Music and Cats

When Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip came on tonight, I had just begun writing a post about holiday music. This is not the post I started out to write.

I love holiday music of all sorts: polyphonic chant, winter standards, carols medieval to modern, world music for Christmas, Solstice, Chanukah. Even the most tired, much-Muzaked melody, when performed by someone who loves the music, will cheer or move me.

Tonight’s episode of Studio 60 included a subplot about a talented young trumpeter subbing for a musician from the fictional comedy show’s band. As the show unfolds, we learn that musicians around Los Angeles are calling in sick, and asking New Orleans musicians - members of the post-Katrina diaspora - to fill in for them. It’s a way for the LA musicians to help their displaced brethren make a little extra cash for the holidays. Studio 60’s producers are moved by this generosity, and they have an idea…

At the end of the episode - the middle of the fictional Studio 60 airing - the stage goes dark. A follow spot picks out the face of an actor, who announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the City of New Orleans.” The lights come up on several dark-suited musicians, arrayed against an aerial view of a New Orleans neighborhood. It’s a familiar image; I’m sure you can conjure up one much like it, even if you didn’t see the show. A crooked patchwork grid of roofs and treetops, with only water where the streets once ran. A city drowned.

Against that image, the young trumpeter lifts his horn and begins to play O Holy Night. Quietly, simply, the familiar tune floats from his horn. The words I’ve sung so often hover at the edge of my consciousness:

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

As the other musicians join in on trombone, saxes and sousaphone, the backdrop image changes, becomes more human-scaled. Faces of children and the elderly, houses ruined and standing, hands reaching to comfort, to rebuild, to hold. The arrangement is lovely, the playing powerful yet restrained. As I listen, already misty-eyed, to the instrumental on the television, the lyrics echo my head. And, as it always does, the final verse grabs me, demanding to be heard.

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.

This is the message of Christmas, a message that any who celebrate this holiday should keep in their hearts every day of the year. It’s not an easy message to follow, and even when we try, it’s easy to fail. As a nation, we have failed the City of New Orleans. We have failed her people. We have failed her musicians.

The final image from tonight’s Studio 60 showed the musicians from New Orleans standing in front of a life-sized photo of a New Orleans street - a street before Katrina, its brick buildings adorned with cast-iron lace, its street lamps aglow. Through the haze of tears in my eyes, they almost looked like they were home.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a traditional advent calendar image, but it’s what I want to share for Day 4 of my Holidailies advent calendar.

The Tipitina’s Foundation “has worked diligently to uplift the music community of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, the Foundation responded by rebuilding New Orleans’ music culture. Initially, the Foundation addressed the immediate needs of our exiled musicians and allowed them to carry on with their lives. Now the foundation is using the legendary music club, Tipitina’s Uptown, as the center of its relief efforts by hosting a newly-opened Music Co-op Office that allows musicians to conduct their business activities during the daytime, free legal and accounting seminars, free music lessons for music students, regular Master Seminars, and help with housing information. An important aspect of the rebuilding process has involved finding replacement instruments for both professionals and music students alike. So far the foundation has given away over $500,000 of new instruments. Through these efforts, the Tipitina’s Foundation is saving the musical traditions of New Orleans.”

You can make a donation to the Foundation here.

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