Writing Music for Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke' - Terence Blanchard

Composing for Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke' - Terence Blanchard

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/15/Do_You_Know_What_It_Means_to_Miss_New_Orleans

Jazz musician Terence Blanchard remembers the emotional experience of writing music for the Spike Lee film When the Levees Broke. He says, "What you're seeing in New Orleans right now is a testament to the spirit and the will of the community," says Blanchard.

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Trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard, singer Tammy Lynn, and Ira "Dr. Ike" Padnos, founder of the Ponderosa Stomp join jazz writer Larry Blumenfeld to discuss the fight to preserve art and culture in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Top players in the New Orleans music scene discuss the fight to preserve art and culture in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A live performance by the Terence Blanchard Quartet concludes the evening. - Wall Street Journal

Terence Blanchard is a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and Golden Globe-nominated film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz. He was an integral figure in the 1980s jazz resurgence having recorded several award-winning albums and having performed with the jazz elite. He is known as a straight-ahead artist in the hard bop tradition but has recently utilized an African-fusion style of playing that makes him unique from other trumpeters on the performance circuit. However, it is as a film composer that Blanchard reaches his widest audience. His trumpet can be heard on nearly fifty film scores; more than forty bear his unmistakable compositional style. Since 2000, Blanchard has served as Artistic Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He lives in the Garden District of New Orleans with his wife and four children.

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[princess11222]

@artformeandyou There's nothing racist about any of his films. He showcases racial commentary, but that's just real life. Showing that doesn't make someone a racist. That's like saying the director of American History X is racist.

[jumar05]

@artformeandyou sure sure the "rulebook" (aka the constitution) states everyone is born equal but to break it down in the simplest of analogies...if a little girl lives on a block with all boys and attempts to play with them and they dont include her cause she's a girl in many activities...its hard for that girl to enjoy playing out side

thats america, the majority (although now dwindling) is white therefore even now that laws are in place its been hard changing that "good ol' boys" mentality

[jasondavisjazz]

wow!

[jumar05]

@artformeandyou well hell. the European American has shown GREAT CONDEMNATION for the Black American! so a little artistic hostility and cynicism is to be expected!

[rmbb10]

Good interview.

[artformeandyou]

@Princess 11222

For America to continue to prosper as one strong nation, we must stop these double standards. If Spike Lee's words were inverted with other races, people would not think so kind. I have not yet seen Malcom X, but it's probably one of his few actually great films. I plan to watch it shortly. But that does not change the fact that I think Lee is a racist, and should be treated as such.

Any organization dealing exclusively with 'race' is unconstitutional. No more double standards.

[artformeandyou]

@Princess11222

I beg to differ. I think Spike Lee is very racist, due to how he always portrays people of non-African decent in his films, but also about how he critiques other peoples work, like Clint Eastwoods.

Spike Lee tries to delegitimize past European American film makers by saying their racist, like Griffith. Although there is actually no prof that Griffith was racist in any of his writings or interviews. On the other hand, Spike has shown GREAT CONTEMPT for the European American.

[artformeandyou]

@princess I completely agree with you! White privilege is an extremely racist notion, because all men and women are born in America with equal opportunities. But any law that governs based on the color of ones skin, no matter what the original intention, is against the Constitution, just as slavery and segregation were evil, so is affirmative action. Two Wrongs do not make a right. And while Lee might have made some decent films, that does not make up for him being a racist. Equality in the USA.

[princess11222]

@artformeandyou White priveledge is a racist notion too. Also judging by your comment, I see that you haven't seen most of Lee's films. There's nothing racist about Crooklyn or Malcolm X, Mo Better Blues, etc. Jungle Fever was social commentary.  It speaks to real life. Deal with it.

[artformeandyou]

@princess11222 Almost all of Lee's work, if not all, have been race centric from only his point of view. Someone like Clint Eastwood develops movies from many perspectives. I see Spike Lee as nothing more than a shock jock racist filmmaker. More racist than Griffith.

Also, Affirmative Action is a racist notion. Because governments and organizations are judging people based on the color of ones skin. Affirmative Action = unconstitutional. Lee = a 2nd rate genre film maker.