"We're still struggling big time, trying to find some relief as a community."
Terence Blanchard, Spike Lee's Music Man, Sounds a Determined Note for the Future of New Orleans

Sunday, November 25, 2007

For 17 years, Grammy Award-winning trumpeter/bandleader Terence Blanchard has been scoring the music to Spike Lee's films: big, lushly orchestral scores that take so-called urban material and transform it into something universal. Their collaborations include "Mo' Better Blues," "Jungle Fever," "Malcolm X" and "The Inside Man," but it wasn't until they worked on "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" that Blanchard stepped in front of the camera, joining his mother for an emotionally charged return to their waterlogged family home in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Spike Lee's in Europe, making a movie, but Blanchard, 45, hits the Kennedy Center stage on Dec. 8 for an evening performing their movie music. Bill Cosby hosts the multimedia event, with vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Raul Midón and Kurt Elling and the Terence Blanchard Quintet appearing as well.

-- Teresa Wiltz

What's the collaboration process like?

We try to hunt down thematic materials for specific character. For "Malcolm X," there were a certain amount of characters, "Malcolm's Theme" and so on. Then we talk about orchestration, whether he wants a sound with a big orchestra or a small, intimate sound. I just start writing at that point.

Do you guys ever have creative differences?

We never really had any. We've been on the same page for a number of years. . . . We have the same kind of creative ideas about how to tell these stories.

Your sound is very classical, very orchestral and symphonic.

That's done very purposefully. We try to show the breadth of the African American experience, you know. And we try not to have music that comes from one thing, from one area.

How has Hurricane Katrina changed the music of New Orleans? How has it changed your music?

You have to make a distinction between those who travel and those folks who mostly play locally. The guys who play locally, their music is uplifting, a mainstay to keep spirits high. For people who've been traveling, their music is more reflective, to keep our story alive, to let people know our story isn't done yet. We're not finished. We have a long way to recovery.

Was recording the score for "When the Levees Broke" a more difficult creative process than with other films? You're part of the story.

That's what made it difficult. Not only was I part of the story, but the story was all around me. . . . I couldn't get any relief from the project. Once I stopped writing, went to lunch or dinner, I was out in the reality of what we were working with to begin with.

How did you handle that?

There's no handling it. It was everywhere, it was 24/7. It still is. We're still struggling, we're still struggling big time, trying to find some relief as a community.

What's next for you?

To finish renovating this house [in New Orleans's Uptown neighborhood]. And we just moved in last night. Right now, the electric guy's checking all the wiring, there's an air-conditioning guy walking around, the appliance guy is putting in the oven and the dishwashers, and there's still a carpenter banging on [expletive].