The Treme Brass Band says good bye to a much-loved club

Treme Brass Band captured in this home video is featured in the new HBO series “Treme.”

Good call by the producers because it would be hard to pick a group that better embodies the city’s musical spirit.

The Treme Brass Band is a people’s band. You can find them providing music for funerals, parades, social and pleasure club second lines, and other community events all over the city. And every Wednesday night you can catch them and their friends at the Candlelight Lounge in the Treme.

Real world

The scene caught by this video was not staged or put on for tourists.  It’s a living, breathing example of the role musicians and their fans play in the daily life of the city.

In this case, a club, The Spotted Cat, was closing its doors. (It’s since reopened under a new owner with a slightly different name.)  To mark the occasion, the Treme Brass Band came out to give it a proper send off.

Along with many other clubs on New Orleans’ Frenchmen Street, The Spotted Cat played an essential role in bringing the levee-failure devastated city back to its feet.

Long before many essential services like electricity, water, and food distribution were back to normal, intrepid club owners opened their doors to the pioneering musicians who came back in the days and weeks right after the flood.

It may be the first time in history that MUSIC rebuilt a city.

The secret

A little known part of the story is the role that the New Orleans Musicians Clinic played in the return of music to the city.

In addition to providing medical services to musicians and their families before and after the catastrophe, the Clinic also subsidized several of the city’s music spots so they could afford to pay musicians for their services in the chaotic, cash-starved months after the storm.

Sadly, this Clinic program, known at the Gig Fund, which pays local musicians to perform at schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other community events, has been cut drastically due to recent financial pressures.

You can do something about this.

You can tell your friends and colleagues about the important work the New Orleans Musicians Clinic does and how, due to draconian government cuts, it needs our help to continue helping New Orleans’ musicians and their families.

To learn more and make a donation, visit this page:

http://www.savetheclinic.org/donate.html