For the iconic jazz and rhythm and blues musician, composer and producer, many things happen in America, but New Orleans, the Louisiana city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, is unique. "There is something very special happening in Memphis. And there is something very special happening in Nashville. And in Texas. But I do know we feel very special in New Orleans as well and very tight knitted." In an interview with Ari Surdoval for the music publisher, BMI, Toussaint explains by referring to the sound that gives the Mardi Gras city its identity. "We like the acoustic world very much, and I think the brass bands have something to do with that. When you march up and down the street, that has to be acoustic, of course. So we have stayed closer to an earthier concept than some other places that plugged into the big hum. And I'm not saying that is better or worse." An influential figure in southern African American music, Allen Toussaint (Get Town, 1938), is better known for his compositions than his records, having only recorded a dozen albums in fifty years. These classics of the New Orleans sound include Play Something Sweet, Get Out Of My Life Woman, Southern Nights, Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky, I'll Take a Melody and, above all, Mother-In-Law. His work as a producer is also highly acclaimed; giving everything he touches a Louisiana flavour that always sounds good. He has produced for Lee Dorsey, Solomon Burke, Paul McCartney, Glen Campbell, and Elvis Costello, and this influence and knowledge of the artistic world makes him optimistic about the future of his city after the exodus caused by the tragedy. "Everyone didn't come back on the same train - never does. But everyone is coming back. One way or another," and regarding the intangibility of New Orleans culture: "The spirit didn't get drowned. The spirit got baptized. Very solid things got drowned, but not the spirit of New Orleans." David Simon, the renowned producer of The Wire, shares the same opinion. His new series, Treme, is based on the culture of the city, and features musical guests such as Allen Toussaint. Produced by HBO, Treme takes its name from a popular neighbourhood in north New Orleans and follows the trials and tribulations of a number of characters, many of whom are musicians, three months after Katrina struck. And fiction merges with the real lives of Dr. John, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, as they seek to keep alive the spirit that refuses to perish.
