A Crescent City Christmas Carol

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews will make his acting debut on national television during Monday night's episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which will conclude with a band of New Orleans musicians playing a Christmas carol.

And for those sublime circumstances we can thank Tommy Schlamme and Aaron Sorkin.

They are executive producers of the show (as well as "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" before it), which is about the backstage drama at a weekly sketch-variety show very much like "Saturday Night Live."

In the episode, which airs at 9 p.m. on WDSU-Channel 6, multi-instrumentalist Andrews plays a New Orleans evacuee drafted to sub for one of the trumpet players in the show's house band.

The story then expands to include a reunion of displaced New Orleans musicians for the show's finale.

In a telephone interview, Schlamme said Andrews and the rest of the group -- which includes tubist Kirk Joseph, drummer Bob French and trumpeter Mervin "Kid Merv" Campbell, among others -- were assembled with the help of Bill Taylor of the Tipitina's Foundation.

A Texas native and thereby a frequent visitor to New Orleans, Schlamme directed John Goodman in the 1995 TV movie "Kingfish," then fell in with Goodman's local crew so thoroughly that he later attended Jazzfest with them and thereby gained an even deeper appreciation for New Orleans culture.

These story lines were about more than indulging personal musical preferences, he added.

"Aaron was interested, first and foremost, in the emotional story of these guys," director Schlamme said of his writer-partner Sorkin. "They were unbelievable. It's not an easy thing. You're in and out when you shoot. We did 50 different camera setups, and they had to perform to the (pre-recorded) playback each time.

"Shorty was a consummate professional."

Schlamme added that gathering the musicians for the Los Angeles filming -- travel expenses to L.A. paid personally by Schlamme and Sorkin -- allowed the show's cast and crew to reconnect with the personal devastation and diaspora that Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures wrought.

It also allowed a real-life reunion for some of the players, some of whom relocated to other states post-K.

Andrews was late arriving for the carol pre-recording session, and some of the other musicians "didn't know that Trombone Shorty was going to be there," Schlamme said. "When he came through the doors, it was really, really moving. Some of them hadn't seen him since Katrina. They all had their own tales, which for all of them was a very personal thing. 'Here's what happened to me, in the water three days and I needed to get rescued.' "

Acting "was a whole 'nother experience for me," Andrews said. "I've done things, but it wasn't acting. It was more of just like documentary-type settings.

"It was a real mind-blowing experience for me, because I was actually in a whole other art form. I was just excited to be able to sit there and see how well the other actors work, and how they work together.

"Just by me sitting watching the professionals, I got more comfortable watching for a few hours. Everybody was messing up.

"It was just like when you're doing a record. You keep doing different takes. After watching the main actors, I got real comfortable, and when my part came I was ready to knock it out."
And now he's ready to enjoy the result.

"It's my debut in the acting thing," he said. "It's short lines, but minutes are long on TV. I'm real excited, so I might throw together a little watching party somewhere."

Article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, 12/3/06.
Written by TV Columnist Dave Walker.
Click here to view the article as it originally appeared on nola.com

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Monday, December 4th, 9pm CST on NBC