Dancing to New Orleans
Having just 90 minutes to cover the music of Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular might not seem sufficient, but director Michael Murphy is up to the task in this entertaining documentary. The subject is huge: this is, after all, the birthplace of jazz, the spawning ground (with neighbor Mississippi) of the blues, the home of zydeco king Clifton Chenier, the Neville Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, and countless others, and the melting pot of African, European, and Caribbean cultures. But instead of focusing on the big names (Louis Armstrong gets only a perfunctory mention), the film spotlights (through interviews and live footage) lesser-known contemporary talents like blues guitarist John Campbell, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, songwriter-producer Allen Toussaint, a 12-year-old Cajun fiddler, and a 91-year-old Dixieland trumpeter. There's plenty of local color, what with sidebars about Louisiana's art, culture, and religion, but it's the infectious music that makes this one tasty gumbo.--Sam Graham