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When President Donald Trump announced he was yanking the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, he did so in a ceremony that included the Marine Corps Jazz Band. The four-piece ensemble reportedly played “Summertime,” the season that likely will get longer with global warming. It’s a shame the band did not do other appropriate numbers like “I’ve Got the World on a String” or Count Basie’s version of “April in Paris.” Twitter wags quickly made salty jokes about the Titanic band playing while the ship sank. That was not fair — in a Trump future, the icebergs all have melted, along with the glaciers, arctic, Greenland and Antarctica. The jazz band incident instead shows us how jazz and blues tracks will be necessary to cope with a Trump presidency. Leading figures on the Trump team could have their own themes. Vice President and anti-gay crusader Mike Pence will be accompanied by “Straight Life.” Scott Pruitt, the fellow twisting the meaning of Environmental Protection Agency, will enter rooms to Muddy Waters tunes. Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will be greeted with Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” at least until he figures out the meaning of the lyrics. Trump defender and fan of fedoras Roger Stone will be accompanied by a Charlie Mingus recording of “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” Glum and angry Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is a match for Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.” When Housing and Urban Development’s Ben Carson blames and shames the poor for their plight, the Miles Davis tune “Freddy Freeloader” should play in the background. Trump’s increasing girth and desperation make “Jelly Roll Blues” the best choice for him. As for First Lady Melania Trump, my guess is she’ll slap away “I Loves You Porgy” and “My Funny Valentine,” perhaps opting for “The Girl from Ipanema.” When Trump signs laws eliminating the inheritance tax for the super rich, he’ll be surrounded by his own brood of trust-fund babies and the sound of “God Bless the Child That’s Got His Own.” Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” and Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight” seem right for the felonious junk and angry tweets to come out in the Trump/Russia investigations. Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” will work for drinking games associated with Trump’s tweets. When Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin meet, newsrooms should have ready John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” and Grover Washington’s “Just the Two of Us.” Someday soon a disgraced Trump will be forced to resign and “Take the A Train” to his Manhattan tower. Then we all will be “In the Mood” to “Take Five,” before raising our voices with Etta James to sing “At Last,” followed by Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Mark Harmon, Columnist
Mark D. Harmon is a professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee, and a member of the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee. from http://www.knoxnews.com
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