Keeping It “Reals”

Abstract

This article argues that David Simon’s HBO series Treme engages with scholarly debates about the historical narratives of the New Orleans jazz tradition by suggesting that there is not one authentic narrative but instead many conflicting narratives. Through the characters of Antoine Batiste, Delmond Lambreaux, Davis McAlary, and Sonny and Annie, Treme questions how race and class segregation and the outsider tourist consumption of New Orleans music have affected the production and perceptions of jazz. Through these complex depictions that are both fictionalized and historicized, I argue that Treme meditates on the overall nature of authenticity as both pluralistic and subjective, while creating television performances that offer meaningful commentary about social and political narratives in post-Katrina New Orleans.