Davis Rogan, “The Real Davis” of Treme, Comes to Green Parrot
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Davis Rogan, “The Real Davis” of Treme, Comes to Green Parrot
Davis Rogan, “The Real Davis” of The HBO series Treme, will appear at the Green Parrot this weekend
Anyone who is a fan of the HBO series TREME will recognize Rogan as “The Real Davis” of the critically acclaimed series that effectively captures the post-Katrina New Orleans music scene.
Parrot patrons may recognize him from his Green Parrot gigs a dozen or so years back when he exploded onto the Parrot stage with his band All That, the infamous and first-of-its-kind funk/rap/New Orleans band.
His vision for All That, as stated in a 2002 Offbeat magazine article was to create a band with “a blend of hip-hop sensibility and New Orleans brass band with some classic new Orleans funk.”All That became, in Davis’ words, “an 8-headed funk monster where each gig had a potential for transcendence and mayhem”
All That’s Green Parrot gigs were legendary, with their free-wheeling style and masterfukl musianship leaving in endelible impression on the Parrot Faithful and at the same time creating a beachhead for other NOLA acts that followed, including The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Galactic and Papa Grows Funk.
Davis’ official bio states, “If you take the enthusiasm and playfulness of early New Orleans rhythm and blues, add to that the cynical wit of Randy Newman, the rock meets jazz sensibilities of early Steely Dan, and the mocking humor that runs through the works of Professor Longhair, Allen Toussait, Frank Zappa, and Earl King, you begin to describe the music of”The Real Davis,” Davis Rogan….Davis’ first solo record, “The Once and Future D.J.” was lost to the floodwaters of the Katrina levee failures, but another copy surfaced and it came out while Davis was having his “evacu-cation” in New York. Although funky, “The Once and Future D.J.” is not funk. It’s great songs with witty yet meaningful lyrics that might be taken right out of a person’s life. (If you’re looking for gossip or dirt, this is not the place, honey.) It has great hooks and sing-a-long choruses. And in the first issue that New Orleans music magazine Offbeat put out after the flood, critic John Swenson gave it a deservedly great review, saying, “his fevered ghjrjhjhjtumind seems to be turning over clever ideas almost faster than he can process them, channeling Brian Wilson, Al Kooper, Steely Dan, NRBQ and the Bonzo Dog Band alongside Fats Domino and Eddie Bo.”
Now here’s the twist in this story. Producer David Simon, head honcho of the rightly revered HBO series “The Wire.” reads the review and hears the record as he is researching a new series about klpost-Katrina New Orleans that he is going to pitch to HBO. He loves the record enough to base a character on Davis Rogan. That’s how we get to “The Real Davis,” in contrast to the “The Cable Davis” played by the great Steve Zahn on Treme.”
