The Strand – New Orleans: Five Years On (World Service), a two-part documentary that began last night, features Mark Coles reporting from the city as the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches. He also reported from there in the wake of the disaster, and sounded stunned by the contrast. "I'm over the moon to find music is back," he said against a backdrop of some jaunty live jazz. Last time he'd spoken to musicians in the city, they'd told him the artistic spirit of the place was broken: "We're homeless. We've lost our instruments. It will never come back."
But come back it has with a bold creativity the programme reflected well. This has been stirred by redevelopment in parts of the city, but also by the New Orleans Saints winning the NFL and the team behind the TV drama The Wire basing their new show, Treme, in post-Katrina New Orleans. If football success was a shot in the arm for the ailing city, Coles suggested, "this new TV series has got the patient up doing somersaults".
He spoke to Allen Toussaint (left), who made it clear the city is re-emerging in its own laidback way. "We're moseying back," he said, "because New Orleans operates a bit slowly. We're having a good time, eating a lot of good food and playing good music."
