In film and fest, songs of survival

DR. JOHN sounded genuinely humbled over one aspect of the public response to the 37th New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where the veteran pianist, singer and composer had closed out the first day of music.

“There are people out there who have no logical reason to be there, people who can’t afford to buy food let alone a ticket,” he said backstage after his performance. “But here they are.”

Music, so inextricably part of Crescent City life, is at the heart of “New Orleans Music in Exile,” a new documentary on the effects Hurricane Katrina had and continues to have on the region’s rich music scene. It premieres May 19 on Starz InBlack cable channel, repeating May 20 on the main Starz channel.

“Hurricane Katrina was the greatest natural booking agent for New Orleans music that’s ever been,” said veteran singer, songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint during an informal Q&A; session with Elvis Costello, as part of the festival. He was only half joking, referring to the post-Katrina upswing in bookings for New Orleans musicians for shows around the world and the countless singers and instrumentalists who left their flood-ravaged homes and took up residence in far-flung corners of the country, bringing their sound to a whole new audience.

Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Cyril Neville, the Iguanas and others are featured in the nearly two-hour production directed by Robert Mugge (“Last of the Mississippi Jukes,” “Blues Divas”). Filming began about two months after Katrina hit.

“I thought I might lose work, but I seem to be busier than ever,” R&B; singer Thomas said. Scheduled to play a set for today’s Jazz Fest wrap-up and then join Paul Simon’s show here, Thomas is living about 50 miles outside New Orleans while she and her husband await completion of repairs on their home. She’s uncertain whether she’ll be able to reopen her club, the Lion’s Den, submerged in the flood that hit Aug. 29.

Her idea of Katrina’s silver lining is that “it has awakened the politicos in this state to the important role that music and the arts play here.... They’ve cut corners and cut the taxes to get the movie industry here to film, but what about the musicians who live here?”

In addition to performances of such New Orleans-soaked material as Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time,” Kermit Ruffins playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” and Neville’s version of “Hey Pocky Way,” the show also includes Katrina-relevant renditions of Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” (by Theresa Andersson), Big Chief Monk Boudreaux singing his “Lightning and Thunder” and pianist Marcia Ball delivering Randy Newman’s pre-Katrina flood song, “Louisiana 1927.”

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RANDY LEWIS