Treme 2.2: Bounce and Jazz

Bounce gets Davis bounced from his job in Treme 2.2 (sorry, couldn't resist) - he defies the station director's order to mix it up - play rock 'n' roll,  etc on his radio show - and gets fired as a result.  I like bounce enough, but love rock 'n' roll et al  a little more - so I'm not unsympathetic to the station director.  And music from Louis Armstrong to Fats Domino to the Nevilles - call it jazz, soul, r&b, rock 'n' roll, whatever - typifies New Orleans as much as bounce, maybe more.   But, still, I hate to see Davis lose this job.

Jazz also won't earn anyone much money, as Delmond makes clear to DJ Jeffy Jeff who will soon be Davis' erstwhile colleague at WWOZ.   Delmond plays some music, live, for his father, Albert, who for some reason doesn't want to hear it.  The tensions continue to run deep between those two.

Crime continues to run higher than last year on Treme.   This time, Sonny gets his kitty robbed from right under him, leading him to muse that he has to stop playing on the street.  (New York's not immune to it either - Janette gets robbed by her one-night stand  - but New Orleans is especially vulnerable.)  Terry's doing his best to get his police to focus on real crimes rather than moral issues - leading to one of the best scenes in the episode, as an officer defends his arrest of a guy with his pants so low you could see "his crack" - but the tide is clearly rising against Terry's efforts.

Terry has Thanksgiving dinner alone at the station, and these dinners serve as a bitter-sweet tableau of where most of our characters are on this day.   Toni and Sofia have a sad dinner out - sadder even than Terry's - but Annie's having a good time with Davis' family (even if he isn't), Ladonna's having a warm family gathering, and Antoine and his new family are doing just fine.

Back to the music, it's good to hear Antoine singing as well as playing - Wendell Pierce is sounding pretty good - as he slowly puts together his own band.   And Frogman Henry croaks "Ain't Got No Home" under the closing credits ... ooo-ooo oooah ...  I've been loving that song since the 1950s...

Listen to a little of Clarence "Frogman" Henry right here!


5-min podcast review of Treme


See also Treme Is Back!

And also Treme! ... Treme 1.2: "If you ain't been to heaven" ... Treme 1.3: Fine Sweet and Sour ... Treme 1.4: New Orleans, New York, Nashville ... Treme 1.5: Delicious! ... Treme 1.8: Passions and Dreams ... Treme 1.9: Creighton ... Treme Season One Finale: Happy Sad Life

And: My Favorite Moment in Treme (Season One)

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

---

Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...

The Wire's "Way Down in the Hole" - Enjoying the Disappointment

I was thinking about HBO's The Wire, how much I love its theme song - Tom Waits' "Way Down in the Hole". It's probably my favorite tv song of all time.

Not just because you can't compare it to catchy light-weights like the Friends' theme song, or the many fine instrumentals like Lalo Schifrin's music for Mission: Impossible.

"Way Down in the Hole" is even better than The Sopranos's "Woke Up this Morning" (by A3)...

It's had an amazing life on the show.

Sung by four different artists, in four different ways, in each of The Wire's four seasons.

I loved the first rendition, by the Blind Boys of Alabama. Slow, soulful, melodic and harmonic. I couldn't believe how good it was.

And I couldn't believe it when they replaced it in Season 2 with Tom Waits' own version. I mean, ok, he wrote it, sure, and I like his voice ... but I really missed the Blind Boys' singing ... for maybe about three episodes, and then I was lovin' Waits' performance.

So, you can imagine how unhappy I was with the Neville Bros' version instead of Waits' (which by this time had become the standard for me) at the start of Season 3. The Nevilles - what I can say? I've been crazy about their singing since I first heard "Tell It Like It Is" in the 1960s. And I'll just throw in that Aaron Neville's voice can make a skyscraper sway, though I don't think he was singing on the Neville's version of "Hole".

Which I quickly came to think was my favorite of all the recordings, too.

Which is why I was so upset to hear DoMaJe singing the song in Season 4 - you'd think I would've learned by now - but, no, I was almost as irritated by DoMaJe's choppy version as I was that Idris Elba's Stringer Bell was no longer on the show (and I was plenty unpleased about that)...

But I came to be crazy about DoMaJe, too (and yeah, I thought Season 4 was outstanding - even though I still miss Stringer). And after the season was over, I listened to all four versions, and thought maybe I liked DoMaJe's the best...

But no, not really, I love them all ... each of them ... the hallmark of a brilliant song, brilliantly performed...

And I'm really looking forward to being really disappointed, yet again, when I hear what they've got going on "Way Down in the Hole" for Season 5...

See also Looking Back At The Wire

---

The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!