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For Terence Blanchard, the hardest part of his work on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s new documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts was taking a breather. “On Malcolm X, or any other thing that has tough subject matter, I could always take a break—go outside, go for a ride, go take a walk in Audubon Park,” Blanchard says. “I could go ride my bike, go to the levee or something. Here, when I needed to take a break, I stepped out into the reality of what I was working on. I haven’t cried that much working on any project.”
Lee wanted to bring as much money and work as possible to New Orleans for the project, so Blanchard recorded the soundtrack here with local musicians including Shannon Powell, Adonis Rose and Zigaboo Modeliste. Because of the tight production schedule, Blanchard wrote the soundtrack in five days and recorded it in two. “While we were recording, they were mixing the film because the music was one of the last things they needed to put into the film,” Blanchard says.
When the Levees Broke debuted in August, but is available from HBO On Demand.
For an interview with Terence Blanchard, see “Coming Attractions” in “Pop Life” online.
