth performing “Roll With Me” which singer Glen Andrews originally performed with the Little Rascals Brass Band on their album “Buck It Like A Horse.”

Four great songs in under 10 minutes. All performed live. Truly a music lovers show.